A Day For Me

Image: Behzad Rahmati

Finally, a day away from the office that gave me time to think about only one thing – writing. I had an easy start to the morning, getting up just after 10am and enjoying a slow breakfast of fresh coffee and toast. I showered and dressed, popped out to buy a newspaper and some cooking ingredients for later on, then headed back to the house.

I got a few essential things out of the way before I sat down to begin: prepping the food for the meal I was going to cook in the evening, putting the bunnies out and cleaning their house, sticking on a washing or two, and giving the place a quick tidy. Laura came back for lunch and I got her sorted before she went out with her pals, then it was down to the page – just me and my words.

I kicked things off with my blog post for yesterday, then tied up the two short stories I’ve had on the go. I now have a small pile of brand new fiction ready to hit the submission trail, something I’ll have to get to soon.

I had a follow-up email from the EP artist working on my front cover for Stella. Apparently she has been briefed the book is going to press quite soon so was looking for any comments I had on the first draft. Looks like Stella is going to be available sooner than I thought!

I wrote back with some comments. One of the things I said had to be on the cover didn’t fit now I’ve actually seen it. I’m crap at visualising these things so asked for her advice on the matter. Other than that and a query about the font used for the title, it looks brilliant. I’ll wait and see what she comes up with for the next draft.

The rest of my writing day was spent working on Greener Is The Grass. I’ve decided I need to put Blood Tieson hold for the moment. The energy seems to have gone and my indecision is beginning to bog me down, so I wanted to work on something that I will let me see actual progress. Greener was a good first draft for a novella, a complete story that has all the elements I enjoy in a book, and of course, the energy for it is all there.

I’d forgotten I’d began writing the book in 1st pov then switched a third of the way in, so a lot of the edits involved changing the tense. The rest was taken slowly, working through the story and making sure it works, defining the details and removing superfluous prose. It’s coming together nicely and I got through the first few chapters.

I stopped working to cook the meal; marzetti and garlic bread for Gail and a couple of her pals who had come round for a drink. Afterwards I ran through some email and watched Shrek The Third before calling it a night.

Tomorrow I’m off through to Glasgow to visit Binny, my sister, and install her wireless network for her. We’ll probably grab a few pints in the local and watch a film or two with a Chinese meal. No blog post tomorrow, but back to normal on Sunday when hopefully I’ll have the new draft of Stella’s front cover.

Have a great weekend, y’all!