Revving Up The Writing Engine

Image: F1

Rewind
Okay, so I’m back in the saddle and things are in a low gear, but I’m building up revs. It takes a fair amount of will power to get back into the swing of things properly after a three week holiday, two of which were spent sunning oneself in a 40 degree heat!

If you want a run down of my holiday, including a few pics, see yesterday’s blog post.

It’s not exaggeration the adjustment that has to be made. Just when you feel that you have got acclimatised to the extreme temperatures and the fact that your hair and nails grow at twice the pace, you find yourself back on a plane heading for Auld Reekie. You step off the plane and BAM! It’s chilly and cloudy and you wish you hadn’t worn your flip-flops for the return journey.

Thursday
We returned last Wednesday night and then I had Thursday off from the day job, a day that was used mostly for unpacking and washing clothes. I returned to the day job on Friday, a smart move I like to think because it helped me ease back into the swing of things before a nice weekend off.

Birthday
I spent Saturday up in Perth at my sister’s house. We popped in for my niece Charlotte’s third birthday and some grub. I got some good pictures and had a laugh with my folks and Binny and her boyfriend, Derek, before driving home knackered.

Dining Out
Gail and I took the opportunity of our daughter being away at a sleepover on Sunday evening to go out for dinner—just the two of us—which was another nice way to ease back into life in Leith. We visited The Raj Restaurant, Leith’s home of the finest Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine—and I’m not exaggerating. It’s a fabulous restaurant overlooking the Water of Leith, and through 5pm we got two courses and a free bevy for £10.50 each. Nice!

Scones
Binny was in town again yesterday for her work, so I met her in a coffee shop up in the west end for some more catch-up, scones, tea, and coffee. We’ve been buying up tickets for a load of gigs in the second half of the year and forgotten who owns what, so we’re trying to figure out the balance. It’s going to be a great run in to Christmas with gigs in 2011!

Blogging
On the writing front, I wrote up and published yesterday’s blog, which was by no means an easy task with the amount I had to catch up on. No sooner had I published it—complete with pictures—I discovered a nifty wee flash photo gallery plug-in for the site. It’s installed now and I’ll try it out soon with more images.

Newsletter
I started preparing my August Newsletter, which is going to be abundant with news and exciting features. I also began putting together questions for Annabel Aidan after I read her new novel, ASSUMPTION OF RIGHT, while away on holiday.

The Sky Project Charity Auction
A signed copy of FRINGE FANTASTIC found its way into the postal system and will be auctioned for funds for The Sky Project charity (where I’m a patron) this weekend. Good luck to them with that.

Subscriptions
I officially joined Savvy Authors! I’ve only been a basic member until now but have taken a couple of excellent workshops through them, so now I’ve paid my dues and intend to become more involved.

And talking about dues, I renewed my lapsed subscription with Writing Magazine . I always got a lot out of it and enjoyed its content and competitions, so I thought why not? Time to get all these things sorted now ready for the start of my 2011/12 writing year.

That’s all for now, have a great day!

SPECIAL OFFER
Enter coupon code TIMEUK305 (TIME305 if outside UK) at checkout and receive 25% off your order of my poetry books: FRINGE FANTASTIC, POOLSIDE POETRY and SILLY POEMS FOR WEE PEOPLE VOL.2. Offer cannot be applied to previous orders and only applies to books or eBooks ordered through the Lulu option. Offer expires on July 29th, 2011 at 11:59 PM.