A Night at the Theatre

We went to the Mayflower theatre in Southampton to see 'Calendar Girls'. It was quite good but I had trouble hearing some of the actresses speak. I don't know if it was the accoustics in the theatre but it did spoil things a little. When we had a drink in the bar during the interval I overheard a couple of ladies saying the same thing so it wasn't just me, thankfully.

We went to 'Buon Gusto' on the corner of Commercial Road after the show had finished and had a really nice meal although it was late. We hadn't been to this restaurant for a number of years so it was good to try it again.

I'm having a frustrating time with computers this week. We now have an I.Mac as our main computer but I do all my writing work on my laptop. To print things off I transfer to disk and then put the disk in the main computer and print from there. This isn't happening so easily now and when I insert a disk into the I.Mac I can't open the document, let alone print it. I will be heading for the Apple Store to try to find out why this is proving so difficult. I have tried connecting the printer to my laptop instead but I keep getting various error messages and being told the driver isn't compatible. I have now wasted nearly two afternoons trying to solve the problem but have given up because it's making me bad tempered and not in any position to produce good writing work.

Weekend Workload.

Assignment 7 is finished and ready to be printed and then sent off. I have spent the weekend going over the first 3000 words of THE NOVEL that is going towards this assignment. I was quite horrified to see many glaring continuity errors already but have gone through it all word for word until I am quite sure it is reading as well as it could. I can't wait to receive some feedback on my efforts.

We went out for dinner on Friday to a place in Wickham. Now I'm not going to name the establishment but we were very disappointed with the service received. This restaurant isn't cheap and we've been there a couple of times before and each time came away satisfied. I really resent going out for dinner to a good quality restaurant and then getting sloppy service. I'd rather go to the Harvester or a Beefeater. Well, we shan't hurry back and I did post my thoughts on 'Trip Advisor'.

Must sign off now as it's time to prepare our Sunday roast (a tradition in this household) and then I'm afraid it's a TV viewing night - Strictly, X-Factor and the marvellous 'Downton Abbey.'

13,923 words.

That's how many words I've written on THE NOVEL so far. I've been really industrious today and have spent all afternoon typing. I'm quite pleased at the way the story is evolving because I am writing what I know about rather than what I don't really know about and need to do a good bit of research on. I think this is the right way to go when you right your first novel. Just after 4 O'clock I decided to call it a day and do an entry for my blog.

I'm a member of 'Flair For Words' and the latest copy of 'Flair News' dropped on the mat at lunchtime. I can now get a coffee and read it from cover to cover. This little gem is full of interesting articles and lots of inspiration from Cass and Janey who are joint editors and run 'Flair For Words.'

This morning we went for a long walk. We didn't even need coats as it was so warm. We stopped for coffee and a lovely deli called 'Cork and Cheese' and bought a tub of huge olives and a wholegrain loaf, locally baked.

The walk enabled me not to feel selfish when I shut myself in the study all afternoon and banned my husband from any interruptions.

I don't think I'm cut out for this!

That is, I don't think I'm cut out to write short stories for magazines. I find the guidelines too restrictive for a start. Perhaps I should concentrate on short stories for competitions. I have written a short story for my latest WB assignment and am quite pleased with it although it took several almost complete rewrites and lots of editing. That means each story I tackle takes me a very long time to complete. I certainly can't dash them off every few days (if only it were that simple).

I'm going to see what happens with my latest effort and then decide if I'm going to do any more for a while. I really want to concetrate on THE NOVEL and I also have a number of ideas for magazine articles.

Last week I had another break from writing because I went to see my cousin in Southport who is recovering from a serious stroke. He is now at home so that's good. He has a wheelchair which he is determined not to use and also a stick and he is managing to walk quite well with it. He has been approached to be a sort of 'mentor' to other stroke victims in his health authority area and he is very keen to do this. This should be giving me some ideas for short stories and articles but so far I haven't come up with anything worth putting to paper.

The shops on Lord Street in Southport are looking very christmassy already and it was fun walking up and down this famous street window shopping and stopping for coffee. Now I'm back home and busy in the study in front of my laptop.

Nice to See You All Again

On Friday 22nd October, I went to the Writing Buddies meeting. Hadn't been for a while because of Spain and it was nice to catch up with everyone and hear what they are up to. Some new faces appeared and I hope they will continue to come along. The new website looks very good and there is a link to this blog! A real incentive now to keep it up to date.

The assignments for the Writers Bureau are coming along very well. I'm just editing number 6 out of 8 and have got number 7 in hand.

I'm off to Southport this week to see my cousin who is still in hospital after suffering a stroke. I hope he will make a full recovery but it's still too early to tell.

My First Success

I submitted a 'blog' to Woman's Own magazine a few weeks ago and it was published a couple of weeks ago plus photo of me! I was browsing through the magazine section of our local shopin Spain, that sells a few UK publications and picked up Woman's Own just to see if I'd been lucky as I have been checking the mag each week and lo and behold there it was!! This has really spurred me on to submit more articles and has been a much needed confidence boost.

I hope to tell you about more successes in the future.

Back from Spain (again)

Arrived back in the UK on Monday evening having driven through France to St. Malo (my favourite place in France) and then the ferry home.

I haven't been writing very much, I'm afraid. I've done quite a bit of work towards THE NOVEL but not even thought about the next assignment with the Writers Bureau. There was so much happening at the house in Spain. Lots of work had been done and we had a major refit of the house to cope with and as we had added lots of new space I spent several days re-organising everything. We had people to stay and went to Granada for a couple of days (wonderful;) and then there were other friends to catch up with that live near us in Spain.

I find it very hard to stick to a routine in Spain that's conducive to writing. The ideal time is the afternoons because they are long and you can sit outside with a laptop so it sounds ideal doesn't it? However, it's easy to get distracted and I prefer to lock myself away when I'm trying to be creative and the house in Spain isn't big enough for that.

Now I'm back at home and ready to get the ball rolling again.