Saturday 4 August 2012

Twelve hour days, a posse of poets and a second Kindle eBook

Morning followers – I’m in the mood for work today, so literally had to pull myself away from the laptop to ensure our weekly date. How the devil are you? Good, I’m hoping. Which is pretty much how I’m feeling having had an excellent week at my laptop reworking ‘Her’. I’m sending the manuscript into the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writer Scheme so am preparing my manuscript to be read and critiqued by a published author. Yikes, the excitement. I’ve given myself until Tuesday to prepare and post – I. Can. Do. This!

Last Sunday afternoon, I produced a poem to accompany a letter to a newspaper requesting details of the current Poet Laureate of Leicestershire. The Grace Dieu Writers’ Circle are embarking on a charity event and were hoping to have some local support. Anyhow, the group decided a basic letter would be too plain, so to reinforce our talent the members were asked to produce a poem. Me, being a good girl, sat down to complete my homework and produced a little ditty which may persuade the newspaper to assist. 

Monday through to Friday afternoon evolved about the manuscript ‘Her’. The list of things I haven’t done this week is endless: house cleaning, jogging, gym session, school work, appointments and socializing have all disappeared so I could focus on the manuscript, from ten in the morning to roughly ten at night. On the majority of mornings I haven’t showered and dressed much before lunch time – ahhhh, what bliss, a job you can perform in your pjs.

Well my progress report reads as follows: Monday was spent proofreading and tinkering with layout. Tuesday, I had an idea for an additional plot line. Wednesday and Thursday were spent drip feeding that additional plot line into the chapters and Friday, well Friday I nearly had a heart attack! After thirty minutes of working, the laptop screen went black. I kid you not, I couldn’t speak. I wasn’t concerned regards the manuscript, as I methodically save that to external disk, but the idea that my current working pattern was to be interrupted by a poorly laptop completely threw me. Husband was at work, and so the poor dog was the only witness to my shocked expression, which lasted for a full 90 minutes. In that time, I had resigned myself to work on another computer to complete the task and purchase a new laptop but suddenly, without warning, the screen began working. I took it to be due to overheating – which given the hours I have clocked up this week, I can appreciate and understand.

During dog walks, yes, I still managed those, I came up with two plausible ideas for new novels. Now, I thought I was sorted for my next novel idea ‘To honour and obey’ but one of the two new ones seems a better option and so, I have started to jot down ideas in preparation. The first idea came via a song I was listening to on my Ipod, the second, inspired by a comment I made to a young woman at the Grace Dieu Writers’ Circle. Both seem feasible, but without plotting and planning a little more I don’t know which to pursue. I have created files for each, as I’d hate to lose the thread of ideas.

During another dog walk, I bumped into a trio of poets, Mal Dewhirst, Jo Bell and Gary Longden enjoying a day trip on a canal barge. The rest of my day, my mind was trying to figure out the collective noun for a canal barge of poets - a posse of poets? A pocket of poets? A lock of poets? A parody of poets? Who knows but it was quite a sureal moment seeing the unexpected on a dog walk - see what us creative types do inorder to court inspiration?

I have been thourghly spolit this week by the London 2012 Olympics. Not only have I had the coverage on in the background while I've worked this week but I was cheeky enough to get additional tickets for the ladies football. I went to cheer and support Team GB ladies play Canada last night, at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. It was a great game but we were certainly outplayed by the Canadians - they deserved the 2-0 win. I'm not even going to mention how many heart warming/tear jerk moments I've had this week - I might dissolve into more floods by recalling - am a soppy head.
And finally, some exciting news – I have published my second short story on Amazon via Kindle. The story ‘Caught in the act’ started life as a Mad Hatters’ group exercise, where each member writes a story based on a single inspiration. The story is set during the winter months but I wanted to share the story rather than wait for the Christmas season.
As usual, all I ask is that if you enjoy the story, please return to leave feedback – I really would appreciate it.

Remember you can follow me on Twitter @odwyer_author to receive random updates throughout my creative week. Please pass my blog to anyone who might be interested. Enjoy!

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