Friday 3 January 2014

Happy New Year... Already? Where does the time go?

I seem to have accidentally slipped into a sidestream of the timeline, and have spent my whole time editing, writing ... and also either procrastinating or doing research - whichever term you feel happier with.

I've joined a writers' group a while back, which for once is compatible and actually works for me - which is nice. They want the same sort of things I do, and we all bring our own unique take and strengths to the table. :) Lovely stuff.

As a result we are bringing out a book of short stories, which I will tell you more about nearer the time. We are now ready to finalise the number of tales and the story order. It's very exciting.

In addition to working on this, I've been reading up on grammar and punctuation (which I was never 100% utterly amazing at, just fairly good and very patient at combing through things, plus the rules keep effing changing!), and I've been helping to edit both other people's work (the mad fools) and my own. I've even managed a bit of writing. Woo hoo!

A newly proofed version of The Grim will be out later this year - hopefully with fewer gaffs and punctuation errors.

The MS has tried to rear its ugly head a few times, but so far I've managed to bash it back down and get it mostly under control - although the exhaustion is something I'm having to learn to work around.

And I've been adoped by a stray cat. She's a black and white lovely, very demanding, but a purrfect companion in many respects. She replaces my Monster, who was killed in a hit & run nearly two years ago. He and the other ghost cats come and visit regularly, and Pushca (not Russian, its short for Pushy Cat) doesn't seem to mind. Although she does stare at Dereck when he visits.

So what else has been going on?

I loved The Hobbit, and The Desolation of Smaug. Also the new series of Sherlock looks like it's going to be fun. The 50 year anniversary of Doctor Who was great. A little disappointed by the change over episode - in the past they have always been hair-raising stuff. This time it seemed to be more of a by-the-numbers, not-really-trying to worry about the cliff-hanger factor, adrenaline-free afair ... or maybe I'm just getting really jaded in my old age. Having said that some of the episodes have been brilliant.
I enjoyed Vicious. And there have been quite a few comedy and police/crime things on that have been great... titles escape me for the moment. I shall blame my MS and the tiredness factor, which is currently kicking in, for the memory lapse. There have been a lot of good films. Again, the titles elude me at present.
And many other things I've enjoyed too, but I have to go and lie down in a darkened corner for a bit and recoup my energy and get my brain working again. Sorry. Please bear with me.

Have a great 2014, I know I will.