Being kind to me day.

Yesterday I had a being kind to me day. Following two rejections in as many weeks, I was feeling down, the giving up on writing forever sort of down. Usually I can grit my teeth and work through that, but I decided to try a different approach.

I was going to spend the whole day doing only what I wanted. If it was something I felt I had to do, then it wasn't going to happen. Also, whatever I did, I wasn't going to rush. If it took longer than usual, or if it didn't get finished it simply didn't matter.

And writing anything, since I was obviously so bad at it, was banned.

So what did I do?

I tidied my desk and instantly felt better.

I spent an hour or two in the garden, pulling up weeds and cutting back shrubs and I felt better.

I ate supper and had a glass of wine.

And somewhere, between the glass of wine and the beginning of a Sky Arts programme on Hopper, I did a little gentle editing.

I know this was forbidden, but by that time in the evening I was mellow and relaxed enough and because it wasn't a work in progress or something I'm promoting right now, I actually enjoyed it.

The lesson learned? Stop rushing around, slow down, enjoy. If it happens, it happens. There will be other days when I have more energy, when I'll be on the net, tweeting and facebooking and all the things I need to do, but sometimes it's necessary to switch it all off and have a be kind to me day.

Dark Angel

I know vampires have had it. I know that we're supposed to have moved on, past Twilight into a new Zombie dawn, but something tells me that this just isn't true. There's still an appetite out there for these beings that prey on our blood, yet appeal to something deep and dark inside us.

A few years ago I wrote my own vampire novel. It went out to a few publishers and agents, but nothing happened so I filed it away on my hard drive. The book however wasn't going to let me go. My characters had got their claws, or is it fangs, into me and were demanding a return from the dead. So I took another look at my "Dark Angel" and today I posted the first chapter on the Wattpad site.  It's a YA novel and if that's not your thing and you know a teen who appreciates the genre please ask them to read and comment. If on the other hand you'd like to give me your input and feedback, I'd love to hear it.