Life gets in the way.

"What is the point of a blog if you don't post at least once a week?" Danni at Bookblogtours asked the question on Facebook recently. She's right, of course. If you're  not communicating with your followers and the rest of the world, you may as well be scribbling in some dogeared diary which you keep hidden at the bottom of your underwear drawer.

Blogging, however, takes time and life has a habit of getting in the way. 

For me the priority is going down to Bristol as often as possible to visit my lovely granddaughter. Maddy is nine months old now and she is changing rapidly and I want to be as much part of her development and growing up as I can possibly be. Not so easy when you live so far away.  

Then there was the Edinburgh Festival.  Fantastic three days which I wouldn't have missed for anything. If you haven't seen Rob Crouch in "Oliver Reed, Wild Thing" catch it if you can. Same would go for "Female Gothic," a one woman show far scarier than "The Woman in Black." And "The Road That Wasn't There." Shadow puppets, singing and story telling from Trick of the Light a group from New Zealand.

Not only were the shows brilliant, but the city itself is magical in ways that set the imagination going. 

Creatively revived, if somewhat exhausted, it's time to get back to the writing. 

Dragons in Macclesfield.

Great to do a reading from Dragonfire in Macclesfield this morning. Really enjoyed getting the feedback from the kids and I'm hoping that in return for hearing my story they'll send me theirs.

Good publicity too and every little helps if you've got books to promote.

So many thanks to Elisia for setting it all up and here's to the next one.

House of Shadows.

What do you do if a respected beta-reader and good friend tells you your book isn't working; that the structure is all wrong?

Rejoice!

Rethink.  And start to plan, not one, not two but three new stories.

Thanks Jan.

Getting it write

Marking time has come round again.  I mark GCSE English Literature and once I get going it's fine.  At the moment however I am  waiting for my first sample papers to come back from my team leader to tell me if I am marking at the correct standard, or not. This is making me very, very nervous.  My record is good, I've been trained, so why the panic?

Because I don't like getting it wrong.

And what has this got to do with writing?

Well everything.  I think it is one of the reasons why I find it hard to promote my work and why I can dither over what exactly I want to write and when I'm going to do it.  I have at least two ideas for books, but at the moment I can't decide which one I want to start.  Which is the best route to go down? Should I go with my books for adults? My kids books? Short stories? Play?  At least I don't have to worry about poetry, because I don't do that.

All this worrying takes time and creative energy. It wastes hours of what could be productive and enjoyable work.  I know, deep down, I would be better off just getting something written. However, I suffer from the curse of getting it right, which is why for the next few weeks, or until marking is done and dusted, I'm going to be a little short tempered and edgy  

What we should be doing

"Catherine, Caffeinated" <donotreply@wordpress.com> 

A brilliant, no holds barred blog which tells you as it is.  It's certainly made me look at what i'm doing re-books and promotion. Can recommend it to anyone who writes. 

Inspired by Jan, I'm submitting another short story today.

New Years Resolutions

OK it's a bit late, January 3rd, to start making resolutions, or at least to admitting to them. What I do think is a brilliant idea is to make a list of the past year's achievements as my friend Jan has done. See a truly inspirational list at janedwards-writer.blogspot.com.