Even after waking this morning drowning in snot (I’m succumbing to a nasty chest cold), I’ve managed to reach a milestone word count for Dancing the Maypole. It now has 100,589 words. I can’t see the story needing more than 120,000 (I suspect the number will be a lot lower). I’ve never had a book this long so it feels surreal. As usual, I think it needs about four more chapters. I’m now going to go to bed and hope I wake up feeling better in the morning, but I suspect I’ll be hacking and coughing…of course…because one of my sisters is coming next week from America to visit. Isn’t that what always happens when you plan to spend a few weeks having fun? Your immune system laughs (one of those deep evil Jabba the Hut laughs) and down you fall with a nasty bug just when you need to clean the bathroom. Oh well, I’m feeling really happy with the story. I think I may even get some lovely writing done tomorrow in between hacking coughs.
Sharing photos…
Dancing the Maypole now has 99,527 words. I’ve finally finished chapter 37 (hopefully for the last time). I’m now working on chapter 38. I ended up doing the usual ‘beat my head against the wall’ exercise until I finally gave in and deleted a chunk and wrote some more. I think I’ve figured out how to unblock Once Upon a Wager as well, but now I have to decide how much to delete. I’ve deleted quite a bit, but I have an awful feeling I need to delete more. Excuse me while I just bang my head on that brick wall!
The last few months have been really weird. I’ve been having problems remembering what day or month it is. I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of June. I think I was traumatized by moving house. The rest of the Universe has moved on, but I’m somehow stuck in April. The last few months I’ve had a number of adventures that I meant to share. I took pictures…lots of pictures. I now I have too many to share, but I wanted to share some of my favorite. [Read more…] about Sharing photos…
The sneak preview of Dancing the Maypole…
I shared this back in January, but wanted to put it at the top for those who might not have seen it. Dancing the Maypole is coming…slowly, but surely! Yes I’ve been saying that for two plus years, but it is nearing the end. I’ve started chapter 38 and I think there are about four more chapters to go. Yes I always say that, four more chapters…four…four…forever four… No, I know how the ribbons finish weaving around the Maypole. It’s coming! It has to or I’ll go mad. Here are the first four chapters.
Happy Reading!
July 5 1818 (Outside London)
Morning sunlight dazzled off four gold Baroque mirrors onto the round French table blackened with age, the blue and gold Sèvres service glinting with pride. After an hour the four people eating their breakfast were in no hurry to finish. The grey haired Englishwoman poured her son a third cup of coffee as her husband muttered in French behind his English paper. Glancing at her youngest daughter she sighed with maternal disappointment. At thirty-six, Isabel Désirée de Bourbon had little hope of finding love. Her large dowry and pretty features had drawn a number of earnest admirers, but she’d dismissed them all as too short. [Read more…] about The sneak preview of Dancing the Maypole…
My brain is here somewhere…
Today I escaped the village for a few hours and went to see a French matinee in Stamford. Call it research; there are French people in Dancing the Maypole. (Not that I need an excuse to watch a French movie). It turned out whoever wrote it couldn’t decide whether to make a farcial comedy or a sob story so they made it both which didn’t really work. I won’t be ordering a DVD of it for my French movie collection, but at least I could understand what they were saying a goodly part of the time and that made me feel smug. As I watched the credits I thought, “My brain hasn’t gone to rot yet. Those four years of French in High school (many moons ago) weren’t a complete waste!”
So there I was feeling clever as I pulled my brand new phone out of my bag. It’s so new I haven’t had to call anyone on it yet. [Read more…] about My brain is here somewhere…
At last, some progress…
I’ve been banging my head against the proverbial brick wall trying to figure out why I was stuck in Dancing the Maypole like a cow in quick sand, but all that head banging and primal screaming has finally paid off. I’ve come unstuck. I had to go back into chapter 37 to change and add some things. Tomorrow I restart on chapter 38. Dancing the Maypole now has 99,097 words. It will need a few more chapters so it will be my longest book to date.
We moved house in April and I unwittingly damaged the nerves in my arms washing windows and walls and gardening. I think I sprained my thumb as well (it still hurts when I put weight on it though it doesn’t mind typing) so I prescribed myself several weeks of inactivity to let my arms heal (no I didn’t go to the doctors – I have to think I’m going to die horribly if don’t before I do). So my hands were going numb if I raised my arms to just scratch my nose, wash my hair, type, eat…so it really freaked me out, but they’re now almost back to their normal state. I worked four years in an ice cream store and damaged my right arm (at least I’m assuming it was scooping all that rock hard ice cream – it couldn’t have been eating it). Anyway, I’m writing and mentally feeling really good. I’ve been going for walks and taking lots of pictures. I was very excited to finally find my first hemlock. After checking to make sure it was hemlock, the next time I went for a walk down the road I swear I spied enough of the stuff to kill half of Lincolnshire…not that I plan to kill anyone… I’ll share some photos when the stupid computer isn’t acting like it just ran a marathon.
Self portrait of a Harpy…
This morning I waved the Goblin away and came upstairs to eat my breakfast (butter beans in plain yogurt sprinkled with cinnamon – it tastes better than it sounds). I would have skipped food and collapsed back into bed, but I had to take my pills. So I clicked on Listverse and enjoyed the latest list; greatest 60’s instrumental songs. I haven’t thought about Classical Gas in years (if you’ve never heard it, it’s brilliant!). With the curtains closed it was still dark, so as I listened to the music I sat here staring at my hands (as one does) and admired my fingernails lit by my computer monitor. Thanks to my vitamin regime, they’re hard as…nails…and sharp as…knives. Some cliches are really just an accurate description. If I’m not careful I could seriously hurt myself. I can hear it now, “We believe it was an accidental death. It appears the woman was scratching her neck…” You get the picture. So while admiring my fingernails I thought, “This might make an interesting picture.” Then I thought, “I have a camera!” So I started taking pictures of my hands. Then my sleep deprived brain thought it would be a good idea to photograph my face (my poor eczema covered, hagged out, fatigued, officially almost middle aged face). Some ideas should come with a mental health warning. Needless to say, I looked like a possessed harpy dragged out of her nest after just settling down from a long fruitless night. To cheer myself up I decided to buy a few songs on itunes. I don’t think Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Flying High Again’ was a good choice for an exhausted harpy! As I tried to cheer myself up, the next thing I knew it was gone one in the afternoon and a bright sun was pouring in the cracks of my still closed curtain. I got another idea, I could open the curtain and take some pictures of my face in sunlight. There was a chance I might not look so…hideous! So the following photos (my favorites) illustrate my morning… [Read more…] about Self portrait of a Harpy…