Almost there

Well I've started my backwards edit. Began on C32 and am now on C26 added almost 2k worth of emotional description, dialogue etc and the end of the book is now looking much, much stronger. Hopefully by Tuesday the book will be done, polished and shiny ready for my agent and my editor.
I plan to work on A Scattering of Leaves then for a few weeks to ramp up my word count with that before starting to write my next Little Black Dress book - Just Look at me Now.
The Belle's have received their dance results - highly commended's all round so they're very happy. My youngest belle starts her SATs tests this week and that should then be the last of the exam angst in the house for a little while.

Fish!

My angel fish - Angie - is very unpopular as she's eaten two of the neon's. We've also lost a couple of Platys and one of the red gourami with various problems. Hence our trip to the aquatics place today for more fish. Two pretty pale blue dwarf gourami to keep our lone blue male company, two kissing gourami and two yellow rainbow fish. Next weekend we're going to get some more Molly's. I want some more Platys but they were out of stock. The belle's are all very happy now even though Angie is already giving the powder blues the evil eye from her corner of the tank.
The library talk went okay yesterday, thanks so much to everyone who came and to Christina and the staff of Kings Norton library for making it such a lovely pleasant afternoon.
Writing wise I'm on target for this month with two chapters done of Crystal Clear and one done of A Scattering of Leaves. I need to do two more chapters of Crystal Clear to meet my schedule for this month and anything extra is a bonus. However as it's halfterm week I may not get so much done. I've also got a ton of work to do for this wretched course - quite how I'm going to achieve that I've no idea especially when I've nothing to use as a marker to tell me how high to pitch the work. I think it would be easier if my heart was in it but it's not.

Suite shop

In a break between the snow while the roads are clear and the belles are back in school, Mr Nell and I are going shopping for a three piece suite. We also need a new front door and should we have any money left in the piggy bank after that a bedroom carpet. It's all a bit of a novelty as the biggest and most exciting thing the house has had in ages was the new kitchen taps and the light in my office. We've found a suite we love and even better still it's in the sale - got to be something good in a recession right? I like to think we're doing our bit to boost the economy.
While we've agreed on the suite, the door may be a different matter. I found one I adore but Mr Nell hates it. It's white oak and art deco style. He favours painted steel traditional thirties type style. Hence we're off to look at doors today once we've ordered the furniture.
I also need to clean the house and I'm desperate to write the next chapter of A Scattering of Leaves as I have it all laid out in my head and have to get it onto paper before it vanishes into the mists.

Snow going

The snow is melting - hooray, so tomorrow the belles can return to school and I can hopefully get to work. I've been busy all weekend though, two more chapters done on Crystal Clear and one finished on A Scattering of Leaves, lots of critiquing, emails flying back and forth between my cp for Leaves as I worked with her stuff and she made comments on mine.
Phillipa Ashley and I are looking forward to our book launch at Waterstones on March 7th, there have been so many great responses we're both feeling really excited. My webman is busy revamping my website too so there'll be a few changes appearing soon - don't worry if you have trouble getting on over the next week or so it probably means we're working on stuff.
Even better this week I have a days holiday to take so I have Friday off, more writing time unless Mr Nell makes me leave my desk to go looking for a new front door.

The small stuff

Today has been taken up with small things. Paying a bill that required a trip to the bank, looking for new jeans that actually came close to fitting, adding in the edits that my cp suggested for A Scattering of Leaves, writing and mailing out this quarters newsletter to my subscribers, posting up promo notices for mine and Phillipa's book launch and generally doing all kinds of stuff that needed to be done.
I can't believe we're almost at the end of January already. Outside the sky is grey and sullen but in the garden the snowdrops are beginning to peek through and the squirrel is on the fence chattering abuse at the magpies.
My brochures have arrived from the Welsh tourist board and I'm happily dreaming of some warm summer days by the sea.

And there is light!

I haven't had a working in light in my office for months. I had a three light spotlight on the ceiling but it was so old that as the bulbs went you couldn't get them out. Because my office is reached through an archway off the landing it doesn't have a door and the landing has good light so it wasn't urgent to fix the lighting. Now though I have a lovely glass and chrome halogen spotlight and it's very bright in here now.The electrician from along the street came and put it up for me and I feel all floodlit. (The pic is of my office but you can't see the light)
Yes, I do have bats on my desk, yes, that is a purple monkey hanging from my chair, and yes, of course there's coffee in that mug lol.
One and a half more chapters done on Crystal Clear - hoping to finish the other chapter today then I can edit chapter's 7 and 8 of A Scattering of Leaves and maybe start chapter nine as I will have hit my targets for this month - YAY!!!

Still

Last night was blowing a gale and the forecast was for more of the same today. So far so good though as the wind has dropped, the sky is blue and all is still. I don't know if it will last.
We had a family of foxes drop by early this morning, three of them, trotting along the road without a care in the world. We hadn't seen them for a while but they all looked healthy and happy in the early morning sunshine, no doubt on their way to raid a dustbin or to try and catch one of the ducks that are overwintering further up the lane at the seasonal pond.
Mr Nell has taken the belles out with his new camera to snap some pics - I don't know if he'll catch any of the wildlife. I'm making the most of his absence by trying to write more of a Scattering of Leaves as later this week I'm scheduled to do two more chapters of Crystal Clear if I'm to make this months targets.
Lately I've been doing a lot of critiquing, something I love to do as I always feel I learn so much from it. I also recieved my critiques back from Kimberly on a Scattering of Leaves. That was immensely helpful and I've incorporated many of her suggestions into the story so the book is growing slowly. I'm enjoying writing both books and then yesterday I had a great idea for the starting place of the next Little Black Dress story - always a sign that things are going well.

Cyber hand holding

I love my network of writing friends - some of them I've never met in real life as we are geographically so far away but knowing they are there is so wonderful. A Scattering of Leaves - well the first thirdish of the book - has just gone to my agent for her opinion. It's a story I'm loving writing but because it's different from my other work I've been really nervous about my ability to pull it off.
This is where my lovely friends are so terrific, Kimberly, my new cp, in Italy,who is a very talented writer herself, Lis, my fabulous beta reader and friend in Canada, Laura, my former editor and great friend in the US and of course Jess - all of whom give me sensible advice and help me to tell the wood from the trees.
So, while I'm waiting for the verdict I'm cracking on with Crystal Clear and I'm moving on with A Scattering of Leaves. I'm on target so far despite my family's best efforts this week to stop me from writing anything by constantly squabbling and interrupting while I'm working. I need a door for my office.