Ravelled Sleeve of Care

Shakespeare talks about sleep knitting up the ravelled sleeve of care, and my sleep-sleeve is currently completely unravelled. Last night was something of an example. I actually managed to fall asleep just before 1am, which was a miracle. I woke up around 4am, which is when I usually fall asleep, tried to sleep until 5am, got up, found out some of my stories had been pirated on an audio site, tried to go back to sleep at 7am, got up again 7.30am, was nodding off at 11am but as soon as I tried to sleep properly I was wide awake. I managed two hours in the middle of the afternoon, I've accomplished very little and I feel like something that the cat would refuse to drag in. 

There is still a certain amount of squelch in the dining room but it's reducing. I'm not sure if it's because of the dehumidifiers or because it's stopped raining, but I'll take what I can get. When I wandered down around 6am this morning there was a slug in the middle of the carpet that looked like it wished it had brought water wings. It didn't help my mood. I suppose it's getting closer to this.

Photo by Jeff DeWitt on Unsplash

Small isles of dry carpet are appearing, but rain is forecast so I'll see how it goes.

One thing that I have managed is to get thoroughly depressed about audio books. Good narrators will make a story come alive in ways that the page can't manage, but they are rightly expensive. On one of the main platforms for authors to convert their ebooks into audiobooks, prices start at 2p per word. Out of the London Mist comes in at around 60,000 words, or £1,200 at the minimum. I don't have that sort of money, though I'm sure that they earn it.  

A lot of authors are using AI, which makes me uncomfortable. Partly I don't like the idea of putting people out of work. There is also the whole worry that it wouldn't sound right. I've had enough problems with spellchecker. I don't want the AI butchering pronounciation and syntax in audible form as well, and I know myself well enough to know that I wouldn't have the concentration to properly listen to an AI recording to pick up all the bits that were missed. 

I'm not doing anything to take it down at the moment. Apart from not being able to get the dratted thing to work, it's not costing me anything and may possibly get me leads that will get me a few pennies. The site has all the stories from Royal Road but nothing from Amazon. I've always known that the stuff on Royal Road was vulnerable, but I've been treating it as a sort of gym to get me writing and to get another place to have my writing name on the internet. I don't put anything on there that I'm planning on charging for, although I can imagine me taking some stuff down, tidying it up, getting a halfway decent cover and then bunging it on somewhere like Smashwords. Not everyone takes that view, however, and some authors on Royal Road make money from their writing there, and it's taking income from them. 

Bear is coming home tomorrow. I think I will be feeling a lot better.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Deluge Continues

It's still incredibly squelchy in our dining room. I emptied the two big dehumidifers as they were full, but the two smaller, cheap ones hadn't filled up yet, presumably because they were little and cheap. I bought them with small spaces in mind, so I wasn't fussing too much. 

I've made a small dent in the dining room. I feel that it's been reduced from mountains to large hills. It isn't helped that my back doesn't like me standing or moving around for more than a few minutes at a time and the squish of the carpet is deeply unpleasant. Still, I have got a little further. Clothes have been distributed, I've got a roll of yellow bin bags for charity shop donations, and a roll of blue bin bags for stuff that should perhaps move to the junk room. I'm questioning some of my choices, though. 

One example is non-slip liner. It's this stuff, a sort of rubbery mesh that stops things sliding around. We got some to put on top of the fridge as it's quite tall but we have a load of stock cubes and spices on the top which had a habit of sliding around and getting knocked down the back. The stock cubes, worcestershire sauce, salt and such were put in plastic boxes which went on top of the non-slip stuff and nothing has been knocked down since. I consider it a win, but I over-ordered and have quite a large amount left over. I'm considering putting it on my tumble dryer (which is in my dining room) and perhaps stitching some to the back of the bathroom mat which enjoys travel more than most people, but should I just donate or throw it? It's not that expensive if I needed to replace it, and I can't see where I'd use it, but it's not on the shelves of our local shops and I can't help wonder if I'm missing opportunities. Besides, it seems wasteful to get rid of it when the dreaded might come in useful thought hovers over me. 

I think the most important step in this is to check my mindset. I guess that I need to consider the end result. What would happen if I didn't keep it? Where can I sensibly keep it? I need to think why I'm holding onto stuff. 

Bear will be home soon, and while I know he wants to study, and I want him to rest, I know that he'll make time to come with me for some heavy lifting to the charity shops. I feel so lucky. 

And while I stumble on, I've had some more thoughts about decoration for the dining room.

Photo by Lucas Calloch on Unsplash

Writing stuff - I'm still grumbling about the spellchecker, and did so at length on my blog here. For those who subscribe to my Substack posts, I apologise. I'm going to be catching up with the posts that should be on Substack, which are chats, articles, reviews and news from the writing blog which means that there will be a gazillion notices flying out. My grovel post is here, and I am sincerely sorry, but once it's done then it will be easy to find things on there as well. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

A Deluge of Dehumidifiers

We are at the bottom of a hill and just a little above a stream that's maybe a hundred yards away. There has been a torrential amount of rain. And I think that we've now got a leak in the cellar floor. I know someone a few hundred yards away who regularly gets a flooded cellar, and takes it as part of living there. I could probably manage it that point of view if we didn't have our kitchen and dining room in our cellar. 

The carpet in the dining room currently squelches. If you stand on it, you can see water. It is deeply unpleasant. Tomorrow I'm going to have to redistribute a large washing and ironing pile which still has stuff in from at least four years ago, towels which don't currently have anywhere to live and sundry craft and gardening supplies. After that, I should try lifting the carpet but I'm going to refrain. Apart from not wanting to have a complete wreck of a room for Christmas dinner, I've tried to get rid of the carpet before. I've loathed it since we moved in, back in 1994, but it's firmly glued down. It's going to be a mare to shift. 

There are currently four, yes, four, dehumidifiers down there. There were the two that we already had, one in the walk in cupboard off the dining room as it can get musty in there and for a while we needed the dehumidifer as the people at the back had a leak, which is no longer much of a problem, and one tucked in a corner as a spare. I don't really bother in winter as the heating sorts out any damp that comes from being underground, but it can feel clammy in summer so they're usually on then. Then there are the two extremely cheap small humidifiers, one next to the carpet swamp and one in the kitchen next to the cupboards which are affected by damp. Those last two were bought when I was worried about the leak in my bedroom. 

I feel like there's a theme here.

I've been thoroughly out of sorts all day, with a headache and upset tummy which I suspect had something to do with the tinned soup I had last night. It's finally wearing off, so hopefully I'll be more pro-active tomorrow, particularly with the new water feature. I was not going to take a pic of the utter dreadfulness that is my dining room, but I had been thinking about redecorating around it. 

Photo by Jeff Finley on Unsplash

So here is a pic that I may or may not take as inspiration.

DH has had a rummage on the internet and he thinks that it could well be something straightforward to fix. I rather hope so, but I'm still bracing myself. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

A Fail But Still Happy

I failed the Writathon by around six thousand words. However I started six days late, went missing in action for around a week mid challenge and finally wrote ten thousand words in twenty four hours, so I'm not unhappy with what I did. I'm happy with some of the lessons that I learned, including that I shouldn't try and write ten thousand words in twenty four hours. 

Knitting has been coming on.

That is the cheap Aldi yarn. The packet contains the cheap circular needles and I was extremely unimpressed. The yarn caught on the needles where they meet the circular wire on every row. I ended up digging out an old 5mm needle and it was infinitely better. The yarn is knitting up fine, however.

I've spent the day mainly on writing stuff, but tomorrow I start cleaning. I have to. Bear is home on Friday and he's been very clear how he's particular about keeping his space clean. My house is a disaster. I don't want him to come home and feel that he has to start cleaning, especially as he has exams the first week that he goes back after Christmas. I'll share any triumphs. Really I need to turn out a load of cupboards and make records of what there is and what can be used up.

Writing stuff - I haven't posted anything on the Royal Road for the last few days, but I'll be getting back to that soon. Today's installment of The Guest is on my writing blog here. I posted an article last Wednesday, here, and I've got one cued up (or queued up, I'm never quite sure) for this Wednesday coming. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Advent

I wanted to make something of Advent as I feel that Christmas is getting too much. I think that I failed when I didn't set clear objectives, but I will see how things go. I have taken the intention to be more mindful of what I'm doing. I don't want to be drifting or impulsively bouncing between ideas. Of course, things are never quite that straightforward with me, but it's something. Most importantly, I'm going to be choosing to make time for faith. At first it may be exploring how I make sure that I'm consistent and positive, but I hope to find my stride. 

I really needed to knit the other night. I find knitting incredibly soothing, but I couldn't find the jacket that I was looking for. I'm on the first sleeve and I just want the damn thing finished so hunting for it wasn't so soothing. However, I started the aran sweater with the yarn I got from Aldi, and I felt a lot better for the knitting. 

I need to take a pic of the freeze dried veggies that I got from Jux. There was a deal of some sort and I picked up a tubs of carrots, red onion, pepper and garlic. Yesterday I threw together a casserole to try out these veggies. I bunged in some diced lean beef, a generous helping of the freeze dried veggies, a tin of chopped tomatoes, Italian herbs and some beef gravy granules. I may have cooked it a little too hot and a little too long, as when DH went downstairs to check and add dumplings, he said it was practically all dried out, so he added some extra water. And the thickening type of gravy granules. I think I'll have another go with the veggies as what came out was delicious, mouthwatering, tar. I didn't say a word to DH, but it was incredibly tasty and thick. I made the mistake by putting it too hot, too long and not enough water, but the second dose of gravy granules wouldn't have helped. 

Another thing that I want to consider during Advent is making New Year's Resolutions. I usually refuse to do that as it's rarely productive, but this time I want to be more thoughtful and considered. I also want to prepare and plan to give me the best chances of success. Again, I've no idea about how that's going to go, and I don't have a good track record of sticking to things, but if I don't try then I have no chance at all. 

Writing stuff - last Monday's story is here and today's story is here. I'm supposed to be working on the Royal Road Writathon but I keep getting distracted - all the more reason to make mindfulness and choosing actions a big part of Advent. 

One of the things that's been distracting me is the Bumper Book of the White Hart. I've got it all in one Word document, which I swear creaks as I upload it, and I've been going through with spell checker and the Word editor function. I think this might be technically AI, but part of me thinks that it's just good manners to get any writing I publish in the best possible state. It may, however, been a mistake. I have spent hours arguing with an indifferent screen about commas. I've picked up maybe half a dozen typos, but I keep getting flagged for extra commas, removing commas and semi-colons. I refuse to touch semi-colons with a bargepole! And it keeps arguing with me about whether a phrase should contain 'were' or 'was.' At one point I accidentally double clicked and ended up chasing back because it had made a correction that it shouldn't have. And I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the commas that I allowed weren't quite right. For my own peace of mind, I'm going to have to go back and check them. I did a 'find' for commas on the document and there are over six thousand of them. I said rude words. 

But I made a draft of a cover, so that's a start.

Though perhaps I ought to make the stag's head white. Any gently phrased opinions welcome. 

The Writathon finishes on Friday so I should have more measured posts after that. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Back to Whatever is Normal

I am proud of this picture.

I took it when I went out to Tesco this evening. Bear was complaining that he couldn't find the garlic in his local Tesco, so I thought that I'd share a pic with him. I'm proud because I think that this is the first time I've left the house properly in at least a fortnight, and the odd wander to the bin or to support strimming doesn't really count for much either. We're coming up to the time of year when it's hard for me to do anything, so I forced myself to go out. 

It was late, and the windscreen had already started to get a little icy, but it wasn't a bad run and I need to keep pushing myself. Though I probably won't go out much this week as the weather is looking cold with a non-zero chance of snow. I absolutely do not approve of snow.

I've been concentrating on writing for the last week, more in Writing stuff below, but I've decided that from today, I need to try and find some sort of balance and motivation. Besides, it's only a month before bear comes back from university for the winter break in a month and I want to have the house nice for him. 

If I've understood the weather forecasts correctly, this week is going to be freezing, then next week will be warmer, so I'll get back to the garden next week after the cold has killed off some of the weeds. I guess it's a good time for me to clear things out. I also need to crack on with the knitting as, did I mention? it's cold!

Writing stuff - As I mentioned, I'm taking part in the Writathon with Royal Road. The first big milestone and to get a mention, I had to hit 25,000 words by midnight on 15th November, 9 days after I started. I made it by ten minutes. I spent most of yesterday sitting around in a daze. The words are added in chapters, and each time I completed a chapter for Royal Road, I loaded it onto my writing blog. However I haven't put it on all at once or the notifications would be going crazy and, besides, to make my life easier, I decided that I would schedule them, with a new chapter each week on a Monday. I thought that it would take care of my commitment to posting fiction on Mondays. Once I finish this challenge, I probably won't have to write new stuff for Monday for a while. So far, I'm up to the middle of next February. 

Anyway, this week's instalment for the writing blog is here, but you can read the whole 25,000 so far on Royal Road here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Should Have Known - Mainly Writing Stuff

Who am I kidding, this is practically all writing stuff but it's more about me being an idiot with writing stuff included in the mix. 

It went something like this... I very clearly, absolutely, 100% committed to not writing a novel in November. I put it in black and white in a post here if you want a snicker. I was absolutely and utterly signed up to do loads of editing, tidying, converting and general writing housekeeping this month. Absolutely not writing a novel. Under no circumstances. Not at all!

So, as it happens, Royal Road launched a Writathon to write 55,555 words by 5th of December with a way point on 15th November when particpants need to reach 25,000 words. Of course I signed up! Dammit. 

I'll be honest, it's not looking good at me making the 25,000 words by 15th of November, which is five days away and over 20,000 words to go. However it's not bad for me to make the attempt. I have a huge backlog of ideas and I want to try and write at a faster pace. I can look at this as training, if you like. 

The brutal truth is that I can maybe walk or stand for five minutes without excruciating back pain. I don't have much in the way of current office and tech skills and I have tinnitus which limits my ability to do phone work. Writing is the best chance of me earning money to help bear through university. I doubt I'll make much - most writers don't, especially with all the AI stuff around - but the chances of me making anything are vastly increased if I write loads and publish loads. So I've taken the challenge on.  It won't make me money, but I think that it will be like a gym for the rest of my writing and I'll take it.

I didn't particularly want to mess around with a novel. The next big things for me involve a lot of planning and thinking and I also have a habit of junking the first 25,000 words of any big project so a novel wouldn't be a good idea for me. Besides, Royal Road isn't really set up like that. It's more for things like the White Hart. 

And speaking of White Hart, I wanted something that I could put into that place. I wanted a setting where I could dip in and add a small story every Monday just to keep me mentally moving, even if the rest of the writing was stuck. Then I remembered The Guest which was a failed anthology submission and which I'd kind of liked. So I decided that it would be the start of a new set of stories. And those stories would be perfect for Royal Road. And so, I got started. The first instalment, The Guest, won't count towards the word total, which is fair enough.

Currently, the plan is to publish as I go on Royal Road. The page is here, if you're interested and any honest reviews would be welcome but only if you feel like it. These will look very much like first draft, because that's what they are. However, I've put the first instalment up on my writing blog, here, and each of the chapters will be released one at a time on Mondays, which will probably take it up to the New Year. There won't be much materially changed in these chapters, but I'll scan them over for typos and grammar before they go live on my blog. 

The Guest isn't quite The White Hart. The setting is similar, but not exactly the same, and there'll be a new cast of characters which I hope will be fun. I'd love to hear what you think. 

As for what I'll get up to when it comes to stuff like the garden or housewifery or knitting - who knows? I have no idea! Given that I should be writing, I'll probably have a miniature version of Kew Gardens at the front of my house and a whole wardrobe knitted by 5th December. Sometimes I wish that I was a little more predictable. Please wish me luck.

Hugs and good health to all.