Oil's Well that Ends Well

The lovely man at the garage explained things to me. Despite what various garages said, we have a wet belt, which apparently doesn't need changing, and instead I needed oil. Lots and lots of oil as there was practically none in the car. I suspect that Red has an unfortunate oil drinking habit, which set me back £85, which was a lot better than the £1,000 that I would have to pay for a new wet belt. 

I think that we're going to have to look for a new car. I don't want to, as Red has been a wonderful car, and she's very economical when it comes to petrol. But the wet belt on our car usually only lasts for 90k miles, and we're on 95k, and £1,000 is a decent percentage of a cost of a new-to-us car. She also needs to get out more, so I'll have to bite the bullet of expensive petrol and go on some runs. It won't kill me to go into shops. Having said that, I had a delivery today. It had the first chunk of the stock up. The promotion runs to 19 May, so I'll space out the purchases. 

I didn't do much to get pics, so here is the progress on the shawl. Yesterday it looked like this.

And today it looks like this.

I've added another six inches in length, and there's around 150 stitches on the needles. I've almost finished that skein of yarn but I want to add at least another one. I would guess that the shawl is currently around 20 inches long, and I want it much longer than that. I suppose it depends on how many stitches I can fit on the needle. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Hanging on to Knitting

Knitting keeps me calm. Well, unless I drop stitches or something, and even then I can usually find some peace as I sort things out. Today, it's been useful. It's the only pic I took today, showing the progress of the shawl. Yesterday it looked like this.

And right now it looks like this.

DH managed to get off work a little early so I spent a little longer than normal, hanging out with him and knitting. I was glad of the calm.

There was a little external excitement today. The police were banging on the door of next door but one. I stuck my head out of the door to see what was going on, as they officers were being emphatic, but apparently they didn't catch anyone home. The officers knocked on my door later, and I had to tell them that I hadn't seen anyone living there since the woman with the untrained dogs moved out. When I told DH about the minor excitement, he said that he had seen some signs of life, but it hadn't affected us, so we couldn't help the police much at all. I'm absolutely agog to know what's going on, but I doubt that I'll ever find out. I shall have to do better as a nosy neighbour.

Writing stuff - I've had to unpublish Further Tales from the White Hart as issues with the cover, Amazon's rules, the previous edition, and the amount of content have caused problems. I may need to write another 30,000 words for it. This is why I need knitting. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

The Triangular Shawl Strikes Again

Sometimes, the need to knit a triangular shawl calls to me like a siren. Who am I to resist? I dug out some yarn that I was supposed to be saving for scarves, but I was rethinking my choice, grabbed some needles with a long cable and started off.

It's been wonderfully soothing to knit, and I needed it. 

The first bit of excitement was the discovery that it's the time of year when gluten free groceries get discounted. Anyone who has to follow a gluten free diet knows that you practically never get a sale on gluten free stuff, especially not the supermarket own brand version. I keep an eye out for it every year, and when it comes round, I commit. I go in hard. For example, at Tesco, 500g of gluten free pasta is currently 60p instead of 75p, which is only a 15p saving. However, we can go through five or six bags per month when bear is home, and at least four bags, or 2kg per month when he isn't, and I have no shame in buying a year's supply when the sale is on. If I allow for four bags per month, which is around the minimum, that's £7.20 saved, and with today's food inflation, that's not to be sniffed at. 

I need to be picky. There's the jars of pesto that DH likes, that have around a two year shelf life, and he gets through maybe three per month. They're currently 25p cheaper, so that's around £9 saved for a year's supply. I'll probably get four or five tubs of the gluten free gravy granules as well. They have over a year shelf life, and we get through at least one tub per month, more if bear is home and they're 30p cheaper. 

Food isn't likely to get less expensive for the next year, so I'm happy to stock up, but only things that we absolutely will use and that have long shelf lives. Besides, it gives me an interest. Both Tesco and Morrisons are running deals, and at first glance, some regular items are a penny or two cheaper at Tesco and some are pennies cheaper at Morrisons. In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty unimportant. But in terms of a challenge, well, challenge accepted! I'll probably save less than £30, but it will be better off in my pocket than that of the supermarket.

The other issue today has been the car. 

That's a pic from 2022 when Gladys was considerably larger and Red, the car, was a great deal newer. 

We're getting 'oil check' notifications, but only for a few moments. Then it goes back to normal. I thought that I'd check with our favourite garage, and when I spoke to them on the phone, they said that it sounded like a 'wet belt' problem and that it would likely be around £1,000 to fix it, and that they couldn't do the work as it was an engine strip down and they didn't have the gear. 

I've spent most of today ringing around trying to find someone local who would be able to deal with it and who was unlikely to overcharge. DH was also on the mission and he got told that our model of car doesn't actually have a 'wet belt'. I got back to our favourite mechanics, and they said, "Oh yes! I didn't realise it was that model. Come in on Friday. But don't drive before then because you may irreparably break the engine. No stress."

This is why I needed to knit the triangular shawl. And why saving £30 on groceries over a year has its attraction, because every penny really does count!

Writing stuff - Further Tales from the White Hart is now live here.

It's currently just the ebook, but the paperback should be available soon. 

If all goes well, and we all know that I'm risking things by stating what I'm planning, Back at the White Hart, which is the recent arc of stories from my blog, and Stories from the White Hart which is a collection of short stories that have cropped up from time to time, and which are separate from the ongoing stories, should, theoretically, probably, hopefully, be available by the end of the month, fingers crossed. 

Hugs and good health to all

I Threw Out the Duvet Covers

I'm sorry that I've been away. As far as I can tell, I've sort of been shut down with all sorts of blocks. For example, I had three dusty and crumpled duvet covers, one of which absolutely needed a wash. They literally blocked off my room, but I avoided dealing with them because I knew that I'd need to wash, dry and iron them and I was dithering between that and prioritising other washing, and I was pretty much at a standstill over it. Because I needed to wash clothes, some stuff that had been stacked and got damp, and the general day to day stuff, but the duvets were always lurking there, and I knew that I'd struggle to iron them because I struggle to stand, so even if I washed them, they'd probably just transfer to another dusty heap, possibly less crumpled if I folded them right. But I couldn't take them to a charity shop like that, and I definitely couldn't pass them on unless they looked good. I tied myself up into knots about the dratted things, then decided that the world wouldn't end if I didn't donate or reuse them, and threw them out. 

I haven't posted on here because I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't done anything in the garden. In my defence, moving is interesting as I've done something different to my back, but I still feel in knots. I need to find the equivalent of throwing out the duvets. Right now, the garden is so overgrown that I feel that I could find a lost tribe, a secret temple and King Solomon's Mines in the tiny square outside my house. 

One thing that has brought me joy - I used a book to bring my monitor up to a sensible height. 

Yes, it's a real book. It's the old Gazatteer and I intend to access it regularly, just for fun!

Bear had a good holiday, and seems to be doing okay. I'm putting together another parcel for him, which I hope that he'll enjoy as he's got to the 'neck deep in exams' part of the university year. It's just bits like hot chocolate, biscuits and some hot sauce that he likes. 

The rest of the post is about writing, so feel free to skip it.

Another block that I've had is that I wanted to do the proper thing and publish the novels from the White Hart at monthly intervals with all the ARC reading and publicity. I got myself tied up in knots there as well, and I decided that the equivalent of throwing out the duvet covers was just getting the dratted things published. I've paid out for new covers, the first two are current on Amazon, and I should have the lot of them out there by the end of the month. I need to do the updated links on my blog, but here is Tales from the White Hart

Tales from the White Hart

And More Tales from the White Hart

More Tales from the White Hart

About Publishing - If you read a lot, and indulge in indie authors, this may explain why books are now not always available in the same way. 

If I keep my ebooks on Amazon only, I can use Amazon Kindle Unlimited, and I can get more royalties that way. In fact, it's the biggest source of the very small income that I make. However, not everyone likes Amazon, and up to now, I could publish paperbacks on Draft2Digital. They would distribute to places like Walmart and Waterstones if my books were requested, together with all sorts of independent bookstores and libraries. Up until recently, it was free to publish. Now, however, Draft2Digital are charging $12 per year to any author who doesn't make more than $100 in royalties. Apparently, this is to weed out the AI books that are less than stellar quality and clogging up the bookstores.

By the way, that $100 doesn't mean the sum total of the costs of the books sold. It means the percentage paid out to the author as their cut. If you look at Cats in the Bible, the buyer pays $5.99, but I get $0.06, and it's the total of those $0.06 that needs to add up to $100 or I have to pay $12. My total of royalties, including stuff that goes back a few years, comes to $1.80. 

I know there's a lot of chatter about it in author circles, and I suspect that quite a few are removing their titles. Now, as long as I earn more than $12, it should be good, right? I'll still have to pay, but I'll get more than I pay and I'll be able to offer the books to those who don't want to shop at Amazon. But on top of that, I'm having a bear of a time trying to get Tales from the White Hart uploaded there. I'm still thinking about it. Is it worth my time? Or is it just the equivalent of dusty and crumpled duvet covers?

Hopefully I get past all those discarded duvet covers and get back here with something a little more fun.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Feeling Off Track

I don't seem to be connecting with any of the usual rhythms in life, including blogs. I'm writing this tired, but if I don't get something down, then I never will. I keep thinking I'll do it in a minute and that minute never comes. Anyway...

The problematic trellis is down and DH is ready to do battle once more and get it back up, this time with sweet peas. He has scheduled this weekend for Father and Son versus the garden time. 

Bear is currently away with some friends. Apparently they're planning hikes. He's close enough for me to drive to if he's stuck, though it would take a few hours. We've got almost a full tank, and Red is an economical car to drive, so I'm not worried about that. I shouldn't think like that. Bear is a sensible young man and a legal adult, but I can't help the direction my mind wanders. 

The sofa was demolished and, with one thing and another, DH made three trips to the tip. Red isn't a huge car, but each time she was packed. It's looking strangely sparse, and I've got a desk set up in the sofa's place so that I can carry on working even if bear is home from uni. 

I gave up reading romances for Lent. I wasn't as mindful as I wanted, but at least I stuck to that. I've been making up for the lost time over the last few days by happily working through Lynne Graham's back catalogue. She's been a favourite of mine for years and it's been a blast. So many billionaires and none of them Batman.

Writing stuff - I'm too tired to do links, I'll do those tomorrow, but GetCovers came through with a proper, relevent, vibrant design for the cover for Tales from the White Hart which should be coming out in the next few weeks. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Missed Tuesday

Bear has started on the honeysuckle.

Compared to

I wish that I had a better pic. This is the trellis when it was down.

Which gives some idea. I think that bear has worked wonders. 

He broke the garden fork when he tried to dig out the honeysuckle roots. I can see that it will be a problem. While he was at it, he also removed the door from the outside cupboard under the front steps. The frame was giving way and the door didn't shut. 

According to bear, the door is pretty sturdy apart from the bottom and will be hard to break up. If this was some sort of DIY or decorating blog I would no doubt repurpose it as a table or something. As it is, a skip is looking more attractive. While I was taking pics, I noticed some nettles. I will probably just pull them out, but I can't help feeling that I ought to be cooking them, along with the fine crop of dandelions that have sprung up - again.

The garden will have to wait for a couple of days. I have a problem. When it comes to time management, I don't have a clue. I do not possess a single shred of sense. I have never set a realistic goal in my life. This means that if I want to have a fragment of a chance to hit self-imposed writing goals, I have to really work at it. There is absolutely no space for gardening. 

This isn't necessarily the problem. It's the housewifery that goes along with it. You see, we have a sofa that is six months younger than bear. We bought it from IKEA in 2007 for something like £200. Over the years, it's seen a lot of service and should have been pensioned off a while ago. It hasn't been sat on for a few years since we moved into the study for our 'hanging out' space. Instead it's become something of a dumping ground and all sorts of stuff has ended up there. In a rare moment, both DH and I agreed at the same time that something should be done. So we're getting rid of the three seater sofa. If we don't take it to the tip ourselves, we either have to pay for someone else to take it or book a collection from the council, which may or may not turn up and will mean that the sofa could be sitting outside in the garden for up to six weeks. Obviously we'd prefer to take it ourselves, but we have a small car and it's a big sofa. 

I suggested that we demolish the sofa and take it to the tip in pieces. DH had a gleam in his eyes as he agreed with me. So the provisional plan is that DH and bear will skin the sofa and knock it to pieces over the long weekend. However before I get to that, I need to clear the junk and general stuff that's been piled on the sofa for months and months. Most of it will end up in a logical place, some of it will no doubt be thrown or donated, and I want to have a look at what's behind there as it hasn't moved since we got it, back in 2007. 

But bear and DH can be manly together as they demolish a sofa and pin up a trellis, and that's worth gold. So tomorrow I need to clear the living room. And while I'm at it, I need to process a lot of veggies for the freezer as I'm taking shameless advantage of the Easter promotions and veggies are arriving tomorrow in quantity. When it comes to 15p for a kilo of carrots from Tesco, or even 4p if I went to Morrisons, I will absolutely buy what I can realistically use, but plan to use a lot. And I want to do a deep clean of the study, where we'll be hanging out over Easter. That is, when DH and bear aren't doing manly things.

One piece of joy - I found a box of purple Bic biros when I started clearing the living room. I love Bic biros, and I adore writing in purple, so this made me very happy!

My writing is terrible and I need to learn to take decent pictures - but I'm happy!

I haven't bothered about April Fool's posts today. These days it's hard to tell the difference between jokes and real life. 

The chances of me posting tomorrow are slim, but who knows. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Again Monday Again

I'm determined to catch up with the blogs, but it won't be today. I've been struggling with writing stuff, and, to be honest, I'm not sure if it's breakfast or Tuesday.

Bear is home for the Easter break! It's so good to see him, and he seems so relaxed being back here. We may be watching some Doctor Who episodes together later. I've missed him so much.

THINGS THAT REMINDED ME TO POST! Iceland, the supermarket, are offering 10% off instore to over 60s, which I qualify for. I plan to have a rummage as the prices there aren't too bad. Marks & Spencers apparently also do 10% off full price items for over 60s, but their full price is a lot higher than Iceland's full price, so I'm not quite so avid to test it. AND the stupidly cheap supermarket veg is back for Easter. Morrisons are advertising 4p for a kilo of carrots, but you have to have a More card. My soup stash may be getting topped up.

Most of those who can take advantage of these offers probably already know about it, but I thought that I'd share. 

I've managed some knitting. I've finished another hat and started a third.

And I tried a wire brush to clear the weeds in the garden. 

It was epically ineffective at my jungle and got clogged.

But I think that it will do better if I get the worst of the growth down and it just needs maintenance. I had a swipe with a shovel.

There's some work to do and I will be pointing bear in its direction.

Writing stuff - Last week's instalment from The Guest is here and this week's instalment is here. Tales from the White Hart should be out in ebook and paperback within the next three weeks if nothing else goes wrong. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Monday Again

Thank you for all the suggestions about using up bread. I had eggy bread aka French toast over the weekend and I very much enjoyed it, so that's on the list. I need to buy extra eggs. I'll also need them if I try the savoury bread pudding - I was thinking layers of bread and butter, intermingled with onions, crisped bacon and plenty of herbs. When I had a rummage on the internet, I found Yorkshire Savoury Pudding, which sounds amazing, though this bread isn't going to produce anything like soft white breadcrumbs. This bread is robust. It's tasty, but it's extremely substantial. 

I also plan to dig into the medieval tradition of trenchers. In England, in the Middle Ages, food was served on thick slices of coarse bread instead of plates. At the end of the meal, those pieces of bread were often given to the poor, as part of the Christian charity that was preached. The tradition has survived in the British meals of beans on toast, poached egg on toast, and scrambled egg on toast. I don't see why I shouldn't pour a portion of chili or ragu over a hearty slice of bread instead of over rice or pasta. I'd still get the carbs and plenty of fibre, reduce waste and, as long as no-one from Italy or Texas found out, it wouldn't hurt anyone. 

It's been windy here. 

That's the trellis with the honeysuckle that's blown over. Because of the way the street works, we rarely get wind and rain against the house, but weather blows down the street with an almost wind tunnel effect. As the honeysuckle is verdant enough and heavy enough, the strong winds have caused havoc. 

I took a quick and rather poor pic of how lush the honeysuckle was.

This year is the best it's been, but it blocks the wind, and so it's blown over. I thinned it out a little today, but I can only manage five or ten minutes at a time. I'll keep going at it. DH propped up the trellis with broom handles, and he'll fix it properly with bear when bear comes back for Easter. I think that I'm going to have to get rid of this particular honeysuckle, which may need dynamite as it's well rooted and been there for a while, and replace it with climbing annuals, like sweet peas. 

Speaking of bear, I had a lovely phone call with him and he got me an amazing gift.

He knows me so well!

Writing stuff - Today's instalment of The Guest is here. And if anyone would like to be an ARC reader for Tales from the White Hart, you can have a quick look at what's involved here. If you leave a way to contact you in the comments, which I won't publish, I'll be in touch. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Oh Crumbs!

I ought to do at least something other than writing and erratic napping, but not much is happening. The latest thing I ought to have done is make Carrot and Butter Bean Burgers from the Tesco Recipe site. The important thing about those burgers is that they use breadcrumbs. I need to use breadcrumbs. 

As you may know, I can't have gluten. It comes out in my skin and I'm going to skip the details because it's pretty gruesome. However, I've been cut off from 'normal' bread and I miss it bitterly. Most gluten free bread isn't good. I swear that the packaging in some brands is tastier than the alleged 'bread.' There are some nicer gluten free breads, but they are expensive. I don't indulge often. However there was an amazing deal at one point and I picked up a loaf of Promise Multigrain bread for something approaching a vaguely reasonable price. DH had a slice, as he felt like a piece of toast at the time and we didn't have any real bread in. I was a little worried as DH loves his bread and can be particular. I was right to worry, but not for the reasons I expected. DH loves the bread. I took a pic of a slice this evening.

I had it instead of pasta with my sort of stir fry thing of quorn chunks, green pepper, red pepper, onion, mushroom, peas and sweet and sour sauce. 

You see, at 7pm sharp, DH likes to have supper, and he prefers a couple of slices of toasted Promise Multigrain loaf with marmalade. The trouble with this loaf, though, is that the packaging is dreadful. It splits wildly when you open it up no matter what you do, the slices inside fall apart, and without careful management, it gets stale quickly. I'm desperate to use the stuff up, and I was scouting around for recipes with breadcrumbs. This recipe looked perfect. I've been meaning to make it all week, but... I don't like tinned carrots, which are a vital ingredient of the burger. I can substitute with cooked carrots, but they're not exactly my favourite either. I like carrots roasted with cumin and turmeric and last time I tried that, I nearly set the microwave on fire. 

So any suggestions for using up extremely expensive, dense, non-sweet stale bread that aren't too calorie heavy? And that are easy for someone to make who's mind is mainly elsewhere, because I'm still neck deep in writing stuff. All ideas gratefully recieved.

Writing stuff - Reminder - Kane will be disappearing from my writing blog at the end of tomorrow, hopefully to reappear as a book in the near future. I've written a post about ARC readers, or readers to review, on my writing blog here. The reason for that is a post on this blog, here, with the details near the bottom. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Explaining Some Writing Stuff, and Why Some Books are Amazon Only

Someone commented on Angela's kind post about buying Cats in the Bible from outlets other than Amazon. The short answer is that I'm working on it. The longer answer is rather more long-winded than I thought was good in a comment, so I thought that instead of doing something productive, I'd share what I know about it on here. Please don't take the information blindly, as I'm far from an expert, but I think it's a good start. And there's kind of a big thing at the bottom, which I've headed up with bold type so you can scroll down if you get bored of the cats.

First, here's a pic of a cat, as I can't bring myself to put the cover up again. 

Photo by Bogdan Farca on Unsplash

Which is a pose that Smudge often had as he checked up on us between spells of surveying the terrain outside the window.

Self-publishing has always been around, but it used to be expensive, back in the days when you used to have to pay for a bulk run of books on a physical press. With the rise of ebooks and what is known as 'print on demand,'  it's a lot easier. Now anyone can hop onto Amazon and publish anything for free. Amazon will help the author create a cover, assign an ISBN (the official identification that places like proper bookshops and libraries use to identify a book), and these days there is even a box that says 'there may be spelling and grammar mistakes, do you want to check?' Because Amazon got there early, it got a strong control of the self-publishing market. This can make it hard if you love books but aren't so keen on Amazon.

The biggest pull that Amazon has is Kindle Unlimited. For readers, you pay a monthly fee,  it's £9.49 in the UK, and you can read any of the ebooks enrolled on Kindle Unlimited for no further charge. And there are literally millions of books enrolled on there. There are similar schemes on Everand and Kobo, and no doubt others, plus many libraries lend ebooks, but Amazon is the big one. Authors get access to a big, dedicated readership, and in return get a slice of the income from Kindle Unlimited. For example, at the time of typing, someone read 9 page of Cats in the Bible today through Kindle Unlimited, and I will get a royalty payment of 3p. However, if I want my ebook to be in Kindle Unlimited, it can't be listed anywhere else. It's okay for paperbacks to be published in other places, but not ebooks. 

This isn't exciting, so I'm putting in another pic of a cat.

Photo by Timo Volz on Unsplash

It's not just boxes. While I've never met a cat that could resist a box, we once couldn't find Shadow and tried a different tactic. We put a sheet of paper on the floor, walked away, then came back ten minutes later to find her seated regally in the 'they used to worship us in Egypt' pose. 

I made the decision that I would enroll Cats in the Bible in Kindle Unlimited as it's a short, undemanding read, and a reader who didn't know me may not be willing to buy it, but may be willing to dip in if they subscribed to Kindle Unlimited. This means that the ebook is only available there. I also published it as a paperback on Amazon and on another site called Draft2Digital. You can't buy directly from Draft2Digital but they distribute to places like Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and Gardners - places where people who buy books from somewhere not Amazon can go and order a book. 

Draft2Digital is a great site, but I found parts of it confusing, including where the fluff I needed to look to see where the book was available. I'm still working on it, but you can buy a paperback copy of Cats in the Bible online at Walmart (here), Bokus (a Swedish company here) and Saxo (a Danish company here). 

I'm finding it somewhat bewildering, so I need another cat pic. 

Photo by Roman on Unsplash 

Anyone who has said 'don't let the cat out of the bag' has obviously never tried to keep a cat from diving into a handbag/suitcase/carrier/tote to investigate and/or steal something.

I'll get in touch with Draft2Digital and see if I can work out where else the dratted thing may have ended up. I know that other shops have got Out of the London Mist from there, so Cats in the Bible should end up with a wider distribution at some point - I hope!

ARC Readers - ARC readers are people who get a free copy of a book and in return leave an honest review in places like their blog or sites like Amazon. I approached a few people from here for Cats in the Bible, and I was so grateful for their kind response.

In the next month, I will be publishing Tales of the White Hart. It's the second edition, but it's been dusted down, spruced up and rigorously edited. It's been removed from blogs and websites, is ready to be unleashed once more on Amazon and the wider web, and I'm looking for ARC Readers for it. I've written about ARC Readers and what can be involved on my writing blog here. If you've not come across it so far, it's a full length urban fantasy/paranormal romance, with plenty of vampires and werewolves. and a little dash of magic. It's set in York, England, and if you're interested, please leave a comment (which I won't publish) with a way of contacting you online and I'll be in touch. This is the provisional blurb:

When Fiona Greene saved the life of an ancient elfen, Kadogan, he asked her heart's desire. Exactly 100 days later Fiona found herself opening up 'The White Hart,' a shop in a converted pub that sold handcrafted cards, exquisite gift wrap and a range of merchandise aimed at werewolves, vampires and the rest of the non-normal community. What could go wrong? Lots could go wrong. They had a Tarot reader that didn't believe in Tarot cards, a werewolf who had been thrown out of his pack as their warehouse manager and the redoubtable Mrs Tuesday coming to stay. Fiona could deal with all that, but she wasn't happy about the attempts to pair her up with Steve Adderson, salesperson to the non-normal domains and magician. Then the staff at the White Hart found themselves in the middle of a dark power struggle and suddenly her romance had to take a back seat. A Paranormal Romance set in the beautiful and ancient city of York 

And if you've made it all the way down the page, you deserve a medal!

Hugs and good health to all. 

Nearly Asleep

I'm waking up and falling asleep erratically, so I thought that I'd post quickly while I'm still awake. 

I've been working at writing stuff between naps, so I've not much to share. I've nothing to show. So I made this in Canva. 

And it's true. I took a blurred pic of some buds on Saturday, and the evidence of Spring is bringing me joy.

It's the lilac, and I think that it's looking good. I'll get a better pic later.

Writing stuff - Yesterday I posted the latest from The Guest, here. There are a lot of chapters cued up to post automatically, and I keep forgetting to look on there. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

While I'm Awake

I was going to post yesterday, but I fell asleep. I'm about to fall asleep again, so I'm dashing in while I can.

I managed to leave the house yesterday and when I called into Aldi, they still had the duvet cover that I wanted so I picked that up.

I'm a sucker for blue and white, especially this shade of blue. Yes, it is for a king sized duvet. Yes, I have a single bed. Yes, I have issues. It was a wonderfully inexpensive £14.99 and I'm happy. I'll keep an eye out for when they have duvets on sale next.

Bear called and he has a cough. I know that it's just a little thing, and he's really doing fine, but I worry. If anyone has any tips on dealing with the worry, I'd be grateful. Bear is far more sensible than I have ever been, and I know that he'll be okay. It's just that he's so far away. 

As I have mentioned, the house next door but one was empty. Yesterday, on my way out, I saw signs of habitation with lights on behind closed curtains. I haven't seen any actual occupants yet, but DH spotted a couple of police officers knocking on the door this evening, so I'm keeping a curious eye out. 

Writing stuff - and why I should have posted yesterday. I re-posted an article about research - Location and the Lost City. I really need to re-read The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle and Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Though Tarzan is absolutely not correct on... evolution, women, class systems, the French... Perhaps I should look at other stuff. Tomorrow I take down all of the White Hart stuff and for a last look you can find it here, here, here, and here. 

Hugs and good health to all.

I Did Stuff!

I finished the first hat for Lent and cast on a second.

And I only had a tiny scrap over. I've decided to save the scraps and eventually they will end up in an extremely ugly blanket. I'm not saving the tiny ends, but a few yards, or metres, left over. 

My stomach is still happy settling for toast. We had marinaded chicken last night and I think that I should have cooked it a little longer. It was far from raw, but it just didn't settle in me. It tasted amazing, and I hope that I can recreate the recipe. It had honey, soy sauce, olive oil, lemon, garlic powder, oregano, pepper, and worcestershire sauce. It was supposed to be honey and mustard, but the mustard looked off and so I looked for another recipe, which was delicious but I found it by searching on my phone and I immediately lost it. I'll have to look again. It was a nice change from our usual dinners. 

I've made the most of sitting carefully, and I hope to keep going with the knitting. It would be great to reduce the stash and help seafarers at the same time. 

I feel like the weekend has been incredibly busy, but I can't remember doing much. As my stomach was tender, I haven't gone anywhere. It's calming down, now, so perhaps I can get out tomorrow.

Writing stuff - my paperback copy of Cats in the Bible arrived!

And the latest instalment from the Guest is on my writing blog here.

One of the things that filled up my weekend was formatting. I'm republishing The White Hart and, after a long think about it, I'm going to have to take down all of the posts on my blog and Royal Road. If you want to have a read before they get removed this Friday, the story on the Royal Road is here and that is the first three big stories. The big story on the blog has two halves, the first one is here and the second one is here. There are also collected short stories here. 

When they go, along with all the stories with Kane which will disappear on the 13th March, my writing blog is going to look very thin indeed. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

A Pint of Milk

I've not been doing much at all for the last few days, as I ate something that didn't agree with me. I stayed very close to the bathroom, and stuck to writing stuff and feeling sorry for myself. 

I have a pint of cow's milk in my fridge. Bear isn't a fan of the almond milk that I drink, and I don't usually have soy. Dairy makes me poorly, and I've had enough of that this week, and it doesn't really agree with DH either. So I got in the smallest practical unit for bear, because he likes cereal with either cow's milk or soy milk for breakfast. To the surpise of no-one, he didn't even open the carton. 

I'm frustrated by this, because now it's going to waste. If it was what I would consider normal times, I could offer it to a neighbour, preferably before it reached its 'use-by' date. However I hear the rows coming from the neighbours at the back, so I don't have the courage to knock there. Next door to the side never answers their door. They're lovely people and don't cause any fuss, but they never, ever open the door to knocking. Next door to that is empty and next door to that is someone where I can't say anything good, so I'm not saying anything at all. 

There are no houses in front of us. This is an old pic, but shows that the only ones that may be able to use up the milk are rats.

There are some young men doing thing with cars to the left of this picture, but after they abandoned a car in the middle of the street, and ignored us when we politely asked them to move it so that we could get deliveries, then we called the car in as abandoned after a few months, I don't think that we're on those sorts of terms. 

I'm annoyed at myself as I should have seen this coming and I hate the waste. Next time, I'll ask him to pick up milk for himself and I'll give him the money for it.

In other shopping news, I bought a packet of Overnight Oats. I've been making overnight oats for bear for ages. I used to get the tubs set up for him to pick up in the morning and he'd eat them when he got to college. It was just oats, chia seeds, almond milk (and he didn't complain about it then!), something like honey or agave sweetener, and cinnamon and he was fine with it. This had extra things like vitamins and stuff, though, and I picked it up on Tuesday in a moment of weakness. I feel a fool. I've spent far too much on what was described as overnight oats, but is also describe as instant overnight oats, ready in 3 minutes.

How can overnight oats be ready in 3 minutes? Doesn't it make them instant oats that can also be made the night before? I'll go back to the usual way after I've finished this packet. 

Writing stuff - I've finished the first round of editing on the complete White Hart collection. DH is checking it, but that's going to take some time. Then I'll check his edits, format, and attempt to publish. I should, in theory, be okay for the ebook, but it's pushing against the limits of the print book. It may not be possible. I'm going to have to work on this. Over a quarter of a million words takes up some space.

While that's going on in the background, I'm also collating the stories of Kane. I'll be adding a couple more new stories and I'll publish the collection at the same time as a separate novella that I'm working on. Because of the way that Amazon works, I'm going to have to take down all the Kane stories that are currently on my blog. I'll be doing that after Friday 13th March, which is as good a date as any when you're talking about ghost stories. I daren't post plans, as they never work out if I mention them aloud, but the collection of stories plus new novella should be along shortly after that. Please wish me luck. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Went Out

Today has been quiet. I spent a lot of time on writing stuff and I chopped up four punnets of mushrooms that had been on an excellent offer for the freezer. 

I haven't driven since early January. I hurt my shoulder, and then, when it was feeling a little better, I found the thought of it overwhelming. However, DH needs salad for tomorrow and I'm running a little low on the flavoured water that he likes, so I decided to go to Tesco. As I knew that I wouldn't be confident driving, I waited until it was late and the roads should be quiet before setting off.

I found it tough, I'll be honest. I was out of practice and feeling nervous, but I did it! I drove safely there, though it took me a few minutes to get up to speed. There was a reason that I didn't go out when it was busy. I didn't want to be a hazard. I nearly forgot to take a pic to prove that I'd been out, but I remembered on my way out, and I took a pic of houseplants that looked amazing and that I had no intention of buying.

I intend to go out again tomorrow, and again go out late. There is an Aldi which is around ten miles away from us. They have the habit of putting out Thursday's special buys late on Wednesday. I have my eye on the bedding, as mine is wearing out and I kind of like the blue stripes that are advertised on the website. It won't be a great hardship if I can't get any, as there are ruffles and I'm never 100% behind ruffles, but it's also a great reason to get me moving out and about. 

I hope that I'll have something interesting to post tomorrow. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Feeling Good

We had a wonderful weekend when bear came home. It was wonderful to see him. He looked happy and healthy, though tired, and he was so relaxed with us. DH and I were thrilled. We had gathered together a care package, with some treats like hot sauce and biscuits, and he took what he could carry back with him and we posted the rest for him to collect on campus. He said that he really appreciated the goodies and the thought, and it was a boost as he was studying. 

Other good news is a quote about repairing our roof. There's a few slates missing, and we have been told it's £200, not the £1,200 that the man who knocked on the door quoted. I suspect that we'll have some more repairs in the near future as our roof is quite old, but we'll wait and see what happens. 

This blog is incredibly useful sometimes. I didn't have a sensible pic for today, so I thought that I would crack on with a project that I've been meaning to tackle. I only had a short amount of time, but I dug out the smaller lucet and the brown twine. If you remember, I had a basket where I'd added cord handles with the cord made by the lucet. The post is here.

So far, the cord that I hope to use as a replacement looks like this.

Knowing that I ought to do something for the blog spurred me on, and I hope to finish off at least one handle by tomorrow. 

Writing stuff - Apart from working on the White Hart, I can confirm that the paperback is now available for Cats in the Bible, if you are interested. There is also this week's instalment of the Guest on my writing blog here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I'm sorry. I just realised that there were ads on here. I've closed down the account, and I didn't make any money from it. I apologise for not noticing it sooner. I want to make money, but I don't feel comfortable putting adverts here. I was aiming for my writing blog, but I couldn't get it to work. I'll see if bear can help me over the summer. 

And speaking of bear, he is home! He's visiting some friends tomorrow as they're doing things for their birthdays. We get to see him tonight, briefly tomorrow and then first thing Sunday morning. It's been wonderful to see him. He may be able to take the goodies from his care parcel back with him on the coach, as I only got the last lot a day or two ago and thought I would wait and see if it all suited him. It's so good to see him. We had a chance to hang out before he went to bed, and it was great. He looked tired, though. 

I've not got much to show as I've been working with writing stuff all day. It feels like my brain is leaking out of my ears. However, after much battle, Cats in the Bible is available as an ebook on Amazon, and print books should follow within the next ten days. 

I'm bunging a lot of writing stuff in the post here, because it feels all mixed up to me. DH and I are not getting any younger, and we want to help bear with university costs. We have a leaking roof, a leaking floor, extremely elderly wiring and a kitchen that was far from new when we got here in 1994 and is falling to pieces. The car has done sterling service, but the garage have been gently suggesting that it's time to replace her for some time. Therefore I've decided to monetise as much of my writing as I can. A lot of material from my writing blog is likely to disappear from there and go into some form of book. I'll share when and if it happens, but be aware that chunks may vanish. With that and the new stuff I'm working on, most of my blog is likely to be writing stuff. I still plan to look for joy, and I'm sure that I'll manage some pics, including the knitting. I think I need to do a few rows every day for sanity's sake. Mind you, now that I've said that I'm going to do something, the odds of it happening are greatly reduced! 

I've no sensible pics as I've been armpit deep in messing around with text, so in honour of the new book, I'm adding some cat pics from Unsplash. 

Photo by Loan on Unsplash

This made me smile. And this reminded me of evil cat when she was planning theft.

Photo by Leonid Privalov on Unsplash

And a tune that made me smile - AI cats singing country music.

There's a lot of AI cat music going on, and while some are significantly better than others, there are plenty that cheer me up. 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more interesting things to write about. 

Hugs and good health to all.