I Still Got Lost!

I took bear to the hospital appointment today. The appointment itself was fairly straightforward. There will be a follow-up, neatly timed for when bear is getting back to school. 

I'm dreading bear going back to school. It's going to be tough. He was shattered today, so I don't know what it's going to be like transitioning to school. Needs must, however, and he is a lot better than he was.

Travelling there was okay. I remembered a lot of the lane changes and got in the right place at the right time. It was still incredibly difficult and I found it a real struggle. Then going back we got lost again. Fortunately it wasn't quite as wildly crazy as I managed yesterday, but it took us a lot longer to get back than to go there. At one point I was following the signs for Dewsbury, which is around ten miles from our house but I know how to get home from there.

I'm absolutely shattered by the driving, so I'll be going out on an adventure tomorrow, just to practice driving somewhere.

Writing stuff - I am completely, totally, utterly thrilled to have a taster from Out of the London Mist featured in the Steampunk Journal! I am so excited. It's a big deal for me. You can read it here. Just 15 days to the release date!

Hugs and good health to all. 

Another Adventure

Sharon - using cash at the garage was the first time I've used cash since around March! During the Middle Ages, when plague was around, they used to leave their coins in little pots of vinegar. There is a stone with a little dip in at York. That's where the farmers used to bring food to the city during times of plague, and the city dwellers used to leave the payment in vinegar in those hollows. I found this 

Bear has a hospital appointment at Seacroft Hospital tomorrow, and it's somewhere I don't know. In fact, it's on the way to York, on the A64 and that is a road I have never successfully reached. I've always got baffled in Leeds Centre, ended up in the wrong lane and finished up on the opposite side of the city. 

I tried a trial run today. I programmed my sat nav and set off. I knew it was going to be tricky as there are roadworks everywhere! I couldn't follow all of the directions as the road was closed or that turn wasn't permitted at that junction and always I was watching out for the unfamiliar speed limits and lane changes. And of course there are loads of lane changes. I was terrified.

I got to the hospital okay. There were a few moments when I felt like giving up, but I managed. I didn't stop at the hospital except for a brief pause to change my sat nav to get home, and I still have no idea how I am going to park, especially as bear can't walk far, but I'll worry about that tomorrow.

Going home was different. I got splendidly, magnificently, gloriously lost. I went all over the place! I have to confess, I was a large part of the problem. I missed a couple of exits because I was in the wrong lane (there were a lot of inner ring road dual carriageways and I was getting bewildered), but there was one stupendous moment when the sat nav took me to a junction where not only was the road closed, but I wasn't allowed down there anyway! I may have used harsh language and the three point turn I had to do when surrounded by shoppers really didn't help.

Since then I've been busy with writing stuff, and then my brother came around to have a look at bear's computer, which has been playing up. It was very odd, doing all the social distancing and using phones and shouted instructions. 

Writing stuff - the writing challenge reminded me so much of an old story that I couldn't think of a new one, so I copied it over. You can find it here.

Hugs and good health to all.

Keeping Fingers Crossed

Something odd happened while I was trying to get money out of the ATM, and I'm still not sure what. I spent quite a while sitting in Tesco car park and trying to navigate the bank's phone systems to check. It's probably nothing, but I've logged it with the bank and I'm watching the account like a hawk.

This threw me more off balance than usual on a Monday, but I managed to get stuff in for the rest of the week. I can call in and use the ATM another time. The garage only takes cash, and I'll need it for all the paintwork sorting.

Bless - I'm glad I reminded you. The MOT is a check to see if the car is fit for the road. According to one firm, here, the MOT includes checks on lights, battery, horn (wouldn't know about that - I hardly ever use it!), electrics, steering, suspension, brakes, tyres, seat belts, bodywork, exhaust, mirrors, wipers and windscreen. It has to be done every year on any car more than three years old and you are in big trouble if you let it lapse. Dishonest garages find all sorts of faults. This garage seems a sweetie, and red passed just fine.

The rest of the day I've been trying to catch up with writing stuff. It's going medium.

btw, there are reports of the Black Death rising again in the East. Apparently one person has caught it. It's just what with fires, floods and covid-19, we're all feeling a little twitchy. It isn't something you should treat lightly, but it's okay not to worry about it too much. On the one hand, it's endemic anyway and Madagascar has a hundred or so deaths from Bubonic Plague every year. There are usually a handful of cases in the USA and cases also pop up in central Africa, Mongolia and South America. On the other hand, I don't like to tempt fate, and this year has been difficult, but it's not the same as it was in the Middle Ages. Hygiene and pest control are very different and very few people are exposed to rat fleas the same way (I believe most of the cases in the US come from people disturbing prairie dog burrows or coming into contact with infected squirrels). Besides, unlike Covid-19, there is a cure for the Bubonic Plague. It's a bacteria that is easily treated by antibiotics if it is caught early enough. There are lots of things going on to worry about. Please do not worry about Bubonic Plague. It's very, very unlikely to have any impact on us at all. 

Writing stuff - this week's writing challenge is here. All are welcome to have a go! 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Could be Worse

Happy Canada Day (late but very sincerely meant) and Happy Independence Day to all those from across the pond who are reading this. 

My little car, red, passed the MOT without a problem. She also had a service and the very nice man checked the gear stick and said he didn't understand, it looked fine. Later, in Tesco car park, I couldn't get it into reverse again. I think it's going to be one of those little quirks.

It's going to cost a fortune to get the scratches out. I'm not sure what happened. The damage to the other car was incredibly hard to spot, but I have gouges. I think something else has happened, but I couldn't tell you what. 

After I picked up the car, I went for a drive. I need to drive much more. I drove around forty miles, but I am losing confidence and I need to take bear to a strange hospital on Wednesday. I'm really nervous about that as the roadworks in Leeds caused issues for DH who has been dealing with Leeds city centre for years, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do. Besides, it's on a road which I have consistently failed to reach. Last time I tried, I ended up the other side of Leeds as a truly epic fail. I'm planning a trial run on Tuesday, but conditions change. 

I've also been considering a bird table. I'm not sure about it as there are a lot of birds, which I would love to watch, but every time I look at bird food I keep finding references to meal worms. I'm not up for that at this stage. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Another Day, Another Fail

Patti and Ann - thank you! And a massive thank you to all who have pre-ordered. I keep getting interrupted as I'm writing posts, so I miss out on saying thank you. I really am grateful, not just because people have bought books, but because of the amazing support. It really means a lot.

I completely failed to get the plants in today. To be fair, it felt like hurricane conditions with lots of wind and rain. I'll have to get them in tomorrow regardless (if they are still alive), and I'll start after I've dropped the car off for a service and MOT.

Poor car - it feels all bunged up, the gear stick keeps sticking in reverse and there are all the scratches. I'm hoping it isn't too expensive.

Dinner was mince with mushrooms and baked potatoes. It's the wrong time of year for baked potatoes really, but it feels too cold for new potatoes. As it was, the package labelled 'Four Baking Potatoes' had five small old potatoes in it, but they were nice enough. I did the microwave jam sponge again. The men seem to like it. 

Lots and lots of writing today, which kept me busy, and I've a lot to do tomorrow as well. I'm loving it. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Failure to Garden

I've got a load of plants that I daren't put out in the garden in case they are swept away in the water. The rain is pretty relentless. Regardless, if it doesn't ease up soon, I'm going to have to plant them in the rain. The garden looks pretty poor, but given the sort of year I've had so far, I'll take it.

I had another telephone call about bear's health today. This time it was sorting out specialists. It was about something we had forgotten about, which is sort of a relief. Bear is doing okay, but he's not always taking codeine when he could, which is sort of worrying and sort of reassuring. 

Today is Thursday. I have to remind myself of that on a regular basis. I have tried to establish that I go out and do my own thing on a Thursday, but it feels a little inappropriate with the all the restrictions around. I'm trying to push my comfort zone, though, so I went to an Aldi that I hadn't visited before and that is tricky to get to on the more usual routes. I managed it! I also think I'll be going there more as it's nearer than the one I usually go to, it's much bigger with a bigger car park, I also go past a Lidl and a very nice farm shop and it's good for me to get the driving practice. 

I picked up some good stuff. Tonight we had roast tomato and vegetable soup with cumin and tumeric. It was spicier than I expected, but I got some large bags of spices from the world food aisle, and I think they are fresher and have more vigour than the little jars. It helped warm me up, but I still feel like I should put the central heating on. Tomorrow is looking like it could have curry.

Writing stuff - lots and lots of writing stuff! Some extremely lovely people are helping me out and I should be getting another interview published within a week, which is amazing! I'll like to what comes out, but it's someone very involved in the steampunk world, so I feel somewhat overawed (even though she is awesome!). So I'm doing my best to get things perfect, and link things together and check things and I have far too many tabs open.

For those interested, I've self published the story that got me entangled in Steampunk, Deepest Desire, the tale of a gallant aether pilot and his adventure in the Balkans on the edge of the Ottoman Empire. All the details are on my writing blog, here, with a little background on how I came to write it and links to the ebook on Amazon where it should be less than £1 and to Booksprout, where you can pick up an ebook review copy for free. I think my writing blog is going to become very busy, so I may just link to it more. 

Hugs and good health to all.

So Far, So Busy

Thank you for the kind wishes - gratefully received.

I wish I was a better cook. Or, rather, I wish I cared more about cooking. I've just dumped some chicken in a jar of sweet and sour sauce and bunged it in the oven (okay, added some onion and frozen peas, but not exactly cooking), and set some rice in the rice cooker. I have a bought apple pie for dessert. It is a fail. 

If I could make myself interested, I'm sure I'd be able to make something nicer, and less expensive! Instead I feel very inadequate and overwhelmed. Bear and DH seem happy enough, but I wonder how hard it can be to make my own sweet and sour sauce. Then I start wondering if I can make sweet and sour sauce for under 80p, or the cost of the Tesco own brand sauce, and then I wonder if mine would be significantly healthier, and then I consider breaded chicken and oven baked potato products for dinner next time. Or possibly beans on toast.

The recurring trouble is that if I try to make any sort of plan for dinner, something happens. I've found I have a much better chance of success if I don't mention what I am cooking until the last minute. The men usually enjoy it thoroughly. Of course, random stuff happens, like backing cars into other cars in car parks, or unexpected phone calls from physios that I took today in the middle of the supermarket. I ended up coming home with an even more random assortment than usual. I also forgot the polenta, which I had hoped to use in a cake. 

I've got a lot of writing stuff going on. While I was struggling with various programmes, I had some herbs delivered. I had ordered plants online and they came today. I'm not sure to water them in when I plant them or hope that they don't float away by themselves in all the rain that we've been having. I was very disappointed in the coriander plants, although I'm not as worried about slugs eating them. They'd have to find them first, and that would be a challenge. 

And I can't find my phone. 

And Microsoft bounced the story I sent to a magazine and I didn't get the notification until after submissions closed. 

And I may have had too much caffeine.

Writing stuff - this may be the reason I have had too much caffeine. As I may have mentioned a gazillion times, I have a novel coming out on 23 July, Out of the London Mist. Today I've been interviewed by the Three Furies Press, and you can read the interview here. 

I've also been working on publicity for the book. One of the ideas is to publish the short(ish) story that started all the steampunk writing, Deepest Desire, and use it as a teaser. So far today I have designed a cover, tried to remember what to put about copyright, and I've uploaded it to Amazon for 99c, or around 85p. It isn't showing yet, and there may be snags, but hopefully it will turn up. However I should be able to make it a giveawy later, with Booksprout. Booksprout is a site where you can follow authors who will often give away advanced copies of their books in exchange for a review. If you have a favourite author, it may be worth following them on there. It's no use looking for me at this moment, though, as I'm still working it out. I should be able to give away Deepest Desire, the prequel to Out of the London Mist, free to anyone who would like it as a promotion. Reviews would be kind, but I'm just grateful that anyone would like to read what I write. 

Part of the rising stress levels here is that I need to convert the files from doc to other types of file like epub and mobi. I have been here before. It is apparently incredibly easy to do this using a number of different programmes. I fail at these programmes. I have consumed my own considerable bodyweight in caffeine. It isn't becoming clearer. I'll share when I have more.

Hugs and good health to all.