Typing The End

It finally happened.  That great moment in a writer's life when you actually type those words you never thought you would write - The End.

Now I know I have written a Mills and Boon book and must have typed those words, but writing my proper novel - Changing Altitude was very much a labour of love and when I finally finished on Thursday it was a great feeling.

So here's to writing The End.

So here's to typing The End.

 

New Year Poem

A Hint of Promise by Vanessa Woolley

 

The open window lets the new air in

Running like a river through my lungs,

Starting the day, the year, with a hint of promise.

 

Outside the sky is slate grey

And the air damp

Nothing seems different or new

Yet it is somehow

As if all the things we said and did a day ago

Are long gone

Replaced with exact replicas

And just a hint of promise.

 

The rubbish trucks rumble along pot holed lanes

Collecting festive rubbish

Strands of tinsel and party poppers hang from fences

Like party guests who outstayed their welcome.

And, sitting on a window sill in a small porcelain bowl,

A purple flower protrudes upwards

As if it had been waiting for this exact moment and time to arrive

With a hint of promise.

 

Vanessa Woolley, January 2013

Keyboard banging, Christmas,Snow and January Blues, Camel rides in the desert and now I'm back!

Yes - it's true - I am finally back after an absence of a three months or so.  But - the good news is that as promised (and this is a writing blob), I did write a novel in that time.  Well, I am two chapters short of the end, but who's counting?  "Changing Altitude" is a novel about coming to terms with grief and finding friendship in the process.  I am so glad it is finally a piece of finished work and not just ideas floating about in my head.

 

So by the 10th December, I got up to 65,000 words with six or so chapters to go, and then the thing called Christmas kind of got in the way.  And then came the snow...  Sure everyone was back at work and school and I could have holed myself up and finished the book, but sadly the January blues attacked.  This is probably the worst thing for a writer.  So by the end of January, the book was still six chapters short of being finished.  And then, in early February, inspiration struck (or maybe it was the mental kick I gave myself).

 

Anyway, half term was looming so I gave myself the deadline of Valentine's Day to finish the damn book.

 

15,000 words later it was done - well, except for the last three chapters which are planned and ready to write. 

So dear reader - despite my apparent lack of blogging stamina, I was doing something useful.

And as for camels in the desert - well:

There's a man child in the house

Oh my god.  Just realised that there really is a man child in the house.  Yes - that's right, Eldest Son is kind of a mixture of lodger and relative, who, aged 18, manages to live in the house with us, but not quite with us.  His room has morphed from being a teenage swamp to a man sized swamp.  How did this happen?  I am sure I am too young.  Now it has become harder to convince him to live in some semblance of order.  Apparently he can do it all himself.  Which is fine providing I don't have to see what it is he does.

Box Set Mania

The autumn nights are drawing in and winter is on its way.  It’s time to close the curtains, batten down the hatches and watch TV.  Hooray for box sets.  They solve the problems of the world in ten easy episodes all watched (if you want) back to back with no interruptions.  No waiting a whole week for the next episode. No daydreaming at work day wondering who the murder is or if a certain ex-marine was finally about to be revealed as a traitor.

Absent Husband and I discovered box sets over the dismal summer. (Obviously this was before the Olympics started).  We bought the entire series of three different shows we missed when they were on TV originally.  We became obsessed and often watched multiple episodes into the early hours.  Eldest Son came home from a party to find us in the same position on the sofa where he had left us six hours earlier.

The trouble is that they have ruined me for real time episodes.  I no longer want to wait until next week.  I get annoyed with the 168 hours in between.  I can’t be left like this, hanging on a cliff for seven days.

I was going to write my recent column in The Advertiser about the conflicting parenting advice going around at the moment.  Some parents are of the hands on variety and others are the opposite.   But in the end I was too busy watching a box set.  I must be of the opposite then.    So consequently my column became one about the glories of box sets instead.

 

One word of warning though - don't watch Danish box sets when jet lagged.  It's quite tricky to read subtitles when you are dropping off to sleep.  However, if you suffer from insomnia, this could well be a good way of putting you to sleep.

 

 

But there is still the laundry to do...

It's back to the grind.... and 18th birthdays and University applications. I'm tired already.

September came with a bout of hot weather.  Hooray - an Indian summer.  However, this only lasted a week or so and we were soon into Autumn splashes and storms.    Alex managed to look pretty cool at his prize giving too, dressed in a frock in his senior prefect garb.

Luckily for Alex, it was sunny for his 18th birthday party and we were able to throw the animals (sorry) guests out into the garden:

Andrew started his new job in mid September and I am only just getting used to the alarm going off at the ridiculous time of 05.59.  What is the point of 05.59?  What's wrong with 06.30?  It's so dark at the moment in the morning that it is hard to actually force myself out of bed.

September also means that it is back to the grind of sport.  Hockey and rugby feature prominently this term and Alex has jumped up with much enthusiasm:

He's the number 6 jumping right up.

The university applications have gone off and so now is the time to cut my nails so that I can't chew them down to the quick.

Next month brings NaNowWrimo for me.  What the heck is that you ask?  It's time for me to dedicate a whole month to writing a novel.  Only this time I can do it with the support of millions of others who have signed up too.  The story is planned and researched - I just need to get on with it.  Hmm only 80,000 words or so to do.

So, my dear Blog we are now square and up to date.  Although I will be NaNoing next month, I promise to pay you a visit.

Watch this space...