I’ve been working through the prep days for NaNoWriMo, trying to do everything in a certain order. Because I’ve decided on The Beast Within, much of the character work is already done, and the book is semi-outlined all the way through. So I’ve just been reading through all of that to refresh my memory, and adding…
NaNoWriMo: And the winner is …
Today should have been NaNoWriMo Prep: Day 2. But after a long weekend, and with NaNoWriMo looming only this weekend, I had quite a lot of admin work to do. First of all I had to tidy up my online calendar. I had to mark as done all of my usual jobs and chores for the…
NaNoWriMo Prep: Day 1
NaNoWriMo would not be the same without the participant badge and every year, in case you hadn’t noticed, I do like to display said badge. So, here it is. I really like this year’s. I like the colours. The other imagery that I like to do for NaNo is to create a book cover. NaNo…
Tier 3 lockdown
Here is another image from our walk around Hatfield Moor last week. I love that blue glow on the water. It makes it look like some kind of grotto, or as though something magical may emerge at any moment. As South Yorkshire enters tier 3 lockdown on Saturday, we may be taking a few more…
Back to novelling
I am such a tease, knowing that the title will irk at least a couple of my friends when they see it! I can hear them now complaining about the “novelling” verb. 😱 The above picture is yet another view of Hatfield Moor. We couldn’t get across to this part as there’s a massive dyke…
Indexing
Today, I am doing the index for The Life of Richard Cadbury. The one job I dislike the most about writing is the indexing. So, for now, I leave you with another image from our “fungi walk” at the weekend. See you on the other side! (If I make it.) (Send chocolate!)
Technical issues
Here is another view from Hatfield Moor. The peat moors are quite ancient and this is part of what they call the Neolithic Way. These little paths wind all over the moors in a circular pattern, with varying walks of different lengths. Because of the nature of the site – it is after all peat…
Tier 2 lockdown
Wahey! I finally found out how to place a picture where I want it instead of where WP thinks I want it! And how to resize it too! I’m on a roll. 🤪 Our walk on Sunday turned into a bit of a fungi walk, and here’s just one example that we encountered. Isn’t he…
Hatfield Moor
WordPress was having a bit of a hissy fit today. First of all, it wouldn’t let me create or edit a post in Edge, and then it wouldn’t let me preview a post in Opera or Edge. However, as I pay for the personal plan, I was able to contact support and they seem to…
This week, Matthew, I’m going to be a novelist …
This 3D picture of Mr Punch has been on many of my phones for a very long time. I found him on an artist’s website, and I remember being very impressed with her work – and I’m sure the artist was a she. He first appeared on my blog when it was over on Blogger….
Again, I write
The picture shows my current workstation. The lectern on the left currently holds some notes for Catch the Rainbow. These notes relate to the arrests of the Birmingham Six on the night of the Birmingham pub bombings. I think I got the information from Hansard or somewhere like that, as they are the men’s statements….
Today, I am a writer
I had a bit of a strange experience yesterday. I’m admin on a Facebook group, the Seriously Serious Scribes, and last week I set off two new daily threads for October. All was working well, until on Sunday, I was seeing notifications for one of the threads, but I couldn’t see the thread. I checked…
One job at a time
I don’t have any pictures to hand today, and I don’t have time to sort one out. So here’s one courtesy of Pixabay. Today I am not a happy bunny as WordPress have finally taken the classic editor off the WP admin posts page. Perhaps it’s an October thing. It’s not all bad, as there’s…
Coming soon! + Links galore!
My book, The Life of Richard Cadbury, is due to be released on 30 November. The book is available for pre-order from Pen & Sword Books and from Amazon UK. It’s also on Hive in the UK. And at Waterstones! Marketing & admin I started the day yesterday with some marketing (I was searching for the…
Writing and proofreading and indexing, oh my!
The River Torne is a river the poet used to fish when ‘e worra lad (when he was a young man). In those days, the lads used to wait until the river had been dredged, usually around September time, and the reeds and weeds removed from the edges. Apparently, that was the best time to…
Writing with gay abandon
I managed to hit my desk by 9am yesterday morning, so that’s something. We’ll ignore the fact that I then went to get dressed … At least the garden wasn’t swarming with work people by the time I was ready to start work … ha! Famous last words … I’m trying to share some pictures…
And she’s off … well, sort of …
Yesterday didn’t start as planned and by the time I settled down to work, it was almost time to start the ghostwriting gig. Scrivener I’d already tried and failed to open the Scrivener file for this work on Sunday. I’ve reinstalled Scrivener to my computer and I failed to copy across the templates I’ve generated…
As busy as a bee 🐝
Image by chezbeate from Pixabay After watching the weather, the poet decided to go fishing on Friday. So I put together an editing bag and took the work with me that came in on Thursday morning. By the end of the afternoon, I’d finished the hard-copy edits. By the time we got home, a new…
Broadening horizons
(Image by Lenka Novotná from Pixabay) I’ve been umming and ahhing for well over a year about turning my hand to ghostwriting. Of course, much of my B2B and SEO work is ghostwriting. I don’t get to add my name to it and I have no future claim over it. (I keep copyright on work…
Oops, forgot to give it a title!
Dog walk The dog and I once again attempted to find the circular path the three-legged dog and its humans had used, this time armed with the poet. Last week, it was just the dog and me, and I gave up and turned around when I thought the path between the houses and the old…
