Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
A massive thank you to all who sent me birthday wishes on Tuesday. Much of the day was spent acknowledging and thanking people individually.
Unfortunately, I had work to do, and we’re still in a semi-lockdown, so any birthday trips or outings are something to look forward to once we’re allowed out again.
Tuesday
The first job of the day was an hour of date work. However, as I get into the swing of it, I can now manage to research a week’s worth of dates in less than an hour, so that gives me time to have a tea break too.
The next job was to finish transferring everything in my notebook to the Scrivener file for The Beast Within. I’m now up to date with this and I added an additional 1,600 words to the planning part. I’m still fleshing out the outline for Act 1, but I had to leave it there.
Incidentally, the image above is very similar to one I’ve chosen for the cover of Snowblind: a Marcie Craig mystery. This third book in the whole series, but the second book in the current trilogy, is alluded to in The Beast Within, the first and current book I’m working on in the current trilogy.
Perhaps the pic popping up in the search for this blog post illustration is a sign …
I didn’t have any time to work on the writers’ guide as the birthday acknowledgements took up a lot of time. So I had to pass on that one again.
The first job of the afternoon was setting up the Scrivener binder for the new ghostwriting sample chapter. Only I didn’t just stick at a sample chapter. I created an entire template for a cosy mystery … oh, did I not mention that this one’s a contemporary cosy mystery?
I’m so excited about this job that even if I don’t win the entire gig I at least now have the basic structure outlined in a template binder in Scrivener.
That was all I managed on this job on Tuesday – it did take a while, but the next one will take less time – as I had to carry on with the Regency ghostwriting gig.
Wednesday
On Wednesday I had great plans to be at my desk on time and get on with some work … but you know what happens with great plans, don’t you?
Disaster struck after I heard a strange squealing sound coming from the kitchen. At first I thought it was one of the cat’s pathetic cries for food … but the squealing carried on and she was right in front of me with her mouth firmly shut.
Then the squealing turned to bubbling, then to dripping, and then to a full-scale run.
The kitchen sink waste was blocked and leaking. But it wasn’t just the waste from the sink, it was the trap where it all collects from the washing machine, the dishwasher and the kitchen sink overflow pipe too … and the overflow pipe is not only in the wrong place and a tad too short, but it’s also just rammed in and not even fitted properly.
Deep joy.
The overflow waste was unattached, and when I stuck my finger in the pipe it was supposed to be attached to, a load of gunk came out. Followed by the water that was already trapped from the sink above. I had to catch it in a bowl, quickly change bowls, empty the first bowl into the drain outside, quickly change bowls again, and empty the second bowl into the drain.
The contents of the cupboard had to be removed and dried, but I left them all out in case the trap needs to be removed.
No surprise, then, that I was late to my desk. 🥺
I quickly whizzed through the date work, but I didn’t manage anything else of my own on Wednesday morning. Then on Wednesday afternoon, it was just Regency ghostwriting, in between having a bit of an online clear-out.
When the poet got home, he fixed the blocked waste.
Hate anything when water pipes etc goes wrong. At least the man about the house could fix it. Good for him!
He does like to have a tinker. But he’d been a long way from home yesterday and I didn’t think he’d feel like fixing it when he got in.