Dream

Image by Comfreak from Pixabay

The plan was to have a weekend off and maybe catch up with some reading or sewing. I did manage to read a few chapters of a book I want to review soon, but I didn’t do any sewing.

Walking

However, on Saturday, after we’d done the shopping – early for a change – we did finally manage our first walk since the new year.

It’s still very busy in the village, and we’re still not supposed to travel further than necessary, and so we revisited one of the first places we went shortly after moving here, just outside our village.

The River Torne is ideal to walk along as it’s straight and flat and usually not very busy. It was quite busy on Saturday, though, and for about the first ΒΌ mile, it was like walking through dog-poo-ville.

We think that people are stopping at the side of the road, walking their dogs until the dogs have done their business, and then they’re turning around and going back. Because after the ~ ΒΌ-mile mark, there wasn’t any. Or the folk who get that far at least clean up after their dogs.

Our stretch of the river, which is the middle of three drains, runs between two roads/bridges. So now the goal is to get to the other end and come back on the opposite side.

We walked for a mile and turned around and came back, which meant that it was a 2-mile walk. We reckon that the next bridge is only another ΒΌ mile. If we can make it to there, then our 2-mile walk becomes a 2Β½-mile walk, there and back.

Two of us are out of shape – me and the dog. We both need to start ramping up the fitness again so that we’re ready for when the Alphabet Adventurers can finally tackle L is for …

The dog mess did put us off going back to the River Torne on Sunday, and the plan was to go to one of the canals instead, and do the River Torne again when lockdown is relaxed further or when people stop walking their dogs away from their homes.

Video star

On Sunday, the poet and I shot the video for a song we recorded a few months ago – All I Have to Do is Dream by the Everly Brothers.

It’s one that we did for fun because the poet was amazed when I sang all of the words to one of his favourite songs one day whilst doing something on my tablet. I didn’t even have to think about the words.

We had to shoot him playing first bass guitar and then lead guitar. Then we had to shoot us both singing while he played acoustic guitar. And then we had to shoot us both singing without a guitar. I think, in all, we had about 10 takes, so that wasn’t too bad.

I’m not a natural performer (like he is!), so I thought I’d only feature towards the end as a bit of a surprise. But in the final edit, we both were in it all the way through. We both also sing at least twice on the audio track, in different keys or octaves or pitches or whatever they are.

So, yes folks, it’s all us – he played everything. If you haven’t already seen it, it’s here on YouTube.

After we shared that, the poet then began work on a final cover song he wants to record before he has to start practising his Monkey Dust songs.Β  He’s writing the drums first, apparently. And by the time we realised what time it was, it was already too late to go for another walk.

Monday

Once again, I did all of the admin I could do on the mobile phone over breakfast: emails; social media; job search; banking. In fact, I even claimed some wages and dropped them in my bank account.

Then it was knuckle-down time, as the poet was away for a few days and I want as much as I can done while he’s away so that I’m not working overtime at the weekend.

I set off my Pomodoros, and off I went.

First job was the writers’ guide. As this one proves its legs, I’ll share the title. It’s going okay, though, and so far I’ve written 7,854 words, and I’m on Chapter 4.

It was statement day for ALCS, so I went and had a look to see how much I could expect and, once more, I was delighted with this passive income.

Over dinner, I worked some more on the detailed outline forΒ The Beast Within. I struggled a bit with the order of things, so it took me a little longer than I hoped it would. But I did reach the end of Act 1 Part 1.

Over the weekend, the third part of the last ghostwriting gig, the second Regency one, came in with a few alterations. I corrected the corrections and ignored the incorrections, and sent it back to them.

I was going to do some of the new ghostwriting job, but it was getting late and I was running out of steam. Instead, I worked on my own personal copy of the last ghostwriting job. I create a copy of this for my own use, just so I can prove to myself that I did it.

I did think that it would be a quick job. But when I sorted out all of my Scrivener files and compiled it to .mobi, it all went to pieces. Scrivener is designed to be used with KindleGen, and Amazon have scrapped KindleGen. I had to load it into Kindle Previewer and then export it …

Sigh! Why is nothing ever easy?

Anyway, I did it, had my tea, and called it a night.

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