Monday 16 September 2024: Reading and writing and submitting

We had a lovely surprise on Friday when Son #2 brought Grand-doggy #1 to stay with us. He called the day before to make sure we’d remembered. I thought it was next week he was coming. The poet had forgotten but said yes, of course we’d remembered. Fortunately, we live such dull an uninteresting lives it was fine for the dog to come and stay with us this week. 

I was still in bed when they arrived. The poet had driven home the night before and it had taken him 5 hours to get from the south of England to here. So he was very tired and still in bed as well, but he got up to let them in and have a chat before Son #2 went off to start his new job.

The dog had his usual mad zoomies around the garden before deciding which seats he wanted and which toys he wanted. He just wanted to run around the garden all day, but we were both working and couldn’t supervise him. (I’m terrified of him getting out of the garden because we weren’t watching him.) Eventually, we all settled down.

The poet had a Teams meeting while I tried to remember what I’d done all day on Thursday for Friday’s post. And I started today’s post at the same time to make sure the same didn’t happen again. I also updated the word-count spreadsheets for the week – something else I really ought to do as I go along…

Once I’d posted Friday’s post I shared it on BlueSky and imported it to Medium. While I was in Medium, I selected my 3 stories recommended to me and looked for 3 stories from those I follow. I only found one of the latter that interested me, so went back to the recommendations and chose another 2. I read the first 3 first, made a cup of tea, and read the next 3, clapping on each of them.

I’m ramping up my book reviews again now I’ve rebooted my Medium. But first I had to update my NetGalley board on Trello to include all the books I downloaded last week and converted to generic epub. (I convert them first and foremost to create a backup should a certain organisation suddenly decide to pull the plug on my entire library.) I started to wonder how I could ensure I’d read and review the book in good time for publication, and I thought I’d have to replicate everything in my diary…

Then I remembered that Trello has a calendar function. Every single card already has publication date on it, as well as the date I downloaded it and the date I review it. And I can sort cards in a list by due date. So I just copied the publication date to the due date for those to be published in the next 3 months and then put them in order. This feature had the added benefit of showing me which book to read next.

My first book of the new regime is by Pam Lecky. It’s Book 4 of a 4-book (to date) series. I also have Book 2 in this series, but I haven’t read that one yet. At the time of starting today’s blog post, I was 2 chapters in. I’m also reading it on my Kindle Paperwhite, because it’s easier on the eye and lighter to hold. But instead of running a separate notebook alongside, I’m using the note feature in the Kindle, which synchs across all of my devices. 

If I make the notes on the tablet, or on my phone, I can choose the colour highlighter to use too. But as I’m doing it mainly on the Paperwhite, I get what I’m given. 

Already I feel more comfortable with this method. I know that if I make a note of something as soon as I encounter it, then I’ll remember it at the end. The next thing I have to remember is to sandwich the constructive stuff in between at least 2 things I like about the story.  If I can’t do that, then I’ll restrict any negative reviews to just NetGalley or make a pass via the review with a message to the publisher, so it doesn’t look like I have a load of unreviewed books on my shelf.

If and when I catch up on the books that are going to be published in the coming months, or in between, say, next month and the month after, I want to start working down my backlog. 

I did a lot more planning work on Trello, for Medium, long material and short material, but had to step away from it in the end as I was fiddling far too much and hadn’t put my timer on.

I was halfway through revising THE EGG THIEF for submission when I had to drop everything and go and get my hair cut. When I got back, I got quite frustrated with Scrivener for Mac not doing things the same way it does them for Scrivener for Windows. I finished revising the file but when it came to compiling it, I couldn’t get the page header to work properly.

Once in Word I had to go through and reformat it slightly anyway to suit the publication I was sending it to. But I finished it, tidied it up and sent it off. The deadline was Sunday. I was so pleased with myself for getting it all done in time, and for actually meeting a deadline. 

I updated my submissions record and wrapped work up so we could take the dog for a walk, and called it a day.