Friday 4 October 2024: That was the week that was

I skipped a few more regular daily posts over the past couple of days due to the September wrap-up, the Hello October, the book review, and the Take One Idea posts. So this one is a round-up on the week just gone.

Gosh, it’s a long one. I’d go and make a cuppa or fix your favourite tipple if I were you, then come back, get comfy, and I’ll see you at the bottom!

Friday

First job on Friday was last Friday’s blog post, swiftly followed by my 5-minute declutter.

I made a decision regarding Vocal, as they still hadn’t amended the title of that book review I mentioned last week. I don’t like not being in control of what stays on there, what doesn’t, and wanting to correct something but having to jump through hoops or wait an eternity for them to do something about it.

So I decided that once the money they owed me landed. I’d just delete the account and all that went with it. I’d resisted this before because I was loath to leave money on there that belonged to me. But I paid the monthly membership and discovered I could claim what they owed, and I’d still be better off.

That decision being made, I went through everything on my Trello board that related to Vocal and deleted it all. I’ll concentrate on Medium as in only a few days I’ve seen a massive jump in revenue from there. It’s still only small amounts, but the increase has been significant enough for me to close down Vocal and concentrate my efforts on Medium. At least I can edit or delete stories on there at will, although out of etiquette, I’d still notify any publications that have published my work.

I moved on to the newsletter next. I’m trying to get one of these out every month if I can, but without spamming everyone (said she hopefully). I thought I still had a lot of tidying up to do, but now I’ve started drafting everything in Scrivener first, everything was already there! All I had to do was fill in a couple of gaps, paste everything over, and hit send.

I did peak a bit early with the hitting send, though. I didn’t notice that there were 2 different sizes of font used. Hopefully I’ll remember next time. 

While it was quick, it did still take time and by the time I’d sent it and made sure it arrived in my box and the poet’s (he didn’t get it last month and I had to forward mine – it’s a great test), I was really tired. It had been a long, busy week and I still had the Christmas story to write and submit before Sunday. 

Next up was Monday’s September wrap-up blog post. And then it was schedule planning for October.

I did have a look at the story, but I couldn’t find the energy to write a 3,000-word story from scratch in such a short time. The publisher always has a Christmas anthology call every year, though. So I’m going to slip it into my 5 days over 5 weeks process and save it until next year…I don’t think it’s one I’ll publish myself first, unless I don’t have enough material for the winter 2025 bookazine.

I’d loaded my Kindle up with 2 series by a writing friend and I’d started one of them the night before. But I decided to go back to the first book in the series and start again. It was republished by a different publisher a few years ago and I noticed there were less editing/proofreading niggles in the book I started on Thursday evening and I wanted to see if they’d ironed them out in the first book as well. Plus, it’s a gorgeous cover (the newer version) and I wanted to mention that too in a second review. I think I can delete my first one everywhere.

Weekend

We did the shopping on Saturday, and also bought a complete winter bedding set: 

• 10.5-tog quilt (duvet)
• 4 pillows
• 2 brushed duvet sets
• 2 brushed sheet and pillowcase sets
• 4 replacement white cotton summer pillowcases

When we got home, of course we had to change the bed and turn the mattress. The 7.5-tog summer quilt went into storage, the old pillows went in the bin, and the bedding we removed went in the wash.

Monkey Dust had a gig Saturday night and we had to be ready to leave by 7pm. They had a great gig, with a wonderful atmosphere.

Sunday we were out and about again, visiting and then shopping again. This time we were looking for an extending dining table to replace our fixed refectory table, and 6 chairs. We’d like to be able to feed up to 10 people in one sitting, so we kept our old chairs, which matched anyway, and donated our old table to charity.

Monday

Monday was a bit of a lost cause. It started out a tad emotionally wearing as I’d noticed a lump and was getting it checked out. Fortunately, it turned out to be a cyst, which they’ll remove if I want them to but it’s not essential. I have 6 months to decide.

We don’t tend to have the sinister C genes in our family, either of us, but you never know, really, do you? There’s always a first time and it’s always a worry. BUT we don’t have to worry any more as it turns out I probably still don’t have the sinister C genes. 

My next appointment was at the dentist, but we managed an errand in between. I was only having the other half of my mouth deep cleansed, but I really dislike going to the dentist and the hygienist was a locum covering for our regular hygienist, who’d gone on maternity leave. The local was lovely, though, made me as relaxed as she could. But it was still traumatic.

It was pouring down with rain, proper biblical stuff, and the poet had a long journey Monday afternoon in order to meet some work colleagues (the rest of the Task Force I mentioned last week) before the end of the day. He made it, but it was an exhausting day all the same. For both of us.

I just about managed the blog post to wrap up September, but I was a waste of space for the rest of the day and decided to close the office early and chill.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I had to get up early because they were delivering the new table and chairs but they could only say between 9am and 4pm. The Children’s Air Ambulance were also collecting the old table. It was still peeing down, but all was done by 10am, which was excellent and at least left me with the best part of the day.

I spent much of the day planning the next 3 months of work. I wanted to build in the 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS to the 5-week short story schedule, plus I want to have draft 1 of NETTIE CAMPBELL AND THE SECRET OF WHITEHORSE FARM done by Christmas as well as PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR WRITERS: GATE 3. 

I also want CATCH THE RAINBOW done by the beginning of November. So there was a lot of planning and squeezing in to be done, plus I had to choose another short story to fit into the existing schedule. (I chose the story of a militant angel…)

It literally took me to the end of the day before I was happy with everything. And when I was, I wrote up and published Tuesday’s blog post on the month ahead. I updated the diary for this week and I renewed my driving licence online.

Vocal contacted me to let me know they’d put my story back into my drafts so I could edit it at will before submitting it again. I was glad about that, because I think we ought to be able to change serious mistakes like the wrong book title in a book review. I don’t think we should have to wait 4 or 5 days, though, nor at their discretion. I don’t think I’ll be long for that world.

I quickly updated today’s blog post, to ensure I didn’t forget anything, checked there was nothing else outstanding, and called it a day.

Wednesday

I’d already scheduled the book review to post on Wednesday, but it didn’t auto post anywhere. I think this is because I accidentally posted it ‘now’ last week, so WordPress/JetPack thinks it’s already been auto-posted. I shared that to Facebook and to BlueSky. I didn’t have to share it to Medium or Vocal because I’d already posted it there.

Wednesday morning was when I wrote Take One Idea for the March 2025 prompts piece I wrote last week. I chose St Cuthbert’s Day as the One Idea and toddled off to research him first, then the island that adopted him. I opened 5 searches for each one as well as a few other searches to do with where he was born and what life was like at the time he lived.

I wrote up the article, scheduled it to post here on Thursday, and uploaded it to Medium and Vocal. This may be the last thing I upload to Vocal. Once my money arrives, if it ever does (!), I think I’m going to ask them to delete me.

While I was in a deleting mood, I closed my accounts on the 2 game accounts I have. I don’t want to play games for pennies now. I’d rather play games I enjoy playing and that pass the time when I need them to (i.e. when the telly’s on and I can’t concentrate on reading and can’t be bothered to get my ear phones).

It was already gone 1pm by now, so I thought I’d best go and get dressed…

There were a lot of deliveries for me to field. Four were addressed to the poet, who hasn’t been here this week, and one was addressed to me. One of the poet’s was for me (some natural, handmade soap, made in Yorkshire from natural, British ingredients); one was for ‘us’ (replacement sticky feet for the glass worktop savers). 

The one addressed to me was my 2025 Filofax refill. It wasn’t the product I ordered, but what they sent is £11 more expensive than what I paid for, so I won’t shout too much. 

My 4-day work trip to Horsham in the south of the country was confirmed, so I removed the question marks from the entry on my TickTick.

I responded to a query about the Novelist app, which I reviewed about 18 months ago. I had to go and install it to my new phone in order to answer the question accurately, and I installed it onto the Mac too. But it looks like a completely different product. I had a quick play with it, realised they’d made it more streamlined, and decided to keep it in my war chest for when I’m out an only have my phone when inspiration strikes.

Vocal must have a crystal ball or they were watching me type this or something, because at the end of the day an alert came in saying we can now fully edit our stories, change the titles, update the media, and delete them if necessary. Good. I’ll go through and delete the older stories first while I await payment. I’m still not putting anything else up there, still planning on closing it down completely.

Thursday

I had a bit of a lie in on Thursday, but the first thing I did when I got up was dash about the house emptying bins. I had a surprise visitor coming to stay Thursday night and he has a habit of sticking his head in the bins and emptying them. 

I tried the new soap the poet treated me to, honey and oatmeal. So far, so good, or at least I haven’t started itching yet (at the time of writing).  I haven’t bathed in it yet, just in case. But if I don’t get an adverse reaction, I’ll give it a try. I’ve already had to stop using bubble bath.

When I was taking the rubbish out to the wheelie bins, a man accosted me to ask about erecting scaffolding against the house next door. They’d have to come onto our drive, but it shouldn’t impede the cars. I’ve frequently noticed bits of brick on our drive and was worried about them landing on my car and doing some damage. It seems they noticed too and are now having it fixed.

I went around the garden, making sure it was clear for my guest, and fed the birds. When I arrived at my desk I shared Diane’s Gig List’s post, did my 5-minute declutter, this time on the Monkey Dust FB page, and I shared yesterday’s blog post to BlueSky. I didn’t have to share it to Medium because it was already on there.

The chap who’d asked about the Novelist app sent me another email thanking me for my reply, which apparently helped, and then he asked me what I use for my writing. That would be a notepad and pen for brainstorming, Plottr for outlining, Scrivener for drafting, and any compatible word processor for uploading to Draft2Digital. The jury’s still out about whether or not I want to invest in Vellum.

It was almost 2pm by the time I settled down to other work, and I hadn’t eaten yet. So I fixed that, came back to my desk, and cracked on, starting with CATCH THE RAINBOW. Then I brainstormed a story, revised another story, and went back to outline the first story. 

Then I drew a line under today’s enormous post and scheduled it to publish.

Today!

The poet is heading back from his business trip today, my visitor will be going back to his humans, and I have a short story to write for this month’s 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS. 

This post was way too long for a quick read. I hope you’re all still here, and thank you if you are! Next week should be back to normal…

How was your week?