Thursday 20 March 2025: Steady work

20 March 2025 Leave a Comment writer at work 0 Likes 68 Views

Yesterday wasn’t a bad day. Over my ‘dirty’ cuppa, I finished re-reading Jane Eyre. It’s one of the set reading books for the gothic writing workshop that happens at the beginning of May. The next one is probably Rebecca, but I couldn’t face going into another deep and heavy read. I’d started a NetGalley book before the Jane Eyre and I may go back to that. But I took the rest of the day off from heavy reading.

It made a nice change to be able to go straight to my desk and start work. But then I was distracted by a bird of prey on the patio, right outside the office window. It was beautiful. I’ve often seen one of the pair enjoying a meaty morsel it may have caught earlier, but this was the first time one stood on the patio wall and literally posed for my photograph. I shared it on Facebook, BlueSky and Instagram.

I’ll digress just a little here to bring us all up to date with Scruffy our disabled magpie. Last time I saw him I thought his damaged feathers were coming loose. I’ve not positively seen him since. However, I have seen one of a pair of magpies with a stunted wing on one side. He flies very low over the garden, or he hops up through the branches of a tree or a bush and launches himself into flight.

He can’t fly very far, and always flies in a downward fashion. But when I saw him also helping himself to fruit from the bird feeder trays and burying it in Scruffy’s favourite parts of the garden, I got the binoculars out and had a good look. I’m hoping it’s him, and if it is, his damaged feathers have either fallen out or been plucked out. And he’s part of a pair. I’ll keep an eye on things and report back as soon as I can.

So, back to work. The first job I finished yesterday was re-jigging the March plan. Then I wrote and posted yesterday’s blog post, and shared it to BlueSky, and I started today’s. I also updated Diane’s Gig List with the Monkey Dust gig we have in for March.

The next job on the list was to brainstorm this month’s attempt for 12 stories in 12 months. I checked to see if there were any upcoming calls for submissions that might help me with the theme mash-up (this month’s prompt + call for submission theme), but none took my fancy. Then I went through my notebook of ideas and something jumped out at me from there. I created the empty file in my Scrivener short story master file, and off I went, jotting ideas down.

I had a go at the first draft and it came out at 2,350 words. I need 2,500, so I’m 150 short. And I need a decent title, I hate the working title. But with a week still to go, I had plenty of time…(famous last words?) It was originally down for brainstorming on Monday, outlining on Tuesday and writing on Wednesday. It’s now down for revision today, so there’s one job I managed to catch up on.

After a break, I turned to this month’s novella. The Christmas Tree Mystery is the next one on the list, but while I was convalescing, I had a doodle over the Lady Mathilda series. I’ve seen since, though, that there are a couple of historical cosy mysteries coming out soon and one is already on my review list for NetGalley. I think this is a Victorian lady sleuth, but I’m interested to see what the author has done with her. I sat and stared at the computer screen for a bit, while I chewed it over.

I decided to read the historical cosy before tackling my own, so the Christmas tree story it was. I created the file, did a bit of pre-writing, and changed the settings so it exports how I like it. It’s a bit thin on plot at the moment and could do with a few more try/fails. But it’s percolating now and hopefully my subconscious will nibble away at it.

I finished today’s blog post, chose the artwork, and scheduled it, then called it a day. Quite a good day.

Here’s yesterday’s task list: