I didn’t miss a day because I was being idle. I missed a day because I was busy.
ALL of Tuesday was spent finishing the hard-copy proofread for my client. In the middle of the day I had a break and nipped onto the computer to upload my 20 Books in 20 Days thing, and to share Tuesday’s blog post everywhere. But for the rest of the day I was proofreading.
Finish the hard copy I did, though, which is always a massive milestone reached.
I was up very early on Wednesday because I wanted to see the latest results for the US election…and I truly wish I hadn’t bothered. My heart goes out to all of my American friends, ALL of them.
Once at my desk, the first job I had to do was write my story for 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS. The prompt was ‘hysteria’ and I was going to write a properly planned Marcie Craig story (after the Def Leppard album and track of the same name – Hysteria). But I ran out of time to do all of that and had to rattle something else off very quickly.
Fortunately, I have a bit of a stock of ideas for short stories. Some may only be a title or a throwaway comment. Others may be full-blown outlines or completed first drafts. This one was a bit of a title and a bit of background, but that was all. It involved a food fight, though, and I thought I could easily build in the prompt.
And yes, I literally did rattle off a draft, whilst also checking a couple of historical facts in the process (almost wrote ‘hysterical facts’ there…). I hit my 1,200-word target and stopped. It’s a bit padded in the middle, and it really, really could do with a thorough polish. But I did it, and I submitted it, and that was that. For this month.
I responded to everyone who kindly commented on my story last month, and I collected the next prompt, the next word-count (300 words! 😱), and the next deadline (4 December – I think that’s the last one for 2024).
While I was trying to write that story, the scaffolders arrived to take down next-door’s scaffolding, the Sky engineer arrived to have a look at our signal, and the postie arrived with another parcel for the poet. Honestly, it was like New Street Station! After the Sky engineer left (he was here for ages), I also fielded 2 obviously cold calls to my mobile phone. And then a tree surgeon knocked on the door!
The scaffolders literally drove up as the poet was driving away, that’s how early they were. By the time I surfaced, they were well underway. I asked if they wanted me to move my car, but they said I was fine and that I should go and have a nice cup of tea…not that they were hinting… (of course not). So I made them a cup of tea each and had my breakfast.
The Sky engineer confirmed that everything Sky was working, but something was interfering with the signal between my desk and the router. They apparently know about the pixellation on the streaming services, they don’t know what’s causing it, but they assure the engineers that it will be resolved in the next update. Though how they can assure that when they don’t know what it is or when it will be fixed is another matter entirely.
My printer was on and his device was seeing that, so I turned it off. His device was also seeing something that was trying to connect via 4G instead of 5G…my Kindle Paperwhite…I put that onto flight mode and BOOM! the speed of the internet shot up from struggling at 20 – 40 mb/s to more than 50 every time. So now we will see, and monitor it.
He also suggested we try turning off any other devices if interference continues, such as mobile phones, tablets, cordless phones, and even the wireless transmitters on the poet’s guitars. Or at least switch them to flight mode, where we can.
Superfast fibre is supposed to be landing next year, and we’re supposed to be getting it. So all we need now is for them to fix the pixellating on the telly.
Our next-door neighbour has already offered to surgeon the trees between our two properties. I suppose he’s grateful we didn’t object to his scaffolding on our drive and he’s happy to do us a favour back. But I took the leaflet anyway.
By the time I’d submitted my story and responded to comments on last month’s it was gone dinner time. I quickly rattled the day off so far on here, and then made myself a sandwich.
After dinner, the rest of the day was spent consolidating my proof corrections with the author’s and the proofreader’s. There were only 5 from the proofreader, which is both flattering and a little worrying. I suspect she may be new and still finding her courage.
By the time I finished, it was 5pm and too dark to carry on. So today I have to transfer all 3 lots of corrections to the electronic copy and get it sent back to the client.
I may also finally get around to some writing today…
I’m struggling to get my writing done. Trying to make plans and make sure I have a future.
I have every faith in you.