Just Keep Swimming...

So much to do and so little time.

 

I admit, I've been a little (a lot) lax in my postings of late.  Sin has been too.  I'm trying to dedicate some time to writing so blog posts get left behind in the wake, bobbing about on the surface of my musings without being able to put their feet down and gain purchase.

 

There's a number of things I want to blog about.  A fab meal I had at the Spice Hut in Cleethorpes.  My trip to Disneyland Paris last week (great trip apart from a few incidents with the coach).  Watching the excellent Captain Phillips.  More!

 

But, I'm not getting round to it.  I need a PA or something, it seems.  Or a clone.  Maybe I should talk to the producers of Orphan Black (worthy of a blog post in itself - brilliant show) to see if they have a spare.

 

Anywho.  I haven't forgotten you.  I'm just trying, and I mean trying, to write.  I'm working on the sequel to Sin, but he's gone and gotten himself arrested.  I wasn't expecting that, so I'm a bit stumped as to what's going to happen next.  I've got Puddlebrain, my children's book.  I know exactly what's going to happen (a first for me, I think), but I have to get to finishing it.  Perhaps it's because I know it needs a good edit.  I used a few too many 'big' words for the age range, for a start.  But I'll get there.  Puddlebrain is the story I began whilst writing Sin.  I’d written about 40,000 words and forgotten about them.  I do like what I’ve written, I just need to refine it.

 

Then there's my current story, 'Home'.  With inspiration coming from the same place as The Lake and Summer Loving, it's sort of tied me up.  I'm revisiting an alternative version of my youth, and it won't be pretty.  I expected this to be a short story of, perhaps, a couple of thousand words.  I’m at 3,000 already and still scope for more.

 

Excerpt from 'Home'

The trip to school seemed to take all day.  I could imagine getting there just in time to turn around and go back home.  Unfortunately, the minutes were just taking their time, spacing out the seconds in between like a trail of sweets, with me as Hansel following politely and hungrily along.  I arrived at the school gates with just enough time to spare for my friends to semi-playfully make fun of my fainting episode.  I took the brunt of the jibes and jokes with a facade of smiles.  I’d do the same if I were them.  Cracking jokes, poking ribs.  It was part of being at school.

 

Of course, when I saw the blood dripping off my desk in English later that morning, not quite coagulating but thick enough to look like crimson snot dangling off the edge of the desk lid, the teasing ceased.  I didn’t scream.  I didn’t faint.  I simply stopped.  My feet no longer worked.  My eyes no longer blinked.  I suppose my lungs alternatively inflated and deflated and my heart continued to pump, though maybe a little faster, but I couldn’t tell.  I couldn’t hear the teacher or the pupils talking to me nor could I feel them pulling at me to make me move.

 

My world had disappeared and all I could see was the blood.

 

Then, I think, I did faint.

 

At least it would give my friends something more to take the Mickey out of me for.

 

So.  I'll be back.  How many of you just said that in an Arnie-style voice?  I know I did when I wrote it.

 

Bear with me.  Hopefully it'll be worth the wait.  Just keep swimming, as the epic Dory would say, and I will too.

UPDATE:  Home, a 'short story' was finished a couple of days ago, to the tune of a smidgen over 9,500 words.  I quite like it.  You'll, hopefully, see it in Darker Places...

Fuzzy Headed...

I feel fuzzy headed today. It's my own fault, really. I know I can't burn the candle at both ends, let alone in the middle too.

So I guess that means no sympathy for me! Well, fairy nuff (the Fairy Nuff being where pixies and elves and fairies go to buy their little boots and tunics - they can never get their size in M&S, Primark or Monsoon).

My sinuses are playing up too. No change there. I seem to live on snorts of Sudafed nasal spray, it being more of a staple diet than meat and two veg sometimes. That's adding to the fluff slowly replacing my brain cells, a sort of candy floss Blob devouring the contents of my skull.

As such, it's a little difficult to concentrate. I'm managing work, which is a task in itself, particularly today where I seem to have a variety of issues to deal with, but it's the 'other' stuff I seem to have trouble focussing on.

I'm part of the way through the South Sea Bubble, the finale to Alison DeLuca's phenomenal Steampunk saga that began with The Night Watchman Express. This book was my first foray in to the genre, and I didn't know what to expect, but the characters and situations and excitement are so well written, I was hooked. I'm honoured to be beta reading the 'Bubble' and I'm rather sad that I know it's coming to a close. The characters are my friends, and Mana is one of my favourite character creations (next to Dory from Finding Nemo).

Buy Here
Still, the ride aboard the Express was thrilling and it opened my eyes to a genre I'd not even ventured near previously.

But, with my sinuses and my fuzzy headedness, I'm haven't given the book the attention it deserves. Also, I need to address various points on my website and other places. I gave myself a list this morning of things I needed to do at lunch-time, but when the break came and I'd eaten my lunch, I couldn't think what I'd listed (doing it mentally when I know I should write it down), so I ended up getting to the book with only a few minutes to spare.

I had to get my fix, though.

It isn't helping that my daughter, not yet two, is lactose intolerant and was inadvertently given something to eat at a get-together the other night that contained exactly that. We were told it was safe. When we checked... Let's just say it's not pretty when it wakes her (and us) at 3 am.

Last night I had the chance to go to bed early. My wife was ill herself, so went to bed before our two year old. I put the wee one to bed then, with my older daughter, went out for some shopping and to put petrol in my wife's car (I'd had to use it for work due to losing my keys (found now)). We got back, I tidied the kitchen, my daughter went to bed herself, and I sat down to watch the latest episode of Person of Interest. Just chill for a little while.

Hmmm...

Famous last words.

I had my tablet with me (the touch screen, Windows 8 variety - non-medicinal). I was looking for images for a children's book I'm planning. Eventually Person of Interest finished. That should have been my queue to down tools and retire for the night. It was around ten-thirty.

Ah... There's that second episode of Labyrinth to watch... It'll only be on an hour. Less if I fast forward through the ads. Labyrinth is a two-parter based on the Kate Mosse book, not (something which elicited groans of disappointment from my older daughter) a new version of the Jim Henson/David Bowie classic film. I'd tried the book, but it didn't grab me. I think maybe a new Odd Thomas book came out, and I'll pretty much drop anything for that.

Still, I'd give the show a go. Well, I had done the first episode. It was... ok, I thought. I liked it, but, like the book, it didn't quite grab me. Not quite enough excitement, but worth the watch.

But... it was on for two hours, not one. It was now well after midnight.

Oops.

Then up at 7 am this morning for work.

So THAT'S why I'm fuzzy headed.

Someone do me a favour and kick me, next time. Yo, Shaun. Get your backside up them stairs and get some sleep.

Tonight, OK?

I had a point to this blog post. Can't quite remember what it is.

Got a fuzzy head, you see.

Maybe I'm just ranting at myself. Telling me off for doing something I know I shouldn't. Like touching a door with a 'Wet Paint' sign.

Well, I consider myself told. I'll do better next time.

Well... I say that...

I think I’m writing this so that I’m actually writing. I’ve had the ideas for Mortal Sin, the sequel to Sin, and want to get on with it. I want to enter his head and see what madness lurks there. But I know I’ll sit at the screen and go “Erm...” My mind can still wander and wonder, however, so I can berate myself and use it for a purpose. After all, ‘tis better than to write than to want to, isn’t it?

Oh, talking about Finding Nemo. How pleased am I that there’s a sequel, and it’s Finding Dory?

One word. WHOOP!!