A Torrid Few Weeks
This last few weeks have been crazy. They've seen me working days often longer than 12 hours and weekends. And by this I mean the day . The result of this is that I have written almost nothing.
To compound my gloom most of the pieces I had sent out in the weeks before the MADNESS started were coming back during this period with rejections, or in one or two cases kind passes (book reviews where the book was not considered what they wanted to cover, although they did say the review itself was fine on both occasions).
Add to this spending great deals of time emptying the house so it looks more appealing to anyone coming to view it - we are hoping to sell it and move a little further north - somewhere up near the Peak District would be nice. time consuming work but also depressing. My books are no longer on shelves, but all boxed up and in a storage unit about 12 miles away. I'd guess only about a tenth of them are still here and most of those will be going too.
And in the middle of all this my wife is being sent to China on a business trip for two weeks - she flew out this morning.
So I will have to admit to feel a little dejected.
Things have changed a little though. For one thing my wife's trip is likely to be her last as in the last couple of days she has been offered (and taken) a new job which involves next to no travelling - wahey!
And then just as I was determining not to try my hand at fiction any more, as all I had had were rejections - and to concentrate on non-fiction - along comes an acceptance. A short short of mine entitled "Interrupted" will appear in the July 2008 edition of Necrotic Tissue (http://www.necrotictissue.com/).
Kind of given me a great big buzz, but also confusion. I need to write about half a dozen book reviews, plus an article or two. And I was settled with the thought of confining my typing to such pieces and seeing how well I could do, but this sale has me thinking. Golly!
Despite all the crazy workloads of the last few weeks I have managed to read a few books (hence the need to write reviews) - a biography of Edgar Allan Poe, Bryson's one of Shakespeare, Charlie Huston's and Michael Laimo's latest books, etc
I've bought a few CDs - REM's Accelerate (not bad but tracks are a bit samey - maybe after another listen or two I might get a better handle on it), Van Morrison's Keep It Simple (more of the same, good if you like it), Rolling Stones new live album (the Martin Scorsese film soundtrack - typical Stones live album, a bitt sloppy but great fun), the Dream Theater collection (can only be good to me, I am a diehard DT fan) and some olf Tom Waits albums - just filling in the gaps.
I've watched the last few Torchwood season two episodes - and thought the ending was superb, seen the first couple of new Doctor Who episodes (wonderful fun as always) and the opening episode of pushing Daisies - now that's something I think I will really like. Also caught one or two episodes of Moonlight - not exactly original but okayish.
I'm just hoping things quiet down in the day job.
To compound my gloom most of the pieces I had sent out in the weeks before the MADNESS started were coming back during this period with rejections, or in one or two cases kind passes (book reviews where the book was not considered what they wanted to cover, although they did say the review itself was fine on both occasions).
Add to this spending great deals of time emptying the house so it looks more appealing to anyone coming to view it - we are hoping to sell it and move a little further north - somewhere up near the Peak District would be nice. time consuming work but also depressing. My books are no longer on shelves, but all boxed up and in a storage unit about 12 miles away. I'd guess only about a tenth of them are still here and most of those will be going too.
And in the middle of all this my wife is being sent to China on a business trip for two weeks - she flew out this morning.
So I will have to admit to feel a little dejected.
Things have changed a little though. For one thing my wife's trip is likely to be her last as in the last couple of days she has been offered (and taken) a new job which involves next to no travelling - wahey!
And then just as I was determining not to try my hand at fiction any more, as all I had had were rejections - and to concentrate on non-fiction - along comes an acceptance. A short short of mine entitled "Interrupted" will appear in the July 2008 edition of Necrotic Tissue (http://www.necrotictissue.com/).
Kind of given me a great big buzz, but also confusion. I need to write about half a dozen book reviews, plus an article or two. And I was settled with the thought of confining my typing to such pieces and seeing how well I could do, but this sale has me thinking. Golly!
Despite all the crazy workloads of the last few weeks I have managed to read a few books (hence the need to write reviews) - a biography of Edgar Allan Poe, Bryson's one of Shakespeare, Charlie Huston's and Michael Laimo's latest books, etc
I've bought a few CDs - REM's Accelerate (not bad but tracks are a bit samey - maybe after another listen or two I might get a better handle on it), Van Morrison's Keep It Simple (more of the same, good if you like it), Rolling Stones new live album (the Martin Scorsese film soundtrack - typical Stones live album, a bitt sloppy but great fun), the Dream Theater collection (can only be good to me, I am a diehard DT fan) and some olf Tom Waits albums - just filling in the gaps.
I've watched the last few Torchwood season two episodes - and thought the ending was superb, seen the first couple of new Doctor Who episodes (wonderful fun as always) and the opening episode of pushing Daisies - now that's something I think I will really like. Also caught one or two episodes of Moonlight - not exactly original but okayish.
I'm just hoping things quiet down in the day job.
Comments