Wednesday 29th March, 2017

Today is not a happy day for me as Brexit rolls on and Article 50 has been triggered. However, the ongoing political headdesk moments aren’t something I like to talk about on the blog so…

Sorry for taking a couple of weeks off. My stress levels didn’t work well with other commitments and my day off work (I currently work 4 days a week, 8 hours each day) had to be shuffled around so while I was around on Wednesdays I wasn’t in any kind of writing mood. However, some of the stress was good stress in that it was taken on as part of a greater (much greater) whole.

As mentioned previously, I attended “By the Sword – The Women’s HEMA weekender” on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th March. I actually went down to Godalming (where it was held) on the Friday, with a detour into that there London for a visit to the Leon Paul [External Link] shop where I had my smallsword fettled. I also remembered to take Mousie and we have two more postcards: 34 and 35. The weekend itself was awesome although I overloaded and ran out of spoons a few times.

I also went to a handling session (and trip to the library) at the Royal Armouries [External Link] with my HEMA club, Academie Gloriana, on Friday 24th – which was swiftly followed by my birthday weekend. I think we can safely say I’m middle-aged now.

I didn’t get any writing done, as I mentioned, but I’ve started back up this week and I’m within spitting distance of the end of a first draft. It looks like the current Greenwood-y project will come in a bit under 40,000 words. I may then take some time off to meet interesting civilisations and destroy them before launching into the next project or editing an older WIP.

Wednesday 4th January, 2017

Welcome to 2017. How are we liking it so far?

As last week was my “end of year” post, Mousie’s carolling with her mouse choir went unmentioned but you can still catch up with her best wishes before Twelfth Night (if you’re reading this before 6th January). I think Mousie might make another A-Z this year (you can see her Thurnscoe entries here) but we will have to invest in a book or two about the local area so we can plot her sight-seeing hike.

Also unmentioned last week was the first review of the third Elkie Bernstein book, Fool If You Think It’s Over, from Kate Coe (here: [External Link]). We’ve also recently put up a Goodreads page [External Link] in advance of publishing and it looks like the book itself lands in mid-January. This basically means things should be coming out somewhen around my next weekly update or the one after.

Sunday 3rd April, 2016

Continuing the theme of being an unreliable narrator (but not in TV Tropes / standard sense: [External Link]), I’ve managed to lose a few weeks to emptying out the old house. In theory, I shouldn’t lose any more weekends to this real life task as the house is basically empty now.

So, the weekend before last was Easter weekend and also my birthday weekend. I got sent home from work with the Birthday Bear for the weekend and Mousie got a postcard out of it.

Sometime last week, I was also contacted by people behind the scenes at Satellite 5 [External Link]. I’ve had a membership since some time last year (but only just put up an event link here) and put my name forward to be involved in content. So, it looks like I’ve managed to talk my way into doing another HEMA-for-writers presentation!

Just to round out the post and because I haven’t pointed you in that general direction for a while, don’t forget that I have some free short stories available on site. And Fox Spirit Books, my esteemed publisher, also has too: [External Link]

Sunday 13th March, 2016

Yet again, I missed a week. Last weekend I was recovering from the official Forbidden Planet African Monster’s launch party. I did manage to put up a few postcards for Miss Mousie, though. You can see them here:

I think the evening was successful and the socialising during and after the event was definitely good fun. I stayed in London long enough to go to the Leon Paul shop [External Link] for some new fencing shoes and to attend the Waterloo Sparring Group [External Link].

And this week has disappeared into Real Life.