Good morning!

This is just a catch-up post, a bit for myself so I can lay out what I’ve done and what I am planning.

I have experienced an enormous kick of confidence after getting Leap of Faith finished and up for sale this week. I really thought all my writing juices had dried up. I know it’s only a short story, it’s contemporary and there’s no paranormal stuff in there. But it’s something. And I really love Mel and Penny! Initially I started writing the shorts as little projects that took me a week or so in between longer projects and were fun to do. Their story has taken me months. Initially it felt like squeezing something that wasn’t meant to be squeezed, but gradually as I got into the habit again, the words started to flow.

It’s been three years since I published anything. I am so grateful to everyone who has stuck with me through what has been an incredibly hard time for my family. Everything has changed. Literally everything. Littlest has been gone two and a half years; she would have been eighteen next week. I cannot conceive how we are living without her. Ditto my Mama, who has been gone nearly eighteen months.

We have moved house. We have done a house-clearance. Mr AL has taken sixty car loads of things to the recycling centre. My sister and I have finally found someone to turn the 1930s/60s/2000’s family wedding dresses and the 1950s ballgowns into a memory quilt for us. This is good, as it has meant we have reclaimed the non-working shower cubicle in our bedroom where we were storing them and I am off to collect a shower valve thing from someone in the next village to try and get it working again this afternoon. Our Young Person, formerly known as Talking Child, has left college and started work. They did their GCSE’s the summer their sister died, finishing them five days before she finally left us. Despite this they got good enough grades to go to Sixth Form College; but it was too soon and instead they completed a King’s Trust Course and then found themselves an apprenticeship and passed their driving test. I am so proud of them.

And I guess I need to write down that I am so proud of Mr AL, and my sister, and me, too. It’s been awful and sometimes it continues to be awful. We are here though, and despite everything, we are managing to keep on keeping on.

Short-term physical goals are to replace the 1950s leaking sanitary ware (VERY short-term!), plant some trees over the winter and start clearing up a bit more of the outside stuff on the farm. Metal, glass, that sort of thing.

Short-term writing goals are to start playing with my new universe. I am really hoping looking forward to getting started, and I have a vague sort of idea about setting and the world itself, but I am still working on my main character and until I know a bit more about them, I don’t think I can actually start. I need to try not to get distracted by short stories in the meantime, unless I can write them in a week!

Long-term goals…who knows? I think I am going to give myself some grace with that.

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For today, that is all.