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Satisfied Saturday Six

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Well, it’s been a little while since I’ve posted one of these, but I think I need it, even if the world doesn’t 🙂

  1. One Plus One has been getting really splendid reviews online. I’m really thrilled about that.
  2. Also, I received my copies of the paperback yesterday, which was incredibly exciting. I made ridiculous squealing noises, though refused to let Lovely Partner take a photo of me holding them as I was naked in bed at the time!
  3. I probably need to accept my body as being terrible as a general thing, rather than feeling like I’m continually in a ‘bad day/week/month/year’ but I’m so grateful this week – as, to be honest, I am most weeks – by the way my extended family gather round and help support me and Splendid Son in particular. It is SS’s summer holiday, and he’s spent days with both sets of grandparents (and assorted aunt and uncles) as well as my managing to have a friend of his round this week.
  4. I’ve also been writing some things this week about Harry Potter. Can’t say more yet, but hopefully there may be something out in the not-too-distant future!
  5. I’ve chatted on the phone to loads of lovely people this week, including friends and my mum and sister. When I’m too ill to see people or can’t see the people I love, it’s a great joy to be able to keep in touch somehow.
  6. I bought some books recently, which I haven’t been able to do for a while. I’ve finally read a full copy of Trials at the Chalet School (very important differences to the paperback!) and am looking forward to reading The Fainting Room when I go on holiday next week. I am Virtuously holding back from reading it so that I have it as a Special Holiday Book.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

Hmm, it has been a very quiet week this week, so I may have trouble thinking of anything particularly good which has happened.

  1. It is currently snowing. Not enough to make the world properly white, but it’s still quite pleasing.
  2. I have started writing in a safe space about stories I’ve enjoyed recently. This is difficult for me because I don’t like sharing my taste in things because I presume that everyone is going to tell me what awful taste I have and what a terrible person I am for liking [x] or [y]. So this is a cautious way of trying to get over that.
  3. I had a hair cut this week 🙂 I’ve wanted one literally for months but haven’t been able to get to the hairdresser (the one time I managed, the queue was too long for it to be feasible). So my mum came over and cut it for me! Yay.
  4. I got a little bit of writing done this week. Not vast quantities, but it’s nice to keep things going.
  5. Sports results went well this week. This is always cheering for me.
  6. Um um um…. it’s not that particularly awful things have happened this week, just I’ve spent most of it in bed and it doesn’t give much room for excitement, quite honestly. (Shut up, all ye with dirty minds. I’m not going to be telling you about that, either way.) Okay, I ordered something online and it arrived much earlier than I anticipated, which is highly convenient and may well save me money. Yay.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. I have friends visiting! This is absolutely excellent, and I’m having a brilliant time. With any luck, they are having a reasonable time also.
  2. I have finished the final edits on All About The Boy, a gay erotic anthology which is coming out with Nine Star Press on 25th July. Looking forward to that!
  3. My cat Rory, who was unwell last week to the point of staying overnight at the vets’, has made an apparent full recovery and is back to his brattish best. This is such a relief.
  4. Splendid Son got some results from some standardised tests and appears to have done marvellously well on them, which is really good news. I’m very proud of him.
  5. I went to the doctor this week and am now being treated for depression. Whilst it’s obviously not good that I have a definite relapse of what is for me a sporadic illness, it is definitely a good thing that I am being treated for it and will hopefully therefore improve over time.
  6. I have been reading some of JL Merrow’s books which I’ve not read before. Bloody hell, she’s good. I thoroughly recommend them, and it is SO NICE to be reading something new which I’m so unreservedly enjoying.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. Child’s toe is apparently NOT broken, and he seems much more himself again. Hurrah!

2. I had my photo taken for an article in Kent Life magazine where I’m being interviewed (along with three other local writers) by Rachael Hale, the History Magpie. It’s due to come out in just over a month, I think, which is quite exciting (though I do hate having my photo taken).

3. I discovered this week that the plarn mat I made is being really useful. I’ve got a couple of knitting commissions to finish, and then I shall go back to making those. I have another one half-done.

4. Someone’s emailed me about potentially getting me involved with a project they’re doing. I know this is all very vague, but I’ll let you know if there’s anything further to be said about it 🙂

5. I’m doing a bit of de-cluttering, and am selling off some of my yarn (because if I’m going to be making plarn mats most of the time, I won’t need so much) and books (because we have a slight crisis of bookshelf space). If you might be interested in the books, look here. I’ll do a proper yarn post at some point, too.

6. I’ve been spending some much needed time on my spiritual life and have created a lovely sacred space where I can just Be. It’s by no means finished but I feel happier for having it there.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

1. Child has had a delightful time at football (soccer) coaching this week, with Charlton Athletic’s community branch.

2. I dyed my hair 🙂 I am now blue-and-green and mermaidish. Strangely, the spell check doesn’t believe ‘mermaidish’ is a word. I now desire to feature the word on my ‘Wednesday Word of the Week’.

3. I’m working on the new novel. I’ve currently written 20,000 words, which is much more than I had realised I’d written. AND I’m still early enough in the process that I think it’s a good story. By the time anything gets to publication, I’m at the point of thinking “oh gods, this is just dreadful – if I have to look through it again I think I may just delete the entire thing!” I like to think of this as authorly paranoia, rather than “Finally I See The Truth”.

4. I’ve had a while when I’ve been struggling with brain function enough that I’ve been unable to read new-to-me books. This is quite major brain dysfunction for me (I’d read upwards of 60 new books between January and the beginning of May), but thankfully appears to be fading. I’m not able to read complicated new things, but have read a couple of crime novels in the last few days.

5. I dealt (reasonably) well with a difficult phone conversation this week. Unlike reading, phones are difficult for me at the BEST of times, which this wasn’t.

6. Child found a game (in Aquila magazine, in case you’re wondering) in which you throw dice and use the outcome to draw monsters. This is far too much fun, especially with a ‘consequences’ style ‘name the monster and give details about it’ second round (which might have been my idea 😉 )

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

1. I got to choir this week and passed my audition, so I’m an official tenor now. It’s also good to have my feeling that I do have a low voice for a woman confirmed.

2. I’m signed up to write three articles for Jane Austen’s Regency World over the next 6 months or so. Look out for information on ‘incredible cures and quacks’, toilet habits, and kept men…

3. I faced the fact that my weight is really not what I want it to be, and went to my first Slimming World session on Tuesday. I’m hoping that having to be weighed once a week in a sort of ‘official’ setting will make me more inclined to stick to a decent diet.

4. I went book shopping yesterday. I frequent charity shops and the like, to try and prevent myself bankrupting the household. Anyway, I ended up with 19 books (though three of them were for Child) so it’s very exciting having them lined up for myself.

5. I am an unashamed Manchester United fan, and my team have now basically been confirmed as being in the Champion’s League next season. (The next thing is to get us playing well, but one step at a time…)

6. Oh! I think I might finish the first three chapters of the new novel (working title The Sisterhood, and again a lesbian Regency romance) in the next week.  This feels like a Success as I set myself a secret target to finish them before the end of May. (I’ve also written another 12,000 words of other bits of the book, as I don’t work in a linear fashion, but it’s nice to see the beginning coming together a bit.)

Satisfied Saturday Six

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1. I’ve read some really interesting books this week, including Joanna Trollope’s updated version of Sense and Sensibility. Also For The Record, by Ellie Irving, which Child lent me and which was fab.

2. Writing a poem last Sunday, out of the blue, was fun. It’s not Wonderful Po-tree. But it was silly and fun.

3. I am, rather meanly, enjoying watching UKIP implode in the weeks up to the election. Sorry, but it’s true.

4. Last Thursday, I invited one of Child’s friends home for tea. I try to do this at least once every half term (we have unofficial visits from the boy-who-lives-round-the-corner regularly, but that’s different) and it makes me feel like I am doing Worthy Motherly Things.

5. When you’re not feeling well (and even when you are), there is something ineffably consoling about having a lapful of cats.

6. Although I’m still car-less, I have a most wonderful ‘dalek’ so I can pick up Child from school without needing anyone else to help me.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

1. I made it to the ME/CFS Clinic this Friday, after last time’s attempt was foiled by our car engine stopping when we were travelling at 70mph on the motorway. And I think some useful things came of it.

2. I read 20 books in January, 16 of them new to me. I re-read a lot of books, so this is quite an impressive statistic of new reads.

3. Lovely husband and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary last Sunday. We got married (in UK terms) on the first of the second of the third – 01/02/03 🙂 It makes it easy to remember.

4.  I’ve confirmed that a local bookshop is going to stock my novel, Petticoats and Promises, which is very pleasing (and exciting!)

5. I have an appointment to see a Rheumatologist in a couple of months’ time. This is good because I’m having awful joint problems, but also good because the first date I was offered was whilst I was supposed to be on holiday. Having had to miss my last holiday thanks to ill-health, I didn’t want to do so again. So when the letter came through this week, I was somewhat depressed. But I gave them a call and they’ve moved the appointment back a week, which is splendid of them.

6. Erm…. *thinks* Oh, there have been satisfactory sports results from my point of view. Manchester United beat Cambridge midweek in the football, and England just beat Wales (sorry, Welsh friends) in the rugby on Friday evening. Yes, good sporting results actually do affect the cheerfulness of my week. Yes, this is kind of sad.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

1.  Final proofs of Petticoats and Promises completed and back to the production team. Now all I have to do is wait for it to come out 🙂

2.  I wrote 400 words of ‘things to write about’ in my prospective article about mistresses in the Regency period. That’s about a fifth of the length the actual article needs to be! I don’t think I’m going to run out of things to say.

3. Child and I have been re-watching the first series of Merlin. Which is also probably my favourite – I like it best before it gets too serious.

4. Child is currently sitting in a cinema watching Tinker Bell and the Never Beast whilst I sit outside with my computer. As he said, “Most boys would say ‘I’m not watching that because it’s for girls’ but that’s silly, and I’ve seen a trailer for it and it looks good.”

5. I’ve just finished reading a really good book, called Elements of Eloquence. It’s about different techniques which can be used in writing to turn a good phrase, but it is also very funny! (I’d quote one of my favourite bits, but alas I do not have the book with me.)

6. Our car had a crisis last week, but it is all mended now (touch wood!).