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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’m thrilled to say that the Prequel to my novel Love Plus One, the aptly titled (I think, anyway!) One Plus One has officially been accepted by Ninestar Press. If you want to know the back story of how Laurie and James got together, and more about James’s and Al’s friendship, this is the story you need to read. (And if you don’t, why not?)
  2. I’m also terribly excited because I’ve had my first You Tube review of a story. Love Plus One was reviewed here and it is the best thing ever 🙂
  3. In news not to do with the Maths series (that’s the series name of the two books mentioned above), I managed to send off a horrible government form this week. I’m horribly disabled, and had to fill in details about everything I can’t do, which is probably one of the most depressing things to do in the world. But it is done, finished, posted. Hurrah.
  4. Today, I not only Managed To Leave The House (this doesn’t happen often), but I got to the football. We didn’t win (boo) but we didn’t lose either, despite TERRIBLE refereeing, which is of course entirely to blame!
  5. I managed to write nearly 24,000 words in January, despite everything. Most of them aren’t intended for publication, but I’ve started a new story in the Maths series (sorry, we’re back to that again) and potentially an entirely new novella/novel. It’s using a trope usually only seen in fanfiction – Omegaverse – but I don’t see why there shouldn’t be room to explore it with original characters and plot. (If you can see why, please let me know, as it would be useful information!)
  6. Lovely Partner and I celebrated (a little distractedly, as both of us had forgotten about it) our 14th Wedding Anniversary this week. Ironically, it is the elephant anniversary, which is pleasingly humorous – these elephants did, in fact, forget 😉

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. Welcome to the new year! I am just about over a migraine which hit me hard on Christmas Day, which is very nice. (Being over it is nice, to be quite clear about it: I’d rather not have had it, obviously.)
  2. Love Plus One is out on Monday! (See cover design at the bottom of this page.)
  3. Splendid Son and I went to watch Charlton Athletic on Monday (one of the few times I get out of the house, so it’s always a Big Thing for me) – and we won 4:1. The best win we’ve ever experienced for our team when we’ve been there, so it was brilliant (albeit freezing cold!)
  4. I submitted my latest article to Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine – I was writing about governesses and the situation women found themselves in that led to them taking such jobs.
  5.  I’ve also been hanging around in writers’ chat rooms since the new year, which means that I’ve actually managed to get a bit of writing done. Misery loves company… or at any rate, it’s really good to have a bit of support when you’re writing. As my  sister described it, it’s like a virtual writers’ retreat 🙂
  6.  My uncle is currently staying with my parents and I saw him today, which was splendid. He’s a writer, and was my inspiration to become one myself. Long live family!LovePlusOne-4 (1).jpg

Satisfied Saturday Six

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  1. So, I missed writing last week, so I might not have pointed out my latest article on Harry Potter trivia to all and sundry. Yay? Yay.
  2. I’ve also done a little bit of writing after a couple of weeks of blankness. Not much, but it’s an improvement on nothing, and I’ll take that!
  3. Ooh, I had my hair cut on Monday (not as short as I intended, but the hairdresser had ideas of his own, and I do as I’m told), and then managed to dye it blue (intentionally!) so I am cheered up by the way that is looking.
  4. I had a nice, albeit quiet, Samhain celebration with Splendid Son. Happy Celtic New Year, folks!
  5. I dabble in fanfiction occasionally, and someone asked permission to translate something I wrote into Russian, which is very flattering.
  6. Last Saturday, I watched Charlton Athletic win against Chesterfield (football). It was the first time this season that Splendid Son and I (we’re season ticket holders, though we can’t go every time) had seen a win, so it was splendid!

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.

A mixed bag this week. I’ve got to be honest and say I haven’t had the best of weeks, but I still managed to find some things, so you ought to be impressed 🙂

  1. I finished my article about female abolitionists around the Regency Period, and sent it off today. I’m quite pleased with the way this one worked out, actually.
  2. Ooh, and the business cards I designed last week have come through. I have Business Cards! Like a real authorly type!
  3. I am surrounded by really good friends and family, and I have had a chance to remember how lucky I am for this.
  4. After being unwell last weekend, Splendid Son is much much better and is taking part in a football tournament this afternoon (to which I’m about to go so that I can cheer him on – please let it not rain too hard!)
  5. I’m really enjoying Euro 2016 AND Wimbledon. Lots of sport all over the television – my sort of thing!
  6. Although our cooker broke this week, it turns out that it’s still under guarantee, which is excellent. Usually they wait until just after the warranty period has run out, and we could very much have done without that. So hurrah.

Satisfied Sunday Six

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  1. MY NOVEL THE SISTERHOOD IS OUT THIS WEEK. I do not apologise for being in all capitals, either, because I am ridiculously excited about it. It’s a really good book, actually. I’m so pleased with it (though my beta reader, JL Merrow, and my editor, Amanda Jean, need to take some of the credit).

You can buy it at Bella books or at Amazon – but it does appear only to be available on American sites at the moment. Does this mean I can do further squee when it’s available in the UK?

2. I saw the ARCS (the final copies) of All About The Boy at the beginning of the week, and they’re gorgeous. Goodness, my work looks so good in it. I know that sounds silly, but it does. And talking about editors? Sasha Vorun is bloody marvellous, too.

3. Then yesterday I went on a course about marketing, run by Miles Allen. It was really interesting and useful: it doesn’t matter how well I write, I need people to read what I’m writing. And it’s difficult to know how to reach an audience. This helped. (Plus I accidentally sold a book in the car park afterwards to a man who had been somewhere completely different and did not look like the target market for a lesbian historical novel 🙂 He was also, incidentally, an extremely lovely man.)

4. In non-writing news, Splendid Son got a trophy for ‘most improved player’ in his under 10s football club, so I’m very proud of him.

5. Lovely Partner also was part of a fencing group who came second at a tournament last weekend, so I’m proud of him, too.

6. I have written half of my article about women’s role in the Abolitionist movement in Britain (the abolition of slavery). This is for Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine, and I know a lot about it because slavery accidentally ended up as a fairly major plot in The Sisterhood. (This is entirely due – and this is a true story – to a random comment my mother made when I was ranting about the book when it was a quarter written. Something she said managed to change the entire course of the book. If you know an author and you make a random suggestion, please be aware that they may end up miles deep in research and cursing your name, even as they write the best book they’ve ever managed!)

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. Lovely Partner and I are going to Berlin at the end of next week, which has been taking up a lot of our minds this week. We now have money and tickets sorted, and are planning all sorts of places to go (plus meeting up with old friends, which should be excellent!), which is really exciting! (No SSS next week, by the way, since I will hopefully be Far Too Busy Having Fun!)

2. I submitted another couple of stories this week, which felt terribly brave. But I prefer having lots of things out so that when the rejections start rolling in, there’s still hope that something else may get accepted 🙂

3. I’ve also been in contact with someone about taking part in a festival later in the year. Nothing more to tell about it at the moment, and it may yet come to nothing, but it’s quite an exciting thought.

4. The story I started last week seems to have managed to get itself to 20,000 words. I’m not quite sure how it’s managed that (I anticipated it finishing at about 15,000; but there’s still at least another 1000 and possibly more to go) but it seems to be going well in its own sweet way, so I’ll just go with it.

5. Splendid Son and I are going to the football this afternoon, which is always an interesting experience. Sadly, our team almost never wins and is one of the worst in the league; however, there is something special about being there and feeling like you’re involved. We sit very close to the home dugout, too, which gives us an interesting perspective on things.

6. Ooh, I went clothes shopping this week after my best friend kindly gave me money and told me to go and buy something that fitted me for my birthday. I now actually own a pair of trousers which fit, and a very pleasing blue jumper which my cats will try and nibble holes in at the first available moment.

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. My sister was down for a couple of days at the beginning of the week. It was excellent to meet up and have a chat 🙂

2. I seem to have made what is to me a surprising discovery: if I take painkillers to deal with my pain issues, it greatly improves my mood as well. Other people may not find this as surprising as I do – Splendid Son clearly didn’t, as we had the following exchange (apologies to those who have read it elsewhere, but it bears repeating!):
Me: “I’m not in much pain and I’m feeling much happier than I have been lately!”

Splendid Son: “That’s like saying ‘I’ve put on trousers and now I don’t feel so naked.'”

Well, obvious or not, it’s extremely pleasing!

3. I’m still writing lots. Including some things which may well be publishable. And I’m doing lots of research into what to write for which markets next, which is quite fun.

4. I’m feeling well enough to go to the football today (Charlton Athletic), which is pleasing as I feared I might not be. I’m going with my father rather than son today – Splendid Son, Lovely Partner, my mother and a couple of SS’s friends are all going to the pantomime (all together now: “OH NO THEY AREN’T!”) so everyone will be happy. Dad and I have never liked panto very much, but we do like football 🙂

5.  The US’s Thanksgiving has meant that my Facebook has been overwhelmed with people writing about things they’re grateful for. It has been a lovely explosion of good things!

6. Splendid Son has a horn exam next Wednesday. I have promised him a week off practising afterwards. Little does he know that I have promised MYSELF a week off nagging him to practise 🙂 He’s been very good, but I can hardly wait!

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 had a WONDERFUL couple of days in Bath with Lovely Partner – it’s only the second time in ten years that we’ve been away alone together, so we were probably due it 🙂
  2. Also in Bath, I got to meet the most excellent Tim Bullamore, the editor of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine, for which I’ve been writing semi-regularly for the past 7 years! Probably about time I met him, really!
  3. Rather improbably, on the back of being interviewed by Scope last week about erotica and disability, this week the November edition of Kent Life Magazine came out, with an interview with me in it, as a local writer with an interest in history (did I mention that I’m fascinated by the Regency Period and general Georgian Period? [I have to expand it as The Sisterhood, the current novel, is set before the Regency.] Oh, I did? Sorry – as you were…). You’ll have to take my word for it, I’m afraid (or, y’know, go and buy it) as there’s no online link to it! But still, it exists, honest!
  4. Today, Splendid Son (who is a little bit fed up of being designated ‘Splendid Daughter’ by everyone, based solely on the length of his hair… just saying…) and I used our Charlton Athletic Season Tickets for the second time and went up to London. Um, rather unsuccessfully, since we lost 3:0, but you know – excitement and all. And we saw Guy Luzon in his last game as manager… :-/
  5. My knitting is continuing apace: I knitted a scarf on the way to Bath, and have knitted about half of one today, to and from football (and a bit in half time. I think I come across as a reasonably harmless eccentric). So that’s good. I need to fringe a few next – I tie each fringe piece on by hand, incidentally. Let no one say I don’t take pains with what I make!
  6. Um… um… um… There are plenty of things I could write here about things in Bath – the Roman Baths, the Fashion Museum (LP and I are a hilarious couple of people to go to something about fashion, but it’s at the Assembly Rooms [Regency alert] and they have a lot of Georgian exhibitions), walking by the river, going out for a meal… But I think I shall finish by saying that whilst we were in Bath, Splendid Son had a great couple of days on a school residential trip, so everyone was happy 🙂

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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.

Gosh, yet another ‘challenging’ week after I’ve been acutely ill as well as chronically ill and have basically felt like grumbling about EVERYTHING. So,  here’s a go at some positivity.

  1. Having lost my voice for most of this week, it is just beginning to return, which is good.

2. I was having a quick look at Petticoats and Promises to see if I could work out its position on the Amazon lists (I couldn’t), and discovered that it has some really, really nice reviews, which was encouraging.

3. Not being able to sleep has had a positive effect on The Sisterhood, and I’ve written about 5000 words in the last four days. The end appears to get further and further away, unfortunately: it is going to be a longer novel than I anticipated, but if I can get a grip of it, it might be a better novel, too. IF…

4. Manchester United managed to go top of the league this week (very temporarily), which considering that they’ve not exactly been setting the world alight is quite impressive. And they managed to win mid-week, too.

5. Talking of football, tomorrow Splendid Child and I are off to watch Charlton Athletic, using our Season tickets (which I managed to win unexpectedly) for the first time. I don’t think Charlton are likely to win, and I’m certainly not going to be yelling them on (see #1) – but one always hopes!

6. And continuing with the sports theme (look, what can I say? It hasn’t been a good week), I’ve been enjoying the Rugby World Cup matches. The less said about England the better, but it turns out that I enjoy watching even when my team aren’t doing well.

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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 a request from an ME group  to allow them to translate my blog post, Five Things People With CFS/ME Would Be Happy Never to Hear Again (And What We’d Like You to Say) into Dutch. Needless to say, I’m delighted for them to do so!

2. I haven’t written as much of The Sisterhood (my new novel) this week as I’d like – ill health (having ME – see above if you don’t know much about it!) has been dogging me more than usual. However, I am getting really inspired and I keep having inspirations about different bits and how the story fits together.

(I don’t write in a linear fashion, which has both up sides and down. The ‘up’ is always having a bit of the story to get on with – if I can’t find inspiration for one scene, I just write a different one. The ‘down’ is the complication of trying to fit all the bits together in the correct order, since I don’t always know where a certain scene will go; or, if I’m not entirely organised, accidentally writing the same scene twice. NOT that I’d ever really do that, obviously…)

3. Child and I are going to Wales for the week to visit thoroughly excellent people. In fact, we’re probably in transit as you read this, as I wrote it last night and scheduled it to post today 🙂

4. Child has been on a football training course this week, and really enjoyed it. He did one at the end of May and has cheerfully been telling me that he can see the difference between then and now.

5. I am thanking my lucky stars, however, that we still have him – and a house. I bought, a short while ago, an electric fan. I find it very hard to sleep in hot weather, which is hugely problematic to my health. It only cost about £10… but now I know why. When my son was sleeping in our bedroom on his own with the fan on, at some point during the early evening, the fan jammed. When I went to go to bed myself (and throw Child into his own room), there was a strong smell of burning and when I tried to stop it, part of it fell on the floor. As it was very hot, I had a small fear that it was going to set the carpet alight. Thankfully, this story has a happy ending – the fan did not cause any havoc and disaster above terrifying me out of several years of life and a revolting smell in our room.

6. Having dyed my hair black after it was blue and green, I have noticed that it is beginning to go very dark blue, with equally dark purple and green bits. I look like a Goth Mermaid. I’m not sure I actually want to look like a Goth Mermaid, but it’s quite interesting to see it change colour every time I wash it.