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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.

 

After a few weeks off over Christmas, I’m finally getting my arse back in gear and getting back to writing my Satisfied Saturday Sixes 🙂 So here goes.

  1. I had a nice birthday on Wednesday: lots of very kind people wishing me well, and my health problems (which have been multitudinal this year, sadly) were obliging enough to give me a couple of days off from feeling ten different types of dreadful. So that was splendid.
  2. I heard back from the editor of Jane Austen’s Regency World that my article on Black Georgians is okay, which is relieving. I didn’t want to tread on anyone’s sensibilities, and I’m aware that I’m writing for an international audience where different countries have different appropriate terminology, so it was all a bit terrifying. It’ll be out in the March/April edition, so please look out for it!
  3. I managed to submit a couple of stories this week. This is slightly disconcerting because it’s been quite a while since I’ve been submitting things en spec rather than writing for specific commissions. So it’s very much a case of wait and see, and obviously the thing about being a writer is that you do have to put a brave face on rejections, so I may very well be doing that quite a lot in the foreseeable future. But it’s fun to be writing new things, and writing things which I’ve written just because that’s what I fancied writing at the time. (It’s all sex at the moment. No idea why, but it is. I’m going with it.)
  4. Talking of which, the muse is still buzzing along happily so I am still writing new things. Any good? Probably not, but that’s another matter.
  5. I went out for a meal with my parents on Thursday, which is always an enjoyable experience. I’m having a few problems eating enough at the moment (not a usual issue for me!) but nice food is still nice food.
  6. Splendid Son was invited out for a birthday treat with a friend yesterday, which was very nice for him and also very good timing for me as I had a migraine and it meant that I could spend all day in bed without needing to be anywhere at any time, which was a great (and much needed) relief. (Yes, I am scraping the barrel a bit at the moment to find any non-illness related information. Sorry.)

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 really lovely time with my friends last weekend. It was so lovely to see them.

2. I’ve got the first draft of my article on Black Georgians written. (To put this into context, I don’t mean the country close to Russia, nor the State of America, but the Georgian Period in Britain.) It stems out of a lot of the research I did for The Sisterhood, so it was good to put the newly found knowledge to good use!

3. Splendid Son passed his tenor horn exam (Grade 2), which is really pleasing. He’s been practising hard, so it’s good to know it paid off.

4. I’m still managing to sell knitting, though I’m behind on a commissioned piece at the moment. (Christmas preparation has gone into mass production and I’m somewhat stressed about it all.)

5. Exciting Christmassy parcels and cards are arriving, which is lovely! I feel very popular (and also very guilty for failing at cards this year. I failed at cards last year, too…).

6. I went out in the evening with Lovely Partner on Thursday! This was the first time I’ve been out with him and not Splendid Son from home (we went out together when we were on holiday in Bath for a couple of days) for over a year, I think! We met some of the excellent people he fences with (swords, not gardens) and I managed sociability without making too much of an idiot of myself, I think. (Social gatherings are not my best thing.)

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 staying, and it is marvellous! So far, I have drunk too much and tried to feed them things they don’t like/aren’t able to eat, but they seem to like me anyway 🙂

2. I finished and posted a couple of knitting commissions this week, and have another commission to fulfil. Hurrah!

3. And I am still writing like someone who is writing a lot of the time. I’m still not sure what amount is publishable, but I don’t think practising writing will ever be a bad thing to be doing.

4. I’ve also got involved with a Christmas-related community online, in which people say what they would like to have for Christmas, and if you can help, you do. I am writing a couple of flash fiction stories for that, too.

5. I went out for a meal with Splendid Son and my parents on Tuesday, which was excellent. It was to celebrate my mother’s birthday, as she’d been travelling on her actual birthday, which isn’t exactly the most exciting way to spend the day. And the food was very nice.

6. I have just generally felt quite cheerful this week. The house is in chaos and there are lots of things I should have done, or haven’t done, or (quite probably) forgotten about, but it’s not bothering me in the same way just now. It’s a good feeling!

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. Sowley, the shop which sells my scarves in Canterbury, turns out to have sold some more of them. I originally gave them four scarves, all of which have sold, and I’ve now given them three more. But it’s delightful that they’re selling – I’m so pleased!

2. On top of that, I’ve sold all the other scarves I had on offer at Friday Yarns – and am in the middle of making arm warmers/fingerless mittens as a commission. (I have also finished a commissioned rug and now just need to find brown paper or large postage bags so that I can post it.)

3. I’m still writing a lot. I am really enjoying myself with the writing at the moment: it is lovely. I think this is the first time I’ve been whole-heartedly enjoying it for a while. I needed to have deadlines and to get things submitted on time, but I am definitely liking the freedom to write whatever I feel like at the moment. And I am finally getting round to writing some things which may actually be publishable. I’ve got a half-written story about three men which I’m currently quite pleased with.

4. Splendid Son had his horn exam on Wednesday (grade 2). He was worried in advance, which isn’t like him but he came out of it saying that he thought he’d passed, so that’s good. Also, it means that I don’t have to hassle him to do horn practice every day! I promised him a week off after he’d done the exam 🙂

5. Ooh, I ordered some things from Breila Cards for Christmas, and they arrived this week. She is so talented!

6. I have realised that my body is really not working at the moment (not good) and scaled back a bit to cope with it (good) AND am nonetheless feeling quite cheerful (very good)!

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.

Considering the attacks in Paris (which is closer to my home than many places in England, and any place in Scotland), it seems slightly insensitive to post an SSS. But in the theory that at bad times, recognising the good is important, I’m going ahead.

  1. After a few days of feeling “I never want to write again” after submitting The Sisterhood, my writing mojo is back. I’m avoiding anything long still, but poetry and flash fiction are singing through my brain, and I’ve been reminded that I do indeed write for the love of it. It got a bit lost in the epic battle to turn in a decently edited novel on time, so it’s nice to be feeling it again.

2. Lovely Partner and I are planning a couple of nights in Berlin sometime next year. I won accommodation there, so it’s just a case of getting there and finding food. It’s giving us something nice to look forward to – I’m not a winter person, so it’s good to be planning great things.

3. I had a medical appointment on Wednesday which went much better than anticipated, so that was a relief.

4. I am looking at getting business cards made up for Friday Yarns, which feels like a terribly grown up thing to be doing.

5. Next weekend, I have organised to go up and visit one of my sisters. Then, when I get back, my other sister will be staying locally, so I will get to spend time with her as well. This is very pleasing.

6. I efficiently managed to do much cooking of food earlier in the week, which is all portioned up in the freezer, so that is rather excellent.

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.

Well, this has been another trying week. I do have non-trying weeks, I promise! Nevertheless, there are always good things to find.

  1. I finished and submitted The Sisterhood! Which is very exciting, and a big relief.

2. I had lost a book I’ve been wanting to read for weeks, and I finally found it yesterday. This is probably more pleasing than it has any right to be.

3. Unfortunately, due to a lot of terrible things, one after another, I had to pull out of a weekend I’d promised to attend. This, obviously, is not at all good – but the organisers were wonderfully supportive and understanding about it and that makes such a big difference! Much gratefulness to them for that.

4. Both of my cats are being really cuddly at the moment. It’s probably because it’s colder and I’m nice and warm, but whatever the reason it’s much appreciated. (I like to think that it’s because they know I need cuddles, but you know. I’m a soppy cat owner. It’s probably the heat thing.)

5. My humans are also being wonderful. I have a great support system, you know? Sometimes life is pretty grim, and that’s just how it comes. But having the right people around me means that I know things will get better again. From the people I live with to the people I know only through Facebook – you’re all brilliant.

6. I was interviewed for ‘Kent Life’ magazine a while back. It turns out that the text (not, thankfully, the picture!) is now online.

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 and nephew have been down for most of the past week, which has been splendid!

2. I am trying to re-learn about twitter, and will be trying to tweet from both my @penelopefriday account and my newly set up @friday_yarns account, on writing (the former), knitting (the latter) and random topics (either or both)!

3. I’ve got a fair bit of The Sisterhood edited. It’s almost certainly going to hit 90k before I’m happy with it (I added 2000 words today, sort of accidentally), and when I’ve done this first round of edits, there will be another round to do (so I’d better hurry up, eh?) but it’s improving all the time, I think.

4. My Zula-cat, who has been quite skittish lately, has been a little bit more friendly over the past few days. (Of course, I write that at a moment where she appears to have vanished, but oh well.) Possibly it took her this long to forgive me for going away in late August, but it’s nice to have her back being purry and friendly.

5. My sister brought down some of the clothes that in her slimness she has grown out of. Which means new clothes for me!!! Very pleasing, though I wouldn’t mind being slimmer myself, either!

6. Ooh, I completed a Sekrit Project a couple of days ago. It’s a present for someone, so I can’t say any more, but I’m really pleased at how it turned out.

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.

Sometimes it takes me a while, but I get there…

  1. Being invited by Scope to be part of their ‘End The Awkward’ campaign about sex and disability was really lovely. (For those who haven’t seen it, I was ‘N’ for NSFW.)

2. As you may have gathered from previous SSSs, I knit a lot as well as writing. This week I set up a Facebook page for my knitting, called Friday Yarns because I couldn’t resist the intersectional knitting/writing pun 🙂

Incidentally, I also have an authorly FB page which it would be splendid if more people liked 🙂 For both that and the Yarns, a ‘like’ is in no way an expectation that you will ever buy anything, it just makes me feel encouraged!

3. Well, the good news is that I’ve written lots more of The Sisterhood. The bad news is… I still haven’t finished it, though it’s now over 76,000 words. I’m still hoping to finish the first draft by the end of Tuesday, giving me time to revise it. But it’s definitely ‘hope’…

4. Ooh, I am meeting up with one of my editors next week. The  excellent Tim Bullamore (who has been kindly letting me write for Jane Austen’s Regency World for years without checking whether I’m actually a yeti or something) is around in Bath when Lovely Partner and I are going there to visit. It will be very exciting to meet him in person at last!

5. Splendid Son had a great day on a maths workshop earlier this week. They showed him how to make a dodecahedron out of sheets of A4 paper without using glue or cutting anything. (They probably did other things, but this was quite the most exciting!) We have tried it at home, and it’s officially A Thing. I’m really quite impressed 🙂

6. I made it to my choir for only the second time in the last 6 weeks. It was really lovely to be well enough to go, after several weeks of no voice on top of another week where I couldn’t make it for child-minding reasons. I don’t sing well, but I’m very enthusiastic!