Time flies...

Where has the time gone?

It's Sunday night here - 11:38 as I write this entry. My eyes are hanging out of my head and my bed is calling to me loudly.

Friday I figured I'd earned a day off so I chilled out on the computer playing a game. Saturday, I worked on BJ's new dog mansion (not looking too bad, even if I do say so myself). Sunday (today) I was at work. I would have logged in and updated the blog then but the Internet connection was down so I was restricted to actually working :(

I've touched base with my school teacher friend in the States and she's got more great news. She's received an honourable mention in the latest round of the Writers' Of The Future contest. I feel like she's leaving me behind. I must polish this latest round of stories and have them accepted soon.

My friend has also agreed to swap work for critique. I trust her judgement and I think she trusts mine. My problem is time. I don't have enough of it. We'll see how we get on. I may have to drop something if it becomes too difficult to manage.

I need to get stuck into my next assignment tomorrow night. I haven't looked at it yet. It's titled "Editing on screen" so it shouldn't be too difficult. My assignment after that is on poetry. I am not looking forward to that.

Okay, that's it from me for tonight.

I hope your writing is going well. Don't give up. Someone, somewhere--will love that story you've been trying to find a home for. You just need to keep sending it out.

Good luck.

BT

Time to Read

Yesterday, I played home-handyman. I managed to get a whole host of jobs done after I'd posted my review to HorrorScope. This morning I've managed to do my outstanding crit for AbD. I'm up to date!!!!!!!!

I can now work on my current batch of shorts, my next due assignment or do some reading.

And the winner is.....I intend to read what's required of my next assignment to formulate a plan of attack and then read my "on writing horror" book that I've been dying to read for the last 6 weeks. I guess the title of the blog probably gave that away.

On the puppy front....BJ didn't whine last night as he slept in our room. He snores -- a lot -- and loud, so in the end I still didn't get a lot of sleep.

In local news.......Today it's raining and cold in Adelaide. I hate both. We need the water but my extremities turn a nasty shade of purple in the cold and my fingers hurt when I type. Time to pull out all the winter clothing I guess.

A nice day, sitting by the fire and reading a good book. Sounds nice, doesn't it? But I'd rather be on the beach reading it ;)

Hope the weather is just what you want in your neck of the woods, and it's allowing you to write wonderful masterpieces. Good luck with those submissions.

BT

Assignments Done

Assignments module 1 number 4, and module 2 number 4, have both been done and will go in the post Monday. Tomorrow is ANZAC day in Australia so it's a public holiday - no post offices open. Still they're done. ANZAC Day is also first issue release for SA50s+ - fingers crossed it -- and my column -- goes down well.

That should bring me up to date. I just need to do assignment module 1 number 5 this week and I should be back on track. I need to create a better calendar to keep track of what needs to be submitted by when. Great - there's another task on my to do list!

I've updated my current assignment and grade list which you can find here.

I have one crit to do on AbD and one review still to do for HorrorScope. Hopefully they'll be done tomorrow. I have a host of revisions to do on my current clutch of shorts before they go out the door. Getting closer to getting some reading done - yay!!!!

Puppy is starting to settle down. He carries on for about 10 minutes, every two hours through the night but at least my sleep is only broken for short periods of time now. Six or so hours a night is a lot better than 3.

Brought a new lawn mower today, so the lad and I halved the chore. I did the front, he did the back. Place looks much better now. Tomorrow I have a plant to repot and a dog house to design and start building.

Three more days and then it's back to work :( I can just imagine what's waiting for me there.

Death by Puppy

Last night wasn't a good night. BJ had an upset tummy and was up for most of the night. I didn't get to sleep until nearly 1:45am and that only lasted for 10 minutes before I was up again. Stayed in the lounge with pup (after taking him out the back for ablutions) till close to 2:30 and then was up again at 3:00. Back into bed by 3:30 but woken again at 4:00. I woke the wife and asked her to take care of it this time.

She ended up sleeping with the dog in the lounge. Jodi's feeling a little guilty at the moment because she wanted the dog and I'm the one loosing all the sleep. Doesn't really matter - I'm the one on holidays so I can afford to drag my arse around for a few days. In the end I was extremely grateful for the rest. I was up again at 6:30 as Jodi goes to work then. I managed to snatch a little extra in the lounge after I'd fed BJ his breakfast. So last night I ended up with around three and a half hours of extremely broken sleep.

I'll try and have a nap after lunch today and get stuck into some writing tonight.

Yesterday, I managed to get both assignments read and have formulated a plan of attack. I also managed to get two critiques done for members of TPN. I should get both first drafts of the assignments done tonight. The review won't get done till tomorrow at the earliest. Revisions may have to wait another day on top of that - golf doesn't look like happening these holidays :(

Time to go check the pup.

I hope you're sleeping well and managing to get lots of writing done. Good luck with your submissions.

BT

Puppy-somnia

If it isn't a recognised disease -- it should be.

For the last day and a half, I've been walking around with my brain switched off and my eyes half closed. Eight and a bit years ago, my youngest child was born. I remember getting up at two in the morning for feeding time. I felt like crap the day after and everyday for the first six months of her life but it was worth it. Now I have a puppy doing it to me all over again. But this time without the overwhelming feeling of pride and love.

At least twice a night, he wakes me up with his crying, whining and barking. I stagger out of bed and let him out the back. So far he's managed to do his business outside more often than not, which is good but occasionally he doesn't make it and I'm left to clean up a mess in the wee hours of the morning.

I haven't written or read anything for the last few days due to sleep dragging at my eye-lids should I so much as look at written words in prose.

Later today, I need to sit down and get stuck in. My wife and kids can look after the new arrival for the rest of the day, while I try and get some work done.

By the end of today I need to have read both my due assignments and hopefully I can get the final review done for HorrorScope.

Tomorrow I want my first drafts finished, and I can do the revisions for Drinkers and Grimoire. I need to copy the final comments on Winged Shepherd to file, in case it doesn't do any good in competition, in preparation for a rewrite for market. I need to do a final read through of the current version of Too Late the Rain so that can go up to AbD next week. And then there's all the reading I still have to do.

At some stage this week, I'd like to play a round of golf too, but that doesn't look likely.

*******News Flash********

Puppy photo page has been updated. BJ is now 8 weeks old. See how he's grown here.

Busy Weekend

It's Sunday night and I'm plumb tuckered out.

Saturday morning I hosted a chat on dark fiction for members of Authors by Design. I had eight people turn up and some good discussion took place. It was good fun.

Saturday evening we had a big surprise party for my mum's 70th birthday. Got home in the wee hours of this morning.

This morning we picked up our new puppy. I don't have my camera handy, so no new photos at the moment but as soon as I get it back from my eldest daughter, I'll update the link at the bottom of the page.

Been out in the garden for most of the day, puppy proofing the backyard.

His name is BJ. We deliberated with Quill, King and then we met his dad at a dog show this morning. He's huge. His name is Buddy so we decided on Buddy Junior for his son, shortened to BJ.

On the writing front:

Sent out the two assignments in the last post on Friday so I can start on the next two early this week. I have a couple of crits to do and 1 review. Grimoire is ready to be revised and Drinkers is up for final comment this week. Still have plenty of reading to do.

I hope life is treating you well and all your submissions are successful.

BT

New Layout

Having taken my inspiration from HorrorScope, the new layout for this blog is pretty much done. Things have been rearranged and the theme has been firmly planted into the dark side. I'm still playing with what picture I want on the background but, rest assured, it will remind the viewer of dark things.

Thanks to Shane from HorrorScope and Smoke and Mirrors, and to MoleCat from Blind Dust Collection for all the help and suggestions.

On the diploma front - things have been a little quiet lately. I haven't received feedback or grading from my last assignment so I've been a little lax on completing the next. Last night I read though it and completed a first draft. I'll look to finishing that tomorrow in time for the start of the new week. As soon as my feedback comes in, I'll send it out the door.

Yesterday was a cool day. I promised my wife we'd look into buying a dog once I'd sorted out the rest of our finances. So yesterday we took a long trip to a breeder to look at some four week old puppies. Very cute. Pictures posted on the web site.

After spending some time with the dogs, we went for a drive through South Australian farm country. In the end we covered over 300km, round trip. We stopped at a couple really old cemeteries and took some photo's of the oldest graves. These were all children's graves. I know it sounds sick but it seems my writing is very much focused on dark fiction involving children.

In no particular order

Drinkers - children vampires
Too Late the Rain - involves a child ghost
Ill Wind - Cot death
Grimoire - involves teenagers
The Gift - Demonic Child
Danielle - Daughter of Satan

I have plenty of other works that don't involve kids primarily but all my latest work does.

In the end, we had a great day out and took some really nice photo's.

I hope you've all had a wonderful Easter.

Good luck with your writing!

BT