Scary

At 6.00 pm tonight I sent off my novel and have had an acknowledgement from the publishers so now I wait to see what happens next.

Because it’s all electronic I might be able to change bits later on.  I’m quite sure that if I look at it again I’ll be changing bits but at the moment I think I’ll take a break from it for a few days.  I’ve learnt so much from Vivi this weekend and have used some of that this afternoon when sending off all the attachments.  Everything, the front and back cover photos, blurb for the back, acknowledgements and novel had to go in one email plus the contract.

I’m so glad I have this new computer with space.   When brother R or Mark or Vivi come next I’ll do some  recycling and get rid of stuff that’s no good.

 I’ve been sitting here all day looking out the window odd times, watching blue sky, dark rain clouds and rain pouring down on the car,

Panic stations

Re the Novel.   Vivi has put the six separate documents into one but it needs an awful lot of tidying up.  She is going to sequence the chapters later and send it back and then tomorrow I shall try and go through it all again, for the millionth …time.

When I first started it I did all sorts of silly things on the computer and that shows up in the text.  I have tried to clear them up but there are a horrible lot left.

John has found a water colour of a country scene that I have photographed to use for the cover.  We have been looking at all our paintings to see what is suitable but cannot use most of them as there might be copyright problems.  With this watercolour, there is no name on the back, only the area and I would think it is Victorian.  So the artist will be long dead.

It’s raining so I cannot do anything else but want to get this all sorted out by Monday evening to send it off.   I am getting quite tired so perhaps it won’t hurt to have a break this evening and watch the X Factor.  I like the singing, not bothered about Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh sniping at each other.

Progress

Had a writers’ meeting here this morning and had to tell them all about the novel.  All v pleased.  Have had a very good review today but modesty stops me repeating it but it is certainly encouraging. 

Had a nice guy here this afternoon, he is going to put 60 ewes up in our top fields, coming tomorrow.  They are Welsh Mountains so will be strong enough to cope with the higher land.  I went into writer mode and encouraged him to talk about his life.  He’s the same age as John, with even less teeth!  He had a lovely collie, Jess, so like Kim, although slightly bigger and more solid.

He’s got 700 sheep all out on tack in different places.  I’ve just made a note to discuss this in a Countryman article.

Anyway, it’s good as it means there will be some income coming off the land, the grass will get eaten and fertilised.

working…

hard with novel and also spending time in the fternoons reviewing other people’s work.  Some is better than others.  I read one yesterday and didn’t want to be too negative about it but it was a historical romance about a girl in England as if it was written by an American or ?foreigner who does not know England.

She was writing about a young cotton mill worker as if she was living in Plymouth.  I’m fairly sure there were and never have been cotton mills down there.  She was talking about the Royal Navy and |I’ve read a lot about that and had to suggest to this writer that she had got it wrong.

I could see her idea behind the book but it was seriously flawed – which is a shame as she had put a lot of work into it.  I’m reading Mrs Gaskell’s ‘Mary Barton’ at the moment.  This is about the cotton mills in Manchester in 1839-40 and she knew exactly what it was like.  The poverty, when trade was bad was horrendous.  It is a quite pedantic style Mrs G has but, like Cranford, there is some wry humour in it.

I’m going to a literary event tomorrow night.  Celebrating another Victorian, local writer, Allen Raine, a non de plume of a lady who lived round here and was hugely popular in the late 1890’s.  If you look on Amazon some rare copies of her books are up to £99.00

We will be having readings fom her books, songs and drama from that time and some of the folks going will be dressed in period style.  I’m going with D and she has got herself a long black dress and black hat in the charity shop in town today.  I’ll wear a black skirt and boots with a brooch pinned to the neck of a blouse like they used to wear + a shawl. 

Hope it’s fun.

Progress

It’s all happening on this computer.  I’ve downloaded the first four chapters of the novel on the youwriteon.com site for them to be assigned for reviews.  I’ve read someone elses work this afternoon and reviewed that.  It’s fortunate that I’ve done  quite a bit of that in the course I did and at our Scribblers meetings. 

Friend, Beryl came this morning and was really pleased to hear the news as she has known about it for years.  Quite a lot of work to do yet but on doing a word count  I find I have too many so have to decide where to stop it. 

Damp and blowy here, real Autumnal weather.

Busy

Posts are going to be even smaller than usual for a few weeks as I am very busy with my novel.  It has been accepted through a scheme run by the Arts Council to be published by Christmas and they want it by end of October.  I have revising to do and possibly 10-20,000 words to finish it.  So I am cracking on.  It’s a lovely morning here after a damp and dreary yesterday so I might go out or an hour after lunch to take photos.

Mole away

This is the second winter we’ve been troubled with moles on the lawn so John has got a mole repellant from Screwfix.

This is a long tube, using batteries that emits a high powered noise they don’t like.  It takes a few weeks, and will get worse before it gets better.  Apparently the moles will be curious!  The tube is submerged in the ground and John has put a bamboo cane there so no one trips over it.  They are making a lot of mess with all the heaps so I hope it works. 

Of course, if they go in a neighbour’s field you don’t tell them, just commiserate and recommend Screwfix.  I know of one neighbour  who blows the moles out of the ground with lighted gas.  They make a terrible mess in fields, the soil gets in silage and hay, spoiling it, the mounds damage machinery so if they can go somewhere where it doesn’t matter  so much the better.

 Its sunny with the occasional light shower so very Autumny but pleasant after yesterdays downpours when I was out.  The roads were awash again and when I came back from Cardigan the fields by the river were flooded in Llechryd.  The car park by Cenarth falls had been lapped by the river as well.  I suppose a high tide had coincided with the rain and backed up the levels.

Death on the Serengeti

When I looked out of the back door this morning there was a tremendous racket in the trees.  The birds were really shouting so I thought Small might be involved.  A crowd of magpies flew off.

 John came in to say that Small had caught a pigeon and was eating it on the drive.  Unfortunately it was not dead so John had to kill it quickly.  It must have been old, sick or not paying attention to get caught like that.

He got bored with it and the magpies came down to have a go but later the carcase disappeared  so probably one of next doors cats had it.  It was like something on the Serengeti plain in Africa with the lions.

Sometimes the baby pigeons fall out of the nest which is on a beam in the barn.  Pigeons nest all year round.  As they poke a stick in one side, another stick will fall out the other side, their little bird brains havn’t realised this or the fact the babies, or squabs as they are called fall out as well. 

ThE BBC weather forecast said rain but it was a lovely day and I’ve been out taking photos, making the most of the sunshine.

There was an amazing sunset tonight.  As the sun set over in the west their were scarlet rays radiating up from the  hills.  I havn’t seen that before, not quite like that.

Wet again

Drizzle is driving drearily across the valley.  Although it was a bit showery we were lucky when Mark was here that it was reasonable for him to get the jobs done.  At least now the sheep are all sorted, lambs weaned etc and my car has had an oil change and service. 

I did think it is important to give it tlc as we need it for going shopping, hospitals etc. 

It was a pity the grass didn’t get cut but untimely showers intervened.  My friend J phoned to say they will come and stay when we go up to Surrey for the wedding.  I didn’t like the idea of leaving Catty and Small either in or out all day, not in the winter.  They can go in the barn but the tom cat, Nasty sleeps in there so I can’t see them doing that.

J and E will stay longer so we can have a good chat and perhaps go out or have an Indian takeaway.  J likes that, the ones from town are good. 

The cleaned out oil tank is full of oil and John is about to light the Rayburn range in the kitchen.  I hope there are no problems.  I paid 5l.5 litre for it from Trefigin if anyone wants to compare.  The price may go up or down it’s all a gamble.  The Rayburn in the lounge went out last night as he forgot to fill it up but it needs a thorough clean out so I’ll do that and Chris, the cleaner can help.  She won’t mind.

I’ve more bulbs to put out but with weather like this they’ll have to wait.