Clumsiness, Changing Your Life & Hypnotism

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me he was clearing his bookcases and asked if I wanted any of his books. Naturally I beamed myself up almost instantaneously and one of the books that I brought home was Paul McKenna's Change Your Life in 7 Days. I haven't ever read any of his work before and have only seen him in the odd tv programme but as it had a CD at the back and talked of relaxation techniques and hypnotism, I thought it worth a look.

Dd found a Walkman for me to use and a comfortable pair of earphones and I took to my bed, only remembering an hour or so later that I wanted to listen to the CD. Not wanting to wake dh who had to be up early in the morning, I spent an age faffing about trying to figure out how to turn the darn thing on in the dark and finally lay back, eyes closed to be hypnotised. It was wonderful, I zoned out dreamily and relaxed listening to PMcK speaking in one ear phone the the next, then both at the same time (a little confusing but I went with it anyway). Dh then started snoring and desperate not to miss anything, I nudged him, only for him to make even more noise. The dog growled from his bed and I ended up more wound up than I had at the start. The next night, I made sure that I went to bed earlier than dh and gave him strict instructions not to disturb me and this time zoned out completely.

I don't expect or in fact really want to change much in my life but it would be great to stop stressing about work related issues and feel more positive and self-confident with regard to my writing - one can only try.

I woke up this morning refreshed (having gone to bed by 9pm and listened to the CD) but unfortunately my clumsiness is always worse when I'm feeling under the weather and before 8 this morning, I managed to:

Knock over several photo frames whilst opening the lounge curtains, though thankfully saving my toast and jam from hitting the new carpet at the last minute
Nearly re-pierced my ear when trying to insert an earring
Stabbed myself in the eye with a make-up brush making me look like I was crying from one eye only.

That was before I left the house for work.

Work was better than I had feared mainly due to the fact that I spent from 11 - noon in a meeting, followed by a retirement lunch from 12.30 - 2pm, so I wasn't at my desk for too much of the day, although I did have to stay and extra 2 hours late to make sure that something I have a deadline for was sorted out today.

I feel thoroughly washed out now as well as rather sore so shall not try and edit anything tonight but will carry on reading Mr McKenna's brilliant book and hope for the best.

Bleary Eyed & Still Editing

As I relaxed in my bath last night enjoying my Jude Deveraux book (I'm completely absorbed by it) ds announced through the door that he needed my help. Naturally I told him that I would be five minutes - where does the time go when either reading a good book or involved in attempting to write one - half an hour later my cooling bath was interrupted once more.

"Mum, I need you to come and help me now," he said as politely as he could manage.

I dressed, Grumpy growled as he was firmly ensconced in his bed and together we ambled downstairs and I ended up faffing about helping J with his CV (some school project) and a covering letter. That done I was about to go to bed (bearing in mind this is now midnight) when J announced that he also needs a passport size photo of himself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, I know I've now used up my quota of exclamation marks.

"What now?"
"Yes, I need it now. I have to give it in at school tomorrow."

Now I don't know about you but by 11pm my brain is closing down and at midnight I really am not in the best frame of mind to start trying to think where I might have put passport photos. Needless to say, I did find one - thanks to the fact that I only reapplied for new passports two months ago for J & S - and told him in no uncertain terms to get more organised. I wouldn't mind so much but he's had NINE days off. NINE DAYS.

This morning I look worse than I have been recently and believe me when I tell you that I look as rough as I feel. However, I have to gather myself as I am due back at work on Thursday and fully intend to be there.

I'm still editing and believe that I'm tightening and polishing T&OL and even though I'm reading it for the umpteenth time I'm enjoying meeting the characters again. Only another 180 pages to work through.

Editing & Becoming Jane

After a quiet weekend of doing very little, I spent this morning editing and then the postman very thoughtfully dropped off a little package from Amazon. "What another one," said husband arriving home for a spot of lunch at the same time. "Surely you've bought everything they have on offer."

I didn't like point out that I still have many items either pre-ordered or simply in my head waiting for a time when I shall no doubt give in and buy them too. What he doesn't know won't hurt him and the fact that my tbr piles are growing faster than I can read the books is surely a relatively harmless vice and one that I have no intention of giving up.

Anyhow, I digress. I spent a pleasant afternoon becoming absorbed in this lovely film. I don't care how accurate it may be, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and will no doubt watch it again at some point.

Right, I have to go now and watch the edited version of the Oscars on Sky One with dd.

London Book Fair

I'm looking forward to the London Book Fair Masterclass on 'How To Get Published' on 12 April (only seven weeks to go). The Chair is Danuta Kean and Panel of Speakers are Harriet Evans, Editorial Director for Fiction at Headline Publishers and brilliant author - I loved both her novels, Going Home and the more recent, A Hopeless Romantic, together with authors: Joanna Trollope, Gareth Sibson, Adele Parks and Jonny Geller, Literary Agent and Managing Director of Curtis Brown books division.

I can't wait to attend the session and pick up as much advice as possible and just hope that enough sinks in to my brain for me to put it to good use afterwards. I must remember to listen as well as take notes for the entire two hours.

Now it's time to make a mug of tea and be on my way with Grumpy to the shed to carry on with the editing.

Freezing, Faltering & Feeling More Cheerful

I'm thoroughly (oh no, an adverb) enjoying Freezing with the rather lovely Hugh Bonneville. He's an excellent actor who was equally brilliant in Five Days and so many other parts and I don't think that we see nearly enough of him.

I'm still achy and sore but feeling much better after my faltering of the past few days, thanks mainly to your kind comments and Andrea's help yesterday spending an age helping me download SmartScript on to my computer. I am such a technofool when it comes to computers. My poor b-i-l kindly came and rescued my computer the other day when it refused to connect to the internet. Apparently, I had so much rubbish downloaded that the poor system was having a hard time coping. I blamed the teenagers, of course, but when he showed me the listing of all the unnecessary bits and pieces I have to admit that my name was in most of them!!!

I'm going to make a strong cup of tea and carry on with the editing because once that's finished I can then focus on finishing the script (barely started, final date for entry 1 April...) and then my re-draft has to be contended with.

Stress & The Hero

Feeling ghastly yesterday and knowing that I was due back to work today, I thought that I should attempt to clear my head (am feeling more dizzy than usual) and pull myself together.

So, why not choose the healthy option and enjoy a short leisurely stroll along Greve de Lecq beach. This can be done in five minutes, a long beach it is not! As this is Grumpy's favourite place he raced to the nearest rock and I gently ambled down to the beach, slipped, almost doing the splits (but not quite, thankfully) and landed heavily on my bottom wetting the seat of my tracksuit and causing myself great humiliation and not a little pain.

Twenty or so heads instantly turned the other way and pretended not to have seen anything but dear Grumpy immediately raced back to check that I was ok. Thankfully, apart from a seaweed covered bottom and loss of dignity, I was relatively unscathed.

Needless to say this little adventure didn't help me feel any better and this morning the doctor told me off for stressing so much about missing work and insisted that I relax and let my body fight off this nasty virus. At least I can take it easy and slowly get on with my editing. I have so far done 110 pages but still have 223 to do and am enjoying making the corrections.

The Scream, Reviews & Bonfires

Okay, this is officially a crappy day! I hurt all over and have to return to work tomorrow as the other people in my team are on holiday as from today - half term - so I really need to be there.

Also, I've just read my latest review from You Write On and it made depressing reading to say the least. I have to be honest though and say that my reviewer wasn't wrong and I can see what he is saying, the problem is that when you've re-written something so many times what you really want reviewers to say is that they love it. Knickers!

One half of me wants to grab everything I've ever written and make a lovely warming bonfire, burn the lot and never write another word. Unfortunately, the other part of me knows that I'm only having a tantrum and that it was easier to give up smoking than it would be to stop writing and so I shall just have to take on board all that he has said, rethink what I've written and improve it.