Congratulations & Awards

Many, many congratulations to the lovely Phillipa Ashley . Her wonderful book, Decent Exposure, is to be made into a film by Fox, and is going to be their flagship Christmas movie on the Lifetime Channel this December. It will be called The Twelve Men of Christmas, and Phillipa has just found out who they've cast as their lead actress, so please pop along to her blog to find out.



Thank you to troy for this lovely award. I do like getting awards, and love air display that comes over to Jersey every September, so this is great.

I'm now off to finish my next assignment, and polish up a short story so they can both go in this mornings post. The sun is shining, and although the forecast said it's going to be a little windy, I intend making the most of it, although we all know about good intentions. Dont we?

Anniversaries, Short Stories & Carrots

This Thursday saw the 39th anniversary of my father's plane crash. He and his friend flew two pilots to France from Jersey to collect a plane, and on the way back to the island, my father's plane crashed into the sea, just off the coast of France. They were lucky, obviously because they survived fairly intact, and also because the other plane that had just been collected circled the area for as long as possible, enabling them to eventually be picked up. He has been a wonderful father, and every year I thank my lucky stars that we've had another year with him in our lives.

Yesterday, the sun was shining, I was feeling relaxed as I'd just submitted a short story, and had worked through the next module for my assignment, when R got ready to leave for work. "I hope you're going to relax now," he said. "I'm going to lie in the sun and read," said I, intending to do just that.

Two hours later, I did get to sit outside, having moved furniture around in the house, collected J from his Sunday job, and sorted through mountains of paperwork in the shed, in an attempt to gain some sort of control over it all. Now everything (well, pretty much everything) has been placed in a newly labelled file.

Today, I just want to finish editing another short story, then I'm doing nothing, abso-flippin-lutely nothing.

P.S. R has just phoned. He's on his way home and cheerfully looking forward to us planting the carrots in the veg patch. Have you seen how tiny those seeds are? There are millions in a packet. Groan. Maybe I should lock myself back inside the shed?

Thanks, Edits & Chasing Buses

Many thanks for all the votes you've so generously given Grumpy's Palace for our entry to Shed of the Year 2009. Having looked at the site, I can't imagine we have a hope of getting anywhere, as there are some fantastic creations included, and ours is just, well, it's just a shed, isn't it? All good fun though.

I've finished the edits (did you hear me cheer from where you are?) and before I start to faff about with it too much (again) I'm now printing it off and will be sending my coursework off for the Caerleon course I'm taking part in with Marina Oliver, and also the whole manuscript to the RNA's New Writers' Scheme. After I've done that, it's on with the subbing, sending out short stories, as I haven't done much at all this year, and then I can get on with my next project, can't wait.

Dropped S at the bus stop today. As we were a little early, she said, "Mum, can we wait at the Parish Hall for a bit." We did, and as two females do when they have a second to spare, we started chatting. "Mum," S shouted several minutes later, "Isn't that my bus?" It was, so off I was again, bus chasing for a few miles, until I managed to get to a road wide enough to overtake and, like Steve McQueen in Bullet, got to the next bus stop just in time to allow S to get out of my car and catch the bus to school.

If you want a bit of displacement activity, you can go here to vote online for the TV Quick & TV Choice Awards 2009.

Shed of the Year 2009

The voting has started for Shed of the Year 2009. I didn't know about this competition until it was too late last year, but this year 'the shed' is included.

Please go here to vote for 'Grumpy's Palace' to give a miniature schnauzer (and me) a chance to get somewhere in this competition. He's never won anything before, and apart from a box of chocolates, oh yes, and a few trophies at horse shows many moons ago, I haven't won much either.

In fact I've just spotted a dog t-shirt here for Grumps, what do you think? No? Oh, okay then.

Loves Me, Loves Me Not

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Romantic Novelists' Association in 2010, an anthology of over 40 stories has been put together in one beautifully covered book, containing stories by such excellent writers as, Joanna Trollope, Katie Flynn, Rosie Harris, Anna Jacobs, Maureen Lee, Carole Matthews, Nicola Cornick, Amanda Grange, and many others.

The hardback is available to order now, and will be in local bookshops, supermarkets etc in the UK in September 2009. The paperback will follow in 2010. The book can be ordered here

Ten Years Younger

No, not him. Not me either (unfortunately), but the shed is in the middle of being painted. A brand new colour. So flippin' exciting. R phoned whilst I was at work today, told me he was looking at paint for the shed and asked what colours I'd like. If you look here (I'm sure you can't wait) it is the 'seagrass' colour that I chose. Now it's on (half) the shed, it is slightly paler, which is a good thing, as it isn't exactly the colour I was after, but pretty damn near.

Tomorrow, I have to meet S off the bus and race her straight to the dentist. Needless to say, she isn't thrilled. Friday, Grumps is having his booster. It should have been a month ago, but he was ill then and we were told to leave it until he was better. I hate taking him to the vet, but unfortunately R will be working.

On Saturday, my friend Andrea is popping over (from the UK) for the day. Rach, younger sis, is collecting her from the airport at the crack of dawn (well, 8am) and they're coming to my place for lunch. So excited, I can't wait. Though how we'll cope with all three of us talking at once until Andrea flies home later in the afternoon, I don't know.

I'm still editing, but, hey, what's new about that. I envisage a 101 year old, sitting at the laptop, and muttering, "I'll just edit this one more time, then send it off."

Happy Liberation Day

It's Liberation Day today, and 64 years since Jersey (Guernsey was liberated on 8th May) was liberated from being occupied by the German forces.

We always have a holiday on 9th May, and the sun always shines (or so it seems). So it's out with the flags, yes, us too, and various church services, parties, horse shows, etc.

So, to Dan, Ma, Gerry, Garry, Andrea, Chris & Rob, Andrew, Michael,Dom, Stuart and family, and all those unable to be with us to celebrate today, Happy Liberation Day.