A Funny Old Week

It has been one of those weeks where nothing has gone according to plan. So much for my writing routine! At 9am on Monday morning I still had no idea whether or not I'd have to drive my son back to Uni in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. He's sharing a different student house this year with a group of friends from his Songwriting and Music Production course and they couldn't get in touch with the landlord about where to collect the keys. Even though their course doesn't start until the end of September, they had to start paying rent from Monday, so were eager to move in. By 10.30am one of the boys had contacted Matt to say he was meeting the landlord at the property at lunchtime to collect the keys. Fortunately, Matt had packed most of his belongings, but it was still 12.45 by the time we'd packed the car and were ready to set off. It was a mercifully quick and uneventful journey down there, but by the time we'd unloaded Matt's stuff and I'd taken him and two housemates to Asda for their shopping, it was 4.15pm by the time I set off for home. On the way down to Hatfield we discovered that the M1 Northbound had been closed between two junctions due to a fatal accident involving several vehicles and the accident investigation team were still at work as we passed. The tailback queues were horrendous, so I resolved to go back via the A5. By the time I approached Dunstable the rush hour had started and the knock on effect of the M1 closure had a terrible impact. I sat in a traffic jam for an hour.  I finally got home via the reopened M1 at 7pm. So much for Monday.....

Tuesday was more productive writing-wise and I managed to submit a story to one of the womags (won't say which one, as I don't want to jinx it!). Managed to fit in a bike ride and do some housework and shopping.

I didn't manage anything remotely writerly on Wednesday once I'd been for another bike ride and out for a lovely lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in a while. I also bought a new mug today, but when I made a cup of tea in it back at home, it started leaking! I then discovered a big crack in it, so I had to go back to the garden centre I bought it from and get it changed. Grrr....

On Thursday I went for a quick run (only just building back up my stamina for running after being ill earlier in the year) and to see my GP for a bit of a check up (all seems well). I then set to work on finding two stories to enter into one of my favourite short story competitions - Erewash Writers' Group. I usually leave it until the very last minute to enter competitions and this one was no exception. Once I'd found the two stories I wanted to enter, I read through them and did a bit of tweaking. It's funny how you can always find something to change, even if you've entered the stories in something before. I then did some more work on a longer story I'm hoping to submit to The People's Friend. I got so close to selling to them once before (Shirley liked it, but the main editor didn't), but haven't tried since, so it's a market I'm desperate to crack. It's a story set in Edwardian times and one I'm particularly fond of. It's been out to a womag before, but was rejected. It's now had a radical rewrite and is better for it, I feel.

And so it's Friday.... I was hoping to do a longer bike ride today, but when I got up it was raining and I didn't fancy tackling muddy off road tracks. I did a shorter ride once it had stopped raining and realised halfway round that I was more tired than I thought, so it was a good job I didn't tackle the twelve-miler.
Before I went, I managed to add more words to the womag story I was working on yesterday and finished it. It now needs to rest over the weekend, then I'll re-read it and submit on Monday.

It's my birthday weekend this weekend, so I'll be skiving off drinking wine, champagne and hopefully having fun at the Visitation gig on Saturday (Visitation is my husband's band. He plays lead guitar and sings. They've been going since the 1980s and play a combination of space rock (Hawkwind type stuff) and classic rock covers (Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Cream etc). Hopefully, my husband will keep to his promise and take me out for a meal on Sunday, too!