- The Birthday Party, guests came in theme – In the Forest
Well, it has been a while, we had the short weeks and then a long week, then my party, then my birthday, my story was up on critters, what a month!
First of all, my party held 21 February was awesome, except I was sick. I was in the toilet, throwing up sick. I had fun while I lasted, but then when it all went pear shaped, it turned nasty quickly. I wanted so much to enjoy the party and have some fun, but it was not to be. Still, it was nice to not have Billy for a couple of days as he was with Mum.
Mum brought Billy home on Monday, as she came up to share my birthday with me. I had a great day, even if my stomach was still delicate. It was nice to be with Mum, I miss her when I don’t get to spend time with her.
Last weekend was the Crusty Demons Weekend, so the boys stayed in town with their Mum and it was just Kerry, me and Billy. I cooked a lovely roast chicken for tea and made chocolate mousse, just a pity my stomach still wasn’t up to much. Kerry had work off on Monday because I was sick and I went to the Doctors. Turns out that I possibly stripped the lining off my stomach, but I also might have gallbladder problems, which would explain the cramping like sensations I get that are taking my breath away. I have some tablets to take for the next 3 months for my stomach, but if the cramping pains don’t go away, then I have to have an ultrasound done on my gallbladder.
Besides all this, I have been doing a writing course through Writers University, a US website. It has been fun so far, but the tasks are getting trickier.
The first two chapters came up on Critters last week, and what a thrashing they got! The first two critiques hated it, and told me to scrap them chapters, but I can’t because they are integral to the story. Instead I have had to revamp the first two chapters to make them more exciting and trying to show instead of tell, which is hard because I prefer to be descriptive than show the story – I am not a picture book writer! I love the old fashioned way of writing where everything was explained in explicable detail, so that the reader could insert themselves into the story. Still, I also appear to have a lot of flaws as far as my punctuation is concerned and also the mix up of nouns and pronouns – by the end of it, I felt like I had submitted a story for marking in English class! I didn’t think writing was supposed to be so demoralising. I told Kerry that he could read it now, because nothing he could say would make me react any differently to what these others have. Still, I will keep going with it, because it is a pet project and I still want desperately to get it published, maybe thats the problem. I am not desperate enough, or perhaps too desperate. Just what does it take to get something published in this country?
On the writing subject, I have been asked to be a founding member of the Spec Fiction Writers website, which I am really excited about. I have no ideas about setting up websites, but I am really keen to get into it and start working on it. Our plan is to have it revealed in May 2010 in Wellington Science Fiction and Fantasy conference, hopefully I will get to attend with Kerry, will be interesting to see if he will come with me. It will be my first SFF conference! Better start saving now!