Exciting news about the Sisters of Sin and Christmas telly

Good morning from dreich and overcast Scotland. And no the pictures used in this post are not recent ones taken from the lovely scenery around about me. Unfortunately, we’ve not had any snow yet. 🙁  I love the snow. However, we’ve had a bit of rain and there was a smattering of snow on the hills overlooking Port Glasgow. Anyway, to assuage my desire for snow I’ve decided to enhance this post with pictures of it that were taken in Scotland.

Firstly, the exciting news. The Sisters of Sin books are in production and the first one is due out at the beginning of June. Woohooooo!!! I know I’ve been talking about this for two years now, but we’re ready to go. We have a core group and we’ve recently invited two guest authors to join us. I cannot wait to get this series out. Watch this space for more details!

So, how was your Christmas? Hope you had a good one. As the rest of my family were away doing other things, it was just me and my two kids, three dogs and four chickens for Christmas this year.  I spent the day watching crappy movies on telly, flicking through the numerous books I got and eating chocolate and we had stuffed chicken and veg for dinner. I much prefer chicken to turkey which is why we had that. Turkey is okay, but I much prefer the taste and texture of chicken. We had chocolate log for afters. Was a nice, quiet kind of day. On Boxing Day we just had buffet type nibbles for dinner. Easy peasy.

I’ve just realised I haven’t posted anything for quite some time and, to be honest, the reason for that is partially because I have nothing to tell you. I’ve been working and because of Covid I had to cancel several nights out I had planned. This included an ABBA tribute act, a lunch with my besties and a night out at the Barrowlands to see Goodbye Mr Mackenzie on their 30th anniversary tour.  I was not happy, I can tell you. However, I felt in the circumstances (ie the Omicron variant is running rife in Scotland) it was the best thing to do. It’s meant we couldn’t enjoy our Christmas break as much as we’d like. I had also planned to take the kids out to dinner in Glasgow. We love going to see the Christmas lights and then getting something to eat.  Sigh. Never mind. Surely this bloody pandemic will be over soon!! They say the Omicron variant isn’t as dangerous, but what it is doing is forcing people in key jobs to take ten days off work which in turn is putting pressure on the health service, police, supermarkets, their supply chains and public transport. We were already seeing the effects of the variant on public transport before Christmas. Anyway, all these events I had to cancel will be rearranged…that’s a promise!

On to books. I’ve been reading Ali Smith’s Hotel World (superb book) and Edmund Blunden’s Undertones of War (also excellent) as part of my OU course. I’d never normally read either, but this course has opened up a whole new avenue of writing for me. Ali Smith is a brilliant writer and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Hotel World. Blunden’s Undertones of War is also good, but, and maybe it’s just me being tired when I read it in bed at night, I’m having to reread the odd passage or paragraph to ensure I get the full meaning of what he’s saying.  The first read often leads me to go: what? What’s he saying here and who’s he talking about? So, I have to reread it and sometimes I get the meaning and other times I don’t so I read on. I think it might be the language and the text tends to jump about from scene to scene to scene. Anyway, I’m still enjoying it. I’d better get it finished because I’m supposed to have done that by now!

What else has been happening? Have you been watching A Very British Scandal? Watched the first one last night and was hooked.  The Duke of Argyll’s behaviour towards Margaret is really nasty, but then she’s not really a nice character either.  It’s highly addictive watching. Going to watch the next one today.

We’ve been watching all the Harry Potter films and are now halfway through the first Deathly Hallows. Such great books and really enjoyable films. My daughter is a huge fan, so talks all the way through which is annoying. However, I’m still enjoying it. As a Terry Pratchett fan, of course, I watched the Hogfather. Love that version. Mark Warren as Mr Teatime is superbly creepy.  I’ve also recorded a few Christmas films to watch, including Elf and Scrooge (the musical), although I am hankering for a bit of Muppets Christmas Carol so may dig that out the Christmas DVDs box this afternoon.

Right, I must love you and leave you. I have a couple of thousand words to write for my second book in the Sisters of Sin series, my first one having been completed already, and I have to catch up on my uni coursework which has been sadly neglected recently.

Until next time!

Dawn xxx

We’ve had Covid 19, binge watched telly and read lots of books

So, I’m back at the keyboard today after a couple of weeks absence. The reason? Well, the nasty-cold-verging-on-flu we all thought we had turned out to be Covid 19 and me and my two kids have spent the last ten days trying to get over it. I’ve been double vaccinated and I think that’s why I didn’t have such a severe case of it as the kids did. My poor daughter got it worst and was pretty ill. She’s much, much better now. She had it since a week last Wednesday, I started having symptoms on the Thursday. My son, who only started showing symptoms last Sunday, still has the nasty Covid cough. Anyway, the main thing is we’re all getting over and it and are fine. Thank God.

It’s set me back a fair bit though. I have stuff I need to do around the garden and in my home. Anyway, it can’t be helped. Emma and I spent about four days lying in the living room binge watching various films and tv series. I watched The Defeated on Netflix. It’s excellent. It’s set in 1946 Berlin and there’s a serial killer on the loose. Really good. We also watched Cruella, which I loved (watched it again last night) and loads of others including Clueless (still good to watch) and Meet the Fockers (Emma hadn’t seen any of those films before and is now a fan).

Xander spent at lot of time in his room playing online games with his friends until he was felled by Covid. Then he spent three days in his bed and only emerged on Tuesday night. He’s not a big lover of watching tv with me, but we did enjoy Beetlejuice last night. I love a Tim Burton film!

During my confinement in Covid jail, I also read a number of books. Most of them were on writing:

The 5000 words per Hour book is by Chris Fox and is his take on how you can improve how many words you can write in an hour. Sounds boring to anyone but writers, but I enjoyed it. Going to incorporate some of his tips into my writing so I can be more productive.

A Glasgow Kiss is a chick lit novel by Sophie Gravia about a trainee nurse in Glasgow who is looking for love. It’s a highly amusing tale, some of it quite disgusting, but very enjoyable. It is the perfect book to read when you want something light and easy. Thanks to my nurse friend, Jane, for loaning it to me.

Outlining Your Novel is another great book for writers. I’m about halfway through it and it sets out why it’s a good idea to not be a pantser, but to actually plan your books. I have taken the suggestions on board and planned out a rough plan for my current work in progress. I was always a bit of a planner, but this has made me be more strategic about it.

Finally, I’m nearing the end of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. I’m reading it as part of this year’s uni coursework, but to be honest I’ve been wanting to read Angela Carter’s work for some time. I  loved The Company of Wolves film which is based on one of her short stories (which is in The Blood Chamber) and just love her take and twists on fairy tales. If any Angela Carter fans out there can suggest which of her books I should read next, I’d be most grateful!

Right, I am off to write some more of my novel. Til next time!

Dawnxx

It’s hard to write a blog when you’ve done nothing :-)

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Hello, hello, how are you all? Here’s another blog from lockdown. Not that I’ve that much exciting news to tell you. Above is an image I took of the River Clyde the other day. Not only proof that we’ve been having gorgeous and unseasonably warm/dry weather lately, but that the Clyde can look blue sometimes. The tide it out in this image and that’s Port Glasgow across the way, but it gives you an idea of how nice it’s been around here. Thank goodness, because I think if the weather had been dreadful things would be a lot more depressing for all of us who are having to stay indoors at the moment. People are already complaining of boredom and feeling depressed, awful weather would have made that worse for them.

I’m not going to ask you what you’ve been up to because, let’s face it, no matter where you are in the world, you are more than likely staying indoors to help stop the spread of Corona Virus. Instead, I’ll just ask you what you’ve been up to. Have you been watching copious amounts of telly? Started a new hobby? Baked until your fingers bled? Gardened until there’s barely a green bit of the garden left? 😉

I’ve been watching tv, but in small amounts. I’ve taken to watching Carnival Row again. Yes, again, for the fourth time. I love it that much. I’m also considering watching Game of Thrones again too. You see, apart from Killing Eve (which is bloody brilliant), there’s not much on the telly I want to watch right now. There haven’t been any decent history programmes or documentaries, I find a lot of comedies dire and I don’t watch soaps. So, it’s back to old favourites. I’m loving Carnival Row all over again and seeing things I didn’t notice before on the three other times I watched it.

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Here’s a pic of two of my dogs on a local beach. It’s a riverside beach and not the nicest of beaches, but it’s great for dog walking and the dogs don’t seem to mind the stones and detritus thrown there by the river.

What else have I been doing? I am writing, writing, writing. Just finished 2000 words of my assassin book plus did another few pages of my non fiction book. I’ve sent a tv programme I wrote to a scriptwriting competition. Not sure if it’s good enough, but we’ll see what happens. I’ve also been doing bits and pieces around the house – you know, the wee things that need done but never get done because you’re so busy. I have a whole list of those to do. Sigh. Well, I’m not going anywhere soon so I’d best be getting on with them! 🙂

A big hello to any newbies who are following this blog. Welcome and thanks for joining us. I’m please to say I have 831 subscribers to this blog and a few more subscribing to my newsletter. If you want to receive the newsletter,  add your email address to the Mailchimp signup form to the right of the page.

Right, depressingly, I have nothing else to tell you. I dream of going out for lunch some time soon with friends or taking the dogs and kids up to Oban for the day or going to my parents’ house for dinner. And I keep telling myself ‘It’s not forever, we will get back to normality soon.” I hope that’s true!

On that note, I wish you all a good week ahead. Stay safe and stay sane. Til next time

Dawn xx

PS big shout out to my aunt who turns 70 this coming week and to my friend Mark who has a birthday too. Happy birthday to you both.