Day 113

Sixteen chapters completed – almost halfway there (as far as the first draft is concerned anyhow).

And things are getting really exciting, because Cleveland College of Art & Design are doing a live project for the cover of Slippery Souls – which starts this week! I’m popping along to the college on Friday for an informal meeting with the tutor and the graphic design students – so I’ll be doing a little prep work beforehand in case they have any questions.

I’ve also been busy working on some short stories to include in the second Easington Writers Group anthology, which will be published later this year – so watch this space. The first Easington Writers Group anthology, Shrugging Off The Wind: Tall Tales from Easington Writers, was published in February 2010 and is a cracking compilation of short stories and poems based around the Easington area. Well worth a read if you can get your hands on a copy. I’m honoured to be a part of their second book.

Also, as part of the Easington Writers Group, I’ve been working on a poem this week – as part of a project which is to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the Easington pit disaster. I’ll post more information about this as and when I have it.

And as for my Writers Bureau 17^th Assignment – I’m well and truly procrastinating! I have to firstly write a 1600 word short story suitable for radio transmission – and then develop the short story into a fifteen minute radio play. Not sure what to write about yet – so I’ll keep thinking on it.

Day 100

A fortnight has passed since my last update, and it seems to have passed by in a blur – in a small whippet sized blur! The puppy is finally settling in to his new home, and he’s had his injection now which means he can go for walks by the time the weekend rolls round (unfortunately it was put back by a week due to him being a bit off colour). Thankfully this means I’ll be able to concentrate a lot more on my writing once again. That said, I’ve still made progress with Slippery Souls – I’m now onto chapter 10. This sounds fantastic, since I originally had 19 chapters outlined. Alas I decided to make my chapters shorter and snappier – so there are now 33 in total. Not even half way there yet! I’ll get there eventually though.

And on another positive note, I’ve submitted my 16^th Writer’s Bureau assignment – so only 4 more to go till I finish my course! J

Day 86

So, that’s six chapters of Slippery Souls completed and now onto chapter 7 this week. I’m not sure just how productive I’ll be however, as well as having a stinking cold, Derek and I have just adopted a 12 week old whippet who is a whirlwind of energy around the house – from chasing his tail and chewing things that he shouldn’t be chewing, to jumping around on the couch and doing laps of the sitting room with Mr Stripey Legs dangling from his mouth, he’s certainly time consuming ha ha. Thankfully he has plenty baby naps throughout the day though – so I guess that’s when I’ll be doing chapter 7.

Roll on next week when he has his puppy vaccination and he can finally go out into the big wide world for lots of tiring walks! Chapter 8 might not feel like such an uphill struggle by that point J