Freedom From The Mundane

No Plans

Image: koka_sexton

Several pints of cold lager were had on Friday evening in my favourite haunt, Clark’s Bar, so much that by Saturday morning I was feeling a touch on the rough side. Not quite sure how it happened myself, but it had been one of those weeks that required some alcohol to start the wind down earlier than normal.

It had been a good day, too; the salary and bonus announcement’s were made and I did quite well, so the working week finished on a high.

For one reason or another my mates couldn’t make the rugby session yesterday so I skipped the entire thing and elected to watch Scotland play England in the Six Nations Rugby match from the comfort of my own home. I missed not getting any of the atmosphere and all the laughs that come with it, but it’s going to be a busy week on the party front anyway so I wasn’t too bothered.

The game was neck and neck the whole way and it ended up finishing a 15-15 draw. It was a good old fashioned exciting rugby match that only the Six Nations can serve up.

I did a lot of reading and notebook scribing today. After a 50+hour week working at the computer in the day job I needed a break but it’s always good to cleanse the soul by writing poems and reading good books.
My cup final tickets have arrived but I need to go and collect them from the depot because they require a signature. Which is a paint because it;s really hard to get to now since it moved from Brunswick Road.

My new glasses are also in. Actually, they’ve been in since Friday but I’ve not gone to collect them yet. I asked if I could have the ones that were sent in error because I actually quite liked them, but because the manager was on holiday nobody could make the decision. They can’t even five the damn things away.

I’m toying with the idea of going to collect them now but I’m almost scared to make the trip in case something else goes wrong. I need hay for the rabbit, so I might have to be up there anyway. In any case, if I wait until tomorrow I should be able to get both pairs as the manager will be back from holidays—supposedly.

Today: no direct plans.

Peace, out!

March 14th, 2010 | Tags: Calcutta Cup, Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, glasses, longhand, Reading, rugby, salary, Scotland v England, Six Nations, Writing | Category: Day Job, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Poetry, Reading, Scotland, Sport, Writing | Leave a comment

Proofs And Presses

Image: Colin Galbraith

I’m shattered. My eyes hurt, my head is sore, I have that run down snivelly thing going on and I want to sleep for hours while at the same time go out and let my hair down. Maybe I can do both. Scotland are playing England at rugby in the Six Nations Championship tomorrow so maybe if I can get a decent night’s kip I can manage it.

The reason I’m feeling this way has been a week of elongated days and stress thrown in thanks to having to clear up after other people’s errors. It’s part of the job, as is getting the point across, but it doesn’t half create some knots in my shoulders and back by the end of each day. I go home totally buzzed and worked up and it takes me a while to come back down off it. Mind you, the announcements for pay rises and bonuses are made today so fingers crossed that helps.

Philistine Press have a blog and they showcased my free poetry e-books on Monday. Check it out here. I quite like the editor’s own poetry—it’s similar to mine and he has many of the same influences—so it’s a shame Philistine isn’t more established or I’d consider maybe sending something in.

My proof copy of SILLY POEMS FOR WEE PEOPLE VOL.2 arrived. It all looks great apart from a missed page at the start and a couple of graphics resolutions. I need to insert a blank page at the start of the book to line it up correctly otherwise all the pages are off by one. Might also need to create another couple of images, unless I can sort the ones with the problem. Other than that, though, it looks totally fab!

I ordered a book of poetry from a local press here in Edinburgh and another chapbook arrived, this time as part of the Poetry Super Highway E-book Exchange 2010. Everyone who signs up receives a random book from another poet and agrees to send one of theirs to some else.

A copy of FRINGE FANTASTIC was sent out to the States last week, while yesterday I received a copy of Another Song For Another Eden by Mike Scheidemann in Israel. It’s a 103-page hardback with images and some Hebrew translations. I’m looking forward to reading it. More here: Voices Israel.

Think that’s about it.

Peace and out!

March 12th, 2010 | Tags: chapbook, Day Job, I.T, Philistine Press, Poetry, Poetry Super Highway, rugby, Rugby Union, run-down, salary, Scotland versus England, Silly Poems for Wee People Vol.2, Six Nations, stress, tired | Category: Day Job, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, I.T., Interviews, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Scotland, Sport | Leave a comment

The Writing Trance

Image: Eye Make Art

I chanced my arm on a whim and logged into my account at the St. Mirren ticket office over lunch yesterday. Lo-and-behold the cup final tickets were available early for non-season ticket holders!!

I got two briefs for the League cup final against Rangers on March 21st, Block G, right behind the goals in the centre. It’s going to be a great day that one—great week in actual fact because I’m going to see Stiff Little Fingers four days before it.

Luke Wright wrote a memorable poem—as so many of his are—on the hop before he appeared on Saturday Live last week. He published it yesterday in his newsletter and it’s also on his website; entitled Three Children it’s a startling piece about the James Bulger affair. Read the poem here.

The reason I mention is because quite often while writing poetry the best lines seem to come when you aren’t really thinking about them, but more when you allow yourself to be open and spill out what comes into your head and onto the page in a single action. It’s almost trance-like; you get caught in a thought and the pen almost runs away with itself. It’s happened a few times with me, the most memorable with poems like River Monkeys, Lost Tears and Disposable Pens being the ones that spring immediately to mind.

Various things can promote this state of mind and creative swirl—time pressure is one of them, that moment when you realise you can procrastinate no longer and the deadline is so near it’s scary.

Intense emotion can bring it on; a fight with a loved one, a death in the family, the birth of a child—anything that creates that heightened sensitivity in a human soul does so at the price that it rises to the surface and sometimes falls off onto the page.

Very occasionally a wee drop of alcohol is good for helping but not too much. Drunk writing isn’t a good thing and it’s actually quite hard if you’re trying to do it on a PC. Long-hand and it’s very probable you won’t even be able to read it the next morning!

Very often I’ve found there is rarely any major editing to be done after a “trance poem” hits the page. I wish I could achieve it more often—maybe there’s a secret?

Whatever way it comes, as a writer it’s always good when it does. These are the most pleasurable moments one can experience while writing anything, let alone poetry.

I spent half of last night trying to catch the male Kribensis in my fish tank. I’d pulled out half the plants by the time I’d got hold of the little blighter. If you haven’t guessed already it’s because he and his randy partner have had another brace of about 50 little fry, and to protect them he spends his time trying to kill everyone else in the tank. No way, amigo! So out he came and into a net. He’s still in the tank—just not able to hurt anyone until the paternal phase is over with.

Not much writing done as I was so tired after work, but I wasted not as I took time out to catch up on some reading. I’ve got more than one book going at the moment: one fiction, one auto-biographical and one non-fiction. All good stuff.

Peace and out!

March 10th, 2010 | Tags: Cup Final, Hampden Park, James Bulger, Luke Wright, Poetry, poetry process, Saturday Live, St Mirren, Stiff Little Fingers, tickets, Writing | Category: Animals, Music, Poetry, Sport, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a comment

Moving Ever Closer To The Mac

Image: Macbitz

After much tinkering with the email client on my PC I can formally announce I am now 100% back in action. But I’m still not happy; not happy with the fact I have to go through this every time I have to reinstall the O/S, which quite frankly shouldn’t need done at all in order to keep the system top-top and running smoothly.

To that end I had some spare time yesterday morning so after popping into the opticians to see if my specs were ready (they weren’t, but I approached them with a deal, which you will find out about in tomorrow’s post hopefully), and after buying some fresh coffee from Tesco, I popped into PC World to see what they had in the way of Macs.

They had the usual array of laptops, which all look terrific quite frankly and I had a wee play with some of them. Not sure about the low keyboard on some of them but as I was toying around the Apple guy came back and started talking to me. “Here we go,” I thought, “more sales patter” but actually the guy was pretty cool.

He wasn’t giving me a hard sell or anything and we started talking about the differences in working with a Mac as opposed to a PC. He used to work in I.T. also, and so our discussion got down to the level you rarely get from sales folk—a good technical understanding and appreciation of how things actually work in the real world. As the conversation went on he suggested an alternative to the Macbook that might suit me more—the Mac Mini.

I admit to not having much exposure to Apple other than their Macbooks and iPods, so it may come as a surprise to read that I had never heard of the Mac Mini. It can be held in your hands and does all a Macbook would do except it’s essentially a desktop replacement. It’s a small silver box. It has sockets and jacks in the back and a front CD/DVD loader and it has a lot of power under the hood. It could be exactly what I’m looking for if I choose to leave the world of the PC behind.

When I got home I started reading up on it. It looks just the job, though I’m not going to invest just yet, it’s definitely the way I would go if/when I do move to a Mac—and on this revelation that could be sooner rather than later. I seem to get the impression that if I do move to a Mac I won’t look back and judging by what I saw/read today I am more convinced that could be just the case.

There’s not much else to write about the weekend although I had an awesome curry with my wife on Saturday night: lamb pathia with all the trimmings. Delish!

On the writing front I worked on two and a bit things. The “bit” was the submission of more poems and stories, and one of the other things was the final proof being sent to the publisher of SILLY POEMS FOR WEE PEOPLE VOL.2. It’s all done now and I await the free proof copy to arrive on my doorstep some time in the next week. The launch date is April 2nd so I have much to do, but I’ve already done the web page for it and started pumping out some promo ideas.

The major thing I’ve been working on is solid writing and developing ideas for BACCARA BURNING. It’s coming on very nicely and I had to make myself stop last night. One of the small bit-part characters looks as though he may have a larger bearing on the outcome of the story than I first realised.

When I left the story late last night I did have a problem though: both the main characters have gotten separated and are in dire straits. My dilemma now is—who the hell saves who?

The life of a writer—always interesting.

Peace and out!

March 8th, 2010 | Tags: Apple, Baccara Burning, Books, desktop, Fiction, Indian curry, Mac Mini, PC, PC World, Poetry, Silly Poems for Wee People Vol.2, software, Submissions, Writing | Category: Books, Fiction, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, I.T., Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (5)

Unwinding

Image: Woodley Wonderworks

I watched an excellent film from Lovefilm last night. Once is a “modern day musical” about an Irish busker and a Czech immigrant, who come together on the street and end up recording some music before going their separate ways. An excellent film; beautifully shot, a wonderful script and finely acted. I would highly recommend it.

I made a rather dramatic decision in my quest to finish rebuilding my PC with as little bug-loaded and performance debilitating software as possible. I skipped Microsoft Office altogether and am now using OpenOffice full time. I was already using it on my Netbook simply because I had no way of installing it, but I have grown comfortable with its facilities and layout. Now I use it on everything. Goodbye MS Office forever.

It’s amazing how the only program I couldn’t get to run on Microsoft’s Vista operating system was Microsoft’s very own Office suite. I do quite fancy one of those Macs, though. If I had the money I would seriously consider one right now, but it would be good if I could take one on a test run for a few days just to get a feel. Not to worry, I’ll see how things go with a lighter load on my current machine for now.

The only thing left to do now is finish hunting down the old Ranfurly Review email files I lost when rebuilding my PC. Devon’s suggestion of using a spread sheet is sadly ironic because up until the previous issue that’s exactly what I was doing. But I got lazy and wanted to speed the process up so I started using email folders to track where things were. I deserve all I get on this one.

Enough of technology for now, this is supposed to be a writing blog and it’s just depressing me the few days I lost over it.

Today is Saturday and that means free time. Free time on a Saturday morning means I’m going for a long walk. My notebook is twitching on the desk beside me, which means I will seek out a coffee shop in which to indulge in cappuccinos and pastry, and put pencil to paper as I slake my thirst.

I’ve not got much on this weekend other than laying back, unwinding, working through my GDRs and probably a bit of tidying up. Everything is poised before the week of much excitement that lies just around the corner: Scotland versus England in the Six Nations next Saturday will mean some fun and games in Edinburgh’s pubs with my mates, then on the 17th it’s the annual St. Patrick’s Day bash with the punk band Stiff Little Fingers at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom.

Until then, and until tomorrow, peace and out!

March 6th, 2010 | Tags: coffee shop, computer, DVD, GDR's, Lovefilm, Microsoft, MS Office, Once, OpenOffice, PC, Ranfurly Review, Vista, Walking, Writing | Category: Writing | Comments (1)

PC Correction

Image: PC Repair

My family loves pizza. It’s official. When Gail was given the choice of where she wanted to go for her birthday meal she chose Pizza Express on Leith’s Shore. She made her decision shortly before we left, and so I wasn’t surprised to see it was full when we got there. Wednesday’s are “Orange Wednesday” where you get 2-for-1 if you are a customer of Orange, hence the Leithers all out in force.

What to do! After a quick call to Directory Enquiries I booked us a table at the Pizza Express on Holyrood Road. A much nicer venue if you ask me, opposite The Scotsman building and off-set from the street. It’s where I went to an art opening a couple of years ago (free food and bevy) so I have fond memories of it.

It was nowhere near as busy as the Leith version and more pleasant. Their Bruschetta was delicious; flumpy garlic bread with tomatoes, red onion, pesto sauce, rocket and drizzled in olive oil. Most nice, it was, and works really well with a bottle of Nastro Azzurro. For my main I plumped for one of their new pizzas. I can’t remember its name but it had Parma ham, black olives, capers, anchovies and boiled eggs on it.

Anyway, in the past three days we’ve had a Dominos delivery on the couch in front of the telly for birthday #1, and a trip out to a pizza restaurant for birthday #2. For my birthday in September I’m going to insist on somewhere new. Papa John’s perhaps.

I left wife to sleep off her grub when we got back, which gave me some time to get my PC back in order. I dumped a few applications from the reinstall list to slim things down, mainly web development tools I’ve installed to trial in the past and then let expire. The home network is sorted and I’ve restored all my personal files, including the all important writing folder.

The only application I couldn’t get to install was, would you believe, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.) and I may have a problem restoring my emails to their most current. Which could pose a problem with regards to issue 11 of the Ranfurly Review; no emails = no idea who has been accepted/rejected and it also means I may not have the full and proper queue of who is still to be read. Nightmare scenario, but I’ll find a way.

Note it is only the Microsoft products giving me the hassle.

Speaking of the Ranfurly Review, I did manage to get the new issue uploaded and published. Click here to download a free copy.

Until tomorrow, peace and out!

March 4th, 2010 | Tags: birthday, computer, Domino's pizza, Excel, ezine, Family, lit-mag, Microsoft, PC, pizza, Pizza Express, Ranfurly Review, software, Vista, Word | Category: Day Job, Family, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, I.T., Publishing and Marketing, Reading | Comments (1)

The Cost Of March

Image: Online Casino

Dear Lord, I thank myself for my blessed foresight when I purchased a Netbook last year, for it has gotten me out of quite a few scrapes already. I bought it to support my writing in a mobile environment, but it has also given me the ability to access vital day job facilities when my main PC falls on its arse. Amen.

This was the case last night. Called out to work on a problem (I’ll be glad when this fortnight is over), I had to resort to my Netbook to log on and do the work; not easy tapping to a virtual server environment on a 10 inch screen. What was my main PC doing at the time? Reinstalling Vista of course!

I tried everything I could think of to fix it but basically the boot files were corrupted as were a whole bunch of other files. I had no choice. When I left it last night I had a brand new copy of Vista on my machine but now have the arduous job of restoring everything. That means a few things:

Reinstalling all applications
Catching up with all security patches
Reconfiguring the PC for the home network
Restoring all my files (writing/websites/user data, etc.)

It sounds a worse job than it is because I got my act together a few months ago with regards to this sort of thing. The installation files for all my vital and not-so-vital applications are backed up, as are all the files I need for restoring everything to before. Luckily I had set the backup to run every time I close down – so I’m always 100% updated if I can’t get booted up next day—which is precisely what happened.

The upshot to it all is good and bad. Good, in that I will have a cleaner machine that runs faster; bad, in that the Ranfurly Review is going to be at least 3 days late in publication.

We’re celebrating another birthday today. My wife moves further into the thirty-something zone two days after my daughter’s birthday. I gave her a bunch of money towards her latest photography project (still waiting for permission to mention it) and I think we’re gong out for dinner tonight also.

It’s always an expensive month (three other members of my family have their birthdays between Jan 25 and Mar 25 as well!) but I’ve been told that is nothing to what will happen in 2018, when my daughter’s 21st coincides with my wife’s 40th within two days of each other. I have 8 years to plan. Mind you, I’ll be 44 by that point and probably run into the ground.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABE!!!

Until tomorrow, peace and out!

March 3rd, 2010 | Tags: 30-something, backups, birthday, computers, Day Job, dinner, Family, hardware, I.T. Microsoft, Ranfurly Review, software, Vista, Writing | Category: Day Job, Family, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, I.T., Publishing and Marketing | Comments (2)

Bloody Vista

Image: MS Vista

Thanks for all your birthday wishes posted on the blog yesterday—I passed them all on. Perhaps the most scary comment left was: “A teenage female in the house, good luck mate.” Cheers Stevie—just when I needed a laugh!

I got the feeling all day that yesterday was a public/local holiday of some kind but could never prove it. The schools were open and the buses running as normal, but the bin collection never happened and the streets were much quieter than normal. Either that or there was a collective agreement for the residents of Edinburgh to take a long lie. I kept feeling I was missing out on something all day.

I had a great surprise waiting for me when I got home: my copy of the 30th Anniversary Tour DVD by The Specials. I’ll watch it one night when Gail is out with a couple of beers in hand and the big telly revved up for the best effect.

In the end we never went out for my daughter’s birthday. She wasn’t feeling too great (personally I think that’s nothing else but the result of two nights of sleepovers and a party with all her pals) so she was given a range of options, finally descending on a Domino’s pizza with her jammies on in front of the telly. Those Hot and Spicy ones they do are roasting—I was sweating like I’d eaten a mega-curry!

If any of you are readers of the Ranfurly Review you will maybe have noticed there is a problem with the site—it’s not been updated yet. I can’t get onto my PC. For some reason when booting up it doesn’t quite make it to the logon screen and kicks itself back out to begin the boot cycle again. I’ve tried Safe Mode and using the CD but nothing works.

I have full backups of everything so I’m not bothered if I have to wipe the hard drive and start again (I’ve considered reverting back to XP because Vista is total shite), but my last backup over the weekend was taken before I uploaded the new issue of the magazine. So if I have to wipe and restart I will also have to start the new issue from scratch, which I don’t have time for. So I simply must find a way in, take a quick backup then I can figure out how best to proceed. The PC had been behaving well of late, too, so I’m a bit baffled as to why it has suddenly decided to flake out like this.

I’ve never liked Microsoft Vista. It came with my PC when I bought it and it has been the most unreliable, insecure, and unstable operating system I’ve ever had the misfortune. Even on a 4GB RAM system the damn thing crawls along with simple functions. The case for an Apple Mac grows stronger but as I work with Windows daily it’s often a case of the better the devil you know.

Here’s a joke I came across today while catching up on my email (on my Netbook). I just had to publish it.

Q: What do a short-sighted gynaecologist and a puppy have in common?
A: A wet nose.

Until tomorrow, peace and out!

March 2nd, 2010 | Tags: 30th Anniversary Tour, birthday, computers, Dominos, DVD, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, I.T, Microsoft Vista, MS Windows, Music, Netbook, PC, pizza, public holiday, Ranfurly Review, ska, teenagers, The Specials | Category: Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Family, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, I.T., Music, Publishing and Marketing, Video | Comments (1)

1 Decade And 3

Image: 13

Today is a special day in our house. It’s my daughter’s birthday—she’s 13 years old! That’s 13 I said; Thirteen; 1 decade and 3! Do I feel like an old fart? Well, yeah, kind of, which is why I’m still baffled about constantly being branded a big kid.

Anyway, we’re off out tonight to celebrate as a family so I won’t be doing anything except eating and drinking.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COOKIE!!!

Did anyone watch the final of the Men’s Hockey last night? It’s not a sport I’ve ever been into much but wowser was it a cracker! I hadn’t given much of it a glance when I tuned in with 10 minutes to go. I got hooked quite quickly then when the USA equalised against Canada and I wasn’t going anywhere! Most exciting stuff, it was.

What was that? Oh, that must have been winter! All of a sudden March is here and although it’s still damn cold I *think* today marks the first day of spring as far as the seasonal monthly shift goes. It’s usually nearer the end of the month or into April before we start to fee any lift in temperature, but still, Christmas time and all that snow, snow, snow seems so very long ago.

Did you manage to catch my monthly GDR review I posted last night? I had a damn fine month and I bet you’re wondering how I got on with my extremely demanding mini-GDR over the course of the weekend? Here’s how it looked come close of business last night:

5,000 words on BACCARA BURNING – 20% DONE (i.e. not done)
Complete 1st draft of stage play – STALLED
Prepare March newsletter – DONE
February GDR review – DONE
March GDR Plan – DONE
Complete Spring issue of RR – DONE
More polishing of SILLY POEMS 2 chapbook- DONE

The play stalled because it needed to be a lot longer and yet it felt complete. I have until the end of April if I’m going to submit it, which is just as well because I really became at a loss with what to do with it—if anything at all. Then last night while lying in bed it came to me. I suddenly realised the bonds and breaks between the two characters and I can continue. So I put it back on my GDR for March.

Speaking of which…

Monthly GDR Plan

Fiction
* Complete writing BACCARA BURNING
* Write at least one new short/flash story
* Re-submit any rejected/recalled short stories
* Submit more fiction/poetry competitions
* Work on stage play, LETTING GO

Poetry
* Write at least one poem per week
* Complete polishing the layout of SP2

SP2 Publication
* Order & final check proof copy
* Write & distribute press release
* Seek out & schedule promo slots
* Create website page
* Create promo video

Editing
* Stay on top of RR submissions
* Start preparing for June 10 issue

Freelance
* Get some gigs to review for NotW
* Keep up all websites updated and relevant
* Photography client updates pending

Reading & Learning
* The Kenneth William Diaries by Russell Davies
* On Writing by Stephen King

Till tomorrow, peace out!

The Scruffy Dog Review – Winter Issue OUT NOW!!

March 1st, 2010 | Tags: 13, birthday, Canada, Family, GDR's, Goals Dreams and Resolutions, Hockey, Ice Hockey, meal, seasons, spring, teenager, thirteen, USA, Vancouver, winter, Winter Olympics | Category: Family, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Sport, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (3)

February’s GDR Review

Monthly GDR Review

Fiction
* Write 20K words on BACCARA BURNING – part-done; 5k
* Write one new short/flash story per month – done
* Re-submit any rejected/recalled short stories – done
* Submit more fiction/poetry competitions – done

Poetry
* Write at least one poem per week – done (plus lots more)
* Complete MS for SILLY POEMS FOR WEE PEOPLE VOL.2 – done
* Start preparing SP chapbook – done

Editing
* Stay on top of RR submissions – done
* Start preparing for March 10 issue – done

Freelance
* Get a few more gigs to review for NotW – none available
* Keep up all websites updated and relevant – done

Reading & Learning
* The Kenneth William Diaries by Russell Davies – IP
* On Writing by Stephen King – IP
* One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson – not started

Things That Turned Up
* Freelance article re-write assignment – done
* One Act Stage play – IP; stalled
* Eternal Press company buy-out; contract amendment
* FRINGE FANTASTIC entered into 2010 PSH Poetry Exchange

Submissions Made
* Short story to Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2010 short story competition 4/2
* Short story to Frome s/story competition 5/2
* Short story to Gemini Magazine 4/2 (encouraging rejection 28/2)
* 4 poems to anthology: The IRON Book of New Humorous Verse 5/2
* Flash piece to Flash Fiction Online 8/2
* Flash piece to Drunken Boat 8/2
* Short story to Grace Dieu Writers’ Circle Short Story contest 22/2

Outstanding
Barcelona Review 1
Spinetinglers 1
Flash Fiction Online 1
Frome s/s Competition 1
Identity Theory 1
Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook s/s competition 1
Grace Dieu Competition 1
Drunken Boat 1
Be A Better Writer 1

Successes
The big success of February has been the amount of work I’ve got through. Just check out the amount of times you see the word “done” above. It’s been a good month for output and I feel it’s been building for a while. The main thing now is to keep it going and expand in the areas still lacking.

Two chapbooks have made significant process this month. SILLY POEMS FOR WEE PEOPLE VOL.2 is now ready and scheduled for publication in early April, and my chapbook on Edinburgh is growing with submissions by the week.

Part of this has been my deliberate attempt to write outside of my office. I’ve moved myself around a lot—the kitchen, the living room, etc. for a lot of fiction work—but the poems have flowed in coffee shops around the centre of Edinburgh.

I inadvertently picked up some freelance work from a company I thought no longer required my services a year ago. Good to be back with them but one wonders if I will get anything much out of them for a while. They still pay a very reasonable rate and they know I’m always happy to take on a gig or two!

Failures
Still struggling with BACCARA BURNING. Some days it comes out fast and slick and others I struggle to get down anything over 200 words. The characters are grating each other and the only thing that seems solid in the book so far is the story itself. Could the characters be sabotaging the book? I really need to get a grasp on this. One thing I have noticed is writing during the daylight hours doesn’t help much but writing at night does.

The Scruffy Dog Review – Winter Issue OUT NOW!!

February 28th, 2010 | Tags: Books, Dreams and Resolutions, Editing, Fiction, Freelance, GDR's, Goals, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Reading, Writing | Category: Books, Fiction, Freelance, Poetry, Reading, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

Bits ‘n’ Pieces

Image: Les Chatfield

I finished work around 6:30am yesterday but was so tired opted to go back to bed for 90-minutes. It paid off. I felt much better after the extra nap. When I got up for the second time it was still raining but I felt like a ray of sunshine. *barf*

One thing I forgot to factor into my day was the Six Nations Championship. It was yet another terrible display by Scotland, losing in Rome due to their inability to take their chances and get the ball over the line. In two weeks we play England—I fear the worst, although we do tend to lift our game slightly for that one. With any luck the English will still be bruised after the defeat to Ireland at home later in the afternoon.

The March issue of the Ranfurly Review is ready to go and will be published tomorrow bang on schedule. I got the cover sorted after much internal debate. I’m still not entirely sure it works but I like the picture so I went with it.

I also dealt with some website updates that I forgot were languishing—that didn’t take long—then wired into the rest of the work I had planned. My father in law was round for a couple of hours, which took me up to dinner time, then with the house full of noisy kids upstairs for yet another sleepover, I spent most of the evening in the living room talking to Gail about her latest photography project. It’s a big one but I’ll need permission before I can reveal it.

Up early this morning to complete part two of the overtime work from yesterday, I’m about to head out to get a newspaper and a few messages, then make a dent into the remaining work for today. Going into Sunday my mini-GDR for the weekend now looks like this:

5,000 words on BACCARA BURNING
Complete 1st draft of stage play - STALLED
Prepare March newsletter
February GDR review
March GDR Plan – DONE
Complete Spring issue of RR – DONE
More polishing of SILLY POEMS 2 chapbook

The stageplay has stalled because it needs to be a lot longer and yet it feels complete. I have until the end of April if I’m going to submit it, which is just as well because I’m not sure what to do with it now. I agreed with myself I would sit on it for now and see if anything occurs.

It’s the final day of the month, but as it’s a Sunday and there is still much I want to do I’ll wait until tonight before publishing my monthly GDR review in a separate posting.

If you’re subscribed to my monthly newsletter now’s a good time. I’ll be unveiling the front cover to my new book, SILLY POEMS FOR WEE PEOPLE VOL.2. You can subscribe by going to this page.

Till later this evening, peace out!

The Scruffy Dog Review – Winter Issue OUT NOW!!

February 28th, 2010 | Tags: e-zine, GDR, lit-mag, Photography, projects, Publishing and Marketing, rain, Ranfurly Review, rugby, Scotland, Six Nations, sleepover, Weather, Website | Category: Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, I.T., Publishing and Marketing, Scotland, Sport, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a comment

The Rain, The Rain

Image: J Greig

As I write this you are sleeping. The sun is far beyond the horizon, the birds are asleep, and not a house light is on as far as the eye can see. Except, that is, for the one in my office. The smell of coffee being made in my automatic coffee machine is wafting through the house and shortly I will pop the toaster. Why is all this true? Because despite it being a brand new Saturday and only 4:30am, I am preparing to work overtime for the day job from my home PC.

I had a very busy and tiring week so to be honest this is the last thing I can be bothered with today. But it has to be done; it was my turn on the rote and it pays well. I’ll probably stay up once the work is complete, head out (if the rain stops) and buy a paper and nip up to find a corner in a coffee shop somewhere to spend my morning. I can always take a nap later on if I need it.

It rained so much over the past couple of days we actually got a flood warning for the River of Leith! Most rivers and burns in the Edinburgh region were hit with the warning after two days of constant heavy rain. Personally I don’t mind the rain but walking home from work in it last night with head on winds that made it impossible to see where I was going, and by the time I got in my thighs, chest and face stung with the cold. There was only one thing for it: lamb pathia, pilau rice and naan bread. Sorted.

So what’s on the cards today after my overtime? Over the course of the weekend I want to achieve the following:

5,000 words on BACCARA BURNING
Complete 1st draft of stage play
Prepare March newsletter
February GDR review
March GDR Plan
Complete Spring issue of RR
More polishing of SILLY POEMS 2 chapbook

It’s a tall order and I know I’m pushing it, but why not, eh? If you don’t try you won’t get anywhere!

Till tomorrow, peace out!

The Scruffy Dog Review – Winter Issue OUT NOW!!

February 27th, 2010 | Tags: coffee shop, Day Job, Editing, flood warning, GDR, overtime, Publishing and Marketing, rain, Sleep, Water of Leith, Weather, Writing | Category: Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, I.T., Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

A Fine Week

Image: Cessna 206

It’s been a fine week. I’ve managed some good writing, made lots of progress and had a few successes at the day job, my DVD box set of The West Wing and The Bourne Trilogy arrived, and I got some free CDs in for review from some producers. All I need now are a new pair of glasses—yes, still waiting—a couple of beers and maybe even a wee Indian to top the last seven days off.

We’ve had all kinds of weather in Edinburgh this week: bright and sunny, cool and crisp, freezing snow and sludge, and now today we have our second day in a row where it is chucking it down. It’s mental, I say, mental!

I suddenly remembered that because this is February we’re a few days shorter than our normal allocation. This isn’t too bad on the writing front because I’ve already got loads done, but it means I’ve less days than I banked for getting the spring issue of the Ranfurly Review out.

It’s all laid out and ready to go, but yet again I’m giving problems with the front cover. I can NEVER decide what to use and I end up doing this every time a new issue is imminent. I really need to build up a bank of covers to select from, but as it stands I’m still on the hunt for something I like with three days to go.

I came across a delightful quote from Mr John Steinbeck last night, one which I think is quite appropriate for any writers who happen to keep rabbits: “Ideas are like rabbits—you get a couple and learn how to handle them and pretty soon you have a dozen.”

I’m planning having a good weekend. I’m not sure about tonight yet, but tomorrow I’m on standby and have to work at 5am, so I can’t go that far but I should be able to get some work done. Not too much, though, as I do need to relax sometime. If I can manage it I’ll head out to the coffee shop for some chilling after I’ve worked.

I ordered my copy of The Specials 30th Anniversary Tour Edition DVD last night (it comes out on Monday). It looks an awesome purchase and memento of 2009, which saw me finally witness a Specials gig after waiting for 30 years. Here’s the video preview, look closely at 00:08—it’s the Glasgow Academy!

Till tomorrow—peace out!

The Scruffy Dog Review – Winter Issue OUT NOW!!

February 26th, 2010 | Tags: 30th Anniversary Tour DVD, Bourne Trilogy, Day Job, DVDs. CDs, front cover, I.T. computing, John Steinbeck, Publishing and Marketing, Ranfurly Review, seasons, The Specials, Weather, weekend, West Wing, Writing | Category: Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, I.T., Music, Publishing and Marketing, Writing | Leave a comment

Soldier Of Fortune

Image: joblo.com

It’s been a busy couple of days with not much writing done and that’s not because of day job work or anything, but purely personal choice.

On Tuesday I took the evening off and spent any spare time catching up on some reading, and last night, after being taken out with a couple of colleagues for a “Reward and Recognition Lunch”, which involved lots of food and some alcohol, my fatigue prompted me to do nothing of any value whatsoever.

It was a very nice lunch, too: Beef Teriyaki Burger with chips and two pints of Kronebourg lager from the Cambridge Bar in Young Street. It was a great laugh too, the folk that were there a good bunch of people; down to earth, funny, and committed to their jobs.

It’s very strange being taken for an R&R Lunch by one of the managers and it being paid for by the Company. Not so long ago I was being kicked up the arse big style and having my life made hell for doing things like coming in to work too early in the morning or working too late (and thus claiming overtime). These days I’m being rewarded for showing that kind of initiative and commitment. Go figure, eh?

It’s amazing how my fortunes have changed since I moved to a new IS department, but it also proved to me the differences that poor and good management can have on the morale, drive and engagement of an entire department of people.

It’s a good feeling being on a roll with my day job at the same time as my writing. Not something I ever envisaged happening—or even possible.

As I type, the snow has returned to Scotland and is falling with vengeance outside. It’s not lying (much—yet) here in the east, but it’s bloody cold.

Till tomorrow—peace out!

The Scruffy Dog Review – Winter Issue OUT NOW!!

February 24th, 2010 | Tags: Cambridge Bar, computing, Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, I.S., I.T, management, Reading, Reward and Recognition, Scotland, snow, Weather, Writing | Category: Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, I.T., Reading, Scotland, Writing | Comments (1)