Ooow, busy day... First I wrote the first draft of a 1,500 shorty for Riverside Writers' latest project which is on the theme of "the punch bowl"--so my tale of an office party is called simply Punch.

Next, the bedraggled hedge in our (freezing cold and distinctly soggy) front garden was returned to order with our strimmer. As I was working, our neighbour drove up in her car so I asked if she minded if I step into her front garden so I could trim both sides of the shared hedge level. She readily agreed. It looked a mess left uneven, so I did it for my own benefit. I left the trimmings strewn on her lawn. She and her two adult sons do have complete sets of fully functioning limbs, after all. *chuckles*

Then I tackled stray dust bunnies under the dressing table, and retrieved the remains of the shredded paper bag which Emily had dismantled under our bed. I even used the stinky "lemon" furniture polish which smells like how marmalade on burned toast tastes.

After that, I finished retyping School, all 5,070 words of it. I'll tweak it to lose the stray 70 before I'm done. This one's a Sci-Fi/Fantasy tale of student pranks and DNA experiments.

And now it's time to peel spuds for dinner! Au revoir!

The 5,000-word Sci-Fi story, School, arrived safely at its prospective publisher. The response time will be around one month, apparently, which is rather good compared to most places.

I've now begun a Fantasy story, no title as yet, set in Celtic Britain. I nearly accidentally deleted two days work on it! Oops. I'm sure this cough medicine is tinkering with my brain... The deadline for this is close; December 1st, in fact. I really don't like cutting things that fine but sometimes there's no option.

I've been giving Tamsin a final edit. I've just finished chapter 10 (28,600 words total so far). There really isn't much more that I can do with this story, so after this last once-ever, that's it, (unless a publisher/editor disagrees, of course.) I haven't changed much at all, so far, beyond polishing the odd phrase and putting some small chapters together to make a bigger one to improve flow. Beyond this, it would be change for the sake of change, or death-by-editing.

Chester was lovely on Monday. We lunched at The Coach House then meandered round the shops, stopping to watch a man playing the violin whilst balancing on one leg on a trapeze wire.

I replenished my supply of frankincense and myrrh, and then—several hours later—we enjoyed tea and cake at The Blue Moon Café, which has become something of a traditional stop-off point for us whenever we go to Chester. What can I say; they do excellent cake! And the café sits at the perfect point for a cuppa before heading back in the general direction of home.

We called into St John the Baptist’s Church, partially as Richard wanted to photograph the Norman ruins. Two exceptionally chubby squirrels came to inspect his efforts. Clearly they are used to tourists… These cuties positively wobbled with podge as they scampered over autumnal leaves and mosses—adorable little creatures, with cheeky faces and alert black eyes.

Richard took a few shots inside the church too, while I wandered around and soaked up the energy. This church stands on probably the oldest religious site in Chester. Before there was ever a Christian church built the site was in use for religious purposes. It stands directly on top of a ley line.

Richard bought himself a copy of The Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup, which completes his collection of their films, and while I wasn’t looking he bought me two dark faeries—long, slender, ragged-winged porcelain figurines some 10” and 8” tall, which are now on top of my puuter desk.

Writing
I’ve just completed a 5,000 Sci-Fi story—albeit for a tweak and a polish—which I'll probably call School. The deadline to submit this is coming up fast. I’ve also got another story, Fantasy again this time, to complete (or start, even) for a deadline in just over two weeks time. This reminds me of something Tim Hulme said at last month’s Riverside Writers meeting, when a new lady had asked about our writing projects. He said we have an entire month to work on each project, which means we usually leave writing anything until two days before the meeting!