Into the New Year…
Apologies for not blogging sooner. December was a bit busy, and I have needed to get some help with refreshing my memory on how to put a blog post together on the new site! Thanks to Chris at The House Agency who set me up with the new website, I’m now raring to go again.
Decided to put together a blog with some highlights - writing and personal - of 2020, and a few thoughts for moving forward into the next twelve months. So grab your beverage of choice, settle down, and have a nosy!
2021 writing highlights:
Stayed covid free, thanks in no small part to being vaccinated
Published two new books (Tilda and the Bones of Kradlock, and Squidge’s Guide to Super Stories)
Was placed in several competitions this year with short stories Cirque de la Vie, Moon Roses, and Miss Aveline’s Summerhouse, AND was longlisted for the Lunchtime Book Club Award for Super Stories. (Waiting to find out about the shortlist…)
Helped a few folk with editing their work - and earned money for it!
Ran a pilot on-line writing course.
Was involved in the Middleway Words online festival, and attended the Newark Book Festival.
Attended a Victorian Fair for the first time to sell my books, dressed as a Victorian Lady!
2021 personal highlights:
Stayed covid free. (Worth repeating, when I know so many who have been affected)
Grew quite a few different veg this year, with varying levels of success.
Learnt how to latch hook.
Spent a lovely week in Dartmouth in October with Mr Squidge.
Had blue tits nesting in our new bird box! So exciting to watch, but we missed the babies fledging.
Mr Squidge made a stove for the lounge out of a Calor gas bottle.
Knitted over 40 little doves to give away at Christmas.
Bumper year for homemade wine and sloe (bullace, as we found out later) gin.
Continued with homemade pizza nights.
Managed to keep posting my daily facebook positives, even through a period of depression that needed medical intervention to pick me back up.
Getting back into the school library after almost two years!
Rediscovering a love of clothes, mostly via charity shops, and beginning to use makeup more often to boost my mood.
I’m sure there are other things I could’ve mentioned, but sometimes when you look back at the year just gone, it’s a struggle to remember what happened. Especially when we spent the early part of the year in another lockdown in the UK, thanks again to covid. That was a much, much harder time than the first lockdown, because the weather was naff, it was cold, there was nothing to shake the winter blues…
Thanks to a fabulous vaccination drive and the NHS, we’re in a much better position going into 2022, even given that the Omicron variant is driving incredibly high infection rates in the UK at the moment. I have to say, I think it’s only a matter of time until we Squidges catch it. Hopefully, it’ll be a mild infection with no complications…
So what’s in store for 2022? I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions because they always seem so BIG to achieve! Instead, I tend to think of goals I’m going to aim for. Some won’t be anything special, like growing a variety of veg again. Or getting our wooden hall floor cleaned and polished. Or going through my stash of knitting wool, sorting through UFO’s (unfinished projects) and looking at ways of using up what I’ve got. But I do have some specific writing things I’d like to nail in the next twelve months.
Get Tilda #4 finished. (I thought I had finished it, but wasn’t too happy with the story. Bink took a look, and confirmed my suspicions, so I’m filling out the story at the moment.)
Get into the habit of writing short stories and flash more regularly, with the aim of putting out a short story collection for an adult (not adult as in X-rated!) readership.
Have a holiday. Preferably abroad. And by the sea.
Get braver about going out, even if covid is still causing issues.
Blog more frequently - at least monthly!
I’m not sure of course what the year WILL bring. There could be some surprises - both nasty and nice - and I may be prevented by circumstances beyond my control from achieving what I’d like to do. But, to quote Carol Ann Duffy, in a quote I saw shared by a friend on New Year’s Day;
“I drop the dying year behind me like a shawl and let it fall.”
I intend to pick up a new shawl in 2022, and weave an original pattern.
Happy New Year, Scribblers!
Me doing the Victorian Lady thing!