chick ink

Well, so much for getting writing time – how long has it been since my last entry? Although, I managed to finish my Hacked Up Holiday submission for Pill Hill – my first hack-and-slash short story. I certainly had fun writing it and killing off all the characters. I’m suddenly struck by how much more fun it would have been to use my old schoolyard tormentors as the characters that kick the bucket, but maybe next time. What is writing, after all, other than fabulous therapy for all of life’s wrongs?

Life in general has been surprisingly fun, not least for the reason that my little vampire has begun giggling more and waking in the middle of the night less (hoorah). So the day to day grind is more like: wake up, rush to get food, relax with baby, have a good play with lots of smiles and cheeky grins, naptime for baby (and rush to either write or work on Wyvern… as you can tell, I’ve not had much writing time), then it’s manic again when she wakes.

Aside from writing the hack-and-slash, I’ve started a new novel – something completely different (yes, again. I will settle on a style when I have to, but for now it’s just too much fun to do a bit of everything). This one is… well, it will have to remain secret for now ;)

Time does keep slipping by. We were supposed to get two new chickens for our hen house and run as our egg supplies are dwindling now that Poppy has been suffering from Egg Drop Syndrome (well, ex batts have an excuse). After looking at all the breeds available locally, I’d settled on getting a Sussex White and Speckledy Hen, but the time just doesn’t seem right and I’ve had to re-lay lawn twice already due to the poor turf available at B&Q (keeps being half-dead when we unroll it at home).

To add to more distraction, I’ve joined a new re-enactment group that covers more than one time period, so I get to make several period dresses. My 1350’s dress that I’d used for Barley Hall in York is not about two sizes too small (I can’t believe I was ever that thin!) and luckily, I have the material handy for a new one – it was going to be my Viking outfit for Saebert’s Folk, but as they didn’t ‘do’ Vikings (odd, for a group within Vikings), I never had the chance to make it.

Off to write…