Huzzah! It seems that knowonder! has made some fabulous changes and instead of paying $10 per story, it’s paying up to $50 per story which means I can relax about sending out overseas subs via pricey snail mail. And… stories go up on 1 March.
I’ve also made motions to re-start writing for suite101.com as I had stopped in 2009 to get Wyvern Publications off the ground and running. Now that we are about to publish our 9th title (and 10th before Christmas) the team will be focusing on publicising titles already up and I’m taking a year out of editing so I can work on my own books.
With two regular paying markets taking my work (one fiction and one non-fiction) I do feel a bit more confident about calling myself a professional writer. I had been feeling pressure about bringing more funds into the household and although I won’t exactly be earning a high salary (or even minimum wage…) I can at least know the groceries are covered!
Which brings me to… the allotment! It’s looking amazing and certainly tidier than it had before. I’ve bought three seasons of seed potatoes to keep us chip-happy and asparagus and more dahlias are going in. The asparagus is low maintenance which is nice and it just keeps giving year after year (and tastes amazing). It’s great working outdoors for something that gives back more than I put into it and I even use my archaeology trowel to get my sides straight in the seed bed areas. Not that the area is devoid of any archaeological evidence. There are pot sherds galore, broken pipes, slag (and some evidence of a small forge – probably just for shoeing horses), medieval peg tile and loads of iron waste which makes for good ballast when I want to keep a weed cover from blowing about the place.
We’re having some good productiveness on the home front too with two chickens producing eggs now. Ruby, the ex-batt has decided it’s not fair for just Gemima to lay, so she’s back in action and looking two years younger (that’s about two decades in chicken years). Star is looking better although she’ll never be at 100% after her illness (she had chicken bronchitis – or so said the vet after the last visit).
Things seem to be balancing out nicely now and I’ve nominated the first Friday of every month to be ‘find an agent’ day. I’ll give Blood Tide another round and this time focus on US agents as they don’t seem to be baffled by having to read dialect. Then it will be another edit (it’s out with three readers at the moment and I’m getting some excellent new suggestions), then up on kindle if I’ve had no offers.
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