I was chuffed to get a text message from Sarah the Publisher the other day advising me to check out a review of Yuck 1 written by someone in AMERICA! How exciting is that? Take a look for yourself - the link is http://www.literacylaunchpad.blogspot.com/ and it was written as part of a scheme to get 100 bloggers to review 100 'great books' printed in an environmentally friendly way! It makes me blush to relate that the reviewer's kind words and complete understanding of the whole concept of Yucketypoo damn near brought a tear to my unpracticed eye! It reminded me just how proud I am of it! I so want it to become read worldwide because its message does affect the entire world! In fact I can't believe it hasn't reached more people yet because it is just so completely unique! There is nothing else like it on the market - even its sequels are totally different - but, as hard as I have tried to get someone of note to comment on it, it still remains something of a non-entity. Ah well - good things come to those who wait, I guess. And getting a review from America is but definitely a step in the right direction.
You know it is astonishing just how much better I have felt about myself as a writer since I became unemployed. It is the one thing that stabilises my mental and emotional well-being; when I have got a pen in my hand I become somebody else, somebody with passion and meaning. So it will come as no surprise to anyone that I have gingerly taken up the pen (and the laptop) again in between signing on, filling out endless streams of application forms and attending interviews. I have started to make notes and squiggles again and two days ago made a significant start on draft one of my local interest book. I also found out, quite by chance the other day, that I'd had a poem published in The Daily Mail! Plus I have two others appearing in anthologies over the next couple of months, all of which bodes rather well for the future, methinks!
Watch this space. The Writer ain't beat yet ......
Thursday 12 November 2009
Sunday 8 November 2009
OUT ON A LIMB - NOT!!!
I am so, so, so sorry to have abandoned you but you just will not believe what is going on in my life now! Talk about Eastenders - I tell you, Albert Square has nothing on me! After months of harping on about how much I loathe, detest, despise and hate my job, guess what? I've been made redundant! Really! I left the Friday before last. It all happened in the space of four weeks - from the first email being sent ro
und to everyone to me walking out of the door for the last time. What a relief! I'm serious! Now don't think for a second I am being flippant here. I know how serious redundancy can be (let's face it, I have been through it before) and, despite the fact here are loads of jobs out there, here I am, a week or so later still job-hunting, still filling out application forms and checking jobsites every day - and yet still so pleased that I am no longer stuck in that bloody office!
Within the first week I had secured two second-stage interviews but neither amounted to anything and since then - zilch, zip, nil, zero. It isn't through lack of trying either. I have kept strict records and the number of jobs applied for so far totals 26! I am so sick of application forms that they are coming back to haunt my sleep night after night - the same questions, the same layout, the same everything. Only the company names are different, everything else is identical. Weren't CVs supposed to put an end to all this? I am not joking, when I complained of writer's cramp one day last week as I filled out a form I had picked up ten minutes before, Hubby snorted with laughter and said "Don't tell me you've got writer's cramp; you're a writer! How can you have it already, you are not even half way through that form!"
Now don't think he hasn't been Loving Supportive Hubby personified because he has. He has lifted my spirits every time I have started to flag and, if anything, seems horrified that I haven't been snapped up by somebody already. I feel kind of sad sometimes though because I know that if we could afford it, he would tell me to stop wasting my time looking for jobs and start using my time to knock up the odd bestseller or two. It is the one thing he hasn't been able to give me in all the years we have been together and I know that really bothers him.
I have decided to be more constructive with my writing during this time, though. After all there are only so many jobs, so many application forms and so many phonecalls I can actively pursue at any one time and the fact I am not stuck in front of a computer for eight hours during the day means that getting back to the laptop in the evenings has become enjoyable again. Hence my first blog in - ooo - weeks!
Watch this space; I have a feeling I will be back sooner rather than later. And keep your fingers crossed for me that some wicked commission comes my way which will pay me a packet and render the jobhunt - well, redundant ...
und to everyone to me walking out of the door for the last time. What a relief! I'm serious! Now don't think for a second I am being flippant here. I know how serious redundancy can be (let's face it, I have been through it before) and, despite the fact here are loads of jobs out there, here I am, a week or so later still job-hunting, still filling out application forms and checking jobsites every day - and yet still so pleased that I am no longer stuck in that bloody office!Within the first week I had secured two second-stage interviews but neither amounted to anything and since then - zilch, zip, nil, zero. It isn't through lack of trying either. I have kept strict records and the number of jobs applied for so far totals 26! I am so sick of application forms that they are coming back to haunt my sleep night after night - the same questions, the same layout, the same everything. Only the company names are different, everything else is identical. Weren't CVs supposed to put an end to all this? I am not joking, when I complained of writer's cramp one day last week as I filled out a form I had picked up ten minutes before, Hubby snorted with laughter and said "Don't tell me you've got writer's cramp; you're a writer! How can you have it already, you are not even half way through that form!"
Now don't think he hasn't been Loving Supportive Hubby personified because he has. He has lifted my spirits every time I have started to flag and, if anything, seems horrified that I haven't been snapped up by somebody already. I feel kind of sad sometimes though because I know that if we could afford it, he would tell me to stop wasting my time looking for jobs and start using my time to knock up the odd bestseller or two. It is the one thing he hasn't been able to give me in all the years we have been together and I know that really bothers him.
I have decided to be more constructive with my writing during this time, though. After all there are only so many jobs, so many application forms and so many phonecalls I can actively pursue at any one time and the fact I am not stuck in front of a computer for eight hours during the day means that getting back to the laptop in the evenings has become enjoyable again. Hence my first blog in - ooo - weeks!
Watch this space; I have a feeling I will be back sooner rather than later. And keep your fingers crossed for me that some wicked commission comes my way which will pay me a packet and render the jobhunt - well, redundant ...
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