Scary isn't it?

So I'm driving along to go and fetch my daughter from her friends, it's dark and it's raining. Then I feel something crawling up my leg, which at the best of times is a little unnerving, but when you are travelling at 40mph in the outside lane of the dual carriageway it isn't the time to have a screaming fit. So I calmly breathed my way through it, picked up daughter and drove home.  I never did find out what it was crawling up my leg, but it did lead me to an interesting thought - What do you do when something scares you but you can't react?

Maybe it's because you are a parent, trying to keep a little child calm. I remember staying at a friends house in Devon when the children were little, now this house had three floors, the children were staying in the top bedroom.

'Mum there's a spider.' So I dutifully went up three flights of stairs, no sign of aforementioned spider, so I went downstairs again, after assuring them that it had gone.

Four times this happened over the space of an hour, and each time I would go up, hunt for this spider and then go back downstairs.

According to the children it was HUGE and HAIRY. But as far as I could ascertain it was invisible to an adult.

On the fifth trudge up the stairs (it was getting a little tedious by this point), I did in fact find out that the spider was very real and was HUGE and HAIRY, just like I'd been told.

Now my fight or flight reaction tried to kick in (flight, straight back down the stairs and leave it to devour the children - it was that big). But I had to fight the urge, find a cup (it's feet stuck out from under it) a piece of cardboard and pray that I made it down three flights of stairs without this bugger pushing the cardboard out of the way and devouring me instead.

Ok so maybe I am exaggerating the size of this spider, a tarantula it was not, but I'm not a huge fan of our eight legged friends, would never hurt one, just don't like to get too close. But I put him outside, wished him well and went to find a very strong drink.

So again I ask the question, what do you do?

Whoohoo it's here

Ok so you have to excuse me on the grounds that I have been grinning like a loon for the last week.  You remember the One Word Anthology that we were so pleased to have published as an ebook?

Yes?

Well now you can get your sweaty little mits on an actual paperback.

Available from    Alfie Dog Amazon.co.uk  Amazon.com

Says it all really.

I'm almost a celebrity........... :P

Well not really, but I suppose an interview on local radio, BBC local radio in fact, is another step in the path to becoming one.  As long as I never have to eat bits of Ostrich I'll be fine!

Off we (Carol Bevitt and myself that is) went to BBC Radio Nottingham to promote the One Word Anthology and I have to say it was great fun.  For a start Gareth Evans was lovely, and he got my surname right on the first try, which is actually harder than it sounds and not many people actually do!

He made us feel right at home and I think we managed to cover everything about the book and the charity, so it all made for a successful day.

Of course at the quiz last night it was mentioned and I got some serious leg pulling about being a local celebrity - you know when I make my millions I will remember you all!!!

It got me thinking about how diverse we all are and how one word can inspire so many different stories and poems, but I will cover that in my next blog as there is a dog stood here panting wanting a walk and a pile of ironing calling my name.  I think the family should do everything naked for the next week to give me a chance to catch up!!

Not avoiding anything here .....honest.

The dog doesn't want to go out, which is good as neither do I.  So I am busy cleaning.........honest.

The life of a part-time writer, part-time artist is always far too complicated.  I also think that being a woman adds to the issue.  I have friends whose other halves always get home from work and then go and do what they want to do.  Now in an ideal world I would write and paint all day and the cleaning and the cooking and the running around after the kids would all happen by some form of osmosis.

I have a schedule, do I stick to it? I try, is all I can say in answer to that one.

I think my biggest problem is that I cannot for the life of me work in a messy house.  I have an office, I should be able to shut my door on the mess and get on with it, but I can't.  The knowledge sits in the back of my brain and whispers to me until I have to get up and go and do it.  Of course this looks like I am trying to avoid working, by doing some other work.  This of course isn't true, if my house was magically clean all the time and everything was done I would have the ability to turn out at least one novel every other week and a painting every other alternate week................Yea I know I am lying to myself, there is always something to be found to distract me from my work.

Working from home takes discipline at the best of times and even with the best will in the world you can still think that the carpet you hoovered yesterday could just do with another quick run over, and the kitchen floor could manage another mopping as the dog has just run through it with muddy paws.  To be honest in this weather if I mopped the floor every single time the dog came in with muddy paws I would wear my mop out in a week (trust me that is never going to happen).

A thread on talkback made me smile, we writers collect notebooks, almost like other people collect stamps or pot pigs, or whatever takes their fancy, but we collect notebooks, some of us have them all neatly lined up on a shelf, knowing exactly what is in each one and having the perfect reference library.  Do I? Pfft, nope, but it's on the list, you know that list, the one that just gets longer and longer with jobs you really want to do, maybe I'll get it done later............after I've hoovered the front room carpet again, there's some rogue dog hair that I can see.........

It's almost here!

https://www.facebook.com/OWC.anthology?fref=ts

Official launch on Monday, not only are there some cracking stories in it, some of the proceeds go to a really good cause.

http://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/

I am being interviewed by fellow writer Carol Bevitt for her blog.

See here http://carol-bevitt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/an-exciting-week-begins.html

Ok so as New Year Resolutions go.......

..... It's taken me a while to get back on the horse so to speak.  Life as per usual has decided to get in the way, family illness etc taking up most of my time.

But the good news is that not only am I both writing and painting again I have some awesome news........which will be posted here very very soon.