Thursday and Friday blending

I received a gift in the mail yesterday. My friend Kristy-Lyn who is a mad keen cat person and horsewoman of some skill and renown, as well as a marvelous business woman and maker of exquisite shawls, made me a shawl.  She had been crocheting one in purples and thought "No this isn't right, it doesn't feel right for her(me)" and she went on the hunt for a colour more suitable to how she sees me and settled on a wool called Carnival and we both agree it was so much more suitable to my personality. I met Kristy-Lyn a long time ago. I had just started as the chef in a tiny restaurant attached to a Motel and she was the waitress. She was still in her teens then and she walked to the door unheard by me and backed out very quickly to tell our then boss "She's talking to a scallop? Is it safe?" and he replied "Don't worry she was talking to the oven earlier." We became a fabulous team and many times in the years after, when I was cooking in other venues or catering and I needed  a particularly reliable and intelligent side kick I would call her in. Everything runs smoother when she is around. As a mad keen cat lady she now manages a business established by her family called Catnip which builds and installs modular cat parks. http://www.catnip.com.au/ (in case you are curious) 

The thing about Kristy-Lyn that I admire most is her attention to detail. She can wrap a present so beautifully the recipient would be reluctant to open it because the wrapping is so gorgeous. She colour co-ordinates her decorations at special occasions and her presentation of a meal is enough to enhance the experience of the food ten fold. She is a beautiful woman on every level and I am proud to know her. 

She certainly does create things with love.

I will be very warm when I am out and about during the wintery evenings to come.







It is odd how the days fly past so quickly. On Wednesday evening at my public speaking club we had a round robin impromptu speech on 'time flies'. Each member spoke for a minute or two on how time speeds past. I spoke about time being malleable and how a minute of speech seems like an hour until the bell rings and yet a month of sunshine on a tropical beach flies by in minutes.

Yesterday I was going to take a photo of my favourite clock at 11 o'clock because my clock is a back to front clock. So will have to wait until 11pm to do that and put it up here as my 5th photo. The theme fits right in with the speeches because it was 11 o'clock. The next topic for the picture a day challenge is ADVENTURE and I wonder what would be a good representation of adventure? Hmmm I will come back and upload the photos.

 I submitted a story at 2.30am. I had sent it off to an agent who never responded so I was thinking about where next to send it when a friend said "Why not the publisher I am with?" I was a little puzzled because for some reason I had it in my head that they only produced anthologies even though my friend had said on several occasions that his novels were with them. I am making the excuse that it was because he writes horror and I wasn't writing horror so I took a look and lo and behold they don't JUST produce anthologies or publish horror. pfffft I am a silly willy walnut head as another friend would say. So at 2.30 I submitted my novel after reformatting it to their submission guidelines.
Paul Flewitt by the way is an awesome writer and I am proud to say I was one of his earliest (non family or close friends) supporters. He is currently an author with CHBB/Vamptasy  http://www.vamptasy.com/submission-guideline.html    and is writing the sequels in his story line about Poor Jeffrey. This the the tale of teenagers learning  the occult actions they take to overcome the grief and loss of their friend Jeffrey have  sinister outcomes, especially for Jeffrey. Here's a review in the UK HOrror scene  http://www.ukhorrorscene.com/poor-jeffrey-by-paul-flewitt-2013-book-review/

I attended a fabulous seminar yesterday morning at 6am. It ran for an hour and fourty minutes and had some excellent tips and ideas about my writing journey and how to become more professional in my approach to writing. The host  Jeff Goins had a very clear presentation with key points and used all the best training techniques to emphasise the suggestions he was offering. http://goinswriter.com/
Unlike many other seminars I have attended recently, Jeff gave one hour and twenty minutes of top quality training and spent ten minutes answering questions and ten hawking his courses and products. I really appreciated this and was very pleased with the wealth of information I came away with without feeling pressured to join his for fee group. If I had the where-with-all I would sign up happily because if his seminar is a taste of the greater course it would be worth every cent. 

On a crazy note. I spent fifteen frantic minutes looking for my glasses last night. I need my glasses more and more often at the computer because I am writing thousands of words a day and it puts a strain on my eyes. I gave up and went to make a cup of tea and my very tall son informed me I had hidden my glasses on top of my head and no wonder I couldn't find them.
Today I was so engrossed in my word smithing that I forgot I had put the kettle on. My computer nerdy boys finally sensed the hot metal glowing red empty kettle and turned it off then came to inform me I had burnt water.  I am building my reputation as an eccentric crazy creative. I am a writer and artist after all. 
Now I really need to go and put my main character MC through a really hideous climactic event and finish this work in progress WIP by the end of the weekend. I really don't want to finish it because I love my characters but all good things must come to the last page and I promised my beta readers I would finish this weekend.