Round-up of Writing Nov – Dec 2020
Fiction:
Zero on the fiction. Doesn’t matter if it is COVIID anxiety, or BREXIT , or whatever, I have not got very much further towards publication with Luckshill Riders. Relevance, pointlessness, out-dated ideas, and physically the interruptions caused by COVID induced changes to our working day on the haulage side of things here. I have decided no to write under my name but use a pseudonym – what, is undecided.
Non-fiction:
Though joining in with Darren Rowse back at the beginning of Lockdowns I found I had nothing left to lose by now doing some market research into the smallholding /farming side of things and specifically ‘why can’t I relate’ to down-shifters and newbie smallholders? I gritted teeth and headed into FB groups and sat through the initial bumpy ride experiencing all the usual irritation and frustration with myself and others for my failure to communicate what I know to those in predicaments caused by them not learning enough first. I realised I could never be that person because I hadn’t done what they have – I never ‘up sticks and left the smoke and headed to the country and then learnt on the job’ I trained all my life for what I do and that those people are not my demographic but as in life youngsters doing what I did are… Once I stopped trying to be something I couldn’t be I actually was /am able to step back and help the adults in a more enlightened way – they haven’t the knowledge I sought – and that didn’/doesn’t stop me screwing up either so given they are already having a bad day I can either be kind or avoid and let someone else break their heads.
The experience also made way for a Ka-Ching moment here with the farm and the festering sore that our pig pen had become – we could have goats again and in that moment I put myself back in the position of ‘starting again’ in a niche area that I had left 24 years ago – and one which has changed totally except for the goats! Killed many birds with one stone as they say – or maybe they used to say when we used to correlate eating with animals! It is also an area of few up to date in-depth books based on UK goat keeping that are available on Kindle. So I started keeping the journals in Evernote and Scrivener for what may be a book on the first year in goat keeping in the UK. I have also got hooves on the ground and new contacts.
Having decided to use a pseudonym for fiction I scrapped two web sites and gave up the Domains. IN theory, that means these updates are less and therefore I can do them more often – once a month seems fine right now to me.
Plans for next year? My brainstorm session came up ‘Garden. Health. Goats. ‘ did not include either Riding or Writing
‘Will see what tomorrow brings’ as Ragnar would say then… Happy Christmas to all and hope 2021 gets rid of COVID and not us all.