The  Times we Live in…

World events, US events and British events seem to over-crowd us all – and I can’t remember the last whole night of sleep I had. Sleep deprivation is a Thing for me and I am sure many many others in these Times.

My writing month?

I had to check my long hand Writing Journal just to see if I had any whole thoughts I could report or any actual words on any page anywhere. The answer I came up with is ‘sort of’.but that is probably being harsh on myself given the stage I am at with the projects and the Times we are living through.

Re non- fiction:

I am living that dream and immersed in the rebuild of the barn and the re stocking with goats and interacting in FB groups, making new contacts, and working hard on my ‘know like and trust’ image – this is helped by being ‘out of my comfort zone’ and ‘in the deep end’ as the ‘putting myself in the position’ turned out to do just that very successfully complete with tears and tantrums and feeling stupid and needing to depend on others (- husband Gordon and also on goat breeders prepared to sell me stock and help out in any way they could with transport etc) I also have a different ‘angle’ though that beginners don’t have and neither do those I am engaging with – I have the dubious benefit of perspective of being out of an industry/way of life for 20 plus years and now am arriving back and finding it has dealt with savage changes like an old apple tree will a fallen main branch – it has grown a gnarly lump over the place it most hurts and new growth has shot off to compensate for it’s loss – pets of all kinds of goats, meat goats and fiber goats and a largely closed  dairy industry alongside soap makers and fiber artists and the original garden and show goat keepers ( though in hugely reduced numbers)  Along side this lush compensatory growth has come disease proliferation, grey areas between schemes and a total lack of strong leadership or any leadership that makes a dent at Government level and the splitting of health schemes and a lack of independent recording schemes all of which creates an exceptionally confusing and impenetrable mass for the true new garden goat keeper  – and me… 🙂

So I am literally and practically ‘bucket filling’ and the result goes in the goat’s Evernote daily journal till I can curate the material to the Scrivener files I set up last month.

Fiction:

In the last few days I have caught up a bit with Indie industry thought leaders, movers and shakers that I had gotten tired of listening to over the summer as they tried their best to deal with the Times we live in and their own business requirements. I am still as tired as I was before but not with them – I am just tired because of lack sleep. It was actually pleasant to listen to them and take in what they were saying without feeling a failure – where as in the summer all I felt was defeated.

The ponies shoes are now off – that is as much goat-related as anything – and the goats will not be kidding till Feb 2021 so, that gives me till then to finish the rewrite of Luckshill Riders book one – not going to plan to send it to an Editor just to finish it and to do that by doing the ‘Big Rock’ productivity thing – will spend two hours first thing every day Gordon isn’t home working on it. If then there is more time after the stock are breakfasted then I have cleared a patch in the old weaving studio and also, if I get on a roll, can continue in an evening session – but most important is those two hours first thing which sets me up for the day having achieved and important goal I have set myself. As I can’t sleep those two hours might be 3 am to 5 am and a few days of that and I suspect I will be a lot more able to sleep through than tossing and turning in those hours and getting up miserable!