And so it ends... So long, 2020.

 2020.

The year no-one expected. The year where the only certainty was uncertainty. 

We've been fortunate, Chez Squidge. Of course life has been different. We've had disappointments over scuppered plans, had to attend funerals online, adapted to restrictions on everyday life like everyone else. Our situation could have been much, much worse.

And because of that, at times, we've felt guilty. Sitting at home while others went out to work in keyworker roles didn't feel...enough...to help make things any better. 

I took to posting (almost) daily positives on facebook - forcing myself at times to look for something good to set against the relentless doom-mongering of the press, the conspiracy theorists, the ill-informed naysayers... 

I discovered Pet Portraits by Hercule; Foil, Arms and Hog's sketches; binged on Battleship Galactica and Bridgerton.

My street developed a stronger sense of community as we all made sure everyone was OK, had a street party for VE Day, put up Advent windows, and sang carols.

We discovered the joy of growing food, watching the birds, spending time without rushing from one  thing to another because we were forced to stop and take stock.

I knitted socks. Over thirty pairs of them. And taught someone else to knit them too. I also knitted 45 stars to hang on my fence in the run up to Christmas for people to take - and they did.

I wrote a creative writing book, launched the second of Tilda's adventures and finished writing her third. I helped to edit a friend's anthology of short stories. 

There's other stuff too - like a short holiday to Wales in October, family homemade pizza Fridays, making musical pipes... 

In one way, there's life BC and there's life AC. But we haven't got to the AC yet. We're in a strange period of inbetween-ness, where the virus is still here, still impacting dreadfully on life, and we're not yet seeing the benefit of the vaccines (which are nothing short of miraculous, given the time scale in which they've been developed) although my dad has had the call to get his next week...

2021 is fast approaching. There'll be no resolutions from me, only the steely determination to get through this awfulness by being kind to myself so that I can reach a point where I can hug my parents and distant family members again, and life returns to something approaching what it used to be.

I don't know what kind of 2020 you had. I hope that you got through it, whatever it threw at you, and that you're able to face the new year with at least some hope in your heart, and raise a glass tonight to better times. 

Coronasocks - the sequel

 I knitted a lot of socks in the early days of the lockdown. It was the only thing keeping me busy when my brain felt like it was in turmoil from all the strangeness of those early days.

Over the summer, I gave them a rest - partly because I have so many socks of my own, I couldn't justify knitting myself more.

But of course, the nights are drawing in. The weather is getting colder, and coronavirus is rearing its head again as England prepares to move into a new, national lockdown for a month, possibly longer. 

Seems like a perfect time to start knitting socks again, actually.

This time, they are for other people. 

I bought the wool (lots of it!) and have a variety of sizes to knit for - from a size 1 to an adult size 12! Most are bigger than what I knit for myself, so they're taking longer, but I'm OK with that. Two pairs have already gone to my mum, and two pairs are ready to be posted. 

I've also given a sock-knitting lesson to a neighbour - she picked it up really quickly (most people struggle to start with when they're trying to handle four pins at a time) so I'm looking forward to seeing how her socks turn out. 

I also seem to have set Squidgeling J off on sock knitting too, although she's found a rather novel way of knitting two socks at the same time on a magic loop, combined with a much more technical approach to making her socks fit perfectly, which takes away all the guesswork. She might have to give me lessons the next time she's home. Assuming of course, that's possible with the new lockdown.  

Great, eh? 

Only problem now, as we head into November, is that I've now lost count of how many pairs of coronasocks I've knitted to date! I haven't been taking pictures of them all, so I think - THINK - that I'm currently on my 23rd pair!!! I have one more gorgeous colourway to knit for myself at some point, but that will have to wait as I still have about four pairs to knit for other people first.

At least it'll keep me busy...

Fenced off

 Mr Squidge and I were hard at work the other week, replacing the fence in part of our garden. 

The fence was put up about seventeen, eighteen years ago, so it's lasted fairly well. It did have a few adventures though...

The gentleman who used to live next door used to be very much a DIY kind of person, so there were a lot of assorted pipes and slabs and bricks in his garden, often leaning or fallen against the fence. So various bits got a bit...broken. 

Elsewhere, the fence had a bit of an incident with a couple of policemen; Mr Squidge recounts the tale of how, one afternoon, several polica cars pulled up in the street, and the officers were moving up and down the road and trying to look over gates in driveways. Realising they needed to get into the back gardens somehow, Mr Squidge let them into ours, and the officers had a bit of a Hot Fuzz moment, and leapt over the fence. It never fully recovered.

Then there was the badger. There are several badger setts near us - some on nearby allotments, the others disturbed after houses were built on what used to be the cricket pitch. Badgers aren't stopped by fences...they just...push. (Mr Squidge did his best to barricade them out with old slabs, roofing tiles and railway sleepers, but the damage had been done.)

So yeah, we needed a new fence. Thanks goodness none of the posts had rotted - they were still really sound.

After discussion with our new neighbours - and a lot of skip-filling on their part, bless 'em! - we bought replacement panels and trellis to put on the top.

The old panels came out easy enough, but then we had to dig up all the brambles growing along the fence line, and cut back overhanging branches etc. The first few panels went in easy enough - I stood one end, Mr Squidge the other, and we hammered them down into position. Fab.

Only problem was, we made the mistake of starting at one end of the garden, then moved to the opposite end to fit a panel that needed to be cut down, leaving a gap in the middle. And of course it had to be that the last panel we fitted needed to be cut down - on both ends - to make it fit the gap. 

We got it done though. Took us the best part of two dry days. We filled two builder's bags with brambles and branches, plus two trugs, a compost bag and a bucket with weeds. 

It looks fab. 

And we've even left what we're calling a 'wildlife gap' underneath it. 

*wink wink, could've hammered it down further but didn't*

Now all that's left is to fill in the empty spaces in the border with bedding plants the rest of my family gave me earlier in the year...

Squidge's Guide to Super Stories (and Becoming a Better Writer)

I've mentioned my 'little' non-fiction project a couple of times, and that I've signed a contract for it with Bink. I reckon the time's right to tell you a bit about it!

I've written a guide to creative writing.

Called Squidge's Guide to Super Stories (and Becoming a Better Writer), it's aimed primarily at younger and/or novice writers, and captures the kind of advice I give on school visits or when giving feedback to novice writers. 

I wasn't sure about it to begin with. I mean, I write, yes, but was I really qualified to give advice? When I think of all the 'How to' books I own, written by BIG name authors with many more publications under their belts than me, how would anything I could offer ever stand up next to their advice? How could I dare to lump myself in with some of the amazing editors and writers I know personally, who offer writing advice to paying participants at conferences and workshops?  

I felt like an imposter. Unworthy. 

But gradually, I began to see things differently. I've watched writers I've given feedback to, or helped with editing, go on to be published and win competitions, even before I was published myself. On school visits, the things I've said about how to improve written stories has made a difference to the pupils and what they've managed to produce. And in more recent times, my help has been actively sought for and - to my surprise - I am being paid for it. I've enthused, supported, and enabled many other writers.

So maybe, just maybe, what I have discovered for myself over these years of writing can be of use to others, too.

I pitched the idea to Bink, and they said go for it. 

And I have! Not only have I written, I have drawn - the book will have little sketches dotted through it. 

Like these: 

I have covered idea-finding, process, structure, characters, world building, editing, and writing groups. I've provided prompts to work with, and examples of the kinds of things that I feel improves my own writing and which I hope will help others to make theirs better. It's not an instruction manual though - it focuses very much on the reader finding their own way to be a writer. 

I hope it will be fun to read, and make a difference to those who choose to read it.

Who knows, maybe it'll help write the next bestseller? Exciting times!

Good and Bad News

So in spite of my best laid plans, I haven't blogged for well over a month. I have my reasons...

The bad news is that our cat, Timmy, passed away. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with FIV, or Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, when suffering from a nasty infection due to infected gums. (This can be one of the symptoms of FIV, and knowing that he's always been a cat prone to teeth and gum issues, Timmy was probably infected quite a few years ago, but neither we or the vet suspected it.)

The vet advised pulling Timmy's remaining teeth because they were in such a bad state (he'd had some removed a few years ago) and hoped that with sufficient antibiotics, we could get him over the infection, ease the pain his teeth had been causing him, and he'd be fine. 

However, the infection was too severe, and in spite of the best endeavours of our vet, Timmy didn't have the immune system to fight it. We buried him in the garden, under the golden rod that he used to love sleeping in when the weather was hot. Of course we're sad, but we know he's not suffering any more.  

There are several bits of good news to counterbalance the bad though.

The first is that Mr Squidge and I managed a few days away in North Wales. I spent many of my childhood holidays there, so it was a real trip down memory lane. The house we'd booked had patio windows overlooking Snowdon, and it was wonderful to see the Weather (Welsh weather deserves a capital 'W'!) sweeping in from the sea and over the mountains, sometimes blocking them completely from view. Add to that same view Ffestiniog steam trains crossing the causeway at Portmadog and the tidal estuary, and we were set. I made the sand squeak and had a paddle at Porthor; walked across the headland to Porth Dinllaen and the Ty Coch pub; picked stones off the beach at Llanbedrog; wandered round Portmeirion for the first hour with barely anyone else there, and had takeaway from Borth-y-Gest nearly every night.

It made me realise that, not having had a holiday for the last three years, I was pretty fed up with my own four walls, and really needed a change of scene. 

A few pics of our time away...

The wonderfully magical Portmeirion

That peak, right in the middle? Snowdon. It was in sunshine on one occasion.

Porthor...or Whistling Sands. Complete with windbreak!

Porth Dinllaen, and the queue for drinks at the Ty Coch beginning to build...

The view from the end of Nefyn Golf Course. 

TRAIN!!

A gorgeous evening walk around Borth-y-Gest, with painted clouds

We took Sparky, and apart from a few miles on the motorway, did everything by electric. 

This charging post is at the Caenarfon Morrisons, but we were also able to charge - for free - 

at National Trust car parks several times. 

The other bit of good news is that I have signed not one, but TWO book contracts with Bink! One is for Tilda #3, which is going to be Tilda and the Tombs of Kradlock. The other is for my little - although it seems to have grown, rather - non-fiction project, but I'll blog about that separately. 

At least you'll be able to follow the next stage in Tilda's journey, probably sometime next year. Something to look forward to, in light of the year 2020's turned out to be and shows no sign of letting up...

I live in hope. And writing!

Catching up...

 Goodness - HOW long since I wrote a blog post?! 

Well, here's one just to bring you up to speed on what's been happening since the middle of July...JULY!! And we're now in September. Blimey.

First off, I hope that wherever you are when you're reading this, that you are still safe and well, and coping with these strange times and any restrictions you may currently have imposed upon you and yours. Life seems to consist of wash hands, wear a mask, keep your distance! And its all very samey as one day blurs into another. 

But we're still here, and there have been some exciting things happening since you last dropped by...

Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt was launched, the competition was won, and at some point (Californian wildfires permitting) there will be a video compilation taken from the launch for me to share with you.

We've discovered some printing issues with Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt - I discovered several copies with pages missing, pages cut short, and even shifting text... If you had a print copy and you have any issues with it, please do let me know. 

Tilda #3 has been delivered to Bink. They like it, I've got a couple of kinks to iron out, but nothing humungous. No idea when it's likely to be published - I'd guess middle of next year at the earliest.

I've begun a non-fiction project, and am slowly working my way through it. Problem is, there's so much stuff I could include, it's hard to know where to stop! I'm working little and often on that one as the story begins to settle in my head.

I've NOT begun to work seriously on Tilda #4 yet, mainly because of the non-fiction project, but also because I have been doing some paid editing work for a friend I reconnected with recently. I won't say too much at this stage, but I am very excited to be working on a collection of steampunk short stories he's putting together. I have to say I wasn't sure about being paid for the editing to begin with, but the more stories I've worked on with M, the more my confidence has grown. It's a bit like when I started doing author visits - I daren't charge because I didn't have the experience, but I need time to prove to myself that what I can offer has value and is worth paying for. It helps that he writes well and between us, we've knocked the collection into very, VERY good shape.

I am hoping to attend a couple of book fairs later this month...although the UK has today introduced a legal limit on social gatherings of no more than six people, and I've no idea how that will affect the planned events. 

What else? Squidgeling T has gone back to his new house in Manchester ready for a new uni year, while Squidgeling J goes back to Bristol later this month. Have to admit I am nervous, as both Squidgelings are in the age range most affected by coronavirus infections at the moment. In other family news, my Dad celebrated his 80th birthday with a socially distanced weekend of visits from various family members - and had three cakes, one to celebrate with each of his children's families. Not quite what we'd originally planned for him, but still a lovely occasion.  

And that's about it for the moment. I promise it won't be as long before I post my next blog!! Although something more exciting has got to happen for me to write about, first...

A Tale of Two Versions

As every author knows, you often end up with multiple versions of a novel's manuscript on your computer. Mine go something like this;

Version 1 is the really rough one. Often doesn't have much formatting in it, no speech marks, sometimes notes instead of proper sentences.

Version 2 is the first polish. Fills out the story, gets formatted, looks much more 'proper'. Usually ends up hanging together as a story much better. 

Version 3 is often the 'voice' version, where I really get into my character's head and often rewrite sections from their point of view. It's really where the story comes alive, and often the one that gets sent to beta readers - or the publisher if I'm feeling really confident about it.

Well...

You remember I had a bit of a rough time just before Tilda #2 was published and launched? (It went great, by the way - a few issues that others might like to learn from, but I'll blog about that another time).  I was working on Version 3 of Tilda #3. I'd found a few glitches and worked out some issues, but took a break from the third novel to give Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt a really good start.

After the launch, I picked Tilda #3 back up - and realised that, although I had begun working on a third version, at some point I'd switched to Version 2 of Tilda #3 to continue working on. 

This means I now have a beginning of Tilda #3, Version 3 that's been tightened and put into Tilda's voice, and a middle of Tilda #3, Version 2, that's had the same treatment. 

You'd think it would be simple to fix - just combine the two bits of the different versions and carry on, yeah? 

Nope. 

Cos when I was working on Version 2 more recently, I was grappling with some issues that had implications for the earlier part of the novel - and I went back in Version 2 to change them. This makes it VERY complicated to use Word's combine/compare function, and I decided not to go down that route for fear of complicating matters even further.

I'm left with two versions of the same novel, neither of which is the most up-to-date on its own.

This has resulted in me printing out a hard copy of Version 3 and transferring any sections I changed in that to Version 2 on the computer, mainly because Version 2 is the larger file which suggests there is more content in it. The result is Tilda #3, Version 4. 

It is slow, painstaking work to correct. Every now and again I come across a section and I don't know which version has the most recent changes in it - both sound OK. As a result, Version 4 - in places - has ended up with something entirely different again. Hopefully it'll all come together in the end. 

I'm just thankful I realised before I sent anything off to the publisher... 

Half a polished novel, anyone? 

At least I don't have this many versions on the go...

Digital Book Launch - Preparations

I'm just a teensy bit excited... 

I've 'dressed' my garden room ready for Tilda's Book Launch on Friday! I now have a rainbow dreamcatcher up, my books out, and my very own gallery of imaginary gemstones ready for the competition winners to be announced...

(I've also spent a few hours drawing in the book that's going to be the prize copy as well)

See you on Friday!

You are invited to...Tilda #2's book launch!

It's official - I'm going to launch Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt in a digital Zoom session on Friday, 17th July 2020 at 6pm 

(London time, or GMT+1, for any international folk)

If you'd like to attend and celebrate with me, contact me via microscribbler@gmail.com or Messenger, and I'll send you the relevant links next week. If you know someone who would be interested in joining in, please ask them to contact me directly for the link rather than forwarding it so I can keep track of numbers. 
 
Please note the event will be recorded! However, by sticking to speaker view (ie me!) muting participants, and handling questions through the chat function, no one else's faces will be in the final video. 

6pm       Event goes live

6.15pm  Reading of first chapter, followed by Q&A in the chat

6.45pm  Announce the winners of the Imaginary Gemstone Competition

7pm       More Q&A 

7.30pm  Event finishes

Looking forward to seeing you - virtually at least - and making Tilda #2 official!

Katherine 

Soxploits - or a Coronasock update

The pace has slowed, but I've not stopped knitting... 

Since I last wrote about my soxploits, here and here, I've knitted even more. Think I might need help for this unusual addiction, cos I counted how many pairs I have in my drawer, and I reckon it's almost three dozen! Makes it easy to do a full wool wash of socks though.

Anyhoo, onto what I've created more recently. 

The first pair I knitted since my last update, I didn't keep. The wool was a bit of a pig to knit with for a start and I knew if I wore these, I'd remember the issues I had with them rather than enjoy wearing them. Strands of wool are twisted you see, and sometimes the 'twist' goes opposite to the way you naturally knit, in which case your lovely smooth wool begins to separate into thinner strands. Or the twist goes with the way you naturally knit, and in some cases ends up twisting the length of wool back on itself. As it did in this case. (Sometimes you can prevent this from happening by starting your knitting from the middle of the ball, but as I couldn't find that end in this particular ball, I was stuck.)

Anyway, the number of times I had to dangle my socks in thin air to allow the wool a chance to untwist itself... Ugh! The colours didn't knit up how I expected them to, either. The label states no two socks will be identical, and that's fine, but the stripes of each colour were so wide, one sock ended up green and the other pink. Didn't like that, either.

Fortunately, a neighbour had asked me to knit her a pair of socks (and for sock-knitting lessons once we're allowed to meet up) and as her feet are the same size as mine, I gave her these.

The next sock project was for a friend I met at Charnwood 2016; Bridget had two pairs of West Yorkshire Spinner socks already (you can buy them direct from the company) but she asked me for another, long enough to be welly socks. So...Passionfruit Cooler was the wool she chose, and when it arrived I got knitting. I used a different pattern this time - one which uses a 3.25mm needle instead of the 2.5mm I'm used to, because as this was a longer sock than I'm used to knitting, it might speed things up. 

When I got to the toe of the first sock I posted it to Bridget, to check the sizing. All good, so when she posted it back, I finished the toe off, knitted the other sock and sent them off. They looked a bit odd, because they were knitted all in rib; it's a very stretchy pattern but the garment always appears too thin to fit when it's off a body. I chose rib because I'd wanted to be certain that, if my tension was a bit off on the different sized pins, the socks would be more forgiving when worn. 

Pair number eleven completed.

My rainbows on the left and
Bridget's welly socks on the right.

And then I knitted my rainbow socks... Squeee! Again, West Yorkshire Spinners wool (they are my new favourite brand, I think) in shade Rum Paradise. And yes, I know it's pink rather than red before the orange, so it's not a 'proper' rainbow, but I just love the colours. 

I had to get a bit clever on these, otherwise the stripes would have been wider and then all out of sync when I got to the bottom of the heel and beyond. So I ended up only knitting three/four rows of each new colour down the heel (lots of ends needed to be sewn in as a result!) and by luck rather than judgement, it all worked out so my colours continued in sequence. Hooray! Pair twelve...

They are gorgeous to wear...

 

And then I went on to pair thirteen. I should've guessed there'd be problems, by the number. The lovely plain purple merino is gorgeous to knit and shows lace beautifully (I'd already knitted two pairs in this brand of wool) but could I get the lace pattern I wanted to knit right? Could I heck. I eventually chose a 'zig-zag cable' pattern, which isn't a true cable at all, and they worked out fine; the end result was worth the hassle.

 

And onto pair fourteen... Another WYS pair, in either English Rose or Peony, I can't remember which! It's a lovely pinky-purple tweedy effect when knitted, but boy oh boy. Previously I'd knitted almost a whole sock in it before deciding I didn't like whatever pattern I'd used and pulled it all back. The wool has been sitting in my wool bag now since before Christmas, and I've not felt inspired to do anything with it. The time felt right to have another go.

I found a basketweave cable. Didn't like the look of it. Tried a lace pattern. Didn't like that, either. Tried another...aaaargh! Nothing looked right! I needed something that complimented the tweedy effect, but...then I started playing. I made up a pattern, based on a widened and elongated moss stitch and at last, I was off. And finally, I have socks I like!

 

My next two pairs will be for an old uni friend and her partner, who live down-under; they'll be odds-and-sods versions so I'll share them when they're done, cos I never know what they're going to look like until I get going on them!

At least you won't be bored reading about socks again any time soon... There's some news to be posted later this week about an official book launch event for Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt, so keep your eyes peeled for that, and get your competition entry in soon!

Bye for now!

A little bit of flash...The Midsummer Madness

Wrote this for the 'Midsummer Madness' themed monthly competition in the Den of Writers...it was chosen as winner. (I get to set July's challenge now).

Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you, 'cos I'm rather proud of this one. It's less than 400 words.

The Midsummer Madness

“Are ye well prepared?”

Aliz nods, her eyes wide and dark in her face. “I soaked the rope in rosemary water like ye said, an’ the pegs were whittled fresh from holly.”

“Good. And the other?”

“I have it.”

No tremor in her voice. Will she remain as unaffected if she is forced to use it?

“Good.” I tap my finger on my top lip and glance around the clearing. Have I missed anything? The symbol is marked on the floor with white flour, thick black candles stand at each of its points, the jug is filled with rosewater… “Let’s get on, then.”

Aliz sprinkles the rosewater and the scent of summer blooms hang heavy in the air, masking the rancid stench of fear.

The earth is warm through my shirt when I lay within the floured sign. I keep silent as the still-damp ropes bite into my wrists and ankles, their aroma sharp and cutting against that of the roses. The ground vibrates under me as the pegs are hammered in and the other ends of the ropes secured.

Curtains of black hair frame her face when she leans over me.

“Is all done?”

She nods.

“Ye will stay by me, and watch to see if the madness descends?”

“Aye, my love.” She brushes my lips with her own.

“And if it does, ye will end me?”

Her eyes close then, shutting me out. But she nods. Again.

“Then move to yon trees and wait. Keep the blade near.”

I turn my face away so I will not see her leave. So little time we’ve had, Aliz and I, but if the madness descends on me, as it does on some men on the Midsummer of their twenty-fifth year, she will at least have something to remember me by.

Pray hope the babe in her belly is a girl, for I would not wish this uncertainty on any son. And I doubt I have Aliz’s strength to end a life if, by some miracle, I survive this night.

Book Launch Competition!

I'm working towards a date for a Zoomy or Facebook-livey kind of Book Launch Party, (which I'll post as soon as it's fixed) but thought I'd give you advance notice that THERE WILL BE A COMPETITION!

To enter, all you have to do is describe or draw a gemstone - but it has to be a completely imaginary one! I had great fun making up gems and their names; some ended up similar to real names, some described a gem's appearance, and others were completely made up from people's names...

My absolute favourite imaginary gem will win a copy of the book - signed and supplemented with hand-drawn (by me) illustrations, plus a small treasure box containing a few (glimmer-sized!) real-life gemstones AND some larger pieces of 'tomasite', 'jennisine' and 'black ruby'. The two runners-up will each receive a signed copy of the book.

So get that imagination working and please share this competition with anyone else - especially little people - who you think might like to enter.

I've also taken delivery of some 'proper' Tilda 2's now, with the right title on the spine. If you'd like a signed copy of either a 'proper' book or a 'duff title' version (remember, the latter might be worth a fortune in years to come!) then please drop me a message to arrange it.

Look out for the date of the launch event - coming soon!

National Writer's Day

No, I didn't know there was one either! But there is, led by First Story. You can find out more about it here , but essentially it aims to promote and celebrate the pleasure and power of creative writing.

As part of the day, there's a challenge... 

HOW TO DO THE #247 CHALLENGE:

1. Write a 24-word story on a piece of paper (or record on video) starting with ‘One day…’
2. Take a photo of your story or take a photo of yourself with your writing
3. Share your original pieces of writing via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, using #247challenge.
4. Tag three friends!

Simple! Why not have a go?

Here's mine:

That sinking feeling...

I was in two minds about posting this, because it deals with a rough time recently which resulted in a few issues around the publication of Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt. 

However, I decided to go ahead and share this with you because it's another pointer towards how hard writing and publication can be when you're not completely focused. I have to say that I'm really thankful for the support of the team at Bedazzled Ink in this, which made it possible to still meet the intended publication day; they cover pretty much every aspect of the publication process themselves, and I didn't make their job easy with this particular novel!

So what happened?

In January, I received the edit from Bink. I worked through that OK and sent it back a few days later for the typeset to be prepped. Bink also worked on the cover design (which I LOVE!) and the blurb, so although there was radio silence for a while, I knew cogs were turning furiously behind the scenes.

Then - COVID. The world went a bit mad, and my head wasn't good with the weirdness of everything. I fought the panic attacks of my first post-lockdown shopping trips, stayed at home, and kept on editing Tilda #3 while I waited for the typeset of Tilda #2. 

We settled a bit more into the new 'normal' and got to May 8th...when my father-in-law died. (Thought to be Covid related, but not confirmed).

Things got a bit blurry after that, as you can imagine. And in the middle of that particular cloud of grief, the typeset arrived. I worked my way through it, using it as a distraction, and sent it back on the 20th.

But something was niggling at me. There were a couple of places in the novel where I felt I'd not explained things properly or there was a lack of consistency with the first book. On the 22nd, I emailed Bink to say that, as much as it pained me to say it - we were at the typeset stage, for Power's sake! - I didn't think the book was ready to be published. Could they give me a bit more time to address the issues?

Bink might well have had a facepalm moment in the office, but they never hesitated; I was given a week. 

In hindsight, I realise I was not in a good place mentally - haven't been for a while - and probably should have given the edit much more time. The Black Dog that people talk about had actually been loping alongside me at a distance since well before January; since lockdown he's been an awful lot closer at times, and I finally recognised him for what he was. I'm still up-and-down a bit, but on the down days, I allow myself the time I need to do something that doesn't involve concentration...

Back to the book. 28th May saw my typeset notes returned to Bink. A day later there was a revamped typeset back with me for final read through and I still found things to change! Mainly cos I'd missed them before, but also as a result of the changes I'd asked for previously. (I wonder if there is a record of how many times something's been read and changed and faults are still being picked up?) 

Either way, on the 1st June, Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt was published digitally - hooray! Paperbacks would follow! All done!

Not quite. June 9th, I had a surprise delivery; I videoed myself opening the box!

And then, as I began to take photos to post on the Scribbles, my heart sank. I realised there was a typo on the spines... The title was Tilda and the Merjan. Talk about being in the clouds one minute, and dashed to earth the next. My first reaction was, what would readers think if they'd ordered books already and they arrived with a duff spine title? 

But within 24 hours, and even considering the time difference between us, Bink were on it, had made the changes, sent the cover flat to me to double check it, and the new cover version was on its way to the printers. 

If you do receive a copy with the wrong title though, hang onto it - I'm reliably informed by Bink that some book collectors pay good money for copies that have mistakes on them. So when I'm rich and famous, you might be able to cash in! I have forty of them myself...they will either have a corrected 'patch' added to the spine, or be sold as is - both cheaper than a 'proper' copy - at some point in the future...

It's all been a bit mad, but we've come through and out of the other side and I'm still smiling. 

At least I've learnt to recognise the Black Dog so I can take steps to keep him at a distance in future - or not tackle important stuff when he's trotting at my side.

Happy Publication Day to Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt!

Tilda's back, and her second adventure 

is here for you to enjoy. 

Available now from Bedazzled Ink, Amazon, and probably bookshops - but in light of the lockdown and effects on businesses from the Covid crisis, your best bet is probably to buy a digital version if you can't wait for a paperback! 

Do let me know what you think of the story when you've read it... I'm working on Tilda 3, so hopefully you won't have too long to wait for her next adventure. 

Tilda's Going Underground!

Now here's something a bit different! In this time of lockdown, I've created a little video to get you thinking about Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt. 

I was in my garden room at the time, so you might hear a blackbird in the background (he sits in the nearby pear tree to sing to me!) or distant neighbours' children in their gardens.

If you like it, who knows, I might be tempted to read you the first chapter of the new book before it's published! 

Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt

Introducing...the cover for Tilda 2!

Coming soon...

How to Launch a Book - Digitally

I've started to think about how I mark the publication of Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt.

An actual launch is, most likely, going to be out of the question. Heck, I don't even know if the physical book is going to be available initially, or if it will start off as an ebook only. So Tilda 2 isn't going to be getting the kind of launch party I threw for Granny Rainbow...

But it's always good to celebrate publication, and some people are doing it virtually in this time of social distancing and restrictions.

My dilemma is related to my target audience. My novels are aimed at middle grade readers - 9+ years - and for certainly the lower end of that scale, you wouldn't expect the kids to have access to some forms of social media. An interactive chatroom kind of launch is therefore pretty much out of the question. Of course, I realise that a lot of my readers are a bit older and potentially could do chat rooms etc, but I want to be as inclusive as possible to ALL readers.

So what could I do instead? Here are a few thoughts

1. Ask for questions in advance, and answer them as part of a recorded Q&A that goes up on youtube.

2. Record myself reading the first chapter of the book.

3. A competition - perhaps I could do some illustrations in a print copy (assuming they are available) and you win that if you send me a pic of you, with the book (digital versions would be allowed!) as your entry? I did it for Tilda of Merjan. (read about it here.)

4. I can't remember the name for it, but a campaign to share across social media something about Tilda 2 - photo, snippet of text, a link to wherever the book is being sold - on a specific date and time.

5. Some kind of homemade book trailer...

Would you even bother tuning in to a virtual launch, or simply buy the book to read?

Hmmm... It would be good to know what you think, as I'm relying on you, Reader of the Scribbles, for support!

Coming out the other side of covid-19

So after almost 8 weeks of lockdown, the UK is beginning to open up.

There are very different views on this, as you might imagine. Some want things to happen quicker, to get the economy going again. Others are saying it's happening too fast, considering how many people have already died and combined with the fact that the all-important R rate is so close to 1, it will take very little to allow the virus to take hold again.

My own personal view is that as a country, we should have acted firmer, quicker. We should have continued testing and tracing in the early stages. We should have taken notice of predictions years ago that a pandemic was bound to happen sooner or later, and we should have been better prepared for it when it came.

However, hindsight's a wonderful thing.

Suffice to say that Family Squidge are very much still staying at home at the moment to see what happens in three weeks time... We have been bereaved once because of Covid-19, and we don't wish to experience any more losses.

So how are we coping?

We've settled into a routine of slow starts and late nights. As the Squidgelings continue to complete uni assignments and revise for exams, we tend to do our own separate things during the day and come together every evening for dinner. The highlight of the week is pizza night - often on a Friday - when Mr Squidge makes the dough and we all choose our own toppings. It's better than any takeaway!

I'm still posting daily positives on facebook so that even on the toughest of days - when I have no motivation or feel I've not achieved anything - I can look on the day and find something good. There's only been one day when I really couldn't find anything positive, and in posting that very fact I found it; the kindness and care of friends.

I'm still struggling to write. This is partly due to increased interruptions from the family, but mainly because I can't seem to concentrate. My brain seems to want to flit from one thing to another, which means that I have knitting, colouring, writing, quilting, and embroidery projects on the go at the moment. I'm plugging away a little at a time when I do have the brainpower and focus. I've been doing some critique for a couple of friends though - somehow finding things to improve is a lot easier in someone else's work than in my own at the moment!

Church is problematic. I've had times in my life when I've felt far from God - the advice is usually 'pray harder!' At the minute I feel as though I'm relying on others to pray for me, as I can't find the words. It's not as though there isn't any church at all - I've been astounded and moved by the way the church has mobilised itself to continue to meet the spiritual needs of Christians and the practical needs of people in communities at a time when the physical buildings are closed. My own church has a weekly online service, which is great, but it's not the same. Might never be the same again...

And I think that sums up this point of the pandemic in a nutshell for me. It's a very different life we're living at the moment, and we're nowhere near 'out the other side'. We've perhaps jumped over the first hurdle, and are beginning to adapt, but life will be lived on the edge for some time to come yet.

Photo: New Scientist

Tilda 2...coming soon!

I've seen the proposed cover for Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt, and I love it.

The team at Dragonfeather Books, Bedazzled Ink's children's imprint, have come up with a corker of a concept which will give the entire series a unified look whilst allowing each book to be distinct from each other in terms of detail.

Here's a sneaky peek prior to it being finalised;

Can't wait to share the real thing with you soon. Keep watching this space!

Grief

A lot of you will have already seen the post on facebook which said that my father-in-law died last Friday. Thank you to everyone who has sent love and condolences - it's very much appreciated.

As you can imagine, trying to deal with a death in the current crisis under the restrictions is a little harder then it would normally be. Even without the fact that we are 200 miles away from where Mr H died. It's very, very sad. And very, very strange.

If I'm not here very much over the next week or so, that's why.

Be back soon. x

Squidge's Writing Prompt #4

As well as writing, I also quilt... The picture is of a quilt top I made entirely by hand a few years ago using 'hexies'.

Your prompt this time is... 

Imagine a scrap quilt, made from clothing. The clothing can be real (ie you or someone you knew wore it, once upon a time) or imaginary (belonged to a fictional character). 

Describe the quilt using memories associated with the clothing. 

Squidge's Writing Prompt #3

One thing I struggled to use at first for writing inspiration was Story Cubes.

There are lots of different ways to use them - pick three, use all of them, take one cube and use all the pictures on it, use one at a time and add to the story as each new dice is thrown... You can interpret any single picture however you'd like. For example, take the key; it could be a physical key, something locked, the key to a code...

Anyway, for this third prompt I've thrown all nine, and will leave it up to YOU to decide how you're going to use them. Happy writing!

Pairfect Socks?

An update on my coronasock exploits...

I wrote a blog about coronasocks a while back - you can read it here, but do grab a cuppa first, cos it's a long one!

There I detailed progress so far; six pairs of coronasocks completed, and my first lot of sock wool hand dyed. I also finished a pair of socks that had been begun by a friend's mum-in-law, but I didn't count them as I was only completing someone else's project.

The good weather meant I had a break from socks after that. I spent time in the garden instead, did a bit of editing, and reconnected with Discworld. However, the last couple of days I've been feeling a bit rough. I don't think it's THE virus, but I have been fatigued and achey and out-of-sorts, so I'm keeping to home and picked up the knitting again.

I knitted my hand dyed wool.

My lovely rainbow-dyed hank

And I was very disappointed.

The  lovely rainbow wool didn't knit a rainbow at all...it knitted speckly. And there was LOADS of cream - the original base colour of the undyed wool - which made some of the colours knit as stripes. And the lovely vibrant colours...weren't. Well, not in the first sock.

First sock at the bottom, second still on pins at the top

The first sock came out all muted tones - the yellow and orange were really pale. The second sock - well, the colours were much brighter. I did toy with the idea of knitting a third sock and seeing which two out of the three matched best, but they didn't look too bad once they were finished; 

I've obviously got a lot to learn about placing colours on the hank at the dyeing stage if I want to get thicker stripes. Or limit myself to two or three only...

But that's Pair number 7 completed. Feeling a bit rough still, I started on Pair 8: Pairfect Socks. 

The theory behind Pairfect Socks is that the ball has enough wool for two socks, which will match perfectly, because a section of yellow wool is the marker for the beginning/end of the colour pattern repeat which is the end/top of each sock. 

It sounded intriguing and I rather liked the pattern as shown on the label.

The reality is...different.

For a start, if I knitted the socks up as on the label, they'd be knee-highs. So I had to keep breaking into the wool to take bits out. I could've just knitted through I suppose - but I didn't. Here's the first sock:

Spot the differences...

And here's the wool left over from it...

Not the most economical of ways to knit matching socks - I'll end up with exactly the same little balls once the second sock's completed, too. 

To be honest, I've never had much problem matching my socks when using non-pairfect socks, so I don't think I'll bother using this kind of novelty approach in future.

Ah well, you live and learn! And I'm off to knit coronasock number 16.

Once a writer, always a writer?

I've recently joined a facebook group for students who went to my primary school in the 70s and 80s.

There are some amazing memories being posted - strange how names and events come back to you when you see the photos of old schoolmates. I found a few photos of my own, and although I recognise many faces, I don't often remember the names that should go with them... It's still something I struggle with, if I'm honest. I can remember you and things I know about you, but not your name. (In fact I can forget a name within moments of being told it...)

Anyway, in reminiscing and looking for the photos I found my old junior school reports, which cover Years 3 to 6 in modern schooling. What became apparent in reading them was that, from early on, I was writing stories, reading lots, and generally being creative rather than mathsy or sporty.

It was especially interesting to read about my writing...

Y3: Katherine thoroughly enjoys reading. Her creative writing is imaginative and carefully expressed with colourful descriptions and good vocabulary. She has learned to join her writing, but now tends to be rather untidy occasionally.

Y4: Katherine reads very well and seems to enjoy reading both to herself and aloud. She puts her spelling and vocabulary to good use in her creative writing, which is always lively and interesting, and sustained at length.

Y5: Creative English has been outstanding. She is able to express feelings and details and shows a sympathy for her characters. She writes lengthy stories and her punctuation, grammar and spelling can be so accurate that they hardly need correcting. She has an extensive vocabulary and her work is most enjoyable to read.

Y6: In her creative English work, Katherine is highly imaginative. She produces lively, spontaneous poetry full of descriptive phrases. Her stories are lengthy and follow a well developed plot. The excitement generated by the dialogue and the action shows that Katherine derives much pleasure from writing her stories. Punctuation, sentence structure and use of paragraphs are excellent. Her extensive vocabulary reflects her love of words and the depth of her reading.

Reading them actually made me a bit sad.

While the reports indicate that I've always loved reading and writing, and that I used to write decent stories even as a child, the reports make me realise how much of that joy and ability I lost over the years that came after.

When I think of how many years I've spent, re-learning the art of writing stories after a decade in a microbiology laboratory and another ten as a stay at home mum, there's a little bit of me that can't help wondering whether I should've tried harder to become an author earlier in my life. Especially now that my current ambition is to have published all five of Tilda's stories by the time I'm 60!

Mind, having said that, I'm also a believer that things happen at the right time; I know that if I'd not changed focus to science and worked as a trainer in microbiological awareness, and if I hadn't spent so many years training as a guider, then I wouldn't have developed my presentation, workshop and  and speaking skills which have been so vital to my school visits and talks. If the physical act of writing stories had all come too easily, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to seek out help, and as a result, make such wonderful writing friends. If I'd never offered to help listen to reluctant readers at my children's school, I'd never have even thought about writing stories for other people to read.

Maybe, sometimes, you need to let a talent rest, so that you can rediscover it later? But not just rediscover it - rediscover it and combine it with a few other skills you've learnt, so that it develops into something even bigger and better?

I wonder what 11 yr old me would have said, if you'd told her back then that one day those creative writing stories would mean she'd one day be published and passing on her love of writing to children her own age?

Squidge's Writing Prompt #2

Today - 22nd April - is Earth Day. Apparently. So Writing Prompt #2 is being posted early to take advantage of that fact.

Using my favourite writing prompt EVER, choose one or more of these paint samples and use the colour or its name as inspiration.

In case the text is too small to see in the photo, they are described as (working left to right from the top row down)

Rainforest Retreat

Eco Friendly

Shifting Sands

Periwinkle Dream

Purple Hibiscus

Smooth Pebbles

Meteor Dust

Deep in in Ice Cap

Pop of Poppy

Squidge's Writing Prompt #1

I realised I haven't written much about writing recently. You can thank CV-19 and my current fixation on knitting socks for that!

However, I have been posting prompts in our NIBS (writing group) facebook page as we can't meet in person under current UK restrictions. And there have been some surprising results. I received two emails out of the blue from folk who either don't or can't attend meetings due to distance; they were sharing what they had written as a result of the very first prompts I posted. They were lovely pieces, too - bowled me over!

Now, although there are lots and lots of prompts out in the world already, (just search 'writing prompts for...' and you'll see what I mean!) I've decided that I will start a habit of posting a weekly writing prompt here on the Scribbles. I will endeavour to try to write something myself based on it and share it with you. There's no pressure to share what you write yourself unless you want to (if you do, either post a short piece (200 words max) in the comments below or post it to your own blog if you have one and paste a link below) however it would be good to know if you find the prompts helpful.

Here goes...have fun.

Squidge's Scribbles Writing Prompt #1

There were two stark choices. 

One : open the box. 

Two : don't.

Corona socks

OK - this is definitely a grab-yourself-a-cuppa-first kind of blog! At least it might go some way to relieving your lockdown for a while...

Got your beverage of choice? (Mine's a G&T tonight!) Then read on...

I mentioned in a post from a couple of weeks ago that I was struggling to find focus in this current crisis, and my creative urges had led me to knit socks. This is partly because it doesn't take much brain power; I'm very familiar with the pattern I use, so if they are plain knit or some of my odds-and-sods socks, I can knit a pair to fit myself (shoe size 3 and 1/2) in two or three days if I'm not doing much else.

I decided to call them coronasocks - for obvious reasons, I hope - and so far, as we go into week 4 (I think - I've lost count) of 'stay-at-home' in the UK, I have made rather a lot of them. I don't mind showing them to you now, because half have gone to their recipients, and the others are being parcelled up to be put in the post this week. Take a gander...

Pair 1 complete - red, white and blue.

Pair 2. Odds-and-sods purple and green

Pair 3 - yellow and grey odds-and-sods. Really pleased with this colour combo

Pair 4 - lace-topped burnt orange

Pair 5 - odds-and-sods random

Pair 6 - odds-and-sods turquoise, though pink and purple snuck in too

I'm currently knitting Pair 7, another odds-and-sods pair in green and orange; one sock's completed and the other is at the heel.

I did have to order some more sock wool, as a friend has asked me to complete a UFO (UnFinished Object) for her, and while I was ordering that, I got tempted and ordered these:

The heathery-grey ball is really luxurious, and I wouldn't normally have gone for something quite so expensive. The pink is an Arne and Carlos Pairfect - the yellow strand you can see marks the start of the sock (you cut the yellow off first!) and there's another strand somewhere else in the ball which marks the start of the second sock. Now, I have small feet, so I will have to wind off lots of wool to get to the repeat, then wind it back into a ball the other way so I end up with two balls of leftover that match, so that's going to be interesting!

Incidentally, I do get a bit anal about matching up the repeats in patterns, even if they are fairly random. I end up with lots of little balls, so I decided the other day to join them all together into one big ball. There will be a pair of 'Surprise!' socks knitted, once I've wound a ball of about 60g....

The other thing I ordered was a skein of undyed merino wool. I have always loved hand-dyed yarns, but they can be very expensive. I'd looked up how to hand-dye using food colouring, which seemed a darn sight cheaper - I decided I'd have a go. It was a lockdown project.

Here's how I got on...

You can find all sorts of tutorials and videos telling you how to hand-dye - I used this one to take me through the process, but there are many others. So I'm going to assume that if you want to have a go, you'll look it up and won't need me to repeat everything in detail...

So... The food dyes I used are Dr Oetke gel colours, and I bought the full range of colours. The only colour I didn't use in this first experiment was the pink, but it was good to try all the others and see how they came out on the wool.

This is the wool in to soak for half an hour in warm water, to which 3 tablespoons of white vinegar had been added. 

I laid clingfilm over my work top, making sure there was plenty beyond the end of the hank. The skein had most of the water squeezed out of it so it was damp. I got a small art brush and started to paint the colours in blocks... 

I had to manipulate the wool to get coverage throughout, but needed to be careful - any dye on my hands or splashed onto the clingfilm, and a colour would get transferred to areas where I didn't want it to be.

Now I had in my head an idea...I wanted to try to create a pattern in the colours that, yes, would follow the rainbow, but would also end up knitting as solid stripes with speckles in between. So in the spaces, I jabbed a gel-dye-laden fork all over the place, making sure the colours overlapped a bit. Here's how it ended up; 

The next phase is to fix the dye. I realised I couldn't simply roll the wool in the clingfilm, or I'd contaminate my carefully separated colours - either because of splashes on the film or where the two sides of the skein touched. So I overlay another sheet of clingfilm over the wool, pressed it well down and then rolled it. I ended up with a rainbow coloured sausage!

My microwave is a powerful one (900W) so I blasted my wool for 3 x 2 minutes at 50%, with a minute or two in between each heating. I think the sausage was well and truly cooked - you can see the condensation inside the film.

Most instructions told you to leave the wool to cool, but I was too impatient... I unwrapped it. It was flippin' hot, so I got a bowl of cool water and as I cut the clingfilm away (it had gone a bit crispy and melted together in places) I let the hot wool go into the water. Looked like rainbow spaghetti!

It took three rinses until the water ran clear - I probably should have done a couple more as the red dye was still leaking a bit of orange when I squeezed it out ready to hang to dry. Found a coat hanger and - 

Ta dah!

Now there is always an element of pot luck in how the dye actually comes out. My speckled sections had worked pretty well with green, blue, and purple...

But came out as more of a gradient between the orange, yellow, and red.

                                          

I have no idea whether this was due to the wetness of the wool when I applied the dye; whether I put too much of these lighter colours on the wool when speckling; or whether these dyes act differently on the wool for some reason. 

It didn't come out exactly as I'd imagined - but it's not bad for a first attempt! 

So there we are. My first skein of hand-dyed wool. And it seems appropriate that it's rainbow coloured, considering how much the rainbow has been used as a symbol of hope in these difficult times. I'll let you know how it knits up...but I may not get round to it very quickly (my fingers are itching!) because I've started to get back into writing again for the first time in ages. Might be time to give the knitting pins a rest and focus on words for a while...

Feel free to share any lockdown projects you've got on the go with me - always good to hear what everyone else is up to, creatively.