Wednesday 1 September 2010

This week-

  • A Big Spider ran at me. Well, not at me, towards me. In my general direction. I was on the sofa, IT was scampering across the floor. I screamed, Mario 'got' it without killing it and sent it outside. It's maybe the 4th Big Spider we've ever seen in our flat in the 5 years we've lived here but I will be constantly looking over my shoulder now for perhaps the next 3 days until the trauma has worn off.

  • I didn't enter any of the writing competitions I'd earmarked because I didn't have any stories that were good enough. There are some interesting competitions closing soon which I will enter and share the details about them with you here (what a charming and well written sentence).

  • I'm working on The Book Thing and will have the first chapter ready to send to writer friend Miles by Friday (with whom I have struck a 'Let's get off our asses and write our books' incentive deal thing.)

  • I'm wowed that it's September and feel a mix of relief: Busy Summer Holidays are over (working in customer service gets you like that), excitement: September is an exiting month, in a New Start Back To School kind of way (I'm not at school, but I have a new job based at the University and I do get excited around academic institutions) and sadness: the start of another new season without Mum, and the slow dread of Christmas, a tough time for me anyway, tougher still without her here. But right now, the sun is out.

4 comments:

essygie said...

September's an exciting month for me too - especially as I'm starting my writing apprenticeship over at Adventures in Fiction next week. I think your mum would probably have been pleased if she knew you could still be excited and happy, despite the sadness of her death, and you know, despite what the retailers would have you believe - Christmas is a long way off yet!

Rachel Fenton said...

OF course - September in the UK is traditionally when the stores fill with tinsel and fake holly berries and all things red green and gold...it will be roasting here at Christmas and no point putting up twinkle lights as it won't get dark until after 10 pm....


You've had such a tough year. I can't imagine how hard a change it's been to lose your mum - especially as she sounded like she was a great pal, too. You're moving forwards though and I hope you are surrounded by heaps of lovely supportive and loving people all year, not just at Christmas.



I did enter some comps but evidently my writing is shit! But super hurrahs to everyone who wrote a fab story and got somewhere with it.


Hey ho..onwards and to better writing :)

Teresa Stenson said...

Essy - thanks. Good luck for next week - hope you'll blog about your experience, maybe?

Rachel - I haven't noticed the tinsel yet but it won't be far off... I had a christmas in Australia a few years ago and found it weird how Christmas cards still had snowy scenes on them. It's not so much the shops as just how further along in the year 'September' feels to 'August'. But I know it's not here yet, and I do have plenty of support and love to see me through. Thank you.

'Evidently my writing is shit' - love it, made me laugh. Out loud. (But I won't write the acronym for that.)

Dan Purdue said...

I agree about September seeming disproportionally far through the year compared to August. I think somewhere about halfway through September, the year's fast-forward button gets jammed down. I generally feel pleased with myself because I tend to start planning my Chrimbo shopping around the end of this month, but then it's suddenly December and I haven't bought anything. By then the prospect of going into shops has become overwhelmingly awful.

Cheers for the Arcade Fire video. I'm enjoying what I've heard so far from The Suburbs. "Month of May" particularly.