Trying to keep it together in order to get through the work day, but there is much stuff I just can't manage at the moment. Like, my flat is a complete mess, and I hate it, but I just don't have enough energy left.
Also, this year I'll likely miss the rhodendron blooming at the camping site.
I tend to write the first draft on my Alphasmart or Neo and then import the whole manuscript into a text document with the relevant formatting I'll later use for the ebook.
So from the second draft onward, I'm working with a properly formatted document.
A little trip to my favorite reconstructed Roman auxiliary fort, which held its annual Roman food festival. I tried Roman beer, had eggs with pine nut sauce, apricots with mint, bread with moretum (a mixture of cheese, garlic, and herbs); paid a visit to the shaving knife that will play a role in one of the upcoming Maius & Caomh stories, and a visit to the face pot that is perfect for Damianus - and then, after a mere hour and a half at the fort, the fatigue set in and I had to leave for home
#PennedPossibilities — MC POV: Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like there?
Alfie: I grew up on the Endsleigh estate down in Dorset, and even after my father inherited the earldom, my parents chose to remain there. The house is comfortable & compact with none of the big show rooms you find at other grand estates. We've never had a ball at Endsleigh, instead, when my parents host a small party, we roll up the carpet in the sitting room and somebody sits down at the piano.
The house is surrounded by rambling gardens. We've got some formal flower gardens and then the park beyond, with a small wood covering the hill. We've got a maze and a lake with a fake ruin on an artificial island and a small grotto. There's a duck pond, too, with the Artist's Cottage, a rather indecent well, and our ice house is a pyramid. As children, we had splendid adventures in the park. In the summer months, you can swim in the lake, and in winter, it's perfect for ice-skating.
#WordWeavers Day 18 - What kind of dragon (behavior or looks) would your MC be?
Alfie would be very much an Elliot (from Pete's Dragon).
And John would like to point out that they already have a crocodile greataunt with a basilisk glare in the story, so they really don't need any dragon, thank you very much.
Alfie, brightening up: We've got a statue of St. George and the dragon in the maze at home.
John: Are you talking about the house with the sheep bone terrace?
Hey @romancelandia and @bookstodon - I've got a cover reveal for you! :blobcatpeek: My historical romance Springtime Pleasures has got a brandnew cover! I hope you like it!
One of the things about having a lingering / chonic illness I was really not prepared for is the way some people will suggest that you're simply not doing enough to get better.
#PennedPossibilities - MC or SC POV: What was your favorite day or holiday when you were a child?
Alfie:
I loved those weeks in summer that we spent at Lymfort Hall.
The house is a bit dark inside and could do with a brightening up, that's true, but the gardens are splendid! Especially the walled gardens with the fruit trees (SO MANY gooseberries!)!
I loved roving over the estate with my siblings, even if the garden follies are far less adventurous than those at Endsleigh. ☺️
Alfie would like to return to Lymfort Hall, his father's main estate and the one his father utterly detests due to the bad memories he has of the place. Alfie, by contrast, is not haunted by a traumatic past connected to the house and sees the potential of the place.
In the current WIP? The greataunt with the basilisk glare and the crocodile smile. 🐊 She is acerbic, is as rich as Croesus, doesn't suffer fools lightly, and has a kind heart.
In my two Victorian novellas, she is keeping my MCs on their toes, and just like in Springtime Pleasures, where she made her first appearance as the hero's aunt, she helps to facilitate the happy ending (esp. in Reunion on a Winter Night!)
#wordweavers May 1: Introduce your setting as if it’s a character in your story.
Imagine a small village - no, not even a village, a handful of houses clustered around a railway station, and a small hotel in the middle of the countryside. The station, the houses, the hotel are all brandnew, built just a couple of years back when the London-Southampton line was built.
At the moment, everything is covered with a thick layer of snow, and a deserted train stands at the station.
Today's #PennedPossibilities prompt and @pretensesoup 's answer to it made me think about whether Alfie should wear spectacles. His mother does, and moreover, eye problems are something that shows up in twins, doesn't it?
Alfie with fogged-up spectacles?
Also, I'm happy to report that I found out after which English country house I originally modelled Endsleigh Hall eleven years ago. Only the map of the grounds I drew up back then remains elusive...
#WordWeavers - Do you have an irrepressibly good-humoured character? How do others react to them?
Not in my Victorian WIPs, but there is always Damianus from Gladiator's Passion (and there will be a few more Roman stories in the future!). Damianus is basically a Golden Retriever in human form. 😊