Mouldering

Having a bit of a down turn on the productivity side at the moment.  Not only are we still waiting for the little wiglet to make his appearance but I've had a right snot banger of a cold.  It probably wasn't helped by having to have a glucoses resistance test to stop the midwife harping on at me.  Apparently my bump is too big so she was getting all twitchy about my having pregnancy diabetes, which apparently makes babies grow too big to be born naturally.  Well the test came back 'normal, no further action required' so now I have no idea why my baby bump is bigger than normal.  Personally the medics would probably save a lot of time and money, as well as worry, if it was routine for expectant mothers to have one last ultrasound at 36/37 weeks because at that point the skull and pelvis could be measured and any concerns about size flagged up then.

Any way, as for the glucose test itself - I'd had an interesting cough since the weekend and then I had to starve from midnight on Tuesday, be up at half six on Wednesday, be at the hospital for half eight, have a starving blood test, drink about half a litre of glucose water (tasted like icing sugar in water), wait an hour, have another vial of blood taken, wait another hour, have a third vial taken and then I was finally allowed to have something to drink and breakfast.  That was about twelve hours without food, or even much in the way of water.  Is it really surprising that the next day my throat was sore and my neck glands in the process of swelling up?  So instead of spending the last of the week working to produce stuff to sell for the rest of the year, I spent it feeling like mould and dosing myself with every cold and flu remedy I have found that works on me.  The most effective I've found is home made, extra strong garlic butter.  It makes you stink but it boils the germs out of your system just about as fast as they can go.

I am now just about in the last stages of the cold i.e. stuffy nose and glue ear so I'm finally back to work.  How long that is going to last depends on the little passenger.

Jobs Lots

If only I could sell them off as lots at an auction but if I did then they would no longer be my stories or my artwork so on with the show.

Know that it has been rather slow with the news on my blog recently but my husband has been cashing in the last of his holiday so has rather been hogging the computer to work his way through the I.C.T. degree that he's hoping will lead into a better job.  It's a case of two courses down and seven more to go so he's got a lot of work to cram in before June when his payment for the degree times out.  So I don't grudge him the hogging of the computer but it has meant that now he's back at work I do rather have a lot of catch up of my own to do.  Try over seventy emails for a start.  Working through that lot took several hours earlier this evening and I'm not even going to mention facebook.  That was rather like opening the cupboard and having a tidal wave of Tribbles fall out on top of you. (Sorry for the Star Trek reference but I did watch that show when I was a child and it probably had some baring on my own sci-fi writing.  That and it was one of the funniest moments in the original series.)

As part of my catch up work I am trying to post another Patreon post.  Trying is the word that is over working in that sentence as I have posted in total three Patreon posts.  However, only my first one appears to still be in existence, the other two having vanished into the ether as if swallowed by the ninth level of the internet.  Why this should be I have no idea but as you can imagine it rather ticks me off as it does explain why my husband, who has been on Patreon a shorter period of time than me, has patrons and is receiving a small amount of funding while I do not.  I'm not entirely sure what I am doing wrong as I am filling out all the boxes and clicking the 'Post Now' button, which I assumed was what one needed to do to make a Patreon post.  I'm sure that there is a reason why this method suffices for blogger and not Patreon but I am beginning to consider hitting the 'Post Now' button with my fist.

The other thing that rather makes all this catch up work rather pressing is that there are now only three weeks before the infant distraction is due to arrive.  That is of course assuming that he doesn't follow the family tendency for the last five generations and arrive early.  Considering he dropped two weeks back so that I can now breath easily again and I haven't had a day go by where I haven't had a serious practise moment since then I'm beginning to wonder.  I'll let you know the moment he gives me five minutes to think once he's arrived.

The Audio Has Landed

Finally, after many months of speculation, decisions, a few tantrums (I can see why children do it - it makes you feel better even if it doesn't change anything) and an awful lot of work on inter-communication (not an easy thing for an Autistic to deal with, I function much better with a clear road map to what I'm supposed to be doing) the audio sample for my book has finally arrived.

Here are the first twenty minutes of 'The Return of a Nagus'.  A huge thanks to Michael Hill and Hazel Willson for all their hard work and time spent on this project.  I hope we can work together again soon.

Or, here is the Youtube link if the above video is being awkward:

For those interested in grabbing the rest of the story the link is:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/144687/The-Return-of-a-Nagus?src=hottest_filtered

Also Leaves of Dreams managed to raise the rent so if you fancy grabbing some of my framed artwork at 20% off, please visit them at:

Leaves of Dreams

47 High Street

Watton

IP25 6AB

Thanks to everyone who has helped me get this far.

Falling Leaves

Besides the good news that I'm still on track to upload the audio sample of 'The Return of a Nagus' on Saturday, I've had some bad news as well.

It seems that 'Leaves of Dreams', despite an initially successful start, has run into difficulties and unless they get a serious wind fall by the end of the week they are going to have to close.  Obviously this not only has a knock on effect on my own career but I know the people who opened it last month.  They both have struggled due to disability to just receive a 'proper' job and opened 'Leaves of Dreams' in an effort to become self-employed and stop having to live off what benefits they could scrape together.

Despite what Ian Duncan Smith and Rupert Murdock would like you to believe, most people on benefit would like to be off it, if nothing else so we can stop having to listen to the government sanctioned libel that gets spread our way.  If you printed some of the stuff that has been in the news recently about disabled people only aimed it at non-white people instead then you would be done for inflaming racist violence.  Why is it that being disabled means that we are expected to just sit here and take the verbal and written slander?  Oh yes, I'm sorry, I forgot we can't fight back so that makes it alright to kick us around.  What is it about people in positions of authority that means that they want to be bullies to those that don't enjoy full mental and physical health?

One of these days I'm going to have to write a story in which a 'supreme leader' views those with handicaps and disabilities as valuable members of society that, if given the correct help, can drive their country to being the greatest empire in existence.  Could be a new take on the legend of Hephaestus, the Ancient Greek God of Smiths and workers, who managed to make many of the miraculous devices of the Parthenon, despite having a leg so badly crippled that he had to ride a donkey when ever he wanted to travel away from his forge.

The only thing is, I think I'd have to make the 'supreme leader' the villain to fit in with societies accepted norms.  Or I could go totally AWOL and actually write it how I want it with the 'supreme leader' being the hero trying to build a better world for everybody, with structures in society that help those who struggle understand the chaos,  while the other countries lambaste him for being a dictator.  Could even have it that he only allows people to immigrate to his country if they have a disability.  I'm liking this idea more and more.  What do people think?

Any way, back to the matter in hand, if you want to help support 'Leaves of Dreams' then they are located at:

Leaves of Dreams

47 High Street

Watton

IP25 6AB

They can also be emailed at leavesofdreams.venture@gmail.com

As well as their facebook link, https://www.facebook.com/Leaves-of-Dreams-1883563641867952/?fref=ts&__mref=message_bubble

And their tumblr, what ever one of those are http://wedreamoftrees.tumblr.com/ 

I don't like do the whole begging thing on my blog but this venture is directly getting two people off benefits and is helping many more to do the same.  Even just a few messages of support would be welcome right now.

Sound Bites

Alright, the Christmas rush is settling down, I've had a great time seeing all my friends, managed to do some sewing projects that I've been meaning to do since the beginning of the year on the days that I wanted something to do with my hands while I was socialising. (Tip for Autistics: finding a job you can do while sat down and talking to others has a soothing quality for the mind.)  As such, I have finally repaired some work trousers for mother that I was meant to back in February and emptied out some more of my cupboards (I am still trying to cut down on the amount of stuff I own to make room for husband/baby).

Now I suppose it is time to do the whole 'get back to work' thing and start looking at my career again (I also have four days in my diary that are going to need filling up so that is going to take some time).

To that end I am pleased to announce that thanks to the director of 'Wanderers of War' Michael Hill and the actress Hazel Wilson, the opening scenes of 'The Return of a Nagus' are going to be available as an audio file from Saturday the 9th of January 2016.  I will warn you that this is not the whole book, nor even the first whole chapter as that ran to over an hours recording, but it gives a flavour for how the story develops and introduces some of the main characters and their struggles.

I will be uploading it here, on my website, in both the normal post feeds and I'm hoping to produce a whole page dedicated to both it and future sound bites as and when the next book is published.  I also hope to upload it on Youtube, although I'm not sure how that is going to go as I have never uploaded anything to Youtube before and I am pretty much computer illiterate.  Wish me luck.

Thank you to all who have made this year the memorable start to my career as an author.

Making Progress

O.K. as the Christmas rush hurries up, as it always does, I've finally made some progress.  This has not been easy, as my lack of posts can reveal.  I've just been having a very hard time of it trying to come up with any time to work on my projects and the muse totally deserted when it comes to writing blog posts.  What I think a lot of casual bloggers don't understand is that for a writer or an artist blogging is one of the many ways we have to promote ourselves and our work.  However, this requires time, time which we can no longer spend on our work and therefore we have less to blog about and therefore it takes more time to come up with something to blog about.  It can be a source of serious creators block.  I, for one, very rarely suffer from tradition 'writers' block' any more, what I suffer from is the writers' block caused by not having enough time to work on my writing or indeed my art.  I'm beginning to understand why Leonardo De Vinci rarely managed to finish a project, sometimes you just have too many ideas and not enough time to work on them all.

However, I have managed to make some time to work on my artwork and 'The Sorcerer' is progressing well.  I will admit that the last couple of days I have concentrated more on the rock he is standing on instead of the village he is watching over because the village, being in the distance, is minuscule and I'm going to have to use my finest brush, the one normally reserved for painting the details of someones iris, to do the people.  That is not going to be easy and I felt in need of a break from the pressure.

I'm hoping to be able to do a blog post, or maybe a couple, detailing my work process in the future.  All I need to do is find the time to connect my camcorder, which also takes still shots, to my computer and work my way through all the programming details.  I will be the first to admit that I am not what you could call computer literate.  In fact, my abilities with computers can be summed up as 'you press this button and it is meant to do this'.  If the computer decides not to do 'this' I have to run for help.  That is one of the reasons I do not do on-line banking (the other reason being if everybody does on-line banking who is going to give jobs to all those people who currently sit behind the tills in the banks?).

Any way, speaking on the lack of time, I need to be going.  May all my loyal readers have a happy and health end to the year.

Success!

So things are looking up, despite the mix up with the dates.  You may remember in my last post that I said that I was going to be doing a pop up stall in Barclays on Tuesday the first of December.  Well I arrived all set to do said pop up stall only to find that someone else was already setting up.  A quick check in Barclay's diary revealed that I was actually booked for Tuesday the eighth of December.  Not a good thing as I lost a bus fair with no return for it.  Serious Autistic moment when I arrived home, thankfully I had the house to myself at the time so I could really howl about it and therefore feel better within a few minutes instead of taking hours.

Autism Tip: If you are in a private area with an Autistic person who is on the verge of going into meltdown, it is better to leave be and let them have it, or even encourage them to really go for a good wailer of a crying jag rather than trying to calm them down.  Trying to calm them when their brain is not ready for that can mean that they balance for the rest of the day on the edge of feeling out of step with the world, depressive, no good at what they do etc.  Letting them have their melt down good and proper there and then re-balances the brain chemicals and means that it is over within a short time.  Once they have had their 'little moment' they will be more willing to look at the situations with an open mind and a calmer demeanour.

As it is having the pop up stall delayed by a week turned out to be a good thing as I managed to sell six items (including one of my books) when I did hold it this week.  That is more than I have sold in the previous four months and to add to that success Leaves of Dreams in Watton has sold two of my prints on their first day!  That news particularly put me over the moon as I have struggled since I had them printed to sell my larger prints, now I've sold, through a third party two of them on one day.  Now that is what I call success!  And hopefully it marks the beginning in an up turn in the sales of my stuff.

If you would like to visit Leaves of Dreams and have a dig through not only my artwork but also that of other local artist, musicians and writers then the address is:

Leaves of Dreams

47 High Street

Watton

Norfolk

IP25 6AB

As ever you can also visit my shop page for the links to all my other outlets.

Here's to a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year for all my loyal readers.  If you don't celebrate anything at this time of year then may I wish you a happy and healthy end to the year.