• I seem to have so much to distract me from getting on with things – or am I really looking for things to do rather than get on with the job?

    I’ve mentioned before that I’m starting out on a new eight book series. This involves a lot more writing than I’m used to, so its a bit daunting. I dived in and wrote the first two stories, but knew they weren’t right, even before my editor said so. But that was good. It was a start and showed what was wrong and pointed me back to the original intention – the series was bought two years ago – I’m only now writing it, so its taking a while to rekindle the original inspiration.

    Thinking time is the hardest thing to justify when you work from home. Staring out of the window or going for a long walk does not look like fruitful labour. But it is necessary. Having spent most of yesterday fiddling about with my son’s car and other seeming useless endeavours, this morning I find my mind has been working on the problem all along and half an hour with my sketchbook has moved things along enough that I feel ready to have a go at a new first draft.

    The pressure is starting to build for cover designs. I need to plot out the stories and know the characters fairly well to be able to get on with the covers, which may well be designed and promoted before I finish writing all the texts. The plots are building and I feel confident it will all get done, but there is nothing like having a draft for the first book that everyone likes, so that is what I’m about to get started on… in a minute… when I’ve made a cup of coffee…

    The stories involve a bit of boys own stuff which I feel I should research properly, to the point where I might video what I do for the blog. It’s not easy finding something to write about every day, y’know?

  • Sometimes it has to be cheaper to get it done right in the first place. My son’s Ford Fiesta came without a radio CD so I got one at a very good price from eBay. A Sony, no less. The Garage offered to put it in for us.

    That was all well and good, but it wouldn’t remember the radio station presets. So I looked on the net and eventually found the installation instructions and downloaded them and looked on sites for others with the same problem. It seemed easy – reconnect a wire, or something.

    This morning I opened the gubbins and had a look. OH dear! The Ford cabling has weird colour codes. I spent quite a while looking for info on this but had no luck. In the end there seemed to be three things I could do. One of them seemed to work. Switching two wires so the switched power didn’t go to the main permanent power. It made sense really. But then it wouldn’t remember the volume settings and each time I changed channels it nearly blasted a hole in the roof as the volume was reset to full!

    I was about to give up, when I thought I’d try one more time in the configuration I felt should have been correct. This time it behaved itself and seems to have kept its settings okay. Phew!

    Was it worth a whole morning? It certainly would have cost to have it put right at the garage. Tomorrow my wife and son go visiting Universities and will take the car on its first long trip. They need the radio and CD! I guess I’ll get brownie points. Now all I need do is some work to pay for it all.

    Why am I wasting my time writing this blog!?

  • And so another great series goes down the pan, fallen prey to the notion that we want more and more gory detail and breath-panting horror.

    DS Boyd, the leader of the cold case unit, is border line psychopath himself. I know the saying is that you set a thief to catch a thief, but this is a bit beyond belief. He would have been demoted to parking crimes a long time ago in real life, just for the way he treats his staff, who are ridiculously loyal to him.

    Last night, they left the criminals to meet out justice on their behalf. It was a sorry mishmash of a story that relied on unbelievable changes in character from all the team. Tara Fitzgerald, the ice queen pathologist, now turns out to have another life in which she goes to “private clubs” to pick up passing illegal immigrants. Where did that come from? Up until now she’s worked 24 hours a day in the CCU crypt. Who in real life has all the skills to singlehandedly do the autopsies, test everything that is testable, measure up crime scenes and remodel them on the computer, she does her own DNA testing and the units scene of crime work. No one can do that much on an 8 hour shift. besides which she must have the most well funded lab in the country. It is so uneconomical to have all those machines standing by just in case she needs them in the next episode. Lets not mention the acting – she so overdoes the mad scientist bit that it becomes obvious she only got the job because she can act without emotion.

    I’m sure that police get involved with their cases, but does every episode have to link the case to a member of the team and put them in peril? It’s such an over worn plot now.

    Maybe the real science is now too humdrum. A DNA match is made and an old crime is solved – no hiding place – no drama.

    I’m bored of Boyd – I want to give Eve the heave – dispence with Spence and send Grace back to base. I no longer feel I need to watch this one.