Imogen Howson's Blog, page 8
January 19, 2011
Travelling
I'm off to London tomorrow (accompanied, as always, by Erica the red laptop, and this time also my much-loved Kindle).
I'm taking part in a panel at the Romantic Novelists' Association's January meeting at the New Cavendish Club, talking about – amongst other things, I expect – epublishing.
Then I'm staying two nights at The Model Auntie and Dr T-shirt's house. The Model Auntie and I are going to be executive ladies who work from home, and then we're going to go out for lunch.
I've spent the last three days juggling work, writing, housework and looking after Gloworm, who's been at home with a nasty cold and temperature. I don't like to leave her when she's still not well (Abstract is staying home with her otherwise I wouldn't be able to go at all), but I am looking forward to plenty of work-and-writing time on the train and in coffee shops.
January 17, 2011
Meeting in Darkness on Goodreads.com
This short story has been available to read in the browser or download as a pdf on my site for some time, but I recently put it up in various ereader-compatible formats (epub, Kindle etc) at Goodreads.com.
And now I'm trying out their book widget (I wish it were much smaller but maybe I'll work out how to fix that).
Your browser does not support iframes. Click here to read the e-book on Goodreads 
January 14, 2011
Thank you, Friday…
…for being the last day of the week. We had youth group tonight, Sparkler has gone out for a sleepover at a friend's house, Abstract and Gloworm are in bed, and I'm sitting on the sofa, drinking white wine and eating tortilla chips.
Tomorrow morning, I'm going to sleep.
(Tomorrow afternoon, I have writing and work and dinner to sort out, but I'll think about that when I get there.)
January 12, 2011
In search of a bit more time
Right now, I need at least three more hours in every day. I'm doing my best to carve them out of my existing schedule, but it's not proving all that easy. Regular work, editing work, my current manuscript, and the usual demands of housework/cooking/laundry were already keeping me busy. And now I've added another project (currently secret and therefore known as the Secret Project), and I'm not just struggling but fighting to fit everything in.
In the interests of saving time – or at least, rearranging time in a more efficient way – I've unearthed my old slow-cooker and am putting it to use. Monday's and Tuesday's dinners were slow-cooked bolognese sauce with spaghetti, and it was very good – and, which is more to the point, it was mostly thrown together in quarter of an hour at the beginning of Monday morning.
I nearly always cook two days' meals in one, I get all my grocery shopping delivered, I have a dishwasher, washing machine and tumble-dryer, and Sparkler's allowance is dependent on her tidying her own room once a week. And yet still, I really really need those three extra hours.
And yes, I am working out ways of getting them. What, did you think this was just a pointlessly whingey post? In discussion with Abstract, I've worked out that I need either someone else to do the cleaning, or someone else to do the laundry, or a robot vacuum cleaner (so cute, although I'm sure the cats wouldn't agree). Or an unnaturally tidy family and cats who neither eat nor shed fur.
I'll keep you posted on which I get!
January 9, 2011
Poor word use
I just had to inform Abstract and Sparkler that:
a. You can't make a swear word non-offensive by sticking "ness" on the end (e.g. "****ness").
b. You can't make a sentence grammatically correct by randomly inserting "whom" in it (e.g. "I wouldn't have said ****ness if it weren't for whom you and Dad.").
January 7, 2011
Quick, I must blog before midnight!
With eight minutes to go before midnight, I just realised I have to blog otherwise I'll have failed one of my New Year's resolutions.
This is what you might term a placeholder post. I'm just finishing up my word count quota on Chains of the Volcano then I'll be back to do something that actually counts as a blog post…
16 minutes later, and I'm back! I've got my word count done for today, too, and I put up the two latest photos for the Year of Photos, so I'm feeling the first week of the new year has gone pretty well. Only fifty-one more weeks to keep to schedule with as well!
Over the weekend I have to get some more work on Chains done, as well as do some fairly extensive planning on another project, which I'm beginning next week.
Fortunately tomorrow Sparkler starts her dance and drama mornings again, which means I drop her off then spend three hours having breakfast and writing in McDonalds. Happy happy productive writing time.
Sparkler and I also plan on making croissants, using Abstract's breadmaker to raise the initial dough. I've never made croissants before, but I have high hopes for them!
January 5, 2011
Back to work in the rain
Well, I don't have to go to work in the rain, because I work from home. Smug? Just a little.
But my poor girls went off to school this morning in what still looked like the middle of the night, plus pouring rain. I hate sending them out in the dark, although it doesn't freak me out as much as when Sparkler started secondary school and for the first time I had to watch my tiny little eleven-year-old walk out into the night by herself. That was awful – it was like watching Little Red Riding Hood go off into the depths of the forest. I was less freaked when it was Gloworm doing it, but only because she had her older sister with her. Red Riding Hood should have had a big sister.
Abstract is back at work now as well (there was pretty snow for his first day back, though, just a thin glittery layer on the ground), and I have to get back into the swing of things here. As well as usual work stuff, and editing the Springtime Antho novellas, and writing, my house is in its normal post-holiday state and I'm itching (almost literally – I have issues with mess and have had to teach myself to live with it during the holidays) to get it clean and tidy again. It's not helped by the fact that we've added the breadmaker to our already limited kitchen space, and Sparkler would ideally like a cupboard for her own baking equipment. I'm using all the cupboards, so I'm not sure how that's going to happen!
Oh, I also have my terrifying tax return to do. And the website isn't recognising my username/password so I have to phone the helpline and speak to an actual person. I am quite horrified by this. I think everything to do with tax and money should be done online, preferably with no reference to real people at all.
So far today I've blogged (voila!), put up two photos for the Year of Photos, let in the satellite man so he could fix our TV up with Freesat (very clever, although I must find a way of locking the yucky-looking "Adult" channels), done a tiny bit of cleaning, taken down the Christmas cards, and drunk three cups of tea and one coffee. Hey, it's a start.
January 3, 2011
World of baking
So, I bought Abstract a breadmaker for Christmas, and it's what you might call a huge success. He's baked bread nearly every day since (fortunately, Gloworm bought him two big boxes of bread mix) and it's totally delicious – much better than the normal handmade bread I've made before (which I didn't expect – I thought the advantage of a breadmaker over doing it yourself was primarily convenience).
Sparkler, who wants to be a pastry chef when she's older, and who's doing cooking as one of her GCSEs, got a whole bunch of cake baking and decorating equipment as the bulk of her Christmas presents. Since Christmas (the house already full of Christmas cake and mince pies and Christmas pudding and brandy butter) she's made three batches of brownies (espresso, triple-choc and peanut-butter-swirled) and, just today, a batch of lemon cupcakes iced with orange buttercream and decorated with tiny marzipan oranges.
So right now there are brownies in the freezer, an untouched iced and decorated Christmas cake on a stand on the kitchen table, cupcakes in the fridge, and a fresh-baked loaf of bread cooling on the worktop.
Hm. If I'm to keep to any kind of healthy diet this January, I'm going to have to steer my daughter towards some low-cal recipes.
January 1, 2011
Happy New 2011!
We spent yesterday evening at a party for the youth group – a fairly exclusive party as several members weren't available. We ate crisps and dip and brownies (baked by Sparkler) and played the Teapot Game and Spoons (where you have to grab a spoon from a pile in the middle of the table, which led to no fewer than three injuries amongst the players). And I took my first photo for the Year of Photos just a few minutes into the new year.
This morning Abstract baked bread in his breadmaker and we had brunch of bacon (fabulous smoked dry-cured streaky bacon from an up-market farm shop) and duck eggs and fresh-baked bread. Except poor Gloworm, who woke up with an upset stomach and had to be tucked into our bed and left with a book and a glass of water. She's feeling better this afternoon, though, and has had two cups of tea and a sandwich with Abstract's bread and Gentlemen's Relish.
Right now I've just finished some more knitting practice (yay, I purled!) and am drinking a coffee with eggnog. Gloworm is reading in our bed, Sparkler is drinking eggnog without coffee in her room, and Abstract is sleeping off a slight Jack-Daniels-related hangover in the sitting room.
Happy New Year!
December 31, 2010
2010 was the year…
2010 was the year…
I finished Blood of the Volcano and sold it (yay!) to my new editor at Samhain. It's nervewracking sending in a new book, it's more nervewracking sending it to a new editor, and it's even further nervewracking when it's a sequel that you probably could send elsewhere but that you don't want to.
I renamed Telepathic Twins in Space to Linked, and then – temporarily – to The Book That Will Not End. Then finished it, queried it, and got a request for a full from a publisher I would oh-my-so-much like to work with.
I started seeing serious money from my backlist of books I edited for Samhain, mostly due to Kindle sales (and with honourable mentions to Mari Carr, Crystal Jordan and Jenna Bayley-Burke). My family has learned to love Kindle sales.
I got back into editing, just a little bit, with editing Anne Hope's Broken Angels while her editor was off sick.
I also contracted my first books since I stopped editing full-time. The three Springtime Anthology novellas, and (just yesterday, squee!) another novella that was submitted to the anthology but that couldn't be included, and will instead release separately.
I gave a talk as the official Samhain representative at the Romantic Novelists' Association annual conference in Greenwich.
I started getting my vegetables from a weekly organic box delivery scheme, and began to learn how to cook seasonally.
Abstract and I began running the church youth group, now renamed SPOBB (Society for the Prevention of Being Bored).
Sparkler had her first school trip abroad (Le Touquet, France, four nights). Yes, I survived.
We got our new cats, Xander and Willow.
I used some of the money from the Kindle sales to buy a Kindle for myself.
I used more money from the Kindle sales to buy Abstract a breadmaker for Christmas, which he loves and so far is using nearly as much as I use my Kindle.
I began to learn to knit. Emphasis on began, as the needles, wool and copy of Knitting for Dummies were Christmas presents from Abstract. So far I've learned to cast on, re-learned how to knit (I did used to know when I was much younger, but it's been a long time!), nearly learned how to purl, and learned how to cast off. I won't be displaying my knitting on the blog any time soon, but I am learning!
2011 will be the year…
Blood of the Volcano comes out (February 22nd).
I take part in a panel discussion on epublishing at the Romantic Novelists' Association's January meeting (and visit The Model Auntie at the same time).
I finish editing the four books I've contracted for Samhain.
I get a pay rise! I just got told about it yesterday, and it's effective January. An excellent start to a new year!
Gloworm goes on her first school trip abroad (Spain, four nights, eek).
I also intend it to be the year I…
Sell Linked.
Edit In the Shadow of the Volcano ready for release as a free read in February.
Finish and sell Chains of the Volcano, the sequel to Blood of the Volcano.
Finish at least two more books (and hopefully sell one if not both).
See some excellent new manuscripts from "my" Samhain authors.
Manage to balance cooking seasonally with calorie counting so I can get back into my skinniest-of-all jeans.
Get back to regular exercising after the lazy holiday season.
Blog at least every other day. I like to blog, and feel bad if I let a week go by without updating, but I can't manage every day. Every other day, however, should be doable.
Track all my Kindle (and possibly print) reading, because it's interesting.
Do the Year of Photos thing, where you take a photo every day and put them all up as a record of your year. I think that would be super fun, and I'm going to do it.
Work on continuing to improve SPOBB.
Survive Gloworm's first school trip abroad.
