Family Trip

Firstly, I interrupt this blog post (even though I've barely started it) to remind you all that my critique partner and good friend Nell Dixon's brand new book Blue Remembered Heels, published by Little Black Dress, is OUT NOW and AVAILABLE TO BUY in all good bookshops, both physical and online.

Buy it! Read it! Love it! Then I can say I told you so :)

Today The Bloke, Little Frog and I went to the little Cotswolds town of Bourton-on-the-Water.


Now, I'm English born and bred, and I grew up in the kind of village that was too small for a shop or bus service and barely qualified for a post box, so I know what our villages are like. But Bourton-on-the-Water is almost unreal in its lovely little postcard prettiness. It's the sort of rural English village you see in movies.

After our pub lunch, we spent the afternoon strolling up and down the river paths and ambling into gift shops. Then we took Little Frog to Birdland, a nearby tourist attraction filled with, well... birds... from all over the world. We paid good money for him to see lots of exotic and strange-looking winged things, and what did he do? Gaze around with a bored/haughty expression on his face, then eventually show some interest and laugh... at a bog-standard pigeon that happened to be waddling past.

Just finished reading: Her Parenthood Assignment by Fiona Harper

Ch-Ch-Changes

My maternity leave comes to an end in just a couple of weeks now, and Little Frog is booked in to have a trial day next week with the lady who will hopefully be his childminder. My feelings are mixed about the whole thing (as I imagine most mothers' are). It will be the first time he has been looked after by somebody who is not family, which makes me feel weird and nervous, but equally I am really looking forward to working again. Ah, the guilt...

Oh, and did I mention that he finally has his first tooth? It broke through quite suddenly last week and he's been enjoying testing it out on his baby board books.

So, back to my January To Do list. Did I complete it? Almost.

Tax return? Done. Article about motherhood finished and submitted? Done (but yet to hear back from magazine). Short story? Done (just needs a final check-over before it is sent out).

And on to the final item on the list... Completion of plot and first chapter for Truck of Luck? Not done. Sigh. Although I am much further along with my plotting. I got distracted by another story idea halfway through the month, on which I spent quite a bit of time, so if that hadn't happened I imagine I would have achieved my target. This one will have to be moved on to my February To Do list (look out for it tomorrow) and I think I should expand my goal to include the completion of chapters one, two, and three.


Just finished reading: English Lord, Ordinary Lady by Fiona Harper -- which is a finalist for the RNA's Romance Prize 2008, so best of luck to Fiona (and the other nominees)!