Keep calm and carry on…
Now here’s the thing. Overnight, The Stumpwork Robe finally achieved Premium Catalogue status with Smashwords which means it can be sold to be read on all the e-apps available. This has prompted me to want to try and finish the formatting of its sequel The Last Stitch and secure its placement on the catalogue ASAP.
In addition, the ‘go to press’ day is rapidly approaching for A Thousand Glass Flowers (this year is galloping past me while I seem to stand still and achieve NOTHING!) 
and it has yet to gather its blurb comment, have a line-edit etc. Plus Gisborne is in tearing hurry to be written. And then there’s the WIP and work for Bo Press which I really want to do.
And yet ‘life’ has the gall to get in the way. How dare it!
Just take a look:
1. Mother going to hospital for a day or so this week (minor not major).
2. My ankle injuries from last year require MRI’s and ultrasounds this week.
3. The treecutters are coming into the farm to take down dead and partly fallen trees, requiring supervision.
4. The ‘bobcat’ is coming to scrape off the tumbled rock from the ruins of the 1800’s stable-block, requiring supervision.
5. Two hundred and fifty lambs need weighing.
6. The rams have to be drafted out of the ewe flocks before they kill themselves with overwork!
7. The horse’s feet need to be trimmed. (not by me but I have to hold him obviously)
8. The farmyard and drive need mowing on ride-a-mower while OH cuts farm lawns. (requires big and little earplugs)
9. I need to go meditate as I’m beginning to gnash my teeth.
10. I need to get a haircut!
Which all prompted me to get out my fave tea-towel and hang it over the rail of the oven door. I then typed ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ into Google because I wanted to know its provinence.
And finally: this coming week, it is truly my mantra.
Whew – I feel tired just reading your to-do/have-done list!!!
Congrats on Stumpwork Robe and good luck with all the things that need doing. A breath and a good cuppa and you can deal with anything (or at least that’s what all the Brits I know who drink tea tell me – can’t stand the stuff myself).
And you know what, Clare? This was supposed to be the slowdown time … to sit back and write. oh well. Tea? Unless its a herbal, I’d be pushing!
You won’t need a haircut, just tear your hair out!
Wow, Pat, what a good idea and a time saver too!
Delighted to hear about The Stumpwork!! Very lovely.
There’s a much less polite British WWII phrase concerning Keep on…politely euphomised as Keep On Keeping On. 🙂
You have a WEEK ahead! Hope for good news re: MRI and mother.
The extent of woes here amounted to
a) a freak windstorm of 100/130 kms per hour.
b) During which a portion of the dog-fence fell over on its face, ripping part of the carport with it.
c) And power outage for 8 hours. As there was nothing to be done that evening, except to check no lines down into the back yard,
d) just more exercised about missing The Wedding at 5am next morning. Rather enjoy British Bread & Circus productions.
Such things pale in comparison with the natural disasters elsewhere. We have occasional house-shaking and foundation-cracking earth tremors in S.E. Ontario, but the epicentres haven’t been close enough to cause the extent of disaster as elsewhere in the world.
Look forward to news of The Last Stitch progress.
Keep on…
OMG fitzG, now I feel bad whinging about my petty dilemmas. And no! Fancy missing the Wedding. i think i might have cried.
And of course you are quite right… all things pale into insignificance when looking at the global picture. Perhaps I need to walk my dogs at night more often and stargaze… that really gives one a concept of being a terribly small fish in a very big pond.
Cheers and thanks for commenting!
@Clare S and @mesmered – so what DO you guys drink for instant refreshment down there?
I’m guessing / hoping the stereotype twenty cans of Fosters is not a reflection of real life?
Tea (proper hot tea with milk and sugar) is just so normal for the British. One of the few habits I’ve brought to Africa with me. (Though admittedly if I had an espresso machine it would be a latte instead).
Speaking for myself, Mark… I drink camomile tea and then by night, chilled white wine. But Clare S lives in Blighty so I’m not sure what she’s ditched tea for. My OH is like you… tea during the day. But then come night and he’s a beer and red wine man!
Fosters? Oh God! The only thing that was good about Fosters was the wonderful dray they exhibited at Agricultural Shows. It was six Clydesdales in harness pulling a load of kegs with two drivers dressed in the obligatory Australian drizabones and Akubra hats and always with a Dalmatian dog up top of the load. Wonderful! My OH actually convinced them to do a regular de-harness and re-harness of the heavy horses at a local show some years ago as he was a Society life member and the arena commentator.
So pleased to hear about Smashwords and The Stumpwork Robe. At least that’s one small thing crossed off that busy agenda of yours.
I still pale in sympathy when I read your lengthy list. You must wish you were a set of clones, so you could delegate in good conscience and with the hope of success.
At the moment, touch wood, my life is all calm and peace. I send you a vacuum-packed virtual hank of it, to hang next to your tea-towel, with the wish that all goes well for you this coming week, in hospital and on the farm.
And if you should need anyone to take care of Messire de Gisborne for you, for a while…
I’m only sayin’…
Thanks Giselle. TSR received its e-ISBN overnight, so hopefully its accessible to all sorts of e-readers now.
My list IS big but I qualify it all by saying how much I do love working outdoors. I suffer cabin-fever a lot and its satisfying being in the fresh air. The difficult side is prioritising.
I hate that Gisborne must once agin be put to the side whilst TLS goes to Smashwords for its e- grilling and that A Thousand Glass Flowers must have its share of a final comb-through. but that’s the way it goes i guess.
Messire de Gisborne is currently MIA… leaving Ysabel in a precarious state. I do know where he has gone… the question is does he came back with his very own POV for the last part of the novel? I debate it time and again!
And one bit of oddness in all of this: it was suggested to me overnight that I submit a book as a film script. Goodness! But how and who to? I’m all of a dither.
I really should do more of an edit on my replies: My shift button for capitals is not working too well without pressing hard and i do know how to spell ‘again’. Apologies.
I’ve always loved the Keep Calm poster–sometimes when I’m stressed I see it in my head. 🙂 Sounds like a crazy to-do list, but I know you’ll manage with grace–and I’ll be looking for Stumpwork in e-readable format ASAP!
Thanks for the thoughts, Rowenna. Everytime I watch a Jane Austen series now, I wonder what you shall create for your event.
Prue – although I don’t have half the work you do, I am trying not to gnash my teeth too!
Nikalee, its a one-off week for me. Its a week when I really want to ‘book-it’ because I have so much to do with my writing but it’s not to be. Mind you, yesterday’s rain and the dog injury took a slab out of that day.
Rain again tomorrow apparently. At least the lambs are all weighed and drenched, rams are off the ewes and resting and the (hopefully) pregnant ewes are on in the bush-runs for a week or so. It’s slowly settling down.
Now I know for a fact that you have a consistently demanding life, and I’m in awe actually… I don’t know where you find your energy!
I really do sympathise. I really do. It seems difficult finding a free slice of time wide enough to lever things like sleeping and eating among everything else. Hope all eases up for you as fast as poss.
I loved the poster comedy duo Armstrong & Miller were selling as merchandise for their show. It said “Keep calm and carry on and s**t”, which is funny if you’ve seen their two inept World War II pilots sketches on TV. 🙂
Speaking of nothing in particular, have just purchased and downloaded “The Stumpwork Robe” to my Kindle. 🙂
Traxy, was it with Smashwords? Cos I just had an email saying there were sales! Thank you!