Back from Weetwood Hall

I came back from Weetwood Hall yesterday afternoon, completely exhausted.

I was teaching a short story course and it was full on from 3pm Friday to Sunday lunchtime.

I’d been, to put it mildly, a bit nervous. I’ve run workshops and classes before, but never for a whole weekend,  and never on my own. It was quite a responsibility knowing that people had paid good money to hear what I had to say.

As it turned out, it was a good course, maybe even better than good (but you’d have to ask the people who went along about that!). They were such a lovely bunch of people of varying levels of experience, talent and confidence but they were all willing to work hard and take part and that’s the crucial thing.

The accommodation was very good, the food too, although a couple of people did find it a bit rich. There was an awful lot of it too, but I’m not complaining about that.

I’m down for another course in March at the same venue where I’ll be looking at ideas, not only how to come up with them, but also what to do with them once you have them (for details contact Lois via www.malagaworkshops.co.uk)

As soon as I’d unpacked, I turned into a couch potato, catching up on Strictly and other must–see TV. I also checked emails  and found that I’d sold a story to Fiction Feast which is always cause for celebration.

No word about Exeter though. I called the estate agent this morning and he confirmed that contracts have not been exchanged. I asked him to get on to the buyer and find out what’s going on as I really need this to come to an end. I really hate being tied to Exeter and wil be so relived once the house is finally sold and no longer my repsonsibility. I’m also not happy that the house is standing empty with winter approaching.

Another fifty entries for the NAWG comp arrived in the post plus a bag from the Writers Bureau with three assignments for me to mark. I have a total, so far, of 82 entries that need feedback so it looks like I’m going to be rather busy for a while.