Too busy to write stories

I have a story in My Weekly (dated 20/11) with Stella Whitelaw and Teresa Ashby. It’s great to be among friends, even if just in a magazine.

I’ve been using Linda Lewis with My Weekly, Womans Weekly, Yours and PF all along. Catherine Howard was for the mags that dropped fiction (Chat and so on) plus Take a Break. This goes back to when I thought the two sets of mags needed a different writing. I only use it for Fiction Feast now.

Ever since that amazing day last Friday, I've been feeling just a bit under the weather. I think it's tied into deciding what to do, where to live, John, etc. Being able to do what I want for the first time in my life is proving difficult. I’m definitely NOT complaining though.

Yesterday, I met my friend Marg at Leeds station and we went for  a meal before going on to the Writers Circle for the short story adjudication. I hadn’t noticed that the pub was offering half priced meals so when the bill came, that made for a very pleasant surprise.

I came nowhere in the competition which isn’t surprising as my entry was a full on soppy romance and the judge, a man, wasn’t keen on that kind of thing. It just goes to show how fr out of it I’ve been as I would normally take more care about which story I entered, especially when there’s prize money at stake. This time, I just picked one of my old stories, more or less at random. The good news is that Marg won.  She won last year too It’s funny how  ladies keep winning Leeds Writers Circle competitions (and taking second place too) when most of the people running the club are men……..
I’m busy judging the NAWG story competition, then I’ll be busy writing 75 critiques! It’s frustrating now that I’m enjoying writing fiction again I don’t have time to do it, but I’ll get there. I have a book to write too. It’s the next one of my writers’ guides. It will only take me a week to write, it's just finding that week!

It’s miserable out – grey and wet, but at least it’s mild. Tonight is a Spice dinner shuffle. There aren’t that many people going which is a shame, but at least the menu looks good.