Happy Holidays

If the ravening hordes on the roads and the malls are anything to go by, then I must assume that it is That Time of Year Again. Yes, the time of year when tinsel positively drips from people’s ears, their brains disengage and they enter a Frenzy of Shopping. I am relieved to say I did my shopping in November, and when I am obliged to venture out for food tomorrow or on Saturday, I will be doing so with fangs sharpened and bared. But the tree is up, the house is all sparkly and I am girding my loins to cater for three exceptionally picky eaters and one with food intolerances (that would be me) on Sunday. I may yet run away and join the circus.

Tinsel drips from the ears of the Christmas tree...

It has been a helluva year – intense doesn’t begin to cover it. Building a house evidently has that effect. And yet, I am grateful to my wonderful project manager and brilliant young architect who have steered me through the initial stages of the build with a limited amount of stress. Mostly, for all those who told me it would be a hideously stressful experience, it has been fun. Intense, but fun. Of course, I may yet change my view, there are still six more months to go…

Rooms with a view...

And then there is another first draft finished and currently composting, and another manuscript cleaned up and in submission-ready format. I am working on the rewrite of a midgrade fantasy and I have the stirrings of a sequel to a YA paranormal which I may yet consider self-publishing – a topic around which there has been much discussion during the past year. A huge thank you has to go to my wonderful critique partners who journey with me: Carmel Waldron, Candy Gourlay, Kathy Evans, Jackie Marchant, Ellen Renner, Pat Walsh, Jeannie Waudby and Jeannette Towey. Also group hugs all round for my writing support circle on G+: Sue Eves, Maureen Lynas, Sue Hyams, Vanessa Harbour, Mark Jones, Michele Helene, Jane Volker, Jan Markley, Louise Kelly, Jeannette Towey, Jo Franklin, Savita Kalhan, and Carmel Waldron. May we all travel onwards and upwards!

My wonderful critique group

There has been dabbling in a bit of marketing consultancy, which I’ve not done for a while, but which I am very much enjoying – the focus being on using online platforms for the widest reach.

And then there has been social networking, from blogging to Facebook and Twitter and the introduction of Google +. It’s too much, and that doesn’t even bring Tumblr, Flickr, Reddit, LinkedIn and all the rest into consideration. Frankly, I don’t see why we can’t just have a single GooTwitFace platform and be done with it. The bottom line of it all, however, shrieks “Be Circumspect”. Database management is the deathknell of privacy. Changes to Facebook, particularly issues surrounding privacy and the introduction of Timeline, make your life an open book from the moment you joined. Every idiotic status update you ever posted, every whining or ascerbic comment you ever made is there for all your friends (and the world) to see. Facebook, lest you ever believed otherwise, keeps everything. Take heed.




But as the tinsel on the tree glitters and the fairy lights twinkle let me wish you all the very best for the holiday season whatever your religious or otherwise persuasion. Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas, good tidings and happiness for the Solstice, a joyous Kwanzaa and Happy Hannukah, may love and laughter, joy and happiness, peace and good feasting be yours.