Sunday Recipe

Take a nice, gloomy, rainy day, lots of peace and quiet and no domestic chores, add one brain that is still fresh and zesty from the Xmas holidays, stir in the excitement of starting a new project in the morning, spice it up with the satisfaction of making headway on an old project in the afternoon, then finally garnish with the act of bravely sending a couple of submissions out into the world and serve with a side dish of cute, purring cats.

And there you have it: a perfect Sunday.

It’s been a year since I started this blog, and the reason I’ve been hesitant about resuming my natterings after the holidays is that I was trying to work out whether or not to continue with it. When I started out, I was all fired up by the “avalanche” of acceptances I had received towards the end of 2009. I rather optimistically imagined I’d be doing lots of posts about acceptances and publications.

Alas, things slowed down, and despite sending out what seemed to be a gazillion submissions (okay, 59 to be exact), and despite almost getting into a few pro magazines and anthologies, I kept missing out by a whisker. I garnered many pleasant, supportive words and much praise, for which I am grateful, but it all boiled down to just four acceptances for the year.

Right now, I’m fine with that. I know these things go up and down, but in December, with my days utterly subsumed by the mad, mad rush at the Arvo Job, I had one of those ‘what’s the point, it’s not what you do, it’s who you know’ episodes. When you’re tired and unfulfilled, it’s easy to get snarky and give in to bitter thoughts.

So it was time to step back, do other things, like sit on my Xmas present swing in the backyard, enjoy a few sunsets, read, walk, hang out with people, regain my sense of perspective, remember why I write and wait for the joy to return.

Which it did. In spades. As it always does. I’m tapping away on my keyboards like a crazy person again muttering "Don't get bitter, get better."

But I still wasn’t sure whether this blog was ... I don’t know... necessary? I mean, four acceptances in a year do not make for much of a writer’s blog.

So I looked at the stats for the year (very different to the counter, so I’m wondering whether that’s worth keeping) and saw that yes, a reasonable number of people do drop by - hallo everyone - and yes, quite a few of those visitors even checked out where they can find my work. Not a lot compared with JK Rowling or George RR Martin, I’ll grant you, but enough to make me think it’s not a completely pointless exercise.

So, I shall give it another year.

Besides, I quite enjoy nattering about my writing and posting photos of cats and foals.