Day 9 – VAT issues (by sarah)

The painting is called Lonely Christmas and is part of the painted advent I am doing, I like the concept and the colours but... I don't think it quiet works - nor unfortunately do my plans for The Little Book of Festive Poetry amongst other things. Basically there are new VAT laws coming in and they seem stupid complicated and so for now like many many authors I am having to currently put a hold on selling ebooks 🙁

But you can still listen too it here.

Writing 2014 (by sarah)

I really missed doing NaNoWriMo and the other writing challenges in 2013 due to my course - I still did well and wrote the equivalent of a small paper back but I want to really plough through the writing this year. With the five years of Monster Blogs there to help it shouldn't be too difficult but will not really get going until after my course finishes.

But there is a lot of work already up for people to read - several people have been asking me for the links recently so I thought I'd just pop them here.

Magenta Monster is flash fiction, short stories and serials and there are a lot of stories on there now and The Cavern is steadily going out - as a story it now exceeds the novelette range and is almost too long to ben a novella now! And I am still going strong with it.

A lot of the world building for my Punk story line is there in short stories under the category The Punks World. There are also plenty of story starters and writing inspiration I have shared for other writers to use.

My Poetry and Music goes out on Turquoise Monster, I tend to do a lot of poetry writing challenges etc... and if you want to keep up with what I am doing then there might be a good place to check 🙂

I'm aiming to release the Turquoise Monsters first poetry collection this year as well as Ballads of the Scientifica in double album mode. Along with the Muse Monster Poetry card game.

WoPoWriMo of course is still going strong - it had it's 5 yr anniversary last year so it is back to normal again this year. It's a writing challenge and community I help run so the blog needs sorting for that and I need to actually do the writing challenge myself. The site is full of exercises and ideas plus guest posts from various poets.

Orange Monster is my kidlit and illustrations blog etc... and this year it will mainly be about finishing stories off and illustration. I released The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry this year in physical form and hope to move forward with the Little Books in general and maybe collect together some of the other work I have been doing.

Jeany is also writing her book reviews on Orange Monster.

Red Monster is just a summary of what I've been upto on the other blogs and Blue Monster has writing exercises on for other writers. Yellow is my dad and Green is reviews of books and films.

Lime Monster is my gaming blog (mostly Minecraft at the moment), where I say what I think of games, progress I've made in some of the on going games and things I do inspired by the games like crafts with the kids etc... and also some fanfic too.

I have note books full of stuff for the gardening, DIY, Fashion blogs etc... but not really sure when I will have time to update them 🙁 Mainly I want to focus on projects that I can finish easily and get up and running.

I also want to make sure that Alaric gets a chance to do his writing this year.

And of course I am hoping to be doing some more science writing!

I think writing wise there maybe actually more editing than writing involved as I try and bring my novels into the world. I shall be prodding Al repeatedly about retrieving Dragon Hunter for me of the old laptop and I shall once again be attempting to type up The Drs Wife. I really really want to push ahead with the Punk series but realistically know it will always end up as my NaNoWriMo and GothNoWriMo projects!

The plan currently stands that we would like to have a week away together just to write for a 10 yr wedding anniversary but not sure if it will get to happen.

Knitting 2014 (by sarah)

So last year I knitted 2 bears, most of a creeper cuddly, heart coasters, tinsel, holly and the such like, I also made a pattern for my bucky ball but I haven't published it anywhere I as want to test it first - if anyone is interested let me know please 🙂

I tend to put the knitting stuff up at Ravelry.com I am 5affy on there if anyone wants to friend me 🙂 I do tend to be a bit sporadic with it though. I want to catch up and put all my knitting challenges on Salaric Craft but am so far behind now that is a major undertaking so we shall see.

Actual knitting wise I want to finish stuff off - there is the berry bear blanket which is for Mary and was supposed to be for her birthday - if I push the boat out maybe I might finish it in time!

I'm still knitting Jeany's Christmas present - a creeper scarf so I want to finish that first along with her creeper stuff toy which pretty much needs sewing and stuffing!

There is a science knit concept I am working on as part of my Science Communication course right now which is having to take priority. But if I can pull it off as an actual working thing is going to be awesome!

I'll be doing some quick knits like roses etc... to pop on etsy. The trouble is I get Wednesday whilst Mary eats her lunch after mini mice climbing to knit and maybe Thursday during film night plus odd bits here and there but it is all moving forward nicely and I learnt two new technics over Christmas.

Alaric is still clicking away at my tea cosy 🙂 And of course he is in charge of making the pockets for the berry bear blanket - but I think he has the sewing bug as I keep finding the sewing machine out and things fixed!

Jeany still loves finger knitting - so much so that I have given up on the concept of buying tinsel every again! She has just started with a knitting nancy peg doll so we shall see how that goes - she was rather taken with a rainbow or crazy loom thing she saw at a friends party over Christmas so I think she maybe saving her pennies for that at the moment.

I am also still working on my upcyle knitting loom to make upcyled shopping bags - we shall see 🙂

Five Years of Monster Blogs (by sarah)

This year the monster blogs are 5 yrs old on average 🙂 So I thought I'd do a little celebration. Mainly I will be trying to finish various projects off.

This month I am starting with the poetry Muse Monster game which I hope to have on sale properly by the end of the month.

I'll also happily write flash fictions for people if you leave a character or some words or even a story starter in the comment field below 🙂

Glass Ceilings (by sarah)

Or why I can no longer work from home now Al is in an office.

Alaric has gone out of his way to help with my course taking Thursdays off work and working through his lunch brake on Fridays so I can attend lectures and has helped with the writing and craft stuff giving up weekend days to take me to events etc... but this morning he subjected me to the glass ceiling and wasn't even really aware he had done it. It happens quiet a lot and normally it doesn't matter that much as I am only trying to get a few of my own blog posts done or making stuff but today was the day I had set aside for my college coursework and business admin - just like Friday was.

It didn't happen on Friday as he ended up going into London so Mary couldn't go to nursery. I can write fiction and draw/knit a bit with the baby about but for anything I need to immerse myself in, it just doesn't work - she needs me too much - so that is course work or articles out of the question. On top of that I have been struggling not to feel like I need to sort the house out before I start work on the Mondays etc... I went back to college and that is a strain on both of us so house work (which we both do) has fallen behind.

His suggestion was to move up to the attic to work so after he left this morning I spent a while sorting things out so I could work upstairs. I've been finding I can work when I am in Bristol as I am away from the home and everything that needs doing - this wasn't an issue when Al was working from home as we were both there and me, him and Jeany would all be sitting there working together and taking breaks etc... Now it's just me.

I sat down and did half an hour of work - after a frantic morning of getting up early (after a night of no sleep due to Al having insomnia and keeping me awake), to get Mary to nursery before the school run instead of after it and taking the kitten for her shots after the school run. I was feeling really positive and happy about it all as I'd spent a while this morning answering Jeany's questions on mammal evolution which included the extinction of the dinosaurs and plate techtonics.

So when I heard Al bring the kitten home from the vets I rushed down stairs to give him a hug, and then I heard... Mary. He'd gotten stuck in traffic so was grumpy his getting up early had been in vein, He'd suggested yesterday that Mary stay at the house until lunch time so he didn't have to get up early and I'd explained I have deadlines and I needed the morning to work - I made sure Jean had clean uniform (which as the washing machine has been broken for the past two weeks involved me handwashing the stuff in the bath). I was sympathetic and assumed he'd be taking her in just a bit late. But no he was leaving her at home. The glass ceiling whacked me in the face, I threw over the bin and threw open a door with enough force to put the door handle through the plaster board. I cried and cried and wouldn't let him come near me.

He'd lowered the glass ceiling, not because he is a sexist pig because he isn't - but because he works in an office and I am working at home. If I had been in Bristol sitting in the library working then he wouldn't have been able to do that - it would not have been a solution to his problem ie he was now running late for work. He'd asked me what else he could of done - he'd tried his best which in truth he had - I know his finding things very stressful at the moment. But if I'd not been at home then bringing the baby back to me would not have been doable - he would have a) not made the vet appointment for one of the two busy weekday mornings in the first place (he had tried to get me to walk the kitten to the vet in the pushchair but I'd pointed out that this was my day for doing college work - I was AT WORK, I get two days - no make that mornings a week to get stuff done), and/or b) he would have taken Mary to nursery anyway and been late.

Al left hurt and angry as I really could not communicate what he had done, I was too hurt and angry myself. And of course I hurt my hand in the door slamming as it rebounded on me :/ This was exactly the sort of issue I hoped to avoid this time - I'm extra peeved as I am paying for nursery time that is now not being used so Mary is loosing out too 🙁 Of course Alaric gave me part of the money being used for that in the first place.

So basically I can't work from home is my conclusion, Friday I will hopefully be going into college to work instead. I say hopefully because of course the thing is that Al getting to work is very important, he earns the money that pays the mortgage and most of the bills, anything I earn is the extra and so sick children who can't go to school or nursery end up at home with me. And do you know the really sad tragic thing about all of this?

Al would love to be at home looking after the kids and tinkering with his projects.