Tag Archives: karate

Summer Daze, Part II

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IMG_0305Hello everyone! Summer is flying past and the gorgeous girl is back at school next week, which I cannot believe – where have the days gone?

I know I’ve been quiet on the blog front (again) this past week, though I haven’t been completely absent. The lovely Suzie, over at SuzieSpeaks, reblogged one of my posts this past weekend, which was a welcome boost – thanks, Suzie! And Lucy over at BlondeWriteMore included my in her list of What Writers Wear When Writing, taken from her excellent author interviews. Apparently when asked, I said I wore something ‘cool and glamorous.’ Well, I wish I could tell you that black track pants and a red Miffy t-shirt are cool and glamorous, but I think I must have been joking, or unusually well-groomed, when she asked me 😀

IMG_3144And so what have I been up to? I spent part of the weekend helping out with our dojo refurbishment. This is a fairly traditional part of martial arts – our dojo is a timber framed building in a private garden and, once a year, the adult students contribute their time and effort to sprucing it up for the coming winter. I was on measuring, then painting duties, and it was nice to see my fellow students again after our summer break.

IMG_3157I’ve also been hanging out with the gorgeous girl, taking her out for the day yesterday, having lunch and visiting shops, plus enjoying some art, craft and history at St Albans Cathedral. Today was more of a mundane at-home day, making sure we have everything ready for school next week, then a last-minute trip out to make the most of the glorious summer weather we’re having at the moment.

Oh, and writing? What’s that? Just kidding. I’ve now completed my edit on A Thousand Rooms, and am working up a launch strategy for the next month or two. ATR is quite a different read from my Ambeth books, aimed at an adult audience rather than YA, though with my usual twist of fantasy. Silver and Black is also calling to me, the manuscript rattling around in its digital drawer, so I know I need to look at that soon. There’s been a song in my mind this past little while, to the point where I ended up downloading it to Itunes – it’s an older song, but there is a vampire connection (no, it’s not by Muse), and it seems to me that the song will feature in Silver and Black.

I’m hoping to get a few more posts up this week, as well as make the rounds to see what everyone else has been up to. I’d also like to welcome some more new blog followers – thanks so much for choosing to come on the journey with me! And finally, I’ve been having fun with Instagram – I’ve been on there for a while and never done anything with it, now all at once I’m hooked. So if you want to find me on there, I’m helenejones33 – hope to see you!

And that’s about all for today. The sun is setting, last golden glow in a turquoise and purple sky outside my window. I think it might be time for a cuppa, and maybe a bit of reading, before bed. Hope you’re all having a wonderful summer – let me know in the comments what you’ve been up to!

Meandering Monday Musings

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The past few weeks have been quite busy, as I mentioned in a previous post, mainly because I’ve been working through the final edit and finicky formatting of my latest book, Hills and Valleys. Once that was released, my body then decided to go into meltdown with a nasty head cold, just in time for the Bank Holiday weekend. The head cold has now moved to my chest, and yesterday I had one of those days when I wasn’t even sure what day it was, when time seemed elastic, as though I could travel back and forth through the years by simply by thinking about it. No hard drugs, I swear. 😉

I’ve been this way, on and off, for a while now. I had pretty major surgery last summer (don’t ask 🙂 ), and I think maybe this is still part of the healing process. I was pretty ill when I went in for surgery, and I think the recovery, both from the op and the preceding ill health, has taken it out of me.

Still, I’m all right. There are plenty of people worse off than I am. It’s just getting a bit frustrating, that’s all. I said to my husband the other night that I can vaguely remember a time when I felt really well, but I couldn’t tell him how long ago that was. So I’m going to take a look around and see what I can do to make a difference. Kick my health back into shape (no martial arts puns intended). I’m pretty active – walking every day, karate twice a week, Pilates, zumba. I like to keep moving. And I eat pretty well, most of the time. So these endless head colds and coughs and chesty things and blocked ears and general malaise are starting to get me a bit down.

Having been so busy with the book this past little while, I’m a bit behind on keeping up with everyone’s blogs, only having time to dip in and out. I’ve also had a few new followers recently, and I just want to say ‘Hello!’ Thank you for choosing to follow my blog – you’re very much appreciated.

And, last but definitely not least, I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s supported the release of Hills and Valleys on WordPress, Twitter and Facebook – I’ve been really thrilled by the number of tweets, reblogs and posts, as well as all the lovely comments. Setting a new book free can be a challenging time, so all your support has made it so much easier – thank you!

And that’s about all for my Monday Musings – wishing you all a good week! Time to go and find the cough medicine again, I think…