Under the Weather....

Here I am on the first days of my new career, feeling a little sick. On Saturday eve we, my much beloved and I, went to my friend’s party. It was wonderful meet up with all the girls who have lost their jobs over the last few months. Understandably, some are still in shock by what has happened, but, on the brighter side, some now have new jobs, while some are enjoying their new found freedom.


I’m an early bird and although dancing the night away until midnight is fun now and again, I know I will pay for it later on.  Yesterday morning,I woke feeling like I imagine what having a hangover feels like, as I’m not a drinker I don’t know what it does feels like. By the end of the day, I felt shattered and took to bed early. This morning the first day of my new career I feel twice as bad and not up to much at all.

I tried sleeping on, but that made me feel more ill so I got up and wandered around the house tidying up, Hoping I might be able to shake it off, maybe it just the stress of the last few days at work coming out in a migraine.

Friday was awful. One of the ladies who was made redundant (not by choice) woke to find the family pet rabbit dead so all in all it was a tough day for her. I had to work the full day, though I wanted to go straight away, it was good to stay until the end at least I had chance to say goodbye to everyone. We hugged, after spenting eight hours a day, every working week for the last 14 years and eight months, it was hard to say goodbye and sad knowing that they were really going to miss you on Monday morning.

We had to go over the office for a chat with our boss. You know the normal chat ‘Thank you for all the hard work you have put in over the years and I’m sorry it has come to this’.... etc. But for both he and myself our chat was easier as I had been my choice.

The chat was more about my writing and how impressed he was about how hard I was working towards my goal. It’s kind of nice to know that so early in my writing career there are those who are eager to see me do well.

With this all in mind I just wish I was up to tackling editing my novel, oh well, another day tomorrow and another after that....

I think I shall go and lie down again and see how I feel in an hour’s time.

Jarmara

How safe is your hand cream, shampoo or lipstick?

Watch this, I bet it will make you think twice!
The Story of Cosmetics

Best wishes

Jarmara

The Story of Bottled Water

You need to watch this. .

The Story of Bottled Water

It will make you think twice
before reaching for the bottle.

Jarmara

What a Week!

Has there ever been a time in your life when no matter which way you turned you knew the decision you made would be the wrong one?

That’s what happened to me last Saturday. I had a bad feeling and I knew if I didn’t go it would cause problems and because I went it also caused the same problems. There is no right way of handling situation and my relationship with the person in question cannot be one where you can simple walk away. The ties of blood and family make it very difficult.

So how do you handle it as your emotion swing back and forth? Does the need to save face and sanity become so strong that it is easier to walk away and let time made any decision for you?

This week has drained me emotionally as I’ve gone back over the many years in which the conflict has taken place try hard to see why I should cause someone such angry and hatred. There are times when we seem so close and enjoy each other’s company, but I’m always on edge worrying that I may trigger the wrong reaction. At those times, I’m more than glad to be going home.

As time moves on and I’m getting older somehow my happiness and that of my son and husband seems so much more important that my feelings for the person in question. Maybe the guilty of misunderstanding, or trying to understand why I seem to cause such hostility in someone I have grown up and shared a life-time with, has left me feeling now is the time to let go and move on.

My patient, loving husband smiles and tells me ‘no matter what I do I’ll never get it right.’

So when all is said and done one can only try ones best and when that’s not good enough it’s time to let go and move on.

By next Friday I shall be starting a new life as a full-time writer. This fills me with excitement and replaces all my unhappiness with happiness. As they say after the storm the skies looks bluer and the horizons wider and whose all those emotions spent may just be worked in to a book or story plot. Remember as a writer no experience is wasted only recycled.

May I wish you all a happy and interesting weekend.

Jarmara

Who's in Charge Here?

I’ve just finished my first draft of my novel. Okay so that doesn’t mean the book is anywhere near finished, but it means that I’ve been in the process of polishing the book. When I say first draft what I mean is I’ve been going through many stages of little drafts to make up a final completed draft of the book. I’ve sent it out to a small agency and a small publisher just to see what sorts of response, if any I get back. So far I’ve been happy with my novel and in this final stage I’ve been looking for ways of improving tension, adding excitement and touching up where it is needed, but.... and that is what has been bothering me, on the whole I’ve been very pleased with the results.

But still something at the back of my mind has left me slightly dissatisfied I thought it was just nerves about what others would think of my book. The fact I would be finishing my full-time job to be a writer. To stop playing at being a writer and get down to the serious business of writing for a living when all around you think you are crazy.

But no! My novel has just thrown a spanner in the works.

How can this be when you are the creator, or you think you are?

All my careful planning for the last six months has gone out the window when I realised that something was missing.

Yes, there is action, intrigue, passion, murder and horror, but it suddenly came to me I needed someone to tie the two lines together. I was sitting at work mulling over the problem, which at the time didn’t seem like a problem, when a voice filled my head. An ex-policeman who at the time of the court case, and a little wet behind the ears, was made aware that something wasn’t quite right. Out of mists of creation, he started to take on form and substance. There in my day-job with a scrap of paper in hand and a pen he urged me on as his background, shape and history became solid. Though, I must admit he changed his name twice, but still it’s a small price to pay.

And now I need to work back through the book to tie everything in. My head has exploded with new possibilities. Sometimes you have to listen to what your book is saying to you rather than you think you know it all.

Has anyone else sent their work off to the Writer’s News critique service?

Must go the latest creation is getting impatient for some real action.

Jarmara

What's in a Title?

To find out whether your book has the best title to make it a best seller then check at Lulu Titlescorer

I did and found out my book has a 63.7% chance of being a bestselling title!

Have a go and let me know if you have a bestselling title too.

Good luck,

Jarmara 

Wanted!

Damnation Books are looking for submisions:
'If anyone has ever told you your stories are too dark they would love to hear from you.
Go to link to find out more:

Crack Hard Case? If you are into writing crime in the Pulp genre then take a look at the website and email the Editor

Wanted! Unagented Authors Welcome... US publisher Medallion Press are accepting unagented subissions for full-length mainstream adult fiction in a variety of genres. Check out their guidelines and follow them closely if you send your work into them.


Hope these are of some help to you, my dear readers. There are lots more to be found in the 'Writers' News magazine.

Happy Writing,

Jarmara

Back to Work We Go!

The last day of the holiday and tomorrow it's back to work. I just can't believe how quickly it's gone by.

I know, my dear readers, all I have to do is work up until the end of February and then I shall be a full-time writing, but ... It seems so long away and my work on novel is going so well. It's in the final stages of get it its last polishing and all I want to do is get started on the next one.

I have all the ideas mapped out for my third novel and my characters are created. It's to be a supernatural crime story set in Essex countryside and the first death happened in 1945 just at the end of the second world war.

But instead of tapping away at the keys, I shall be back in the factory tomorrow.

Bar humbug!

Happy Writing to you all

Jarmara