An update
Some of you may have noticed that I have been missing for a while. The reason is that I’ve been in hospital. My blood pressure was up and my legs were swelling and I ended up staying until after the C-section. I really hate being in the hospital. :/ At least so far things seem to be going well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the future. My blood pressure is still a bit too high and my ankles and feet are still swollen (yuck). Other than that I feel fine, but tired. I’m a bit low on iron too, so maybe that’s why.
The twins are doing ok, but not eating enough to grow as much as they should, so we have to feed them through a tube (?). It’s a thin plastic thing that has been inserted into their stomachs (?). I’m really no expert on these medical things, but it’s creepy but quite easy to handle things once they had been set up. It’s usually quite nice to feed the kids from a bottle, but this – well, at least it’s easy and convenient. The twins were born almost a month too early (because twins usually are) and apparently that’s pretty good for twins. They’re so tiny. They’re also quite a lot alike (in looks) and quite different (in personality). Maybe this is too much info for most of my followers so I’ll keep all that to a minimum. I’m not sure how much anyone will want to know. I can tell you that having a planned C section worked out exactly as I hoped it would – no pain, not even afterwards. There were uncomfortable moments with injections, blood tests etc, but no actual pain, not before, during or after the surgery. So that was good.
We’re back at the house now and are supposed to handle things ourselves from now on. Again, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
In other news, I failed at finishing my three YA books :(. Now I have no idea when I’ll be able to do any writing at all. I don’t even have time to read (and hardly to eat and sleep…).
Even though I can’t write at the moment, I have come up with a new fanfic idea for Call the Midwife, which was totally unexpected. I never thought I’d write anything in that fandom. So maybe some day – next year? – I’ll do some more writing.
My writing again…
Now that I’m finished with almost all my writing (but the most important books are still left unfinished), I’m getting restless again. I really miss having something to do with my stories. At this time, I’ve edited and proofread them all and all that’s left is a story that I might not even finish at all. In the time since I had the idea for it, I have lost my interest in it and feel it’s rather boring. In a way, it’s a shame, because I can still remember how enthusiastic I once was over it, but not now.
I’m really looking forward to getting my two other works in progress saved from the crashed computer, because I’ve grown used to being busy writing every day. Now I feel lazy and bored.
You may wonder why I’m so bored and the truth is, at this time I’m constantly tired. Any physical activity at all, such as walking down the stairs and up again or just going into the kitchen for a while leaves me exhausted. All I can do is sit, which probably isn’t very good for me. What I can do is read and write so I try to do that. Unfortunately, I can’t read nearly as much as I want to so it’s going to have to be writing. If I can find something to write, that is.
What would Conan Doyle think?
I just read an article about literary spinoffs.
Maybe most of these won’t be to my taste. I’ve already read a few ‘modern’ continuations of classic novels and didn’t like them very much, unfortunately. Also, I’ve read reviews and articles about others and found that I probably wouldn’t care much for them either. But that’s just me. Some people might actually love these new versions of their old idols.
What interested me, as a fan fiction writer, was the following:
“Would Conan Doyle have objected to any of this? I like to think not. When the American actor William Gillette was seeking to insert a romantic interest into his stage play featuring Sherlock Holmes, he cabled Conan Doyle with the question May I marry him? – to which the author is reputed to have replied You may marry him, murder him, or do anything you like to him.
Writers ever since have been taking him at his word.”
The quote is from the article I mention above. Sounds like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wouldn’t object to anything we might make up about Sherlock Holmes or for that matter, anything authorised writers and tv producers might make of him. That’s good to know.
About my writing – un update
When I realized that I probably wouldn’t be writing any more fan fiction for a while, I was a bit disappointed and even more, nervous about how my original fiction would come along.
Fortunately, at the moment I’m right in the middle of a novella that seems to be working out great. I couldn’t be more thrilled, because while writing the fan fiction was a lot of fun, this is even more fun.
I was able to get one other novella sent to the printers the other day. Yesterday I also discovered that one of what I thought of as my ‘long short stories’ was actually novella-length so I will have that published as well. And of course, this original novella when I’m finished with it. I’m already about two-thirds finished with it. There’s a lot of work still to be done, but I’m really enjoying myself so far.
What I’m referring to as novellas can also be described as YA books, but either way, I’m getting more books published sooner than I expected. Which is good, because I have so much more writing to do before January. I want to at least finish with the writing. Proof-reading, editing and so on could possibly wait, but the writing and translation will have to be done before the end of January, or I’m not sure when I’ll ever get it finished.
No more fan fiction for a while
I may not be writing fan fiction for much longer – for a while, that is. Lately, I’ve been writing so many fanfics and I suppose nothing can go on forever.
As Natalie Imbruglia puts it ‘ My inspiration has run dry”.
Hopefully, though, I will be writing more original fiction for some time ahead. It’s for the best. A couple of months from now I’ll be tied up with something completely different and I also have so many plans for the near future that will need a lot of effort and a bit of luck to implement.
If I can finish all my planned original writing, I’d be really grateful. I’m guessing I won’t be able to get to work on anything major for several years, so the more I can finish now, the better.
Actually, I’ll be glad if I have time to read.
No one notices your brand new sweater…
I haven’t really heard this song completely, but it’s been on a couple of tv shows over the past five years or so, that I’ve been forced to passively watch/listen to, so I’m a bit familiar with it. It’s actually a really sad song which tells you the harsh, realistic truth about life – how no one will grieve when you die, no one wants to know what you’re doing and no one wants to know where you bought your brand new sweater. Which is kind of the way life is, isn’t it? If it isn’t a whole lot worse than that. I think so anyway…
However, a great antidote to life’s depressing aspects is – writing!
So I’d add a line to the song – ‘No one notices your brand new sweater – but that’s ok, if you write something good, cool or fun.’
If you don’t write, let’s say the same except ‘but that’s ok because you can always read a good book.’ 🙂
Should You Write an Outline?
Outlines work for some authors, and they might go so far as to say that you can’t write a cohesive tale without one.
Read more here.
So many different fandoms…
Sometimes, I’ve been thinking about how many different fandoms there must be. I encounter other fanfic writers online and many times they have quite a few fandoms too, but not one single fandom is the same as any of mine. Or they might have one or two in common with me but nothing else. I write or have written in about 100 fandoms, counting the Nordic ones, but of course I’ve read and been involved with many other fandoms that I haven’t written in. At least several hundred. Especially if I’m not counting just tv and movies, but books too and I know there are plenty of other mediums as well. Can there be literally millions of fandoms? I suppose it’s possible. In a way, I wish there were better ways of finding the ones I’ll like and passing by all the ones that don’t seem interesting to me. It would make things easier. Now I’m not just talking about fandoms I might write about, but also any I might like to read and/or watch.
How many fandoms are you involved in? Do you know?
