Archives for themself - Page 3
Moving North
I haven't written for a while, and there are good reasons behind that, we're moving North! Until February all my spare time was spent online looking at houses in Scotland that we could move to. Moving North Finding a New Home in the North The February half term week was spent with a massive driving expedition across Scotland. We stayed at Blackridge, between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Over the course of the week we saw several houses on both coasts of Scotland and both south and north of the central belt. In the end we chose a fab house outside the area we'd been expecting, in NE Scotland between Dundee and Aberdeen. Preparing to Move The living room in the old house being packed ready for moving north. (Photo: James Kemp) Since then it's been a mix of packing books, of…
Moving Home
One thing I'm sure of this year is that I'm moving home. We've accepted an offer to buy the home we've lived in since 2005. So sometime in the spring we will very definitely be moving home. The old shed in the aftermath of demolition and its contents (photo: James Kemp) Moving Home Last summer I got promoted, and the new job is based in the Glasgow office. Thanks to the pandemic the fact I started in October hasn't been a huge issue. I've had five days in the office, two of which have been in Glasgow and three in London. However one day the pandemic will end and I'll want a slightly shorter commute for the times I need to be in an office. Since September we've been watching the housing market in Scotland. It's possible that we've seen…
On Resolutions, 2020 and 2021
For a number of years I've posted new year's resolutions on the Themself, along with reflections on how I've got on with them. I didn't do that last year, even though I was sure that I had. Making Resolutions There's been a theme to previous resolutions, they've covered reading, writing and being healthier. The theme is about being a better person, although there's a level of subjectivity about what constitutes 'better'. On the whole being happier with who I am is probably the thing I should have 'm not going to make retrospective resolutions for 2020, the whole point of making new year resolutions is setting yourself some aspirations for the future. As I write 2020 is a few days from being history. Thankfully. Reflections on 2020 Global pandemic and massive recession aside, things haven't been all bad about 2020.…
Into Darkness [WW2 SOE] – June Write Club Story
Into Darkness is the story I wrote for June's Write Club, which is a local group to encourage us to write and share feedback with each other. There were eight stories this month, which is the third time the group has met, but the first time I've managed to join. I did submit a story for the first time, and wrote one for the second time but it got way over the word count and I didn't send it in. I found it a very friendly and supportive group, and it was a pleasure to read the stories that the others had written. The theme was to write something involving a letter. Write Club meets on the second Saturday of the month, with the stories due in a week before that. Right now it's meeting via zoom, although that wasn't…
My Life with the Stars – Sizzling Secrets Spilled! [Guest Post]
Front Cover of Tony Flood's book 'My Life With the Stars' (image: Tony Flood) GUEST BLOG by TONY FLOOD, the author of celebrity book MY LIFE WITH THE STARS – SIZZLING SECRETS SPILLED!, spicy crime thriller TRIPLE TEASE and fantasy adventure THE SECRET POTION. As a former Fleet Street journalist and Sky Television executive, I fully appreciate that authors need more than writing skills to produce a successful book. It is vital to carry out extensive research and to engage with people - particularly non-fiction writers who need to conduct interviews in order to write stories about others' experiences. This was the case with the new edition of my celebrity book MY LIFE WITH THE STARS – SIZZLING SECRETS SPILLED! Sizzling Secrets Spilled! It applied both when I was encouraging showbiz stars such as Des O'Connor to pass on amusing…