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Sarah Painter

Author of contemporary fiction with a touch of magic

owls

Friday Five: The Feeble Edition

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Argh! It’s the end of the week, already!

I’ve been feeling very overwhelmed and feeble this week, so this Friday Five is all about trying to combat that.
owlpattern2

1. New knitting project. Knitting is definitely good for stress-relief and the repetitive action helps me to think through story ideas, too.

This owl pattern and yarn combination is super-cute, but the yarn itself is making me cross-eyed. I’m getting used to it, though, and the pattern is nice and simple, which is what I need at the moment!

 

 

2. I’ve been giving myself plenty of reading time (as I know that will help me to ‘refill the creative well’, as well as being an enjoyable escape from my own head) and I really enjoyed The Lie by C.L. Taylor and Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig.

3. Easing out the post-deadline kinks with some yoga. I’ve been saying ‘I must do some yoga, it’ll do me good’ for so long, that I (finally) got sick of myself and actually did some. Hurrah. I’ve been following the 30 Days of Yoga on the  ‘Yoga With Adriene’ channel on YouTube and I really like her down-to-earth, approach.

amandapalmer4. I don’t think I have a number four, unless you count walking lots and listening to podcasts.  Oh, I know! I’ve been listening to Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking: How I learned to stop worrying and let people help
audio book and it’s really good.

5. There is no number five, either. Feeble, see?

 

 

Quick reminder! If you want to be in with a chance of winning one of two signed copies of The Language of Spells, sign up for my mailing list here and I’ll put your name in the hat! 

Autumn Has Landed

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As if the leaves turning colour, the ripe brambles in the hedgerows and the ‘Back To School’ adverts weren’t enough of a clue, it’s there on the calendar: Autumn is upon us!

I have a love-hate relationship with the turn of the seasons (excitement coupled with sadness at the evidence of time passing) and autumn makes me especially nostalgic/weepy/odd.

 

 

 

 

Owl In Disguise
This owl is pretending to be a really pissed-off bit of branch. Cunning.

 

Still, we enjoyed the last day of summer in high style. Yesterday, we headed to the Scottish Owl Centre (prepare for an onslaught of owl photos and facts!) and had (probably) the last picnic of 2014. It was properly warm in the sunshine and, as you see from the snap, the sky was bright blue. Bliss!

I also did exactly ZERO writing. In fact, I didn’t even open the netbook… It’s this new thing I’m trying: Taking proper weekends.

I’ve been fitting in writing and freelance work around motherhood for fourteen years, now, and some of my habits are no longer necessary. In the past I had to work in any available moment, because they were so few and far between. These days, I spend Monday to Friday in my office, almost like a normal job.

As a true writing obsessive, I’m also hoping that by taking weekends off, I’ll be more focused and productive on my work days.

I don’t expect to always manage it – when I’m on deadline, for example, or deep in a WIP when I want to write everyday, regardless – but I’ve realised that I’ve got to stop treating every day as a sprint to the finish line.

After all, I want to do this for the rest of my life; I need to pace myself or I’m not going to last the distance.