That was the year...

It's been a hectic sort of a year. We almost got to rent a castle, but didn't. While we were disappointed it galvanised us into sorting out some of the decorating and landscaping work at home. There's plenty more to throw ourselves at, crunch time for decisions on moving will be in two years when #1 daughter finishes uni.

I emerged from the Advanced Creative Writing course with a Distinction, along with the other active member of our group. I learned lots, thanks to an excellent tutor, but the online group was a source of frustration, mainly due to lack of participation. As a result I'm ambivalent about postgraduate study. Napier's new genre fiction MA looks good - it works through mentoring rather than peer workshopping - but competition for places will be strong. Back in the real world, the books have arrived for my final OU course which starts in the New Year.

The craziness that is NaNoWriMo has been and gone, lots of finishers with the OU this year, clocking up over a million words between us. Meanwhile I have an archaeology essay to write, more decorating to do and Chr*stmas shopping to commit. Perfect time to update a neglected blog...

It can't be March already...

Lots of stuff's happened since my last posting, I'm sure, but I'm struggling to recall exactly what. In the aftermath of the man-flu I managed to finish my first assignment for the OU course on time. I even carried on studying the next section while I waited for it to be returned, telling myself if it was a rubbish mark I'd quit the course, since I'm less than enthralled with linguistics. It turned out to be a so-so mark so I threw myself at the course material with renewed vigour. And fell asleep. Three days in a row. The kids had recycled another virus from school. It was round about this point my resolution to write something every day faltered. Or, more accurately, keeled over and refused to take another step.*
Then, when I could once more contemplate the course book without sliding into a doze, the OU announced that, as a result of government funding cuts, one of the courses I'd planned to do later would be ending next year, instead of 2014. Which meant I would have to overlap it with the Creative Writing course due to start this autumn. I've come up with various creative solutions to get round this problem, two of which involve dropping my current course. So, while I wait for the powers that be to pronounce on my future I might just make a start on the decorating.
Oh, yeah, I also gave up coffee. 8-o

* Doing OK on the others so far