Tag: bootcamp

An audience with …

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

me, actually! This afternoon, I had a half day’s holiday from the day job so that I could deliver my second ever library talk. It was the first one I booked but the idea was to run it during one of the library’s book club sessions and they were hoping to have the book club a bit more established by now (it had only just set up when we first discussed me talking).

12006291_10153717292059073_2813299575419794276_nEastfield Library is a small library in an area just outside Scarborough. It’s actually my local library and I have strong links with it. My mother-in-law volunteers on the library van, my daughter is a member and regularly borrows books, and I took my Brownie pack there to do their book lover badge last term.

I’d been really pleased with the turnout of 12 (plus organiser) at the first talk I did at the main Scarborough Library, but I suspected we wouldn’t be drawing those numbers today. I was pleasantly surprised to have an audience of 7 … although 4 of those were library staff or volunteers and only 3 were ‘general public’. Still, it was a lovely size audience.

When I arrived, I spotted Searching for Steven propped up on a table promoting today’s event, in its plastic cover. It was lovely seeing it like that, knowing it is available to be borrowed. I wonder how many people will borrow it.

The talk went well and I made sure it was a bit shorter than last time as I’d struggled for time for questions. Two of the external guests, one of the volunteers and two of the library staff stayed behind afterwards for a cuppa and a chat which I really enjoyed. One of them bought a copy of Raving About Rhys which I have available exclusively for family, friends, prizes and events (it’s officially only available on eBook) and another said she would borrow it from the library as it’s not her usual genre but she wanted to give it a try.

What was interesting was that I asked the question of my audience about the genres they like and nobody favoured romance. I therefore feel particularly flattered that they’ve come out to hear me talk when my book isn’t the sort they’d typically pick up.

A question arose about how I publicised myself and where I gave talks. It reminded me that I’d made contact with the WI about being a guest speaker and hadn’t heard a thing back from them. One of the library volunteers said she had lots of contacts in the WI and also Countryside Women (or something similar to that) so was going to get in touch with me with the best people to contact to get a response. That was a good success.

I now have a headache. A combination of a sleepless night, a 5.20am start for a very hard fit test at bootcamp, half a day’s work, and a library talk have taken it out of me and the paracetemol I took an hour ago haven’t touched it. My day isn’t over though as it’s Brownies tonight. It’s actually the first Brownies of term which means noise and excitement. I suspect I may make it home from that and crawl under the duvet, desperate for sleep!

Be Careful What You Wish For

Jessica Redland Author4 Comments

Just under a month ago, I wrote a post on the Write Romantics blog called ‘Chasing My Tail’ and I re-blogged it here. At the time, I found myself massively struggling to to everything I wanted to do. In fact, I was struggling to even do the things I needed to do; never mind the extras. Although I didn’t write it in my article, a little voice in my head kept telling me that it would be nice to catch one of those bugs that was going round to get me a little time off work so perhaps I could catch up a bit.

Be careful what you wish for.

On Wednesday 25th February, I came back from my morning bootcamp and couldn’t stop sneezing. My nose was like a tap that day and I had a constant headache. This continued the following day but, by the time I went to bed, I was aching. My head pounded all night, I went from pouring with sweat to shivering, and I barely slept a wink despite feeling exhausted. I phoned in sick and slept most of that Friday. Things went from bad to worse. I felt drained all weekend. I’m not often ill and, when I am, it’s likely to be two days at the most so I figured I’d be back by the start of the next week. Instead, I was at the doctor’s. I discovered I’d contracted two viral infections at the same time – the cold and flu one and the D&V one – and I could expect to be ill for quite some time as they were particularly nasty strains.

After a week of self-certifying, I had to get a sick note for another week off because I’d still got the infection, but had added conjunctivitis in both eyes to my list of problems. Saturday 7th March was a particularly low point for me. The cough – which kept me awake most nights and added to my exhaustion – was so bad that it made me sick, but the force of doing this burst blood vessels in my eyes. Bear in mind I already had conjunctivitis so was suffering already. My eyes were red and swollen and I could barely see. Early last week, I started to see a slow improvement. Very slow.

I returned to work on Friday. I’m still really tired, but I am well enough to be back at work and I’m definitely not contagious anymore. So was I well enough to catch up on anything or do any writing while I was off sick and therefore fulfil my little wish? Was I heck! I have a strong work ethic and have never/would never skive. If I’m off work, I’m off because I physically can’t work. Which meant I didn’t have the energy to write either. It turned out to have been a very stupid thought!

My first few days were all about bed. After that, I could make it downstairs to the sofa, but spend my days watching films or napping. On the plus side, I saw a lot of films I haven’t seen before. We have Netflix so I had a lot of choice. Particular favourites included a Sandra Bullock film called “28 days”, two based on Nicholas Sparks novels called “Safe Haven” and “The Last Song”, a Natalie Portman film called “Where the Heart is”, plus a Gwyneth Paltrow film called “Country Strong.” I’d never heard of any of them and would therefore never have sought them out if I hadn’t been ill.

Although I didn’t have the energy to write, I did have time to think about my writing. I’m nearly ready to send book 2 to my publishers. It’s being read by two beta readers, one of whom has read it before and the other who is reading it for the first time. I feel like I’ve made some great improvements to it recently, but something still wasn’t quite there. The storyline for one of the films bears no resemblance to the plot for book 2, but something that happened in the film triggered a thought process around book 2 and, along with some initial feedback from one of my beta readers, I think I might have found the missing piece. Yippee!

I’ve done very little writing since my return to work on Friday but it’s my flex day tomorrow (I work a full time week across four long days) so I’m hoping to crack on again then. One thing I’m a little scared of is whether I’m trying to do too much. I do cram a ridiculous amount in with work, writing, bootcamp, Brownies, and family, and I’m wondering if this little illness episode was my body’s way of telling me to slow down and relax a little. Perhaps I do need to have a night off a week where I just lie in front of the TV or watch another film I’ve never heard of on Netflix. I’m back at bootcamp in the morning and I’m back at Brownies that evening after a 2-week break. I just hope that I don’t set myself back again.

Moral of this story: if you are ever chasing your tail and need some time off, book some annual leave. Don’t hope for a minor bug; there’s no such thing!

Jessica xx