Today I got to try out my crock pot! This morning, I put it on the hob, and did the recipe as I would do, only not bothering to cook the meat through... just browning it a little and breaking up the mince. Once all the ingredients were nicely mixed I put it onto the slow cooker part and cooked on low.
This afternoon, once I'd picked my son up from school I had an hour to just relax, get bits and pieces done, but not stress about the dinner. It was lovely.
All day I had to resist the urge to lift up the lid - though I did later on to give it all a bit of a stir. And because there is no light, I wasn't sure if it was on at first. But being new, I got that new burning kind of smell but later the lamb curry was wafting through my house. Yum!
Came in from 'Stars In Training', switched the slow cooker to warm, cooked the rice - and dinner was ready. Actually handy, as I could serve mine and the kids tea up and leave hubby's until he got in.
In other news: Been trying to finish Kate Walker's 12 Point Guide (so that it's another book down for the year!) and catch up on my reading (after being ill over the weekend I've been slacking). The back bit is advice from other writers. Funny how their ideas can stem from all sorts. As I read I'm thinking, yes, that's me too! They all say keep writing and persevere.
Tonight I am hoping I've finished my 6th Assignment. I hope so (it's been quite painful!). Will let it rest tonight and look again tomorrow, but then I will send it off and not tackle Assignment 7 until January 2011. That way I'll be allowed the rest of the year (basically December) to work on my novel that I started for Mills and Boon. It's working title is The Wedding Favour, though I'm not overly sure whether to keep it or not. I like it... but not sure about the 'wedding' part. But writing advice I was reading tonight says to write the draft to the end and that's what I want to do. Then I'll print it off and go through it and see where it needs fattening up, fleshing out and where to get some emotion into it. I'm still worried my conflict is a bit weak. Does the hero have enough of a reason not to pursue? Is it realistic his reasons?
But I've decided I'd like to see this story finished by the summer and at a level I'm happy with, I might be able think about submitting it to publishers or something... all seems too scary to really think about it. But it's the only way I'm going to get on this bandwagon.
Also need to send off another short story to another competition somewhere, so that is likely to be December's job too. No rest for a writer... even an unpublished one.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Yay for the slow cooker!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely draft all the way through to the end. I started doing that back in 2006, when I wrote Reunion - I only did an edit as a I go one since then and couldn't stand it! :D Write it all first and then edit is the only way I can work properly now. (Okay, The Last Mile is a bit of an exception!)
Oh I agree. Definitely the one thing I learnt from NaNo2006 was to just keep on going. And it sounds like what a lot of 'published' authors recommend.
ReplyDeleteIt's the way to put the clever bits in later, too, with the editing. And sometimes a story can just take such a turn (for the better) but you need to go back and edit something into earlier chapters. If you've spent so long on perfecting that chapter it will have been wasted.