Anna Aden Writes

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a good and safe time, and we move another year into the decade of 2020. I spent my evening with a close relative since we are in the same 'bubble' though I did do a bit of social distancing and took a few precautions to wear a mask etc. The whole thing is really confusing in the UK but I social distance, wear a mask and since last March 2020, I've not travelled by public transport or gone out of my immediate area. I went to work once because I needed to pack up some stuff but it's pretty much just staying around my area. This has had an effect on my family bonding because I still haven't spend time with another relative but I guess video calls will have to do.  I've also started a new hobby, photography compositions or composting , and I'm going to start to look at creating composite fantasy pictures. It started because I wanted to learn to make my own romance covers but price of the course was prohibitive. Not only that,

Review of 2020 Goals So at the beginning of the year I set out some goals so let's see how far I've come! 1. Complete my novel-in-progress fit for publication This is carried over from 2019, and I'm committed to finishing it in May but it's something I want to complete this year. If you have been following my blog, you'll also know I've done a few workshops and courses. The last one was the Faber Edit Your Course where I got a reader's report with some comments.  Feedback - still writing however I've written about 63,000 words to date so that is progress so I will keep on writing.   2. Fitness and Weight loss This comes up every single year, and I seem to grow bigger however for the last few months, I've been in excruciating pain because of my knee. I went for physio or as Americans call it physical therapy but nothing really worked. I think it's more about my weight, even my calves are larger. So I probably need to eat less - mostly bakery produ

Current novel-in-progress It's in progress and I'm pushing on filling in the large gaping holes from the first draft, making some cuts and generally getting on with it. It's hard to imagine this time last year, I was attending the Faber Edit Your Novel class and drinking tea and eating biscuits.  I wonder how everyone has got along? Generally when there is news, course mates tend to send an email round. From my Curtis Brown course (yes, I've been around the writing course block) I think three people have been traditionally published now. At this stage, I'm a self publishing writer so my motivation for going on these courses is generally to improve my writing and get new insight rather than getting an agent.    NaNoWriMo Prize Software  Generally, I find the best time to test new writing platforms or software is during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which takes place in November though they have camps and mini sessions all through the year.  Normally start-

Current novel-in-progress Writing is going well, and the progress is steady. Again, it's slower than I anticipated but I'm hanging in there.  Work Christmas Party on Zoom I've been to a couple of leaving dos and now I have a Save The Date for the office Christmas Party on Zoom.  I've been to a number of social events on Zoom but it feels like hard work.  I don't know, we'll see. It could be fun and a one off event, not depending how the office situation turns out next Winter. Are you having Christmas parties on Zoom? I might turn up for a while then disappear, I mean in most meetings now the convention is to mute mics and turn off cameras at least on Teams.  Lock Down Stops in a Few Days - M&S Yellow Duck Puddle baby suit To be fair, my life has been restricted since March so lockdown or not, makes little difference to me with all the social distancing and not going to work. Then again, pre-lockdown I got a nice cute out fit for the Sis's baby. Baby was

Current novel-in-progress Still writing and not much progress to give but I hope things get quicker. I'm still in the first half of ACT TWO, which is the middle. So basically about 35% of the book is written, and I still have 65% to go. So I'm working steadily toward that.  Other hobbies  I've started doing graphics again and hopefully will be about to design my own covers. I went on a course a year ago but forgot everything since I didn't have time practice and was still writing the book, and you can see above the book is still only 35% into the next draft.  However I attended a few writerly conferences and was inspired about book covers and the amount of effort that when into them. I've always wanted my covers to look attractive and show what the books were about but I realised they also needed to be a marketing tool. I mean I knew that but hearing it said over and over again by different publishing industry people made it drive home.  I love courses and found  so

Dear Everyone, So what first? I hope everyone is well and keeping safe and healthy. We are entering a new lockdown but since working from home, life has been restrictive so it doesn't have much of an impact apart from the clothes shops and non-essential shops have closed. However business owners have been more innovative this time.  So restaurants apart from the larger brands and chains have taken to stacking up chairs and tables giving a takeaway service. Some places like stationary shops are open - probably due to courier services etc. Like what is really unessential and who gets to define.  Konditor was open but seemed to be lots of business with pre-orders especially mince pies, they had stacks of orders on the counters.  However the streets are deserted but that could equally to do with the cold weather. It was freezing.  Current novel-in-progress in Focus I've written about five pages not sure how many words since I use long hand, that's right, I hand write some of th