Whew. The boys have been on half-term holiday here in Wales, and oh, this week has been packed. Museum trips, castle trips, family visits, a pantomime - it's been really good. But somehow or other...well. Every single half-term, I think: Maybe this will be the one where I get a bunch of writing work done over the holiday!Hahahaha. Nope. Never ( Read more... )

So, last Tuesday, while feeling tired and stressed and like the walls of our house were closing in around me, I booked a spontaneous weekend away for me and the two little boys. Escape! Patrick had to stay home to work, sadly, but MrD, MrX and I took the train to Cardiff, a city I love, and we had a wonderful time ( Read more... )

Whew! It's almost the end of the year. Christmas was lovely, and for the first time, both of the boys were old enough to be excited about it. I got fabulous gifts, including a book hoard worthy of gloating over in the most dragon-ish fashion:


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Today Toddler X and I braved the rain and the crowds for a final bout of Christmas shopping...and I am finally, finally done! Whew.

Now I just have to stop basking in my achievement and actually start wrapping some of those presents...tomorrow. After all, it's only traditional for me to do it late at night on Christmas Eve, panicking! So I wouldn' ( Read more... )

In honor of the holiday, here's my own Halloween short story: "Clasp Hands" (published in Daily Science Fiction in 2014).

Here's a quick excerpt from the opening:

The smallest witch hung over the banister, her whole body forming an arc of yearning, as the first of her mother's friends arrived for their annual feast ( Read more... )

I hope that everyone who was celebrating holidays this December had a wonderful, warm season! Our Christmas was really lovely. Celebrating with two little kids may leave me close to toppling with exhaustion, but it is just so much fun. And oh, oh, oh, check out this picture of my Christmas book-hoard, from Patrick and my American family members!


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So, between my M.E. crash last month, then Baby X's illness, and now MrD's illness (still ongoing)...I've been pretty much stuck at home over the last three weeks. Aagh! And I'm not just feeling stir-crazy, I'm also starting to feel a little panicky about how I'll actually get all of my holiday shopping done ( Read more... )

This has been a tough autumn, I've been feeling helpless and horrified about the news this week, and right now I'm in the middle of my worst M.E. crash for a while...but that makes it even more important to me to focus on the stuff I'm truly thankful for right now. Since I live in the UK (where schools, oddly enough, do not close on the Thursday of ( Read more... )

Happy Halloween, everyone! Over here, we're dealing with a bit of a horror story with our new house (wahhh - oh, the stress), but for a much more fun approach to the holiday, I thought I'd post a quick reminder: you can still find my very Halloween-y story "Clasp Hands" (written last Halloween, in the spirit of the season!) free online at Daily ( Read more... )

This morning I was woken by the sound of MrD and Patrick singing "Happy birthday" as Patrick carried my breakfast into the room and MrD carried his carefully wrapped gift for me. I opened up the whole pile of presents with MrD and Baby X both bouncing excitedly on my lap (and both trying their best to HELP!), and while I can't say their help made ( Read more... )