I've not had to worry about the cost of airline tickets. Ever. Until last year when I went to a book signing event in Sydney. Then I had to start wondering and worrying. OMG! How expensive are those things?!
Before the Sydney signing in November, the tickets for this years event in Queensland were reasonable. Really, really reasonable. Perfect price. Perfect time for the flight. No money. Skint. Broke. Empty pockets. Nothing. Now when I'm trying to book a flight, they're $200 for the time I wanted. Unless I fly the day before, when they're half that price. *growl* Out comes the frequent flyer points and the websurfing begins. Have you ever wanted the simplicity of doing something and it just doesn't happen? You know exactly where you want to go, when and how much you have on hand to spend... There are specific dates you can travel on due to hotel bookings already made and days off work made for family looking after children. And there are no flights. *bangs head on desk in frustration* All I want is a simple, easy, direct flight to the Gold Coast. That's all. Looks like I'll be taking the scenic route there...via Brisbane. Granted, I haven't been to Brissy in...oh...25 years, but I don't even get to enjoy it while I'm there. Hello, airport! Hello, shuttle bus! Twiddle thumbs... Nah! I'll be writing or reading on that trip. Or maybe I'll just stare out the window at the wonders going by. (mental note to self -- take camera this time) Hell, I even sussed out when flights would go from Adelaide, instead of Melbourne, just to give me another option! *sigh* The concensus is, up to Brisbane, back via Gold Coast and my car stays in Melbourne. It'll all work out in the end. I will get there. I will have a ball. I will run out of room on the memory card on the camera! But it's the time consuming, frustrating exercise of getting to that end point that gave me one almighty headache today. *super sigh* I'll get the hang of this business of booking flights when they're cheaper so I don't get to two months before the event and panic. I will. Trust me...
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I did it. I went and joined Tsu. And created a signup form for a newsletter.
I've heard negative things for a while now about what FB is going to do to people who promote their goodies on their pages. I can't afford to pay for posts and I dare say a lot of other people can't either. So, I'm going to become more familiar with other platforms of social media. And learn how to have a mailing list! In addition to this, one more day of holidays before I have to start waking up early again. Damn! Oh, and the care of the kitten will now fall to me... The kids have been looking after her so well, too. Hopefully I'll be able to do as good a job as they've been doing. Fingers crossed, eh? Wishing everyone a great end to January and looking forward to sharing some more writing with you all soon. Does anyone else both enjoy and dread having kids home on school holiday? I find it's a toss up between early mornings and not being able to concentrate. My darlings work together to get breakfast and help each other, which is great if I've been writing or editing until 2am, but then the scream factor is ... how can I say it? Distracting! (that's the nice way to put it!)
I love my girls, but trying to find things for them to do all day, every day, wears me out! What's your favourite thing to do on a budget? How do you entertain the kids on zero funds and probably less sleep? I'd really love to know how people cope with six weeks of holidays over the Christmas period, and what they do to keep the littl'ns occupied. And are there any magic solutions to the fighting? (oh man, I wish!) With only nine more days of them home, I now find myself stressing that my sleep patterns are all over the place, again, and that getting up once more at 7am is going to be the death of me! So I ponder this more and more as D-day approaches: Is it better to have them fighting/screaming/occasionally playing nicely? Or am I itching to have at least two of them back at school?? I'm looking forward to making this post the first of many here.
Welcome to the blog part of my site. I've been writing for years, with little breaks here and there. Some of the best things I've written were in group brainstorming sessions in college. They were fun! But my problem then on being able to follow through and finish a story, was listening to the characters. I'd get an idea in my head and write it, but when the characters tried to take over, I'd resist, and the whole thing would flop. Now, I listen to what the characters and muse are telling me and write it, I channel them. Resistance is futile. I take the long road now too, I handwrite it first and type it later. This is because I lost 2000 words from one story when a USB drive deleted an entire folder. My characters stopped talking to me after that effort. Shame too, I was enjoying writing that one. My muse (and yes, I'll blame the muse) comes up with all kinds of nasty, naughty things to write and some of my beta readers are torn between shock and awe. I sit back and rub my hands together in glee while they rant at me, either for more or to stop torturing them! So, enjoy the snippets here and know that there's more to come! |
AuthorAria Peyton is a mum of three, non-wife to one, pet-mum to many. Zany, crazy but never quite fitting in, she loves to write about all kinds of things! And her characters get up to naughtiness behind closed doors... and other times not so private! Archives
September 2023
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Aria Peyton - Author |