Grandkids, gotta love them.

Yes, that evil little grin was an omen as to how our shopping day was going to pan out. I know I am to blame for some of it as agreed to let her go into the PJ Mask adventure playground they had at the shopping mall (it's still school holidays here in Australia). I just didn't understand how much of a fight a 22-month-old little girl could put up when it was time to leave said adventure playground and finish our shopping.

Oh My God. She screamed from one end of the mall to the other. Not only that... she kept trying to throw herself out of the trolley to get back to the adventure playground. If Emily could have run off and left me with Grace I bet she would have.

I got gypped I tells you. $9 later Grace finally stops crying when she has  PJ Mask ball and a PJ Mask colouring book. $9 well spent in my opinion→ way cheaper than the shoes she was crying for. Am I teaching her bad habits? Probably. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I have never heard anything like it, and once upon a time, I worked in childcare. 

Though next time they have something like that at the mall, I'm staying well clear of it or letting her parents take her. For starters, she was too little to be in there with the other kids and they kept knocking her down. And for the number of kids in there, there were only about three things to play on, so it was a disaster from the start.

Just when you think...

I've started to get a sore throat again. I don't want to get sick again. I can tell you I've had my quota of being sick→ it's somebody else's turn.

Though, to be honest I'm not sure if it really is a sore throat or if I just ate something too hot and burnt the lining n my throat. Give me a few days and I'll let you know for certain. Right now, it's just pissing me off, because it hurts to swallow.

I love that I have stuck to my guns and been so organised this year. Okay, I know we're still only in the first month, but let me have this small victory. You still have eleven more months to kick my arse.

Maybe kick my arse, on the whole, doing my back exercises would be a good thing, as I'm a little slack about doing them. I need to get better at keeping on top of them. It's just they're so god damn boring when I have to do them by myself. Yeah-yeah. I know, if I don't do them for me. No one else will. Okay, I promise... I'll do better.

What the Frack...

My brain has frazzled. I have finished the first round of pre-edits (if that makes sense) on Wardens of the Guild 3: Heartstrings. I just want to give it one more pass through to make sure I caught everything before I send it back to Rebecca B at TEB/Pride Publishing.

So now it's back to concentrating on my other writing for the next little bit and getting as much done as possible. while I wait for the next lot of edits to turn up.

I feel 2020 is going to be as busy as hell, and I'm going to love it. I really feel good about this year. I just have to get through the hecticness of January. I have my support system in place and I know this is the year everything falls into place for me.

Forgot to say> I signed the contract with TEB on Wardens on the Guild 3: Heartstrings.

Never again, but probably it will.

Cooked myself a stir-fry for lunch yesterday. There's nothing wrong with that I hear you say. Okay, sit back and grab a tissue because you are going to need them for the tears→ tears of laughter that is. 

I had all the veg prepped and ready to go in so it would all be cooked at the same time. I had the pre-cooked rice and the Ketjap Manis ready to mix in right at the end.

Now here's the best bit. I thought, crap I forgot the chilli flakes so I open the new bottle→ I only had hot ones so I thought they'll do. I only need a bit to add that zing. Is that what happened? No! About 2 fricken tablespoons worth fall into my meal.

My mum, who is having a completely different dish for lunch goes, "Can you pick it out?" As I stand there and stare in total shock. I now have 2 choices. I can throw it out and make myself something else to eat, or I can pull up my big girl panties and eat that damn hot as fuck meal.

Let's just say I only made it halfway through before I had to call it quits. Maybe a little less than halfway. I had tears streaming down my face. My nose was all blocked up. My mouth felt like it was on fire. To top it all off, my mum says, "God, my lunch is beautiful." 

The bitch was laughing at me, I know it. After that, she says to me, "You know, it's going to hurt just as much coming out the other end?" Thanks a lot, Mum━not!

PS: On the note of the super-hot stir-fry, I have left the last of it for my son-in-law to try. He seems to tolerate hot things way better than I can.

Updates

I'm doing edits on Wardens of the Guild 3: Heartstrings, There is a lot of little crap I have to fix up before we have to start on the real edits. Then the major thing I realised was I hadn't done the damn thing in American spelling, so I had to go through and change all of that→so much fun...not!

I'm still working on my current WIPS The Connelly Chronicles 3: Because of You, Experimentals 3: Messages from the Dead, & Lancaster's Way 3: Pre-loved. Though I might run over my end of January deadline by about a week. Not that I'm too worried about that at this stage.

I've emailed Christie N, my editor at MLRPress to find out about my The Lines of Marsden 4: The trail of Red Roses edits and see if we are any closer to starting them.

Other than that> I'm back at the doctors today for another checkup to make sure my medication is all up to date and they don't need to change anything for me→I'll have to tell him the new stuff gives me headaches, which isn't good.

It Finally Rained.

Not enough to even wet the ground, but at least it was something. It's still all overcast now, so hopefully, we may get some more.

I hear you wondering why I get excited over a little drizzle. Mainly because I live in Australia. Not only are we in the middle of a seemingly neverending drought, but we are currently burning to the ground in many parts. So, every little drizzle helps.

The problem is Huey needs to drop a shit load more of the wet stuff on us for it to do any good. Our dams are drying up. Our crops & animals are dying. It's pretty damn bad. I know we're not the first country to have suffered through something like this, nor will we be the last. It just seems devastating while it's happening.

The good thing is we are survivors. We learn through all the crap life deals out to us, there are people out there who have the glue to pull us all back together→ and I'm not talking about the religious types, or the politicians. I'm talking about the everyday battlers who lend a helping hand to the person next to them, just because they're doing it rough. The ones who open their doors and say have a feed or a shower, even though they have stuff all themselves. The firies who put aside their day jobs to battle the fires and keep us all as safe as they could. The people who came from overseas to lend a hand, because we sent our guys and girls to them when they were in need→ These are the true heroes.

I feel sad for the loss of life both animal and human. I feel sad for the loss of homes. Most of all I hope that those people who started the fires get the book thrown at them regardless of age. They should pay for the lack of respect they showed the rest of Australia and the world itself.

Facebook> Author Page

I'm planning on changing my Author Page on Face book to NJ's Books to make it different from my personal Facebook presence. The problem is I'm having trouble getting them to approve any change of names... as they think they are misleading. I'm hoping NJ's Books sounds like I'll be talking about my books and other author's books. So nothing will change on the page except for the title.