Looking at that title, I’m going to start with the last item on it, as that was the most fun!
On Saturday I finally got to go to the Bloggers Bash – a social meeting for those of us crazy enough to have taken to this blogging thing and stuck with it because we found we enjoy doing it!
Reading blogs is a popular pastime, witness the fact that the bloggers awards were voted on this year by 10,000 people!
This year the bash took place in a pub in Chiswick, London, on the same day as another noteworthy event which fortunately kept most of the population glued to their TV screens and off the road, so my drive into the city was blissfully easy.
The only person I’d met in the flesh before going was organiser, Sacha Black, who I met at 20BooksLondon. Others I’d met virtually, but this was the first time of seeing them face to face, which is one of the main ideas of the Bash.
The panel discussion, with Hugh, Sacha, Ritu and Geoffle (Geoff)
Varied blogs and very different personal approaches, so a really interesting mix of discussion topics and answers.
Hugh – https://hughsviewsandnews.com/
Sacha – http://sachablack.co.uk/about/
Ritu – https://butismileanyway.com/
Geoff – https://geofflepard.com/about/
The prize for the best short story from a blogger on the given topic of ‘Royalty’ (wonder where that idea came from???) went to Marje Mallon for her fun flash story, The Queen’s Dress Down Day, which you can read here: https://mjmallon.com/2018/03/21/the-bloggers-bash-blog-post-competition-2018-the-queens-dress-down-day/
Marje, collecting her lovely prize – a huge crystal paperweight.
And I finally got to meet the lovely Helen Jones, author of The Ambeth Chronicles, and a widely travelled lady who blogs every Wednesday about her wanders. https://journeytoambeth.com/about/
We’ve talked a lot online about everything from fantasy, to standing stones, to Game of Thrones, so it was great to converse at last without needing a keyboard.
You can see a list of all the attending bloggers and their blogs HERE
Life
The Bash was a welcome day of relaxation in the otherwise crazy month of May. To give you an idea, I started the month with 8 days teaching and judging dressage in North Scotland (Aberdeen and Inverness, and everything between), came home for 5 days, flew to Glasgow to do the same again for 3 days, flew home, had a writer’s group meeting to be prepared for, attended the Bash, worked locally, and am now preparing to drive to Dundee on Wednesday to teach Thursday and Friday, give a Riding Club lecture (and sell a few of my equestrian books) on Friday evening, be an attending author at the Edinburgh Author Signing on Saturday, pick Brian up from the airport on Saturday evening and do 2 days of sightseeing before driving back from Edinburgh on Wednesday. Oh, and keep my own horses exercised and competed around that!
Draws breath….
Upon return from Glasgow, I realised the books I’d ordered for the Edinburgh signing hadn’t arrived from Amazon. Now, when I ordered them the system was glitching, and that took 2 days to resolve before my order was accepted. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to me that would affect my delivery date, so when I went online to check, delivery was scheduled for the day I will be leaving for Scotland, so that meant upgrading to expedited delivery to get them in time 😦
To compound things, my laptop went on strike for 2 hours right when I needed it (updates – argh!) and now it keeps asking me if I’d like a tour of all the new features added to my operating system – er, no. Not now.
I’m taking printed copies of my short stories to give away at the signing, and guess who ran out of ink?
My phone decided to have a hissy fit yesterday because it got too hot – this entailed prising off the back to get the battery out so I could restart it.
And my car’s windscreen has a huge crack in it, so naturally I wanted that replaced before driving 500 miles on Wednesday, but they don’t have my glass in stock – 10 days waiting period, can you believe?
On top of all of this – GDPR!!!
I think that’s fast becoming a swear word around here. If you want to know more about it, take a look at Nicholas Rossis blog that I shared last week.
If you’re interested (why would you be, really? But just in case…) my sparkly new GDPR-compliant Privacy Policy can now be found by clicking the page entitled ‘Privacy Policy’ above on the header.
Needless to say, my writing time has been severely limited, with only one and a bit chapters done so far in May, where I can usually manage three chapters a month. Roll on June…
Book Signings
Much of today and tomorrow are put aside (now GDPR is sorted!) for putting together all the stuff I need to take north with me for the various activities schedule for the coming days.
Here’s my list of items to for the signing:
Books
Banner
Book stands
Book marks,
Bowl with sweeties!
Price list
Price tags
Business cards,
Paper for collecting emails, along with a copy of my Privacy Policy (Argh!!!)
Pound coins (for change)
Camera to record the event.
Loving my new banner: 
Can you think of anything I’ve forgotten?
deborahjay 
Oh my! Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate Deborah. Hope all goes well in Edinburgh. It was lovely chatting at the Bloggers Bash. And thanks for the mention re: my short story in your post. 🙂
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Thanks Marje 😀 my life is always hectic, but this month takes the biscuit!
I enjoyed your story, I meant to put an entry in, but ran out of time!
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Thank you Deborah. Glad you enjoyed my story. x
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Sounds exhausting, but well done you. These are the things I don’t get to do. I live in Spain but write in English so I don’t sell books in Spain, except to friends. Everyone I know is in the UK or the States – I’m simply jealous.
Nice banner – I had my first one done just recently – can’t stop kissing my MC – LOL.
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I realise as an author I’m lucky to be in the UK, it does simplify many things, though Spain is lovely, and warmer!
Lol to the banner – I’m really thrilled with mine, although I chose generic pictures rather than from my covers.
I do plan to use the rather striking lady for one of my sprite novel covers – I’d already bought it with that view in mind.
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It was lovely to meet you in person finally, Deborah! Such a pleasure, just a shame I couldn’t talk to you as much as I would have liked to as I was running around doing Bash stuff. I missed saying goodbye too, but I am thrilled we’ve finally met in the flesh 🙂
As for the rest of your month… well, I hope everything falls into place for the book signing, what a time you’ve had! Your new banner is fabulous, by the way.
And is it less than a year now until the new season of GOT? So mean of them to make us wait for so long….
I hope we get to catch up again soon – until then, happy travels and good luck this weekend!
xx
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Thanks Helen. You were so busy when I left I didn’t want to interrupt, but at least we’d had time to talk a bit. It’s so unusual these days to actually communicate face to face, it’s becoming something to treasure, isn’t it?
And I guess it must be around the year left to go – I’m guessing the last series will be even more spectacular, considering how long they’ve made us wait! Sadly, I’ve watched too many YouTube speculations on where the story line is going, and I fear many of them might be near the mark, so I’m not sure I’m going to love the ending 😦
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Yes, I’m glad we got to talk a little bit at least! And I’ve deliberately stayed away from speculation about the end of GOT – I’m a bit worried about where it’s going, but I will watch to the bitter end (and commiserate with you, I’m sure) 🙂
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I think you’re wise – and you might need to ❤
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Just to confuse things (about GDPR), I read one Brit’s knowledgeable account on how to address GDPR. He said Honda (yes, the car) did the suggested ‘notify all clients and get them to again opt-in and the EU fined them. Why? They said Honda shouldn’t be emailing people they didn’t have permission to contact and the fact that they did meant they broke the law. Yikes! I must say, I ditched my plan to get re-opt-ins.
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Oh whoops! Well I’ve taken the advice of the lawyer who set up a facebook page to answer questions, and gives an extensive bunch of podcasts on the subject
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=gdpr%20for%20online%20entrepreneurs%20(uk%20us%20ca%20au)
We don’t need to contact our existing customers on the grounds of them having signed up with ‘legitimate interest’. I’ve created a privacy statement and sent out notification in my newsletter that it’s there for anyone who wants to read it, and given the link to it. As I understand it, that should be sufficient for those already signed up before GDPR comes into force – provided we ALWAYS make sure it is clear an obvious where to unsubscribe if they should so wish.
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Debbbbbbbb, I need a drink after reading your life, I mean list, LOL. Wow, I don’t think you have enough to do 🙂 And I’m so sorry to hear that Murphy has chosen to hang with you. I hope he’s gone! LOL.
But so glad you got to the Bash and met a few chums, that’s what it’s all about. And oh, loved the interview with Dawn. I listen to the whole thing. Love your accent. 🙂 xx
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I think several drinks are going to be necessary to recover from this month!
I’m hopeful Murphy has moved on – I made the drive to Edinburgh yesterday without a hitch, but the riding club talk tomorrow night is a powerpoint presentation, so there’s plenty of scope for technology to glitch there…
I’m glad you got to hear the podcast 😀 It was great fun doing it, and I was relieved to hear I didn’t say anything too outrageous! Honestly, I really couldn’t recall afterward exactly what we’d discussed!
So now I’m looking forward to meeting YOU, when you do manage to make it over here 😀
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Shhh, don’t tell Murphy your next plan of action, lol. No, of course you didn’t say anything outrageous. Enjoyed the part about writing erotic. Should I be expecting a turn of genre from you? Lol 🙂 And yes, I will make it there, when is the question. And it will be for a true visit with some great friends there like you. More time than at the Bash. 🙂
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Haha, I fear Murphy is telepathic!
I’d forgotten the bit about writing sex scenes until I saw it in the write up before listening – that was one of the things I was worried about, as I couldn’t for the life of me recall what I’d said on the subject!
I don’t think I’ll be switching genres any time soon – I recently started listening to a podcast which guaranteed you could earn huge amounts of money writing, but when I heard the answer – be prepared to write erotica – I switched it off. Even for big bucks I don’t want to do that, it just isn’t me.
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I’m with you sister. It’s not my thang either LOL.
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Wow, Deborah, you must be the busiest person I have ever met. I don’t know how you do it all. I only wish I had known before meeting you, at the Bloggers Bash, so I could have asked what’s the secret behind managing all your time.
It was lovely meeting you, and thank you so much for coming along to this year’s Bloggers Bash. We look forward to seeing you at the next one.
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Hi Hugh, thanks for dropping by 😀
Your welcome was a great introduction to the bash, especially to someone who knew very little of the other attendees, so thank you, and look forward to seeing you again.
Maybe by then I’ll have figured out an answer to how I manage my time – assuming I survive that long!
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