Bad news for some writers; good news for me!

This is just a quick post, because today has been set aside to get on with writing that book.

Many of my writer friends will have seen that Spirit & Destiny mag is now taking all rights from its fiction contributors. There are, of course, plenty of people who will still submit and be happy with a one-off reward, whether this be through naivety or conscious decision-making. The only story I ever submitted to S&D was rejected, but I'm still sad that it's following Woman's Weekly down this path. Who's next, I wonder.

A bit of good news for me (she says, full of her own importance) is that my winning entry in the Senior Travel Expert 'heritage' competition is now online here. Do take a look, if you have a mo.

Stay warm, folks!

Catching up

You know what they say about the best-laid plans... I definitely hadn't planned on being ill all over Christmas. I had things to do and stuff to share!  I was gong to tell you all that:

• My first reading of Nine Lives went well
• The publisher's reader liked the outline of my yoga book and it looks as though this will be going ahead
• My article on glaucoma is/was in the December issue of Om Yoga & Lifestyle
• My runner-up entry in the Senior Travel Expert competition is now available to read here

I just never got round to it. However, I've had a couple of weeks of  complete rest and now I'm back at work and ready to face the New Year - just as soon as I've caught up with everything from last year, that is.

Celebrate the small things, 15.9

Well, this is easy today: Happy Birthday, Mum! I shall be heading to Staffordshire for birthday tea and cake on Sunday.

I'm also celebrating the breakthrough of a friend who, after some difficult times, was able to say out loud 'I am an artist'. So proud of her.

I'm also quite proud of myself, because I've come runner-up in the Senior Travel Expert website's latest competition, and have won the Association of Freelance Writers flash fiction comp. *blushing modestly* I'm taking part in a quiz tonight - will the winning streak continue?

Have a good weekend, folks.

If you would like to join this bloghop, send your details to laura.6eg@gmail.com  and she will do the necessary.

Celebration time

Welcome to Friday's post and the opportunity to Celebrate the Small Things. It's been a busy but enjoyable week.
In addition to my usual yoga classes, I led another a meditation centre at the Not Just Words bookshop, which was lovely to do. We have another couple of dates pencilled in for later in the year.

On the editorial front, I went to Nottingham on Wednesday to meet the rest of the team of one of the magazines I'm subbing for. Highlight of the day was being introduced to the term 'speedbumps for the eyes' to describe unnecessary punctuation.

There's been success, too, on the creative writing front, with my entry to the Senior Travel Expert comp being announced as joint winner. It will be published on their website in due course.

And that's my week. How about you?

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.