Boiling phones, Ireland and submitting to agents

Best not to leave iPhones on the car seat behind glass on the (private) driveway at a friend’s for two hours.

But do grow climbers along your washing lines as they look pretty against an azure sky..

Final week of the Curtis Brown course … eeeek; had to post first 3,000 words plus synopsis and example letter to an agent of our choice!

Now I shall wait for any feedback from fellow students. I’ve filled a ring binder with course notes from the previous six weeks and simply need to get on with making some scene changes in the middle section of the book. Then I can do that thing we’ve all been waiting for – submitting to agents for real 😳

I keep getting side-tracked and exploring though. I’ve been to Ireland these last four days but sadly was too far to meet up with WordPress writing buddy Sabina over at Ortensia72 .

Pop over and check out her interview following recent publication of her first novel – woo hoo 🎉

It’s got 5 star ratings so far and I’m so please and proud. I’d been hoping to pick the brains of this author who went ahead and became an indie author. She bit the bullet and is already writing Book 2 🥂(I would love to have that faith in myself…)

On arrival at Maryborough Hotel & Spa, we were greeted like old friends and told we’d been upgraded! (I’d mentioned it was my birthday weekend at which Man of the Woods was unable to join me so I was dragging a friend along, kicking and screaming).

We had such an amazing time, and we were really rather sensible and did grown up things like visit the Queenstown museum in Cobh…

Oh my word. What history this place has. This statue is Annie Moore, aged 15 with her brothers. The first emigrant to be registered on Ellis Island.

Over 3 million people left Ireland from this port once called Cove (then named Queenstown after Queen Victoria visited) and then re-named Cobh in 1920s by the then government, who wanted it returned to Cove but the Irish version.

The cathedral! The blue sky!

And my travel buddy choosing menu options with an ocean liner in the background, docked for the day mid-cruise.

This was also the final docking venue for the Titanic on that fateful maiden voyage. My brain started doing somersaults over fiction ideas and on the last day I actively wrote out a whole but basic plan of a brand new story!

I was, at the time, relaxing in the Airbnb for our final night. The Lux Bus can only be described as the cutest conversion ever … if you visit Southern Ireland, I highly recommend staying in it!

Anyway it’s back to business, and I’m sorry I post so infrequently at the moment. I trust my absence will all have been in a good cause 🖌🖌🖌🖌🖌🖌🖌