I'm going through one of those periods where whatever I plan to do, something else comes up.
With all the local flood news I've heard today with rivers bursting their banks my trip to see a friend in Chelmsford tomorrow might not be happening now.
Not that I can really complain when people are dealing with flooded houses and having problems getting to work or even just getting out and I'm moaning about missing an evening of drinking lots of red wine and eating a takeaway.

What I was actually referring to re plans going awry was finishing the first draft of book three. My initial deadline had been the end of May but I lengthened this to the end of June, which is fast approaching. I've really got to stop then as I've already announced the release of my second novel in Oct/Nov and I must do final edits. I've not read it since March, when I concentrated on getting Driven to Distraction published. As book three continues that story I thought it a good idea to get a draft of that done while the first book was fresh in my mind.

I really hope I still like Book 2 (Nothing Ventured) when I read it again. It has four stories running through it but they are all linked together and I've worked hard on trying to make it easy to follow. (That will be the first check when I read it again).

Anyway, back to book 3. The first draft has been quite tough to write as I had several situations that didn't quite work and there was a lot of going back over bits and adjusting, but by the first week of June I had it sorted and that's when I thought I'd extend the deadline for finishing off the draft. A whole four weeks; that should be plenty of time...

Okay, so I fell ill and lost a week. I still noted down some ideas and was ready for week 2. Then I decided I really ought to set up an author page on Facebook and a profile on Goodreads. That shouldn't take too long. Oh look, I can also set up some advertising. I just have to enter a few details. Oh, the internet has frozen; I'll just reboot that. Oh, all of my data has disappeared; I'll have to enter that again. How long has this twenty minute job taken now; hmm, three hours.
Yes a giveaway is a great idea I'll just fill out all the information and then publish it...oh; the site's only recognised my eBook; not the physical copy. Okay I'll just add that. Where has my front cover gone? I'll have to upload a separate one. Oh, all the information I've added for the giveaway has now disappeared. I'll have to start over again.
(Okay it wasn't quite as calm as that and I have left out a lot of the swearing).

Even this blog takes more time that I had expected. I work out what I want to write about and start. Then I change my mind and think about something else. Then I read back what I've written and start changing bits. Then I have to edit, sometimes looking at words and thinking, 'What the hell is that supposed to say?' I can't even blame predictive text; it's purely my typing.

Today's delay came with a kitchen drawer that wouldn't open because a butter knife had somehow wedged its blade through the wire mesh of the cutlery tray and the handle was stuck right up in the air. It took an hour of trying to take off the front of the drawer, poking other utensils through the gap to try and move this bloody butter knife, which I believe used to belong to a set my nan had; so it's got to be at least sixty years old. In the end I had to get the metal stand that the toilet rolls sit on from the bathroom as that was the only thing long enough and sturdy enough to fit through the gap to give the knife handle a bit of a whack. Eventually the gap in the drawer widened just enough to force my hand in to get some proper leverage on the knife. It's been two hours since then and my arm is still red and I can't put my watch back on. That sodding sixty year old butter knife hasn't got a mark on it. They really did make things to last back then.

Right, now back to the draft...well, perhaps I'll just have lunch first.