11 | April | 2013 | SJ O'Hart

I’m afraid today’s post is going to be brief. This is because *cloak flourish* I am unwell.

I’m afraid I’m not as cute as this little guy, but I know just how he feels. Image: parentsconnect.com

I actually think most of Ireland has been unwell, more or less since this year began, due to the weather we’ve been having. Considering two weeks ago we had snow, last week it was bright, sunny and clear (with a cold wind), and today it’s like every drop of water in the universe has decided to land on Ireland, all at the same time, it’s no wonder we’re all crocked. Everywhere you go, you hear people hacking and snuffling, so it’s inevitable that those tenacious little germs get a foothold. I’m coughing, my throat feels raspy, and I’m exhausted, so I assume I have some sort of cold which has, in all likelihood, been recycled several times this year already. Charming.

Let’s hope I don’t start popping out in buboes or anything like that, though. If I do, I’ll give you all plenty of warning so that you can run and save yourselves.

The only real news I have on the writing front is that I managed to make the longlist for this year’s Fish Flash Fiction Prize. I was on a longlist of something like 300, out of a total of 1,400 entries. Of course, making the shortlist would have been better, but for a gal who hasn’t been writing flash fiction all that long, to get on the longlist of a major and reputable competition is a great achievement, and I’m very pleased.

I started work on ‘Eldritch’ again the other day after writing my cathartic blog post about feeling The Fear. I managed to get about six chapters into it before I was felled in my prime by this coughing-disease thing; however, it was going well up to that point. The book is not without its flaws, of course, but it’s still good work and I’m determined to see it through, to polish it into the best little book that it can be, and to get the darn thing off my computer and into the hands of an agent before the summer comes. I have a Red Letter Day in my head, the day on which I’d ideally like to be pressing ‘Send’ or putting a hard copy in the post or whatever the case may be; once it’s gone, then I can turn my eyes back to ‘Tider’ and get that sorted. I have Plans, you see. Big Plans.

However, today will be spent under a blanket, nursing a hot cup of Lemsip, reading – oh, and trying not to rip my own lungs out with the force of my coughing.