6th January 2013: Week in Review

Well, Happy New Year for 2013! The first week of the new year is nearly gone. How has it been for everyone?

For me, it’s meant being back at work, on both fronts; the day job (though only two days this week) and also more back into writing. I had a very good Christmas break, seeing my sister, who came to England and we had some quiet time together while she studied, though we did watch The Hobbit together. I caught up with friends locally for a lovely dinner on Friday night, and also had afternoon tea with a friend from Australia on the same day.

My two big goals for 2013, writing wise, are to have a completed draft of the Dragon novel by the end of the year, and rewrite/edit the novel that I did for Nanowrimo in November. I kept meaning to post that I did win Nano, but never got around to it! December seemed crazy up until Christmas. I’m planning for a quieter January. Of course, dancing starts back again this week so it’s going to get a little busier, but with no longer being on the committee I can commit to more writing things, which I’m very pleased about.

In terms of writing plans over the next week and month, there is a submission due this coming Friday, and a further two at the start of February. I have a good feeling about being able to get the one for Friday done in draft form today.

One project that may be of interest for any erotica readers out there is my 365 day story ‘A Night in a Year.’ The plan is to post 300 words a day on a continuing erotic story, set in Cambridge over the course of one night. Note I said ‘post’ not write – the posts have been planned and will be scheduled in advance of the posting time (which is 4pm GMT). If you are interested, why not go back through what I have so far: A Night in a Year.

And for Sunday in my City: These shots were taken sometime last year, but am only getting to posting them now. They are from the park at the end of my street. I used to go on swings a lot as a kid – even at university in the park just near campus – so I like seeming them when I walk through it.

Mirrored from jacquelinebrocker.esquinx.net.

A Night in a Year: 6. Walk

The centre of town is ten minutes walk from her apartment. She takes small steps, trying not to mince, nor stride, nor hobble. Confident, at ease, yet provocative too. She passes the Mill Road shops – the hairdressers, the Arabic and Korean groceries, Subway and wine merchants. There are a few glances from men, but she ignores them, not wanting to graze on home turf.

She crosses Parker’s Piece. The central lamppost, Reality Checkpoint, is lit, though the light is still dusky. People are heading home from work or shopping, and others, like herself, are heading for the centre. For fun, or at least for drinking and to forget.

She will drink, but she wants to remember the events of the night.

The centre of Cambridge is both alike and unlike other towns in England. She has grown used to the sprouting up of shops and restaurants of the same chain, clones that are making the cities indistinguishable from one another. Pret A Manger and Pizza Express. M&S and Monsoon. Buying and selling of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries latched onto the medieval colleges, vying to take attention from the spires of King’s College Chapel, from the imposing Senate House.

They would not succeed. Capitalism conquered much, but 800 years of intellectual achievement wasn’t gained by paying attention to the whirring wheels of the material world.

The nightlife was a mix of the raucous (the Regal, partying opposite Emmanuel College) and the somewhat urbane (the Vaults disappearing underground opposite Gonville and Cauis). But there aren’t many. Monotonous, the same people, the same places, a friend once said.

She has little doubt that tonight she will meet people she knows, or has fucked. That was the fun, navigating a known world to find pockets of variety.

Of newness, and novelty.

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Next: 7. Bar

Image found on flickr, by luschei, used under the Creative Commons License.

Mirrored from jacquelinebrocker.esquinx.net.