Get On Your Bikes, Gremlins!

When I announced at the end of September my intention to take a month off blogging and concentrate on doing an intensive edit of my latest novel, I might as well have sent out a party invitation to every gremlin in the neighbourhood.

Here was the gremlins’ idea of a party

  • Turned my landline into a homing beacon for international call centres.
  • Made sure that everything I needed to buy wasn’t available in the local shops, so I had to search for the items online, which, in turn, distracted me with things that I might like to buy in the future.
  • Compelled me to google for the perfect cure for being underweight.
  • Put the idea into my head to take fish oil supplements, which caused me the rarest side effects of insomnia and anxiety attacks.
  • Blew up my mobile phone charger with an almighty flash and bang.
  • Knocked out the speedometer and petrol gauge in my car.
  • Ensured no family chilling out time in front of the TV in the evenings by damaging the satellite dish.
  • Caused instant narcolepsy to anyone in the household trying to read a book after supper.
  • Then finally, as if this wasn’t enough, those darned gremlins decided to make Mister so ill I thought he was going to die. This necessitated him being admitted to hospital as an emergency and undergoing every test under the sun.*

[*It reminded me of an episode of House, whilst the team search for the cause of Mister’s symptoms like medical detectives, finally diagnosing the problem. I can’t praise them more highly. They’re my heroes. They are the reason he’s still alive. Thank you, NHS. You are a national treasure. May this Government and future ones always see it that way and provide the necessary funding.]

As you can imagine, I haven’t finished editing my novel but have only completed a third of the task. Neither has my son managed to complete the first draft of his novel as intended. Now we’re both working hard to stay below the gremlins’ radar to complete our missions, although, if I’m being realistic about it, I can only manage an hour a day of intensive work. On the plus side, I admit to achieving more in one hour than I sometimes achieve in four!

Please bear with me, my dear blogging friends, if my participation in the WordPress community is rather intermittent for a while longer (maybe until the New Year).

Next week, I will post a 5-star review of Sam Jordison’s most entertaining non-fiction work The Ten Worst of Everything: The Big Book of Bad, which, despite the title, is incredibly funny in places and helped me put my own trials in perspective.

Please note, that if you add the fact I haven’t finished editing my novel to the nine bulleted ingredients of the gremlins party, it equals TEN BAD THINGS – a most interesting coincidence, indeed.

So how did everybody else’s October go?            

Author: Sarah Potter Writes

Sarah is a British eccentric who writes offbeat fiction, haiku and tanka poetry. When stuck for words, she sketches or paints instead. She's into nature conservation, sustainability, gardening, dogs, natural health, and reading. Her sociability is something that happens in short bursts with long breathing spaces in between.

29 thoughts on “Get On Your Bikes, Gremlins!”

    1. That’s very kind of you, Inese 🙂 I’m hoping November is more fun, but am having to take things slowly as the emotion of thinking I might lose Mister has left me exhausted. And he still needs lots of love and extra attention as he fully recuperates xxxx

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  3. Oh dear Sarah it sounds as though the gremlins have had a real October party! I hope Mister has a quick recovery and that you too find your equilibrium sooner rather than later. Take care and wishing you a creative and calm November.

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    1. Thank your kind good wishes, Andrea 🙂 Mentally, I think the best way to find equilibrium would be to disappear into the fields and woodlands for hours on end, but physically this isn’t possible just now. We will have to find other ways to keep calm, within the present confines.
      I hope everything is going well on the creative front for you.

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      2. That sounds good, Andrea. There’s something very satisfying about short story writing, with its self-discipline. It’s also not such an investment of time and drawn out emotion as novel-writing. Perhaps I should do more of it.

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  4. The same thing happened to my Bev three years ago…strange pain and illness, no obvious causes, her health rapidly deteriorating, long nights in the hospital with her, praying to any god I could think of….and then all was well. We still don’t know what caused it. I am so happy to hear your husband is on the mend, dear friend. Welcome back to the both of you.

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    1. How strange about Bev. It was probably some rare virus she managed to fight off — or whichever god heard your prayers found a way to vanquish. With my husband, the medics thought it was a virus at first but it turned out to be something called polymyalgia rheumatica, which means he has to be on steroids for the rest of his life (along with all the heart pills he’s on already). If not, the prognosis is dire. Thank you for your kind words Bill, my dear friend x

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    1. Thank you, Carla 🙂 The edit is going exceedingly slowly, but that’s better than nothing.
      By the way, I was in the middle of replying to the lovely comment you left on my celebration haiku post and suddenly WP dumped both your comment and my reply. I couldn’t find it anywhere — not in spam or trash. Such a mystery. Also, I thought I was following your blog but no longer seem to be (not my doing either). I must rectify that now…

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  6. Somehow I missed this post, my friend…. Jeez… October’s gremlins took Hallowe’en to heart. So very happy to hear Mister is well, despite being on meds for the rest of his life. If his quality of life is good, what’s a pill or two (or whatever) per day?
    Hoping the first half of November has been much better and the second half will be outstanding!
    Sending lotsa love your way,
    Dale xo

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    1. Thank you, Dale, my dear friend 🙂 I think Mister is on about 6 pills a day in all. Again I say, thank goodness for the NHS. I’ve passedThe first half of November in a daze, my head full of cobwebs. I’ll be happy if the second half of the month doesn’t contain any further surprises from the gremlins. “Outstanding” sounds exhausting, but perhaps I’ll have caught up with myself by December. By the way, I had to re-sign up for a new Skype account, which means I’ve lost all my previous contacts. I’ll send you and Rochelle a new invite when I have a moment. Perhaps you can mention it to her, in case she thinks I’ve gone funny and dumped you both! Sarah xxxx

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      1. I can so imagine…
        And of course you’re all cobwebby!
        How about we settle for much better and work our way up to outstanding? 😎🙂
        As for Skype. Yes I’ll tell Rochelle (though I’m sure she will see this)!
        Talk to you soon!
        Dale xoxo

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  7. Oh my dearest Sarah, what a terrible time you’ve had of it, most worrying of all about poor Mister. I do hope he’s fully recovered now, and what a great tribute to our very great NHS. You know I know all about those gremlins. I still can’t believe I managed to finish my memoir. 5 1/2 years of writing it, with awful derailments, as you well know. The times I’ve had to put it down…I feel your pain, and your son’s. But hopefully now you are both able to achieve your goals. A lot can get done in one hour. I had to binge write at the end to meet my deadline, and it crushed me mentally and physically afterwards. Doing better now barring a rotten cold/sinus virus thing. Not good for the brain, body or soul. But before that, I resolved to write a little every day and it helped me greatly. Takes a lot of discipline though! Anyway…like you, I’ll be on blogging go slow for a while yet, catching up where I can. So glad we can keep in touch and we will talk very soon to have a proper catch up. Meanwhile, take good care of yourself and I hope those darn gremlins have moved on. Lots of love, hugs & kisses…Sherri xxxxxxxxxxxx

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    1. Dearest Sherri, as I said in my reply to your comment on my haiga post, I’m so, so, so proud of you finishing your memoir. You make sure to have some champagne to celebrate this huge achievement, but only when you can enjoy it properly. I don’t think that it will taste at its best if you have sinusitis. Poor you. The gremlins have moved on a little, although they’ve left me looking over my shoulder, just in case they’ve not cleared off totally. Mister is loads better. Managed to see his GP today, who upped his medication a bit more as it wears off by the morning so he takes a long time to get going. I’m so pleased to see him happier. He even managed to do his tax return yesterday without losing his temper or getting in a flip. Things are definitely looking up! I hope you and I can have a catch up before Christmas — if not a meet-up, perhaps a video chat. My daughter has given me a Kindle Fire 7 for an early birthday present, as my tablet was getting old and cranky and not working properly for face-time. Speak to you soon, my dear friend. Lots of love, hugs and kisses, Sarah xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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      1. Hello again, dearest Sarah, and have replied to your other comment (wiping my eyes, so moved by your lovely words, really….) and again, thank you so, so much. Yes, will have that bubbly when recovered, taste all gone at the moment and you know I’m not right when I say I don’t even fancy a glass right now! But I will. All gone a bit quiet at the moment…but then that’s to be expected. I haven’t exactly broadcasted it, but then I’m still processing it all, I suppose. It’s an incredible thing though, isn’t it, to be able to say, I’ve written a book?! But enough of me…so so glad to hear that you'[re doing a little better and oh how I hope those darn gremlins leave you alone now, what a nightmare. And Mister – phew, thank goodnes! We must catch up, very soon. As I said in my other comment, I will text you this week so we can set up a time. You take care now, my dear friend, and I will do the same and get over this darn thing and I will head over to your blog too, after a catch up at the Summerhouse and various tasks…. Lots of love, hugs and kisses xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  8. Popping over from Dale’s blog to say hi and commiserate about the gremlins situation. I have been faced with suddenly piled-upon deadlines at work (writing, but not the fun fictional kind), and the gremlins came to get me too! First they made my refrigerator make horrible dying noises that kept me up all night (and then pretend to be fine later) until I finally gave in and replaced it. Then they shorted out the lamp at my desk. Then they messed with my shower hot water (cold showers in winter brr!). Then my tire went flat! But I am lucky that they didn’t bring stressful health problems — going to the emergency room trumps all of this. I hope your Mister is doing fine now!

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    1. I wouldn’t wish gremlins upon anyone else, but am kind of relieved to have it confirmed that it’s not just me being singled out! Poor you. When it’s the gremlins related to electronic devices or car stuff going wrong, I usually end up shouting very loudly, f*** off Techno-devil and go bother somebody else! I do hope it’s not my fault that all your things went wrong at once D: Thanks, Joy, for popping over to my blog and for following it. As you can see, I’ve not been around that much lately but will be back in the New Year and will probably post one thing before then if at all possible, plus visiting other people’s blogs (including yours, of course). Mister is much better, thank you — in fact, he’s having a new lease of life due to his medication working. We’ve both been doing lots of gardening and allotmenteering, digging out weeds while the ground is soft and pruning this and that.

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      1. I’ve been missing from blogland for a week, too — I was visiting with family, and learned that my laptop won’t let me connect to WordPress (grr). Then I got home and found more gremlins had invaded my home computer, and it took over an hour just to get to Basic Operating Functionality. And yes, there was a LOT of profanity involved. It didn’t help, but it made me feel better. I’m glad to hear Mister is better. All the best wishes for the new year!

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      2. Best wishes to you, too, for the new year 🙂 There’s always a lot of profanity involved when gremlins invade computers. It is a normal reaction! The gremlins have moved from attacking my electronics, to attacking me. I have a terrible constant crick in my neck and one of my shoulder blades, which is only eased when I’m eating. I can only do so much eating, even though I do need to put on weight. The pain might be due to me needing a replacement pillow (a new special orthopedic pillow presently on order from Amazon and due to arrive this week). Meanwhile, sitting at the computer for too long is contraindicated. Also, I find it extra hard work singing, but need to practice for this year’s concerts. Not good D: Despite all this, I’m in a fairly optimistic mood. Am just about to start proofreading and editing my son’s first novel. We have a great relationship in that we can be honest and objective, and give/accept constructive criticism of each other’s creative work.

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      3. Oh no, that sounds awful! Neck (and back) pain is just the worst for trying to get any work done — at least on the computer, which is where all my work happens. I hope your new pillow arrives soon and helps you feel better.

        How great that you and your son can write together like that! I keep hearing from so many writers about how depressing it is that their own spouse or parents won’t even read their books, much less give them any help. It’s a wonderful activity to be able to share.

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