Winter is definitely on its way – we’ve had a few crisp frosty mornings lately, and the thermometer is regularly going below freezing overnight. But we’ve also had our gorgeous, clear, dry, sunny days, so I can’t really complain! Last winter was cloudier and wetter than usual, and so it felt colder without that cheering sunshine, even though the temperatures didn’t dip as low.
Congratulations to the winners of my little Mother’s Day giveaway – Bronwynne, Jenn, Grace and Jenny! Your prizes are on their way.
Life continues to keep me busy! I’m in the middle of marking assignments for my university job, although most of the lecture-notes writing is now done for this semester. That gives me somewhat more time and brain space to concentrate on book-writing in the evenings and weekends; I’m trying to stick to my determination to do no uni work after 7pm, and keep the evenings free for writing, as that’s usually good creative time for me.
It’s likely that I’ll also be teaching at uni in second semester this year, although part-time rather than the full-time load of this semester. The department is short a couple of staff, so the acting Head came to ask me last week if I’d be interested in more teaching. I said I’d be available, on the understanding that a) I have a couple of conferences I have to go to; b) Gordon and I need a holiday together; and c) I’d only teach a course that’s already written – no more having to research, develop and write an entire semester of teaching material while I’m teaching it! (As our uni has significant numbers of online students, study materials have to be prepared for them, as well as lectures and tutorials for on-campus students.) Anyway, there’s a unit that interests me, is broadly in my area of expertise, and which doesn’t need significant revision, so I’m probably taking it on. I’d prefer to be writing books full-time, but at present that isn’t paying all the bills, so it’s off to work I go… and I really can’t complain, as it’s a good, if demanding job.
I’ve been wanting to refresh my website design for ages, but it’s been one of those things that just hasn’t made it to the top of the list, although I’ve been testing out a few things offline. I think I’m going to go simpler than the idea I originally had in mind, though, and I’m close to adapting a more robust, technically-up-to-date WordPress theme with my header image and colours. So, you might notice some changes here very soon. Overall, it won’t look too different; however, I am planning to remove the stand-alone HTML page at bronwynparry.com and shift the whole blog into the main directory. I think I’ll be able to do it seamlessly, but if by chance you try bronwynparry.com/blog (which is the current address) and get an error message, try bronwynparry.com instead.