Week 11: The weather outside is frightful

We have had snow this week but not much of it and it didn't last long (and I was indoors, all cosy with a book). We've also had wisps of low cloud like sagging cobwebs over the valley, and proper murk where the close yellowish grey mist looks like nicotine-stained net curtains. I love the low light, the way the damp foliage changes colour compared to dry days, and the shifting glimpses of the moor way over there across the unseen river.

View across the valley

I'm fine-tuning the first three chapters of the semi-rural fantasy at the moment, before sending them off with my application to the Northern Writers' Awards. I'll never be properly satisfied with my entry but I'm aiming to reach 'good enough to send' by sometime next week. It's making me re-focus on the essence of the book, and I've been enjoying quite a bit of background reading related to it.

I'm also nearing the finish line on my entry to Hometown Tales, which is supposed to unearth writers from under-represented regions. Is West Yorkshire under-represented? We have David Peace and Alan Bennett (have they both moved elsewhere?), and Joanne Harris of course. Possibly I'm over-thinking this, and what the publishers really mean is 'writers from outside London'.

Staggering revelation of the week (apart from 'all my friends are turning 40 this year', although strictly it's only most of them) is that there are women out there who arrive at well-established adulthood without ever having worn men's clothes. I feel this will end up in a story at some point. Imagine only ever wearing shirts that have darts in, pulling them in to some shape that doesn't represent most people's reality! Never reaching into your inside pocket for a wallet! Never having anywhere to put your keys unless you carry a bag! Possibly I am generalising, and there are hitherto unknown women's clothes that don't follow this trend (and, it must be said, I wear women's clothes a fair bit even though they have little or nothing in the way of pockets). Still, food for thought.

As ever, a varied week. Feel free to comment about your own, particularly in the vein of staggering revelations...