What a week!

Well, what a week it has been. What a couple of weeks actually. I've been non-stop really since last Wednesday. Even today, when I've been able to get my head down a little bit, I've still not got as much done as I would have liked because other things keep cropping up. I guess it's the nature of management to some extent. Still, it's four o'clock on a Friday afternoon and I'm going to push my office work aside for a bit and after I've finished this blog entry, I'll set about adding to Chloe's Education. It's been very, very frustrating not being able to work on it this past couple of weeks when it's so close to being finished - the first draft is at least. I really want to get this first draft out of my head so I can concentrate on writing a few shorts for a while before tackling something else substantial.

I have had some good news this week. A pay rise. It's not huge, but given the current financial climate, it's a welcome reward for the past few months toil.

and speaking of the current financial climate - how did it get so bad, so quickly. We gone from a booming property market to a dead one. It's so flat I'm stunned. The weekly 'free' (by which I mean we don't pay for it because all the bloody ads inside pay for it instead - hardly any 'news' in it at all) newspaper came yesterday and the property section consisted of seven pages ads for houses. I've known it be approaching fifty pages in the recent past. It's shocking at how fast the market has collapsed in on itself. of course, the media didn't help - all the doom and gloom reporting made things worse. The market relies on how people feel about the market, so if they are being told by everyone on TV, radio and newspapers that things are terrible, they'll believe things are terrible, which will make things terrible.

I genuinely believe that we are talking ourselves into recession.

Still. I've got a pay rise. And it's a great time to buy shares if you're interested in the long haul - which I am.

I'm going to offer you a link to another free story on my website today too.

Sophie is the story of a young man who finds himself falling for the wrong girl - the young woman he's tutoring through her 'A' levels. Enjoy.

Don't forget that Lost & Found and Charlotte's Secret are still available. In fact, if you are quick, you can get Lost & Found from Fictionwise at a discount. Go on - treat yourself.