Elaina James

So just before Christmas we decided to put a hold on our ongoing kitchen development so that we could enjoy the festive break without emptying cupboards or rearranging furniture, something which seemed to have become part of our weekly routine recently. The granite worktop was cracked, the blind was up though somewhat slanted and the old laminate flooring that had seen better days was still waiting to be replaced.  But that was okay, it was only till after Christmas.  Good theory huh? Well we made it through Christmas with no issues, aside from trying to learn how to time the cooking so everything was ready to be served at the same time using the new electric hob and oven.  The oven cooks quicker than the old gas one and I haven't quite mastered the art of controlling the hob properly, my old gas hob was so much more responsive, it also made less mess when things boiled over... But now January is upon us and we figured the kitchen would finally be completed.  W...

Christmas for my family has always meant chaos and laughter, great food and a lot of washing up.  It didn’t matter if the Christmas lights stopped working after just being hung, which often was the case, or if the presents hadn’t arrived on time, it just meant Christmas was extended a little longer.  Whatever happened somehow Christmas was always perfect.  The last minute chaos to get everything finished in time, always paid off in the end and whatever didn’t quite get done somehow didn’t matter so much once Christmas actually arrived. Over the years our family has shrunk and the big Christmas parties we once had have become more intimate gatherings now.  In contrast, the number of Christmas decorations seems to multiply each year.  Perhaps we are trying to distract from all the empty seats, not that it will ever work. Those that are no longer with us, who time or distance have taken away, are always missed more at this time of year.  They each pl...

It’s been a tough week, it’s always hard going back to work after a couple of weeks off and this time was no exception.  On Monday morning I grudgingly crawled out of bed when the alarm clock rudely interrupted my rather bizarre dream.  Twenty minutes later l was downstairs, cursing myself for forgetting to put the heating on timed last night as I hurriedly packed my bag and shivered.  The fact that my trousers had apparently shrunk in the wash wasn’t helping my mood either. Of course their tight fit around the waist had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I hadn’t worn them for two weeks, during which time I had done nothing but eat generous sized portions and sit in front of the TV. I left the chilly house behind me and ventured out into the even colder outdoors.  I managed to time it perfectly as l drove off and found myself stuck behind a bus for most of the journey to work. Ironically, whenever I actually try to catch that bus, it results in me stan...

I’m getting rather tired of rearranging furniture.  It started with emptying the kitchen in preparation for the new one.  I disassembled the kitchen table so it would fit through the door and reassembled it temporarily in the lounge, the fridge was moved into the dining room and I emptied all the cupboards into boxes and stashed them wherever I could find room.  Except none of it turned out as temporary as it was supposed too.  The kitchen refit dragged on for weeks as I encountered problem after problem and delay after delay, but I persevered, what else could I do?  While I waited for the decorator to fit me into his busy schedule I decided this would be a good time to move all the pots and pans out of their boxes and find a home in the lovely new cupboards and have a clear out of the utility room as well.  A major spring clean ensued.  I lost count of the trips I made to the charity shop to donate items I had accumulated over the years, and coun...

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my kitchen has for the last eight weeks been undergoing a bit of a face lift.  Yes, I did say eight weeks.  No, my kitchen really isn’t that big, or the refurbishment that drastic.  So why did it take eight weeks?  To be honest I still haven’t quite figured that one out, but the bad news is, it’s not finished yet. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time.  Of course having the kitchen out of action for any length of time was going to be inconvenient, but it would only be for two weeks…. Or at least that’s what the designer claimed.  It started off alright.  The fitter turned up bright and early one Monday to rip out the old appliances, break apart the old cupboards and completely fill the skip, which was so attractively sitting on my lawn.  So far so good. Then the electrics had to be rewired.  I know it’s all for my own safety, and the sensible side of me is completely on board with this...

I was following Elizabeth Little’s #AuthorChat on twitter tonight and it got me thinking about the way that I write my novels.  Elizabeth, like any sane person, types her first drafts and then edits in hardcopy.  Totally logical.  I’m therefore slightly concerned that I have completely the opposite approach, which bizarrely, until I read her posts, had never even struck me as being slightly crazy.  I tend to handwrite my first drafts, more or less in full, in a notepad.  Well I say a notepad, however even with my tiniest writing, I can’t actually cram a full length novel into a single notepad.  Because I also have a habit of thinking of extra dialogue or inserting new chapters into sections that I have already written, I end up inserting pages with lots of asterisks and highlighting to help me decipher it all later.  This means that my notepad is usually full of loose pages, inserted in seemingly random places, all held together by a large elasti...

When I leave the house each morning, I check that the taps are turned off, the radio and kettle are unplugged and the oven, which hasn’t even been used since the night before, is still turned off.  And then I check it all again.  My colleagues roll their eyes each evening when I double back as I am leaving the office, to check that I really did lock my desk drawer.  My friends smile as I check my car really did lock, when I press the remote control.  And my family… well they don’t pass judgement.  They can’t really, given that they are just as bad as me. Writing is another of my obsessions.  However, unlike double or triple checking a door, this is one that few people know about.  It’s actually quite easy to hide it from people, because so few people even know about my passion for writing to begin with.  They have no idea that I carry around a little notepad in my bag, ready for the moment that the perfect line of dialogue or song lyric shoul...