My back is playing up. I have a sharp pain near my right shoulder blade that just won’t go away. It was sore yesterday, had me tossing and turning all night and today is so sore I can’t vacuum, which is what I had planned for this morning. I’ve tried all my usual tricks. There’s an exercise involving lying flat on the floor with books under your head to bring your spine into alignment. Hasn’t worked this time. I’ve tried stretching the shoulder gently. Hasn’t worked. I have a bottle of stuff called Pain Cream which smells delightfully lavendery and that does ease the pain temporarily but doesn’t cure it.

Anyway, the good thing is, the shoulder pain doesn’t get worse when I sit at my desk and type, so instead of house work I’ve been able to get some stuff done. I uploaded ten new reviews to Aussiereviews, which always makes me feel good. The postie rewarded (?) me with bringing a parcel containing another seven books for review, this time from ABC Books.

The review update done, I had a chance to revisit one of my little 600 word stories from last week, which is coming along. I also typed up some free verse poems which I wrote at bedtime a couple of nights ago. I think I might have the beginnings of a free verse novel there. The main character has started whispering little snippets to me and I’ve had to jot them down.

I used to write everything down as it came to me, then redraft as I typed it into word on my computer. These days, I write prose straight onto the screen, though I still like to reread in hard copy. Now that I’m working with poetry for the first time in a long while, I’m finding the inspiration is hitting me when I’m away from the computer and when it isn’t necessarily convenient to use the computer. I don’t have a laptop, but even if I did, I like writing the old fashioned way sometimes.

Anyway, it seems the sore shoulder has been a blessing today because I’ve got lots done. I’d best stop complaining about the pain and take the time to write write write.