Sad news, Conventions, websiite and life

Greetings, salutations and small crunchy biscuits...

Sadly, my mother passed away in July last year and I have been kept busy with official paperwork, sorting through the great collections she kept of 'Things That Might Be Useful' and continuing to be Carer for my Dad.

So far we have cleared three chests of drawers full of off-cuts of cloth and sewing supplies. Progress is being made. I have also helped Dad distribute some of Mum's jewelry to friends and family.

The funeral and memorial service were difficult but both went well and to plan. It was very nice to see how many of my parents' friends rallied round and helped.

Life is slowly finding its new normal.

I am still doing two lessons a week volunteering at Dundonald School, though I'm only doing French now for years 5 and 6. Miss Davis and I seem to get on quite well and she is certainly grateful for another set of eyes and help with discipline in the classroom.

Teddy and I went to the 2014  London Worldcon last summer and it all went very well. We even persuaded  Dad to come along for a couple of days on a day membership and he enjoyed it more than he thought he might.

I sold three pictures from the Artshow. Two cartoons and a painting. An excellent result, even after commission.

We have just been to Eastercon at Heathrow. I could have done without the car breaking down on the way there. The clutch died just before we got to the M25. As we were on the slip road from the A3, the AA gave us priority and relayed us home with great efficiency. As we had all the stuff for the Chaos Costume workshop in the back, I'd decided that home was the beat place for the car and that I'd deal with getting it to a garage later.

We called the Con Chair and she arranged for John /Stewart to come and collect Chaos and me and bring us to the Con. Teddy came in the next morning by tube. Luckily, I'd been feeling coldy and had decided to only take on e costume with me, so was packed quite light. I did, however, have eighteen pictures for the artshow( The most I have ever shown).

Still, after that shaky start, the con went very well and I sold a picture. One person also ordered a print of this picture and another person might be contacting me for a print of it as well.

I had to pay the AA to relay the car to the garage when we got back from the con, but the service was very good again and I now have experienced being flat-towed. This meant that I was in the car and steering- this was only mildly terrifying and the most difficult this was not breaking.

Then the bad new: the clutch wasn't the only thing needing replacement. The repairs will come to over £3,000.00. Oh, well, that's what saving are for and this is the car's first major repair. If I spread that over the eight years I've had it, it come to about £400 a year, which is not so bad...

I have just finished updating the website ( tomnanson.co.uk) with my six most recent pictures( including the one that has just sold, which is called 'To War') and, unusually for me, decided to do this post.

Toodle Pip for now...

Life, as now it goes...

Having been made redundant from my office job at the end of 2010, I am now working part-time as my Mother's carer, gardener, house-cleaner, handyman, tech-ad visor, decorator and payroll officer, as well as volunteering two mornings a week at Dundonald Primary School, helping with English Projects and French.

I had to be CRB checked for that, which is rather like being taxed to prove one's innocence.

I am, however, quite enjoying the teaching work and am able to provide additional information to colour several of the subjects we have dealt with so far. See, knowledge of the Greek Myths IS useful!.

I am about to start doing some regular gardening work for some of the local old ladies. I've committed to two clients so far and am thinking that it could still be practical to take on two, or three more, as they only want me to do lawn mowing and light weeding once a fortnight. I plan to ask the first lady to pass my name on to a few more...

I am still painting and currently have two oils on the go. I have recently done a commission for the CD cover for a friends group, which turned out very well. I had to work with a designer for the first time and at long distance( as they were in America), but we got on and the result was excellent. Everybody happy! You can see the cover via a link on my website( tomnanson.co.uk) .

The writing is going more patchily. I currently have my first book out with two Beta readers and hope that, eventually, they will come back to me with some feedback and possible editing ideas. As long as they think it's worth going on with, I may well take my Sister Outlaw, Kari's advice and pay to have Liz Williams or Juliet Mckenna have a look at it .I am still in two minds as to whether it would then be worth trying to publish via Lulu, or whether I should do it as a E-book. The advantage of the first option is that I would have a physical book in my hand and that I could paint the cover art myself, but it would be a mostly vanity project and I might break even.

Ho,hum

New Website

Greetings and salutations.

As all can tell, I'm not a great one for technology and being on line all the time!

However, since I was made redundant from my office job at Christmas, I have had time to go get some help to build a proper website. It is now up and running and can be viewed at www.tomnanson.co.uk.

A large selection of my work as an artist and costumer is on there now, as well as a re-enactment page...

With regard to LIFE, I am making ends meet working for my parents doing housekeeping and gardening and doing other gardening work and volunteering as a teaching assistant at Dulwich Art Gallery and Dundonald School.

Best of all, I'm having much more time to paint...

Who knows, I may even have time to post more often....

Technology.....

Greetings and Salutations.

It seems I now have the nearest thing I'm likely to have to a web-site, thanks to my friend Ben...

Given some time and some help from Teddy with my new photobucket account, I will soon be posting pictures of me-self in costumes I have made and uniforms I have bought etcetera.

I will also be using this as a way of displaying my paintings... These are all for sale and I will give general guidance as to the range of acceptable offers, along with details of media and the size of items.

That's enough to get the ball rolling, so to speak...

Tom