Francesca's Thoughts

Hello. Francesca Astraea here. Make a cup of tea and settle in for a chat!


A Week in the Life of an Author/Freelancer/Stationery Shop Owner ft. Chronic Pain

Sunday

6am

TODAY IS THE DAY MY ALARM WAKES ME UP? TODAY?

8:30am

Actually get up. Stick on some laundry and clean the bathroom.

10am

Catch up on some YouTube, put the laundry on the line. This is probably the first day this year that I’m pretty confident it won’t rain. Usually I hang it out, then bolt outside when the heavens open. You’ve got to take excitement where you can get it these days…

12pm

Go to a hardware store with Mum and Nan. They need cabinets and flowers. I need batteries and growbags… and someone to lift the growbags.

2pm

Jesus, that was stressful. All those people in one big room? The creeping desire to buy more succulents? The sheer variety of tomato plants on offer? Also, I used to work at the store and it’s odd going back. I left almost exactly two years ago, which feels like a thousand years. I’m sort of glad that between the mask and my sunglasses, there’s no chance of anyone recognising me. The staff were the best part of the job, but I was hovering on the edge of a breakdown during the last months I was there and then we had a pandemic, so I’m not sure if I have the energy for a catch up.

We hang out at my nan’s to recover. I make some notes for the Do Something Directory, because there’s nothing like a Sunday afternoon on a sofa to inspire a brainwave. (Brain, please, reserve your ideas for, I don’t know, Wednesday afternoon?)

5pm

Mum drops me and the growbags off. I can carry them but not lift them. Give me eight more years of Pilates and I reckon I’ll get there.

Officially I don’t work on Sundays, but tomorrow’s a bank holiday and I didn’t work yesterday, also there were those notes for the Do Something Directory also I am not great at letting myself relax so I edit this post.

6pm

Half arse some hoovering. I quite like doing housework on a Sunday. I like feeling like I’ve gotten rid of the old week and prepared for the new one. Nurse my stomach ache and watch Maggie’s seminar.

7pm

Feel all right. Have some dinner. Feel all right – ahh no. Does anyone want to swap bodies? Rewatch Ghosts. It is hard to be in a bad mood when you’re watching Ghosts.

11pm

Bed.


So how was it? Reading it back, I’m surprised my week wasn’t more chaotic – it always takes me a while to find a routine after I’ve finished a big project. I didn’t really do any promotion for my work on social media, because I’ve been taking a break from the washing machine of #contentcreation. I was expecting to read more, but I got caught up in the Do Something Directory. I’ll figure out the best way to organise my day eventually. Probably.

The other unusual thing about the week was that I was in more-than-expected levels of pain. You can go weeks or months feeling normal, and one little thing will spark off a week of moderate to severe discomfort. I’m not too bad today, writing this up. I don’t feel too bad mental health-wise, either. I think I’m probably just tired. The last couple of years have been strange. Oh, that dress came – I think it might be more of a winter dress than I realised, but for the price of postage I don’t mind.

Let me know if you’d like to see another one of these down the road, and look after yourselves!


Thanks for reading. If you’d like to read my short stories and see behind-the-scenes work, you can sample? the No. 1 Reader’s Club on Patreon for a month with this link. No pressure to stick around! Think of it as trying a miniature dessert with no requirement to eat the whole menu. You can also find me on Ko-fi. Thank you for your support – you’re helping to fund this space and pay for other costs of running a creative business, like paying editors.

Here are the books I’ve published so far and where you can find them. If you enjoy my book recommendations, browse my Bookshop.org page here.

I’m on social media (reluctantly), via Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook. I prefer my montly-ish newsletter! You can find all my books and my unhinged reviews of books I love on GoodReads and StoryGraph.

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4 responses to “A Week in the Life of an Author/Freelancer/Stationery Shop Owner ft. Chronic Pain”

  1. […] last did a week in the life back in… 2021. Someone on Patreon suggested doing another, and I have chosen this week to record because a) I […]

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  2. […] you read my A Week in the Life of an Author post, you’ll have seen that I gifted my cousin and cuz-in-law this little […]

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  3. I saw the caterpillar infested bush last week and wondered if you’d seen it too! It’s similar to the box caterpillar (which almost killed off our box hedges last year), but with no particular target plant – I’ve since seen the same caterpillar infestation in a rose bush elsewhere locally! Anyway, I enjoyed reading about a week in your life – very interesting! 😊 x

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    1. Huh, I’ll have to look them up. I know there’s a type of insect (insect? Or maybe a spider, I can’t remember) that covers everything in gossamer. They look very cool/creepy in graveyards.

      Ahh thank you! It was unusually interesting. Most weeks are me at my desk working on one thing, then me at my desk working on another thing, and then multiple cups of tea and some walking!

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