NaNo '07: [[65228 Words]] NaNo '08: [[6000 apx. Words]] NaNo '09: [[56247 Words]] NaNo '10: [[53051 Words]] NaNo '11: [[N/A]] The Great Couch Happening of '69: [[105700 Words]] The Chronicles of Stan: [[N/A]]



"Mirthless merriment, sickly sentiments so commonplace
It would bore you to tears
Give me non-stop laughter, dispel disaster
Or the Rotter's Club might well lop off your ears
Laughing and drinking, dancing, grooving, stoned again
Falling over singing, hoping that you'll share it!"

( Who is this human?! )

::Charities I Support::
Centrepoint [x] | The Prince's Trust [x] | (Heifer) Worldbuilders [x] | The Office of Letters and Light [x]
Amnesty International [x]

WRITERS! Want a link in my sidebar?

I've been up since about 8, working pretty hard on getting some stuff together for The Great Couch Happening of '69. Not only have I put down the groundwork for a 'Definitive Guide' to Whitbrook, the town in which my novel begins and ends, but I've begun to compile an extensive list of crucial tasks that I need to complete to make my book as good as it can possibly be.

( And so on and so forth... )

“You Are Love”

For Thelma


You are love.
Soft white puddle set with rubies.
Precious, darling, dusted love.
Fast and fleeting
living breeze;
Ever searching
Ever seeking,
Living joy complete.

You are love,
Within a tiny body
Set to pass all years too soon
Fragile as the softest tune,
Sharp and lovely
Little blossom.
Temporary as the snowflake
Everlasting as the moon.

Today's to-do list:

1. Laundry!
2. Clean rats' cages!
3. Tidy room!
4. Type up 6 pages of the novel!
5. Finish one hammock for the babies!
6. Work acrylic paint into A2 'Iris' painting!

( So, how did I do...? )

Okay, I didn't write at all yesterday so today's goal is to handwrite 9 pages and type up 20. Same thing tomorrow.

The typing up isn't as hard because the stuff is already written; I just need to actually sit down and type it.

My novel's still sat on page 610. Let's do this!

GOOD NEWS. Holly's project is DONE. So I am now free to focus 100% on my novel... and since the CreateSpace offer expires on June 30th, I technically have another month in which to get the first draft done, a cover sorted out, and possibly even a few illustrations! Huzzah!

Camp NaNoWriMo the first is in April this year, so I've set up my profile good and ready to kick-start my book. I'll try and get a wee bit done beforehand as well; the more work I can do the better, and easing back into NaNo mode might not be quite as difficult with a bit of pre-emptive work to get me going. I'm excited!

( Regarding the project I've just finished... )

... and I have been so bloody busy! First and foremost, Holly's project has been done AT LAST after two months of freaking over how I would do it and then a final week of frantic scribbling and weeping at my desk. It is done. Huzzah.

( I became a complete and utter art robot over that last week... )

Just letting you guys all know that I am alive and I'm alright.

I've been hellishly busy of late with this project for Holly. It should be all shifted by March 4th, so I'm hoping regular life will resume then. Novelling, regular sleep, less junk food. I don't know how long it will be before I can post the fruits of my labour up here. The artwork last time was embargoed for AAAGES because of an upcoming festival it had a chance of appearing in and all that jazz - could be I won't be able to post anything until it's all produced and graded. But hopefully soon. Some of it is looking good!

So yeah, this is why I've been absent. Not that you guys aren't used to that already. I miss you all, and I miss being able to journal regularly! *cries*

I lost one of my heroes yesterday. Kevin Ayers, founder member of Soft Machine, the Whole World, and all-round brilliant singer-songwriter, passed away at the age of 68. He was found at his home by a neighbour (he lived alone) and apparently had a note next to him which read 'You can't shine if you don't burn'.

So we've lost David Bedford, Lol Coxhill and now Kevin. I'm absolutely gutted. He was such an amazing man; his music inspired me, cheered me up when I felt low, it was like listening to a summer's day. I was so grateful to him for all the things he gave to the world and one day I rather wanted to tell him just how amazing I thought he was, and how much his music affected me. A lot of my novel has been written whilst listening to his work, both with bands and his solo stuff - several scenes were actually inspired by it. He himself inspired Lazuli quite a bit - the easy-going attitude, the decadent but charming nature. I owe Kevin an awful lot.

But one of the things I most admired about Kevin was that, unlike most musicians, he wasn't a slave to the music industry. He wrote from the heart, as well, with his unique imagination and whimsical nature showing through. He went where he pleased, lived exactly as he wanted and released music when he felt like it. So there was always something much more heartfelt about his work; you could feel him and his life in it - the wine, the sea, the Mediterranean sun, the love.

I don't really have the words to do him justice right now. The Guardian has a very good obituary up for him, as well as his last interview which shows the person he was pretty well. Maybe when I've had a few days to think about it I'll be able to write something better.

Rest in peace, Kevin. Hope the wine is flowing freely wherever you are. Oh and by the way, thank you very much.

Title: Overlap; Or The Many Deaths Of
Words: 3461
Status: Slightly proofread, unedited
Author's Notes: I stumbled across this story in my writing folder about half an hour ago. It's a little something I started in late 2009, left for ages and finished in 2010. So it's 3/4 years old, and probably very crap. But I'm quite proud of it simply because it's one of the few short stories I've actually brought to some sort of conclusion! I'm thinking of changing it to present tense (the immediacy would suit the concept much better), but other than that I'm open to critique. Also, this is my 101st writing post! Yay!

( It started with a weird feeling... )

Just so you all know, I have not lost my mind. You'll probably think I have because... I'm actually going to be sticking up for Lee (my super-annoying technical brother-in-law) a fair bit in this post. I know. It feels weird just writing that.

The receiving end of my fury today will be Sian's dad. Oh my god, he is one of the biggest dicks I have ever, ever encountered. Seriously.

( in which I rant. )

I'm feeling much better today, thankfully. Maybe that little rant helped. I worked a bit on this project for Holly as well, which proved to be somewhat theraputic in that I now have less work to do, and I always find drawing quite soothing anyway.

Speaking of Holly's project, I've altered my 2013 writing plan to accommodate it. I was going to work on four separate projects across the year, but that's now down to three. My plan is as follows...

1. March, Camp NaNo (April) to the end of May - The Great Couch Happening of '69
2. Camp NaNo (August) - Chronicles of Stan books 2 and 3
3. NaNoWriMo (November) - You Know You Got (No) Soul

So... yeah. I might even find room for that fourth book in there somewhere; maybe I could just write a couple of pages a day across the year while working on the three big ones. Mind you, I'd need time to edit The Great Couch Happening of '69 as well. Perhaps the Mystical Fourth Book could just be a little side project for fun; I could just work on it whenever I have the time and feel compelled to.

For the moment, though, I must draw. I've still got tons to do, but when it's done I'll be so relieved. I've got a few things to show you guys already, actually... only my laptop is being a jerk and won't let me load any other tabs in my browser, so I can't actually upload anything yet (otherwise I'd have to leave this page). Most annoying. I'll try and get some stuff up later, when I've actually scanned it in. So far I've only got pictures I've taken on my iPod, and they aren't the best quality.

It's weird how motivated I'm feeling today as opposed to yesterday. I hope it stays like that to be honest. I'm going to Jason's later and I'm seriously hoping Lee isn't there because he has a habit of inadvertently destroying my will to live.

A/N: Because I've been horrifically negligent both in my journal and in posting any actual writing, here: have a short story I wrote from a prompt posted on Writeworld.


( Sixty-five years ago today. The sun's disc hanging low in a weak yellow sky, the smell of heather soft, fragrant in the air. I remember it so well... )

Wow. It's been almost a month and I haven't written. Sorry for the inactivity, but things have been a little difficult for me since about a week or so after Irene's funeral. The funeral went fine, by the way; I held it together as best as I could for Jason. He was quite upset, as you can imagine but everything we focused on was very positive. We just celebrated her life and the wonderful woman she was. And the deacon was quite impressed with the eulogy; said it was the best one he'd ever seen. Maria and Tony (Irene's husband, Maria's dad) kept thanking me but to be honest I just jazzed it up, varied sentence lengths and structures a bit. It really came from Maria. I was just the editor.

( Sorry, this entry is another whiny one. )

The snow has all been washed away. For the past few days the weather has been bi-polar. On Friday, just when we thought it was all thawing out, it suddenly started snowing again and we must have gotten about six inches at least - I walked Jason to the bus stop in it, Ashley came as well and we larked about a bit while waiting, throwing snowballs at each-other, rolling around in it and the like. We waited for about half an hour and in all that time we just saw one bus - the 22 heading back up to Warrington. The 34 never came, so we headed back to mine, left all our wet clothes in the hall to dry out, sipped tea and tried to warm up again.

Then, last night, I was woken up by the sound of heavy rain, which was really weird considering the snow we'd been stuck with for the past week or so. It's all gone this morning, and it's definitely feeling milder out there. About bloody time as well; it's nearly February!

( Also, I think I may have spontaneously developed tinnitus... )

I have a few things to do today. I've already signed on (Job Seeker's Allowance, bleh) and done all the stuff required of me in that department - enough stuff for one day, anyway - so now I just need to tackle a ton of stuff on the creative side of things.

1. Type six pages of my novel up
2. Write another six pages of my novel
3. One A3 drawing for Holly

That's easily doable. In fact, while I'm still waiting for Jason to get back, I can make a good start on typing up my novel now.

I may also need to do his mum a little favour regarding the funeral today, depending on when she wants it done. She'd like me to type up, format and print out the eulogy she's written/writing for granny. I know it doesn't sound like a hard job, but... wow. I'm actually terrified I'm going to muck it up. Like, I don't know if she wants it to look decorative or for it to be more readable (she requires glasses to read, I know that much, and I don't think she wants to be squinting on the lectern thingy in the church) or what.

I was just thinking maybe a slightly larger font (16 or 18, maybe?), 1.5 spaced so she can tell the lines apart easier and avoid stumbling. That's how I formatted my Prince's Trust Presentation Night speech so I wouldn't end up reading the same line again by accident. Maybe indent the first line of every paragraph... I dunno, maybe I'm thinking too hard about this. I just seriously do not want to mess it up.

Also, I'm amazed that she's trusting me with this. I mean, an eulogy is a very personal, sensitive thing, especially when it's for such a close member of the family. When words are brought together to make one they become immeasurably precious, I think, because of their purpose. This will be the most delicate writing task I'll have ever done. Wow.

Well, we'll see what Maria says anyway. Jason might bring the eulogy for me to sort out today, or she might need more time to work on it.

Other than that, the past few days have been pretty uneventful. I'm getting into the swing of finding a job again, and over the next week I'll be submitting my CV to a few jobsearch sites. There isn't a great deal on the Gov.uk website, to be honest, so I'm better off looking further afield as well. I've been playing a lot of Minecraft, and I've been writing a little bit as well. My novel's creeping along slowly, but slow progress is always better than no progress. It makes me feel much better to be busy!

I've been feeling a bit down today due to yesterday's sad news. I haven't really been able to bring myself to do much except sit around and play Minecraft for hours just to take my mind off things.

Tomorrow I'm staying over at Jason's as usual, and I told him I'd like to go to the funeral, because I was really fond of his gran and I'd like to be there for him, and for his mum. It's still bugging me that I couldn't really do much yesterday, but he did say he'd rather be alone and try to get some sleep.

Jason went to bed at around 10 last night, just after our phone call, and finally fell asleep at half three. I went to bed at nearly four o'clock myself because I was just so tired, and even then it was hard to get to sleep.

I think I'll be okay, given time. This is different to my usual depressive episodes. I'm just sad that Irene passed away and regretful that I wasn't able to get to know her better, as well as worried about Jason, his Mum and, of course, his grandad.

So I haven't written at all today, though yesterday before Jason's text I managed four pages, and typed up about the same. In days to come I'm going to have to get cracking again on some serious work, but for now, definitely until the funeral, I won't be writing at all when I'm with Jason. I want to focus for a while on supporting him.

Hello to all of my new Dreamwidth friends, and of course to my LiveJournal friends who have put up with me over the years! I have some pictures for you...

( Lookie here! )

I did this on LJ years back, and thought it would be a good idea to revive it for anyone who adds me on DW (anyone?! *tumbleweed*), as well as anyone on LJ who's changed how they post their writing stuff.

I'd like to get more connected to some writers on the good old interwebs, and I usually do that by adding their writing journals/links to my sidebar. So, good people of Dreamwidth, post your links here! It doesn't matter what kind of writer you are; after all, the world of words is a veritable spectrum of amazingness; and besides, I like a bit of variety in my blog! Plus it would be nice for people poking around here looking for yet more writers to have a handy list of links to visit. You never know, you may get a new fan out of it!

And to all of you LJ people, if my link for you is out of date, please let me know and I'll update it for you. And if your link isn't up there but you'd like me to add it, just comment.

Let's hope 2013 is a great year for writing, eh? :D

I JUST INSTALLED ADBLOCK

AND

NO ADVERTS ON MY LIVEJOURNAL

AND NO STUPID EMPTY SPACE BETWEEN MY ENTRIES

HUZZAHHHHHH