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'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.

Tomorrow, I need to tidy my room. It's once again gotten into the state where it's just a place I sleep – the bed, until I cleared everything onto it to use my desk, was the only tidy thing in it.

Yesterday, Jason and I met up with Holly so we could discuss her upcoming project; the one I'm producing artwork for. While I've finished the first piece, I had a few issues with the second and the third that were holding me back – the third, just a minor detail that was quickly resolved, the second, more an issue of inspiration (read: I had none) that soon found itself fixed when Holly told me the plot of her film. I had an idea for a piece that would be quite symbolic, with subject matter that would connect the other two.

Another thing that concerned me was that I hadn't been given a deadline in which to complete the pieces. They could have been needed in three days or a month. A deadline was exactly the kick up the arse I needed to get some work done. Holly told me that I'll have until after Easter to finish the pieces, which is plenty of time for two half-finished A4 drawings – for filming purposes, she's requested they be left unfinished, as a character will be working on them during the shoot.

So, what else have I been up to? Nothing much, in all honesty. I've become horribly addicted to Skyrim. Jason and I take turns playing on my file when he's round. My character's a Nord, somewhere between good and morally ambiguous – as in, I have nicked stuff and murdered a bandit or seven. Slaying dragons is terribly good fun! The game's turned your stereotypical 'wise, benevolent dragon' on its head – they're wise, but they'd also eat you. As Jason found out when he punched one in the face one day.

'Tis the weekend, and I'm alone until Monday. I was meant to be going out with Sian today but that fell through because I didn't know if we were going to be visiting our Uncle Adrian or not and in the end she decided she wanted time to herself. Tomorrow it's definitely just me, probably tidying my room like I've said I will, plugging in my record player and giving some of today's haul a listen. Which reminds me...

( VINYLS, YAY! )

Yesterday night, Holly (@WinchesterAngel) recruited me for a very exciting project. I will be providing artwork for a short film she's producing this semester - basically, the main character is an artist and she needs some pieces that the character will be 'drawing' in one of the shoots.

What's particularly exciting is that the film could go to a film festival, which means that my work could be seen by any number of nifty film-makists and creative types. Plus I get to work with Holly, who's awesome.

Sadly, due to the possibility of the film going to a festival, there's a bit of an embargo on the works, at least until we know how far the film is going and so on and so forth. I will post it online as soon as I can, but for now online distribution is limited to me e-mailing scans to Holly so she can scrutinise it with all her Media Student wisdom.

Brilliant, eh? I could get a bit of mild publicity, and I'm getting paid in chocolate! Get in! Reminds me of my journalist days, biscuits for bylines... *wistful sigh*

Tis indeed a quiet day. I've almost cleared out my inbox now, I've not got many stories on the to-do list and I'm just enjoying a cup of fruit tea courtesy of Steve - some rather nice hibiscus, spearmint, cherries, orange peel concoction that wakes you right up. Apparently he got it from Holland & Barrett so methinks I'll have to get some.

Anna cancelled on needing me for decorating. I'm glad she did so before I went out and bought a whole new set of acrylics, as I would have raided The Works and bought a complete set of those big £2.99 tubes; that, along with tomorrow's bus ticket, would have put me back by £50 and that's the last thing I need.

TNG must owe me nearly £70, now, from bus ticket refunds. Not their fault, of course; I've often been too focused on work at the Star to go back there for refunds.

Let me see, what else can I waffle about to pass the time? I'm after a new sketchbook like the old ones I had - the ones that college so graciously chucked out - to restart my art project. I want one that's A3, hardback, coilbound (they're by far the coolest!) but I don't know where in St Helens to acquire such a thing. Normally I rely on Amazon but I'd like my sketchbook LYK NAO.

Wilkinson's is a definite no-no. They only sell the sketchpads where the pages are designed to be torn out. Last time I checked WHSmith their A3 coilbound sketchbooks weren't hardback. I'm not sure if Ryman's would have what I'm looking for, though their prices are good, and Rennie's is bloody expensive, though it might have what I'm after.

If this goes well, I might try buying more sketchbooks to illustrate other works of fiction. It would really help me to go places as an illustrator if I had four, maybe five good sketchbooks to show. I could do '1984', 'The Soft Machine', 'Waiting for Godot', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'... plus my own novels!

Just writing a random journal entry to tick away the minutes before home time. Nothing spectacular has happened today - nothing journal-worthy except that whole faff with my art work... but meh. Let's write random stuff!

I was a bit worried that after the last few weeks' big stories like the Claire Glover IVF, Carl Pickervance's flat, the allotments break-ins and the NUT strikes, the period of excitement would be over and it would be back to church fillers and cleverly reworded press releases. But this isn't the case - again I've got some good leads going on, quite a few of which seem to revolve around the government dealing further injustices to the British public.

Alas, my head simply isn't in the right place today after I lost all my artwork. I wouldn't say I feel like a bereaved mother but I feel bereaved in some way. That work was a part of me - it was like my novel, a product of my imagination, my visual interpretation of 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. The work wasn't fantastic but it was mine. I created it.

I do think I'd feel worse if I lost my novel, for instance, but the loss I'm feeling is still pretty bad. Anyway, I've dedicated a whole journal entry before this to wallowing in misery so I'll move on because you all know I'm currently feeling very morose about the whole thing and need no further reminders.

I brought my own milk and sugar to work today, so tea for me! Yay! Since Andy went on holiday the mysterious source of milk and sugar dried up and it no longer materialised in the upstairs kitchen so I can only assume he was the one who usually bought it. Mike's the only one other than us who drinks tea and he's not here very often. So it must have been Andy. Anyway, I felt very mature bringing my own for once. This is me solidifying my new-found status as 'part of the team'!

Tell you what, there's a nice tangent into a happier subject! Over the past few weeks I've been told by Andy, Steve and Steven how well I've been doing. Steven, the other day, was saying things that imply I might have a job here when I come back (I hope I wasn't reading too much into things there, as I typically do), and Steve's said a few times how I'm not just a work experience kid any more; I'm actually a 'trainee journalist' and a valuable member of the team!

But it's not just them saying things. I've noticed that I feel a lot more comfortable now in work. I feel like I've settled in properly and I do genuinely feel like one of the team. Not only that but they've been trusting me with bigger stories that aren't just the aforementioned fillers and rewritten press releases. I've been allowed to get down to some bona fide journalism this past month or so, and it's great!

Plus I'm now building up a rather nice portfolio of articles and stuff now - a portfolio that I won't be leaving in a college to be recycled!

I went to St Aelred's this morning with Dad and Nathan, conscious that the academic year was drawing to a close, in order to pick up my artwork before it all got thrown away. The weather was glorious, ELO on the car stereo, sun on my face - I was quite looking forward to seeing my artwork again after all this time - to feel the weight of the sketchbooks and the sheer size of that bloody huge A1 piece I'd done for my exam. A whole academic year had gone by, I realised, since all that stress, all that mithering, all those all-nighters with the thick aroma of coffee choking out my room.

We arrived and were received by a receptionist who asked what we were visiting for as we signed in. When I explained with a smile that I was picking my artwork up (at last!), she gave me this blank look and said that I'd be lucky if it hadn't been thrown out. She just said it, direct and devoid of sympathy. Gave Dad and I our visitor badges and hurried us on.

( Panic set in as I led the way to Mr Kelly's art classroom... )

A bit of downtime while most of my stories hinge on people getting back to me.

Last night, I was up until 1am just drawing. I don't know if anyone remembers this but I mentioned a while back that I'd be designing a garden for Broad Oak Manor Nursing Home in St Helens. Well, the plan was that I'd have that design ready for today so I could meet Vicky in Cafe Nero during my lunch break and present it to her. I stayed up for hours sketching and inking and erasing and hating what I'd drawn but knowing that if I threw it away I'd only be taking steps back.

By the time I was too tired to go on, I had four pages of uncoloured drawings. At that point I thought 'sod it'; the caffeine failed to work its magic so I went to bed. I decided that a few notes here and there plus a verbal explanation of my intended colour scheme would make up for the unfinished drawings.

Fast-forward to today. I had two double-strength cups of tea in the morning and a further two normal ones in work. By lunch time I was trembling with caffeine; in some weird place between falling asleep and being wide awake. The time came to meet Vicky, so off I trotted to Cafe Nero with my sketchbook and its half-completed drawings. Ten past twelve - no sign of Vicky, so I ordered myself a large caffe mocha and a triple Belgian chocolate muffin, found a table and sat quietly, prepared to people-watch for the duration.

( Did anything happen...?! )

Okay, in total contrast to what I said in an earlier entry, I have not yet returned to my regular blogging schedule.

The reason is this: while I am very much enjoying my life right now, it's very much the same old stuff every week. Work from nine til five every day. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with Jason. Occasionally I spend the night at his. And when something different does happen, a-la-Wales Comic Con, I'm usually too tired from the normal routine to do any sort of write-up about it.

This needs to change. My journal, one of the things I'm most fond of; the longest piece of writing I've ever done and indeed the longest project I remain held to, is suffering. My novels and artwork, too. On three days of the week, I'm busy from nine in the morning until almost midnight.

So how should I remedy this problem? Quit my job and miss out on those two more months of experience I could glean from it? I wouldn't just lose that - I'd most likely be sanctioned by the Job Centre and that would mean farewell income for the next few months. Do I stop spending as much time with Jason? To do so would break my heart - and with me going to Ireland in a few months, every moment I get with him is more precious than my life.

No. What I need to start doing is start making productive use of my dead time. There are bus rides and moments in work where I find myself thumb-twiddling. Lunch hours where I could escape the office for a bit, find a bench and scribble. I can even dedicate an hour or two when I get back from being with Jason. And this is all without weekends entering the equation.

Ideally, I'd like to dedicate three hours to my novel every day. But I can sink as low as two for now, until I'm in Ireland and I won't be able to spend as much time with Jason. I think I'll need the novel more when I'm over there, anyway, as distraction from how much I'll be missing him and everyone else.

So here I am, and journalling. What can I waffle about?

I've finally plucked up the courage to ask Dad if Jason can come over next Sunday. It's Holly's annual charity walk and he's coming along for that anyway, so I thought it might be nice if he could come back here afterwards.

( The problem? Our house is a tip. )

I forgot the council were coming to rewire all the houses in this area. To be honest, I'd rather hoped that they'd forgotten, too. Alas, we got a letter today - they'll be invading our homes starting Wednesday, drawing up plans to absolutely ruin our decor.

Surprisingly, it's not the looming repainting job I'm worried about. I have, after all, recently discovered that I rather like painting and decorating. It's the fact that I now have to tidy my room.

"But," you might protest, "we thought that since moving house you'd turned over a new leaf! Your room was supposed to be the pinnacle of tidiness, was it not?"

Not so much. In recent weeks I've yet again been spending more room downstairs at my computer, where it's easy to do a bit of research here and there, or have five minutes on Twitter to let my brain recover from whatever project's currently occupying me. Plus I have more desk space down here. Consequently, my room's fallen into a sort of disrepair. I use it for sleeping and getting dressed; that's about it. The desk's full of stuff I've just dumped there and there are clothes all over the floor.

I find a room like that utterly unusable for anything other than sleeping. So, rewiring survey or not, I think it's about time I tidied the place up.

Anyway, creative pursuits have been coming along well. I've started work on a ridiculously complicated cover for my novel; a kind of art nouveau, 1960's concert poster affair. I thought it would be fitting, considering what my novel's about and when it's set. So far I've drawn out an elaborate border, a couch with a hand sticking out of it, a postbox in a field of gigantic mushrooms and some circular psychedelic designs. Because I fail utterly at drawing cars, I've employed Ashley, who's fantastic, to draw the 1984 Volvo 340 for me. It's flying, leaving a trail of swirly colours behind it.

Now I just need to think of a good way to stick all these images together. I've drawn them all separately so I can scan them in (if my Dad ever replaces his now useless scanner) and compose the cover digitally.

Today, I shall confess, has been uneventful. I wrote a few church fillers, an entertainment story and that was about it, really. I've got one story left to finish on a fundraising event for a lymphoma patient that can only be completed once I actually manage to get the organiser at his phone.

Anyway, while the electric's nearly gone (we've had a superbly thrifty weekend to the point where I'm not even allowed to breathe in the living room's heat) I'll have to log off. I'll write something a little more meaningful tomorrow!