New year, new words... I hope. (Can it really be February already?) I'm in that weird place I haven't been very often in my creative writing career -- between novels. And it shows, because I don't quite know what to do with myself. The "completed" novel has been with readers for feedback for the past... Continue Reading →
Journal: Nail art and NaNo
I have always liked colour and fun. I wear bright colours. I have purple streaks in my hair. And now I have little flashes of colour on my fingernails as well. The craze that seems to be sweeping through my social circles is Jamberry nail stickers. Look: Those are my fingernails! I confess this post... Continue Reading →
Journal: shaking in my boots
I finally sent the novel I’ve been working on to some writing friends for feedback. Huzzah! Now I’m shaking in my snazzy red boots. It’s amazing how my mind flipped after clicking ‘send’. Before hitting ’send’, I was pretty happy with the general shape of the draft. I’ve been dying for someone to read it... Continue Reading →
Journal: The quest for temperance and other things
I bet you're all wondering how I'm going with getting stuff done? I mean, it's been over a month since my last post (sorry), so obviously I've been far too busy kicking goals. Right? Er, no. Not really... Well, actually, yes, I have kicked at least one goal. I have, for instance, revised almost half... Continue Reading →
Journal ~ Festivities, finishing and The Force Awakens
Festivities Almost 20 years ago, I made a Christmas Advent calendar. I spent hours on the decoration, which is created from cut-up pieces of coloured paper, and it came out better than I ever imagined. Behind each door is a compartment for little daily surprises in the lead-up to Christmas. For the past decade or... Continue Reading →
Journal ~ update on words, song, Mockingjay
I'm in the middle of a nice little creative phase at present. The dayjob work levels went from one extreme to the other, and the latter half of November has presented lots of lovely time for me to catch my breath. And lots of lovely time to work on finishing the second draft of this... Continue Reading →
Let’s bring back the interrobang
Ever since I discovered the existence, some years ago, of the punctuation mark known as the interrobang, I've been intensely captivated. It's basically a hybrid question and exclamation mark. I think it would be very useful for writing dialogue; but, after being invented in the 1960s, it has (alas) fallen out of favour. More info... Continue Reading →
Journal ~ Spitting out sand
It's been a while since I've posted. Three and half weeks. The longer it went on, the more apathetic I became. Did anyone notice, I wonder? Instead, I have been reading. It's much easier than writing blog posts at the end of a brain-intensive working day, don't you know? As is my wont, I got... Continue Reading →
Journal ~ Update on words, Spring, bad habits
Words... Despite my indecision a month ago, I've managed to get back into a good creative routine. The second half of July was work-frenzied as predicted, but August has been a delight. Lots of cafe writing sessions and I've started the run to the end of this novel. So I feel as though I'm getting... Continue Reading →