What's Up Wednesday (7)

Woah, I can't believe another week has passed already. We're racing through March, I can't believe it. Welcome to another edition of What's Up Wednesday, the weekly meme hosted by Jaime and Erin.

WHAT I'M READING

Read Lobsters this week, which was fantastic. About to start Neil Gaiman's Trigger Warning, although I have a desire to start rereading all the summery books I can, as spring is in the air and it makes me feel like rereading all those light and wonderful summer stories!
  
WHAT I'M WRITING (+ A WRITING GOAL)

STILL EDITING. Although, I actually managed to sort the ending out for my YA story this week, so am pleased with that. Plus, am making good progress with my new story, so am pleased about that.

Goal: continue editing, address comments, sort out character development. Plus, keep writing new story.


WHAT WORKS FOR ME

Getting my head down and focusing! As well as just focusing on one thing at a time. It's nice to have a couple of different things to work on, but also have the focus to really concentrate on one.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW  

There were lots of announcements this week - from YALC (soooooooooo excited, who else is going?) to the sad news of Terry Pratchett's death, so in many respects its been a strange week. I am still so very sad about Terry's death. He was such a wonderful writer and man and the world will miss him greatly. I'm going to have to go back and reread some of his books - as well as crack on with some of the ones I haven't read yet.

It feels like spring is here to stay though - was a gorgeous day yesterday, and I'm looking forward to more days sat outside and walking around barefoot - as well as the bluebells!

Merry Christmas and end of the year roundup! (p.1)

Wow. I can't believe it's under a week until Christmas day. I don't know where this month - and this year has gone. I've been rather absent from this blog in the last few weeks, and I apologise for that. I didn't mean for this to be my first post of December, but for various reasons I haven't felt like blogging, and I've been rather under the weather. But I'm feeling a lot better now and looking forward to Christmas!

Recently, I was wondering what have I actually achieved this year? (Yes, I've been feeling rather down). But, looking back at this blog and some of my writing projects, I realised that actually, yes, I have been rather productive, and on the whole had a good year. Sure, there have been really sucky things, but on the whole, it hasn't been a disaster!

First off, this blog - I've kept it up to date, and been able to get into a semi-good routine (that's slipped recently, oops!).  Among other things,

I've written about NaNo,
YALC, which took place in the summer and was amazing,
returning home to live in the countryside again,
a magical year with MuggleNet,
another trip to the Harry Potter studios,
A YA masterclass with Sarah Crossan and Julia Churchill,
Fowey,
and my beloved cat, Posie.

While I wasn't so good at blogging regularly at the beginning of the year, I've certainly got more into a routine this second half of the year - writing about countryside things and things to be grateful for! It's safe to say that it's certainly been a year full of twists and turns. It's funny isn't it, looking back on the year, and seeing what has and hasn't been achieved, unexpected things that have happened, and more. I suppose I have achieved more than I thought, and it's not all bad things.

Writing wise, I have revised Treading Water a couple of times, and got it up to a good standard. I've had good feedback on the story too. I've completed two full length first drafts (and a shorter one), and started at least two other things that I have since abandoned. I've written several short things and done lots of things for MuggleNet - plus I completed my MA.

And now, to celebrate Christmas and all that it brings. To eat lots of yummy food, spend time with people I love, do festive things, sing carols and catch up with friends.

I hope everyone reading this has a really wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year. Merry Christmas to you all - and thanks for reading over this past year!

One last post to come this year - what I'm looking forward to next year.

YALC Recap!

This weekend saw the inaugural YALC (Young Adult Literature Convention) take place as part of the larger LFCC (London Film and Comic Con). This was the first time that anything like this had taken place in the UK, so I and so many other people were unsurprisingly very excited! There have already been lots of recaps, but I thought I'd do my own anyway, with a few pictures.

The weekend itself was absolutely manic and so crazy, as the con was part of the larger LFCC. This meant that there were huge queues to get in, and inside, lots and lots of people, a noisy and very, very hot hall. Luckily the Book Zone was at the back of the hall, and things were a little quieter there! It was also very exhausting, with lots of queueing, standing about etc, and I was out late both nights seeing other friends - I managed to make it through the weekend, and collapsed in exhaustion when I got home Monday!

There was so much going on each day though, it was hard to know what to do - there were panels, workshops, and signings - lots of which clashed, and so lots of choices had to be made! The panels and signings I went to though were really great. The whole event was really awesome and there were so many awesome people there, all full of enthusiasm for YA, which was INCREDIBLE. I hope this do this again, it was the best.

While I was there, I was also able to meet lots of wonderful people, including my awesome CP Laura (and we got to hang out lots! Yay!), Cole, Emma, Catherine, as well as a fellow MuggleNet writer, Toni! I also got to hang out with one of my school friends, Katie, which was great. It was also wonderful to say hello to the lovely Liz Kessler who I met at the Fowey Festival!

This was the Book Zone, with an awesome wall of books, as well as a table of free goodies!

 

 

 Lots of publishers, as well as Waterstones, had stands and they were selling books (something I took advantage of, of course! Although I did get home and think, I thought I got more than this... maybe I should have...). Hot Key Books were there (and I love them, they were so friendly and great). They were giving out We Were Liars samplers (which I've already read) as well as awesome hand stamps with quotes from the books, as well as posters and tote bags!

As well as managing to get a couple of free books (!) I also picked up plenty of bookmarks, posters, badges, and posters!

"be a little kinder than you have to"

Onto the events themselves - on Saturday, I attended two panels: "It's the end of the world as we know it: the ongoing appeal of dystopia" with Malorie Blackman (!!!!!), Patrick Ness, Sarah Crossan, and James Smythe. This was really great, and everyone on the panel made really interesting points about dystopia and were so funny and great. I also attended "Superfans Unite!" with Rainbow Rowell (!!!), Lucy Saxon, Andy Robb, and Tim O'Rouke. This was another great panel, with lots of Harry Potter chat (yay!). 

Sunday, I attended "How get published" with Phil Earle, Sally Green, and Ben Horslen. I also went to "Crossover: not just for kids" with Matt Haig, Anthony McGowan, Nick Lake, Meg Rosoff, and David Maybury. It was a really thought provoking panel - and at times rather controversial (in a good way!). Lastly, I went to "Sisters doing it for themselves" with Tany Byrne, Isobel Harrop, Julie Mayhew, Holly Smale, and Sarra Manning. Another really good, and brilliant panel that made me think a lot!

There were other panels and workshops that I was interested in both days, but I ended up doing lots of queueing for signings and stuff, and it didn't work out. It's always hard to know at these things what to focus on.

I managed to get lots of books signed - as well as buy lots. Here's some pictures (all the authors were LOVELY so it would be boring if I wrote that as a caption for each one!):

MALORIE BLACKMAN!!

Natasha Ngan!

excited to read this!

picked this up from Hot Key as well!

Can't wait to read this one too!

I was SO excited to get this!

Rainbow!

Holly Smale!

picked up this short story!

excited to snaffle a free copy of this!

 Phew! That's a lot of pictures! All the authors I met were SO SO SO lovely and keen to have a chat, and were all so friendly, I loved them all. I've got lots of reading to do!

Let's hope this happens again - it was awesome.

Writing, Dissertation, and YALC!

It's been a while since I've updated anything writing wise on this blog. I had a couple of exciting things happen quite recently though (I hate writing about this, so I apologise. It's just kinda exciting).

The first was that one of my short stories, a YA story called 'If I Remember' was a runner up in a competition. I was delighted about that - especially as it was a YA story, and I want to go back and do more work on that sometime.

The next was that I have been shortlisted for another IdeasTap competition, this time one that is in association with the Norwich Writer's Centre. Being shortlisted means that I get to attend an exciting day long writing workshop in July. More here.

Otherwise, things are plodding on as usual.

I'm still writing for MuggleNet, something that I absolutely adore and it's so much fun. One of the best things that has happened to me -  in fact I can't believe that I've only been writing for them since last November. It feels like much longer than that. It's the best team to work for, and everyone's so lovely and of course getting to write about Harry Potter... it's a no brainer! Actually, internships are currently open if you're interested in writing for the site. Check them out here.

I just finished the first draft of a story I started back in April. I was delighted to finish, although I dragged out writing the last few chapters. I don't think that I was looking forward to actually leaving the world yet. But there's still lots of work to do - I wrote it by hand, so I've got to type it up (sort of a first edit really, and a great way to see where there are plot holes etc. I really like working that way. And you feel like you get to know the story again, in a different way).

I'm also still working on Treading Water, more edits, trying to get it as good as possible! This summer I'll mostly be working on my dissertation however, which is due in at the end of August. I'm nearly at the end of my course though, hurrah!

In other book-y news, there are so many AWESOME books out this summer that I can't wait to read. I think my most anticipated book is Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins, although I was super excited about The Silkworm coming out. Anything J.K. writes is golden.

And in a couple of weeks, it's YALC - the first YA con in the UK. I can't wait! It's going to be fantastic, with so many amazing authors there, as well as lots of lovely friends. I can't wait! Who's going? Maybe I'll see you there!