Tennis, Strawberries, Sunshine and Pimms!

Phew. Well I can't believe that I've been home for nearly a couple of weeks now! It's flown by, which is probably why I've only just realised I haven't blogged in a while. Which is why I'm sittting here now writing this, having just watched the Federer match on the BBC. What a tense one! I didn't really mind who won, but another upset this early on in Wimbledon would have been quite something! It's been a brilliant week already of tennis - the Wimbledon two weeks is one of my favourites of the year, and the only two weeks of the year I pay any attention to the sport pages of the newspaper! I even fill in the chart with who wins what match. Yes, I'm obsessed. Even more so this year - one of my friends is now living near Wimbledon and so I went up with another friend last weekend and we queued for the first day. It was an amazing day! I loved it so much. We didn't want to leave. We saw lots of great tennis, both live and on the big screen sitting on Henman Hill. It was great because we got to know a lot of players we wouldn't have known about otherwise and we now have many more favourites! It's a great atmosphere too, and as tennis is the one sport I enjoy playing too, I just really love it all. Of course we enjoyed a wonderful picnic, strawberries and pimms - and even amazing weather! I also downloaded the offical app for my new fancy phone which meant we were able to find out easily what was on when, get live scores and even little bios about all the players, which is fantastic when you don't know anything about the players you're watching and you want to - it really helps you to get into the match even more and understand perhaps who is meant to be the better player, and how experienced they are and all of that.

I didn't mean this post to be about tennis - sorry! I have also been enjoying the odd nice days of weather that we've had, reading and writing outside, and particuarly since finishing Camp NaNo (which I did successfully last Saturday, which was such a relief, glad to leave that story for now and focus on something else) I have tried to spend less time on the computer and outside where possible, reading, writing, swimming and playing tennis (oh I really adore the summer). I have been reading a lot as well which is great, really getting through stuff! Yay! I should be doing some editing, but yet again I'm pushing that aside in order to write a story I told myself I would write this summer. I wrote the first one of this series by hand, and so I am doing the same with the sequel because somehow it seems to work better this way for these particualar stories - odd that, but there is something so satifying abou toding it by hand, and particuarly in fountain pen, which I love writing with. I can see why Neil Gaiman writes his stories like this (I'm sure he's written stuff about this before), and particuarly in the summer it makes things so much easier! I have also been planning another series of stories which I unexpectedly have created pages and pages of white a4 sheets of notes... for me that is tonnes of brainstorming and planning, and I'm really excited to write this series, after some editing of course. These are both series aimed at younger children rather than YA fiction which I love to write - I'm going to say more on that later I think, as this has already become rather too long, and I jotted down some stuff I wanted to say and I need to dig that out....

Home Again.

I'm home now. I had a wonderful but very busy and emotional weekend. My room is covered in boxes, and I don't really have anywhere to put it all. The main problem is books. I have accumulated too many of them over the last three years and I don't think that they have ever been in the same place as all my other books! It's going to be fun to try to sort that out.

I also realised that in my rush on Thursday or Friday I put in the wrong number of words on my camp nano profile, which makes it look like I wrote so many more words that I did... whoops. And now the chart is stuck like that - it looks like I then lost all those words. Well..... whoops. That's kinda irritating!

I have to try to catch up again, although I think I'm still ahead, and while I was busy over the weekend, I managed to get some handwritten, so I'll begin by typing some up I think! And then time to get back on track.

Writing, End of Term, Home and Awards.

Writing has been going slowly. I have realised that there are certain parts that I obviously really dont' want to write, as they go really slowly, but I found a later bit I wanted to write earlier and I managed to hit 30,000 so that was good. I'm happy with that. Although it seems that I keep leaving it until late in the evneing, when I have so much other time I could have done it - instead I've messed around with blogs and stuff and well anyway, here we are.

I'm going home tomorrow. It feels very weird. The house is all packed up and it's strange that this is the last week, it has absolutely flown by! And today, typically, is an extraordinarily busy day, but I suppose that's a good thing - particuarly as my results come out today (ahh). Scary! I can't believe how quickly the last few weeks have gone. I don't think it's quite sunk in yet, and I'm glad I'm coming back or I think I would be distraught right now. But because I'm coming back if hasn't quite sunk it I don't think. It probably will when I'm on the way home tomorrow. It's going to be a busy weekend too, so that will probably stop me thinking about it too! Oh well. What with going home and stuff I don't know when my next post will be - my Camp Novel might also suffer too.

Also, I wanted to just say that Andrea and Laura have both given me awards, which I will blog about properly, sorry I haven't yet! But thank you :)

Anyway. I better try and do some writing before I go out today. 

Rainy Summer Days

It's been a busy weekend, without much writing. I knew it would be and so I was glad to have a good head start and have already hit 20,000. Still, the weekend has come and gone and it's time to get stuck in again.

I'm intrigued to see where my story is going to go now, and get on with it again.

It hasn't stopped raining nearly all day here... so much for summer. 

Anyway, better get going I suppose!

Camp Updates

Camp NaNo seems to be going well so far (famous last words....). It's strange though how the idea and story has changed so quickly within a couple of days. With, for example a slight change of cast. When I first conceived this plot idea, these two characters were not even in it. Now they're really important and central and the story seems to be going a completely different way to the way that I expected, which is also interesting.... I seemed to have been filled with an obsession for writing this story and I was scribbling away last night in my notebook, hit by sudden inspiration... only now I have to type it all up. Whoops. Oh well. Can't stop thinking about the characters, which has to be good. I'm writing this all out of order, which I never normally do, so it's interesting to see how this is going to work. I seem to be writing things that are going to happen later on, but I suppose if it's getting the words down, it's no bad thing. Better get on with some writing!

I also wanted to show you guys this, which you've probably already seen. Neil Gaiman posted this brilliant cartoon today, based on part of his brilliant and really inspiring speech at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, America. It is such a wonderful speech and if you haven't already watched I recommend that you do so! You won't regret it!

Camp NaNo and du Maurier season

So Camp NaNo starts today, which is very exciting. I am just sitting down to try and crack out some words, which will hopefully give me a good solid start. Looking forward to getting on with it now! And I finished an edit yesterday of my children's story, which made me happy. So I'll have a break from that while I do Camp NaNo. Yay!

I wanted to draw everyone's attention to the Daphne du Maurier season over at the Historical Tapestry blog. As you may know, du Maurier is my favourite, favourite author so this is really awesome. I got asked, through my du Maurier blog, to write a guest post for the season. I'm really excited about this, and the whole month should be good. If you are a fan of du Maurier, interested, merely curious, or even if you have never heard of her and her work, you should go check it out!

Anyway, better crack on with the writing!

Good luck everyone else taking part!

A couple of early morning thoughts.

I woke up extremely early this morning and thought YES time to get up and WRITE. 

I realised two things. 

I have strayed very much from my chapter plan. 

Getting up early can be productive. 

But that I shouldn’t gloat too much about the fact that having got up early there is so much potentional for productivity.

That doesn’t get much done. 

Make that four things. 

Nor will I get this draft done of this particular story before Camp NaNo. 

Okay five things. 

Why is it that I always lag around 30,000 words? I can’t conceivably see how I’m going to get to 50,000, but when I do NaNo it happens anyway. When I don’t do NaNo it just doesn’t happen. 

That was more than two thoughts and it's certainly not early morning anymore... oh well. Off to enjoy the sunshine!

Beach trip!

So I'm meant to be getting out at least 500 words before I join my friends for a day at the beach. Yet I'm here - this counts, right?!

Despite my best intentions I didn't get round to blogging this weekend. It has turned into beautiful weather, and this weekend was hectic. I suppose it's getting to that point in the term, when everyone has finished exams and wants to have fun. Yay! And as the weather gets nicer I feel worse for staying inside with my laptop and instead try to take myself off outside. Although as Camp NaNo approaches, I'm not sure how pratical this is going to be.... I'm sure I'll work it out. I'm hoping to get into a routine, where I get lots of writing done in the morning, so I can go off and do other stuff without feeling guilty for being there, because that happens so much, and it's not always fun. Guilt. It's not fun. Even though I know I don't have to do it, I want to and I need to and... well, I'm trying to work it out myself.

Anyway, I don't want to start rambling now about my guilt and my lack of blogging, becasue otherwise I'll always be apologising.

I'm going to go do some writing, and then enjoy the beach!!

So excited that it seems that summer is finally here.

I got myself another huge stack of books out yesterday from the library, including loads I've been meaning to read for ages, which is very exciting. Summer!

Drawing and Writing

Although I'm not very good at it, I like drawing. I started a few summers ago, just teaching myself and enjoyed drawing cartoony versions of, for example, the tenth doctor, Jack and Ianto (basically whateevr I was really into at the time). I got very praticed at drawing people in suits and ties... haha.

Anyway, I kept it up for a while, but then things got busy and I stopped. You know how things can work in phases sometimes? Over the last year or so anyway I've been busy, and making time for writing has sometimes been hard enough! I think also I associate it with the summer, so it becomes something I do whent he weather begins to get nicer... anyway. I know I'm not great and it's just a little hobby, but I've recently begun again. I can only draw for one thing people facing front, standing up, in a very cartoony way, but I enjoy it. It's fun. To get myself out of the rut of drawing the tenth doctor over and over (not that i mind.. really), I decided to set myself a little challenge. I decided to draw a Starkid a day. There's quite a lot of them so it could go on a while, which is good, and I've started by drawing each one in a few of their different character appearances each day. It's good fun, and allows me to draw the same person over and over, but in slightly different guises. It's good pratice too. So far so good - I've done that three days running. We'll see how it goes!

In other news, I've decided to do Camp NaNoWriMo, the June one, at least to begin with. I love NaNo as it just gets me writing so I'm looking forward to doing this. I decided to take an idea I had a while ago, vaguely started and then abandoned. I'm reworking the idea a bit and I'm looking forwad to seeing what happens there. It should be fun! It'll be good to get into some sort of writing routine before the summer, which will hopefully stick. Although I've got lots of projects I'm vaguely rewriting and editing at the moment, I do feel a bit lost, and so it will be good to just have something to get on with. I alwyas like that. It means I know what I'm going to be writing every day, and I like that. Bring it on!

I've also got a stack of books from the library I'm looking forward to reading. Yay!

Waiting to hear if I got on the masters course next year as well *fingers crossed*

It's weird, but although I'm trying to do lots of writing, and I'm doing drawing and lots od readfing, my stock reply, when people ask me what I'm doing now I've finished, is 'ah, not much really. but of reading and stuff'. Why can't I be more honest?! I'm not ashamed but I act like I am... I just don't want to explain it all I guess. Oh well. Dual lives and all that.

deadlines and freedom.

It's strange not having any academic deadlines coming up. I don't think I've adjusted yet to having no academic work to do, and having all this 'free' time ahead of me is very strange. It's always the way that when you have loads of other stuff you have to be doing, you dream of a time when you can have the free time to do what you want - in my case read loads of books, write, and drink lots of coffee. And I have been doing that. But once you're able to, the feeling is never quite the same.

Anyway, so that is what I've been doing. Lots of writing and reading, and catching up with freidns, and drinking coffee. And a wonderful new cafe from home opened down here this week, which made me very excited! While I don't have any academic deadlines coming up, as I mentioned, I still feel like I have loads to do. In a way I do, partly becasue I impose so many deadlines on myself and things to do - like, I must write this, or do that.... and I guess that's why I feel like I haven't really stopped yet. I have so many different things I want to do doing though, that I can't really settle to one... which is kinda annoying. So many projects I want to finish, ones I want to carry on, or start, and editing... eurgh. So I find myself darting from one to the other, not being quite happy with what I've doing. It's always going to be the way isn't it? And now I have all this time, I seem to waste so much doing.... I don't really know. I've got stuff done this morning - I made some research notes on something for one of my stories (very exciting, I don't often have something I need to research so much!) and so I'm feeling productive. This is one reason why I'm considering doing camp nano, nano always gets me writing loads without worrying, but then I have loads I should finish first.... hmmm. tricky. 

I suppose I just have to get into a new routine which I will, because without writing where would I be? I need it. And I got a huge stack of books out the library and its like, I can read these without feeling guilty. Oh yes!  Like I said, I'm still getting used to all this time ahead of me, and wondering how to make the most of it....

Right now, I'm waiting for the rain to stop a little so I can go out and get coffee as I've run out, and if I don't have any in the morning I won't be happy! Also a chance to go outside and clear my head is always welcome. Best thinking and idea time! And I'm rewatching lots of Starkid videos, which is great becasue I know the musicals so well, I can have them in the background and still be productive, because they tend to inspire me. Yay, go Starkid. Although the end of AVPS did make me really emotional. Oh well....

And tomorrow I'm off to see some friends in Bristol. Yay! It will be nice to go and do something a bit different as I always appreciate coming back so much! Anyway, just a quick hi for now.

Just by writing this blog has inspired me to go do creative things and be happy and write. Yay. Sorry for this ramble!

p.s. its a week since I handed everything in.... and it still hasn't sunk in?!