Happy Tenth Birthday Boys

Ten years - where have they gone? I honestly can't believe that Mcfly are now celebrating ten years of having been a band - that just seems insane. Ten years of this crazy road and we're all still here, still around and still going. Amazing. And my boys mean just as much to me as they did back then, and even more probably. Amazing to be able to celebrate ten years with them, and wonderful other people, at the Royal Albert Hall (!!)  and to be still be here with them all.

It makes me feel so proud and emotional and escatically happy to be a part of all of this, and to have been a part of it over the last ten years. Amazing really. My Mcfly boys have probably been one of hte few constants in my life when lots of other things have changed, and they've always been a huge comfort and support to have around, when other things have been changing.

When they launched their supercity and that stage of their career, I posted a blog post on another blog (I've been through several over the years), reflecting on how much they mean to me. Even though I wrote then that they would be around forever, and that they would always be around, I never really thought this far ahead - never thought ahead to their tenth anniversary and that they might celebrate it like this. And we've all been through a lot.

You know what, I think they will be around forever - in whatever way. They will be. They'll always be there and they'll always be a huge part of my life. I will never stop being a fan, even if I'm not that crazy obsessed fan anyway (probably a good thing anyway, that was exhausting!). 

All of this too, has made me think back over the last ten years, and everything I've done because of them - all the friends I've made, all the fics and things I've written, all the things I've done that I wouldn't have done otherwise. It's been awesome. The best. And I've met peope who have been SO important to me over the years. They're the best people. All of them. I've been so lucky.

And I've been so lucky to have Mcfly. They changed my world, and no matter how many times I say it, I can never express quite how thankful I am to them and their music and everything they've done. <3

Now, this is getting a bit soppy so I'm going to end it here - Happy Birthday Boys, you deserve it! <3

'Another year over and we're still together. It's not always easy, but Mcfly's here forever'  

The Heart Never Lies

Reading YA and Editing

This past week (or is two now?! it's crazy!), as I've been fangirling and squealing over John Green and riding high on a cloud of love and happiness, I started to think about how I came to openly love reading YA novels and not be ashamed. Because there is this thing around them. That they're for teenagers and they're a lower sort of literature and not as good, and all this RUBBISH that is perpetuated. I know this has been blogged about countless times, but I just felt like I wanted to add to it.

And yes, there have been times when I've felt embarrassed to be out and about reading some because of their awful cheesy titles and I just want to scream it's really well written! Leave me be!

Somehow with John Green it's okay.

I've been rereading them all, and carrying them around, and as I sit reading, hoped many a time that someone would come over and say 'Hey I love John Green', or 'DFTBA'. 

But I don't care so much anymore about what people think when they see me reading any sort of YA. Because I know it's good. I love it, and why should I be embarrassed about what I know is good and what I enjoy reading?

So thank you John Green, for reminding me that YA is cool.

And there's my brief thoughts on that.

A quick writing update; I am editing again. I think I mentioned before that my wonderful CP, Laura gave me amazing feedback on my story and so I have been obsessively editing it. It has been great to be able to see it with a fresh perspective. I was so stuck in the thought that 'meh, it'll do', that I just couldn't be bothered. Now somehow I have a whole new energy for it, and have been excitedly editing. Yes, I am actually ENJOYING editing. I did one edit through, with Laura's suggestions and my own careful rereading of it all, and now I am going through it again, reading it out loud, which is SO painful but so worth it. It's mad how many silly things you pick up on once you start reading it out. I always put it off because of the sore throat that happens, but it's so worth it. So I'm working through it like that at the minute, obsessively making sure every sentence reads well. Phew. I needed to do this. I'm delighted (at the minute) with how things are going. Yay!

Writing weekly exercises for class too, which is challenging, because developing a new story and characters in a few days is difficult. This week I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone, and have written a 29 year old male character as the MC for the exercise. And I actually like it. What a crazy world!

In other news, things are busy at the minute, this term is always crazy, but this year there are added things (my own fault) but I like being busy. And it makes me more organised!

Family are down this weekend to celebrate my birthday early (as it's half term) so I better go get ready!

TFIOS Live!

This weekend I went to London. I stayed with one of my best friends, and we had a great time, visiting Borough Market and walking all over London, somehow seeing all the main sights without intending to!

The main thing that prompted the trip however was John Green's The Fault in Our Stars UK tour, or '#TFIOSlive'. We were going to the first show, at 12, so we got there a little early, and headed into Cadogen Hall. I'm not going to go into details of the show here and all the lovely people we were chatting to, but the whole atmosphere was just incredible. Everyone was so friendly. And I met the wonderful and lovely Laura, who gave me lots of critiquing comments -which was amazing!

IT WAS AMAZING.

The whole thing.

I'm trying to contain myself here, because I've been fangirling so much the last few days. Oh my goodness, it was so awesome. John talked about TFIOS, and Hank played some songs, and they answered questions and they were just THERE. Really on stage. These amazing people I watch online, read John's books, and there they just are.

And then after they did a signing. The ticket had included an already signed paperback copy of TFIOS and we were warned the signing would take a while, but quite a few people left, and it was one of those opportunities I felt you couldn't really pass up.

I MET JOHN AND HANK GREEN. 

Eeeeek. It was so nerve wracking, but so awesome. They signed my copy of Looking For Alaska and my notebook (which yesterday I just kept flipping open and grinning). And they were so friendly and lovely and just wow. Amazing day. Have I said that enough?

They just inspire me so much, and John makes me want to work even harder at my writing and just be the best writer I can be.

I was still on such a high yesterday <3 Although it already felt like such a long time ago. We went to a 'Fruni' lecture last night by one of our favourite professors, who I swear is an older John Green. So that was bizarre.

Anyway, I'm going to go start working on some edits. Excited!