Blogspiration (9): Endlessness

Blogspiration is a Brand Spankin' New weekly meme hosted by both GrowingUp YA and Saz101. The meme was created to help spark inspiration among bloggers, readers and writers alike. An inspirational quote/picture/video is posted weekly, on the day of the author's choosing, so that it may inspire creativity, conversation and just a little SOMETHING.

Check out these gal's awesomeness:

http://saz101.blogspot.com.au/
http://growingupya.blogspot.com/

I'm getting this post in before my weekend off comes to an end. Quite a small blogspiration this week, but when I was considering what I could possibly post, I realised I was looking right at it.

As corny as it might sound, whenever I'm driving to or from work, whenever I've been cooped up all day and just don't feel like I'm coping, I look at the sky. It just relaxes me instantly. There's something intimidating and humbling about it that just puts things into perspective. I hardly ever take time to just stop and look so when I do, it's a nice feeling.

What about you? Do you have something that helps you take a step back and just be humbled by its presence?

Three months and still kicking!

You guys! I just realised what today is (a little slow of me, I know).

Black Friday. As in, Friday the 13th. Which makes it EXACTLY three months since I started my humble, little blog.

Black Fridays don't come around very often, but when they do, they're always pretty good to me. That's kind of why I started my blog on a Black Friday in the first place.

So, for this mini-milestone, I'm going to open up a question to you all that I've been stewing over for the last week. It's been uni holidays so I've actually been thinking about my writing. And that's allowed, okay.

I've just finished rewriting my first book (again) and now I need to give it some time to before I edit and write the dreaded query. Once I finally start querying again, I'll keep an updated tally just for shiz and giggles but until then, I'm left with the question;

What do I write?


There's four stories I have vying for my attention, and each of the characters and plot lines are at varying stages of development so below, I'll give you guys a brief overview of what I have. These are all young adult novels FYI, cos I'm kind of addicted to that shiz.

First is Addy. She's an Ellerwoman that works for the Court of Last Chances. It's her job to hunt down the humans the Court wants and deliver them safely. Most humans think the Court is a Utopia so she's never had a problem getting them there before. But then she meets Noah, who refuses, and the Court makes her choose between her life or his. This one would be an urban fantasy.

Second is Corvette. This one would be completing a rewrite that is long overdue. Corvette is a Banshee who finds out how to get into 'Death'. She hangs with the deathlings there, believing it is safer than being around humans. Then, a bunch of deathlings die and even though she's warned away from looking into it, she doesn't stop. So they take both the guy she likes and her best friend, and Corvette is left to chose which one she is going to save. This is paranormal/fantasy.

Third is Ebony. She's a witch. Jonathan is a Nephilim. The Nephilim (if you've read any of their history) believe the only way they can die and move on to heaven is to rid the world of witch's black magic. Ebony and Jonathan have been in love through the years but each time they meet, Jonathan makes her erase his memory of her. As you'd assume there's a lot of hunting both sides and fighting each other in this one. I'd say this would be paranormal. Probably.

And fourth is my newest idea. Jasmine and Jeremy are high school sweethearts but one day Jeremy disappears. No one hears from him except Jasmine. He shows up at her house whenever she's alone and every time she tries to follow him he disappears. The memory of the last time she saw him is woven throughout as she struggles to remember. There's lots of red herrings and mystery in this one. This would be my try at a thriller/mystery type of thing.

So what do you all think? Any of these ideas sound like something you've already read? Any of them grab your attention? Or are any of them just plain boring?

Please tell me even if you just hate the ideas because that will steer me off towards one of the hundreds of ideas floating around unestablished.

And happy Black Friday!

JK's casualty

When I woke up this morning, I had a lovely surprise message. JK Rowling's book had a title! And a release date for September THIS YEAR!

Hazzar!

Happy Days!

Then I stumbled upon the synopsis...

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

Right. So.

I'm going to say it, this sounds boring. However it is definitely worth remembering that JK didn't set out to write another HP book and I'm glad it's something so different. I'm not glad it's about local politics and a potential murder mystery but that's just me.

Personally, I'll read this book to the end because JK really is just that great a writer. She could make anything amazing and believable and I'm seriously hoping this is no exception.

Would I have liked another fantasy? Hell to the yeah. But I guess she's defining herself elsewhere and I'm just going to have to roll with it. 

Scribble 'The Casual Vacancy' into September 27th kids! Way sooner than anyone could have hoped for I think.

But tell me, what do you guys think of the title and synopsis? And when it was released that JK was writing an adult novel, were you all picturing this?

Work/Very-Little-Life Balance

From what I assume, this is something every writer struggles with; I sure as hell do. It’s hard enough holding a full-time job and keeping up with your mates but when you throw writing a book on top of that – let alone uni – crap gets complicated.

And that’s the predicament I’m in.

Currently, I am fiercely battling two rivals over the control of a kingdom, ahem, store. This means a minimum of ten-hour shifts and extreme CONSTANT VIGILANCE. My diet consists of inhaled coffee and whatever is within reaching distance and fits into my mouth in a single bite. I have also been given a task to complete outside of work that I have no idea how to start and my boss’s instructions are, ‘I’m not sure what I want, but I need you to do it’. Yeah… thanks.

I have a month and a half until I start uni part time, which is going to halve my free time at the very least. By then I will hopefully be running my own store, which will have my stress to the maximum already.

I have Jenna to write and edit, her query to attempt (and attempt, and attempt), and then I need to research any and all literary agents that might, on the off chance, potentially consider her story. Maybe.

I have a wedding to plan. My thirteen months has shrunk to ten and I’m freaking just a little bit. The full-steam-ahead attitude has slowly trickled away to nothing but a bunch of dreams that are scaring the procrastination out of me.

So because I don’t have enough to do I am writing this blog. I am nothing, if not a queen, of prioritizing. I just happen to place a higher importance on the things I shouldn’t.


I think I have reached a pretty significant time of change. I seriously need to work out this whole ‘time management’ thing that everyone keeps telling me about. But sticking to a plan, for me, is way too constrictive. And there’s also the whole needing time to make a plan thing that seems to defeat the purpose.

My organisational skills are lacking, my room looks like the slums of a dystopian novel, I haven’t washed my brand new car since I bought it and my eyes feel like cotton balls from severe sleep deprivation. And all this is going to get worse?

Currently I have a 2012 calendar on the door to my room so it’s staring me in the fricken face. I have set deadlines for the things I want to achieve and certain benchmarks I need to get to. I have, not so much resolutions as goals, that I’m aiming for this year but I’m one of those people that demands perfection in everything I do. I know I need to let up the reins a little and take that tight band out of my goddamn hair but it’s really friggen hard. And the days I don’t write, I feel like my brain is going to implode.

So I ask you, for the sake of my sanity, how do you do it? What techniques have you found that work/don’t work? What outside factors are you up against?

Help me. Please. Because although I like reading about fantasy characters, I’m not interested in becoming a zombie. There’s just something about the whole ‘rotting skin’ thing that doesn’t do it for me…