» Publishers, Monetize your RSS feeds with FeedShow: More infos (Show/Hide Ads)
Just a bit of an update. There must be more to it than simply Not Blogging, but I’m totally in The Zone on the novel front. I expect to break 50,000 words in the next couple of days. It’s been tricky to stay motivated, because almost all of what I’m writing is too sketchy, clumsy, and abysmally poor to stay in anything resembling a final draft. But every day I’m learning something new about my characters, or adding a little something to the plot, so I’m hoping I’m doing something towards the end product. Sigh... Shouldn’t be grumbling really though – 50k words *huzzah!*
In case you missed it when I blogged about it a while ago, I should probably say that this isn’t the same novel that I was working on last year. I wrote a rough first draft for that and ended up shelving it. I do intend to return to it after I finish this one, but I got so low on momentum with it after all my Procrastination Issues, what with The Media/Society/Everyone Else/Modern Stuff and everything, and decided a fresh new project might be the thing. It is the thing. I think.
I’m not saying much about the plot because I think I talked all my excitement out of the last one - but it’s a revenge story and is kind of dark. Juicy stuff. I hope.
Obviously then, I have been spending a lot of time with bessie mate Microsoft Word lately and very little with anyone else. This is probably not good news for any social skills I may once have managed to build up. I did spend yesterday hanging out with several thousand other people though because I ran the Hastings Half Marathon. I finished in 2hrs 13secs, which I think is OK considering it was my first proper race, and the killer hills on that course. I mostly managed to do this without putting my foot in my mouth.
Mostly. No details supplied.
And next week I’m off on my holidays to Devon, which will be a lovely break. Lovely Easter holidays – I might actually get to see the boyf for the first time in ages. I have already eaten an Easter egg this year, so there. Hotel Chocolate sent me one like last year. I don’t want to make you hate me here, but it was reeeally nice. Even nicer than last year’s one. It was dark chocolate this time, which is my favourite kind. It was all thick and chunky and had yummy individual choccies inside.
I decided not to run the comp this year because of the blog being (mostly) on hiatus, but if you google it you’ll probably find other blogs running it where you can get a chance to win some Easter choco-goodness for yourself.
That’s about it really. A girl can only stand so much excitement after all. I hope you are well too. Stay in touch won’t you? Facebook me or something. Don’t expect me to play zombies, or vampires, or whatever with you on there though. I am an adult. And will be much too busy thinking about how cool superheros are or what it will be like when I become a rock star.
It’s about time I posted something isn’t it? The thing is, I haven’t felt like blogging much lately. This has been going on for a few months now, which is weird because I used to love writing posts and blogged nearly every day. I haven’t been reading other people’s blogs either. Sorry. I guess I’ve just lost interest in the whole thing.
So I guess this is goodbye. For a while at least. If the urge returns, which I suspect it will, I’ll be back. Here or somewhere new. Who knows?
For now though, please do have a squiz at the archives. Here are some of the posts I most enjoyed writing.
Graphic ProposalBaby Jesus is force-feeding me beanburgers
If you’ve been a regular visitor, I really can’t thank you enough. It’s been ace. I’ve loved writing on here and seeing the stats rise, it’s done wonders for my confidence in my writing. Perhaps that’s why I don’t feel like doing it anymore. Maybe I’ve got what I came for. I don’t know. But it’s been massive fun, so ta.
I hope you’ll stay in touch, feel free to email or Facebook me. I am still alive. Honest. In fact my life has been enhanced somewhat lately with the advent of sugar-free Wether's Originals. Oh yeah, and I'm actually making progress with the novel. It's about time really. I guess when it's finished, that's when I'll be back.
Promise to post more when I get back.
Julia
x
Lovely Tracy has sent me a shopping list. She found it in a Sainsbury’s shopping trolley in Northwich, Cheshire and, as you can see, it is a real gem.
Tracy's favourite bit is the 'Fries to go' and I like the 'Deodorant Alan - not Sure'.
Ahh. Life is good.
Thanks Tracy.
The fact is though, it’s just not happening for me this year. I only have 10,000 words, so I’m stepping down. Of course I’ll still keep the blogroll up to the end of November and I promise to try my best to feel happy for everyone who completes rather than sad for my rubbish quitting.
Anyway, mustn’t dwell on that kind of thing. I still rock. For example, I was interviewed by Writers News the other week, this is because I am so interesting and famous and ace. And also because I told them my novel would be finished this year and they were wondering where it is...
They needed a photo, so the boyf has snapped me with my sub-standard camera. I know a few of you have been gagging for a gander at my WAG-tastic hair extensions, so here you go.
As in all photos I look like a complete mental, but at least I look like a complete mental with glam hair in this pic.
*NEWSFLUSH*
I have just been informed by the boyf that this picture does not look like me. It looks, he said, more like Joan Rivers. I do not think this is a very flattering comment. If this ribbing continues I might have to remove it soon.
I’d just need a chat about a previous relationship and the lessons you learnt from it, nothing salacious or bitchy, just an overview - how you got together, what went wrong, and how you’ve moved on, that kind of thing. I need both partners’ perspectives, so I'd be speaking to your ex about it too. But interviews will take place separately and can be by phone, email, or in person if you live in or around London – whatever you prefer.
Apparently the ex-couples who take part usually find it quite therapeutic and interesting to hear what their ex has to say.
The paper is happy to plug interviewees’ websites, businesses, books, charities, etc. and they would probably want to photograph you for the article.
There are lots of examples of previous Ex-Files here.
You don’t have to contact your ex yourself if you don’t want to, just let me know their email address and I’ll get in touch and find out if they’d like to be interviewed.
Drop me an email if you fancy it.
It's a UK paper, so you'd at least need to have some kind of British connection.....OK call-out over. (Hope some interesting people get in touch!)
Would you mind giving this a mention for me on your own blog? I'd reeeally appreciate it.
My NaNoWriMo efforts so far this year have been quite rubbish and I am still only on just over 8000 words. This is very crap as the halfway point was yesterday and you're supposed to be on 25k by then. I can only hope to pull a couple of writing-marathons out of the bag and try to catch up that way. But I'm thinking I'll keep ploughing on, I'm writing much more than I normally do anyway, so shouldn't really grumble.
I do have two bits of good news though. The first is that I have been asked to write for the Observer Woman. How cool is that? Very. I'll tell you more about that in another post, because I'm going to put a call-out on here for interviews.
Also, and this is even cooler... The other night someone said that with my new hair I look like Rainbow Brite. I was quite moved. I do not believe I've ever received such an amazing compliment. Clearly I have achieved brilliance. In every sense of the word. I love Rainbow Brite.
You know how that Chanelle bird who was in Big Brother is kind of famous for trying to emulate Victoria Beckham? Almost like a cheapo version of her? Well maybe I could be that to Rainbow Brite. Sort of a Budget Brite.
...Or maybe I could just stop messing around get some work done for once.
I've finally started NaNoWriMo in earnest. I only have 3000 words, but I've got that NaNo feeling, like last year, so I feel like I'm finally in it. I have a lot of catching up to do, but I'm going to stay positive and do my best, you never know, I might just make it.
And the girl who did my hair extensions is going to replace all the bits that have fallen out, which is brilliant, because I have decided that I like them and they are not that much of a pain now I'm getting used to them.
It also looks like I might get paid soon for the first time in a couple of months, so Christmas might not be cancelled after all.
Cool, cool, cool. Anyway, best get back to the typing.
I haven’t posted for a while because I have been busy being in pain and eating and sleeping. I did my 20 mile run on Sunday and so I spent the last couple of days aching in the most unexpected places, stuffing myself with bread, potatoes, and sweeties, and dropping off to sleep.
I’m feeling a bit better today though and may even experiment with leaving the house later.
NaNoWriMo isn’t going very well so far, I’ve hardly written anything because I keep changing the start and I just can’t seem to get into a rhythm. It’s a shame because I was really looking forward to it. I’ll give it a few more days and see how I get on, but I’m afraid if I fall much further behind I might be lost cause.
These hair extensions are annoying me as well. The look lovely, but take ages to wash and dry and they keep falling out. Honestly, they’re all over the house and the vacuum doesn’t suck them up. Hmm. They were only supposed to be a bit of fun, but I’m not really enjoying them right now. So I might end up giving up on those too.
I wonder what else I may find to quit to this week? Being a quitter hopefully.
Please add the blogroll to your own blogs too, the code is:
Copy-paste:
tscript language="javascript" src="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?r=d1728f23405f6fc536ea16434082f2d1" type="text/javascript"/script
And then add all the.
Or, if you know how I can post the code without blogger showing it as the actual blogroll in the post, let me know and I'll make this less confusing!
It's Elderly-Gentleman-Who-Lives-Across-The-Road's birthday again!
How weird it is that I know this and yet we have never even spoken to each other. Actually, it's a bit like I'm stalking him or something. Maybe I am. It would be just my luck to end up being the stalker of some doddery old man instead of the kind of glamorous celebs you are supposed to stalk. I expect I am the laughing stock of all the other stalkers...
Anyway, I best get on with things because I didn't get to start my NaNoWriMo yesterday. I ended using the time I'd set aside for it going to get my hair extensions cut because they were all one length and, with my short real hair, I looked like I had a bad mullet. This was an excellent use of my time and if you think it was not then you are simply wrong. I love them now. Pic coming soon.
Good luck to all my fellow NaNo-ers!
But that is not the thing that I am most excited and nervous about... This afternoon I am getting hair extensions. There's not much point in me keeping it a secret after I made such a fuss about getting my hair cut short. Thanks to everyone who said they liked that style, but I'm afraid I've never felt comfortable with it.
I’ve always dreamt of long Rapunzel-like locks, but my hair seems to have something against my shoulders – before gets anywhere near them, it splits. So I've decided to go for it and get extensions. I am so a WAG.
I am also going to the dentist today, which is always fun.
I hope it is not a mistake to do this kind of thing on Halloween. Everyone gets really into the spirit of it nowadays don't they? Ooh, 'spirit' - how funny am I? Not very. But anyway, so I'm a bit worried that the dentist might shave my teeth into a scary pumpkin-mouth shape and that the hair-dresser will give me scary hair like Russel Brand.
If they don't I'll post pictures of my new do soon.
By the way, I've decided the Wednesday Pressie feature is a bit lame, so I'm scrapping it. The regular weekly blog content thing has been an interesting experiment so far. Some bits I'll probably keep long-term, although I don't know if I'll keep them weekly, and other bits I'll bin. Sorry there was no Tuesday Tea Party yesterday, I didn't have time to pretend to bake the cakes.
“Oh David’s going for the swordfish. You’ll eat anything won’t you David?”
And then he goes...
“When I went on a survival expedition we ate all kinds of things.”
“What, so would you even eat cats and dogs?”
Am I missing something? Surely cats and dogs are not in trouble as species are they?
I dunno, it’s a Monday mystery to Buckley. What say you?
Have a good week.
Jx
Aren't they gorge?
Tiggy is on the left and apparentely enjoys standing on his own foot and Spike does a mean impersonation of Batman.
Have you got a furry friend who might like to visit me next Thursday? If so, please drop me a line...
I have got into a bad habit. I usually have a cup of tea at about 10am and I have started watching the television while I drink it.
I can tell that watching TV at 10am is bad, and the Men-in-Black-Suits who control The Media do not want people to do it, by the programmes that are on at that time. Maybe that's part of the reason why I do it. My own little revolution - sticking it to The Man at 10am every morning over a nice cup of tea. Anyway...
It’s all kids’ shows with weird squeaking things running around that I actually find a bit creepy. Or, those tired house-buying programmes, which as about as helpful as those people who keeping going on about how much the value of their house has increased over the last five years (“ooh really? It’s gone up by 12 grand. Thanks for telling me that – do keep me posted”). Or, shows where people (who really should just agree to keep away from each other) come on stage and shout and cry while some haughty presenter tries to tell them to be nicer.
I have been watching the latter. I know, it’s really bad. Jeremy Kyle. The main thing I have noticed about this show is that, when the guests relay things that people have said to them, they always say that the person “turned around” before saying it.
It’s always “she turned around and called me a ferret chucker”, or “you turned around and told me to go suck a sausage”, or whatever.
Maybe if these people faced each other from time to time instead having to turn around and say stuff these misunderstandings might not happen and then they wouldn’t have to go on TV and get patronised by JK?
I really need to go back to listening to Radio 4. It wouldn’t happen on Woman’s Hour.
The tea my friend Rob's tea company makes. Go facebook them. Shameless plug there.
Yes, it was a bit. Perhaps some cake will shut you up. What kind would you like?
I’d like a scone please. I like to think that I am plain and simple, but sometimes I like to go crazy and put jam on top. (I’d like to clarify I don’t actually put jam on my head).
Actually, I do. I once had birthday cake made for me that had Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles on. I never touched it for years, it sat in my room for what seemed like an eternity, to a kid. One day I was hungry and nibbled on his icing legs and arms. I never really felt any ill effects.
Oh alright then, have another scone.... I say, if you could insert a tea party into any event in history what would it be? Possibly at the meeting that Mr Starbucks had when he decided to open up all these coffee shops. I’d offer tea and on side comment about how bad of an idea it would be and how it wouldn’t work. Anything to get rid of all the coffee shops and the coffee culture. (A pet hate of mine is I hate being stuck being someone in a cafe, while they take ages to get served a simple drink.)
While walking in the Knoydart Mountain area of Scotland a groups of us got a little lost. There was a lot of rain, many soaked walkers, a few tears, many requests to call for mountain rescue to save our asses, a couple of arguments and a race against a sun set. The run across the loch bed at the end to a small hut in the middle of nowhere, were we would be staying for the night, was a great moment. A cup of tea while taking off our very heavy boots and changing out of our soaking clothes would have been fantastic. (We made do with getting very drunk.)
What is the point of itching?
I can think of no time when scratching the thing that itches is good idea. It always makes the itching thing worse. So why do we have itching? I'm not saying we should have something like pain instead, pain is not very nice, but how about some other kind of sensation that says, "Hey, healing in progress - do not touch"?
Itching is a Monday Mystery to me. What say you?
I found this list while I was packing my shopping away at Tesco earlier this very week. It was crumpled and is faint, so click on it to see the full sized image.
My favourite item is the Shrek Toothbrush. I do like it when people are specific, so if you wouldn't mind doing likewise on your own shopping lists, just in case I find them, I'd appreciate it.
Also, Kinder Eggs. Cool. I am quite envious of this week's shopper. They are getting chocolate and a surprise and a toy as well (except that the toy and the surprise are presumably the same thing - unless I've been missing something). What more could any rational human being want out of life? Nothing.
her here.Isn't she a bonny little thing?
Aw.
She's actually very slim - just not too fashion savvy. As I'm sure all you ladies will know, horizontal stripes add pounds.
Feel free to nominate next Thursday's Furry Friend in comments.
