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I think that the end of NaNo is a little bit devious. It sort of hides itself in this idea of long hours in bed doing nothing and the idea that your novel will - if you so wish - be published in some form with no other amount of work from yourself. Sit back, relax, it's over and it's done. 

THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS, unfortunately.

Of course it's not. There's editing and formatting and more editing and then design work for the cover and then a whole lot of online forms to get even access to the proof. After that you get the joys of it arriving in the mail all bright and shinny and telling you it loves you because you created it!!, then you go through it with a fine tooth come because you want it to be just PERFECT, or as close to as possible. So the proof gets passed on to a friend or a colleague or a general waster with some time to kill (otherwise known as other students :P - kidding) and it comes back a big dog eared and with post it notes all over it where people have suggested changes. I can guarantee that people will tell you to change the same bit in at least four different ways before you're done. 

Well, when you're through with all that, and the new baby arrives in the post and you think yeah, this is it, this is as close as it gets, you put it forward for sale - is now time to chum up with your pillows and have a long, well deserved hibernate? Not quite my lovely,or at least not if you want to actually sell some of them. 

Here's the part where you post it all over Twitter, Facebook and blogs. You might ask your friends to cover it on similar channels just to spread to a larger base. If you've got a spare fifty quid in your pocket (first off, share, I'm a poor student) you can pay to get a few printed and send free copies to the local newspapers and pray someone gets the runs and that they take it into the bathroom with them. (Bathroom reading material can say a lot about a person). 

This here is the part where people are going to get sick of you, because for people to know about something, you have to tell them, and tell them a few times over. You need to email them links, plug it into their news feeds and throw business cards around like you're a flower girl sprinkling confetti. Your job now is to get your novel out of it's little corner of the massive online book store, because the chances of someone falling over it and picking it up are VERY VERY SLIM!

You're going to have to give it your time, maybe throw some money at it and you're definitely going to need to think. If you wrote a kids book, offer to go into a couple of schools and do a few free readings or something. Donate copies to your local library. Whatever you do just find your book a place in the world, because it's an inanimate object. It only moves when you move it, it only speaks when you turn the pages. You are the game master, you are in control. Put ass in gear and get this thing GOING. Whatever you do, don't just curl up into a ball and let your genius be forgotten - you wrote a novel for Christ's sake. 

So in the spirit of putting ass into gear, Yours, is going to be edited for the first time in the next few days. This makes me both really nervous and ridiculously excited. Also, the Kindle version of Fairies is available FREE tomorrow, so download it and have a click through it if you've got a spare few hours.

Anyway, since sleep is being evasive (one hour sleep in the last forty eight - healthy) again, I'm going to finish my mug of Sunshine Grey tea (Earl Grey with lemon, no milk) and get on editing. 

Charlie x 

:D

Momentarily Hilarious

You know those things which you read on Facebook that just crack you up or you suddenly feel very strongly about and you either join the group or hit the like button, why do we do that? 

Let's face it, all we get from these things is crap clogging up the Newsfeed and annoying notifications because someone with normally less than half a brain decided to comment upon it. It's REALLY annoying. 

And now, I find myself trying to deal with the amount of crap in my inbox, and half of it is Facebook. So I've changed my settings. No more notification emails. I don't read them, I don't want them, bye bye. 

But these groups and "liked" pages are still EVERYWHERE!! 


THIS IS WHAT I DO WHEN I CAN'T SLEEP! 

I rant and I delete people, or groups or liked pages from Facebook, because it is so mind numbingly dull that it might just send me to sleep. 

Hey Facebook, fancy making it easier and just give me a list and let me hit the DEL key? I would really appreciate it.

In a Palace That Only We Know,

The mind is a strange place. It is a palace to the arts and whatever we choose to think within it. It is the seat of our power as human beings, and it is a palace which only we can be familiar with the details of. 

Soooo, I know I haven't posted anything on here recently about how life is going, and that's because I have actually been pretty busy trying to sort my life out!!

As I posted in August, Fairies was finished and edited for the Kindle edition and was given a new ending which I think is the biggest improvement. There were a few minor changes with typos, missing words and the like, but it was almost there, so it only took a few hours to find the magic and get it to be where I wanted it to be.

Due to this edit, I made the decision to make the paperback unavailable until such time as I have a minute to be able to reformat the files and put the new edition into print. Sorry about this for all those who don't own a Kindle, but the exciting news is that once it is redone it will be on both Amazon.com and .co.uk as well as across the European sites. The great thing about that is that it won't be as expensive. Great news, right?

On to the next piece of awesomeness. The first time I wrote for NaNoWriMo, I got about half way through before life intervened. Nine months after starting the competition, the first novel I had ever completely found it's closing words. Pretty much a dramatic monologue of the life of a very unlucky teenage girl, Insanity Breaks had become my baby, my outlet and something I wasn't ready to share with the world.

I have said this before and will say it again, I am nothing like Grace. I'm not, but a lot of me went into that novel, and I'm proud to finally say that it's self published along side Fairies. It took a heck of an edit, which was pretty brutal to be honest, probably why I had been putting it off for so long, but yes, it's done.

NaNo 2012 brought about trials of it's own and although I never actually got the 10k day I wanted, I did manage quite a few dars banking 5/6/7k which meant that I pulled up to the finish line of 50k on the morning of 20/11/2012, a comfortable ten days and fourteen hours before the deadline. There were tears, tantrums and trauma as usual, a fantastical trip back to see my homepeople at NaNoManchester and plot twists a plenty that left me surprised with the main character Iris. I went from loving her to hating her to admiring her and loving her all over again several times a day. Yours, is probably something I will have to back burner for a while before editing, because there's a lot of mental taxation involved whenever you try and write something which jumps back and forward through time about as many times as a Delorian, so editing may be a bit of a pain in the butt cheeks.

So, what's next on the agenda?

Keep writing, of course. Keep writing, keep dreaming and keep believing that I can do this. I can find the words I want to write, my ideas can animate a page and I can keep focused, keep driven and maybe one day live the dream.

I posted that onto the writer page to update everyone on Facebook as to what I've been up to recently. I know a lot of you are probably well aware of the fact that I finished NaNoWriMo within 20 days this year, which was pretty impressive. Last night I sent the first draft of what I wrote to the one person I trust to assess the story line without looking into the formatting, the grammar and the wording -too much- which is pretty great. Still pretty friggin' scary though.

 

There are a few things I am going to get working on, but since nothing puts the 'prod' in 'productivity' for me like NaNoWriMo, progress will most probably be slow, but steady. I enjoy the chance to let my characters grow, to let scenes, ideas and situations develop within my mind until I can write about them with the kind of clarity which actually conveys the meaning I wanted to.

 

 

First off though, I need to sort my life out. 

 

Charlie x 

 

:D

New Software

I just downloaded one of the free photo editors available on the App Store, which jams photographs together. And so I have made a couple of photograph jams — Greece, Eeyore and then a couple of vain ones for the fun of it. They all have my Taizé necklace in them. I'm struggling to remember a time when I didn't wear it...
I have a new one now to join it. Courtesy of mum. It's beautiful.

Charlie x

:D

I Sometimes Get a Little Bit Worried

When I'm watching films, because somebody had to come up with the things that are in the film. The dialogue and the characters and the plots don't poof out of nowhere - well, they kind of do, but they need a someone, a sort of vehicle to creation if you will. 

I know the things that go on in my own head. I know the ideas which give me nightmares. I know the things I have written and the things I want to write, to an extent. When I sit down to write, I don't always know where I'm going, but it comes from somewhere, and although we need external stimuli to fuel us, a lot of it comes from within. How we process things, how we analyse them and where we find the links between two seemingly unconnected events. That's where it all comes from. 

What worries me is this: 

Films like Death Race - Jason Statham being Jason Statham to an actually amazing and very interesting plot - and Death Race 2 - someone who is not Jason Stratham, but remarkably like him, acting like Jason Statham in a very Jason Statham way to a pretty good and still reasonably interesting plot - quite frankly worry me, because not only did someone create the idea, but they also made it feel real. They made it feel like it could happen. 

*SPOILER ALERT*

Both of the films rely on the idea that the American economy and criminal justice system essentially collapse, leaving prisons at the mercy of business owners. Now, to make the system profitable, they begin to use the prisoners against each other, inciting violent action between these men - the certain prison in which it is set is home to pedophiles, rapists, murders and the like - and the aim is to kill as many of the others as possible. In a correctional facility, this seems a little squewed, especially when you find that the winner of the Death Race, or rather any man who manages to win five races, is given his freedom, this seems really silly. It's like kill a man to get in, kill several to get out. 

Anyway, the reason this makes money is because people watch it on TV, 50million people. Then they move it to the internet, charging hundreds of dollars for subscriptions and still millions watch it. 

I think, and I bloody hope, that this isn't going to happen. I understand that fake violence - wrestling, cage fighting and all that sort of thing - lacks a certain thrill, but this is primal. I take no joy in watching people beat the living day lights out of each other. Granted a good old car chase scene, I love, but when the cars get damaged, I get upset. I like cars. 

The thing is, there are some people in the world who do terrible things, but this? I wonder if it would just become like the weekly football match. You buy in because you need to be able to talk about it in the office. 

Charlie x

D:

Just Dropping in to Say Hi

I'm such a procrastinator. I know I'm only writing this because I'm a little POed about how slowly writing my latest essay is going. 

I get narky and irritable, and I get distracted. Right now I just WANT to do the cleaning and that only happens when I'm desperately bored or really hung over. I love philosophy, but the ethics of advertising isn't really my favourite thing in the world to be frank. 

I know it can be considered a hot issue, but I would rather be writing my novel. Probably because my novel is such a slut and I get further with it more quickly. Yes, I just said that. 

So rather than just get on with it and get it done, I'm having a good old gripe about it and thinking of all the other wonderful things I could be doing with my day.

Sorry it's a short one, but I really better had get on. 

I will leave you with a link to the video I'm currently listening to though. 

Beautiful Music

Charlie x 

:@

5am

In theory, 5am has no actual use on account of all normal people being asleep in that region of the morning, but alas, that is not currently the case for me. My sleeping pattern is now so screwed up that the only thing I can think to do to fix it is stay up until midnight tonight and then hopefully reset it in that way. 

Anyway, figuring that there has got to be some better use of my insomnia than eating potatoes and drinking Martini - I know, I'm odd - but not really being able to be bothered to type up any more of my novel - Hermes' down side is his lack of internal memory - I figured I ought to drop a few words in for all of you lovely people. 

I am going to need so much coffee to survive today...

Okay, so a certain circle of writers that I speak to have been doing this "ooh, tag me and we'll interview each other thing". Frankly, I considered myself to have far too much of a life, but since it proves not, I'm going to answer the questions which I find entertaining. - I may be answering your questions, but I'm disregarding your silly rules!!

1. what inspired you to become a writer ? 

There are so many bull ---- answers I could give to this, but to be honest, I don't actually know. It was one of these things that just kind of happened. When I was about 11, I had my first computer and I had always read a lot, so I started writing as well. I was encouraged a lot by my Year 6 teacher, but I don't think I would say he was particularly inspiring with it. I think I already had decided it was the direction I wanted to go in - when I was being a fire fighting, dolphin training ballerina singer actress that was. I had time on my hands back then, okay?

2. where do you get your ideas from, when you write your stories?

I would say that I get inspiration from everything around me, but what makes it work is the fact that I think about things in a particular odd little way that seems to work for me. It's really strange, because sometimes, I say things or I write things that really I think are particularly unadventurous pieces of drivel, and then someone tells me that actually, I've captured something perfectly and that click of understanding that you want just happens, although sometimes, the curtains are just blue and it's not a reflection on ------ all. 

3. in terms of your writing, where do you see yourself in five to ten years time? 

At one point, I would have said that Salinger tripping off into the woods had the right idea, but considering my answer to the last question, I should hope you can see a change of point of view there. Geographically, I hope I'm still in London. I like London, because it's a quirky, busy and ever changing city in a way that lots of other places aren't. I moved here a little over a year ago and I see differences from when I got here to now. I go back to other places and they're still the same sleepy little places. Hopefully in that time I will have managed to publish - and I don't mean self publish.

4. is writing a hobby of yours? that is to say, do you simply do it for fun? 

I'm certainly not in it for the money... I write because I want to write, I self publish because I want to share my thoughts and ideas - that's also the reason I blog. Writing for the cash is obvious. I really hope no one sees me in that way. 

5. is writing something you would like to be well known for? 

The instant answer in my head is no, because of people like the lady who wrote 50 Shades. She is well known and, quite frankly, I've read the series and it was all drivel. Why did I read it then? Something has to really make me lose the will to live for me to put it down. I can only think of one book in recent years that did that to me. I guess though, there are people like Robert Muchamore and John Green who are reasonably well known, and pretty awesome, so it's swings and roundabouts really. 

6. are any of your stories worthy of a sequel, or more?

The first thing to note here is that I used to SUCK at endings. I worked on it and got a lot better, but I don't like tying off all the lose ends in a big, neat and pretty pink ribbon. 

I want to write sequels to both the books I have self-published, but there is so much difference between an idea and a novel and sometimes, making the ideas you have work isn't possible, and it's a shame, because if you know you want to leave space for a sequel, you can pretty well set up for one and not say things that you wanted to say perhaps. What I like about all my novels is that they are actually becoming very interconnected. Characters, places, companies or ideas pop up in different novels and try to tie things into a web. I like that. 

7. are you working on anything at the moment? 

Of course. I have a few things at a few different stages though. I have my NaNoWriMo piece which is essentially the dramatic monologue of the life of a young woman, which is essentially then setting up for me writing a novel called Butterfly House. Like Fairies was my first little trip into fantasy, this will be my first proper trip into horror, but I'm still collecting my thoughts and consolidating my ideas with that one. Other than that there is - somewhere - a half sort of sequel to Insanity Breaks in the pipeline and an idea for a sequel to Fairies in its absolute infancy. 

Yes, there is always a lot going on in my head. 

8. what is your favourite part of writing (word building, dialogue, character progression, scene descriptions)?

I like to be heavy on the description. I can't help it. I notice little ridiculous things for no reason and I like to give that to my characters. I like building the characters and seeing how they interact, but I also like the part where I get to sit back and see how there is literally ME all over every page. You can't keep yourself off the page and there is no reason to try. Okay, it can feel invasive, but you are in control of whether people read your stuff or not, and let's face it, when you write fiction, people are always going to assume things about you because of what they read between the lines. 

9. what type of story do you prefer? (short stories, novellas, novels etc)

I prefer my novels. I have some ideas for some short stories, but there just isn't the opportunity to get as involved with the characters and I like how attached I become to them. Crying at the end of a novel lets me know I've created characters I can love and that feel real to me, and I want other people to feel that, too. Oh God. 

10. if you could be anywhere in the world but your home town, where would you choose to be?

Well, first off, I'm not from London, but I will include London, because it feels like home, even though it is not a town. I'm pretty fond of Niagra, Iceland and Florida, but it would be a fight between Manhattan and Fiskardo in Kefalonia. I don't know which would win. Probably Fiskardo. 

11. everyone has their own list of The Rules for good writing. what are yours? 

• Once again, I don't think it's right to even try to leave yourself off of the page.
• Description is a major key factor
• I don't care if the place exists, just make it feel real to me. 
• Characters need to be related to.
• Nothing is ever perfectly tidy

12. do you plan? if/when you do, do you always stick to it?

The most like planning I ever do is character files and then I never look at them while I'm writing. As I go along, I sometimes keep time lines, because I like to skip about in time - it's the way my head works - but no, I don't plan. I'm not very big on knowing where I'm going to, because that feels pretty boring. I even change the way I walk home so that it at least feels different. 

13. other than writing, what makes you tick?

There's a world outside of writing? 

Just kidding. There's this infant that I love to look after, who's the daughter of a friend of mine. Erm, I kind of enjoy the course I'm studying? I like the generic stuff like music and traveling and friends and blah blah blah yawn, but writing is one of the only things I get passionate and energetic over. And politics, but the less sad about that the better. 

14. if you were stranded on a desert island with food, water and shelter, what five items would you want with you? 

1. Puppy. - I have had this dog since I was seven and I'm nearly twenty. I don't care how sad that is. I don't really go away for an extended period of time without him, so yes, him. It. Whatever. 
2. A change of clothes - I'd want to at least wash what I was wearing and not have to run around nude. 
3. iPad - I can type on it pretty well and it's far more reliable than the Craptop, plus it does music. :)  

 I could be content with just that!!  

15. on said island, what five books would you like?

1. The Monsters of Gramercy Park by Danny Leigh is an ultimate favourite, so I would have to have that with me.
2. Sunshine by Robyn McKinley, because it's the best vampire book since the Anne Rice series. 
3. A Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I have already finished An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns, and Looking For Alaska is my current bed time story. That one is next on the list. 
4. A Thinkers Guide to God by Peter Vardy. I've read bits of it when it's relevant and it would keep my mind somewhere near Philosophy.
5. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - in case I run out of toilet paper... In all honesty, I know Dawkins is a fantastic scientist, but he needs to butt out of trying to be a philosopher, because you can't just paste over religions and call it indoctrination of children and essentially fairy stories. That really just winds me up. 

16. what do you find most rewarding about writing a book? 

Proving to myself that I can is a pretty special thing, I guess. Other than that, I just like that it brings out how I think about things or feel about things in a different way, or presents things to me in a different way, and then I get to take that back into my life.

I just found something called GoodReads...off to check that out and then maybe sleep before getting the train back to Manchester!! 

Continuing good luck to all of those facing NaNo this time around!! 

Charlie x 

:)  

NaNohMyGod

I feel like this has crept up on me, we'll and truly. I feel like November arrived when I wasn't looking and now I'm panicking.

This month I have about three essays to submit, I have social events to go to and I have a few other things that class as work, oh and yeah, I have to write a novel by midnight on the 30th...

Hang on. What?

I take part in this competition every year and have for a few years, and I already know how upset I get when I don't finish it, so it's not even worth contemplating that outcome. So yes, trudging towards 50k from the minute OLL say it's midnight.

Bring it on.

A Month of Sundays

For those who know very little about me or who have only just met me, you won't realise that I'm on the very borderline of crazy right now, because we're getting almost too close to November for me to contain my excitement. 

00:00 on the 1st November marks the start of NaNoWriMo and you have until 23:59 on the 30th November to write a 50,000+ word novel (50,000 words is the official length required for a piece of writing to be considered as a novel and not a short story or novella). I'm actually pretty terrified for this year, because I have a few uni deadlines around the same time, but I know that if I don't finish NaNo, I'll be kicking my own butt until at least Camp NaNo in the summer... 

In preparation for such a monumental event occurring, I've already had the pre-NaNo ills, done a little nesting and dusted off my typewriter - Hermes. There are notes and character profiles floating around in basically all of my notebooks and I'm wondering how easily I can get away with essentially becoming a recluse. Seriously, I'm looking at my calendar and trying to plot in all the days which I can spend in my bed with the Craptop just getting down to it and getting some work done!! 

On said subject, there are a multitude of ways to encourage yourself to work, such as the very effective (or so I have found) Write or Die - Putting the Prod in Productivity (I love that so much XD) and also the very cute and cuddly WrittenKitten. One forces you to work by either playing you horrible music or deleting your words slowly if you stop typing for too long and the other refreshes and shows you pretty photographs of cats each time you pass a goal of word count...

As a vegetarian, I'm meant to love the animals, all the animals. I'm meant to love them for ever and always,...but I don't. I mean, I like these cats, because they are on the screen and they can't slobber or malt on me and they can't scratch me and they can't knead my leg (that really goes through me) but still, some of the photos are just scary...

Anyhow, that's all I wanted to say really, so I will leave you with the suggestion of a song to listen to. Brett Dennen - Heaven. 

Charlie x

:D

Changing Part 2

The last time I had someone important stay at my place (if people are stuck, I let them crash with me, but obviously there is a difference between them and my significant people) we were both going through our old Facebook profile photos, and it struck me how much, even though I have definitely changed from the sixteen year old on a cruise that I was in that first display photo, I still look pretty similar.

I mean, that photo was taken following the first major haircut I ever had - as in, all of a sudden I had a side fringe, layers and a hell of a lot less hair. Except the prom cut of 2011, nothing has ever been so drastic ever since. 

Okay, so these days my hair is more red or ginger than light brown, I don't still own the t-shirt that I was wearing (although, I did only just throw it away, which is somewhat embarrassing) and these days I own a much better camera compared to that old piece of crud, but between all of them - there have been 47 which are actually photographs of me - I see very little difference, other than a change of hair colour and brief flirtations with looks of happiness, excitement and nonchalance. 

My music is something else which has never changed, too. It's true that now I have so much more to listen to, but I would say that it has developed more than changed on account of the fact that I still love to listen to all of the things I listened to back in those days. 

It's strange. Sometimes we seem to change so little, but then there is so much that's different. 

Changing or Discovering

I'm not going to get bogged down in the detail of whether or not we actually change as we grow, or if we just discover things about ourselves we didn't know, because I could probably write an essays worth on it and I really don't think I care enough about the difference to go doing something like that. What I want to talk about is the last few weeks and the things I've discovered/changed.

John Green
became one of my favourite authors recently. I don't think he's overtaken Sophie Kinsella, let alone Danny Leigh, but he is Epic. I've read paper Towns and An Abundance of Katherines and I loved them both, although Katherines was most definitely my favourite. I had sort of expected to have been reading more Tony Parsons over the summer, but Green's books actually differ in the storyline, so it keeps things interesting.

Celery 
is actually nice; raw or cooked, it's beautiful. Who fluffing knew, because I certainly didn't. I've also been eating peppers and onions, and I tried olive paté. Not really my thing, but I tried it. I'm getting all food-y; this is weird. 

Hermes
is making a comeback ladies and gentlemen. Hermes is my typewriter. After someone tried to stupidly call him Clicky I had to come up with a pretty awesome name for him, and since he's an Olympic typewriter, it made sense for him to be named after an Olympian deity. 

Tea
is an indisputable argument for the existence of a benevolent god. Sorry, but I'm being ridiculously serious. I have about six kinds of tea in my kitchen cupboard and even that's not enough!! (Yorkshire tea, Tetley, Afternoon Tea, Assam, Earl Grey, two kinds of fruit tea and a couple of camomiles, plus all my coffee.) I have become more obsessed. 

Doc Martens 
and they're yellow. They're beautiful. I love them. If you're one of those people who refers to them as Doctor Martens, then I want you to be stabbed in the eye with a pencil. There is no requirement for that. They exist most beautifully as DOC Martens. [/rant over]

Make-Up
is not something I have ever really bothered with so much, but I have been making more of an effort recently, since all I need to do to make my eyes stand out is put a little eyeliner on. It's actually worth it as well, except for all of the pervy men thinking that gives them a right to wolf whistle in the street. They're old enough to be my dad, it's gross.

Social life 
I'm actually seeming to have one, which is something new considering I have been in relative solitude the last few months. It's pretty nice to be able to go out and let my hair down a little. I'm actually starting to really love London in a way I wasn't sure that I would. 

Enough about me ~ feel free to tell me something you've changed or discovered recently. 

Charlie x 

:D   

Sometimes, CharliesDon'tWrite

If you don't already know that I can be somewhat lazy sometimes, then that's something you should probably be prepared to take notice of. There are times when that laziness is actually fuelled by the amount which is going on in my life, because there are times when I can be VERY busy.

As many of you will probably be already aware of, September is the month wen the majority of university Freshers' Weeks occur and we get to introduce a new yera group to our institutions, our students and our surrounding areas. (I am aware that universities don't just exist within cities). I'm a member of a university SU, so I've had a bit of a busy week since landing back in Manchester and then returning to London by train the same day.

The result of all this has been a distinct decline in the time I have to blog and the time I have to write anything very much. The pen is not down, but it's hovering in a rather relaxed fashion. After managing to self-publish two novels this summer though, I think I can afford to be pretty unpreductive until the start of November and my beloved NANO!

This week has been pretty fun though. One of the Freshers said that a friend of mine is a lot like Hitler, which made me properly belly laugh like I haven't in a while, there has been the fun of making popcorn in pans - microwave popcorn has too many I'mnotevengoingtoattempttospelltheword in it - and then there has been two club nights which have been fantastic. Looking forward to more.

Charlie x

:D

Very Kefallonian

So for those who haven't been exposed to the random Tweetings of my Instagram photos, I've been in Fiskardo, Kefallonia which for those of you who are really geographically special, it's a Greek island in the middle of the Ionian Sea.

I love Greece because of the language, the people and also, most definitely the sun and the food. And the alcohol doesn't go down too badly either. Especially the free alcohol; that's even better!

If you think I am joking, you clearly need to get your butt on the first place here, because I most certainly an not.

The fact that I have a burn/ tab that tells the line of my halter neck bikini is a tad irritating, but at least I have a tan I guess. It's been a hellova week, in the same town as Craig Revell Horwood, where Bon Jovi and Charles and Cam were only a couple weeks ago. Okay, the weather occasionally has left a little to be desired, but the scenery hasn't and the view of Ithaca from my bedroom has definitely not gone under appreciated.

One more day and one more night here, featuring live music and Greek dancing BOOM, but then it's back to old Nodnol to be ready for the first years' moving in on Sunday. Yay.

Please wait while I reign in the excitement caused by the conversion of two such events...

Charlie x

:|

Fundamentally Flawed

As people, we are bound to screw up. We are bound to do it at least once a day, pretty religiously if I'm honest and sometimes it's such a monumental screw up that we wonder how on Earth we could have let it happen. I've really been experiencing this lately.

There are so many things we can screw up in so many ways and I don't intend to make a list of them right now; it would be completely useless, not to mention endless.

When we screw up, it's really easy to feel like everyone is rehashing our mistakes to us, giving us the same lecture and everybody is judging us for what we've done, but recently I have had to hand it to my friends - they've not been doing that.

I know I have messed up, I really do, and trying to figure out why I did it and what the hell happened to me has been, and continues to be, a more than somewhat painful process. I've talked to a close group of my friends about what has happened, and I don't mean simply mentioned what has occurred, I mean REALLY gone over it with a tooth comb with these boys and tried to get to the heart of it, and what I've found is this:

 These men, as I should refer to them really, have been condemning my actions, reminding me very gently that what I have done is wrong, but then one went over everything and, because he knows me so well, pointed out very bluntly the issues I was having that I was struggling to see, while remaining completely supportive of me, one offered me hope as to how to myself in the aftermath and another continued the work of the other two in making me take my mind off it for a little while and just enjoy the moment. 

Everyone goes on about this YOLO thing. I accept it to an extent, but I won't let that make me see actions as a) without consequence or b) to ever be undertaken lightly. The thing is though that for the last few months my life has been a lot of work and not much else on account of how anti-social my hours and my sleep pattern became. It's difficult to try and see your friends when you finish work at eleven at night and can be back in from half five the next morning. Granted I wasn't doing that every day, but my body got used to grabbing a few hours of sleep just as and when I could get it. It's nice though that my friends are trying to reintroduce normalcy into my life in order to help me sort my head out with all this crap. 

Truly, I have the most beautiful of friends. 

Charlie x

<3 

P.s. Listen to Esbjorn Svensson Trio - Believe, Beloved, Below  

Goodbye, Tigger

So,as you may or may not know, I've been working for the Olympics and the Paralympics.

There is sooooo much I want to say about this, but I'm going to keep it brief because I really miss my bed.

Since starting this job, I've had an average of three hours of sleep per night, the most sleep I've had was roughly five hours and the least was about an hour and a half. To top it of, I am so ridiculously I'll now that it is not even possible to express how bad I feel.

And yet, if asked, I'd probably do the majority of it again. Yes, there are certain things I regret - my social life is in the toilet next to my health and I've made a few choices that I regret - but despite all of that, the majority of it has been magical.

When people speak about the Games, I glow with a ridiculous pride because I was a part of it. When people mention Team GB, I just want to wave something, cheer and get unexplainable excited. When it's all over, I am not going to know what to do with myself and that starts pretty much now. I'm also sure that London will recover from it's temporary cure from the grumps and everyone will be back inside their own little bubbles. It's pretty sad.

So, yeah, 2012, Farewell. I will miss you terribly.

Charlie x

P.s. Tigger is because of my orange and black uniform that I no longer have to wear.

Blah

In one way, I feel too tired to even post this, but in another, I know I would only be upset if I didn't. Keeping a diary at the moment is near on I'm impossible as there just aren't the hours in the day, but today was amazing, even though it was very long and tiring.

I had to wake up early for my shift, and thankfully managed to today, and then I knew this was the last evening I had to take my pictures of the stadium and everything at night, so I trotted back over to Stratford and took my snaps, then got distracted from coming home by the hilarious Angus. It shouldn't have made my day that he shouted goodnight to me over the loudhailer, but it did.

And then, of course, on the way home there were the other game makers. Some were dancing happily and just generally giving off a cheery vibe for all those of us going home, and there was the group of younger ones - about my age - who were just chatting with everyone. After chatting a little, I walked away towards the train station and one of them ran to follow me to ask for my number, because his tall friend I had been talking to wanted it, but i simply apologised and said I have a boyfriend. He was fine about it, but still checked if I was working tomorrow.

This is strange, because this comes after all my rantings today about how just wearing make up and a skirt winds me up, because suddenly men who are old enough to be my father start eyeing me up, whistling or generally doing something to display their inappropriate interest. It makes me bloody sick! I don't pretend for a minute I do this for them, I do this for me. When I decide to wear make up, it's for ME, MY benefit and MY pleasure and that only. Naff off.

Charlie x

:D

Vegetarian or Just Not Eating Meat

For the last six ish years, I've been some level of vegetarian. I started out as a peschetarian - yeah, I've never been able to spell it - and then cut out the fish as well to become a "proper" vegetarian. I'm starting to wonder why I bother trying though.

The fact is that basically everything contains some kind of animal product, or at least it feels that way. A lot of my favourite sweets contain gelatine, alcohol can often contain something which is from dead animals and there's a lot more too. You're not even allowed Parmesan cheese or proper pesto!

So my conclusion is this; I don't have the will power to give up everything I "should" give up to say I am a vegetarian, so as of now, I simply don't eat meat, because I find it disgusting and quorn tastes better to me.

Haribo here I come!

Charlie x

:D

A Writing River

Back when I was in high school, my geography teacher once despaired to us over the incompetence of her older class. They were working though a piece of coursework about rivers and landscape and not one of them could come up with an explanation for the speed of the river at a certain point.

It slowed, the teacher informed is, because the rock below was extremely porous, so the water was absorbed into the rock, making the rest slow down.

Why that is important I shall never know because geography has never been my favourite past time, but I find it to be a fitting metaphor. When I open up to the world and am 'absorbing' everything around me - experience makes the best inspiration - my pen does not take up residence on my desk, but I do a lot less writing. (The bullcrap in that sentence is that, until recently, all my writing has been done electronically.)

Anyway, what you can never get away from with novel writing is relationships between people. The only way for the story to progress is for the characters to have relationships with others, with the things around them and with themselves. Proper time must be given to get to know yourself and others around you. As such, I spent the last few days looking after my relationship with someone special. No really, he's special in the way that's hilarious. :P I've also been working too, which is the general reason for lack of blogging capability recently.

Anyway, in work again tomorrow, so I need sleep. Night!

Charlie x

:D

P.s. Yes, we are mental. :3

Merlot Motivation

When I write, I have this awful habit of flitting between novels without committing to one novel completely. It's ridiculous, but I can't help it. 

So, I decided to buy white wine - Merot, dry & fruity - and chocolate - Celebrations - as an incentive to be able to write the rest of my next novel. I was going to carry on writing the rest of the sequel to Insanity Breaks, but Butterflies - the sequel to Fairies - is FAR more fun. 

The red lipstick, black nail polish and houndstouth skirt are just ways of me getting into the character. Sky - she's pretty awesome. 

The only other thing I have done today is refer to my Vegetarian recipe book and order things off Waitrose to be able to cook and freeze some awesome lunches for while I'm working and some dinners for when I get in.

Speaking of work, I am very happy that my boss swapped a couple of my shifts rather than cancelling them. It was pretty awesome! :) 

Charlie x

:)

Reading and Writing

In three weeks, I'm going to be going to a wonderful little island called Kefalonia which is just off the mainland of Greece in the Ionian sea. It's beautiful.

The fact that I already have a packing list is pretty organised – but it's getting to be to a silly extent. Some of my stuff is already packed and ready to go, which is just mad, and the rest is not far from the case.

The fact that I already have a list of books to take is nothing new though. After reading Where Rainbows End in Skiathos, my holiday reading lists have tended to be a little disappointing. They're not particularly bad, but they don't take me to the same goofy euphoria that Rainbows did.

This holiday though, I am glad to say the iPad is coming with me, meaning I don't have to hand write everything, which is the main thing which puts me off holiday writing.

So expect there to be photos on here and Instagram - under the name CharliesWrite as well - of lots of things to do with how much I love Greece and all the beautiful reasons.

Charlie x

:)

Humans: Anti-Social, Vain and Rude

I know that an occupational hazard of working with the public is that some people are just categorically rude, but I'm getting really bored of projectiles flying at me across the shop and having things shouted at me as an explanation. The fact is, it's never an explanation, it's just orders. 
~My apologies, good sir, you seem to be at the disadvantage. My job is that of a SALES ASSISTANT! not a SLAVE!
Seriously, this kind of bumpfk gets old...

It's even worse when you're on a bus, and everybody always wants a seat, but we're all greedy and anti-social these days, we want a double seat - one for me, one for my bag/invisible pet baby duck billed platypus/other reason I'm not having someone I don't know sit next to me - and I can't even fathom as to why. We're in London. Don't worry! The damn near majority of people on the bus will also be Londoners, so they don't want to be Facebook friends and swap emails either. They won't speak to you - occasionally to the point that even if they nudge/lean on/fall asleep on you, they are so silent they won't even apologise!! Refer again to the fact people are RUDE!

And now for the vanity issue. Why is it that people who don't even know me seem to notice when I look different to normal? I can cope with the bunpfk (yes, I love that word) and ceremony that comes with looking different around people I know - all the, ooh, do you have a date tonight? or ooh, who're you trying to impress?. That is not so bad as everyone appearing to stand to attention and be like, ohmyGod, you have put effort into how you look, you clearly are trying to get me into your panties! 
~I'm sorry, but no. I was in Caffé Nero to get a sandwich, not a date, or a phone number - A SANDWICH! 

On the flip side, pictures of baby animals have appeased me. Platypus, d'awwh. <3

I'm tired. Going to bed.

Charlie x

:3

Top Reason as to Why I Hate YouTube Sometimes

You know those days where a song just pops into your head...a good song, a great song, a song you don't happen to have on your iTunes and haven't listened to in a while and so you think, 'I know, I'll head on over to good old YouTube, because obviously what I'm looking for will just be sat waiting for me.

Why the chocolate fudge brownie is it that the only thing which comes up on my iPad search of YouTube covers or live versions?

Quite frankly, no, now is not a time I would like to see this artist as he is live, and I definitely don't want to hear a crap cover that you posted on YouTube because you believe you ought to be discovered! Fudge off!

Now, quite frankly, I have nothing against YouTubers, one of my good friends is one, and she posts mighty fantastic covers of songs. The problem lies in that I want a simple, big standard studio version by the original artist. I require no fancy graphics, "artistic" collections of pictures or even typed slides of the lyrics. I simply want to listen to When the Skies Go Blue - the Tim McGraw version, why is that so impossible to find? Why is that not on the first page of my search?

Like I said, I love YouTubers. I really do, and I acknowledge that YouTube is a fantastic place to display young talent etc (as a point, JellyBaby3579, I'm just saying) but when I'm just looking for a single video - with very specific search criteria - I begin cursing this aspect of YouTube and start wanting to hit my head against the wall.

As you can tell, this is something of a pet peev.

Charlie x

:@

This Is Pretty Awesome:

Okay, in truth, there are a couple of things. The first being something which I have been meaning to do for the past couple of years, but I have been far too lazy to do it. Basically, the first novel I ever wrote - Insanity Breaks - and my first NaNoWriMo winning novel - Fairies - are now published on the Kindle. They're both about £1.53 each, but that was the cheapest I could set them to be with the publisher I used, so apologies those on a student budget, but I'm doing my best!! 

Something to note as a consequence is that the print copy of the book has remained unedited, so it doesn't contain the up-to-date version with the vaguely re-written ending etc. What it does have that the Kindle version doesn't, is a few more typos. What I'm trying to say is, my suggestion would be not to buy it. I do intend to pull it and put the new version into print as soon as possible, and also make Insanity Breaks available in print, as I do understand that not everyone owns a Kindle, and some of you do argue that a physical book is better than a Kindle, but I haven't got around to that yet. Sorry. 

While considering that, I would like to point out, on the one hand, I love physical books, and I also love my typewriter. Most people think they are relics and belong in somewhere other than the electronic age, but I saw screw them! - except when I'm going out and it's simply more convenient to write on an over-popular Apple device and read about five books on the Kindle while on holiday...

The other awesome thing is that a large proportion - more than a 1/4 - of the readers of this blog have been from Russia. I find that pretty odd, as I know only one person who is from Russia, but still, I find that pretty amazing, so thank you. 

Sorry for not posting in a while guys. Been busy with work and etcs. 

Talk soon. 


Charlie x

:D

Okay, I admit it

...me backing anything up is a very rare occurrence, but I do get very annoyed when things go missing, because it means I have to go completely back to the drawing boars and that just sucks quite frankly. I always like things about the things I write, even when I don't like the whole thing, so losing the work I've done on the Fairies sequel is more than a touch annoying. 

Yeah, perhaps it will turn up somewhere obscure in my files, but it's an inconvenience since I'm in the mood to get work done NOW! I guess I'm just impatient though. 

Gonna have to go through my mini filing cabinet and see if I had a paper copy of this. 

Today is not my day really. 

Charlie x
:/

Celebrating to Ben Folds and Ever Since the Lake Caught Fire

In a little while, I'm going to go to the shop and get myself some chocolate, a new film and either a bottle of wine or a couple of beers, and the reason for that is I properly deserve it right now. 

My plan for today was to simply vegetate, since tomorrow will be back to the days of actually having stuff to do, but no, instead I spent my Sunday completing the edit of Fairies so that it can be made available on the Kindle. To say I'm proud is an understatement, but it doesn't stop there. 

After I was done editing, I put it through publishing too! It's really exciting stuff, because in just over eleven hours it will be available worldwide on the Kindle. :D 

With eBooks seeming to be taking over from books, slowly but surely, it's good to know that publishing into that format is not the most impossible thing in the world. 

Many of you may remember that the process of publishing the printed version of Fairies was something I found ridiculously tedious, thoroughly annoying and I was pretty much glad when it was over. Don't get me wrong, it was a labour of love, but I still wish it wasn't something which was so damn difficult!

Anyway, one novel edited and available. Now where did I leave that other finished manuscript...?

Party time!! 

Charlie x
 
:D:D:D:D:D

Music

I hate Times New Roman, and for some reason, it's the default setting on everything... :( 

~ It's really strange how much music is tied into basically all of my memories. Even if there was no music playing at the point of something, the in built iPod in my brain conjures some into my memory. It can make dreaming rather fun though. 

The reason I'm mentioning that is that I am, finally, getting around to watching Red Riding Hood and there is a piece of music in it which I really enjoy. I don't know what it's called, or the artist (I will check when I've written this just to satiate my curiosity) but it's a fantastic piece of cinematic music for tension or drama. I'm not yet sure which effect it's meant to be having in the film, but that's possibly because my mind has veered off onto the topic of Bones.

For any of you who either know me, or have read my other blog, you probably know I love the TV show Bones - although I watch it on the internet on account of not having a TV in London. It's a fantastic show that was based on a series of books by Kathy Reiches. It also has Emily Deschanel and David Borenaz (atrocious spelling!!)) in it - need I say more. *drooling* 

Anyway, there is an episode in which *spoiler alert* Vincent Nigel Murrey is murdered by a serial killer, and this piece of music was played in the build up of tension which precedes his death. I'm wondering if I'll ever be able to hear it and not think of that scene...

The song is "Keep the Streets Empty for Me" by Fever Ray...

Charlie x

:)

Page 35

Oh my gosh. Today, I quite literally realised how much fun you can have with just a camera phone, Twitter and a piece of paper. 

As part of our NUS training, the still relatively new HSU executive were sent out into the world - well, Kensington - with just the above and told to do a scavenger hunt. It was great. We crashed one of our officers work, found red things and hats in TKMaxx and then, to top it all off, one of the lads was testing how deep the pond was and he just slid straight in. It was probably the funniest thing I have seen in a while. He was wearing a suit at the point. If you head over to my Twitter @CharliesWrite, I did retweet it! 

As for the title of this blog, yeah, Fairies has about 200 pages, so this might take a little while, but at least it's going now. I'm actually kind of happy with how it's coming together as well, which is new. I got a little undecided about coffee last night. When I make it, I make a full pot and it's really strong, so if I had drank any, I wouldn't have gone to bed and would have been knackered for training - and then also for work tomorrow - but I would have got through editing another 100 pages maybe? Still think I'll stick to orange juice and tea for the moment. In separate mugs though. 

The thing about this is, I don't have a deadline for it, so I can take my time, but I should be at Greenbelt this year, then I have a million and one things to do in September, October will be about getting into my new courses and then of course, November, my bittersweet pain in the ass...NaNoWriMo. I know I love it, but my gosh sometimes it does feel like it kicks my already fragile ego! 

The sacrifice is going to have to be Camp NaNo, which is really annoying because I never seem to finish my novels in the summer and there is absolutely no valid reason as to why. In November, I just drop everything and get my head down, but other times of year, I can't seem to do that. 

I'm just odd. 

Charlie x 

:)

HelloGoodbye

I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure... 

Someone genuinely told me that joke this morning. I'm not sure if I'm more embarrassed that he said it, or that I did actually laugh. I think I was more laughing at him than the actual joke though. I'm hoping so. 

Anyway, I feel like I'm very indecisive at the moment. Anyone who followed my other blog would remember that I wasn't sure as to whether or not to re-edit the novel I self-published before it gets released onto the Kindle edition. It took me a while to decide, but after a lot of deliberation, I decided it was the best thing to do on account of the fact that, currently, it doesn't really show what I can do as a writer when I take my time with things and actually think things through. The entire process, I freely admit, was completely rushed and all over the place. As much as I hate editing normally, pouring back over this actually isn't so tedious. 

The other thing which I'm currently undecided about is whether or not to continue posting on the other blog. On the one hand, it's in the place everyone is used to, on the other, it's almost impossible to format and I don't really use it that often because of that. It also hates connecting to my iPad and there have been a whole host of problems there! 

Even so, I guess this is hello to something new. Exciting! 

If there's anything that people want me to specially write about, the email address is charlieswrite@hotmail.co.uk

Charlie x 

:)