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 

:)