NaShoStoMo,

Any of you that have been anywhere near me in the month of November will probably remember that I turn into a coffee fuelled, pizza loving nutjob with essentially bi-polar levels of energy. For those of you who don't know why, it's because of the beautiful thing which is NaNoWriMo. Unfortunately/thankfully the calendar of writing competitions is not complete, i.e. there's not something going on every month, which is good because I could quite easily die of heart failure within six months if it did, but these are the ones I know.

January - NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month)

April - NaShoStoMo (National Short Story Month) + ScriptFrenzy (Dear Grant Falkner, you cannot kill that which we keep alive!)

June - Camp NaNoWriMo 1

August - Camp NaNoWriMo 2

November - NaNoWriMo!! (National Novel Writing Month)

December - NaNoFiMo (National Novel Finishing Month)


A few years ago, I made an attempt at Script Frenzy, but since I favour description more than dialogue, it didn't really work out overly well (I still keep the spirit of it alive though and believe that the competition should be continued for those who wish to participate.)

When NaShoStoMo was mentioned, I shyed away from it, thinking I didn't have enough ideas for short stories to complete one a day for a month, but since it's only 200 words (min.) per story, why not give it a try, hey?

So, instead of editing my novel today, I'm going to attempt to catch up with NaShoStoMo. 17 short stories in one day. Possible? I think so. :P

Manchester Part 3,

I was just in the bath thinking: "This has been a great trip home. I've had the chance to hang out with my friends a lot and there haven't been any sightings of..." and then one of the eight legged fiends ran across my bathroom floor. Naturally, I dealt with this like any adult: I screamed for my dad, who made sure that the five legged beastie went for a rather long swim down the toilet. Yes, five legged, because three of them came off when my dad bitch slapped it into the bath mat. (Washing that tomorrow.) Anyway, there was no way I was touching that, so my brother had the joys of doing that one. I really don't deal well with insects...

Other than that, today has been PHENOMINAL! After I don't even remember how long, I got to see one of my favourite girls in the entire world: Alice. :D

Most people would ask me if my brain had been scrambled when they got the text I sent her to arrange today, but she's on my wavelength, so calling her Dawkins and singning off the text as Hume - after admitting to becoming increasing sceptical of her continuing existence - was something pretty normal, so naturally I got an equally odd reply. The only tragedy of the day came in that she didn't trust her stomach enough to contain itself, and her excitment while we went on the big (technical terminology coming up) spinny, lifty merry go round style thingymagig which currently is taking up half of Piccadilly Gardens and ruining the grass, but thankfully, it appeared to be as much fun to watch me nearly poop my pants when I realised it went higher than I had anticipated. 

Anyway, as much as the social side of this trip home has been amazing, I have done little else other than procrastinate with some of the best mates on the planet. 

I will point out however that future posts of the blog/novel will be containing the label/hashtag blovel. :)

P.s. I love you guys!

Manchester Part 2,

Now that Craptop is behaving itself I can finally get this written, but first, a couple of moans:

1. The transport system in Manchester is a pile of ___________ (insert favourite profanity)
2. I think I need a children's Snuggie, since the sleeves are too far apart in mine 
3. My laptop sucks 

Anyway...since I've been back in Manchester, I've been meeting up with a lot of my old friends, and also running into people I haven't seen in years, which has been pretty odd, but ultimately interesting. Yesterday, I saw one of my old friends who essentially looks like he has a whole new face (it has been AT LEAST a year and a half, probably more like two years, since I've seen him though) and it was like, oh, hello beautiful. Interestingly though, I feel like nothing has changed. We still play video games together, I still suck at them, and they still - very accommodatingly might I add - set up the game in a different way so that it's almost impossible for me to lose. By the way, I love you guys! 

Today then brought about my very geeky side. Since the destruction of the blanket I have been OBSESSIVELY knitting to try and replace the patches that were essentially mashed and had to go in the bin, but that does mean I do things like knitting on the bus to town or in the cinema or watching the TV (or all of the above....guilty) I also hang around comic book stores and spend too much money on graphic novels, but if you've ever seen how beautiful The Watchmen and Kingdom Come are, you'll have to understand. 

Even better, Josh and I both proved our age (in our heads, somewhere between 62 and 90~) by sitting through another film, verbally tearing it apart and then admitting to having thoroughly enjoyed it. Jack the Giant Slayer and Warm Bodies (it's really odd that both films we've chosen to see recently have the same male lead) have both received the same treatment, but as I said, we really enjoyed them. 

Now if only I could find some time to edit that blasted novel!!!

P.s. CELEBRATING THE 1500 views!!! :) 

Camomile Tea,

So, currently I'm sat in my bed with a cup of camomile tea, half a blanket and a tub full of patches of wool. Am I constructing a blanket? No, I'm taking one apart.

I started making this "thing" when I was fourteen, which I always think of as not very long ago until I realise that I am in fact now twenty and no longer able to class myself as a teenager. Anyway. The bottom half is a bit scraggly to say the least, since I wasn't overly dexterous at that age, and I was pathetically bad at knitting. My short attention span is also evident since the patches are teeny tiny. Fast forward six years and they are all large beautiful, if not oddly shaped, patches.

So what was the problem?

My blanket was almost a fricking triangle. Seriously, the top was AT LEAST six inches wider than the bottom, sothe natural OCD like thing to do is take the whole thing apart.

Now, you may wonder why I'm telling you this.

I'm telling you this to describe the frame of mind that I'm currently in, because I feel that is more constructive than once again apologising for the lack of another of my novels on amazon. For those who care, okay, I'm sorry, but I'm getting on it. Honestly.