Happy Blog Birthday to me!

Today my little blog turns 1 years old! I hope you have enjoyed it. I can't believe I have actually kept it going for a whole year.

I tried...

This time last year:
- I was housebound.
- I had only just completed a first draft of WEIGHTING TO LIVE.
- I had no idea when I would get better.

Today:
- I am preparing to move to London tomorrow!!
- I have self-published not only WEIGHTING TO LIVE, but CHANGES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION, SIXTEEN MONTHS & CIRCLE, a short story.
- For now, I am better and couldn't be happier.

In the last year I have changed in so many ways for the better and have worked harder than I ever have in my life. It's been hard at times but so worth it to get to this point and I am very excited about what the next year will bring.

I also wanted to quickly mention a couple of other things:

• My heart is breaking for the people of Paris. It's just tragic and senseless and makes me realise even more how precious life is and to make every minute count. 
• My posts have been a little strange recently but once I am settled, they will be back to normal and all about the writing ... and Judith McNaught.
• I have deleted my Lily Divine Instagram account as I am looking to concentrate more on Twitter etc. 

And lastly, a quick book recommendation: Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (do I even need to mention it's really J. K. Rowling?). It's the third book in the Cormoran Strike series and my favourite one so far! I am very excited for book 4 and if you haven't already started this series, I highly recommend it.

Until next time (I'M ONE YEAR OLD!).

We're going through changes

I mentioned in my last blog post that I received an email that changed everything. Well I might as well tell you now that the email was an offer TO MOVE BACK TO LONDON! I made that sound like it was some random email that I should probably transfer to my junk mail STAT but it is to do with the 5 a.m. wake-up call I wrote about on my day 1 NaNoWriMo blog post here.

I obviously accepted and move the week after next. I couldn't be more excited but I am still in denial that I won't be living with my mum any more *breaks down*

For the foreseeable future I will be working on trying to make the books I have already self-published more visible and hopefully get more sales. That is going to take a lot of work but seeing as I am going to be living on my own, I would say finding enough money to eat is a pretty big incentive...

I will be blogging about how I get on in this (unrealistic) endeavour and fingers crossed this story has a happy ending. Sigh.

Until next time.

NaNoWriMo is NaNO!

After yesterday's indulgent post, I got an email that changed everything. I will not go into it yet but I will say that I won't be able to continue with NaNoWriMo this year. It's for a wonderful reason though, I assure you.

Honestly, there is part of me that feels relieved in a way - I wouldn't be writing with my heart in it and would be rushing to get it done asap which inevitably would show in what I produced. I am SO passionate about my story and just want to give it the best chance I can. I adore NaNoWriMo and will definitely be doing it in the future, I just think with what is going on in my life, it would be madness to try and do it. I am also dealing with a bad cold as well so it feels like everything is telling me to just stop.

I am going to take it easy for the next couple of days to try and get back to full health then I am going to have a what can only be described as a CRAZY month. I mean, with all that being said, plans could change. Whatever happens though, November is going to be a VERY interesting month and a story in itself.

Until next time.

The NaNo low-down: DAY 3

WORD COUNT FOR THE DAY: 350

I am really struggling today. My body feels like hell and my head is a mixture of frustration and panic. I want to write desperately but the stuff that's coming out isn't great because I just don't feel up to it. I said yesterday that I was going to write only when I felt better but I completely ignored this rule and just ploughed on regardless. By 11 a.m. I started crying tears of futility. I am trying not to let it get through to me but it is. I know in a couple of days I will look back on how I am reacting and realise how ridiculous I am behaving. I know I am being completely irrational.

So from this moment I have put myself on a self-imposed writing BAN and will only be back when I feel better.

Sorry this was indulgently bleak. I promise to be back soon a little brighter and ready to write.

Until next time.

The NaNo low-down: DAY 2

WORD COUNT FOR THE DAY: 2,012

The picture on the right I hope conveys my feelings of frustration I am experiencing at the moment. This morning I woke up very early with the intention of having a really productive day and aiming for an outrageously high daily word count. My broken body was having none of it. After breakfast I started to feel dizzy. I ignored the feeling as much as possible and started writing, but with my head feeling as foggy as the weather in the UK today. By lunch I felt lousy. I again ignored it but felt like I was swimming through a very thick jelly that also clouded my brain. I think I might be getting a rather bad cold but I hope not because I am DESPERATE to write. Somehow by about 2 p.m. I had managed to get out over 2,000 words before the lure of bed became too great. I've just woken up and have decided to take it easy for the rest of the day then start again only when I am ready. I feel it will be counter-productive to start until I am better as it'll only show in my writing.

Life has been a little intense recently both mentally and physically and I think my overwhelmed body just needs a rest.

Until next time (remind me, what's my name again?).

The NaNo low-down: DAY 1

WORD COUNT FOR THE DAY: 1,569.

My brain at present.

Day one of NaNoWriMo turned out to be a little crazier than expected ... I had a last-minute interview in London which meant I had to get up at 5 a.m. and spend the whole morning travelling around. I came home at about 11.30 a.m. and gazed at the bed lustfully but after an early lunch, I half-groggily typed out some words. I have to say for how tired I was, the words weren't too bad. Even though I didn't come close to the word count I wanted, with what my day was like, I think I did ok. Tomorrow I can really get stuck into it which I can't wait to do (and hopefully in a less zombie-like fashion).

Also, something truly lovely happened today. From one of the giveaways I hosted over on Goodreads to win a copy of my book WEIGHTING TO LIVE, I GOT MY FIRST PROPER REVIEW AND IT WAS AN AMAZING ONE! I found it quite fabulous that on the book's 1st birthday (I wrote it last year for NaNoWriMo) it got such a FABULOUS present! It's also strange the review was today as the book is in diary-style format and the date it starts with is ... wait for it ... 1st November. Oooooooo.

I have to say November couldn't have started any better for me and I cannot wait to see what this month holds - and I'm not just talking about the writing.

Until next time (is it time for bed yet?).