What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a super-awesome-cool-fun blog hop created by Jaime and Erin to help writers keep in touch with each other. If you want to take part, head over to either of their pages to check it out!

What I'm Reading
I'm currently reading While We Run which I'm LOVING! It's the sequel to When We Wake which was also excellent. I really love the Karen Healey's writing style and the story is so real and so possible... it just reels me in.

What I'm Writing
As I mentioned on my post on Monday I'm taking a bit of time away from my WIP now that I've finished my first revision while I wait for feedback. It's a little nerve wracking! In the meantime I'm playing with a few tentative ideas for my next book which is quite exciting but that's very much in the early early stages!

What Inspires Me Right Now
To be honest I'm not particularly inspired right now. I want to say exactly what I said last week, as what is inspiring me at the very minimum would be the summer weather and getting out of London City. The thing is, I read the news and everyday it's like a punch in the gut. The Malaysian Air disaster, the Palestine troubles, the problems in Gaza... what is the state of the world?! Where has humanity gone? How can a human look in the eyes of an innocent child and put a bullet into his head? How can a human detonate a bomb on a beach where there are children playing, or shoot down a plane without knowing for sure that it's the intended target? It breaks my heart to see this and in the last week in particular I've really been struggling. My Facebook newsfeed is likes doomsday. All the fighting, all the hatred... and then I get sad about the animal cruelty that's alive and well around the world. My newsfeed is filled with awful pictures of poor elephants, leopards, lions, rhinos.... beautiful creatures shot and killed by poachers who want to make money at the expense of a life. Baby animals left orphaned and ill when their parents are so heartlessly taken from them. Circus animals being whipped and chained.... the last remaining captive polar bear in Argentina who is sick and struggling in the completely inappropriate conditions. I'm finding it really hard to find inspiration around me when we're just dragging the world and all inhabitants down with us. It breaks my heart the amount of pain and suffering that's going on at the moment... *rant*. So that's uninspiring, although the people who are stepping up and doing something about it are really inspiring so I guess that's something!


What Else Have I Been Up To?
I've been going to so many job interviews. And they're no easy. One of them was three and a half hours long, another involved a presentation, another felt like I was being interrogated! It's soul destroying but something will come of it. Then I get really rude recruiters who find my CV online and call me about jobs .... they could at least be a little bit nice when they call!

Aside from that Jesse and I have been taking a few day trips. We went out to Brighton on a very hot sunny day which was really lovely. I got sunburnt, we ate fish and chips by the beach and listened to the waves crash on the shore. It's a pebble beach which is crappy but I didn't care enough... it was just so nice to be by the ocean again. I should move to Brighton. I really loved it out there. I really don't think I'm a big city girl. That fact is starting to really sink in! I should've forged a career around something that allows me to live in a sleepy town within easy reach of a bigger city. Maybe if my dreams come true and I get a book deal I might be able to do that....! We also went to the Museum of London which is really interesting, lots of information there about the development of the city, and we went to the Old Spitafields Market which was nice.

Yesterday we checked out Highgate Cemetery which was creepy and beautiful at the same time and had a lovely lunch at Kenwood House - the house from the film Belle if you've seen that (great movie!) and we walked around Hampstead Heath which was nice! It's nice getting out of our tiny little studio room for a while! You can go a bit stir crazy in here!!

We also went to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. I didn't particularly enjoy the stage version to be honest.... it felt very.... slow and uninteresting, but others love it I'm sure! This week we're heading to see Skylight which has Bill Nighy and Carrie Mulligan! Very excited about that! How's your weeks going? :)

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a super-awesome-cool-fun blog hop created by Jaime and Erin to help writers keep in touch with each other. If you want to take part, head over to either of their pages to check it out!

What I'm Reading
I've just finished reading Hollow City, the second in the Miss Peregrine series. Now I've started on the latest book in the Pretty Little Liars series, Toxic. *sigh* Those books just keep coming and coming and I'm getting sick of them but I really need to know what happens!!! I'm also reading Salt, Sugar, Fat; How the Food Giants Hooked Us which is really interesting, informative and scary!!

What I'm Writing
Before I took my blog hiatus, I worked my ass off to get two - three posts up a week. Part of the reason I stopped it because I just couldn't sustain that any more. I was writing my blog instead of writing my book and my book is the whole reason for my blog in the first place! So when I came back to my blog I decided I would post when I could and when I wanted to but not feel the pressure to have to post all the time, and it's helpful. So i'm still working away on my WIP, the one I finished and then completely rewrote. If all goes well I should have my first draft finished by the end of day!!! *cue applause* so fingers crossed!

What Inspires Me Right Now
Two things - adventure and summer. I'm trying to make the most of the weather by exploring the UK, seeing what's in and around London and heading out of the city for day trips. Last weekend we headed to Epping Forest and took a walk through the trees (unfortunately summer didn't come to the party and we had a picnic in the rain) but even still! For me, it was very inspiring as the scene I was about to go home and write involved a forest. How convenient!

What Else Have I Been Up To?
I'm still unemployed. It's VERY depressing. The UK job market is tough to crack into! So it's been really hard but I've been looking and applying for jobs an awful lot! I also have been making an effort to get out and do as much as I can (as given the job situation I don't know how long i'll realistically be able to stay in London...). SO a week ago I headed into Trafalgar Square where they put on this free event called West End Live. Stars from all the Broadway shows came out and sung numbers from their shows! It was so great! While Les Miserables and Wicked are my all time favourite, I loved seeing the performances from the upcoming revamp of Miss Saigon. The Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia songs got the whole crowd on their feet dancing. It was fun!!

I also went to a creative writing course with my man (who has finally decided to unleash his creative writing potential and write his own book!) The course was on intricate storylines and while it was interesting it was more geared at those who hadn't started writing their book and possibly didn't even have an idea in mind. So for me I didn't find it particularly helpful at this point in time but I think Jesse did. There was also a lot of workshopping which I wasn't a huge fan of.... just lecture me!

I checked out a performance of The Drowned Man which is put on by Punchdrunk of Sleep No More fame. It was really good! It had a similar style to Sleep No More - four floors of set, audience members wear masks and they're free to wander as they want to follow the stories they choose to follow. It was really complicated but a great show. If you've seen Sleep No More.... think bigger - bigger cast, bigger (and way more) storylines.... bigger. It was awesome

We also went to the Southbank Philharmonia Concert on Friday where they performed 'screen themes'. We're talking theme songs from the favourites - Indiana Jones, Ghost Busters, James Bond, Batman, Superman and so many more. Then they ended with a few songs from their new Abba album which had everyone up on their feet. Best Orchestral concert I've ever been to!

The week ended at Wimbledon where we sat for many hours watching an empty court in the rain (and totally not dressed for the cold!) but then finally got to see some quality action. We saw Serena Williams defeated by Alize Cornet. Wowza it was an epic game. Pretty sad actually too, I was cheering for Serena but almost everyone else in the crowd was going for Alize.

So that's pretty much me! How's your weeks been? I'm going to leave you with this little picture as I thought it was quite clever....

What's Up Wednesday!

Wow, it's been a while since I did one of these!

What's Up Wednesday is a blog hop created by Jaime and Erin to help writers keep in touch with each other.

SO, without further ado....

What I'm Reading
I've just finished reading the Kindrily series which I really enjoyed and am now starting on Sapphire Blue, the second book in the Ruby Red series. Although I don't seem to have a lot of time to read at the moment, I'm spending more time working on my writing instead :)

What I'm Writing
A week ago I completely gutted my WIP that I've been working on for a year and a half and pretty much started again. I kept the bones of the original wip but it needed a total make over so hopefully this will make it much better!

What Inspires Me Right Now
My photos from my travels. I had so many great ideas for new stories while I was travelling and so many of them are held within the thousands of photos I took. I honestly get lost in them every time I start looking through them. The life that many Africans live is somewhat similar to the life of my central character in my WIP (yet also very different), so I was able to really gain a lot of insight and inspiration from that. That and the gloomy London weather! (Summer, what summer?) A rainy day is always conductive for inspiration!

What Else Have I Been Up To?
Well I've just made my return to the blogging world after 9 months away. I wrote a post here about why i've been away and what I've been up to. More recently though, I've been working on cutting out grains and sugar from my diet, have been going to the gym, learning guitar and applying for job after job (with not a lot of success. Le sigh). I did go to a writing seminar on Monday night which was hugely interesting and i'll write a post about it soon :)

How is everyone in the blogosphere going? :)

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme, started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk, that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. Join by visiting their blogs and signing in on the widget.

I've been pretty bad at blogging lately, and even pumping out a What's Up Wednesday! (Partly because I get Wednesday almost 24 hours before America/Canada so I get confused by the time difference...!)

But this week, it's all on!

What I'm Reading
I finally finished Cody Name Verity which took me quite a while to get through then I followed it up by one of those guilty pleasures... Pretty Little Liars number 13 (!!). Dang guilty pleasures! Now I'm reading the new book from Khaled Hosseini, And The Mountains Echoed. There are so many others on my list that I've been meaning to read for over a year now, but I loved The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns so really want to crack into this one!

What I'm Writing
Still pumping away on my WIP. I've finally broken free of my mind block and barriers (there'll be a blog about this in the next few weeks) and now the words are flowing more freely. The key is to keep them flowing! I've made up two of the chapters I deleted, so just got to get a move on and make up the rest!

I'm happy with where my story is heading now, but I am spending more time getting those words down  and unfortunately less time here on the blog. I'm trying to avoid using my blog as a procrastination tool and avoid procrastination in general! We'll see how that goes... haha!

What Inspires Me Right Now
We've been having some pretty crappy weather in New Zealand lately. It's heading toward the middle of winter and New Zealand has been utterly battered with wild weather. In the past week we've had a massive wind storm, a massive rain storm (which caused huge amounts of flooding) and a huge snow storm. My character is in a pretty dark place currently so bundling up in front of the heater and writing while the rain pours outside is what has been inspiring me!

What Else I've Been Up To...
It's been busy over the last few weeks. Our Festival programme launched - if you're interested in just looking or think you might be in Christchurch in August/September check it out here. That's been one of my big projects and I'm very happy with how it turned out!

I've been braving the -3 temperatures to get out to the gym at 7am each morning, and have finally started watching Game of Thrones. I know I'm SO far behind, and I did watch most of the first season in 2011 but just couldn't get into it. I'm trying again and am loving it so far! About to start on season two :D

Aside from that, I've just been working and hanging with my family. Heading up north to see my man on Friday which i'm VERY excited about! 

As I said, it's mid-winter so we're all in hibernation mode so not a lot is really going on! Hating this cold! Bring on the summer!

What have you been up to?

What's Up Wednesday

How is it What's Up Wednesday time again already? If you're not up to date yet, What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme that allows us to touch base with our online friends to tell them what's up in your world!

What I'm Reading

I'm ashamed to say i'm STILL reading Code Name Verity. I've been so crazy busy over the last few week that it's been a bit abandoned! Whoops! I miss my daily subway reading time! I'll get there, I promise!

What I'm Writing

A lot of you are aware I've been having some mega issues getting past my writers block. I deleted a good portion .... okay most of my current WIP and am starting again with a different angle. So I did the deleting and then I stared at the blank page and got frustrated. I blogged about my frustrations, got some great advice and then stared some more at my blank page. So I took a week off. I've barely even thought about my WIP for the last week until today. I went to the gym, and started to let my mind wander to my WIP. It was the first time I'd let myself think about what might happen next. 

See I've been writing out a broad plan of the book and I got to this point and I just couldn't figure how to get from point A to point B. At the gym, it was like the dam had been blown up and the water could flow freely. No kidding, I suddenly got the answer. It hasn't got me to the end of my plan, but it's got me pretty close. I feel I'm ready to get back on the horse and start writing the chapters again. I don't know why it's taken so long, but I'm glad things are flowing again!

What Inspires Me Right Now

Nature. Everyone always goes on about how beautiful New Zealand is, and I know they're right. I do live in a really stunning city. But truth be told, I don't see a lot of that on a daily basis. I live in a city, I go to my house, to the gym, to work and back. Last weekend I got out into nature and saw just how beautiful it can be. My book is very tied in with the power of nature, and so that has really got me inspired!

What Else I've Been Up To


Yikes I just wrote a whole speil here then it disappeared!

The main thing I've done in this last week was head to the West Coast of the South Island with my man so we could go to the glaciers! We had planned to go up on Franz Josef, but the whole time we were there it rained and rained. The cloud was really low which meant that the helicopter which transfers you up onto the ice couldn't operate so the tour was cancelled. We were so gutted! We headed 30 minutes down the road to Fox Glacier and as they don't need a helicopter their tours usually still operate in the rain. Only problem was, there'd been a rock slide so all their tours were cancelled too. We were so disappointed. There wasn't a lot else to do there except the glaciers so we packed up and left a day early. Typically within two days, the sun had come out and the tours up to the glacier had perfect blue skies. grrr! We did have a good chance to really spend some quality time together though. It was the first time we'd seen each other properly in 3 months so we were in dire need! We also managed to walk through the valley to the bottom of the glacier (in the rain, we got very wet), but that was nice to see.

Aside from that I've been busy at planning more of our big trip for next year! We've added in 5 days on Crete which I'm very excited about as my Grandad fought there during the war! We're booking the rest of our flights this week which will be great to get locked in! Then it's all about saving as much money as possible!!

Speaking of money, I've been working like a mad woman at work - the festival have released four of our top shows for the festival ahead of our main launch which has been very busy! So if anyone plans to be in CHCH, NZ in August and September you'll have to see some of the shows we've got on offer!

Lastly, I've been spending a lot of time with my parents lately which has been nice. My brother-in-law convinced us all to start watching this BBC show Orphan Black. I don't always trust his recommendations but this one is actually really great so far! Have only watched one episode but I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops. Does anyone else watch this?

What have you been up to this week?

What's Up Wednesday

I swear the weeks are just whizzing past!


So word is starting to get out about What's Up Wednesday which is GREAT! I just now need to remember the time zone difference and get them up at the right time! Yikes!

How's everybody's week been? :D


What I'm Reading
I've now officially started on Cody Name Verity, and so far it's pretty good. Has a bit of a slow start but it's enjoyable to read. I've been going to bed really early to try and get lots of reading time in but unfortunately I end up falling asleep within half an hour. My co-workers do find it funny when I say I went to bed to read my book and ended up asleep by 9pm! Crikey!

What I'm Writing
Well I sat staring at my blank page with the title Chapter 8 for just over a week. You know when you read a book that is so boring you have to force yourself to get over it and just read but it's SUCH. A. HASSLE? Yeah, well my book's been like that. So repetitive and boring, and I sat there saying 'this is going no where.' So I did two days of serious brainstorming and then I looked at what my issues were.

I was trying to focus on two many characters at once. There wasn't a sole purpose of the story and there was too many smaller story lines trying to creep in. So I'm pretty much going to scrap chapters 4 - 8 and start over. Chapters 1-3 are where I want them, but I need to hone it in, and focus more on the issue and the resolution... the characters journey. I was also writing in split narrative as I thought that was the best way to get over a certain language barrier, but it was creating too much confusion so i'm kicking the guy's narrative to the curb and going to change a few things up. Hopefully it'll work better this time!

What Inspires Me Right Now
My motivation to get the story right, that's inspiring me. Every time I log onto my blog and check the newsfeed I get inspired. And of course my lovely man who won't let me give up even when I feel it's useless.

What Else I've Been Up To
Sleeping! I've been so tired I've been sleeping so much! A lot of physio as well - I have a slipped disc in my neck which is causing these awful headaches so I've been doing a lot of physio exercises to help that come right. I'm still planning my trips, and at work we're planning a big launch party for Friday night. We're pre-releasing four shows that'll be in our Arts Festival which is very exciting! And the brochure has finally been sent to the printers!

Aside from that, my man is FINALLY coming down to see me - it's been two months since I saw him last so I'm very exciting, and in a week's time we're heading to one of New Zealand's best glaciers which I'm very excited about!

What have you been up to? :)

What's Up Wednesday

I've been meaning to do What's Up Wednesday for a couple of weeks since Jaime and Erin came up with this awesome idea.
Only problem was I kept getting confused with the different time zones and pretty much failed. This week though, i'm on it!

What's Up Wednesday is just a way to keep in touch with blogging friends and let everyone know what's been happening in your life!

What I'm Reading
I just finished the latest Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller which I, embarrassingly, took two months to read. It was a good read, just very heavy and life kept getting in the way!

Tonight i'll also be finishing The Future of Us. Tomorrow I can finally start on Code Name Verity. My friends been bugging me for ages to read this, so hopefully it sucks me in!

What I'm Writing
I'm taking my good sweet time to get through my current WIP. Seriously, I'm up to chapter 8 and have been writing for three months already. I currently have hit a snag and haven't written all week. I'm sure i'll be able to pick it up this weekend when I'm a little less crazy with work and life in general. I just need to stop changing so many important aspects of the book!

What Inspires Me Right Now
I'm not getting a lot of inspiration from certain things right now except perhaps my dreams. When I need something to come to me I go to the gym and about half way through my work out, once i'm well and truly lost in my story land my ideas come pouring out. Then of course there are a few of my own life events and parts of history that lend themselves and inspire me.

What Else I've Been Up To

At work
We're in full on brochure production mode for the Arts Festival Programme Brochure. It's a lot of work and I've done a lot of proofing and editing over the last few weeks. I had no idea how much work went into those brochures. It's almost time to send it to the printers - very exciting but also nerve wracking.

At home
I've been thinking a lot about my book, but haven't done a lot of writing. I've been playing my guitar a lot too, losing myself in the music is a great way to spend some 'me time'. I've also been planning my next lot of travels! My man, my sister and my sister's man booked flights to Africa on Monday, we're all booked in for early next year to head to the great African continent and safari for 5 weeks before spending 9 days in Egypt, 6 days in Athens and 10 days in Turkey. Then we'll move to London. The plans are starting to come into place, I'm very excited! I'm also planning my trip to the New Zealand glaciers which I'm doing with my man in two weeks time. I've never been before even though they're only a few hours drive away, so i'm looking forward to that!

In Remembrance
The last week has been pretty difficult. On Friday two people I knew died. One was expected, and one was incredibly sudden and unexpected. I saw this guy on Friday morning and he was happy and full of energy. Within a few hours a brain aneurysm had snuffed out his life. So cruel and unfair. I've rarely known anyone to be so chirpy and living life to the full. It's hard to believe that someone who really was larger than life could be taken from us so early. Words can't fully do justice to how much of an incredible guy he was, and why he managed to touch so many people's lives, but he really did. A good portion of my town knew him in some way or another. His death has hit me harder than any other I've been through, including my grandparents (but that would be because I was so young). All my love, prayers and thoughts are going out to his wife and his two children who haven't even reached the age of five.

Sooo that's me for now! What have you all been up to? :)