tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384811892781191162024-03-10T16:45:38.715+08:00WORD + STUFFTrisha writes, reads, draws, sings, travels, and sometimes does other stuff tooTrishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.comBlogger717125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-49034799867078262722022-11-20T11:02:00.006+08:002022-11-20T11:02:41.776+08:00NaNoWriMo 2022<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKLEjfs0Ppwm1mBU4jYF1r73OkVJ1QKp2f3lnlzyyd9Yd8HId-L7R7-WOV1N-6bvgjsnUoxp9C-EcDYWgdH7XucwoIz0iDAbvK-Wn__480Zxp2fAqDU3xhcKjJg_D_lDGLcgJqE75fl4pwRZETw3egdT3xsh_vSq7-z_016K6RtvuwVyKgJ6hofSr4/s1703/Nano-22-Winner-Facebook-Banner-2x.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="631" data-original-width="1703" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKLEjfs0Ppwm1mBU4jYF1r73OkVJ1QKp2f3lnlzyyd9Yd8HId-L7R7-WOV1N-6bvgjsnUoxp9C-EcDYWgdH7XucwoIz0iDAbvK-Wn__480Zxp2fAqDU3xhcKjJg_D_lDGLcgJqE75fl4pwRZETw3egdT3xsh_vSq7-z_016K6RtvuwVyKgJ6hofSr4/w400-h149/Nano-22-Winner-Facebook-Banner-2x.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Oops. I finally got here, better late than never right?</p><p>I did participate in NaNoWriMo this year (still going of course). I hit 50k already, but will keep going for the rest of the month and hopefully beyond.</p><p>The difference this year is that I participated in NaNo as a rebel - rewriting/revising a novel that was already mostly finished many years ago.</p><p>With advice from my excellent critique partner, I devised a beat sheet in the days beforehand and then got to work on November 1. I've revised the beat sheet a few times as problems cropped up - thankfully none too major.</p><p>I was a bit distracted leading up to November, because I got the sad news late in October that my high school best friend had passed away. Because of certain factors, her funeral has not happened yet - it's next week on Tuesday. So it's been quite a wait for her family as well as all of us, her friends left behind.</p><p>Anyway ... that's been on my mind since I got the news. But NaNo has been quite a nice distraction as well.</p><p>I had a week off this week which was very nice, although I'd like at least two more! Thankfully the holiday season isn't far away, and so I'll get more time off then.</p><p>In between then and now, there is a lot of stuff that needs doing at work, so no doubt I'll be exhausted again by the time the holidays roll around.</p><p>I have not been feeling particularly creative this year, due to work being full-on as usual, and my "second full time job" the animal rescue still being busy as well). But I'm glad I managed to make myself do NaNo, as it feels good to have at least achieved something creative this year.</p><p>My hope is that I'll be able to focus mostly on revising existing books into the future.</p><p>I hope everyone out there is doing well. I wish that I was still heavily involved in this wonderful writer community, but alas other stuff in life has taken over. Maybe someday I'll get back to posting here more. I might try to make that a priority. <br /></p>Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-19177364614839355462021-11-03T20:57:00.001+08:002021-11-03T21:03:57.898+08:00Back for NaNoWriMo 2021<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmIGdNJ5CU6V52q-tgtq803OVpLblXt9OZxopvJ92zI0psvknla7OiGvob4BHZKUWdPlXq3pJOqzvlSCDhx2h03rc5eGUBwa-CcyUQtgZn-ah3PHJEeNVjDraHElpg_kmhv86Kmwy4PUg/s1110/NaNoWriMo-WriterBadge-555-2x.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1110" data-original-width="1110" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmIGdNJ5CU6V52q-tgtq803OVpLblXt9OZxopvJ92zI0psvknla7OiGvob4BHZKUWdPlXq3pJOqzvlSCDhx2h03rc5eGUBwa-CcyUQtgZn-ah3PHJEeNVjDraHElpg_kmhv86Kmwy4PUg/s320/NaNoWriMo-WriterBadge-555-2x.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Wowee! I managed to make it back here for another blog post in another year. How good am I?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's been another year of slight mayhem, partly because of COVID-19 still being a thing, and also because of work craziness still being a thing. I'm still involved in the cat rescue which is as crazy as ever as well, especially when you mostly have three people running the show and most of those three are burned out perpetually!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have a headache right now, but that's not important. What's important is that it's November, woohoo, and I'm writing for NaNo again! Last year, one of the novels I had on my to-maybe-do list was titled HOME. Well, that's the one I'm writing this year - I didn't start on it last year at all, as I was busy enough with the other two projects I'd set myself.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm at 7,533 words after completing Day 3's writing, and I am just taking it easy. I only just got to over the daily word count today, and I could easily have kept going but decided to stop for the night.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I must say, I still have the same old problem I have struggled with for years - not doing enough editing, while I keep writing new stories. But at least the new ones have a decent structure behind them, meaning that in theory, when I do get to editing it shouldn't be TOO messy. Of course, that doesn't stop me getting stuck in revisions when one particular chapter proves a little too pesky for me to know how to fix.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Really though, the main thing that got in my way this last year and a half was:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1. COVID-19</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2. Work being cray cray!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Even now, as we head for the end of the year, we are still having new projects flung at us at work, so there's really no rest for the wicked. Let's just say I can't wait for my holidays! (I have a week off next week, and three weeks off over Christmas)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anyway ... Is anyone else out there participating in NaNo? If so, good luck and I'd love to hear about your project! If not, I hope you're having success with whatever you're working on right now!<br /></div><p></p>Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-23345959509253938382020-11-22T10:34:00.006+08:002020-11-22T10:34:40.416+08:00I'm a NaNo winner for 2020<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhilFc9ds02l_7-hLMgkITe_6nLPLfEB-dfk7BGW1aG1EnZR00ZWN3XkfF4QbA6EHMiLV9NbhJY3MLSmjzGFGNK-k9iTy6I6i8UdZLZMFThSt56TCfjiMUJjMf6yCW3nd3Of96A4G0Tan0/s556/NaNo-2020-Winner-Badge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="556" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhilFc9ds02l_7-hLMgkITe_6nLPLfEB-dfk7BGW1aG1EnZR00ZWN3XkfF4QbA6EHMiLV9NbhJY3MLSmjzGFGNK-k9iTy6I6i8UdZLZMFThSt56TCfjiMUJjMf6yCW3nd3Of96A4G0Tan0/s320/NaNo-2020-Winner-Badge.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Tis official - I am a NaNo winner for 2020!</p><p>This has been a pretty good year NaNo-wise. I first finished one of my unfinished projects, a novella that is part of my SUNDOWN series and one that has been hanging around for years.</p><p>Next, I moved back into another unfinished project (FOLLOW) which I had been struggling with somewhat, having neared the 'saggy middle'. I got over that hurdle and moved into calmer waters, so the writing went well.</p><p>I've hit 50k, and will keep going for the rest of November (and beyond, I assume). I'd love to get this story finished as well.</p><p>I'm a little sad that I didn't get to start my new project (titled HOME), but maybe I can do my very first Camp NaNoWriMo next year and work on that story for that.</p><p>My critique partner has also had a great NaNo, and has already hit 50k as well. So we're both pretty happy with how we've gone, and no doubt we'll be helping each other in the critiquing department with what we've written sometime in the near future.</p><p>How is your writing going? I hope you're having some successes too, even if you don't do NaNoWriMo!</p><p>A FOLLOW playlist: https://www.last.fm/user/earthcrossing/playlists/11908723<br /></p>Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-34073273665724104852020-11-01T10:47:00.004+08:002020-11-01T10:47:27.038+08:00Has it really been a year already?? Gosh! [NaNoWriMo 2020]<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUzH4P6iC8sSMYPvUgscnmNi8yeJvQlXi-VgrxBDLZOGIMTfnCeTV66K4lXpdEl0So4jb9rDEpfyPm0NT60W8SEav1tEVqL7Ly7ycLRGOzHnI5Ym9ik-5UmNE9K46vQ4zZrOHaICezJ-M/s555/NaNo-2020-Writer-Badge-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="555" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUzH4P6iC8sSMYPvUgscnmNi8yeJvQlXi-VgrxBDLZOGIMTfnCeTV66K4lXpdEl0So4jb9rDEpfyPm0NT60W8SEav1tEVqL7Ly7ycLRGOzHnI5Ym9ik-5UmNE9K46vQ4zZrOHaICezJ-M/w320-h320/NaNo-2020-Writer-Badge-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Hello all. I can't believe it's been a year since I last updated this blog. Admittedly it has been one hell of a crazy year, and not just because of the whole COVID-19 situation.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here at home, I have been involved in a huge project at work which has taken up a lot of my time and concentration. As a result, my creative work has really taken a side seat and I've missed it so much. Only in the last month or so did I get back to doing some writing (mostly revision of an existing work), but for the most part it's been a quite creatively 'barren' year.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But of course I'm back to writing for NaNoWriMo 2020! No matter what situation I'm in, I just can't ever seem to miss this event.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I've got three projects I'm working on, and two of them have already been started. I'm hoping to finish at least one during NaNo this year, but time will tell. The third project is a brand new one which has been largely plotted out so should be good to go, but I'd rather finish these lingering stories first.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I hope all of you are doing really well! I haven't forgotten you, trust me - it's just been one of those years. Actually, no, it's not been like any other year that any of us have personally experienced. I'm sure you all understand.<br /></div><p></p>Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-19326201313691091942019-11-06T15:24:00.000+08:002019-11-06T15:24:01.483+08:00I'm NaNoing this year too<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHCO8T99YE9Ol7pSy8fa6CV2CHlQlmDJhzJLkJt9w5TdwEFJooeXgUJwj2w8Yp79H7KFdGzn1kUjVRXCX9VGByWo8kokYFCQYiN0DjpVrzgM9vsjBJm9me0xI9cBQ6UPIwLk_YmrAx94I/s1600/tumblr_pynwv9HiLJ1qd8ab4o2_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="555" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHCO8T99YE9Ol7pSy8fa6CV2CHlQlmDJhzJLkJt9w5TdwEFJooeXgUJwj2w8Yp79H7KFdGzn1kUjVRXCX9VGByWo8kokYFCQYiN0DjpVrzgM9vsjBJm9me0xI9cBQ6UPIwLk_YmrAx94I/s320/tumblr_pynwv9HiLJ1qd8ab4o2_640.jpg" width="320" /></a>I just wanted to quickly update to say that I am indeed participating in NaNoWriMo this year.<br />
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The new site has taken a lot of getting used to, and I know that many users are grappling with the extreme bugginess of the site. Clearly it wasn't quite ready to go at launch time on November 1st, but sometimes you get lucky and find workarounds that work for you.<br />
<br />
One of the biggest problems people are facing is the inability to use the default type of word count updating method - the "total words" option. For me, adding words written during each session is working, but it doesn't work for everyone. And for me, adding my overall word count total does NOT work. It looks like it's updated, but when you refresh and go back to it, the word count has reverted to the old count.<br />
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I count myself lucky to only have that problem, where other people are having what sounds like an infuriating issue with their projects being deleted / disappearing over and over again. They've had to add it back repeatedly, and some seem just about ready to give up.<br />
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I'm hoping that many of these teething issues will be resolved soon, but it seems like the NaNo team is very short-staffed, and they're dealing with what looks like thousands of complaints. So it can't be a fun time for them right now!<br />
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As for my actual writing? I am working on adding words to pre-existing projects. The main project is one that I had to do some corrections for before November 1st, because I had previously stalled at a certain point of the book. I had to revise my plan for how the story was going, as it just didn't seem to be working. So that was done before November began, and while it was a little slow getting back into the story, I feel like it's flowing nicely now. These are my first projects where I'm writing to a beat sheet, and I'm hoping that when I get to the revision stage, I'll find myself with far less of a mess than I have in the past (in my pantsing days). Time will tell!<br />
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I went to a kick-off party which was a lot of fun, and I'll go to the November 30th Write Night for my region too. All in all, I just love NaNo and always get sucked into doing it, even in those years when I'm not sure I should.<br />
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Is anyone else doing NaNo too?Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-42059991956513755972019-05-03T11:41:00.000+08:002019-05-03T11:42:33.538+08:00Point Book re-reads - 2019This year I am continuing with my goal of re-reading titles in my vast collection of pre-teen Point books that were super popular when I was in primary school. The purpose of re-reading these books is:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>To love how extremely late-80s/early-90s the books are now, in hindsight</li>
<li>To laugh at the ridiculousness at some of the plots/descriptions/etc</li>
<li>To bask in nostalgia</li>
<li>To remember what the heck those books were actually about.</li>
</ol>
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So far this year, I've re-read these two:</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #c27ba0; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>My Secret Admirer</b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> (Carol Ellis)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwA3BfmMDKB341FlYXyDfj3SIk0rIsQt5ElxoFhaRVcrdwhEpOZLb0xVg8bhv6wyphBGeRJ4o10FA2xeJtzY4kdW3fC9kBa3DxIaN7HYePJjs0Xf_j33R9VSNRZWLbc8VBfgfslSf3eaE/s1600/2464159.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="292" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwA3BfmMDKB341FlYXyDfj3SIk0rIsQt5ElxoFhaRVcrdwhEpOZLb0xVg8bhv6wyphBGeRJ4o10FA2xeJtzY4kdW3fC9kBa3DxIaN7HYePJjs0Xf_j33R9VSNRZWLbc8VBfgfslSf3eaE/s320/2464159.jpg" width="196" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>General thoughts:</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I actually didn't remember much about this one, except I had a vague recollection of the cliff area (the Rimrocks). T</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">his book wasn't too bad, but wasn't one of my favourites either.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Jenny had a case of insta-love with David, but then he didn't really show up much in the whole story. Still, I was oddly convinced by their love. Ha.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I liked that every guy Jenny knew was a suspect - it wasn't one of those lame stories where the stupid heroine suspects everybody except the one that she should suspect. That said, Jenny </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">was</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> pretty stupid, for a number of reasons which I listed in my <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2202600161">GoodReads review</a>.</span><br />
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>The 'Aww' factor:</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Things that made me go 'aww' tended to be things that related to the sheer 80s/90s-ness of the story.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Dean and his "computer print-out", the telephone booth being a lifeline, everyone calling around on their house phones (no mobiles, no social media), Jenny's fashion wins (white shorts and a rainbow-striped shirt; later there's a washed out denim jacket).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Oh, and the VCR!! "Let's watch a tape." The mere fact that the telephone with its "built-in answering machine" was something fancy at the time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #e69138; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mother's Helper</b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> (A. Bates)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi86sWiHDdS6XgmML37x9I1__-bryIh1J4Up7H0TDFkcz0gjVNbORovvgbxmsRdsaGIziqWJ_oACKvPSngR26ANFBOEl5MhqbaXf8sIanIdOoWu5bpXe6MdJY39PU3JeJWV5Axz3N5bX-U/s1600/2564586.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="977" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi86sWiHDdS6XgmML37x9I1__-bryIh1J4Up7H0TDFkcz0gjVNbORovvgbxmsRdsaGIziqWJ_oACKvPSngR26ANFBOEl5MhqbaXf8sIanIdOoWu5bpXe6MdJY39PU3JeJWV5Axz3N5bX-U/s320/2564586.jpg" width="195" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Having just "re-read" this for the first time in ... a very, very long time ... I'm not at all convinced I ever actually read the book "back in the day" to begin with. I didn't recall one single thing about the story. So it may have been one of those Point books that my brother bought and read, but I never did.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">The book was a bit underwhelming when compared with some of my favourite Point books, but it still had its moments. Of course, I guessed who the "bad guy" was about 9 pages in, but at the same time I knew I could be wrong so didn't take anything for granted. The book did a decent job of making me wonder if I was right or not ... but still I wouldn't say I was either hooked or duped by the story.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Becky at times reminded me of the heroine from </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #c27ba0;"><b>My Secret Admirer</b></span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">, Jenny, in that she did silly things I wouldn't have done in her place. She also didn't really strike me as much of a teenager a lot of the time, but who knows what I would have thought if I'd read it as a tween.</span></div>
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Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-83877221425611894342019-04-03T10:08:00.001+08:002019-04-03T10:08:21.802+08:00I am still alive in 2019!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHQqJ1y9pDtB2iOrahogslZjTR__b1WH9mClTMRAQ3_U4uH3AmJCoNt2HYGbLMfTMiNCDX3xvPTFJ72w9Kcb5uPEO-EBbk-uaUrpNgCPq923B_5Gp8MuEl4vFs0z6vLRW0-NqxoBgz9hA/s1600/DSCF0741+cd+11_adventures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1599" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHQqJ1y9pDtB2iOrahogslZjTR__b1WH9mClTMRAQ3_U4uH3AmJCoNt2HYGbLMfTMiNCDX3xvPTFJ72w9Kcb5uPEO-EBbk-uaUrpNgCPq923B_5Gp8MuEl4vFs0z6vLRW0-NqxoBgz9hA/s320/DSCF0741+cd+11_adventures.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sharing some of my art, because I feel like some graphics<br />are needed.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Well, hello there!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ummm, so yeah. It's been ages since I last posted! I'm probably going to be saying that for every future blog post I do, until I someday get back into the swing of posting regularly. I'm not sure when/if that will happen, but I still have a big soft spot for this blogging community so I hope it does.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think one thing that's affected my blogging here is that I'm in touch with a lot of bloggers I met here via other means - on Facebook or Instagram namely. I'm also not really writing or editing at the moment. Things are very busy (again) with the cat rescue, and it's that time of year again when we have to prepare our financial documents for the annual audit. So that's taking a lot of focus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have many story ideas churning away in the back of my head, but really do want to concentrate on editing what I already have. The same old problem that I'm always tackling!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the music front, my bandmate is already working on new songs for the next Woody's A Girl album, and he has asked me to send through songs that I'd like us to work on as well. I'm still working on narrowing down the list, but one problem I've run into is that some songs are missing tabs - I never recorded the tabs at the time I originally wrote/recorded the demo versions of the songs. So that's a slight spanner in the works. Still, I have enough of a list to send through to him as it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Elsewhere, I'm still a part of the little critique group, and comment on other members' shared excerpts when they're posted, etc. But I haven't posted anything new myself in quite some time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another thing that I'm getting off to a slow start with this year is my GoodReads Reading Challenge. I'm something like 7 books behind schedule, partly because I read some really tedious books that took ages to get through. I'm hoping to get some good reading time in to catch up. And speaking of reading, I'm part of a workplace book club that meets every 6 weeks or so (I think). We've already read one book, and we're currently reading the second. So I'll be checking out books I probably wouldn't usually as a result of that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, I'm hoping that once the cat rescue stuff calms down again, I'll have more time for my creative pursuits. I do miss it when I'm not able to really get stuck in, so it's not like I'm not motivated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope you are all doing well out there. Let me know what you've been up to!</span>Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-1547977196501041492018-09-17T08:51:00.003+08:002018-09-17T08:51:26.770+08:00NaNoWriMo 2018 plans (and plotting)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_yhRugtDbm0WnwIO2JM2w_db9g_8FxaTPNRjl4d9BM9EgEOxYLx4Sue2H1XVNqk-ymmMIuan__01IaShbIBBVTFWyqK5673LTMtL6pFs0UAdUWy4l33lH2bSLEJo-0azQHxCbx9T9BCA/s1600/NaNo-2018-Writer-Badge.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="555" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_yhRugtDbm0WnwIO2JM2w_db9g_8FxaTPNRjl4d9BM9EgEOxYLx4Sue2H1XVNqk-ymmMIuan__01IaShbIBBVTFWyqK5673LTMtL6pFs0UAdUWy4l33lH2bSLEJo-0azQHxCbx9T9BCA/s200/NaNo-2018-Writer-Badge.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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Wow, it's been a while since I wrote here! I thought I should check in because NaNoWriMo 2018 is coming up, and I do have a plan for what I'll be writing.</div>
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I have a new adult romance mostly planned out (temp title = FOLLOW), with a little way to go. I'm quite enjoying this whole planning thing, which I never thought I would back in the old days.</div>
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I've also been writing another novel (CLAUDIA AND DL) after planning the story out down to great detail, putting said plan into a custom beat sheet that combines a lot of different 'beat theories', and then starting to write. The writing has been flowing nicely for the most part, though I've had a few moments where I've stopped and given myself a little break, e.g. during chapters that didn't seem to flow quite as easily.</div>
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As usual I'm writing more words than expected/planned, but my bloated chapters will be honed later, during edits.</div>
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All of the above is helped by the great (albeit small) critique group I'm a part of. I think we have really helped each other in the last year or so. It's nice to be enjoying a moment of strong creativity, which is also partly inspired by my critique partners' own sense of inspiration too.</div>
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Are you planning on writing something for NaNoWriMo this year?</div>
Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-27662583020599266912018-04-27T21:12:00.000+08:002018-04-27T21:12:21.585+08:00[APRIL UPDATE] The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club & GOALS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglsT7XGQjeMtZVrRpbtBewMnnKe8iFIAEdDWZgAz5RJaXDSMrCNUClei7TOSmaeADdY46qx-JwtvQ1c2m83BcXaz-xbhtW0O-p39I0RehpLltNCD-kN3v37eshfXDRVZetIDzgBDtWZaW/s1600/Coffeehouse.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglsT7XGQjeMtZVrRpbtBewMnnKe8iFIAEdDWZgAz5RJaXDSMrCNUClei7TOSmaeADdY46qx-JwtvQ1c2m83BcXaz-xbhtW0O-p39I0RehpLltNCD-kN3v37eshfXDRVZetIDzgBDtWZaW/s1600/Coffeehouse.jpeg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 19.32px;">~ </span><a href="http://armchairsquid.blogspot.com.au/">The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : April 2018</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: inherit;">I missed last month's update, and this wasn't intentional but it happened and I decided to just let it go. I guess you could say I've been busy with my rescue group, with work, and with life in general, so that has sort of taken over. But I'm here this month, and I've got a book to talk about! I must say that it's not a particularly amazing book, but it's certainly the one that entertained me the most this month. That book is ... </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim6CpsOBy0McAKY6Dc16YIAQnbnVouK3dY_Jr7Ze7lMaayykhw_Ug_ZL2Qhal3WRmmIru0yx_FA2-OZdmJ2cAHprGhl8TCSLTxq7APhoc0zeUFXczr8kr2JVgU6QWA-lOBN-bgBLbzWqU/s1600/beachparty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="969" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim6CpsOBy0McAKY6Dc16YIAQnbnVouK3dY_Jr7Ze7lMaayykhw_Ug_ZL2Qhal3WRmmIru0yx_FA2-OZdmJ2cAHprGhl8TCSLTxq7APhoc0zeUFXczr8kr2JVgU6QWA-lOBN-bgBLbzWqU/s320/beachparty.jpg" width="193" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: inherit;">R.L. Stine's Point books were a staple of my childhood/tween years, and I still enjoy re-reading them today. As an adult woman it's interesting to read back and realise how un-pc certain aspects of these books are through the viewpoint of today's lens. This book, for e.g., features a teen girl getting both scared and a little excited when she's surrounded by menacing dudes in heavy metal t-shirts.</span><br />
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Still, despite the awkward moments like the one described above, I found a lot to love about this re-read. One of the things I loved most was the description of the garishly 90s clothing the characters wore. Examples:<br />
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• The dudes in Def Leppard shirts paying to get their white "high tops" polished<br />
• Jerry's tie-dyed jean cut-offs and a black-and-white striped crew-neck pullover (wuhhh?)<br />
• Karen's short pink skirt over black bicycle tights and a white midriff top, and of course her rollerskates (date with Jerry!)<br />
• Jerry's white tennis shorts and a shiny blue, sleeveless t-shirt<br />
• Vince's faded cutoffs and no shirt (hey, Vince? You had me at your metal shirt from earlier in the book!)<br />
• Ann-Marie's Day-Glo green bikini<br />
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There was a lot else to like, too, such as these favourite moments of mine:</div>
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• The jellyfish. Oh man, that amused me!</div>
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• The part where we get the imagery in the narrative that matches the book's front cover. Noice!</div>
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• The fact that certain expectations of characters' natures get turned on their head in the end</div>
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• This quote which is a thought from Karen after she finds a note from Ann-Marie on the fridge, held by a magnet:<i> "How did people ever communicate before refrigerator magnets? she thought."</i> Keep in mind this was before mobile phones were a general fact of life.</div>
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• The phrase: "... bombed off to the hospital."</div>
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And my personal favourite quote from the entire book, which made me burst out laughing:</div>
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<i><span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">"She could hear the wet suit ripping, a frightening sound,</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">like a lobster being torn apart."</span></i></div>
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So this re-read was quite a bizarre experience for me. For one, I didn't really remember much about the book at all - I'm not 100% convinced I ever read it in the old days, but then I think I <i>must </i>have. For another, it was extremely dated, but in a delightfully amusing way.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;">This is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/176280.Beach_Party">GoodReads</a> blurb:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></span></span></i></span></span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>It's the ultimate beach party in California. And Karen, who's just broken up with her boyfriend, is going to enjoy every minute of it--especially having two new guys who like her. But the party takes a nasty turn when Karen realizes someone is out to spoil the fun by getting rid of her.</i></span><i><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></i></blockquote>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;">Currently (re-)Reading:</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/864890.Harry_Potter_and_the_Goblet_of_Fire">Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets</a> </span></i></span></b><b style="color: blue;">by J.K. Rowling</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="color: blue;"><b style="color: black;"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;">Currently Reading:</span></b></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="color: blue;"><b style="color: black;"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16163229-alice-will">Alice Will (Dreams of Chaos, #1)</a> </span></i></span></b><b style="color: blue;">by Ashley Chappell</b></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yqujiKp8TKIhavKQuRikMZdx5sslqn3sW1VpMb6tLXZj8okygv_z15abyFcUwVZMsPS_AAOq9ANIPpu52ZMm9Ea3VRei24M3BYU6JXM_vE1Oe7n34XmRylxOlEiMfumoWWe-01qyvZ4/s1600/christmas-lights.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="45" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yqujiKp8TKIhavKQuRikMZdx5sslqn3sW1VpMb6tLXZj8okygv_z15abyFcUwVZMsPS_AAOq9ANIPpu52ZMm9Ea3VRei24M3BYU6JXM_vE1Oe7n34XmRylxOlEiMfumoWWe-01qyvZ4/s1600/christmas-lights.gif" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4d145djKEyM/UiLy1OXmMpI/AAAAAAAABR8/cVAfZVHrZB8/s320/Do+You+Have+Goals+banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4d145djKEyM/UiLy1OXmMpI/AAAAAAAABR8/cVAfZVHrZB8/s320/Do+You+Have+Goals+banner.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">~ <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals? : April 2018</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Each month, a group of bloggers report on what goals they have been working to achieve in the last month. A while ago now we set longish-term goals (and they were meant to be big goals, so we could feel bold and daring!) and each month we're tracking our progress towards achieving those goals. Check out the <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals?</a> blog for a list of participants, and feel free to join our hop if you want to have some extra motivation for achieving your goals. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This month's updates on my own creative goals:</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #990000;">EDITS/</span><span style="color: #660000;">WRITING</span> </i>- Things have really slowed down for me lately, as mentioned above - rescue chaos is getting in the way of my story plotting/editing/etc. But I've still got thoughts churning away in my head, and I'm eager to get stuck in as soon as I can. My little critique group is my main lifeline to this at the moment.</span></li>
<li><i style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Music</span> </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">- It's all completed from my end, in terms of vocals and final thoughts, but apparently my bandmate's computer just died, so not sure if that affects our project's outcome or not. ;) </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And that's about it for now. How are you doing with your goals/projects/etc?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglsT7XGQjeMtZVrRpbtBewMnnKe8iFIAEdDWZgAz5RJaXDSMrCNUClei7TOSmaeADdY46qx-JwtvQ1c2m83BcXaz-xbhtW0O-p39I0RehpLltNCD-kN3v37eshfXDRVZetIDzgBDtWZaW/s1600/Coffeehouse.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglsT7XGQjeMtZVrRpbtBewMnnKe8iFIAEdDWZgAz5RJaXDSMrCNUClei7TOSmaeADdY46qx-JwtvQ1c2m83BcXaz-xbhtW0O-p39I0RehpLltNCD-kN3v37eshfXDRVZetIDzgBDtWZaW/s1600/Coffeehouse.jpeg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 19.32px;">~ </span><a href="http://armchairsquid.blogspot.com.au/">The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : Feb 2018</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: inherit;">Wow, here it is! My first post for 2018. I've done a lot of reading so far this year, largely because while I was overseas I was sick practically the entire time, so on those days when I did a lot of lazing around I took to reading. And reading. <i>And reading. </i>Anyway, for February this is the book I enjoyed the most, keeping in mind that I didn't rate any of my reads 5 stars during January <i>or </i>February.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy5CTZH2nVRMX0ERAGtQVZFAAkv6lMKTnuenjSSRsbTOam4AqwtQbER-hPjxn8HrgmNKeLgfgRZxHS5iR49WZNAprBalxw5Kle3b8aLwJNfjEUV1pDnk6GnuIKCCsgTgvEQ5w-nf_jsEg/s1600/17786014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="248" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy5CTZH2nVRMX0ERAGtQVZFAAkv6lMKTnuenjSSRsbTOam4AqwtQbER-hPjxn8HrgmNKeLgfgRZxHS5iR49WZNAprBalxw5Kle3b8aLwJNfjEUV1pDnk6GnuIKCCsgTgvEQ5w-nf_jsEg/s320/17786014.jpg" width="196" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: inherit;">I've had this book on my Kindle for aaaages but only just read it now. Even though it was a light-hearted kind of simple little story, I really loved it - it had me cracking up on a regular basis, and the romance was pretty steamy even with two virgins as the main characters. ;)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: inherit;">Emma annoyed and (totally) exasperated me sometimes, but I couldn't hold it against her when she pretty quickly realised what an idiot she was after every idiotic thing she did. Guy had a lot of patience considering he's 70k years old and definitely knew better in some instances than the 22-year-old (yep, quite the age difference, and Emma comments on this at one point too!) with far less life experience.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: inherit;">I'd recommend this for anyone who wants a fun, light read that includes some parts that may or may not make one gigglesnort.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: inherit;">Some of my fave quotes:</span><br />
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<li><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was like being trapped in a huge spinach salad.<br /></span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #181818;"><span style="background-color: white;">This coming from someone who'd seen it all over the course of tens of thousands of years: the rise and fall of dozens of empires, entire civilisations disappearing, some into the ocean--countless genocides and wars, the birth of gangster rap and reality television.</span></span><br />Yes. Terrible, awful things.<br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"><br /></span></span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Holy crap, woman! What was that?' Guy stared down at the twitching right half of the body. He was morbidly shocked and incredibly proud.<br /><br />She shrugged casually. 'Payback. Hell hath no fury like a Payal scorned. Can we go now?”<br /></span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">"You're an awesome god of death and war."</span></i></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;">This is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13549824-accidentally-in-love-with-a-god">GoodReads</a> blurb:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></span></span></i></span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>Twenty-two-year-old Emma Keane has a secret friend. He’s powerful, mysterious, and devastatingly handsome. In her dreams, anyway.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><i>In real life, he’s an enigma. Maybe just a teensie jealous. Definitely overbearing. He’s also a voice only she can hear.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><i>So who or what is he? He won’t say. But if she wants to be free, to be normal, Emma will have to trek to the jungles once ruled by the Mayans and find the forgotten ruin holding the answers.</i></span></blockquote>
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<i><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">However, the ruthless deity she’s about to unknowingly unleash on the modern world, might not be so easily extracted from her life. Bottom line, he’s got enemies, and now, so does she.</span>"</span></span></span></i></blockquote>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;">Currently (re-)Reading:</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/289011.Harry_Potter_and_the_Chamber_of_Secrets">Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets</a> </span></i></span></b><b style="color: blue;">by J.K. Rowling</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">~ <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals? : February 2018</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Each month, a group of bloggers report on what goals they have been working to achieve in the last month. A while ago now we set longish-term goals (and they were meant to be big goals, so we could feel bold and daring!) and each month we're tracking our progress towards achieving those goals. Check out the <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals?</a> blog for a list of participants, and feel free to join our hop if you want to have some extra motivation for achieving your goals. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This month's updates on my own creative goals:</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #990000;">EDITS/</span><span style="color: #660000;">WRITING</span> </i>- I keep getting assaulted by new story ideas! They are more enticing than trying to untangle the messes that are the existing stories. But I have my little critique group to keep encouraging me to do the "hard" stuff as well as nurture my shiny new ideas. Currently I'm trying to figure out how my novel SUNDOWN fits into a template of accepted romance story 'beats', to help me identify what needs working on.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">NaNoWriMo '18</span></i>- I know, I know, it's REALLY early to be thinking about this, but with the numerous ideas that have sprung themselves on me in recent months, I will have a big decision to make come November. Still, I'm pretty sure I know which idea I'll be running with ... at least until the next "better" idea leaps at me, anyway.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Music</span> </i>- My task at the moment is to have a good listen to the final mixes my bandmate has sent me and send him back any notes. From what I've heard so far, there's one song I'm not sure I'm happy with in terms of the vocals, but I hope I'll get over that and realise it's great as is, so I don't have to do anymore recording. :P I'm hoping to have my notes back to my bandmate by this coming weekend.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And that's about it for now. How are you doing with your goals/projects/etc?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">~ <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals? : December 2017</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As I mentioned on Friday, I'm not sure if this month's update is going ahead, since I had to schedule this one ahead of time as I'm currently travelling (happy New Year's Eve!). But even if others aren't posting, this is my end-of-year update on my goals for the year.</span><br />
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<a href="https://twfwordstuff.blogspot.com.au/p/revision-goals-revise-lost-missing-gone.html">This is my 2017 Goals page</a>.<br /><br />
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<b><i style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Edits / Revisions / etc.</i></b><br />
<b><i style="background-color: yellow;"></i></b>I guess my primary aim this year was to do more work on my revisions, and I did do quite a bit this year. I got back into posting on the AbsoluteWrite forums, and through those forums I found two new critique partners with whom I formed a little off-site group. On that group we're doing a lot of work on novel structure in general, as well as running story ideas by each other and keeping each other inspired.</blockquote>
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<b><i style="background-color: yellow;">New writing</i></b><br />
<b><i style="background-color: yellow;"></i></b>I did a little bit of new writing outside of November, but the main bulk of new stuff was created during NaNoWriMo when I wrote most of <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">THE FULL CIRCLE</span>, as well as a small number of words on JARED & JENNA and another new story called HOTEL LOBBY. In December I managed to finish off <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">THE FULL CIRCLE</span> and now I'm starting a not-too-in-depth read-through/edit of it. I have bigger changes I want to implement, but I think I'll give the novel a breather before hacking at it too much. It's good to get distance sometimes! Meanwhile, I'll have to pick another project to revise.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1azV2rdx4R6OIlx7LupuOoio1Yosv9zwwI2zsrWojJcTQkrBMg-p1c23P4o3Xck41iUEZk3IIlCCM26QjUKmvP6U600TbzZE2tnscZglv2K8Wu7k8Yqus1UhuDWif3-Gc6cgKtOP730/s1600/Front+Cover+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1034" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1azV2rdx4R6OIlx7LupuOoio1Yosv9zwwI2zsrWojJcTQkrBMg-p1c23P4o3Xck41iUEZk3IIlCCM26QjUKmvP6U600TbzZE2tnscZglv2K8Wu7k8Yqus1UhuDWif3-Gc6cgKtOP730/s200/Front+Cover+2.jpg" width="200" /></a><b><i style="background-color: #d9ead3;">Music</i></b><br />
<b><i style="background-color: yellow;"></i></b>I really <i>have</i> finished all songs for the new WAG album, and my bandmate has approved them! We're looking at a Jan/Feb release, so we'll see how that goes. I'm pretty excited about this album, and now that I'm recovering from my studies, I'm excited about my creative stuff in general! Bring on 2018!</blockquote>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="background-color: cyan;">Reading</span></i>This year's reading goals went well, especially after I decided towards the end of this year that I was going to count re-reads in my total reads for each year. I didn't realise that you can count multiple reads on GoodReads, but now that I do, everything with my reading goals each year will change! So far I've read 50 out of the desired 40 reads, including a handful of re-reads.</blockquote>
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<b><i style="background-color: lime;">So... What's the plan for 2018?</i></b><br />
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<li>Release new Woody's A Girl album (titled OBLIVION)</li>
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<li>Revise <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">THE FULL CIRCLE</span></li>
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<li>Revise at least one other pre-existing novel (maybe SUNDOWN? I have my CP's notes to work off, and she's given me a LOT to work on)</li>
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<li>Compete in (and win!) NaNoWriMo 2018 (I have so many new ideas to choose from...somebody stop me!)</li>
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<li>Possibly participate in the A-to-Z challenge in 2018, assuming it's still running</li>
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<li>Re-read at least 20 books that are on my "to-re-read-and-review" GoodReads bookshelf</li>
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<li>Read at least 40 books in total as part of my annual GR challenge</li>
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And I guess that's a wrap for 2017! </blockquote>
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<span style="color: purple;"><span style="background-color: #ead1dc;"><b>How did you all go with your goals this year?</b></span> </span></blockquote>
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<b style="background-color: #ead1dc;"><span style="color: purple;">Do you have any plans in place for 2018?</span></b></blockquote>
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Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-14364885508802480092017-12-29T09:14:00.000+08:002017-12-29T09:14:26.147+08:00[DEC UPDATE] The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglsT7XGQjeMtZVrRpbtBewMnnKe8iFIAEdDWZgAz5RJaXDSMrCNUClei7TOSmaeADdY46qx-JwtvQ1c2m83BcXaz-xbhtW0O-p39I0RehpLltNCD-kN3v37eshfXDRVZetIDzgBDtWZaW/s1600/Coffeehouse.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglsT7XGQjeMtZVrRpbtBewMnnKe8iFIAEdDWZgAz5RJaXDSMrCNUClei7TOSmaeADdY46qx-JwtvQ1c2m83BcXaz-xbhtW0O-p39I0RehpLltNCD-kN3v37eshfXDRVZetIDzgBDtWZaW/s1600/Coffeehouse.jpeg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 19.32px;">~ </span><a href="http://armchairsquid.blogspot.com.au/">The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : Dec 2017</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;">Firstly, I've decided to post my Goals post separately this month. I'm not even sure if that blog hop is still going ahead, but even if it's not, I'm going to talk about my goals and what I've achieved (or not achieved) this year. Secondly, I'm not actually here! I'm currently travelling so I've pre-written and scheduled this post.</span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47;"><br />Now, onto the book review part of the post! I've decided that this month I'm going to cheat and choose <i>two </i>books. In reality I'd probably like to choose <b><i>four</i></b>, but I'll stick to just book #1 of the trilogy I finished, as well as the other book that was its greatest competitor. My choices for December's books read are:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-size: large;">Melina Marchetta - <i>On the Jellicoe Road</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">I can't believe it took me this long to read this book. Wow! I absolutely loved it. Sometimes, especially in the beginning, I found myself a bit confused about who was who in the flashback scenes. I got used to those scenes, of course, once I knew what they were, but I think it'll be a lot easier when I re-read the book (and oh yes, I will be re-reading it!).</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">I read Marchetta's </span><i style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Looking For Alibrandi</i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> back in high school days, since it was a prescribed text, and I really enjoyed it, but this one went that extra step into 'special' territory for me. Obviously Taylor is a great character, but </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Jonah is amazing and I love how things unfolded between the two of them. The turf wars were fun to read about, especially as the story progressed. I wonder what Taylor's forebears would have thought about how things ended up!</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Pretty early on I suspected the true identify of the Hermit. What a sad story those five friends had - as if it hadn't started out badly enough for them. But their friendship was so strong and amazing to read about, and I felt like Taylor and her friends were forming their own similar posse.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Okay, enough rambling - let's summarise: I loved it, I'm so glad I finally read it, I will definitely re-read it someday, and savour every moment all over again!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">This is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7958043-on-the-jellicoe-road">GoodReads</a> blurb:</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Taylor is leader of the boarders at the Jellicoe School. She has to keep the upper hand in the territory wars and deal with Jonah Griggs - the enigmatic leader of the cadets, and someone she thought she would never see again.</span></span></i><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><i><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor's only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived in Jellicoe eighteen years ago. She needs to find out more, but this means confronting her own story, making sense of her strange, recurring dream, and finding her mother - who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road.</span><span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Jenny Han - </span><i style="color: #741b47;">To All The Boys I've Loved Before</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: blue; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">First up: IT'S GONNA BE
A MOVIE ERMAGERD! Now, onward!</span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white;">This book made me go 'nawwwww', so I gave it 5
stars. I guess we'll see how I feel later once the fervour has died down (<u>ETA:
now it's "later" and I still feel that way</u>).</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">There's a bit of a love triangle (well, really,
there are sort of two), but I may have made assumptions about what would happen
and I may have been proven wrong in the long run. The supporting
characters were fantastic - I think Kitty might be amongst my faves, even
though she was a total brat <s>sometimes</s> almost all the time. She
was so matter-of-factly bitchy that you kind of had to admire it! She's
definitely the most strong-minded of the sisters, and she was constantly
cracking me up.</span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I also love Lara Jean's conversations
with Peter, where she brings him down a peg or two without even intending to,
e.g. talking about how Gen has him "whipped" as if it's a basic fact,
and one that everybody accepts. He's desperate to argue the point, of
course.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: blue; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In some reviews I've
noticed a comparison of this book to <i>Little Women</i>, but as I haven't
read that one (gasp!) I can't comment on that angle. But I can say I bloody
love this book, and the two that follow as well, and cannot wait to see the
movie.</span></b><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><br />
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<span style="background: white;">P.S. Team Peter!</span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px;">This is the </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7958043-on-the-jellicoe-road" style="font-size: 14px;">GoodReads</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px;"> blurb:</span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them… all at once?</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span></span></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.</span><span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></span></i></blockquote>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;">Currently (re-)Reading:</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72193.Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher_s_Stone">Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone</a> </span></i></span></b><b style="color: blue;">by J.K. Rowling</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 19.32px;">~ </span><a href="http://armchairsquid.blogspot.com.au/">The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : Nov 2017</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;">It's been another month of quite a few reads, but this month I did not have any 5-star reads to choose from. I had quite a few 4-star reads, and the top two were the one I chose, and the final book in the <i>Jessica Darling </i>series. It was a tough choice, because I am so in love with that series, but I decided that I would choose Cassie Mae's <i>Switched </i>as my book of the month this month. Here's my modified GoodReads review:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818;">Recently I went on a little Cassie Mae book buying binge, and this was one of the books I picked up for my Kindle. I wasn't sure what I would think because I didn't love the premise of a girl trying to break up her bestie's relationship - part of me thought I might detest Kayla all the way through. Thankfully I wasn't disappointed, because there was character growth and, after all, human beings aren't perfect, and I don't want to read about perfect Mary Sues anyway!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">Having read many of Cassie Mae's books by now, this is probably amongst my faves. It helped that there were times when I literally burst out laughing and couldn't stop, and there was even gigglesnorting involved. So, humour? Big tick! (and they say laughter is the best medicine, sooooo...this book is healthy to read!) </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">I <i>loved</i> the hero, Wesley, and as mentioned above (and as I saw mentioned in some other reviews too), I wasn't sure if I was going to think much of Kayla, but thankfully across the span of the book she learned and grew as a person. I will say that I think she was a very lucky girl to have such an understanding bestie!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">All in all, this was a nice and swoonworthy story with imperfect characters who grew as people. Oh, and there were a couple of total hottie guys to drool over. What more could a (romance-loving) girl want?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">This is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18166750-switched">GoodReads</a> blurb:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></span></span></i></span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;">Ever since high school, Kayla has been crazy for gorgeous football player Talon. But before she could muster the courage to tell him, he became a hot item with her beautiful BFF, Reagan. The only person who knows Kayla’s secret is Wesley, Talon’s best bud—and he’s got it bad for Reagan. Now they’re all in college together, hanging out 24/7. For Kayla, seeing the two lovebirds together is absolutely unbearable. So Kayla and Wesley hatch a plot to drive them apart before Talon has a chance to give Reagan the Christmas gift she’s been waiting for.</i></blockquote>
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<i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;">Soon enough, the once happy couple is fighting. Reagan suddenly can’t get enough of Wesley’s goofy sense of humor, and Talon seems to be paying more attention to Kayla than a guy who’s “only a friend” ever should. But just when everything seems to be falling into place, Kayla and Wesley accidentally spend a night together and discover a hitch in their plan they never considered: that switching partners may not lead to a perfect ending after all.</i><i style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></i></blockquote>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;">Currently Reading: </span><i><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32613366-the-hate-u-give">The Hate U Give</a> </span></i></span></b><b style="color: blue;">by Angie Thomas</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">~ <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals? : November 2017</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Each month, a group of bloggers report on what goals they have been working to achieve in the last month. A while ago now we set longish-term goals (and they were meant to be big goals, so we could feel bold and daring!) and each month we're tracking our progress towards achieving those goals. Check out the <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals?</a> blog for a list of participants, and feel free to join our hop if you want to have some extra motivation for achieving your goals. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This month's updates on my own creative goals:</span><br />
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<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #990000;">EDITS IN GENERAL</span> </i>- No editing is being done this month, due to NaNo. Of course, they are always lurking there in the back of my mind, and I have not forgotten what awaits me after November is done! I got my last critiques back from my CP for <i>Sundown </i>but I am too scared to look at those yet. I'm saving it for later. ;)</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">NaNoWriMo '17</span></i>- I was very relieved to get my last assignment done for my studies early in November, but I was doing surprisingly well with NaNo even before that. This is one of those years where the words are flowing easily. For the most part I've been writing THE FULL CIRCLE, but at one point I started jumping around to different scenes I wanted to write, so I am now working on filling various gaps. It's still flowing well and I'm at just over 70k for that novel. I've also written about 2,600 on my other project, HOTEL LOBBY, but that one isn't my main focus.</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Music</span> </i>- This one is really hanging over my head and putting me under pressure all the time. I want to get it done but never seem to have the motivation on weekends, etc. I need to be in the right frame of mind to do music. That said, I hope to get recordings for two final songs done this weekend...</li>
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That's a wrap for November. How are you doing with your goals/projects/etc?</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 19.32px;">~ </span><a href="http://armchairsquid.blogspot.com.au/">The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : Oct Edition</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;">It's been another month of quite a few reads, and it's another difficult choice between two top books this month. The honourable mention goes to <i>The Mortal Instruments #6,</i> because oh my gosh, I looooooved this. What a perfect ending. But shock of all horrors, this month another book wins the day, and that book is <b><i>Second Helpings (</i></b><b style="font-style: italic;">Jessica Darling, #2)</b><i>. </i>Yep, I know - I'm way late to this party! I'd never heard of these books until one of my critique partners put me onto them this month.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #181818;">You can always tell when I adore a book because I will read it in a day or less. And in this case it was even more impressive because I was also doing homework during that time span, and watching stuff on Netflix. This is definitely a "lie on the couch and read" kind of book.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #181818;">So, book #2 in the <i>Jessica Darling </i>series follows on from book #1's big cliffhanger, and the tension continues to build to near-unbearable levels this time around. The book's ending was so very worth the wait ... although of course the <i>very </i>ending leaves things open for the next book in the series (which I've heard mixed reviews about).</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #181818;">So what did I love about this book? Well, Jessica is hilarious - she makes me snort with laughter. The teenaged voice was so well done, but it was extra good because this is an intelligent teenager. I love the supporting cast too, with their various quirks. Each of Jessica's Clueless Crew have their own unique features that made reading all the dialogue between them a real treat. Then, of course, there's Marcus ...</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #181818;">He was great in book #1, but I much preferred him in book #2 where he was just too adorable - and of course, super sexy. Let's sum it up like this: *SWOOOOOOOOOOOOON* Okay, done. :) Sometimes I felt so sorry for him what with all those hoops he had to jump through. But it wasn't <i>only </i>Jessica's fault, since it takes two to tango (or not tango, as the case may be). And one of my very favourite </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">aspects of this was book was "Tuttie Flutie"'s interaction with Gladdie. Gladdie, man, what a legend. The scenes at the nursing home were so wonderful.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To summarise, I'm so glad to have had this book recommended!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">This is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8755776-city-of-lost-souls">GoodReads</a> blurb:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;">Jessica Darling is up in arms again in this much-anticipated, hilarious sequel to Sloppy Firsts. This time, the hyperobservant, angst-ridden teenager is going through the social and emotional ordeal of her senior year at Pineville High. Not only does the mysterious and oh-so-compelling Marcus Flutie continue to distract Jessica, but her best friend, Hope, still lives in another state, and she can’t seem to escape the clutches of the Clueless Crew, her annoying so-called friends. To top it off, Jessica’s parents won’t get off her butt about choosing a college, and her sister Bethany’s pregnancy is causing a big stir in the Darling household.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><i><br style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;">With keen intelligence, sardonic wit, and ingenious comedic timing, Megan McCafferty again re-creates the tumultuous world of today’s fast-moving and sophisticated teens. Fans of Sloppy Firsts will be reunited with their favorite characters and also introduced to the fresh new faces that have entered Jess’s life, including the hot creative writing teacher at her summer college prep program and her feisty, tell-it-like-it-is grandmother Gladdie. But most of all, readers will finally have the answers to all of their burgeoning questions, and then some: Will Jessica crack under the pressure of senioritis? Will her unresolved feelings for Marcus wreak havoc on her love life? Will Hope ever come back to Pineville? Fall in love with saucy, irreverent Jessica all over again in this wonderful sequel to a book that critics and readers alike hailed as the best high school novel in years.</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></i></span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;">Currently Reading: </span><i><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9961796-lola-and-the-boy-next-door">Lola and the Boy Next Door</a>,</span></i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Book #2 in the <i>Anna and the French Kiss</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> series</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">~ <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals? : October Edition</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For those who don't know, there is now a blog for this blog hop, rather than us going straight to <a href="http://sylmion.blogspot.com.au/">Misha's blog</a>. Check out the new <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals?</a> blog, and join our hop if you want to have some extra motivation for achieving your goals. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, some updates on my own creative goals:</span><br />
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<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #990000;">EDITS IN GENERAL</span> </i>- I've been doing edits here and there, including just adding notes to things for editing later. Homework has got a bit in the way of me doing much of anything for the last week or so.</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Critique Group! & NaNoWriMo '17</span></i>- We are all gearing up to do NaNo this year, and all have some pretty solid plans in place. We are all pretty excited about our projects, and we're ready to cheer each other on! I just have to get my last bits of homework out of the way before I can really settle into a NaNo rhythm once November kicks off.</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Music</span> </i>- I have no updates. I still have not finished the last song because I forgot to do certain necessary harmonies for it, and until I do those it isn't finished. I also have to send Billy some other music files that he wants to work on, but I haven't had much of a chance to sit down and focus on getting that stuff done. Hopefully this weekend I'm going to have some spare time!</li>
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That's a wrap for October. How are you doing with your goals/projects/etc?</div>
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So, I had my plan all figured out for NaNoWriMo this year, with my 'beat sheet' written up and discussed with my critique group (though not in any great depth at this point). Then, boom, bam, <i>lightning </i>strikes and I get another idea ... which has sort of taken over my first idea.<br />
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I'll probably still start off writing my first idea during November, just because that was my original plan. BUT the second idea is really consuming me and I'm dying to start writing it. Currently I'm writing up scene summaries for what I'll be writing, and filling in any gaps that show themselves. And no matter how many notes I wrote, my excitement doesn't diminish. Ohhh, I love this inspired feeling!<br />
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Of course, before I can <i>really </i>get stuck into NaNo, I have my last two assignments to complete for my studies - and they're big ones hanging over my head. I also technically have to complete my research project which is a rather mammoth undertaking. So while I'm excited about NaNo, I'm super stressed about my studies.<br />
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It's a weird sort of situation to be in.Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-48368991389250744802017-09-29T20:32:00.000+08:002017-09-29T21:52:21.529+08:00[SEPT UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 19.32px;">~ </span><a href="http://armchairsquid.blogspot.com.au/">The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : September Edition</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;">Okay, I have read a few books this month and the one I have to choose is <i>City of Lost Souls</i>, Book #5 in <i>The Mortal Instruments.</i> My GoodReads review is one big gushy ramble of mostly "Clace"-related blabbering, but I did edit the review later to talk about "the rest of those characters" who are in fact quite significant. So I'll try to make this review some semblance of useful for anyone unfamiliar with and curious about the book and/or series.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">** If you don't want to know ANY LITTLE HINT OF A THING about Book #5, maybe skip the review. Okay **</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;"><span style="background-color: white;">This entire series has been a combination of "eewwww", "OMG" and "aaaaahhhh must read on ASAP" for me. I struggled with Books #2 & #3, and if any of you have read the series you may be able to relate. After Book #3 was done, I foolishly thought there might be some light at the end of the tunnel in terms of character happiness. What was I thinking, huh? These books are definitely full of teen angst and drama, but I think the kids have good reason to be angsty, quite frankly, so I don't hold it against them.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Something to note about this book is that my respect for Clary grew so much. Sure, she frustrated me at times, but I thought she was so brave most of the way through, and the epitome of her bravery was in that epic scene near the end when she made the hardest decision she'd ever had to make before - you know the one, right?! I was really, seriously impressed with her at that point.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;"><span style="background-color: white;">On a sort of related note, </span><span style="background-color: white;">I actually do feel sorry for "the bad guy" of the story, because despite the fact that he is truly a heinous bad guy, Clary was right when she said he's incredibly lonely. Yeah, he's a creep, there's no denying that, but still, it's not his fault he was born the way he was, is it? He had no control over how he turned out, and a great wrong was done to him very early in his life.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This book was quite a slow and torturous read (even though it was good at the same time, and sort of psychologically harrowing), and I was very tempted to skip ahead just so I knew that something good would happen in the end, but I hung in there and kept reading the pages in the proper order, as is usual for me. It felt like it took forever to read this book, but in fact it only took me a few days.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;">Regarding other characters, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: purple;">Alec continued to annoy me, and I was totally on Magnus's side with that whole thing. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: purple;">I'm a fan of Maia and "Kyle". </span><span style="background-color: white; color: purple;">As for "Sizzy", I'm torn, but mostly because I don't really find vampires hot in general, because they're actually dead people and I don't think dead people are hot. Like, why would anyone want to be with a corpse? That said, I do love my Buffy and Angel hotties. Sigh. Anyway, yeah, I'm torn on this one. Isabelle is so full of life and warm and all that, and I just don't know if she's suited to dating a dead guy. But I'll reserve judgment till I conclude the series I guess. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: purple;">Also, I was happy to see Maryse Lightwood kicking arse, as well as Jocelyn. But when Jocelyn was telling Clary to get off Jace, I was like, "Step off, woman! Get ye gone! Leave your daughter be!"</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All in all, I loved this book, and I'm now reading Book #6 and hoping the light will be VERY bright at the end of this long, hard-slog tunnel</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: purple; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">This is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8755776-city-of-lost-souls">GoodReads</a> blurb:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;">The </span>New York Times<span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">bestselling Mortal Instruments continues—and so do the thrills and danger for Jace, Clary, and Simon.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span id="freeText16264174467685661958" style="background-color: white;"><br />What price is too high to pay, even for love? When Jace and Clary meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that the demon Lilith’s magic has bound her beloved Jace together with her evil brother Sebastian, and that Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is out to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. As Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabelle wheedle and bargain with Seelies, demons, and the merciless Iron Sisters to try to save Jace, Clary plays a dangerous game of her own. The price of losing is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?<br /><br />Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.</span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></span></i></span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;">Currently Reading: </span><i><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8755785-city-of-heavenly-fire">City of Heavenly Fire</a>,</span></i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Book #6 in </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Mortal </i><i>Instruments</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> series</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">~ <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals? : September Edition</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just a repeat of last month's news! There is a new blog for this blog hop, rather than us going straight to <a href="http://sylmion.blogspot.com.au/">Misha's blog</a>. Check out the new <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals?</a> blog, and join our hop if you want to have some extra motivation for achieving your goals. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, some updates on my own creative goals:</span><br />
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<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #990000;">DAPHNE</span> </i>- I'm a little stalled on this one, but I've had a break from it so maybe it's time to return and try to tackle that third chapter again. I was happy with it until I realised the second half of it had a lot of dialogue. I want to rework the lead-in to that dialogue and think about what parts of the long chat I really want to keep.</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Critique <strike>Partner</strike> Group!</span> </i>- Last time I mentioned I had found a new critique partner. Well, we have sucked another lady from AbsoluteWrite into our circle and now we are a little critique trio, and have our own PBWorks site to share our stories in and put feedback comments up, etc. It's really motivating and we are talking about NaNo plans and so on. So all is good there!</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #38761d;">ON THE OUTSIDE</span> </i>- Last time I mentioned I had been revising Chapter #1 of this novel, and I finished that and shared it on my critique group. I got some good feedback and overall I feel like the revised chapter is better than what I had before, but it still needs some work. I think I'm going to leave it where it is for now, though, as I'm a little burned out on OtO at present.</li>
<li><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">NaNoWriMo 2017</span></i></b> - So yeah, speaking of NaNo 2017, I do have a sort of rough plan for what to write this time, but I only have plans for the beginning, and a hint of the end, and a very vague middle. I feel like I should at least have a skeleton plot worked out before November starts, despite my notorious pantsing ways. ;)</li>
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That's a wrap for September. How are you doing with your goals/projects/etc?</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 19.32px;">~ </span><a href="http://armchairsquid.blogspot.com.au/">The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : August Edition</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: inherit;">This month it was difficult to choose between the two novels I read. In the end I've gone with Katie McGarry's <i>Dare You To</i>, Book #2 in the <i>Pushing the Limits </i>series and actually my favourite to date. The honourable mention was Nyrae Dawn's <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18190018-fa-ade">Façade</a> (Games, #2)</i>. Click <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/790445792">HERE</a> for my full GoodReads review of <i>Dare You To</i>, which contains spoilers.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEYq8g-6LqJlPkvTp-5O0aeAILjJ43xVrO-0OOXbzj_8mHH6uvut2UJSzvuJsJ0JDQFncxr-qd8XtxPU4xP3kT7vRDlht_Rio0OODfketxRtVXbHOvH1EHIuvDf26Ahreserjmp2vYaJI/s1600/17679546.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="310" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEYq8g-6LqJlPkvTp-5O0aeAILjJ43xVrO-0OOXbzj_8mHH6uvut2UJSzvuJsJ0JDQFncxr-qd8XtxPU4xP3kT7vRDlht_Rio0OODfketxRtVXbHOvH1EHIuvDf26Ahreserjmp2vYaJI/s320/17679546.jpg" width="208" /></a><span style="color: #674ea7; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">I wasn't really sure what I would think of this book, since I'd recently re-read Book #1 and remembered why I loved it...and why I didn't. I can't remember Book #3 very well, but I think I'm safe in saying <i>Dare You To </i>is my favourite.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #674ea7; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A problem I had with Book #1 was the patheticness of the heroine, Echo. Beth is a totally different kettle of fish; she's no shrinking violet, and doesn't faint against walls or black out. Wow, what a meanie I am! Poor Echo. ;) But seriously, I like that Beth didn't need to be constantly caught (literally, caught before she fell over) by the sexy hero. Ryan also gets major stars for not calling Beth "baby". He didn't, right?! I only remember Noah doing that with Echo... Disclaimer: I love Noah.</span><br />
<span style="color: #674ea7; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;"><i>Dare You To </i>cracked me up on many occasions - Beth's language is just as foul as mine (well, okay, I'm worse), and she was so fiery. Her early exchanges with Ryan were hilarious - she was a real force for him to reckon with. I also found it refreshing that Ryan was the 'innocent' one in this story, as opposed to the usual 'good' girl / bad boy dynamic in this series. Ryan was still sexy, so there was no letdown there. But Beth taught him a thing or two about life. That said, of course I adore bad boy characters - as long as they're not total assholes.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">I remember reading </span><i style="background-color: white;">Pushing the Limits</i><span style="background-color: white;"> and always wishing that Echo would become more of a rock for Noah. The school counsellor did that instead, while Noah was always having to be Echo's rock. Not that he was complaining. <i>I</i> was the one complaining. And I'm not really sure that Beth went much further in this regard than Echo did, but she had her moments. </span><span style="background-color: white;">It was such a relief when she finally realised Ryan was right about her fear of having a new life...and possible happiness.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">One downside to this read was seeing Isaiah so forlorn, but since I knew this gets addressed in Book #3, it wasn't really a problem.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">I gave this book five stars!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">This is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17679546-dare-you-to">GoodReads</a> blurb:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></i></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs-until the day her uncle swoops in, and Beth finds herself starting over at a school where no one understands her. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does.</i></span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: #cc0000;">Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.</i></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: #cc0000;">But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image is risking everything for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all....</i></span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></i></blockquote>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;">Currently Reading: </span><i><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3777732-city-of-glass">City of Glass</a>,</span></i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Book #3 in <i>The Mortal Insruments</i> series</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;">(a re-read so I can finally read the last three books)</span></b><b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">~ <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals? : August Edition</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">First up, some news! There is a new blog for this blog hop, rather than us going straight to <a href="http://sylmion.blogspot.com.au/">Misha's blog</a>. Check out the new <a href="https://gotgoalsbloghop.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals?</a> blog, and join our hop if you want to have some extra motivation for achieving your goals. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, some updates on my own creative goals:</span><br />
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<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #351c75;">Music</span> </i>- Somehow I believed I had recorded a song for our new album that I had never even downloaded the instrumental track for. Apparently I hallucinated an entire thing where this song was totally done already. So I still have one more song to do... Thankfully, Billy is happy with the other two, so no more work required on those!</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #990000;">DAPHNE</span> </i>- I'm continuing to post stuff at Absolute Write. I've had a lot of help from people with my opening few scenes for DAPHNE. It's been a hard slog (and isn't over yet), but I feel like I'm finally getting to the right place with the opening scenes.</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Critique Partner!</span> </i>- In other exciting news, I appear to have found myself a new critique partner, one of the ladies who's been helping me on AW. So that's great! I'm excited at the chance to start getting some more in-depth and focused help on my work again, and to give said help in return.</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #38761d;">ON THE OUTSIDE</span> </i>- I've been revising the first chapter of OTO, which has been driving me nuts. As usual with my stories, there's a lot of bloating that needs culling, and the first scene possibly needs to be merged with a bit of the next scene. I've whittled it a lot so far, but have a way to go. I wanted to post it on AW for critique, but my perfectionist self won't allow that till I've got it into better shape.</li>
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So, that's about it for August. How are you all going with your various creative / other goals? And yes, I have some catching up to do with your blogs too.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hi everyone! </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I'm excited and honoured to be taking part in the release blitz </span>for <i>Reasonable Doubts</i> by Kyra Lennon!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwQi5w-0f_nQD-OJRM4W5zFKCVo7Ih3czcXpFe0WjcaMf9bKtFnyvN62YSorjvBuoETWEPC7Q8-CMl5JsA5XUXAywoKlUZTTP15mQSK2D8OLHehz0VpJdFDKjq4mLp1Wv0idy3_Vm2iI4/s1600/RD2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwQi5w-0f_nQD-OJRM4W5zFKCVo7Ih3czcXpFe0WjcaMf9bKtFnyvN62YSorjvBuoETWEPC7Q8-CMl5JsA5XUXAywoKlUZTTP15mQSK2D8OLHehz0VpJdFDKjq4mLp1Wv0idy3_Vm2iI4/s320/RD2.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><b>Blurb: </b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Darcy Ryan is a woman on a mission. A mission to take down </span>the corrupt cops who ensured her best friend, Matteo Torres, went to jail for a crime he didn’t commit – the murder of his wife, Rebecca.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Darcy is willing to do just about anything to prove his </span>innocence, including getting up close and personal with lead detective, Finn Drake.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">She knows she’s playing a dangerous game, but it gets more </span><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">dangerous than she could have ever imagined when she discovers everything she thought she knew about Rebecca Torres was wrong, and Finn Drake isn’t the man she thought he was either.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Darcy’s life and her best friend’s freedom are on the line. With </span>her entire world turned on its head and time running out, she has to decide. Should she take a chance on Drake and go against her gut instincts, or go it alone and pray she can find the killer before he finds her?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://amzn.to/2vULJ01" style="font-size: 14pt;">Amazon US</a><span style="font-size: medium;"> – </span><a href="http://amzn.to/2vVnn5r" style="font-size: 14pt;" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://apple.co/2uTvSvt">iBooks UK</a> – <a href="http://apple.co/2voEGwa">iBooks US</a> – <a href="http://bit.ly/2vYeWUo">Kobo</a> – <a href="http://bit.ly/2vFmD4d">B and N</a></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Stalker Links</span></b></span><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Website: <a href="http://www.kyralennon.com/">http://www.kyralennon.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kyralennonwrites/">https://www.facebook.com/kyralennonwrites/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/KLennonWrites">https://twitter.com/KLennonWrites</a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</b></span>Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-13009955803587748352017-08-07T22:05:00.001+08:002017-08-07T22:05:32.221+08:00A quick word count update!<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64WRGnLEti6ReUEL0hyhpzT7a_Mh8tmy2HLY5BPwkq8c71LAmAze1uHv7b16kCst_zqoP_X6aascnuuP5LL5ky-dJvLmnmx_Od11sP6JHZ2sgMoZQJJsaIXSM1zWqRt9xJUq_viF2Ly0/s1600/wip6b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="546" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64WRGnLEti6ReUEL0hyhpzT7a_Mh8tmy2HLY5BPwkq8c71LAmAze1uHv7b16kCst_zqoP_X6aascnuuP5LL5ky-dJvLmnmx_Od11sP6JHZ2sgMoZQJJsaIXSM1zWqRt9xJUq_viF2Ly0/s200/wip6b.jpg" width="200" /></a>Time for a quick revision update!<br />
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My initial 2017 revision of DAPHNE took me from <span style="color: #134f5c;"><b>107,902</b></span> to <span style="color: #990000;"><b>126,249</b></span> words.<br />
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Last time I checked in about word count, I had shed around 3.5 - 4k of words, but today I have a more encouraging update. I'm down to <span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>116,968</b></span> words. So I've shed 9,281 words so far.<br />
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I'm not entirely sure where I want or need my word count to be, honestly, and I'm not usually the type to worry more about word count than about the story making sense and flowing well. I'm sure there are a lot more words I can cut simply because they're not needed. And some parts still need rewriting.<br />
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I don't have much more to say, I suppose, so I'll leave it at this very short update. For now...onward!</div>
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Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-47642144674305784712017-07-29T16:43:00.002+08:002017-07-29T22:19:09.457+08:00[JULY UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Oops! I missed the deadline, but oh well, I'm still here to post for this month's book club & goals blog hops.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: inherit;">I've read three novels / novellas this month, and have chosen <i>Eleanor & Park </i>as my novel of the month to share a review for. This is the non-spoilery version of the GoodReads (spoilery) version.</span></div>
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<span id="freeTextreview597473345"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I vaguely remember back when I first heard about this book, reading some reviews of it that were mixed - I remember not everyone loving the book for whatever reason. I admit I was a bit influenced by that memory when I started reading - I was in the first chapter and wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy the read. Well, now that I've finished reading, I can say without hesitation that I loved <i>Eleanor & Park</i>! It was tragic, romantic, and funny. I love the emphasis on music, too.<br /><br />The book ends on an interesting note that has seemingly divided readers - some are dying to know more, while others (like me) think that what we are left with is enough. It's not a neatly tied up ending, but there is a sense of hope that makes me happy.<br /><br />Richie was such a creepy character - yech! I felt sorry for Eleanor's mum, but also angry with her, for much of the book. But I loved Park and his family - his parents were great characters.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">This is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15745753-eleanor-park">GoodReads</a> blurb:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></i></span><i>Two misfits.<br />One extraordinary love.<br /><br />Eleanor</i><span style="background-color: white;">... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.</span><br /><br /><i>Park</i><span style="background-color: white;">... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.</span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></i></span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;">Currently Reading: </span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">my own novels...for editing.</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But hopefully soon, book #2 in Lydia </span>Kang's<span style="font-family: inherit;"> duology.</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">~ <a href="http://sylmion.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals? : July Edition</a> ~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm continuing to work on my revisions for DAPHNE II, but now that studies are starting up as of Monday, I'm not sure how much progress I'll be making for the time being. I also did another thing - I logged back into Absolute Write (the Water Cooler forums) after approximately 6 years of absence, and started posting again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I've shared the beginning of DIE BEACHSIDE and the first chapter of SUNDOWN III. The former has attracted feedback that surprised me - I need to cut out perhaps the first 1k of words. And I thought that little novella was pretty <i>lean. </i>Gosh, critique feedback is good. It wakes you up from your slumber. As for the SUNDOWN III chapter, that also needs some condensing, but the feedback was overall more favourable. I got some great feedback that I can work with for that one.</span><br />
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Oh, oh, something REALLY EXCITING? I finally got those last two songs done and sent them off to Billy. WOO! I just hope he doesn't ask me to do heaps more work on them. But if he does, so be it, I will do what I can. I'm hoping we can get down to the business of getting our second Woody's A Girl album out in the next few months.<br />
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I hope you are all doing well!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpKhZieS5XxVUKQ7BE3QidCsraC_7p6Lv6L6p82SV_NHYaXYzv_EYGxPZ56XPCAiQClhHMQghyphenhyphen5zjyKCGEANbOrkhREnMI7kJcuksgfsXTh2NQtBPJkma4ANIXjUHqbA-fS8ecb7Ffe0/s1600/NaNoWriMo_2016_WebBadge_Winner_150x.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpKhZieS5XxVUKQ7BE3QidCsraC_7p6Lv6L6p82SV_NHYaXYzv_EYGxPZ56XPCAiQClhHMQghyphenhyphen5zjyKCGEANbOrkhREnMI7kJcuksgfsXTh2NQtBPJkma4ANIXjUHqbA-fS8ecb7Ffe0/s1600/NaNoWriMo_2016_WebBadge_Winner_150x.png" /></a>This is a quick entry to ask if anyone is in a position right now to be a beta reader for me.<br />
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I have a novella that I thought I would be fleshing out more (at least, that's what I said last year), but having just skimmed through it myself and made a few tweaks, I'm not sure if it actually needs fleshing out.<br />
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I can think of some areas that may do, however it could result in me adding words that don't need to be added. So I'd be curious to get others' thoughts on this before I do anything drastic. Here are the details:<br />
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<td valign="top" width="80%">Die Beachside (working title)</td>
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<td valign="top" width="20%"><b>Word Count:</b></td>
<td valign="top" width="80%">32,805 (Scrivener)</td>
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<td valign="top" width="20%"><b>Blurb:</b></td>
<td valign="top" width="80%"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjySKlOvK39D0jo0FWrt_zWft-ii2SI-_58UOpTrIg0DPByKdpIoy5y2JSxF01Pl7mZrnaMNF9ezJgybWzE8Mi18o0ZI5BTsas5MGx2UMFReNXl65skaSEptzEr9qepzGYhJRr9Rj5fq_g/s1600/die_beachside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjySKlOvK39D0jo0FWrt_zWft-ii2SI-_58UOpTrIg0DPByKdpIoy5y2JSxF01Pl7mZrnaMNF9ezJgybWzE8Mi18o0ZI5BTsas5MGx2UMFReNXl65skaSEptzEr9qepzGYhJRr9Rj5fq_g/s1600/die_beachside.jpg" /></a>During her first year at university, Megan meets Avya, a fellow student who rather than living in student accommodation lives on the local beach in a cave.<br />
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The two girls clash at first, but eventually Megan becomes a confidant for Avya, who shares a scary secret - she's being stalked. In light of a recent unsolved murder in the area, this is especially worrisome. It also reminds Megan of difficult experiences in her own past, and she starts feeling paranoid.<br />
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She tries to protect Avya however she can, but campus security don't seem to want to take her seriously. Can Megan figure out who Avya's stalker is before something goes really wrong - and before she herself is put in the path of danger?<br />
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P.S. There's romance with a dark, brooding character too.</td>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let me know if you are willing to read it. :)</span>Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-23045834439773139632017-07-20T11:21:00.001+08:002017-07-20T11:21:48.629+08:00DAPHNE revision update<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64WRGnLEti6ReUEL0hyhpzT7a_Mh8tmy2HLY5BPwkq8c71LAmAze1uHv7b16kCst_zqoP_X6aascnuuP5LL5ky-dJvLmnmx_Od11sP6JHZ2sgMoZQJJsaIXSM1zWqRt9xJUq_viF2Ly0/s1600/wip6b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="546" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64WRGnLEti6ReUEL0hyhpzT7a_Mh8tmy2HLY5BPwkq8c71LAmAze1uHv7b16kCst_zqoP_X6aascnuuP5LL5ky-dJvLmnmx_Od11sP6JHZ2sgMoZQJJsaIXSM1zWqRt9xJUq_viF2Ly0/s200/wip6b.jpg" width="200" /></a>I'm still going with this revision thing. I have next week off work, and the week after my studies begin, so my time is short. There was a point recently when I did a "mega-tweak" on my first chapter, and I thought I was <i>almost </i>there with fixing it. But as I read it on my Kindle, I got really discouraged by the amount of things I now needed to tweak in the wake of the mega-tweak. Thankfully I got past my moping and plowed on.<br />
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It's quite an undertaking, fully rewriting a novel. When I first rewrote this one back in 2012, some things stayed the same, like my main character and her family. But a lot changed. A previous "good guy" became a bad guy. A new love interest materialised, and became the male lead. A best friend became condescending, and her boyfriend a jerk. The setting itself also changed from "aimless new adults living life after high school" to first year of university.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqSwI0Cc2L3y4TpVOoryRmEyuJQ8neVP5otBbcbYxt7gt1ZCLtOR9BoZvmrPxQ8pstqGOUtRHUFCkXRPP8p2J6zk74SwUK-j92JUN0ozcNGerI62MvLynFEoBwAUd9HuZuvD-1HjUYPU/s1600/thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="147" data-original-width="99" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqSwI0Cc2L3y4TpVOoryRmEyuJQ8neVP5otBbcbYxt7gt1ZCLtOR9BoZvmrPxQ8pstqGOUtRHUFCkXRPP8p2J6zk74SwUK-j92JUN0ozcNGerI62MvLynFEoBwAUd9HuZuvD-1HjUYPU/s1600/thumb.jpg" /></a>After that 2012 rewrite, I left the novel to stew for, ummm, five years? Yeah, that's all. When I returned to it in 2017 I saw that I'd created a hot mess, but thankfully I much preferred this "new" mess to the old one. 2017's revisions / edits are making me love it even more. They say <i>write what you love</i>, and each new tweak of a sentence, paragraph or section is bringing me closer to loving this novel.<br />
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I think I've fixed most of the big problems, though there are still timeline blips to be worked out. I'm down to about 122,484 words, meaning I've shed 3,765 words or so. I need to shed a lot more! And no, I haven't removed my "darling" Jane yet. Still not decided on what to do there.<br />
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That'll do for now. But I wanted to mention that I'm reading <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15745753-eleanor-park">Eleanor & Park</a></i> after having it on my TBR for quite a while. I'm loving it.</div>
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Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-19860606427467869702017-07-11T21:26:00.000+08:002017-07-11T21:26:58.648+08:00One new scene = SPANNER<div style="text-align: center;">
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Oops!<br />
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I added <i><span style="color: #bf9000;">one</span></i> new scene to my novel, and it messed with my entire <span style="color: #6aa84f;"><b>timeline</b></span>! I spent a couple of days writing out chapter / scene summaries, and printed the summaries out and scribbled notes all over them, etc. Eventually I worked out how to rearrange sections so the timeline made sense again. I was helped by reading an article about using metadata settings in Scrivener to create a timeline. Using that advice, I assigned dates / date ranges to chapters and shifted said dates where needed. Phew. Crisis sorted.<br />
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Another 'oops' moment came when I realised this current edit has not removed <b><span style="color: #a64d79;">words</span></b> as I hoped, but has <i>added </i>them. So where my first revision word count was approx. <span style="color: #a64d79;">107,902</span>, the current count is <span style="color: #a64d79;">126,249</span>. <i>Yep, </i>I've done it again. I know I have some padding that can be trimmed, and thankfully I think I'm at the point where that can be my focus now.<br />
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Speaking of padding... During my last revision of this novel, I mentioned a minor character that was a bit of a "<span style="color: #e69138;"><b>darling</b></span>" I might have to kill. She started out as a source of humour, but in truth there is a lot more to her that we're not even going to learn about in this novel. So she could even be seen as a bit of a blue herring - ya know, a herring with no purpose. ;) So really there is no point keeping her, at least not for plot purposes. I'm reluctant to let her go, but maybe I can revisit her story in some other way in another setting sometime.<br />
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Anyway, that's my update for now. I hope you are all doing well with whatever you're working on.<br />
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P.S. My addiction to Louise Rozett's <i>Confessions </i>series has been rekindled, sadly for no tangible reason - e.g. there is no FOURTH BOOK YET! She hopes to write one, but needs a contract. <i>I </i>offered to buy it off her even if nobody else does, I'm that desperate to read the rest of Rose and Jamie's story. ;) Anyway...I shall continue to wait and hope for another instalment, while moping in a very morose fashion as long as I don't get it!</div>
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Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-46422108664285636912017-07-07T09:53:00.000+08:002017-07-07T09:53:12.214+08:00First chapter editing 'marathon'<div style="text-align: center;">
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I've read a lot about authors struggling with their first chapters. First you have to figure out where your novel should start, and that can be the trickiest part to get right. I've often started my novels in the wrong spot with rough drafts. With my current edit of DAPHNE, I think I've got the start point right. The rest of the chapter though is where I'm struggling.</div>
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The main thing I'm dealing with is getting the dialogue between my two main characters right. <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Nathan</b></span> is a bit of a lovable rogue and he exasperates <span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Daphne</b></span> when they first meet. That's what I thought I had conveyed in the first chapter, but reading through it after a long hiatus I found I had created more of a <span style="color: red; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">harasser </span>than an entertainer! What?! That was definitely <i><b>not </b></i>my intention, so I've been honing the chapter ever since I started this latest revision, trying to make <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Nathan</b></span> more Nathan-esque. This chapter is probably on version 5 by now (taking a wild guess there), and it's still not right. It's getting there, but <b>s.l.o.w.l.y.</b></div>
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I think what will help is to print the chapter out and do a paper edit. I haven't done one of those in a long time. I really love editing my novels on my Kindle, reading and making notes along the way. It's <i>almost </i>as good as a paper edit for picking up mistakes or sentences that just don't flow right. Even paragraphs that can be chopped in their entirety. But I think being able to use a bright red pen and scribble all over the chapter might help me in this case.</div>
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Elsewhere in the novel, I've been making good progress filling gaps in the narrative, and I think I'm mostly done with that. Of course, some gap filling has resulted in a need to do yet more editing of subsequent chapters, as they no longer quite fit. This <i>feels </i>like a neverending process, but I know from experience that eventually I'll reach a point where I've done all I can for the time being. That will be the time to let the novel stew once again. And maybe, not long after, it will be beta-reader recruiting time!</div>
Trishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927558937796802496noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238481189278119116.post-27506819115069854862017-06-30T07:24:00.000+08:002017-06-30T07:27:30.862+08:00[JUNE UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglsT7XGQjeMtZVrRpbtBewMnnKe8iFIAEdDWZgAz5RJaXDSMrCNUClei7TOSmaeADdY46qx-JwtvQ1c2m83BcXaz-xbhtW0O-p39I0RehpLltNCD-kN3v37eshfXDRVZetIDzgBDtWZaW/s1600/Coffeehouse.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhglsT7XGQjeMtZVrRpbtBewMnnKe8iFIAEdDWZgAz5RJaXDSMrCNUClei7TOSmaeADdY46qx-JwtvQ1c2m83BcXaz-xbhtW0O-p39I0RehpLltNCD-kN3v37eshfXDRVZetIDzgBDtWZaW/s1600/Coffeehouse.jpeg" /></a></div>
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The last time I participated properly in this bloghop was September 2016! Yes, I've been very slack since then, or rather I've just found it hard to keep up with everything else in life as well as the few blog hops I am still committed to. I was going to skip this one, since I <i>thought </i>I hadn't read any books this month, but then I realised (after checking GoodReads) that I in fact have. :)</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 19.32px;">~ </span><a href="http://armchairsquid.blogspot.com.au/">The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : June Edition</a> ~</div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;">Last time I updated, I was reading <i>Poldark. </i>I got to the end of the main series since then, but haven't read the "next generation" books yet. My mum has read my copies and claims they are just as good, so I will get around to it sometime. For now... I read a memoir this month!</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In this memoir, Jessica Bell weaves a compelling story of a painful coming-of-age in an unusual setting. As the daughter of rock'n'rollers in the 80s and early 90s, Bell certainly had an upbringing different to most of us - and yet I could still relate to parts of what she experienced, since I was also a child of the 80s and 90s in Australia, and big time into music.</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I loved the way the book progressed with its sections of Jessica talking to her reflection. It was intriguing to see her relationship with her reflection change over the course of the book as well.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Jessica has led a life of adventure seemingly largely because of her constant need to run. But this book seems to represent a time in her life when she has finally stopped running and is facing her reflection at last - and coming to realise that her reflection is her friend, supporter, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As usual, this is a well-written book that compels the reader onward. It's even more special because of the bravery it took the author to put it out there for all to read and judge in whatever way they choose.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">This is a snippet from the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33189641-dear-reflection">GoodReads</a> blurb:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><i style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">Jessica Bell never meant to be a rebel. But growing up with two gothic rockers as parents seemed to make it inevitable.</span><br style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"></span><br style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">In 1980s Australia, Erika Bach and Demetri Vlass founded Ape the Cry and Hard Candy, two of Melbourne’s iconic indie bands. They encouraged Jessica with unreserved love to pick up the guitar and write her own songs. But Erika’s back problem became a nightmare of pill popping, alcohol abuse, and anxiety attacks. Demetri retreated into silence for fear of triggering Erika’s drug-induced psychosis. And Jessica turned inwards, to her own reflection.</span><br style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;" /><br style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">But her mirror self was a fiend, not a friend. All it took was one secret drink at fifteen, and Jessica dove headlong into depression and self-destruction to escape the madness at home.</span></span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">"</span></span></i></blockquote>
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<b><span style="color: red;">Currently Reading: </span><span style="color: blue;">my own novels...for editing</span></b></div>
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~ <a href="http://sylmion.blogspot.com.au/">Do You Have Goals? : June Edition</a> ~</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I had a long period of time when nothing much was happening with my goals. I'm glad to say (as you will have seen if you have looked at any of my recent blog posts - yes, I have recent blog posts!!) that this is no longer the case. Here are some general updates:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">I've completed my latest edit of SUNDOWN, and am now letting that novel rest.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm currently reading through my DAPHNE novel, although I had a lot of edit notes that I lost by accidentally deleting the wrong version of the novel from my Kindle. ARGH, basically. But that happened to me once with my SUNDOWN edits too. Hopefully it will happen no longer!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">I've also had quick read throughs of some of my other novels, like ON THE OUTSIDE and LOST & FOUND. Yep, I've been on an editing / revising binge.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">I've also kind of edited / written new material for a couple of SUNDOWN-related projects.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm not sure which novel I will be focusing on properly next, the way I did with SUNDOWN, but it sure feels good to be compelled to do all this editing. I had a long hiatus when I struggled to get motivation, but I've got it in spades now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As mentioned in other posts, I am also gearing up for my next lot of study (my last semester is coming up), so I will have to concentrate more on that and less on editing until the year's end. But I feel like I've achieved a lot already this year, and that makes me very happy. Someday soon I hope I will be ready to seek out beta readers for at least one of my novels.</span></div>
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P.S. The area still being neglected is my music. But I fully intend to get to that very soon!</div>
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