[JUNE UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals

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 thought I hadn't read any books this month, but then I realised (after checking GoodReads) that I in fact have. :)

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : June Edition ~

Last time I updated, I was reading Poldark. 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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is a snippet from the GoodReads blurb:

"Jessica Bell never meant to be a rebel. But growing up with two gothic rockers as parents seemed to make it inevitable.
​
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.

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."

Currently Reading: my own novels...for editing

~ Do You Have Goals? : June Edition ~

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:

• I've completed my latest edit of SUNDOWN, and am now letting that novel rest.
• 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!
• 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.
• I've also kind of edited / written new material for a couple of SUNDOWN-related projects.

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.

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.

P.S. The area still being neglected is my music. But I fully intend to get to that very soon!

Farewell, sweet bookshelf

First I want to say thanks to those who responded to my call for beta readers in my previous post. It was great to get some volunteers who I could put in touch with my writer friend. :)

But now, onto the point of tonight's post. I'm happy to say I've achieved some goals already during January.

Goal 1: finish my NaNo novel
Yes, I finally did it! I finished my NaNo 2014 novel! It did take me a while to get back into it, even after just 1.5 months away from it, and I had to read back through earlier chapters to remind myself where I was up to. But I got it done, and it's a relief to be able to say that.

Goal 2: Sorting out what's in my garage
I've also done quite a bit of work, especially today, on clearing out my garage. The verge collection happens this coming week, so I've put a lot of big rubbish out on the lawn. My garage is looking a lot emptier. I feel a bit sorry for the poor foster kitties in there, who have fewer places to hide. But I'll make them some good cubby holes so they can feel more at home again.

My bookshelf (one of many, and just the latest to be wrenched from my reluctant hands)

It was especially difficult wheeling my bookcase out to the verge, a bookcase I've had since high school. A whole lot of different books and other things have been on that bookshelf. It also used to be lime green, but was painted purple. There is a patch of green still inside it.

*Sniffle* I'll miss youuuuu!

Part of me hopes someone will collect it from the verge so it can continue to service a booklover's needs in future. But most of me is a pessimist and knows that bookshelf is probably destined for the tip. ;)

IWSG #12 - Striking a balance

It's a new year, and so far I've done very little in terms of creative goals.

I seem to have no motivation to get things done that should be relatively easy to achieve. I really want to achieve them, but I'm being lazy. And I hate it!

I'm still completely stalled on my SQUEAKY project, which really annoys me. But someday I'm going to get that done! I also hope to finish last year's NaNo novel before I go back to work next week. In fact, I might get started on it sometime today. I only have one chapter to write, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Basically, it's frustrating having such small goals hanging over me that I just never get around to achieving.

I really do think that my heavy involvement with animal rescue is a big drain on my resources. But I wouldn't change my involvement there for anything. So I'm going to have to figure out how to strike a good balance between rescue 'work' and stuff I need to get done creatively.

And, of course, my full time money-paying job.

Maybe I won't set any goals in 2015?

After this year's hits and misses, it's definitely time to re-think my approach. But that's nothing new, I guess - at the end of every year, it's the time to reassess. I have set goals every year since starting my blog, and every year has turned out differently.

I guess you guys know what it's like to reassess every year, and maybe change or at least tweak your approach in the new year. I've done that so far I think, but in 2015 I'm thinking I might try something entirely new: just taking on one random task at a time. Who knows? I may end up with another slacker year like this one, but I may actually get one thing achieved that I've wanted to achieve for ages now. You never know. ;)

I should probably still have a list of things I could work on, and then I can throw a dart at it and hit a random agenda item. ;) e.g.

1. Finish 2014 NaNo novel
2. Finish editing SQUEAKY (so not appealing)
3. Send some photo submissions to Vine Leaves

There's a good start. Three things to achieve, and two of them are relatively easy.

Anyway, these are my current thoughts about how I might approach 2015.

What are your plans for the new year?

Post-NaNo post! :) and IWSG #11!

First I want to say I need to catch up on visiting your blogs - I've got a bit behind but I'll get on it ASAP.

Second, I won NaNo, though my novel LOST & FOUND is not quite finished. I'm at 51,346 words and estimate I won't get beyond 55k, and will probably get to less. But whenever I get around to revisions, I can well imagine adding a good few extra words to this count, with the required fleshing-out.

I'm pretty happy with the story, even if the writing leaves a fair bit to be desired. I'm both glad and sad that it's over. I need to get back to my revision work, but that's hardly an appealing notion. ;)

Anyway ... the end of the year is nigh. How are you guys feeling about the year gone by?

I'm feeling all right this month, I guess, but as we near the end of another year, my Goals page looks quite intimidating. I'm relieved it's just a general goals page, and not a page for goals I wanted to achieve this year alone.

I can say I didn't achieve most of what's on there, but I still got some stuff done.

Could be worse. ;)

Of course, the year isn't quite over yet. Perhaps miracles will occur before we hit 2015.

A NaNo update [after day 23]

As of today (being Day 24, but I haven't written anything for Day 24 yet), I have 43,302 words.

I need to write 957 words per day to win, which is basically what I've needed to write for a week or so now - and I've been sticking rather closely to that basic minimum word count.

I've had 2 days during November where I didn't write a single word, and then wrote double the required word count the next day to make up for it (not a big deal when "double" is only 2k of words).

All in all it hasn't been the easiest NaNo year, but nor has it been the hardest. I've had years before where every word was a struggle, at least towards the end.

I've also had years where the words just flew out.

So yeah, this year is somewhere in between.

When I was at around 41k I realised I didn't have enough left in my planned plot to get over 50k, but then I realised there was an entire chunk of story I hadn't even been going to address. So now I have the plan to address that chunk, and that'll take me well beyond 50k.

All in all, I'm "okay" with the story, but I definitely think it's messy - despite me having had a plan this time around. ;)

Anyway, that's me signing off for another day.

P.S. If I don't get to say it closer to the date,

I hope all my American friends have a great Turkeysday.

I think I have a soft spot for Thanksgiving, because my

SQUEAKY novels have turkey characters in them. ;)

NaNoWriMo ~ Slowly she goes

As of the end of Day #18 (yesterday), I had written 37,556 words.

I have slowed right down to barely 1k a day, because this is all I require to hit 50k by the end of November. I think I wrote about 1200 words yesterday.

It's possible I won't finish the novel by November's end, but I'll definitely hit 50k!

I'm still enjoying the story, but I guess I am slightly burned out with other stuff going on in my life - namely, kitty rescue stuff - so it's all I can do to hit that small amount of words.

Today we are rescuing at least 12 cats (including at least 10 kittens).
There are 8 kittens with no mum, in one lot.
The other kittens are with a mum - all I know is that there's plural kittens there, but not sure how many.
We are also rescuing an old boy who looks sore, tired, and in need of serious TLC.

I volunteer with a bunch of awesomely generous and caring people. But it takes a lot of coordination to make a rescue like today's happen.

First we have to find a rescue to take on the cats. We also have to find a carer if the rescue doesn't have one available. We always try to have carers sorted first, so we can 'entice' our affiliated rescues to take the new kitties on. ;) Then we get to think about how to collect kitty from the pound. We have to organise transport, which often involves multiple people participating in a "transport relay", as is happening today.

I guess that's the challenging part, but after rescue, we also need to get the kitties healthy, get their vetwork done, and find them a forever home! And while we're doing all this, we have to find room for new cats coming into pounds weekly.

But it's very rewarding to be a part of this. Here's an e.g. of why:

One of our little foster babies in care at the moment - Webster.
Look out on Facebook for his very own page, coming soon. ;)

Reporting from Day 16 of NaNo

It's November 16th, so we're over halfway through NaNoWriMo 2014.

I'm currently at 32,833 words, which is a result of me writing the bare minimum some nights, and far less than the bare minimum other nights.

Early on I had some good nights where I wrote well above the bare minimum.

It's all averaged out to me being 6,216 words ahead of schedule, even without having completed today's word count.

I feel that I got over a big slow-going section and from here on in I should be able to speed up a bit, or at least find the writing more free-flowing.

But I guess only time will tell!

I hope you are all having great Novembers. :)

Now I have to go outside with my cat as he's meowing his head off demanding some attention. He likes me to go for walks down the driveway with him.

NaNoWriMo - 9 days in

I got a late start on my NaNoing on Saturday, but eventually I did get stuck into the writing - and only wrote about 3k for the whole day. Yesterday was even worse, with only 1.7k written.

My explanation is that on Saturday I was exhausted and also had a few things to do - like get my car's carpets shampooed after a beer bottle broke on the front passenger floor Friday night. On Sunday I had a visit from a friend who is in my cat rescue group, and we spent about 3 hours chatting. I also cleaned my house on Sunday. So, yeah, "stuff" got in the way. Still, I got the bare minimum done on Sunday, and more than that done on Saturday. It's all good!

So I'm sitting at 21,761 words after 9 days of writing. Some years I would be over 50k by now. Every year I participate in NaNoWriMo, things go differently for me. One year I'm pretty sure I was at 50k after 6 or 7 days. In 2011, I hit 50k by day 15, and then switched to my second novel of the month. Other times, I've taken until much later in November to hit that winning mark. It's interesting to look at the variation in stats. :)

November is a pretty quiet time of year for Australians, as compared with Americans with their Thanksgiving and so on. But I guess we still have those pesky lives to live, so that is bound to get in the way. :P

How are your Novembers going?

IWSG #10 ~ It's NaNoWriMo time!

November is here, and so is the first Wednesday of that month! Of course that means it's time to post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. This awesome group was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and November's co-hosts are:

 LG Keltner, Donna Hole, Lisa Buie-Collard & SL Hennessy.

So what am I feeling insecure about this month? Oh, just the usual - the fact that this year has basically sucked when it comes to achieving goals. Or rather, I have sucked at my main goal of trying to get a lot of revision done.

Still, I've had fun this year, including during November so far. I've kicked off with my twelfth year of NaNoWriMo and am currently at 13,802 words. I'm writing LOST & FOUND, which I've had as an idea for a while now. I am basically jotting the bare bones story down, and will need to go back and add 'atmosphere' later. But for now, I'm just doing whatever keeps the writing flowing.

I'm pretty sure also that because of the way I've been jumping from scene to scene, I already have some inconsistencies that need fixing. And I have one chapter that doesn't really fit anywhere anymore, but I'm keeping it in there because it goes towards my word count. I will remove it, amend it, or find a new place for it, after November is done. ;)

For now: bare bones word spewage. After hitting 50k later in the month?: focusing on the flesh-out task (that sounds gross doesn't it? "flesh out"? hehe. reminds me of zombies for some reason).

In other news, I got a request maybe a month ago or so to be a CP, and I am reading the lady's novel right now, a sort of thriller/mystery/romance tale. I'm loving it. It's a pretty rough draft, with words missing here & there and so on, but polishing can come later. For now, the story itself is awesome and so very gripping.

Gotta love CPing a great story!

NaNoWriMo 2014 ... I'm in! Are you?

It's that time of year again when lots of us are gearing up for November, and NaNoWriMo. This year I'm writing yet again about rock stars, only not the same lot I've written 5 novels about in the past. This year's novel is tentatively titled "LOST & FOUND", and here is my little rough draft blurb as it stands:

Ginna and Benedict grew up together, best friends and confidants. As they enter high school, Ben finds his calling - writing & playing music - and forms his first band. Ginna, an opinionated music connoisseur, is his strongest supporter, but he rehearses in secret with his band, refusing to let her in. At their debut gig, Ben's band isn't very good, but Ginna is convinced this is the start of something huge, at least for Ben.

She's right. Ben is destined for stardom. And as his career takes off, he leaves Ginna far behind. Soon he is caught up in living the high life, travelling the world & hanging out with other famous people. But when disaster strikes his personal life, he realises he's made a series of huge mistakes. And it may be too late for him to go back & fix what he's broken.

As usual, I have that excited feeling in the lead-up to November. But I'm still trying hard to get as much editing of SQUEAKY done before November 1st begins. I'm currently on one of those pesky chapters that needed more actual story added to it, rather than to just be edited.

But back on point... Are you participating in NaNo this November?

P.S. I have now listed all my previous NaNo novels in there as well.