Write ... Edit ... Publish ~ NEW BEGINNINGS (Jan.)

It's time yet again for WEP, the monthly hop hosted by Denise at L'Aussie writing. You can check out January's blog list here. And now here is a bit of info about this month's theme:

It's time for the sign-up for our first challenge of 2014 - NEW BEGINNINGS. Whatever comes to mind that expresses NEW BEGINNINGS - you may want to share a true story, a fictional story, post photos that typify NEW BEGINNINGS...whatever you want, it's your choice!

So, with that out of the way, I thought I'd just put up a little list of new beginnings I'm anticipating experiencing this year (and I must admit that I haven't really done much editing of this list, but now that I've written it I'm going to publish it here on my blog):

• I will begin to be completely student loan free sometime around the middle of this year!
• I will begin a new travelling phase when I order a new passport at some point, since both of mine have long since expired (I have a British and Australian passport)
• I will begin to very much enjoy my built-in bookshelves at home - once they've been built in, anyway
• I will begin yoga again, at some point this year
• I will begin to drink from a brand new bottle of Bailey's, at some point (I haven't had my beloved Bailey's in quite a while now)
• I will begin a new life wherein I no longer have the Brothers' Grimm fairytales on my GoodReads "currently reading" list, and,
• I will begin to read Ursula le Guin's Earthsea series at long last!

I think that will do for now.

P.S. Achieved my first goal from my list - rewriting LOST, MISSING, GONE. Neeeext!

P.P.S. Just finished reading Mina Lobo's THAT FATAL KISS, and loved it.

Latest reads [more mini reviews]

Since last time, I've read the following:

• A Shade of Vampire (A Shade of Vampire, #1) - Bella Forrest
• Although it might be said that I'm a bit over vampires nowadays (that "I'm a dead, cold corpse" thing really doesn't turn me on), I did enjoy this read, and would even go so far as to buy subsequent books in the series to find out what happens next.
• Broken Promises (Broken, #1) - Dawn Pendleton

• This was sort of okay - I did want to read on and find out what happened, but I really couldn't stand the main character at times. Even if I could understand why she was the way she was. She was just a bit of a drama queen who made everyone else run around after her.
• muted: a short story in verse - Jessica Bell
• This story blew my mind - a mixture of pure ugliness and pure beauty, sort of like that Japanese novel I read a few years back, GROTESQUE (also one of my fave reads ever). Jessica is very talented!
• Open Minds (Mindjack, #1) - Susan Kaye Quinn

• Love this woman's writing, though this is the only book of hers I've read so far! I hear great things about her other series as well, and have some of that ready to read on my ... wait for it ... Kindle! Yes, I bought a Kindle Paperwhite recently.

And I'm currently reading:

• The Complete Fairy Tales - The Brothers Grimm
• Become (Desolation, #1) - Ali Cross
• The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells

Now, what I want to know is, is anyone surprised that I'm still reading Grimm over two years later?
. . . Or that this is my first time reading War of the Worlds?
. . . . . . Or that it took me this long to get around to reading Ali's book?

Waving goodbye to '12 and hello to '13

Hi everyone! It's 11:37am on December 31st, and I'm hiding out in my air-conditioned living room wishing fervently for winter's return to Western Australia. Even typing on this laptop is a bit much 'cause it's radiating heat onto me. So I'll try and be quick about today's post! First off I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year! I hope you all have a great night tonight. I will raise a glass of red wine or two to all of you, my blogging friends, and also to my friend Ally who passed away back in September - it's her 28th birthday today. Happy birthday Ally.

In other news, I'm eager to turn my attention to 2013, which I hope will have a lot of awesome times for all of us. Personally I'm looking forward to the A-to-Z challenge, numerous blogfests, BuNoWriMo, NaNoEdMo, and of course NaNoWriMo. I'm looking forward to stuff I haven't even imagined could happen, too. I'm also thinking about the following:

• I might change the URL of this blog - the farseas is relevant to one particular story of mine, but it's quite an obscure reference
• I'll be changing the look of the blog, though I haven't got a specific plan yet. It won't be a total overhaul
• I'll probably be releasing an actual CD of my music, with inlay and booklet and all, largely thanks to the very awesome collaboration I've been in with a guy called Billy from California
• I want to self-publish a story, and I'm thinking of starting with a novella I wrote for BuNoWriMo one year (I think it was 2011).

All my 2013 goals are summarised in the following two pages, though the Goals 2013 page is the main one I'll be holding myself to:

Goals 2013

52 weeks of tasks 2013

I thought my GoodReads friends would like to know that one of the items on my task chart is writing a mini-review of one Grimm Fairytale story per week. The reason for this is that I want to get this damn book read once and for all. ;) It's been on my "currently reading" list at GoodReads for years now!

Right. I think I've said all I want and need to say for 2012. I will say again though, thank you to everyone who has read my blog this year. You guys are awesome!

 Bring on 2013!!

Chore vs. passion

That's what I'm reading. Oh, and I'm still reading the Grimm fairytales, but I got it into my head that I should "mini-review" each story as I read it, and...so far I've reviewed the first one (because I had to go back and retro-review). And I've stopped reading more, 'cause I have so many to catch up on (and review). But anyway, see above for a book I'm not doing mini-reviews for 'cause I'm just reading the whole thing flat out. I have a huge TBR list and no time to waste, people!! This is business!

I'm kidding. It's not business. But sometimes I think that it really is. The things I do for fun (writing, reading, drawing, singing, playing guitar) become slightly more like my "real" job (as opposed to the one I spend most of my waking life at each week). They don't feel like chores, though. Not yet. Not most of the time. If they start to, I'll know I'm doing something wrong.

Do you still have the passion?