Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals? - a day late

I did miss this post yesterday, but for once I have a fair excuse, or I think I do. Yesterday was my birthday!! So I was busy doing other things, like going to work for the whole day, and then going out to dinner and drinking a lot of champagne. Anyway, it's Saturday now and I am here to post ... at last!

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse

I read multiple books that I enjoyed during July (so far), but the one book I want to talk about is Rachel Morgan's The Trouble With Flying. The review will possibly sound vague, to avoid spoilers. ;)

The characters in this book were great - I loved seeing Sarah's transformation from a bit of a doormat to a strong-minded individual determined to follow her own path. It was a slow journey for the reader, becoming privy to the reality of Sarah's relationship with her partner. But I think this slow revelation echoed Sarah's own slow awakening - because as we all know, sometimes in relationships it takes a long time to realise something that, after you've realised it, seems obvious.

I was glad when Sarah finally stood up for herself and asserted her own will. It had been a long time coming. I was very proud of her in that moment, for not backing down. I think any book that makes the reader go, "Yeah! You go girl!" has a lot going for it.

Since I have never visited South Africa, or any part of Africa before, I really enjoyed the descriptions of the landscape. It definitely made me want to visit the place and see it for myself. But the main thing that makes me hesitate is the weather ;) I really, really hate hot weather. But if, as the story suggests, South Africans usually get a magnificent storm after each revoltingly hot moment, I guess I could tolerate the gross hot moments ... for a while anyway.

All in all, I really enjoyed this read, and look forward to reading more of Rachel's work in future.

Do I Have Goals? Yes, I do!

July has probably been my best month this year for achieving goals. Sadly, the goals I achieved weren't anything to do with my writing, but they were still goals related to creative stuff. So I count that as a major win!

I guess I can thank my bandmate Billy for spurring me on this month, since I actually did have a deadline not set by me - heeyyy, maybe I do work well under someone else's pressure after all? Not that he actually pressured me - not at all. But knowing he was counting on me, after we both agreed to an end-of-July deadline, certainly did get me moving faster than I have all year.

Following on from my last goal update, I can say that I have now sent copies of all the songs that were due to Billy, and now I'm waiting on his word that the last song is good to go. Then I can send him the raw files. But obviously if it's not ready to go, I will do whatever vocal adjustments are necessary, and then send the new version to him in .mp3 format for assessment.

But July is nearly at an end, so now the pressure's on Billy to let me know what I need to do, if anything. ;)

P.S. I turned 34. ;)