The long weekend

I am typing this from the sofa with my feet up - you might think this sounds like an excellent position to be in, and you are right, but I am in it because for most of the week my foot has resembled a parade balloon. The doctor thinks I have gout, which I take to mean that I must secretly be an old, rich, portly, port-swilling gentleman, and maybe it is time to take up cigar smoking. At time of writing, the foot is looking more like a foot and less like a blown-up rubber glove, so that is good at least. On a negative note, my bag of frozen peas needs replacing, and there is pea defrost-juice on my sofa. Also my internet is being a fuckface, and my provider's days are numbered. Those numbers are low.

In writingland, I am torn between Dark Matters and bulking up my portfolio for the MA course I'm applying for and hoping to start later in the year. I am compromising by writing things for DM that could be stripped and re-formed and included in the portfolio. It's coming into the over half-way phase, where I get grumbly and impatient for the story to be finished, so productivity should improve. The MA course wants poems in the portfolio, which should be interesting. I've always thought of poetry as prose taken apart and packed into little tinsel-wrapped boxes of obfuscation so no one except the author is really sure what anything means.

Tomorrow is a bank holiday though, so all is well.

Out from under the rug

Sorry there hasn't been much interesting going on over here for the last couple of months, but all my words are going into the book.

I've also admitted to myself and my parents that I want to write for a living, and I'm now taking steps to make that happen. I'm going to keep working part time, not only because I need the money, but because I think it makes good grounding. How are you supposed to come up with new characters if you aren't around people? I don't feel that I've gone down the wrong track with everything I've done so far - my fascination with science just took me down that road for a while, and now my head is full of understandings, it's time to get creative.

Admitting defeat

A while ago you may remember I talked in a post about how I was going to approach writing Dark Matters differently than I did Imposition. That the new book would be written front to back, chapter-by-chapter, scene-by-scene, so that everything flowed together nicely. Well, I finally figured out that it doesn't quite work that way, and I'm back to writing back to front and inside out, whenever a scene takes centre stage, no matter where it is chronologically it goes down on paper. Not only is this way faster (because I can write whatever whenever, rather than figuring out how to get between scenes and other connecting stuff like that) but it's also better - it's oiling the loops in my mind so more ideas are coming out.

Lesson learned; do what feels right, not what you think is the right thing. Or at least in this case, give it a go but if it ain't right don't force it.

Yes.

EXCITING NEWS

DARK MATTERS IS PLANNED

ALL THE WAY TO THE END

THERE'S AN ENDING AND EVERYTHING

Today was a good day.

2013 is the year of exciting blog posts

And then suddenly it was February.

This week:
A shiny new laptop that's all fancy and touchscreen and doesn't burn my legs unlike the old laptop
Work is busy
Desperately wanting to play Spec Ops: The Line for, uh, research purposes and stuff
Dark Matters is now planned up to chapter 11

Decisions, decisions

January has been a month of taking stock.

Life is pretty good: I have a job and a roof over my head, a bunch of friends I love dearly, enough money to be comfortable, a quite enjoyable casual fling and no strings tying me down anywhere. I'm happy, and so are the people around me (save the odd break up or fall out).

However, I'm getting to that stage in life where it's time for Big Decisions. Develop a career. Find a tolerable man. Reproduce. These are hard decisions when you don't really know what you want, and I'm sure a lot of you are in this boat. I like my life the way it is, but I'm not going to stay 28 forever, and walking home in the snow at 3am after a night out will not always be an acceptable (or advisable) pass-time.

The post-New Year's post

Yappy Hew Near

Time for the obligatory annual performance review. Last year's resolutions were:

1. Get down to a size 10 - Very close to this one. Took me a year, but I've gone from Fatty Fatfat to being close to Skinny Bitch. 37lbs down, maybe 9-ish to go. To anyone with a weight-loss resolution this year, it's hard, and it's an up-hill battle all the way, but it's fucking worth it so stick with it. Be prepared for it to take a while, but your efforts will pay off in dividends when people who haven't seen you for two years don't recognise you at first and then stare at you agog for a while. I'd advise a weight-loss program because they give you support as well as structure - you have to re-train what to eat, and these things are the best way to do that with long-term impact.
2. Have a better work-life balance - I...uh, yeah. No. What? I got promoted, that comes with responsibilities!
3. Go to the cinema more - I went twice last year. TWICE. Dear friends, why are you so boring/far away/in couples? Fine, I'll just rent the movie instead, then, and sit at home by myself.
4. Write five short stories and finish at least one long one - Hahaha. Hah. Ha. One short story and half a long one? I'm sorry. More this year, I promise. At least one. Maybe.
5. Learn how to make Greek food - Okay I don't even know where this came from, and needless to say, it hasn't happened.
6. Date some attractive men - Now, this I did do.
7. Visit the US - This too! New York and Michigan, sunshine and funtimes all around.
8. Begin learning Mandarin - Nope.
9. Take up kickboxing - Yes! And then dropped. Fun, but too expensive.
10. Learn how to bloody drive - SOON. My provisional license expired, so I'm getting that updated. Then I will have lessons, because I actually want the driving freedom now. Want to go to Manchester for the day? No problem! How about Wales? Absolutely! Some place in the Lake District that no train or bus would ever venture? Just hop in! It will be most excellent. 

Have you resolved to do anything differently this year? Did you do well with last year's? Or do you just think they're a waste of time?