At the Weekend...

...I fell over. Not badly and the only thing hurt was my pride and my shoulders ache today from where I jarred them trying to break my fall.

One minute I was upright quite happily walking my dog, and the next I was flat on my face, with Dyson standing next to me and a look of puzzlement on his face which clearly said “What on earth are you doing down there?”

“I’m just taking a short break,” I said as I got back to my feet, and he quite happily trotted off, satisfied with this explanation.

I was trying to remember the last time I fell down and couldn’t. When I was a child I remember lots of bruised knees – I liked to rush everywhere – then when I was a teenager lots of grazed knees from falling over in the playground. But after my early teens I can’t remember ever falling down. Lots of trips, usually from not paying attention when I’m going up stairs.

There’s now a part of me that seems to kick in whenever I have a new experience, or repeat an old experience that I haven’t had in a long while. Some small part of my brain starts saying “I must remember what this feels like in case I ever want to include it in a story”.

It’s kind of helped me get through a few unpleasant things. And whilst falling over wasn’t as bad as having the camera put up my nose, they’re both experiences that I don’t want to repeat any time soon. But it’s very good to have those sensations logged in my brain.

Santa Brought me an XBox

I’m not much of a games freak, as my cousin delighted in pointing out to me. But I do like Tomb Raider. I’ve been playing on my PC – favourite version Tomb Raider 3. However, as the games have gotten bigger and better I thought I’d better finally get round to getting a games console. This has the added bonus of keeping my PC free for writing and not distracting me.

Whilst I have some skills on the PC my fingers flash round the keyboard keeping Lara out of trouble – it’s all the typing I do, who knew it would come in useful for something besides typing? On a games controller I tend to spend much more time running round in circles. After much practice I have reached the point where I can stand still and shoot things or run around on walls and jump off cliffs (sometimes intentionally). Unfortunately my skills do not yet extend to doing both at the same time. But I’m sure I’ll get there eventually.

One of my favourite popular culture references to Tomb Raider occurs in the sitcom Spaced. (For those of you who enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, this was written by and starred the same people). Well worth checking out on DVD if you get the chance. I can’t embed the video but hope you’ll click on the link. Whilst Tim finds the ‘point’ of the game is often to drown Lara, I find more often than not I’m going splat off the edges of cliffs. Though I occasionally drown her as well and have been known to set her on fire.


You Tube Spaced Tomb Raider Clip

Happy Christmas

Christmas Eve here at the moment, but Christmas is only a few hours away. May you all have a happy holiday season. :)

Time to Get This Show Back on the Road

Okay. Family crisis whilst not over has calmed down for the moment. So I’m going to make it third time lucky for getting this blog going.

I Am a T-Shirt Geek

I think t-shirts are possibly the best clothing ever invented. lol

And my new favourite place to visit on the web is Last Exit to Nowhere I must admit to not getting all the references without cheating. I’m obviously not as up on my sci-fi as I thought.

But I have treated myself to a Nostromo shirt and will be picking up a Sulaco one as well.*

* – Something of an Alien fan. Maybe because my only recurring dream involves Aliens in a supermarket doing their weekly shopping. Which possibly says more about how I feel about supermarket shopping than how I feel about Aliens.

Just because...

...there should be more posts that feature naked mole rats.

I'm Back

Nope, I didn’t forget to blog. Not this time anyway.

My internet connection has been down for the past few days, which kind of sucks. But hopefully it is now all sorted and things can get back to my usual infrequent posting schedule.

In WIP progress I’m very nearly through the beta readers comments and the word count is up to 34,000.

This is twice as long as If Wishes Were Horses was when I submitted it. IWWH was submitted with 17,000 words and I think the final version was eventually over 20,000. So I may still reach my target of 50,000 words at some point.

No Thursday 13 This Week...

Did I say last week I’d definitely do one?

Goes back to check…No…Phew!

I have an assignment due tomorrow so I am completing that tonight one way or the other - it’s on the inevitability of the tragedy in Romeo and Juliet.

And for next week I shall write my TT on Saturday so it’s ready to go.

As an aside, in a previous TT I think I wrote about the importance of keeping a notebook with you at all times to jot down ideas.

Note to self - take your own advice.

Luckily the brilliant end to the chapter that came to me just before I went to sleep last night, which vanished in the morning, came back to me in the shower half an hour later. And yep, I wrote it down.

No Thursday 13 Today...

…because I’ve got a new laptop and have had to spend the past two days* setting it up. And also renewing the anti-virus program on my PC. Deleting stuff I shouldn’t, panicking, then breathing a sigh of relief when I manage to get it back again with no serious losses.

Techno-savvy I am not.

But whilst I am feeling quite technicial lol, I’ve also added a books page for my books on my Wordpress blog, where hopefully you’ll be able to click on the cover and it will take you to Samhain.

*not two whole days, I’ve had to squeeze it in between going to work and other stuff, I’m not quite that bad.

For 2009 and a Little Update

So I know I mentioned this briefly before, but this is the plan for 2009.

Monday - What I’m Reading - thanks to Nicole’s suggestion
Tuesday - WIP progress report
Thursday - Thursday 13
Friday - Fiction or Writing Stuff
Sunday - Poem, for as long as I’ve got poems to share

I’m going to post more about my reading choices and my reasons for picking them on the first Monday post of 2009 but the first book is going to be Pride and Prejudice.

The WIP progress is very slow at the moment, but over the past few days I’ve blasted through the first draft of The Bargain and am very pleased with the progress I’ve made. Sadly, the reason for my lack of progress is because my dad passed away just before Christmas. However, he would be the first person to tell me to get on with it, so that’s what I’m doing.

See you in the New Year.

Happy Holidays

So with the holidays virtually upon us and things going mad here with present wrapping and last minute shopping. I’ll take my leave here and catch up with you all in the New Year.

As some of you may know my father is currently seriously ill in hospital. So I’d like to send special thoughts and prayers out to everyone with friends and family who can’t be with them at this time of year.

See you all in 2009

No Thursday 13

As I am in the middle of packing for a week away from the internet, so I can get lots of writing done.

That’s the plan anyway.

Hopefully, I’m going to schedule a poetry post for Sunday. See you all in a week.