Some announcements

The start of a new year. A new beginning. Something like this tends to make me re-evaluate various items, but I'm behind on that right now (yeah, yeah, I know, the year's just started and I'm already behind - doesn't bode well, does it?)

Due to my "behind" status, I'm going on a little hiatus. During that time, I'm going to work out some changes for the blog and hopefully (fingers crossed) make some good progress with my rewrites.

Before I disappear off into the web-o-sphere, I have a few things I'd like to mention:

1) I loved participating in Laura's SantaFest, and thank you so much to whoever made me this lovely blog award. I will be awarding it out to other worthy souls when I reappear.

2) I'm so glad I joined a critique group at the very end of 2010. Critiquing others' work, and having such talented people critique mine has definitely made me a better writer. I feel that's one of the better things 2011 gave me.

3) I've been awarded the Great Comments Award by The Golden Eagle and Cherie Reich - thanks, guys!

Generally, the award is supposed to go to the 20 most recent commenters, but my blog is still a tight-knit community, so I'm going to restrict the list to 10 on this occasion, and here they are:

• Sonia
• Stephen Tremp
• Laura
• T F Walsh
• Misha Gericke
• Lynn Kelley
• Shevi
• Murees Dupé
• Sarah Gilman
• Autumn Glazier

I think that's about it. Thanks for all your support on my blog over the last few months. Hope to see you again soon :).

The magic of lights

When I was a child, I loved the Christmas tree lights. My mother, despite her dislike for Christmas and putting up decorations, would eventually get round to putting up the tree each year (this is why it happened all in one night - I think she wanted it over and done with ;) ). It stood in a corner of the room, brightly decorated, and, every evening, when it got dark, my sister and I were allowed to turn the lights on.

These lights were multi-coloured. Not plain white, or silver, or blue. They were red, and pink, orange and green… (and no, I'm not about to break into that rainbow song ;) ). I loved the way they lit up the tree and glistened off the tinsel.

As our artificial tree had a high base, I would spend a few minutes of most evenings lying on the carpet on my back, head beneath the branches, staring up at the lights through the green. To me, it seemed I'd entered a fairy land, and anything was possible.

Something happened a few years ago that put my love of Christmas on hold, but this year found me struggling to put my own tree together, spreading out branches, creating a bizarre pattern with the tinsel, and hanging up tree ornaments I'd gathered years before.

The best part?

Turning on those lights.

Still multi-coloured, still shades of red and blue and orange lighting up my tiny hall and playing over the plain cream walls. My tree isn't high enough for me to stare up through its branches, but something about those lights is still magical to me.

Do you find anything magical in Christmas decorations? Or do you have any ornaments for your tree that have special meaning to you each time you hang them?

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Season of giving

The lovely Murees Dupé, over at Daily Drama of an Aspiring Writer, was kind enough to give me the Liebster award! I'm really touched. Thank you very much, Murees!

With this award, you have to do the following:

• Copy the award onto your blog.
• Thank and link to the person that gave it to you.
• Forward it to five bloggers that have less than 200 followers.
• Comment on those five peoples' blogs to share the good news.

So, here are the people I would like to have this award. If you already have it, or simply would prefer not to have it, that's not a problem, but I think you all deserve it:

• Steph at Across the Border
• Candy at Candy Lynn Fite
• Maria at First Draft Cafe
• Jo at Gap Years The Book
• Amie at Welcome to My World

Thanks again, Murees!

On another note, Cherie Reich is hosting a giveaway on her blog. A professional freelance editor, Cherie is offering the following:

3 - 1st page critiques

2 - 10 page critiques

1 - 25 page critique

You have until the 21st December to enter, so don't miss out on this great opportunity. Thanks very much, Cherie!

SantaFest 2011!

Laura over at Daily Dodo had the wonderful idea of a blogosphere-wide Secret Santa on Friday. Yesterday, in collaboration with Loralie at Apathy's Hero, she made it a reality!

The idea is to create a gift that's all about your creativity and not money. So, for example, a gift could be a piece of short fiction, or a photograph, etc. Everyone who wants to be involved signs up to the Linky List, and then Randomizer.org chooses who gets to create a gift for who. Everything remains anonymous.

I love this idea! I think it'll be a lot of fun to create a gift for someone in the blog community, and nice to be involved in such a wide-reaching Secret Santa at the same time :).

If anyone else would like to join in, just hop on over to Laura's site, and sign up by the 12th December (next Monday). There's more information over on her site too.

Christmas and cartoon piggies

Yesterday was my birthday. What did I do? I went to see Father Christmas. Now, I realise this sounds a little bit strange. A thirty-something-year-old going to see Father Christmas, but I have an excuse. It was also the day my dad had booked to take my nephews to the Christmas event at Paulton's Park.

Consequently, my sister and her family, and my dad, my stepmother, and me all tottered off to Hampshire to give the little ones a treat.

What's up with the pigs? Well, Paulton's Park has a shiny new section, and it's devoted to Peppa Pig - a British TV programme that has gone viral in terms of books, toys, and now, even its own theme park.

Where I'd rather be

As the nights draw in and the temperature drops,  I find myself stepping into the chilly morning air each day with one thought in my mind (besides "I'm cold"): I'd rather be in [somewhere] right now.

Currently, my [somewhere] of choice alternates between the Canary Islands, which I'm told are great for sun and warmth at this time of the year, and New Zealand, which is a country I would love to return to, and they're just heading into their summer, making it doubly desirable.

My parents have previously headed off for cruises to the Caribbean in January - another [somewhere] that appeals courtesy of its sun and warmth. I also know of some people heading off to visit their Time Share in Portugal or their friends in Cyprus, both of which sound warmer to me than England does right now. If my face starts turning the slightest shade of green, you'll know why ;).

So, what about you? Are you enjoying the drop in temperature and seeing your breath appear as mist in the mornings? Or are you, too, dreaming of a warm sunny location to escape to? And where would that escape be?

(N.B. For those of you lucky enough to be heading into summer right now, colour me jealous ;).)

Image: Witthaya Phonsawat / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Getting back some "me" time

Recently, I read a post by Claire Legrand, and it brought home to me how much my life had become work and writing, with no time for anything else. Don't get me wrong, I love my writing. The creating new worlds, characters, and following their stories - there's nothing like it.

Still, I used to do other things, and what with work taking up such a lot of my time, every other moment has become writing-oriented just to get something done. That post reminded me to do something else every once in a while - get back to other things I enjoy.

The influence of the older generation

I'm talking parents here, or grandparents, or your dad's friend who's almost part of the family. Not simply someone in the next age bracket up from you. Although, for all I know, they might fit into my little theme today too.

Inevitably, when your parents were kids, an entirely different selection of books was available - books you might never have thought of, had it not been for your mum reminiscing about how she read such-and-such as a child. Or your nan pointing out some books while out at a school fete.

One such book series I discovered in this fashion was Lorna Hill's "Sadlers Wells" series. Mum started me off on this when she gave me the first book, "A Dream of Sadlers Wells". It was her own hardback copy that she'd read several times when she was younger.

I loved this series of books. I loved reading about Veronica and Sebastian. Then, later (as I went through the entire series), about Caroline, Ella, Rosanna, and Vicki.

But if not for my mum, I'd never have found these stories.

Do you have any books like that? Jewels discovered courtesy of the older generation?

So, where did Halloween come from?

As it's Halloween today (cue spooky music, creaking doors, and Vincent Price's cackle, which never fails to send shivers down my spine), I thought I'd delve into a bit of its history.

The word, Halloween, comes from a mash-up of All-Hallows-Even (evening) (first use recorded way back in 1556) and the name of Celtic festival, Samhain (pronounced sow-een, whatever the actors on "True Blood" call it).

Samhain marked the end of the harvest, the end of the lighter half of the year, and the beginning of some seriously long dark nights. It was also known as a festival dedicated to the dead, and some people still set a place for the dead at the Samhain feast.

The Gaelic custom of wearing a mask and costumes was often an attempt to placate evil spirits. Another method of warding off evil were the candle lanterns. Large turnips were hollowed out, carved with faces, and placed in the window to frighten away the spirits.

In Scotland and Ireland, guising (dressing in costume) is a Halloween custom recorded as far back as  1895 where masqueraders in disguise visited homes to be rewarded with cake, fruit, and money (sounds good to me!).

So, now you're all nice and knowledgeable about where our Halloween name and customs came from, I hope you have a wonderful spookfest this evening. I think I'll be looking out my (admittedly tiny) collection of scary films. If you hear blood-curdling screams, that'll be me, hiding behind a cushion. Did I mention I'm useless with horror films?

Image: zirconicusso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

First blog award!

I feel so lucky right now! Not only have I gathered lots of new followers (hi new followers!), but not one, but TWO great bloggers have given me a blog award. And here it is:

Isn't it fantastic? All roses and pink and lovely :). Thanks very much to Beth at Thoughts from the Hearthfire and Laura at Daily Dodo for giving it to me.

This award requires you to pass it onto 15 recently discovered blogs. Now, I know this award has been going round lately, so to the people I'm about to recommend, feel free to ignore it if you want to.

Here goes:

1. Christine Rains
2. Creepy Query Girl
3. Flutey Words
4. Gap Years The Book
5. Jenn Nixon
6. LynNerd's Random Act of Writing
7. Nerd Girl Reads and Writes
8. Pensuasion
9. Ramblings
10. Rebecca Mahoney
11. T F Walsh - Fantasy Writer
12. The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment
13. Victim of Writing
14. Wicked, Tricksy, and False
15. Welcome to my World

Well, some might not be as recently discovered as others, but they're all equally worthy.

Did everyone have a nice weekend? I actually managed to spend some time just reading. I read straight through "Anna and the French Kiss", by Stephanie Perkins. I loved it! When's the last time you whizzed through a book, because you couldn't bear to put it down?

Comfort Films - "Clue" (1985)

While one of my favourite things when I need comfort is food (chocolate works wonders!), I also turn to films when I need a laugh or that feel-good warmth.

Today, "Clue" popped into my head, and it's perfect for the way I'm feeling now - tired, irritated, frustrated... - Why are you all running for the hills? I'm not THAT grumpy. OK, maybe I am, but I have "Clue" to make me giggle and restore my good spirits, so you're all safe.

Just the thought of the manic nonsense of the plotline, Tim Curry as the butler, Wadsworth, and those great lines ("Who's there?" "Nobody." "What do you mean?" "Nobody. No body... Mr Boddy's body. It's gone.") has me smiling.

The Phantom of the Opera is here

Anyone else love this story? Or the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical? I confess I saw the musical first, but I still love Gaston Leroux's original book.

Well, as you probably already know, the musical of Phantom is celebrating its 25th anniversary in London this year. Yep, it's been 25 years since it opened at Her Majesty's theatre with Sarah Brightman as Christine and Michael Crawford as the Phantom. To celebrate, a production - specially designed for the Royal Albert Hall - took place over the weekend. Sunday's evening performance was also broadcast live in cinemas across the UK.

A ratty's tail

Guess I'm going for controversial today. I know, beyond a doubt, several of you will look at this post, and think, "Rats? Yuck! Keep them well away from me - about a universe will do."

Fair enough. I have the same reaction to spiders.

However, I find there are a lot of misconceptions about rats that lead to that response. Unlike spiders, when - really - how can you have a misconception about a creepy thing with eight legs that invades your bath just when you want to get in it?

The road to Hell...

...is paved with good intentions. Who wrote that? Hmm. Now, I'm going to have to look up the author.

Good intentions. Everyone has them. Whether it's as innocuous as a plan to get the laundry done or get that English essay out of the way, or as high-faluting as devising a cure for cancer or banishing that Terrible Thing otherwise known as Reality TV.

The problem is the outcome.

How many times is the laundry put off due to a coffee and chat with a friend? Or the essay buried under a pile of much-more-exciting X-Box games? (Or my dream of ridding the world of the Terrible Thing blown apart by the knowledge that some people actually love it?)

The law of threes

I'm going to start with a true story.

In 1997, a small team banded together to save a piece of England's history - an aircraft. The XH558 is the last flying Avro Vulcan in the world, and it relies on donations to keep it in the air. To attract people to give these donations, it needs to appear at major airshows around the country. Understandably, these are in the summer when (it's hoped) the weather is at its best.

This year, as with others, the group of volunteers struggled to meet the donation target they needed in order to keep the Vulcan in the air, but they met it. Just.

So, aircraft ready to go. Airshows booked. All looked good.

The train and the writer

I'm on a train today, heading up to England's capital of London. The snack trolley has just gone past and the aroma of strong coffee is swirling about the carriage making me wish I'd bought one.

My favourite trick when I'm on a train, even when I've been on the journey several times before, is to stare out of the window. I don't know what I'm looking for. I'm pretty sure the trees and buildings won't have changed that much from the last trip, and the rail network is unlikely to have decided to reroute the railway lines so I get a different view each time. Still, as standard, me on a train equals me looking out the window.

Today is different. Today I have my NetBook. And more than that. I've actually got the NetBook out!! (Cue stunned gasps.)