Wanna read some sci-fi?

Then head over to Christopher Maine’s blog and check out his short stories – the Runner chronicles. They’re brilliant short science fiction stories, I’ve been hooked on them – and if you enjoy those, check out some of his other writing and buy his books, “Tales From The Terra Firma Fleet”, on Amazon! 

Science fiction has become a bit of a buzzword for me just recently; I can’t get enough of it. I don’t know if it’s because at the moment I’m alternating between writing science fiction short stories (set in Christopher Maine’s universe) and also a science fiction novel set (also set in that universe), but I really love it. I’ve also just finished watching the series of “Firefly” (I’ll hopefully be progressing to the film at some point soon) and I love it; so much so that I’m dedicating my next assessment to it by giving a presentation about the series. 

So I’m on a bit of a sci-fi kick at the moment. I’m making my way through the book of War Of The Worlds and my next television show I’m going to watch which I should have watched years ago is Stargate Atlantis. Let’s see where that one takes me!

Stay shiny x

Today is NOT a revision day…

I shall sum up what today is using my favourite method of expressing my emotions online. Warning, gif overload ahead.

Yeah. So that’s me at the moment. Don’t ask.

Moom’s Views: 100 Days To Go!

Yes, it’s 100 days to go until the 2012 Olympics open in London. The Olympics have completely divided Britain into people (mostly the ones from London) who are absolutely thrilled and excited and can’t wait, and the people (mainly from everywhere else) who are fed up of hearing about it, especially when it won’t benefit them, and are fed up with the focus always being on London.

Personally, I feel like I’m one of not many people who is in the middle. I mean, I’m not screaming my excitement from the rooftops or anything, because I’m honestly not that excited. I’ll watch the events I’m interested in on TV, and it’ll be good to see what they come up with for the opening and closing ceremonies, but I’m not particularly interested in it. I’m not much of a sporty person and London is hundreds of miles from me, so I’m really quite indifferent to it. However, I’m not incredibly opposed to it like a lot of people seem to be.

Yes, we’ve heard a lot about it on TV, and it can get a little tiring of having people enthusing about how wonderful London is all the time – but let’s face it, the modern Olympics have only been held in London twice before. The events aren’t ONLY taking place in London, although it might seem like there are, and the vast majority are being held there – there are events happening all over the country – but, it does seem a bit like a “let’s pay attention to London and throw money at it, even if it means neglecting the rest of Britain” thing, so some of the anger is understandable.

The thing I hate the most is this very British way of being miserable about everything. You don’t have to hate everything – British people are allowed to enjoy themselves occasionally, and we are allowed to get excited about things. A lot of it seems to be jumping on the bandwagon – it’s suddenly cool to be annoyed about the Olympics, because apparently it shows solidarity amongst all the places that don’t have events taking place. It doesn’t really – it just makes you look a bit stupid really, because it’s so bloody obvious that you only dislike it because lots of other people do too.

Personally, you wouldn’t get me into London for those two weeks for love nor money, because of the massive terrorism risk. I hope that nothing will go wrong because it doesn’t bear thinking about, but it just seems like such a big risk – all those people gathered together is an accident waiting to happen. There’s also the problem with the fact that there’ll be so much traffic disruption, the whole “will the underground cope?” debate (judging on what I’ve seen of it on a normal day at rush hour, my guess is that no, it won’t) and the tickets were so overpriced that there’d be no reason for me to go to London as I don’t have tickets anyway!

I’d rather be at home, where it’ll be busy (such is the side effect of living in a busy holiday area) but hopefully, not as busy as usual – I’m hoping many people will opt to stay at home for a couple of weeks and watch the Olympics, or that they’ve got tickets and will be in London, so we might get a couple of weeks of peace and quiet during what is usually our busiest time. That way, there’s no insane queuing, no travelling to be done, hopefully nice weather to enjoy and, if I want, I can watch the games on TV, but I won’t be having it shoved in my face all the time like I would be in London.

But, in short, if you’re sick of the Olympics by now, just ignore everything to do with it! No-one’s forcing you to read about it in the newspapers or buy merchandise or watch TV programmes about it – you can switch over or not read it or not buy the stuff. Some people really do need to realize that they are their own person – rather than expecting the rest of the world to tiptoe around them, maybe they should look out for themselves, stop blaming the TV or the LOCOG or anyone else and realize that, if you don’t want the Olympics being shoved in your face, the onus is on you to avoid it. This is, I think, a good thing for Britain (morally, in any event… financially, it remains to be seen!), and surely that is worth a few months of  a few whingers having to change their lives slightly to make it a bit more comfortable to them.

My Proudest Moment!

So, yesterday the plaque for Harold Lowe was unveiled. I started my campaign for it two years ago, and to see it unveiled on such a fitting day – the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking – was perfect. It was a lovely ceremony and I’m very grateful to everyone who turned up – lots of people took the time to attend which was wonderful – but, more than anything, to Captain John Lowe, Harold Lowe’s grandson, who nearly brought me to tears by asking me to help him unveil the plaque. It was a wonderful ceremony and there seemed to be a few people struggling to remain dry-eyed! The choir were there singing Welsh hymns including “for those in peril on the sea”, the army and RAF cadets were there, as were members of Harold Lowe’s family and local dignitaries and press.

Ioan Gruffydd was invited but was unable to attend, but he sent a wonderful letter which was read out at the ceremony to everyone – and I was presented with a copy of the letter in a frame which will take pride of place in my bedroom 🙂 in short, it really was a wonderful day and a fitting tribute to a true hero, and I can honestly say that it was my proudest moment was seeing everyone crowding around the plaque, wanting to look at it, read it and take pictures of it. I was so moved by the number of people who came up to me and thanked me, but the truth is I couldn’t have done it on my own, it needed the support of local people to make it happen, and the people of Barmouth and the surrounding area were overwhelming with their support, and it was clear to see that everyone agreed that Barmouth needed something to commemorate such a great man.

If you’re ever in Snowdonia, come down to Barmouth and visit the harbour, and take a moment to come and see the plaque. I hope you will be inspired to learn more about the local hero we are all so very proud of.

*Happy Dances*

I only have one chapter left of book 2 to write! I’m currently on just under 75,000 words, and hopefully the next, and last, chapter, will take me up to just under 80,000. I’m feeling much better today (seems like it’s finally on it’s way out, but it still hurts like hell!) so I’ve been able to get some writing done, and I’m quite happy with it! So, one chapter left, then I might take a break (but probably won’t!) and then start on Book 3, which is the last in the trilogy. Then, the epic editing session can begin whenever I can be bothered to do it 😉

By the way, if you’re in Britain, Ireland, America or Japan, over the next few weeks there is a documentary airing called “Titanic with Len Goodman” (BBC1 in the UK, RTE something in Ireland, PBS in American and apparently it’s in Japan too), and I am (hopefully!) on one of the shows – I spent a day filming in August so not sure if I am on it, or what episode it’ll be, but it sounds like it will be an interesting and informative programme anyway, so check it out!

 

*fanfare* A WRITING UPDATE!

Heh. So I guess I’ve bored you all enough with my personal life for a while, time for… *drumroll*…. a writing update!

I still haven’t started editing. I just can’t get my head into editor mode, although I really do need to do it, I’m quite tempted to wait until I have all three books in the trilogy written, and edit them all together to make sure everything corresponds and it’s all fresh in my head. Plus I REALLY want to write the next two books! I’ve got all the ideas buzzing in my head and I really would like to get them all written down. So, I am now on Chapter Three of Book Two, and it’s taking me a while because my head doesn’t want to write, it wants to sleep or play guitar or watch TV, but I’m managing to coerce it into co-operating somehow 😉

So, that was a rather short writing update but hope it provided a little change from the usual moanings you get from me 😉

I’VE FINISHED! (Kinda).

There will be no more chapters in book one! I will no longer be sitting up until stupid o’clock in the morning, knowing that I’ll probably only get a couple of hours sleep before I wake up for the bus, determined that I “just need to finish this chapter”, and get just another thousand more words, and then I can sleep. No more trying to think of ways to make the chapters as long as possible without them being ridiculously boring, and no more introducing new characters every few chapters (yes, I have to write books two and three, but they’ll have less new characters than the first one by far). I have finished book one… kinda.

I say “kinda”, because I’m not thrilled with how the first few chapters turned out – they’re very short, compared to the later ones, and really lacking in any description of any kind, which is why the word count is so low when I’ve been writing up to 4k-long chapters in the past few days. To be honest, I’m quite proud to have finished it within the time I have – I started it on January 2nd, if I remember correctly, and it’s finished on the 29th, which isn’t bad considering I’ve also had exams and coursework due in (the coursework went great, the exams I’m not so sure, but that didn’t really have much to do with the writing and more with the fact that I’ve been ill and a question came up that we really didn’t think would come up for my Drama exam), and I also have a boyfriend, a social life, a theatre group and I like to just chill out and watch television sometimes too.

So, what have I done today, to celebrate actually finishing my first ever book (kinda)? Well, I went into town with my boyfriend, remembered that it’s Sunday so very few shops are actually open, bought myself a nice scarf in the sale, got some sweets and then stood and watched cars trying to get through the mounds of sand that piled up in the harbour when we had those high winds and storms and stuff last month. And now we’re going to have a lovely roast dinner and a nice evening with my boyfriend, before I traipse off to college tomorrow (joy of joys).

January is nearly over, and although I usually hate January – last year was, of course, an exception in many ways – this year, although college has been rubbish as usual and I’ve been ill-er than usual, I’ve spent most of the month with Daf, it’s been really productive – I wrote a book! (kinda) – and I have really enjoyed it, to be honest. I’m excited now to see what February, and the rest of the year, will bring – hopefully lots more writing, lots more happiness and a lot of excitement! I’m quite tempted to start editing now – I should probably take a couple of days off, otherwise I’ll end up with tendonitis again from this almost non-stop writing – but I’m really excited to make it into a novel I can be really proud of.