Current Writing Shenanigans

So, I suppose I should write about what I've been up to, writing wise.

I usually work on two projects at once: drafting one novel, and editing another.

Unfortunately, uni hasn't been giving me enough time to develop a new concept, and to draft it too (that's going to be a NaNoWriMo thing, since I'll be done with uni forever), but I've been busy doing mass edits on one of my older projects, which some of my older readers from LiveJournal might remember, my NaNo novel from 2010, titled Fool's Gold.

At the moment, I'm in the midst of a complete rewrite of the first 3 chapters, after coming to the conclusion that the first chapter literally did nothing to further the story, other than a bit of worldbuilding and info dumping. Events that have happened in chapter 3 now happen in chapter 1, and it gets complicated after that, with bits and pieces from all those chapters happening in different places.

After that, chapters 15-18 are going to need to be scrapped and rewritten from scratch, because I was young and dumb and wrote awful things that my current feminist self cringes with disgust at.

I'm glad that I've finally decided to work on this novel 4 years after having drafted it. I've grown so much as a writer, Fool's Gold having been my second completed novel. Now in mid 2014, I've already written about six novels, in various stages of completion. I've discovered books that have helped me develop a vibrant voice, that have made me reconsider plot points, character development, and world-building.

I hate it when people call their books their babies, but this novel has been on my mind for almost 5 years, and it's finally so close to being queried to an agent. It's an exhilarating feeling knowing that I've worked so hard on it, and it's been 5 years in the making.

Keep an eye out for future posts on my progress.

Books I Read and Loved in 2014, Part 1

Hello wonderful readers, I'm on the cusp of the second half of the year, and I realise I haven't posted in months (I am pretty active on Instagram if anyone wants to follow me in my day to day life. Lots of pictures of my fur babies). So, I thought I'd talk about the books that I've read and loved in the first half of 2014. Currently, I'm sitting at 77 books read, but quite a few of them didn't really move me all that much.

I really need to post more often...

Dang, I haven't been here in ages. And I hate knowing that I've neglected this blog.
So, what have I been up to since January? Not much, really.

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Started my last year of uni, with some classes that don't feel relevant to writing at all. But I did have to get myself an internship for one of my classes, and that worked out great. I got an internship at Little Raven Publishing, a small Australian-based erotic publisher, which was super fun. Something nice to add to my writer's resume. In the long run, I hope to get a job in the publishing industry.

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Got diagnosed with bipolar disorder and OCD, and finally got treatment for it, which is, like, the best thing ever. My mood swings haven't been quite as intense, and it makes it easier for me to find the motivation to do more that just lie in bed with a book on my face and a dog on my legs, day after day.

Unfortunately, one of the side effects I've been getting is intense vertigo every time I stand up, but it's so worth it.

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I guess you could say I'm the bees knees

Got another tattoo, and they're my favourite ones yet. Lately I've been really passionate about gardening and flowers, and the importance of bees. Also, it shows my love for puns. 

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Officially came out as pansexual to my peers, which may have been the scariest, yet most exhilarating thing I've ever done.  I don't think I've ever felt prouder of myself, and relieved at all the positivity gained from it. 

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Started plans for a new novel, and all I'm going to say about it for now is that it's a modern retelling of The Snow Queen, with mermaids, a guest appearance of Cthulhu, a damsel saving her knight in distress, and no love triangles whatsoever. More details to come as I go through it. 

~

And, saving the best for last, my family has grown by two! 

Meet Selina and Luna!

They already get along so well with Layla, in fact, Luna just adores Layla, and loves grooming and bopping her on the nose, as pictured.

So, that's been my life for the last few months. I hope I can post more frequently than before. Maybe at least once a month like I used to, at least a book haul or what I've read for the month, that sort of thing.

See ya next time!

January Book Haul

So... books. I got a lot of them this month. Christmas, birthday, and just a total irresponsibility when it comes to money results in this tonne of books.

Books read in January

This was a difficult month for me. I didn't get many books read, only 10, 3 of which were graphic novels.
It being the middle of summer, we've had weeks where doing anything but lying comatose in front of the air con was unbearable, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees (Celsius, for all you American readers. You have the polar vortex, and we have Summerpocalypse.). And at the same time, depression got in the way, making it difficult to want to pick up books, even if they're wonderful and  make me feel good. I just felt so apathetic about it all.

But whatever, we're here to talk about books, aren't we?

Are Comics Real Books?

Ah, the great question. When I was in school, teachers would always tell off anyone who brought comics or graphic novels to silent reading time. "They're not books!" they would exclaim.
Aren't they?
They have words. They have a story, characters, conflict. They inflict a painful amount of feels at times. They discuss issues.
Is it that they have pictures that makes them not worthy of being called books?

To me, it seems snobby to claim that graphic novels don't count in literature.

Becky Cloonan has written a trilogy of sorts, The Ink and Thunder series, and each issue is a one-shot. They're carefully crafted, written, illustrated and inked by Becky herself. And I would call them literary-fantasy crossovers. There's a lot of hidden things in her work, imagery, symbolism, everything you'd find in a regular book.
I dare you to check them out. Each issue is only 99 cents on comixology.

So, what do you think about comics as books? Goodreads thankfully counts comics as books towards my yearly reading goal, since I've slowly started reading more comics than books lately.

A quick post to let you know that I'm not dead, and what I've been obsessing with lately

Apologies for not posting in several months. Especially after that last post wherein I talked in verbatim about my depression. I hope no one thought I'd pulled an Allie Brosh (her several months-long hiatus on Hyperbole and a Half, with no warning, after her own post on depression was an extremely worrying time for me.)
But I've been getting better. I think. My feelings have been going up and down, as to be expected with mental illnesses. But I've been dealing with it. I've made a new friend in my course, who quickly turned into my best friend. And this best friend introduced me to superheroes.

Now, I've read some comics before. I'd read the first 100-something issues of Fables, before getting sick of the convoluted, meandering plot. Ditto with The Walking Dead. But I'd found it difficult to get into superhero comics, mainly because, well, I found the Batman universe uninteresting and too male-angsty for me (Oh, Chris Nolan, please tone down the angst), just to name one example, and the comic community is severely anti-woman, as I've encountered.
But after reading some comics that he forced onto me (I completely recommend Loeb's Hush, Tomasi's Batman and Robin run (up until Damian dies), Simone's Brids of Prey run, and Dini's Gotham City Sirens run), I've become so in love with the feels that the superheroes give me.

So, I've decided, since I can't think about anything else, that I'll post a few things on various topics regarding comics.
Next post, which should be up within a few days, will be all about the disdain some people have for comics, and how they sometimes don't see comics and graphic novels as real literature, and how they're not real books.
I'll also be discussing feminism in comics (with a lot of vitriol at the New 52 Wonder Woman, and just Wonder Woman's current situation).
After that, I'll talk about writing in comics, which, as a novelist, I've discovered is incredibly ruthlessly difficult to grasp, but super incredibly fun.

I hope that this will help me keep consistent in posting often, and that I can rant happily about my new passions, and maybe even educate people.