Fun on a Friday

Happy Hunger Games, everyone! I went to see the movie last night and, let me just say, it's awesome. Really, really awesome.

I won't say much more, because most of you probably haven't seen it yet, so I'll leave it at: they've done some very clever things with it, including letting us see the Gamemakers at work (am I weird for kind of liking Seneca Crane?), and the characters were all spot on. Effie is hilarious. So, yeah. It's so worth going to see, even if you haven't read the books.

As for other amazing movies/films, I discovered this gorgeous short animation on Youtube the other day, and I had to share it. Seriously, I have so much admiration - and a fair bit of envy - for people who can create things like this.

Have a lovely weekend!

Dark and Stormy Nights

Write what you know. Snoopy does.

It's what we're supposed to do, right? And that's fine. But sometimes I think we could be doing one better.

Write what you want to know.

Something you're passionate about. Something new. Something you have to learn about. I've always been fascinated by Venice, but I've never yet set a story there because it's not what I know. But maybe I should. Maybe that's exactly the kind of story that will haunt my sleep.

So I guess that's my thought for this weekend. Write what you love, not necessarily what you know. What do you think?

Pay It Forward

Today is the Pay It Forward Blogfest, hosted by Alex J Cavanaugh and Matthew MacNish - and if you don't know what that is, pop over to their blogs for the details and the list of participating bloggers, because it's such an awesome idea! Basically we're supposed to pick three of our favourite bloggers, people we think everyone should follow, and say a little bit about them. It seemed like a great way to discover new blogs and meet new people, so I signed up as soon as I had a chance.

Picking my three hasn't been easy, though. There are so many blogs I absolutely love and so many people I'd want to mention - in the end it was pretty much a case of 'pick three names out of a hat of favourites'.

Alex at Odd Socks and Pretty Frocks
Alex is smart and funny and so nice and everyone should check her blog out at least once! It's primarily a fashion blog but she also talks about books, work, life and she's just started working on a novel - so go over and encourage her!

Bethany Yeager at Ink-Splattered
A writer (like many of us), Bethany's posts about characters, plot and writing in general are always fresh and interesting and I never get tired of reading her.

Jim Murdoch at The Truth About Lies
Jim's posts about novels, poetry and plays are always incredibly detailed, thoughtful and illuminating. It must take him ages to write up each one; seriously, I'm always in awe when I stop by his blog.

Quite a random pick of choices, but, like I said, it was so hard to choose just three favourites I had to grab at a few names from a great list.

A big thank you to Alex and Matthew for hosting this blogfest - and happy weekend, everyone!


PS. I think I'm going to struggle to comment on every blog in the master list of participants, but I am going to try and make my way through the whole list and follow - so if you don't see many comments from me, it's not because I haven't been round!

Cats, Phones and Days Off

So I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but I've spent the last few weeks busy working on a round of revisions for A TORRENT OF LIGHT. Yesterday I finished them. Yes! Finished! And not just finished: I finished them and was happy.

Normally I edit and feel pleased but also a teeny bit dissatisfied because something didn't turn out quite as well as I'd wanted. Or it just didn't do justice to the way I imagined it in my head. This time I am happy. It's not perfect - I don't think any author thinks their drafts are perfect! - but it's so close to the book I want it to be. For that I need to thank my agent Melissa, my editor Sara, my husband Steve and myself Me, because without them I wouldn't have gotten to this point.

(I realize this makes it sound like the work's totally over and it's going to print, but that's not true. There will be more work. I'm just quite pleased with the work already done - not to mention I'm still basking in the afterglow of finishing revisions!)

All of which means I've given myself a day off. Today, to be precise. A day off! A guilt free day off!

So what have I done on this fine day?

I've pondered the unsolvable puzzle of the cat in this photograph. Try it. If you can find the bloody cat please tell me where it is because it's driving me crazy.

I have discovered that if you drop your phone in water you can heal it with uncooked rice. There. Your Invaluable Tip of the Day. I did not discover this the hard way. I heard mysterious rumours about it and immediately felt compelled to experiment but a few desperate words from Steve made me see reason. My phone is dry, never fear. However I did have this mysterious rumour confirmed on Twitter: it worked for someone in my agent's office!

I had a Skype chat with my mother. I have these quite often but so rarely without a sense of 'oh heavens I've been doing this half an hour, that's half an hour of work-time I've cavalierly frittered away!' For those of you who have not heard about my mother before, here is one of her finer moments (skip to the last paragraphs of the post).

I've read a book to my unborn offspring. I think he liked it.

I pondered new ideas and projects. Because I'm irrepressible that way and even on a day off I can't shake off my Writer Brain.

And I haven't done this yet but I tonight I'm going on date. With Steve. Today marks six months since we condemned ourselves to a lifetime with one another (i.e. got married) and we're going out on a date to celebrate. And also because he just got a new credit card and felt we should abuse it a little bit.

What have you done this Friday? Any big plans for the weekend?

Big Fat Computer #Fail

My laptop, which is very much on its last legs, has been especially difficult today. To the point where it won't stay on for more than five minutes without overheating and turning off. That's meant I've managed to get very little work done - gah - and I can't write up a proper blog post - double gah. I'm writing this on my phone.

So today's Reader Request will be delayed, I'm afraid. Now I'm off to break something. Probably the laptop.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Has your heart melted yet?

I just had to share this with everyone, especially those of you who might not have seen this before. Imagine a baby. Imagine a mother finding a creative way to spend her maternity leave. Imagine amazing settings and photographs involving said baby, taken by said mother.

And you get this-

Adele Enersen has a blog with tons more of these amazing photos, so do click on the link, they're incredible! I chose this one, titled 'Bookworm', for obvious reasons. Well, and because it's just so darn cute!

Hope that made you laugh this weekend!

Routines and Rituals

Today's been such a lovely relaxing day. I slept in late, then went to lunch with Steve to The Whiffler, somehow managed to eat almost an entire mixed grill by myself (accompanied by Pimms and lemonade, of course), and then went into town for an ice cream and to buy a desk.

We've spent the last hour or so assembling said desk in the corner of our tiny living room, so that I can have a creative space to launch full-throttle into Book Worlds. I've been using the coffee table until this very moment, and it's a dreadful height to work at because I end up hunched over the laptop with a sore neck in about five minutes flat - not a good way to write novels (or blog posts), I promise.

Thinking about how difficult it is to write regularly (or work) without a desk made me think about other rituals and routines involved in my creativity. For instance, before I can settle down to writing fiction, I have to check my e-mails and make sure there's nothing new I don't know about.

Why? *shrugs* I have no idea.

I also have to skim over the last thing I wrote in the specific story/file, even on those occasions when I remember it perfectly. I have to read through it anyway - and often, I have to stop and tweak so that I can move on feeling good about what I've written thus far.

Often, I have to have music playing - whether instrumental or not. It helps pull me into the mood of the scene(s) I'm writing before I start writing them, which is why I usually create my book playlists before I've written much of each. The music helps with my outline, helps give me an idea of the moods and changes through the text, even if I don't know exactly how things will go or turn out. Other times, I have to have silence - but truthfully, when I'm really and truly absorbed in writing, there could be a baby screaming three feet behind me and I probably wouldn't notice.

Doesn't bode well for any kids I plan to have, does it? Ah, well. Cross that bridge when it comes and all that...

The point is, these are some of my silly little kinks, little things that help me work, rituals and routines I need to let my mind journey to all the brilliant, sparkly worlds I long to do justice to on paper. These are a few of the things I need to tell a story.

So what do you need? What are your routines and rituals?

Summer Lovin'

I don't think I'd do very well on Come Dine With Me, much as I like watching it. I've proven a very shoddy hostess today, as all my well-meaning plans to host my grand blog house-party fell to bits. So I'm going to have to save the party for another day. Never fear, we'll be cracking open the wine and clucking sympathetically at my 'this house is full of spiders' stories soon enough!

But for all you wine-lovers out there, I have to sneak this in: Stone's Ginger Wine. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I've never really liked wine, and until we moved into the house, I never drank it much. Now I drink the ginger wine pretty darn often, it's lovely!

I think the one of the reasons wine has grown on me is the summer. I mentioned our heatwave yesterday, which has been only a small part of this year's English summer. Yes, there's been sun. Gasp. There's been sun in England. There've been whole days when it didn't rain, I mean, can you imagine?

Irony aside, the summer's been gorgeous. I've actually been able to get great wear out of my summer sandals and sunglasses, I've been able to wear what I like - it's even been hot enough that I've stopped boasting that 'I'm Indian, I can take the heat'... erm, yeah. Apparently I can't take the heat all that much.

The downside? The summer hasn't done much good for my writing. When I'm not involved in house stuff, I'm looking for a job, so my writing time is limited already as it is. When I do have the time, it's too lovely outside to stay by a laptop much. More significantly, it's too warm to sit still for long, to concentrate on my story. Even when the story's begging to be written, I find I can't stay focused on it long. Any suggestions on how to fix this that doesn't involve expensive air conditioning?

How do you spend your summer weekends? What do you like best and least about the summer? How does it inspire you - or cut away at your inspiration?

"Wake up, open the door, and escape to the sea"

My new song obsession is Blaqk Audio's 'Wake Up, Open the Door, and Escape to the Sea'. The song does not at any point use those words, but it's a lovely, lovely song anyway. Any fellow fans out there? 

I've been listening to it so much, I'm probably going to hate the very mention of it in a few days. I hope not, though, because it's done such an amazing job of inspiring me! The moment I started listening to it, about a thousand images from Book Two of ECHOES leapt into my head, and my characters started talking to each other, and it was just wonderful to sit there and listen.

What song can't you stop playing today? How has it inspired or moved you?

I read Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver for the first time this week. If you haven't read it, do. It's amazing. I read like a maniac, but even I haven't read a book I've loved this much in a while. I've also been reading some retellings of 'Beauty and the Beast', like Robin McKinley's Beauty and Alex Flinn's Beastly, both of which I really liked.

I'm going to stay at Steve's for a couple of weeks on Monday, so my blogging might be a little erratic, but odds are it shouldn't change.

I've created a new page for the blog, where I describe each of my present and ongoing writing projects. I thought this would be nice to have, but also useful for any of you who are new to the blog or who lose track of what I'm referring to when I mention a certain book. The link's at the top, right beneath the header, next to the 'Home' page. Hopefully it's bright and noticeable, and I do hope you'll take a peek sometime!

To any aspiring writers who are daunted by the finding-an-agent process, Roland has a great post about how to get yourself out of the slushpile over here.

Finally, just a reminder about the Character Interview Blogfest on the 15th of June. Do join in, I'm sure we'll all have lots of fun getting our characters to be cooperative! The signup sheet's in the sidebar, below my little greeting. If you're interested, pop your details in the linky stuff and you're good to go!

Writer's Block, a Myth?

Okay, I'm really really curious to see what other people think about this (because I'm betting we're all creative people in one capacity or another), so I'm throwing this out for general debate and offering of opinions:

That nasty phenomenon known as Writer's Block; that Dreadful Affliction that apparently keeps writers, authors, artists and other creative people from going about their creative business; that Condition where the Muses have deserted us; that dry spell -

is it real? Or is just a myth made up to cover for a creative person's laziness/dry spell?

Can it be broken if you try hard enough? Or do you have to wait it out?


My thoughts on this? I think I can be genuinely blocked (like I am right now), genuinely unable to think of how to go on. But this is often because I have phases when my enthusiasm for a project dims, so I don't feel like writing it. So I don't know if it's that I can't.

I do think it's possible to muster up some energy and discipline and get cracking through that block, even if what you end up writing is rubbish. I just don't know if this necessarily means it's a challenging task rather than one you're passionate about.


Yep. My somewhat muddled thoughts on the subject. Now I'd love to see yours. Myth? Not a myth?

Bombard me!


Note: My themed week begins tomorrow! Powerful relationships, love stories, tragic could-have-beens! Drop by for a peek and for anguished cries against my controversial thoughts! (Yes, a few will be very controversial)

Don't forget to sign up for the Character Interview Blogfest! The signup sheet's in the sidebar, and the post date is the 15th of June. 


Update: Have just signed up to two more blogfests (yep, 'tis definitely the season). The first is the Cognitive Dissonance Blogfest, hosted by the fabulous Zoe, aimed for the 28th June. And yes, she does explain what that means, don't worry. I was kinda freaked out too.

The second is Tessa's brilliant idea, to do The Blogfest of Death. Makes you go ooooh, right?

Weekend adventures

I've been appalling remiss in my blogging this weekend. It was my birthday on Friday, which meant I had barely enough time to sit still all day and night, let alone think of something to blog about over the weekend. Then I spent yesterday recovering, going on a nice romantic drive with Steve to get some fresh air and make the most of the sunny day, and I've barely had a spare moment since.

Whew.

So that's my rather pathetic excuse and I do hope you'll bear with me. Tomorrow, a new week begins, and I shall be back to my old writerly self, full of all the strange and hopefully entertaining things I usually blog about!

How did everyone else spend their weekend? Any exciting stories you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them! 

Blog Fest

A short weekend-post today.

First off, thank you to everyone who has voted in the poll so far. I'm rather amazed that 'a childhood anecdote involving an elephant' is tied in first place so far, as that really was a bit of joke. Joke's on me, I guess. Never fear, I shall follow through! To anyone who hasn't yet voted and wants to, the poll's in the sidebar, and please do add your thoughts in.

Bought beautiful shoes yesterday. Well, actually, Steve bought them for me, which I thought was very, very nice of him. Here they are.

*gazes at photo happily*

I've just joined The Alliterative Allomorph's Blog Fest, where you post a scene of 'internal conflict'. It sounds like it'll be lots of fun. The post date is 12th May, so if anyone else is interested, do have a look at her post and see if it's something you'd like to join.

Finally, for those who are interested, I've written about a thousand words of the Death-Desire-Rage project I mentioned yesterday. I absolutely love writing it so far, though obviously I couldn't tell you if it's good stuff or not; still, I think it's going well for now, and I hope to post the opening or an extract from the first chapter here soon.

Really must come up with a title for it, as referring to it is 'the Death-Desire-Rage project' is not only slightly misleading, but downright unwieldy. How about Tea with Ghosts? Or Tea with Death, Desire and Rage? The former is succinct but I guess it could give readers the wrong idea until they're a fair way into the story. So though the latter is longer, why not? I'll use that one as a filler for now. TEA WITH DEATH, DESIRE AND RAGE. Which I'll no doubt begin abbreviating to TEA out of pure laziness.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

At-Home Haircuts, what a treat

So, about an hour of my weekend was spent cutting Steve's hair. It had gotten a bit long (read: it looked like a mushroom) and he begged, pleaded, demanded I do something about it. So I did.

I chopped, hacked, and generally did what I felt like. I had enough spare hair in my hands for an excellent toupe. I left him with a tiny bald spot at the back (easily hidden because his hair tends to be rakishly messy all the time), and no hair in front of his ears. You know, the really short sideburn bit boys have next to their ears? Yep. I kind of removed that. I didn't mean to. Hopefully, it will grow back speedily.

I write books better than I cut hair. I think. 

I just want people to know that.

Tomorrow, I will be cutting nobody's hair. But I will, hopefully, be handing in my dissertation and washing my hands of it forever. And I will, hopefully, be immersing myself in writing more of CLOCKWORK. It's been so lonely and neglected this week.

List Day: Classics

Everyone who isn't in England appears to be talking about spring fever and how they long to be outdoors. My mother, in Bangalore, tells me frequently how hot it is, and wishes she could exchange climates with me. Ha!

Well, with 'spring' defined in England by the presence of sunlight but only about a degree's increase in temperature, spring fever is beyond me. But I do have weekend fever. Having packed boxes for yet another few hours today, I am achy and long for a nice, fun weekend in which dissertations, query letters and boxes do not weigh on my mind (or arms).

So, how about a nice, easy Friday post? Another list, short and sweet. 

This one is about classics, but in the loose definition of the word, so I don't necessarily mean novels that were written pre-1950. I mean texts/novels that are considered 'classic'. I thought that, although this may simply reveal the depth of my ignorance and philistine-ish nature, I'd compile a list of 'classic' novels that, for one reason or another, I never actually liked all that much.

1. Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger (yeah, never quite got the fuss this causes.)
2. Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence (my modernism tutor would kill me if he saw this.)
3. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (nope, sorry. Have never been able to enjoy reading Austen. Funnily enough, though, I like almost every television or film adaptation, especially the adaptation of Emma with Kate Beckinsale.)
4. Anything else by Jane Austen
5. 1984, George Orwell (for someone who likes dystopian fiction as much as I do, it's weird that this never grabbed me. Maybe it's optimistic dystopian fiction I like, where the bleakness doesn't overpower everything. That said, I do like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.)
6. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien (*hides face*. Yes. I write fantasy and I never quite enjoyed reading The Lord of the Rings. I know. Shoot me. Do. But there you have it. I don't actually enjoy the Tolkien-esque style of epic fantasy, with a couple of exceptions. I lean toward urban, urban-medieval and historical. But I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear I love the movie adaptions of the trilogy. Ah, Aragorn.)

Hmm, can't actually think of any others right now, but I'm sure they're there. However, before you write me off completely, here are a few 'classics' I do love:

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Dracula, Bram Stoker
The Shining, Stephen King
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

Try not to read too much into the gothic/horror trend that seems to be going on in that brief list above. While I love the gothic, I'm not very keen on books/films that are 'horror'. Needless blood, gore and nightmares are just too inevitable.

What about you? Any 'classics' you simply never liked all that much?

Saturday with Steve

Steve drove up yesterday, just for the weekend before heading back to work, and we've had a busy day today. After a hugely optimistic trip to KFC to try and grab the new Krush'ems (known as Krushers in India, where we first discovered them over the summer), we discovered they weren't on sale yet and proceeded despondently to the cinema to see The Blind Side. We've both seen it before, but loved it, so we were quite looking forward to it. And yes, it's amazing. Whatever Steve says, Sandra Bullock completely deserved her Oscar win, and the supporting cast were fabulous too. It was one of those movies you get a little bit teary in, and laugh a lot in, and think aww and wow a lot. Now, I don't normally like American football films, with the exception of Remember the Titans. But this one won me over. The trailer. Oh, boy. Had me bawling first time I saw it. 

It was, actually, the trailer that got me to watch this. Steve, a football player, a Manchester United geek and an avid NFL/Indianapolis Colts fan for reasons I can't fathom, wanted to watch it a few weeks ago, and I refused. The words 'it's about an American football player...' did me in. But that trailer swayed me.

What surprises me, though, is that Sandra Bullock actually seized the win for this. In the last few years, the trend has inclined towards winners representing a deep, ethical, morally complex, historically hard-hitting, etc, etc kind of film. Think Kate Winslet winning for The Reader, which is outstanding, by the way. Or Charlize Theron some time ago, winning for Monster. As great as The Blind Side is, I don't think anyone could call it morally ambiguous, deeply philosophical, or historically painful. It was a great feel-good story, and how rare are Oscar winners in that category? Think about the Best Picture winner that trumped The Blind Side: The Hurt Locker, the very definition of the hard-hitting qualities listed above. I don't know, but in my opinion, it seems that you've got to be political, foreign, doubtful, morally shaky, extravagantly eccentric or sufficiently surprising to be an Oscar winner or nominee these days. It probably also helps if your plot's got something to do with a war or the Nazis.


Moving on...


After going to see the movie, Steve drove us to Asda, where we bought everything we needed to make a proper, tantalizingly wonderful roast dinner involving chicken, tarragon and lemon. If anyone's interested, we used the magnificent Delia Smith's recipe. Boy, was that an undertaking. It must have taken us about two and a half hours to put together the entire meal: roast chicken with its garlic/tarragon/lemon/chicken-juice/butter sauce, baby potatoes, and broccoli. And it was delicious. The very first roast dinner I've ever really made, and it was perfect. Plenty of leftovers too.


A Saturday to be proud of.