Post NaNo Slump

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Ileandra Young

Its not over – NaNoWriMo that is – because I haven’t finished the novel. There is still a mah-huu-sive end to come to all the build up I did through November, but I’ve had to put that on hold for another project which needs to be completed fairly soon.

I just feel that now the crazy month of totting up word counts and late nights and sprints and all the other crazy stuff is over, I’ve lost the will to do any more.

6,000 has never been so hard to write. Not ever! And its bizarre because its a genre I like writing. I used to think I was good at it too. Then again, the voice at the back of my mind that tells me ‘you’re rubbish!’ is so much a part of my every day writing, that I should be able to ignore it by now. Everybody gets that voice. Whether they realise it or not and the unlucky ones are those who listen to it to the point that they don’t pick up a pen or put their fingers to the keyboard again. Fortunately (unfortunately?) I’m too stubborn for that and now that I’ve decided I am a writer that is going to pursue me for the rest of my life.

Funny though, what I seem to want to do now, more than anything is sleep a lot, eat a lot and sit by myself. Its been a while since I felt the ‘sit by myself part.’ A long while in fact. Fortunately that’s easy to do in this house and Dave is such that he’s so close and considerate of my feelings that he’ll let me do exactly what I want. Not that sitting by myself helps the writing though; because sitting by myself seems to mean playing Diamond Dash (damn you Facebook!) until I run out of lives and then faffing around until some more time in.

Ugh.

At least today I’m getting out the house; I think that does a lot towards getting me out of the funk. Particularly since I’m going to be mixing with other writers. I’ll be with the Phoenix Writers today, which may be our last meet before Christmas and we have an extended programme of fun things to do until about 4.30pm. I’m looking forward to that truth be told. 😀

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80 Post Challenge – Post 41

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Ileandra Young

Does Never Never Land really exist?

Okay. Seriously… what the hell kinda question is that?!

OF COURSE IT BLEEDIN’ DOES!!!

Peter Pan 1924 movie
See?

*snerk*

Seriously, what am I going to tell my kids (yikes, still getting used to saying that), if I can’t tell them that an amazing place like Never Never Land is real?

When I was a child, I TOTALLY believed in Santa. And Faeries. And ghosts. And the boogie man. And whatever else out there that I know have to take with a pinch of salt, because I’m ‘grown up’ and ‘mature’ and ‘sensible.’ But even now I am perfectly happy and in full agreement with the fact that I don’t know everything and that there are plenty of things I can’t explain.

So… Never Never Land. For my kids, when they arrive…? Yes. It exists. They can go if they want, so long as they’re back in time for dinner and they don’t get too dirty.

For me? Yes. It exists.

But not in the literal sense. Never Never Land (Michael Jackson’s old pad notwithstanding) is representative of that magical hideaway we all had when we were younger. Or that quiet, peaceful and safe place that us grown ups occasionally have to retreat to just to have a break from the harsh realities of the real world. Its your favourite tree in the park. The front seat of your car. The study surrounded by a sea of your favourite books. Its in front of the television. Its in your mind when you disappear into an incredible book.

Never Never Land has many guises, but at the end of the day, each of us has a way to get there and will remain sane only so long as remember that. Me… I’m in my Never Never Land right now. That may well change when the peanuts stop being peanuts and become twin babies, but I have a map and a path to that place where all my troubles fade away, the real world recedes and, frankly put, being a grown up can be put aside for a bit.

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.

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Book Review: Desdaemona

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Ileandra Young

Author: Ben Macallan
Title: Desdaemona
Genre: Urban Fantasy
ISBN: 9781907519635

‘New town, new troubles. That’s a rule.’

Jordan is seventeen; he has been for a very long time and he’s incredible good at staying hidden. Good thing really; considering how many people are looking for him. Imagine his surprise therefore when somebody not only finds him, but has a job for him. An incredibly beautiful, raven haired wonder by the name of Desdaemona. She’s lost her kid sister and needs help to find her. Jordan is the perfect detective to help her do it.

This book is fabulous! Its written in a style that caught my attention because I don’t tend to read many first person books. That’s just to start with. But other that, the narrative has a comfortable, conversational sort of tone which keeps up with the lulls and races in pace. And boy does this book roll.

You’re wrong footed from the very start until things are slowly slotted into place, satisfying drips of exposition and explanatory scenes which give a scene of Jordan’s life and Desdaemona’s. Gotta say; its made me wonder about urban fantasy. It doesn’t have to be all blood, guts and gore – though there is a good share of that – it can also be about the wildly raging hormones of a perpetual seventeen year old as he has to watch this lovely, lovely hottie-

Well… let’s not give the game away. 🙂

This is one of the books I nabbed at Alt Fiction (one of the free ones, hehee!) and I remain glad that I did! A delicious taste of what’s new in the urban fantasy genre and I’ll be following this Macallan chap for more as he goes on.

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80 Post Challenge – Post 40

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Ileandra Young

Describe your feelings in regards to an issue in today’s society, and what would be done to fix it.

Uh oh. A serious question! Damnit. I knew that would happen sooner or later. -_- I hate being a grown up.

Okay. Well the obvious thing to talk about is the strikes which happened on November 30. Shit loads of public sector workers walking out of their jobs and picketing, protesting and making their voices heard.

There are so many opinions on this issue that I, for one, have just kept my mouth shut about the whole thing. People get so passionate about it one way or another that most of the time I feel like if I just duck and stay the hell out of the way, I can keep my head on my neck and that on my shoulders and live to see another day. So that is my primary feeling; fear and vague irritation and feeling unable to speak my mind.

Problem is I do agree with the strikes. I do.

Gah, there I said it. -_-
*ducks from hurled balls of flame* No? Okay… I’ll wait for the comments then.

Anyway.

I work in the private sector. My pension isn’t terrible but its never going to be good as what the public sector get, and I’m under no illusions about that. Hell, by the time I finally get to retire, a tin of beans is going to cost £100, so my pension won’t be worth shit anyway. That’s my thought.
~I just have to get really rich in the meantime and squirrel it all away in houses and stock and islands on the equator that I can sell back to the super powers of the world when global warming begins to sink us all. Eeeep… that’s a separate issue; let’s deal with that another day!

Anyway. Public sector workers. They educate our children. They heal us when we’re sick. They clean our streets. They care for our elderly (when we can’t be bothered!). They are, in truth, what we depend on to keep going day by day and part of me feels that they can be (not to say all of them – there are NO ABSOLUTES) the most genuine of workers out there.

Anyway. Knowing all that, understanding what they do, realising that I depend on them being there, I seems a bloody stupid thing to do to offer them a pension plan that makes them lose! They work longer, pay more, get considerably less. Shit, wouldn’t YOU be pissed off? I’m 27 right now… the way things are going, I won’t be able to retire until I’m 80. Lord that’s depressing. 😦

Yes I know that Wednesday caused all sorts of mess and inconvenience and stress, but if something, in your own mind, is worth fighting for, then wouldn’t you fight too? Well you should! Granted your methods might be different, and yes, there may have been different ways to go about this issue, but there is only so much the average Joe can do. Sometimes, to get your voice heard, the only thing you can do is piss off the people in charge (and, it has to be said, unfortunately, everyone else too).

Saying that I’m not sure what I would have done. I know what I’d like to do. I’d like to force each football player to annually donate one month’s pay (however the hell they want to split it across the year) to the people out there who deserve the money for the work they do – they can afford it for crying out loud. I would also love to say to the government ‘stop spending money of a shit-load of wars and pay for the people who are looking your kids while you’re running my country into the dirt.’ More that, I would have LOVED to tell Kate and Wills to pay for their own damn wedding like everyone else.

Wouldn’t that have saved us a bit of cash?

 

 

 

 

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.

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NaNoWriMo 2011 WINNER!!!

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Ileandra Young

Yep… validated on the NaNoWriMo website, through their validator of awesome which rocks my word count as:

YEAH!!!

Oh and I have shinies:

So happeeeeeeeee!

Now… for sure… all I need to do is actually finish the novel!!!

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