Weekly Goals 14-4-25

I didn't do a lot of writing over the weekend, but I think I figured out that I've gone the wrong way with this book.  I thought originally I needed something dramatic to happen to get Devon out of her house, but was convinced by a bunch of other people that a slow fade would work.

Maybe in real life.

In fiction, I think you need more and certainly, the slow fade isn't working for this book. It's taking far too long for me to get the characters to the place they need to be and I feel like a lot of what I've written is really boring.  So I'm going to go back and figure out where I need to add the dramatic bit that forces Devon's change, then I'll be able to get this book on track.

Very glad I've figured that out now because I have the whole of next week off to write and was really planning to get this book done in that week.  Not sure I'll manage that now, but I should be able to get a good way into it anyway.

So that's my goal this week.  To figure out where I went wrong and to fix it before I move on further into the story.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 11-4-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It's been a busy week and I'm tired.  I haven't been feeling all that great either, so am looking forward to maybe getting a little time to rest.  I've had this weird lip thing going on, where my lips have suddenly got really dry and cracked and no lip balm seems to help.  I finally went to the doctor and was given some cream to use, but I suspect it's just steroid cream and will clear things up for as long as I use it, but won't actually fix the problem.  But maybe that's me being cynical...

Hoping to get some writing done this weekend.  I'm a little stuck right now on how to get Arlo and Devon together.  I mean, I know how they meet and why and everything - I've even written that section - I just can't seem to get Devon there.  From where I am, I still think it's another two chapters.  And I think that's too long.

But I'll figure it out.  I always do in the end.  Unless I trunk the book, but I don't feel like I'm at that point with this one quite yet.  And next week's easter and I have 10 days to immerse myself in the book and figure it out.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Loved: Boy Swallows Universe

 

I can't believe I didn't discover this book sooner; it's so up my alley it's not funny!  The writing is glorious, the story is edge-of-your-seat gripping and the characters are absolutely unforgettable.

The book follows the exploits of one Eli Bell, starting when he's around twelve,and finishing up when he's on the threshold of adulthood.  Eli is a sensitive, observant kid, prone to crying, yet tough as nails at the same time.

He has to be.  His mother is a junkie, his father a drunk he barely knows, his stepfather deals drugs and his brother chooses to be mute (sound familiar??).  And his babysitter is the legendary crook and prison-escape artist, Slim Halliday.

Growing up with Slim's stories of goodness, crime and derring-do, Eli has a nose for a good story and an over-developed sense of right and wrong.

But life isn't kind to Eli and his family, especially when his stepfather crosses the drug kingpin in town and gets himself disappeared, his mother thrown in jail and Eli himself mutilated.  But true to his adventurous spirit, even losing a finger doesn't slow Eli down.  It might take years for the opportunity to take Tytus Broz down, but he will be taken down.

And in the meantime, there are other adventures to be had, from falling for the crime writer at the local paper to breaking into a prison to spend Christmas with his mother.

I loved this book.  Eli is such a delightful character, even when he's in some stupidly awful situations.  And the relationship he has with his silent, possibly magical older brother is beautiful.  You know what a sucker I am for a good brother relationship...  The depiction of Brisbane's criminal underworld in the 1980s is perfectly drawn in its gritty, slightly shabby and worn-out criminality.

And the writing is gorgeous.  As a wannbe reporter, Eli's editor tells him he's too flowery, too focused on the details, and the author is just as focused on the details - to great effect.  There's some gorgeous language in this book, even though it's as tough and gritty as the streets the Bell boys grow up on.

So yeah.  I loved it.

But don;'t just listen to me.   Here's the blurb:

A novel of love, crime, magic, fate and coming of age, set in Brisbane's violent working class suburban fringe - from one of Australia's most exciting new writers.

Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crime for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way - not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer.

But if Eli's life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He's about to fall in love. And, oh yeah, he has to break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day, to save his mum.

A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year.

Weekly Goals 7-4-25

 I got all the edits done on Standing Too Close over the weekend, so that's gone back to my publisher.  I expect it will be a few weeks before I get the next round.

So this week, it's back to the new book.  I finished chapter seven this weekend, and I feel like it's still going to be another two or three chapters before Devon and Arlo meet.  Is that too far into the book?  I think I'll be at around 20K by then, which feels like it might be too far.  But I guess we'll see.  Writing a book from start to finish is weird...

I have a function to cater for work this week which will be a nice change from being in front of my computer all day.  Looking forward to that.

And that's really it for goals this week.  What are yours?

Celebrate the Small Things 4-4-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I got edits through from my publisher for Standing Too Close, so that's going to be my weekend.  I flicked through them yesterday and there's nothing too major that needs to be done.  I started yesterday, but didn't finish, so I plan to try and get that done today.  Then reward myself by going to a movie.

Oh, and Standing Too Close will release on 8 August.  Cover reveal to come...

It's so weird going back into that book.  A Stranger To Kindness was born out of writing that book, and I've spent so long working on that one now, Standing Too Close feels very, very long ago.  But apparently it made my editor cry, so that's something!  I do remember there's a scene in there that made me cry when I wrote it which has never happened to me before.

Something else potentially exciting happened this week, but I can't talk about it yet.  So I'll just tease you with that much.  Again, more to come...

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - April

 It's the first Wednesday in April, so it's time for the IWSG!

The awesome co-hosts for the April 2 posting of the IWSG are Jennifer Lane, L Diane Wolfe, Jenni Enzor, and Natalie Aguirre!

This month's question really had me scratching my head.

What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with?

You see, I don't really read fantasy.  I've never enjoyed fantasy books much. I've tried reading The Hobbit about 10 times, and never got far into it.  I think there are two types of people in the world - the ones who like The Hobbit, and the ones who don't.

I've tried reading other fantasy too, thinking maybe I just don't like Tolkien, but I've had the same reaction to most other fantasy books I've tried.  Just. Not. My. Thing.

Interestingly though, one of my longest-term CPs, Breanna, is a fantasy author.  High fantasy too.  With complex magic systems and wizards and battling tribes.  The stuff I usually find a complete turn off if I come across it in a book's description.  And I love her books.  She has a unique voice and an even more unique way of making what are probably fantasy tropes something specific to the worlds she's created.  In her published novels, the way magic is used and the effect it has on users is something I've never come across before.  And her new stuff...  well, you fantasy lovers are in for an absolute treat when these books come out.  

So, to answer this question, I'd have to say, if I had to go on a quest or sit down for a bevvie with a fantasy character, it would have to be one of Breanna's. I have a specific one in mind - he's one of the heroes of her newest book that I'm reading for her at the moment, as she writes it - but as the book isn't finished yet, I'm going to have to go with one from one of her published novels: Corcoran Gray from Lord of Secrets.  He's kind of a scoundrel, but a loveable one, in his own way.

But to be honest, there are characters in a bunch of books I'd love to spend time with, even some of my own characters.  By the time I've finished writing them, they kind of have lives of their own and I'd love to know more about them.  But fantasy characters?  Not so much...

Who would you pick?

Weekly goals 31-3-25

 I ended up going up the line on Saturday after all, so my writing time this weekend was a little limited.  I did almost finish the chapter I was working on, and I've written a whole lot of bits and pieces for later in the book.  I do feel like it's taking too long to get my main characters to meet.  I'm over 10K into this book and they haven't even seen each other yet.

Which is always the thing that happens to me when I start at the beginning of a story - I take 10K or so to find the actual start of the book.  Although, I'm not entirely sure that's the case this time.  I feel like everything has been happening quite organically up until now.  Just slowly.  I guess we'll see how it all turns out.

So my goal this week is to keep going, get some more words down.  It's only a couple of weeks until Easter and my 10-day writing marathon to try and get this finished.  The more I get done in advance, the better.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 28-3-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I was going to be heading up the line for a day or so to catch up with some old colleagues, but my ride has fallen through, so I guess I'm staying home now.  Which is actually fine because I can get more work done on my book.  I've been a little naughty and written some pieces from later in the story during the week, mainly because the prompts for the daily flash fiction competition I do lent themselves to those sections of the book.  This little flash fiction thing I do is very useful for exploring parts of the story and the voices of the characters in little 1000 word or less chunks!

Other than that, I have nothing planned except my usual gym time and chores.  I've been feeling a little unwell for the last couple of weeks - nothing specific, just feeling off - and I think it has a lot to do with how little sleep I've been getting, so hopefully I can clock a few extra hours in bed.

I went to a really cool, innovative show on Wednesday and to the orchestra on Thursday, so it has been a busy week of activities already.

So that's probably enough to celebrate this week.

What are you celebrating?

Books I've Read: The End of Men

A friend lent me this book, saying they thought I'd enjoy it. It's something I probably would have picked up myself if I'd seen it, just because of the tite - I consider it aspirational - but I hadn't come across it.  And boy did I enjoy it!

It was written pre-pandemic, yet so many things that happened, especially early in the book, resonated so much because of what we went through in 2020.  This is actually the second book written pre-2020 I've read since the pandemic that eerily echo the reality we lived through.

In this book, a deadly new virus first come to light in Scotland.  One doctor identifies the salient feature of this particular illness is that it only affects men.  But when she tries to alert the authorities, the scientific and medical community, the world at large, she's dismissed and being an hysterical woman.  And by the time the world catches up with what she'd been trying to tell them, it's too late.  The virus has spread too far to contain easily and men around the world are dying in droves.

The book uses the perspectives of a shifting group of women who are left to deal with the consequences.  These are all very different women with very different skills and interests and come from all walks of life.  Through these various different eyes, we get a very good idea just what challenges the world might face if all the men - well, most... 10% of men in this world are immune - disappeared.

There are the initial stages of the plague where women are forced to face the fact their husbands, brothers and sons are likely to die, then the grieving that comes when they inevitably do. But what's more interesting is the society that develops in the wake of the pandemic, a society where all the roles usually taken by men are filled by women.

There are so many fascinating things this book delves into - global politics where all the world's leaders are now women, the workforce where suddenly all the heavy manual jobs men traditionally do have to be done by women, what happens to love and sex when there are so many more women than men.  Even little things, like redesigning seatbelts in cars so they are more effective for female bodies and re-thinking what families might look like.

I really enjoyed this book and found it incredibly thought provoking. Especially with having a real-world version of this scenario in the very recent past.  It made everything hit home that much harder than it probably did when people read it back in 2018.

So I'd recommend it.  My 13-year-old niece heard me talking about it when I was reading it and decided she wanted to read it too.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Set in a world where a virus stalks our male population, The End of Men is an electrifying and unforgettable debut from a remarkable new talent that what would life truly look like without men?Only men are affected by the virus; only women have the power to save us all. The year is 2025, and a mysterious virus has broken out in Scotland--a lethal illness that seems to affect only men. When Dr. Amanda MacLean reports this phenomenon, she is dismissed as hysterical. By the time her warning is heeded, it is too late. The virus becomes a global pandemic--and a political one. The victims are all men. The world becomes alien--a women's world.What follows is the immersive account of the women who have been left to deal with the virus's consequences, told through first-person narratives. Dr. MacLean; Catherine, a social historian determined to document the human stories behind the "male plague;" intelligence analyst Dawn, tasked with helping the government forge a new society; and Elizabeth, one of many scientists desperately working to develop a vaccine. Through these women and others, we see the uncountable ways the absence of men has changed society, from the personal--the loss of husbands and sons--to the political--the changes in the workforce, fertility and the meaning of family.In The End of Men, Christina Sweeney-Baird creates an unforgettable tale of loss, resilience and hope.

Weekly Goals 24-3-25

 I finished Chapter 6 yesterday, but I think I'm going to change the ending.  I didn't get as much writing done as I would have liked,  but I knew that was going to be the case.  I'm not too worried about it.  It's only about three weeks until Easter and I'll have 10 full days then to immerse myself in this story.  Very much looking forward to that.

So the goal this week is to just keep the momentum up.  Write another chapter or two.  Fix the ending of the one I wrote yesterday, to start with.

I'm still waiting on a few people to finish reading A Stranger to Kindness, so that's kind of on hold right now.  My goal is to finish the new now, then to start querying Stranger while I let the new one rest.  Feedback so far has been very positive.  Everyone seems to love my boys almost as much as I do.

And that's about it for goals this week.

What do you want to achieve?

Celebrate the Small Things 21-3-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I have a few things on this weekend, including seeing one of my favourite musicians play in one of the most beautiful venues there is in Wellington. So looking forward to that!

I haven't had a chance to get much writing done this week, but will try to get chapter 6 finished on Sunday before I go to the gig.  Not too big a job, I don't think.

I don't have much else to celebrate this week.  It has been a quiet and rather boring one, to be honest.  Hopefully more exciting things to talk about next week.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Take Me With You When You Go

 

I read this one a couple of years back, but decided to revisit it because it has some things in common with the book I'm currently working on.  It's also a really good book.

It's epistolary in form - the whole book is told through a series of emails between the various characters.  Which makes it a little "tell-y" in places, but the things the characters are telling each other about are so engrossing, it almost doesn't matter.

Ezra wakes up one morning to discover his older sister is gone.  She leaves him a secret email address in a place she knows only he will find it, making him promise he won't tell anyone else about it or where she is.

Ezra and Bea have grown up with just their mother - their father left before Ezra was even born - and their mother's new husband who abuses them.  Their mother turns a blind eye to her husband's cruelty, devoting herself to his needs while ignoring the needs of her children.

Finding himself alone with this cruelty and neglect, Ezra soon flees the house too, not running as far as Bea, but getting away from a place he feels is increasingly unsafe for him.  Meanwhile, Bea is figuring out how to live on her own in a new city without any friends or family.  As she becomes more comfortable navigating life on her own, she admits to Ezra the real reason she ran - not away, but to.

The things both Ezra and bea discover about their family and themselves rock their worlds to the very foundations, but maybe being torn apart like this is exactly what they both need to be able to find a way back to one another.

As you probably already know, I'm a sucker for a sibling story.  Love sibs that fight, who love, who pull apart and come together.  Most of my own books deal with some kind of sibling relationship, even if it's a subplot to the main story.  So this book was right up my alley to start with.  Add to that the fact it's written by Jennifer Niven and David Leviathan, and it's a double whammy.  I've loved all Jennifer's books, and David is a YA legend.

This one had me on the edge of my seat too.  I was so worried for Bea and what she was running toward.  And so worried for poor Ezra, left behind with those awful people. And then nothing turns out the way you think it might, which was refreshing too.

I enjoyed the email format for telling the story.  It felt very immediate and relatable and the various other voices that came in from time to time made for a nice change.

So I'd recommend this one.  Especially if, like me, you love an angsty sibling relationship story.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

From the New York Times bestselling authors of All the Bright Places and Every Day comes a story of hope, family, and finding your home in the people who matter the most.

Subject: You. Missing.

Ezra Ahern wakes up one day to find his older sister, Bea, gone. No note, no sign, nothing but an email address hidden somewhere only he would find it. Ezra never expected to be left behind with their abusive stepfather and their neglectful mother - how is he supposed to navigate life without Bea?

Bea Ahern already knew she needed to get as far away from home as possible. But a message in her inbox changes everything, and she finds herself alone in a new city - without Ez, without a real plan - chasing someone who might not even want to be found.

As things unravel at home for Ezra, Bea confronts secrets about their past that will forever change the way they think about their family. Together and apart, broken by abuse but connected by love, this brother and sister must learn to trust themselves before they can find a way back to each other.

Weekly Goals 17-3-25

 I had a pretty good writing weekend and finished chapters four and five.  I feel like everything is moving more slowly than I want it to, but I think it will work.  The situation Devon is in does unfold slowly and I feel like it's realistic, the way it's happening.  Hopefully, anyway...

So my goal this week is to keep working on it.  I know I have stuff on this weekend so I won't get the full six or so hours I had this weekend, but hopefully I can finish chapter six during the week and move on to chapter seven.

I submitted my query and first five pages of A Stranger to Kindness to a contest in the hope of getting some good feedback on them.  I've had really good feedback from this contest before, so fingers crossed.  I'll wait until after that's finished to start querying.  Plus, the MS is still with a few readers, so I'd love their feedback before I start on that journey.

Still no update from my publisher on a date for Standing Too Close coming out.  I emailed again at the end of February and haven't had a reply yet.  I'm going to give it another week, then I'm going back to them again.  Even if they are backed up in editing, I like a long lead time to get my publicity and reviewers lined up, so they could give me a date toward the end of the year.  I just need to know what it is.

And that's about it for me this week.  What are your goals?

Celebrate the Small Things 14-3-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It has felt like a long week, so I am looking forward to a couple of days off.  I don't have a lot planned, other than writing and gym stuff, so that is a good thing.

I've had some good feedback on the first part of the new book which is encouraging, even if writing in order and posting chapters as I write does feel weird.  It's too early to know if this approach will make editing easier at the end or not, but we shall see.  I am definitely looking forward to getting back into writing it over the next couple of days, so that's got to be a good thing!  I feel like I'll be on track to actually maybe finish the whole thing over Easter, which was the plan.  All things going as planned of course...

I've picked up another regular class at the gym, so I'm now teaching both Tuesday and Thursday mornings, which is good.  I'd like one more regular class, preferably an hour-long one, but I'll have to wait and see if one comes available.

I went to a premiere last night and saw The Rule of Jenny Pen.  It was excellent and actually quite scary.  Disturbing, anyway... Especially since I think I'd blanked out the fact there's a puppet in the film and I really, really don't like puppets.  Ventriloquist dummies are the worst, but this puppet was damn creepy!

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've loved: There are Rivers in the Sky

 

This one was loaned to me by one of the members of my book group - the one who probably knows me and my taste in books the best.  So when she said she thought I'd like this one, I listened.

And she was right.

I did, indeed, love this one.

It's a sprawling, epic novel that covers centuries and history and interweaves stories from different eras, starting with ancient Mesopotamia and finishing around 2018.

There are three main protagonists, Zaleekah, a hydrologist living in London in 2018, Narin, a young Yazidi girl living with her grandmother on the banks of the Tigris as it is about to be dammed, flooding her village, and Arthur (real name King Arthur of the Slums and Sewers), a Victorian pauper who grows up to be one of the British Museum's leading experts on ancient Mesopotamian poetry and script.

As you'd probably expect rom a book with "rivers" in the title, rivers and water are central to the story, from a drop of rain falling into King Ashurbanipal's hair to the Thames and Tigris rivers winding their way through history.  That aspect of it reminded me of a writing exercise I did at school, where we wrote a story from the POV of a water molecule, following it through history and the various different lives it could have touched.

While all three stories were interesting, I think I enjoyed Arthur's the most, maybe because the book followed him from birth to death, giving us the most complete picture of him. The other characters we only saw for short periods of time, like snapshots of their existence.

Just how these three people could be linked does not become clear until the very end of the book, although it's teased at throughout.  I felt like the eventual resolution was beautifully underplayed - not made into the big, melodramatic moment it could have been.

I loved this book.  As a kid, I went through a period of wanting to be an archaeologist, and this tickled all the parts of me that love the mysteries of ancient civilizations.  I know a little about the region and the history and even the poem, The Epic of Gilgamesh, that's central to the story.   But I know even more now.

I loved the way real life characters and events wove through the fictional story - particularly when Charles Dickens showed up in Arthur's storyline for a bit.

I have no idea how anyone could go about writing a book like this, with so many threads and timelines and histories weaving through it.  The very idea of it boggles my tiny brain.  But it works so well here, every piece of every story compliments a part of one or both the others.

So I'd recommend this one highly.  It's complicated in the very best way, but also has fabulous characters you can't help but care for.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two rivers, all under the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time.

In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.

In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.

A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—transcend history, transcend fate: “Water remembers. It is humans who forget.”

Weekly Goals 10-3-25

 I had quite a good writing weekend and managed to finish chapters two and three and make a start on chapter four.  I'm just not 100% sure what I'm writing works.  I initially thought Devon would end up living on the street because of a big fight or something that made it impossible to go home.  But the way it's happening is more of a slow fade as no one cares if she's there or not.  Which is fine except her personality is such, I don't think she'd give up the safely and security of a house, even a house that's indifferent to her presence.

So something needs to happen.  Something that makes it impossible for her to go back.  And it needs to happen in chapter four or it will be too late in the book.  I already wonder if I've let things meander on too long.  So what is that thing?  I don't want it to be big or dramatic, necessarily.  Just something that would be the catalyst for her deciding living away from home would be preferable.  Let me know if you think of anything.

So my goal this week is to get through a couple more chapters.  Finish the one I'm on, and hopefully write another.  Once I get Devon out into the streets, I feel like the book will get easier to write because there's so much scope for things to happen to her. Even before she and Arlo meet.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 7-3-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

And I have absolutely nothing I have to do this week.  No social engagements.  No teaching at the gym.  No urgent chores.  What a luxury!

I've almost finished the second chapter of the new book, so I hope to get that tied up and posted for my CPs to look at.  And if I can get through or close to through a third chapter, that would be great too.  I've written a handful of journal entries for Arlo. but at this stage, I'm not sure exactly where or how they're going to slot into the book.  It feels weird to have them in there at the start, before Devon meets him, but if I don't have them there from the start, it might be weird to have them suddenly show up.  I guess it's a way to foreshadow what's coming up and to give some insight into who this kid is before he becomes a part of Dev's life.

And now that I think about it, maybe he's aware of her before she's aware of him...

Hmmmmmm.  Things to think about and play with.  This way of writing a book feels weird to me.  I'm so not used to starting at the beginning and writing forward.  I'm not even sure where I started is actually the beginning!

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG: March 2025

 It's the first Wednesday of the month, so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!

The awesome co-hosts for the March 5 posting of the IWSG are Ronel Janse Van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, and Liza @ Middle Passages!

This month's question is an interesting one!

If for one day you could be anyone or *thing* in the world, what would it be? Describe, tell why, and any themes, goals, or values they/it inspire in you.

It's going to sound weird, but I think I'd like to spend a day as my cat.

From my, albeit limited, perspective, she has the perfect life.

She always has food in her bowl and clean water to drink and doesn't need to do anything to get it. It's just always there. Maybe a little later than she'd like on some days, but most days, the bowl gets filled at 5:30am and she has the luxury of not sharing that food with anyone else. She can leave it there all day, popping in now and then to snack on a bite or two, or she can wolf down half the bowl in one sitting and know there will still be some left for later.

She sleeps for much of the day, moving between patches of sunlight, shady bushes, and in the evening, my lap. And then, exhausted by a day of sleeping in interesting locales, she snuggles up in bed for a good night's sleep with my partner and me.

In between naps, she likes to patrol the fence around our property, checking that everything is secure and the only other cats allowed on the property are ones she sanctions. There are three - a very pretty ginger tomcat we call Marmadude, a gray cat that likes to sneak inside if the doors are open, and a black one with a heart-shaped blotch on its white nose.

Marmadude acts like a suitor, coming around for my cat's affections. She just hisses at him and dives through the cat door. He sits outside, pining and blocking the way so she can't come back outside. The other two are less frequent visitors and tend to just pass through on their way to other exotic neighborhood locations.

It would be so nice to spend a day with nothing more pressing to do than find the perfect spot to sleep. And to sleep so much. I probably only get about 4 - 5 hours' sleep a night, so the idea of spending as much time napping as the cat does is very appealing.

And who doesn't want to be able to spring nimbly up trees and onto fences with the grace of a ballet dancer? Or to be showered with love and affection by everyone who comes into your orbit? But only on your own terms... If you don't feel like being loved, you can give the person offering the cold shoulder and just walk away without any ill effect or hurt feelings to contend with.

I think that's what I love the most about my cat. The way she can be both the most snuggly, loving little furball, and the world's coldest bitch - usually within the same 10-minute period - and still have everything she values in life at her fingertips.

What or who would you like to be for a day?

Weekly Goals 3-3-25

 I got a bit of writing done this weekend and finished the first chapter of the new book.  I'm calling it Street Smarts for now, but will no doubt change that later on.  I decided to try something different this time around and attempt writing the book from start to finish so I can post chapters for my CPs as I write them.  I'm hoping this might make the ridiculous amount of editing time I spend on each book a little shorter.  We'll see...

My CP liked the first chapter, so that's good.  I'm a good way through the second one, but I already feel like it's taking too long to get to the moment the book really starts.  But at the same time, I think we need to see enough of Dev's life, figure out who she is, before she ends up on the street.  So we'll see.

So my goal this week is to keep up the momentum on this book, to finish the second chapter and make some headway on the third.

what are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things: 28-2-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I had a thing booked in with my old colleagues, but it has been postponed, so I now have a little more free time on my hands.  Unfortunately I think it's going to be eaten up by gardening and house stuff, but I'm hoping I'll also managed to claw myself a little time to write.  I'm determined to get at least the first chapter of this new book drafted.

One of my colleagues finished A Stranger to Kindness this week and loved it.  None of the things I was worried about seemed to bother her - she didn't even seem to notice them - so that's good.  I've got a few more people reading it, so hopefully I'll get some more feedback soon.

I caught up with some old friends and colleagues last night, which was fun.  Always nice to see old friends again.

I dyed my hair pink and it keeps freaking me out when I see myself in the mirror.  It's not exactly the pink I was hoping for, but it's actually quite cool.

And that's about it for celebrating this week.  What are you celebrating?

Books I've read: The Island of Sea Women

 

This one was recommended to me by several members of my book group.  As they are all very discerning readers, I jumped on board.

And it was fascinating.  I'd never heard about the deep-sea-diving women in Korea known as haenyeo.  I didn't know that on the island of Jeju, the society is matriarchal, with the women doing the work and men taking care the house and kids.  So I found the subject matter incredibly interesting.

The book follows two friends, from quite different backgrounds, through their lives across some of Korea's most tumultuous times.  Young-sook is the daughter of the head of the village diving collective and is expected to follow in her mother's footsteps.  Mi-ja is the daughter of a know collaborator with the Japanese who is sent to live with her aunt and uncle on the island .  Badly mistreated by these relatives who don't really want her, Mi-ja is taken in by the collective and becomes best friends with Young-sook.

Over the years, these two friends come together and split apart time and time again, their lives constantly entangled even as they weather marriage, children, war and political change.

The premise of this book was amazing and I learned a lot from reading it.  Unfortunately, I was not quite so in love with the way it was written.  The book is told in first person, and therefore I expected to be very close to the narrator (Young-sook) and to experience the events of her life through her eyes.  Yet the book was strangely unemotional.  A lot of extremely harrowing things happen to Young-sook, but I never felt like I was living through them.  As a narrator she told the story of what happened and then told the reader how it made her feel, rather than showing how she reacted to what happened and allowing the reader to understand the feeling.

Which was a shame, because I think the book would have been way more powerful if it had really punched the reader in the feelings.  

But I didn't dislike the book - it's more that I was a little disappointed that it didn't sweep me away I believe it could have.  It was still fascinating and I'm very glad to have learned as much about this culture and this unique society as I did.

So I do recommend it.  But maybe not so much as an absorbing read, as a fascinating document of an unknown society.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Set on the Korean island of Jeju, The Island of Sea Women follows Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls from very different backgrounds, as they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective. Over many decades—through the Japanese colonialism of the 1930s and 1940s, World War II, the Korean War, and the era of cellphones and wet suits for the women divers—Mi-ja and Young-sook develop the closest of bonds. Nevertheless, their differences are impossible to ignore: Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, forever marking her, and Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers. After hundreds of dives and years of friendship, forces outside their control will push their relationship to the breaking point.

This beautiful, thoughtful novel illuminates a unique and unforgettable culture, one where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous physical work, and the men take care of the children. A classic Lisa See story—one of women’s friendships and the larger forces that shape them—The Island of Sea Women introduces readers to the fierce female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives.

Weekly Goals 24-2-25

 How is it almost the end of February?  That's nuts!  How did that even happen?

I made a very basic - I'm talking two or three sentence - start to the new book brewing in my mind on Saturday, so my goal for this week is to finish that chapter.  I'm not sure if this is a single POV book or a dual POV book yet.  I thought it was going to be a single POV, but the more I think about the characters and how far into the story they might actually meet, the more I wonder about making it dual POV.  So I might play a little with that.  I feel like Arlo will have a pretty strong voice if I let him have his own chapters, but I'm not sure if we need him to alternate with Devon.  Maybe he just needs his own chapters here and there...  I'll figure it out.

So that's my main goal for this week.  I hope to get feedback from some readers on A Stranger to Kindness so I can make the last edits on that  and get it everything sorted out to start querying - which terrifies me.  I love Harley and Wolfe so much, having this book rejected is going to hurt more than any book has ever hurt before.

I'm not going to have a lot of writing time this week, but I want to have made at least a little bit of progress on this new book before Easter.  I have 10 days off then and am aiming to use that time to write this book, but it will be so much easier to blitz it if I've already got a little way into it.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 21-2-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It has felt like a long and busy week, so I'm grateful for the weekend. Although, I have a lot on this weekend, between teaching and various social engagements.  I'm a little annoyed about it because I actually want to write this weekend.  But I suppose another week to muse on the new story brewing in the back of my brain won't go amiss.

Yeah, I know I said I was going to work on one of the old, half-finished books I have lurking in my hard drive, but unfortunately another character has begun nagging me to tell her story and I feel like I need to listen to her.  I think she's going to be an interesting character to explore...

I've taught at the gym almost every day this week, so I'm a bit tired.  But it has been going well.  I just have to get through my Sunday class and I'll be back onto my regular schedule.

Film Society starts up again on Monday, so I'm looking forward to that.  Another year of great films awaits!

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've read: Compound Fracture

 

I read something about this book that made me really excited to read it when I found it at the library the other day.  I don't remember exactly what it was I read, or why it excited me so much, but the actual reading experience was not as amazing as I had hoped it would be.  It has amazing elements - a trans, autistic narrator, a bigoted small-town setting, a generations-old feud and socio-political commentary.  Unfortunately, the sum was not greater than the parts.

The protagonist is Miles, who is transitioning and hasn't let everyone in his life know yet.  The book starts with him writing an email to his parents, letting them know, before he heads off to a party where he's beaten half to death by the son of his family's arch-nemesis.  The beef between Sheriff Davies and Miles' family is almost a century old, stemming from a miner's rebellion kicked off by Miles' great, great grandfather.

This relative from the past hovers over Miles as he recovers in hospital and appears at his side at key moments through the rest of the book as Miles tries to find a way to get revenge on the boys who hurt him and find peace for his long-suffering family by ending this feud once and for all.

Unfortunately, ending something as long-running and deeply ingrained in the fabric of the town as this feud isn't easy, and before too long, Miles has blood on his hands and bodies to dispose of.  As he tries desperately to keep those he cares about safe, the stakes just keep getting higher and the body count rises.

There is a lot to like about this book.  Miles is an interesting POV character with a raw, authentic Appalachian voice.  I did take issue with some of his inner monologue because it grated on me that Miles considered himself right all the time, regardless of what was happening.  And a lot of what was happening was not right, and Miles' part in what was happening was also not right.

I also really struggled with how evil the sheriff and his son were written.  There was no attempt to give any reason for their ongoing hatred for the Abernathy family other than the fact these two families had hated each other for generations. I know this kind of long-running family feud is possible, but it didn't feel real to me and as a result, both Noah and the sheriff felt underwritten and cartoonish. 

I also had problems with the way Miles' family were written.  Their reactions to his coming out were confused and all over the place, and the fact they encouraged him to go alone to an abandoned mine to confront a kid who had put him in the hospital only a few weeks earlier, didn't sit well with me.  Especially since they were supposedly so overprotective of Miles.  What kind of overprotective parents send their kid off to face a bully with a gun?

It felt like a lot of the characters were written to fulfil representation of a type more than sitting organically within the story.  Which is a shame because some of these characters could have been interesting if they'd had a more invested role in Miles' journey.

I also could not help noticing that while there were a lot of autistic, queer and trans people in this town, there were no people of color.  I understand that this part of Virginia is very white, but it seemed unlikely that there was not one single person who wasn't.  It's painted as a very conservative, right-leaning town, yet somehow, by the end of the book, most of the townsfolk are siding with the socialist trans kid rather than the sheriff whose values would align far more with their own.  Which also didn't sit quite right with me.

So, I don't think I can really recommend this one.  It was not an unenjoyable read, but so much of it didn't quite ring true to me that I feel uncomfortable about it.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Bestselling and award-winning author Andrew Joseph White returns with a queer Appalachian thriller, that pulls no punches, for teens who see the failures in our world and are pushing for radical change.

A gut-wrenching story following a trans autistic teen who survives an attempted murder, only to be drawn into the generational struggle between the rural poor and those who exploit them.

On the night Miles Abernathy—sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian—comes out as trans to his parents, he sneaks off to a party, carrying evidence that may finally turn the tide of the blood feud plaguing Twist Creek: Photos that prove the county’s Sheriff Davies was responsible for the so-called “accident” that injured his dad, killed others, and crushed their grassroots efforts to unseat him.

The feud began a hundred years ago when Miles’s great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, incited a miners’ rebellion that ended with a public execution at the hands of law enforcement. Now, Miles becomes the feud’s latest victim as the sheriff’s son and his friends sniff out the evidence, follow him through the woods, and beat him nearly to death.

In the hospital, the ghost of a soot-covered man hovers over Miles’s bedside while Sheriff Davies threatens Miles into silence. But when Miles accidentally kills one of the boys who hurt him, he learns of other folks in Twist Creek who want out from under the sheriff’s heel. To free their families from this cycle of cruelty, they’re willing to put everything on the line—is Miles?

A visceral, unabashedly political page-turner that won’t let you go until you’ve reached the end, Compound Fracture is not for the faint of heart, but it is for every reader who is ready to fight for a better world.

Weekly Goals 17-2-25

 I have quite a few goals this week, but whether I manage to get through them all is another question.

I've started making a query list for A Stranger to Kindness.  I'm not racing to send it out - I still have a few more people reading it - but I'm getting prepared.

After asking which book people were interested in seeing more of last week, I decided that the next project I'm going to work on is Pieces of Luke.  I was surprised to discover I'd actually written close to 40K on this one before giving up on it for some reason.  I've read through it, and the pacing is way off, which is probably why I abandoned it.  But it shouldn't be too hard to fix, so I'm going to give that a go.  Fingers crossed it works and I can find my way back into these characters.

My goal is to get the first two chapters whipped into shape, but we'll see how I go.  I'm not sure how much time I'm going to have to work on it this week, but at least I have something to work on.

I have a lot of gym work this week and a lot of choreography to remember, so a big chunk of my week is going to be making sure I know all that before the relevant classes.  Luckily this week I'm only teaching half of each of the new ones because we do it in pairs on new release week.  Gives me a little more time to learn the rest!

And that's about it for goals this week. What are you hoping to achieve?

Celebrate the Small Things 14-2-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!  And Valentine's Day if you like that kind of thing....

I've managed to write a piece of flash fiction every day this week, which makes me happy.  None of them are particularly great stories - I give myself 30 minutes to write up to 1000 words to a prompt - but there's been some fun prompts this week that have pushed me.  I don't really plan to do anything with these flash fiction pieces, but they're good to keep my writing muscle limber.

After asking which idea people like the most, I've dug stuff out of my hard drive and I discovered that I'd actually written almost 40K on one of those stories, so I'm just reading through it - it's called Pieces of Luke - to see if it's any good and if I can feel my way back into the story to finish it.

This weekend I plan to do my edits to Stranger and then get it off to some other readers to get some feedback.  Pipe up if you'd like to read it.

I have a lot of gym work this week because it's new release week.  My head is so full of choreography right now, it will be a miracle if I make it through the classes I ave to teach tomorrow without getting something wrong.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Black River Orchard

 

So...  This was a creepy one.  I honestly don't think I'll look the same way at apples ever again.

First up, I'm a big fan of Chuck Wendig, the dude.  He writes awesome blog posts, is super fun on social media and gives great advice to writers.  I'm relatively new to him as an actual author, mainly because he writes horror and horror isn't my automatic go-to genre.  I usually enjoy it when I read it, but I don't usually seek it out.

Anyway...  This book follows a whole bunch of characters in a small Pennsylvania town where a new variety of apple is making some significant waves in the community.  There's the newly arrived lesbian couple who are struggling to overcome problems in their marriage, an poor orchard owner who has just managed to get his land back and is determined to make a success of it, his daughter, a wannabe influencer who is desperate to get out of town for college, with her boyfriend, the school's star runner.  And there's the couple whose rental property is a haven for those interested in exploring the boundaries of their sex lives and an older gentleman who has spent many years searching for rare and interesting varieties of apples.

Alongside these people are a creepy cabal of powermongers who keep the town running and whose rituals border bacchanalia.

When the orchard owner starts selling a new varietal of apple, the whole town changes and the only ones who can see the darkness descending on the population are the few who don't - for a variety of reasons - eat the apple.

I found this book quite creepy and  I usually don't find horror books that disturbing.  Apples are such an innocuous thing, a sweet, delicious, healthy treat.  Giving something like that these sinister properties and dark powers gave me genuine chills.  Like I said, I'm probably never going to look at apples quite the same way.  A lot of what happens in the book is deeply ridiculous, yet it still left me unsettled.

I guess it worked...  And as a bonus, I learned an awful lot about apples and how they grow, are bred and how many different varieties there are that we never get to see.

So I'd recommend this one if you are looking for a book that will make you deeply uneasy.  And perhaps even make you quicken your step as you walk through the fruit and vegetable section of your local supermarket.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb: 

A small town is transformed by dark magic when a strange tree begins bearing magical apples in this new masterpiece of horror from the bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents.

It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something else is changing in the town besides the season.

Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: Strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.

Take a bite of one of these apples and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.

This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples… and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?

And even if buried in the orchard is something else besides the seeds of this extraordinary tree: a bloody history whose roots reach back the very origins of the town.

But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. And a stranger has come to town, a stranger who knows Harrow’s secrets. Because it’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.

Weekly Goals 10-2-25

 I ended up having a much busier weekend than I anticipated and I didn't have time to even start on the revisions to A Stranger to Kindness that I want to make.  So that's my main goal for this week.  To get those revisions started/done so I can get the book out to some other readers while I start compiling a query list.

One of my CPs is a nurse and she told me that some of the medical stuff in the book isn't 100% correct, so that's going to need to be changed, among other stuff.  But overall, the revisions aren't going to be major - unlike some other books I've written which basically needed to be gutted and re-strung.

I aim to write at least four pieces of flash fiction this week too. Just to keep that writing muscle limber until I decide on a new novel to write.  I know I have a few that I started and didn't finish for whatever reason, so it's probably time to go back and take a look at those to see if any of them are worth resurrecting.  

Actually, you could help...  

Would you be more interested in: 

a) a book about a girl and her band who decide to try and rig an American Idol type contest to get their own music on the map

b) a book about a girl going on a road trip with her boyfriend and her brother's ex to meet the people who received her brother's donated organs

c) a book about a boy who is psychologically abused by his girlfriend

d) a book about a child criminal turning 18 and being released under a new name for her safety

e) a book about a girl going to a prestigious ballet school and getting sucked into a dark underworld after an injury sidelines her for a time.

I think those are the ones I have lurking that I might be interested in working on.  There are others, but I don't feel like any of them have any real potential so there's probably not a lot of point to dragging them back out.

I have a heavy gym schedule over the next couple of weeks because it's our new release period, so I'm teaching a lot of new classes which I'm not 100% confident with yet.  But I'm sure we'll get there.  Sunday is going to be fun...  I'm going to be teaching/participating in 3 classes in a row, all with different choreography.  That will be a challenge!

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 7-2-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things...

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

Well, actually it's a long weekend for me, because yesterday was a holiday and I took today off too.  To work on my book.

I read through the whole of A Stranger to Kindness today, making notes where I want to add or change things.  There was surprisingly little.  The book is actually good.  I don't usually think that about my own stuff when I go back and re-read it, but this time, I was very pleasantly surprised.  

And one of my CPs has finished it too and gave me some beautiful feedback.  She says the characters are so vivid she feels like she'll be looking out for their holiday pics on Instagram (among all the other wonderful comments she's made).  

So I'm feeling pretty good about this one.  If anyone is interested in beta reading for me, I'd love a couple more opinions before I get too confident....  Just sing out!

I've decided to stop posting my shorts on Medium because for some reason (I can't get a reply from anyone there) they've stopped me from being a part of the partner program which means I won't earn anything from people reading my stuff.  If someone gets back to me about why they've revoked me,  and puts me back in the program, then I might start posting them again.  So sorry to anyone who was enjoying the weekly shorts...

And that's about it for celebrations this week.  I'm just so thrilled that the new book works and that I'm happy with it!  

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: One Last Stop

 

This was a fun, frothy read which was much needed between two pretty heavy, thriller-type novels.  

It's about perpetual loner, August, who moves to New York after failing to find her place in several other places.  She expects New York will be no different and is determined to go it alone here too.  But as soon as she moves into her new apartment and meets two of her new roommates, things begin to change.

Her roommates just won't let her hibernate in her room.  They drag her out and before she knows it, she has a job at a quirky all-night pancake diner and people she might even call friends.

And then there's her commute to college on the subway and the gorgeous girl who seems to always be on the train when August is. Soon, the subway ride is the highlight of August's day, especially once she meets the girl - Jane - and discovers how terminally cool she is.  But a few things just don't add up and August begins to suspect there is something very, very odd about Jane.

As they talk more, August discovers Jane doesn't just look like a cool punk rocker from the '70s; she is a cool punk rocker from the '70s.  Somehow, she has become trapped in time and place and has spent decades on this very train, interacting with generations of people as they come and go.

August makes it her mission to find out just why Jane is stuck here, where she came from and if she can escape whatever is keeping her locked in this particular place.  As she uses the detective skills her obsessive mother instilled in her, August makes discoveries about her own past as she digs up Jane's.

I actually really enjoyed this book.  The characters were all interesting and quirky in their own unique ways and this was a very different kind of time travel story than others I've read.  The mystery of who jane was and why she got stuck there unfolded organically amongst the other plot threads which all tied neatly together by the end.  Which is always very satisfying.

It's an easy read and I breezed through most of it in a single afternoon.

So if you're looking for something a little fun, maybe as a vacation from some heavier reads, this is definitely a contender.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.

Weekly Goals 3-2-25

 It's a short work week this week with Waitangi Day on Thursday (and I've taken Friday off too, because why wouldn't you?).  And with a four-day weekend ahead of me, I plan to dive into revisions on A Stranger to Kindness.  One of my critique partners is almost finished the whole book, and one of the others is around halfway, so I have some notes to work on already.  But before I do anything, I'm going to sit down and read through the whole book myself, making my own notes on places I think I need to do some work.

Then, I'll do the work.

Once that's done, I plan to see if I can find a couple more beta readers to give me feedback before I do the micro-edits to tighten up wording and remove all my usual filler words.

I hope to have this one ready to query by Easter.

Other than that, I don't have big plans for the week.  I have two new release classes to learn for the gym, so I'm hoping to finish learning the R30 I started working on this weekend and start on the Ride class.  I swear they get easier to remember the more you've done.

And I hope to make it to the movies over the long weekend too.  There's so many great films on at the moment, it's really hard to keep up.  I need to find time to see both The Brutalist and Emilia Perez but neither have been on at times that suited me the last couple of weeks.  Fingers crossed this week will be different.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 31-1-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things...

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It has felt like a really long week, but it has been just the usual length.  We're still in a fairly quiet period at work, and most of the work I'm doing at the moment is non-urgent admin stuff, so quite boring.  At least next week is a short one because of a public holiday on Thursday.  And I'm taking the Friday off too to give me a four-day weekend.

One of my closest work colleagues is leaving and we had a farewell for her which was very emotional.  She's an amazing person and has just got a fantastic new job in Melbourne, so I'm super excited for her, even if I will miss her around the office.

I picked up an extra class at the gym this week and taught my first class for one.  Not my favourite experience...

And you can read this week's story here. I struggled to find appropriate tags for this one because it's just a little slice of life, really...

Books I've read: Blacktop Wasteland

 

This is not the kind of book I'm usually drawn to, but I picked it up at the library and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Set in a small Virginia town, Beauregard "Bugs" Montage can drive like nobody else.  He used to be in the getaway game, but now he's gone largely legit, owning  a garage to support his wife and two young kids, plus a daughter from an earlier relationship.  He lets off steam occasionally by driving his long-disappeared father's old car in illegal street races.

When a new white-owned garage opens up across town, his business suddenly goes downhill and Bugs finds himself drowning in bills and probably only weeks away from losing the business all together.  So when an old acquaintance shows up with plans for a diamond heist, Bugs reluctantly agrees to take on the role of getaway driver as a way to solve his money problems and get back on his feet.  

Of course, things don't go as planned and soon Bugs finds himself dealing with exactly the type of underground character he's been trying to escape, and the lives of all the people he holds dear at stake.

This book is crying out to be made into a movie.  It's tightly plotted and peopled with colourful, distinct characters who have very real problems.  Bug is a great protagonist, and even though there is a lot of violence in the book, some of it instigated by Bugs, you remain firmly on his side throughout.  

It's testament to the author's skill that a violent, criminal protagonist can be sympathetic even when stomping on someone's ankle and crushing their bones.  But as a reader, you always know why Bugs is doing what he's doing and it's easy to relate to someone who is just trying to do their best for the people he loves and has sworn to protect.

So I'd recommend this one.  It is violent in places and the violence is described in quite visceral detail, so if you're squeamish you might want to give it a miss, but it's a definite page-turner and one I enjoyed very much.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Beauregard "Bug" Montage: husband, father, honest car mechanic. But he was once known - from North Carolina to the beaches of Florida - as the best getaway driver on the East Coast. Just like his father, who disappeared many years ago.

After a series of financial calamities (worsened by the racial prejudices of the small town he lives in) Bug reluctantly takes part in a daring diamond heist to solve his money troubles - and to go straight once and for all. However, when it goes horrifically wrong, he's sucked into a grimy underworld which threatens everything, and everyone, he holds dear . . .

Weekly Goals 27-1-25

 A new week and can you believe January is almost over already?  Crazy!

I don't have a lot of goals this week to be honest.  I'm still trying to get back into the swing of the year, but suspect that won't happen until after next week because there's another public holiday next week which gives me a 4 day weekend.

One of my CPs has given me some awesome feedback on A Stranger to Kindness - namely that once she read Chapter 30 she had to read until the end, and that I made her cry more than once.  I call that a win!  Hopefully she can get some notes to me on the post 30 chapters in the next couple of weeks so I can take her feedback into account when I read through the whole book and start making my revision notes.

I aim to write at least four pieces of flash fiction this week, five if possible.  There are some days the prompts I use are so far out of my wheelhouse I can't think what to do with them.  Other days, I look at them and see the story almost before I've finished reading.  So I think four out of five days is a reasonable ambition.

And that's really it for goals...

What do you want to achieve this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 24-1-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things...

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I know it was a short week, but somehow those short weeks often end up feeling longer than regular weeks.  This week was definitely one of those, so I'm looking forward to the weekend.

Not a whole lot to celebrate this week, I'm afraid.  Nothing terrible has happened, but it's just been... a week.  Nothing exciting about it.  Which I guess is something to celebrate in itself.

I've sent out some more Guide Us queries, so keep your fingers crossed that someone will want to take a closer look.  

And my critique group are still enjoying A Stranger to Kindness, even the funky bits I was worried about! I'm hoping one of them might get through to the end before 7 February which is the day I've taken off work to read through the whole MS and make notes on what I think might need changing.

I'm reading a book I'm enjoying a lot - I'll review it on Wednesday next week, since I'll definitely finish it in the next day or so.

And this week's story on Medium is a little different.  Horror anyone?

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've read: Hide

 

I've enjoyed a lot of Kiersten White's YA books in the past, so when I saw this, her first book for adults, I decided to give it a shot.  Especially when I read that it was about a high-stakes game of hide and seek set in an abandoned amusement park.  I mean, how creepy is that?

Well, pretty creepy...

The book starts strongly with our main protagonist, Mack, a homeless woman living night to night in a shelter being offered the chance to take part in a life-changing game.  Needing something to kickstart the change in her life she needs, Mack accepts.  She's great at hiding.  In fact, her skill in this area is the reason she's alive while the rest of her family are not.

The competitors are bussed to the site and introduced to one another.  Before going into the park for the first time, they're pampered and preened and made to feel very special.  The rules are explained - two people per day will be "caught" and out of the game.  The last man standing will win the substantial prize.  The game ends each day when the sun goes down and only then will it be safe for competitors to come out of their hiding places and head back to the sleeping quarters set up for them.

So far, so simple.

But when people start disappearing, Mack realizes there is something more sinister going on than a simple game.  While she's always been a loner, she finds herself banding together with a small group of others, determined to figure out what's going on and how they can make it out of the park alive.

This book didn't quite hit the mark for me.  There were too many characters, most of whom we got very little information about so it was difficult to care too much when they started being killed off.  And having two characters with the same name seemed silly within such a large cast.  It's hard enough to remember everyone in such a huge ensemble without giving two of your main characters the same name.  Especially since there didn't seem to be any real reason for it.

And the reason for the competition and the backstory to it were a little silly and not really developed properly.  I won't go into any detail because that would be a spoiler, but I didn't really buy the whole premise.

And then the ending seemed very rushed.

It was a shame because I liked the idea.  I just didn't like the execution as much as I had hoped I would.

So I probably wouldn't recommend this one too highly.  It starts strong, but doesn't really follow through.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught.

The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win--to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts--Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that.

It's the reason she's alive, and her family isn't.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Weekly Goals 20-1-25

 I don't actually have much in the way of goals this week.  I'm still letting A Stranger to Kindness rest and my critique group are still working through it too.  I have a plan to read through the whole thing without making any changes while I read in a couple of weeks.  I'll make notes then on things I think need to work on.  I bet as soon as I've done that and figure out a plan to revise, I'll get the edits on Standing Too Close I'm waiting for.

I've been trying to keep my creative brain awake by writing flash fiction most days.  The writing website I use has daily prompts and I try to do one of these each day.  It's a 1000 word limit, so it's not a huge time commitment - usually about half an hour or so.  Some days the stories I churn out are actually quite good; other days not so much...  Depends on the prompt, really.

My garden needs some attention again this week.  I'm a little horrified how quickly those dang weeds grow back!

There are so many great movies on and coming out at the moment.  I need to go more often to keep up.  I finally saw Anora last night and what a great film that is!  So raw and real and anxiety inducing.  I also saw Sing Sing this week which was so, so powerful and such proof of the power of the arts to transform lives.  I will be urging everyone at work to see it.

What are your goals this week?