Family Achievements

I might not have mentioned this, but I have the best family ever.

They're wonderful; supportive, fun, loving and intelligent. We also sing a lot. Often in public.

There are plenty of us - I have eight cousins, a variety of aunts and uncles, and only relatively recently lost two of my beloved grandparents.

I am truly blessed and fortunate to have grown up with such a crowd.


The only downside, if you can call it that, is that they all are, and always have been, highly successful and brilliant.

Living up to my elder cousins' achievements has always been hard; whether it was exam results, university acceptances, roles in plays, careers, even boyfriends and husbands. It's just lucky that they're all so nice, and that I love them so dearly.

At twenty seven, I'm finally having to deal with living up to my younger cousins' achievements, too.

Which is by way of saying, look out for David Whitley's new Children's Fantasy novel, The Midnight Charter, sold to publishers across the world, and due in stores in early 2009.

For more information on Davey, here's his agent's website: http://www.mvagency.com/davidwhitley.html

Eighteen

I'm at home in Wales this long weekend for my baby brother's eighteenth birthday. He's nine years younger than me, so it's been a long time coming. He's off to university in Warwick this October, and we're all terribly proud of him.

Anyway, so I'm curled up in my Grandparents old armchair by the French windows in my parent's lounge, listening to my family bustle about their day. We've had the traditional boiled eggs for breakfast, and any time now I have to start making a chocolate & coconut birthday cake.

In the brief meantime, I'm going to try and ignore distractions and get some words down.

The Swing of Things

So, I've re-instigated the word counter on the right hand side of the page; I always feel better if I can see myself making progress.

Of course, progress is a little thin on the ground at the moment, but I've written one scene today, and that's better than nothing.

Spent the weekend hunting triffids in the back garden, and causing snail Armageddon. Much fun, but I ache today.

Back to the words...

Playing Tag

Bonnie tagged me, as she is wont to do.

Eight Random Facts About KJ

1. I talk to myself a lot. Not usually when there are other people around, but still.
2. I count my steps whenever I’m walking somewhere.
3. I make my husband watch 80s brat pack movies, even though he hates them. His least favourite so far is St Elmo’s fire, which just happens to be the one that I love best.
4. I call my mother almost every evening, even when neither of us has anything much to say.
5. I’m much more useful in the mornings that the afternoons or evenings. If only I would get out of bed earlier I’d be unstoppable.
6. I recently bought a pink laptop, even though I probably really shouldn’t have.
7. I love local folklore and mysteries. I have many books on the subject and delight in telling people all about them, even though they don’t care. Sometimes I make them visit sites of extreme interest with me, and they wonder why a piece of wood at the side of the road is in any way interesting. Then I tell them, and they still don’t care.
8. I’m never really satisfied with the seasons. My favourite is always which ever it isn’t right now. I always think that Autumn is my favourite, but actually, since it doesn’t have Christmas, my birthday, or pretty flowers, I’m not so sure.

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you want to do it, feel free.

What I'm working on right now

After a few weeks off to mess around with some edits and some submissions and stuff, I'm finally getting back to working on the book I started writing for Michelle's Write On Redux.

I've already got just over 30k, and some reasonable background and character work.

More importantly, I just finished the collage that's been hanging, half done, over my desk for the last few months. I'm hoping that its completion will help spur me on to finish the book itself; certainly it's helped get my head back into the story. You probably can't make out much from the picture, except teapots and jampots, but obviously they're the most important features.... Not really. It's a story about fortune, fable and falling in love. But most of all, it’s about families; what we do for them, to them and because of them.

Recent submissions of my previous Write On Novel have started to get replies - so far all declines, but some very nice, personal ones, and requests to see whatever I write next, which I'm taking as a good sign. It's one of the reasons I want to get this finished, so I can send it out. I really love this story, and have high hopes for it. If it turns out on paper the way it is in my head...

I also have my soundtrack almost finalised. Just a few more tweaks when something jars - sadly I have to actually write the words to notice this. Which means it's time to get back to work!