2014, Bitches.

2014-bitch

[Image: E-Pins.com]

Last night, I was too busy catching up with friends and watching an absolutely atrocious film to write a summary post for the year, and writing one now would kind of defeat the point of looking forward to the new year.

So all I’ll say about the previous year is that it wasn’t too bad for me, personally, but I have friends and others close to me who have been through a hell of a lot, so I won’t be looking to recall much about it, and I hope 2014 will be better for everyone involved (and for everyone I don’t even know, for that matter–if your year was a bit shit, I hope this year gets it turned around for you).

I’m not doing the resolutions thing, because I don’t see the point in forcing myself to do things out of obligation or guilt, just because it’s the time of the year to do that.

But my housemate and I have decided instead to make a bucket list of sorts for the things we should each do before the end of 2014. I will be posting mine here, updating as I decide on more things I need to get done in 2014 and crossing off as they’re done.

  • Finish (and publish) my third book.
  • Go to see The Room screening in London.
  • Have a holiday.

…and yeah, that’s about it for now, I guess.

I know it’s only been a day, but here’s hoping your 2014 is shaping up well, and I hope there’s 365 good, productive, happy days ahead of you.

It’s 2014, BITCH! Wooooooooo.

Merry Christmas!

Hello all,

Just a quickie to wish you all a very Merry Christmas (or whatever festival you celebrate at this time of year).

I will try to get a year in review post up before the end of the year.

In the meantime, have fun, don’t let yourself get too stressed out (deep breathing is surprisingly effective), and as they say in Demolition Man, be well.

Kat

I Apologise in Advance

I have set myself the challenging (but by no means impossible) task of completing the remaining 60k~ words of the first draft of my third book for NaNoWriMo this year.

As a result, November will be a stressful month for me while I try to extract all these conflicting ideas from my brain and kind of smush them into words and paragraphs and scenes and eventually an entire novel that make sense from beginning to end.

So I apologise in advance for if you get caught up in any of the following that I do in the month of November:

  • Being quiet/unresponsive both on and offline.
  • Talking about nothing except word counts, targets, goals and word counts.
  • Demanding to be left alone.
  • Not eating.
  • Drinking excessive amounts of caffeine/alcohol, depending on the time of day/day of week.
  • Threatening to “punch you in the throat” or “slap you in the dick”, or just generally being nasty.

Stress turns me from a mild mannered, fairly decent human being into Aunt Irma, so this will be me in November:

Me Throughout November

Normal interaction will resume in December.

See you on the other side ^_^

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? Add me!

Bring It Back

Apologies for my recent absence on social media.

I’ve been mostly offline, chillaxing, recovering, and generally soul-searching, which has so far resulted in the possibilty that I don’t have one. I also spent many hours watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which I still can’t decide if I like or not after four and a half seasons.

And I’ve been speaking to my proofers and going over the small army of typos that made it through to ARC stage, including my possible favourite, referencing a scooter as a Vesper (which is a cocktail) instead of a Vespa (which is what I meant). I thought I’d already corrected that one, but evidently not!

As well as a few instances of rearranging word order, like so:

I have nothing with which to defend myself, other than to say I can be an idiot, at times.

Anyway, I’ve put all the changes I’ve had so far in now, and I’m probably going to take some time to do a reverse read this weekend (a reverse read, as you may have worked out, is when you read the book from the end to the beginning, a sentence at a time, which better helps spot typos without being as distracted by the story itself).

I’m taking this one last weekend to relax and recoup, and then I’ll be picking up where I left off with the next book.

I’ll be spending my free time attending my baby sister’s 3rd birthday party (oh God, small children), and also cleaning out my bin-on-wheels Fiat 500 ready for it going back on Wednesday.

I’m not going to miss this car. Out of the three I’ve had, it’s been my least favourite.

Yes, it’s cute, but then that’s mostly the problem. I command no authority in it whatsoever, especially with its ridiculous horn that doesn’t so much blare as much as kind of toot, “Excuse me, I don’t think you realise you’re in my way.” And I have enough of a Napoleon Complex as it is, I don’t need a car that accentuates my inferiority–a nice, big car will do away with that anxiety.

So yes, I won’t shed any tears at having to give it back.

Yeah, Yeah, Nobody Cares. What About Your Next Book?

I’ll start resume work on Divided They Fall from Monday, 30th September.

I will get back into the routine of minimum word counts, time counts, and I’ll be logging it all on a public Google Docs spreadsheet and on my Tumblr, so if you give that much of a shit, feel free to follow/like/reblog/show support.

I appreciate it all.

Finally, here’s how the rest of the year should pan out for me:

  • October to November 2013 – Creating the initial draft of Divided They Fall. [track]
  • December 2013 – Creating an initial draft of the first Blood of Ages short story, A Demon’s Share. [track]

And that’s it! Hope all is well with you =)

While you wait.

I’ll be back with regularly scheduled writing updates shortly. In the meantime, shake vigorously (WARNING: DON’T DO IT WITH HOT DRINKS IN YOUR VICINITY)…

I love you all like very distant cousins.