Reading Wish List 2013 - Express Yourself

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The Express Yourself meme is a weekly jaunt brought to you by Dani at Entertaining Interests and Jackie at Bouquet of Books. At the beginning of the month the girls will post a gadget with a list of topics, something different for each week. Make sure to head on over to either of these blogs to check out the details more fully and see who else is taking part.      

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This weeks topic of conversation: List the book(s) you wanted to read this year but never got around to...

 

 

There are two sets of books that I really wanted to read this year, but as usual plenty of things conspired against me.

The first is The Hunger Games.

quakeroatslive.blogspot.com

 

I knew the new film would be out this year and wanted to catch up on the reading beforehand. I got as far as downloading the first one to my Kindle but haven't read any of it yet. Loved the film though!

 

 

The second set is A Song of Ice and Fire.

www.ebay.com.au

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I only managed to read the first one and have read the first 100 pages of A Clash of Kings. My husband has read them all but has been sworn to silence until I catch up.

 

Next year will be my year for reading these!

I have managed to read 29 other books so it hasn't been all bad. Here's to next year for a bigger read count.

 

 

Have you read any of these? Any reading regrets this year?

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Christmas Celebrations!

It's Friday, which means only one thing: it's time to celebrate the small things with VikLit! This is a great opportunity to celebrate even the smallest of victories you may have achieved in the last week.

 

Today is all about celebrating the last day of term before Christmas, yippee!!!

It's my daughters last day at school, my last day at work, and then it's two weeks of festive holiday fun. Hopefully there will be time to relax in there as well, and I'll be ready and refreshed for the new working year.

I don't have long to get through though, only until the end of April and then I'll be off on maternity. Happy days!!!

Are you on Christmas holidays yet? What else are you celebrating?

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It's Friday, which means only one thing: it's time to celebrate the small things with VikLit! This is a great opportunity to celebrate even the smallest of victories you may have achieved in the last week.

 

This week I'm celebrating submitting a short story for a competition.

I did submit one earlier in the year but this one feels different somehow. I really put the work into this one and feel like it's a positive step in a forward direction. I've been out of the writing loop for a bit and this has really helped to boost my enthusiasm for it.

Even if it doesn't get anywhere I have a completed story ready to be sent somewhere else, which is one of the bonuses of sending things to competitions I suppose. Each time I'm building my store of stories ready to go out into circulation.

I'm going to be making every effort to keep this up going into the new year now.

How about you? I hope you have something to celebrate this week.

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Looking forward to Christmas! - Express Yourself

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The Express Yourself meme is a weekly jaunt brought to you by Dani at Entertaining Interests and Jackie at Bouquet of Books. At the beginning of the month the girls will post a gadget with a list of topics, something different for each week. Make sure to head on over to either of these blogs to check out the details more fully and see who else is taking part.      

                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This weeks topic of conversation: List something(s) you always look forward to this time of year.

I love the build up to Christmas, much more than the event itself I think. The children are all so excited and it's infectious, you can't help but join in.

Although trying to think of presents for everyone can be stressful, I do love wandering round all the shops with their decorations and festive music playing. I especially like the Salvation Army band that plays as you walk through the city, it never fails to bring forth a bit of emotion.

And of course the best thing to look forward to at this time of year ... two weeks off work!!! 
Yippee!!!!!

Time to celebrate!!!

It's Friday, which means only one thing: it's time to celebrate the small things with VikLit! This is a great opportunity to celebrate even the smallest of victories you may have achieved in the last week.

 

 

 

I have one main thing I'd like to celebrate with you all this week, and it's something that should go a long way to explaining my absence over the last few weeks.

As of today I am 15 weeks pregnant, and this is the first week that I've started feeling anything approaching normal. I still feel totally exhausted when I get home from work but the sickness is subsiding and I'm beginning to eat proper food again.

My writing itch is also beginning to make itself known, and it's getting easier to concentrate on creative things again. I'm going to be back into it soon but want to keep the stress down as much as I can, and try and enjoy it much more.

I'm looking forward to being able to leave my main work behind for a few months and to concentrate more fully on my family and my writing, the two things that are most important to me at the moment.

How has your week been? Anything to celebrate?

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Trying to regain some rhythm - an IWSG post

Welcome to this installment of the Insecure Writers Support Group, or IWSG as it's known around these parts.
This Group is an excellent place to find and give encouragement to fellow writers out in the blogosphere, whatever stage you may be at in your journey.

 

Founded by the wonderful Alex J Cavanaugh, who always seems to go above and beyond for his fellow bloggers, the IWSG has grown so much since over the last two years it now has its very own IWSG website. 
It has a whole host of places to go for advice and opportunities for anything to do with writing.
You can also find the IWSG sign up list where you can find others writing about their insecurities, and also sign up yourself to make new friends and gain encouragement.


As I came to write this post I noticed how little I have posted over the last two months, something that was wholly unintentional I assure you. I planned to take a sabbatical over October and it just kind of spilled over into the whole of November too.
I'm not going to use this post as an opportunity to apologise for my extended absence, I've been in serious need of the break. A few things have happened since September and I haven't been feeling at my best, it's been a struggle just to manage my normal everyday things of family and work life.

Now though, I can feel that I'm coming out of the quagmire that has been sickness and fatigue, and I want to start getting myself back into my writerly habits. I'd started to build a good rhythm as this year progressed and my confidence has been growing as a result. I feel a little like I've taken a step backwards, but I'm not quite back at square one.

One advantage I have now over then is that I know I have it in me to write. I enjoy it, and others seem to as well, so I haven't got as far to go this time to get back to where I was. 
The bonus this time is that I know I need to perhaps slow my pace a bit so I don't find myself close to burnout again. It was not a nice place to be and so I will be trying to avoid it as much as I can in future. 

It feels good to be back amongst you all again. How have you all been? Do you have any insecurities to share?

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