I survived Nano!

and I won!
I never thought it would be so exhausting. Since I'm such a slow writer (I found out), the most I wrote in one day was 4500 words. And that meant hours sitting down at the desk trying to type something legible. My back wanted to kill me for putting it under so much strain. And let's not talk about the quality or the coherency (is that a word?)...
But I made it, and I'm sort of proud of it. I was probably too sure of myself at the beginning, and crumbled a bit toward the middle and the end, but I made it to the finish line JUST one hour before the deadline! OK, I cheated just a tiny bit by adding the whole lyrics for a song (calling it extra features) but it was an important song, very meaningful (not really...)
I guess I should start editing and rewriting pretty soon, but I'm taking a week off to recover. Right now even thinking of going back to The Novel makes me feel queasy.
I was writing in Italian, and as I struggled to think up words in my own language (how many times I had to look an English word up to translate it into Italian, you'd be amazed!) I realised I need to start reading in Italian again asap, so I can expand my vocabulary - again. This is a bit embarrassing considering I'm not even THAT fluent in English. I'm already forgetting my native tongue. In other words, I should go back to school. Me not happy.

Other non-Nano-related news...I turned 30.
Holy Moly.
It's scary even to type it.
But anyway, let's not dwell on that unspeakable round number. The fun bit is that I got to go to London to see my long lost brother (I hadn't seen him in I don't know how long, 3 years maybe?), see The Gossip gig (loved it!) and meet two of my best friends. It was lovely even if very short. It was literally a 24-hour visit. I felt a bit overwhelmed by London and all those people running about...Dublin is so provincial in comparison. Or maybe it was just the short stay that made everything feel very rushed, even the emotions.

On the books front, I haven't got my bookworm mojo back, yet. I'm still working on it. But I finished the new Nick Hornby, Juliet, Naked, which was nice. I enjoyed it, it took me ages to finish it, but I did enjoy it. There was a kind of low-key cynical mood to it, which was pleasant at times, and a bit boring at others. I loved the dialogues though. They were never ever boring. And the metaphors. I wish I could come up with those myself.
Awww will I ever be able to read a book again without thinking "Hmm this turn of phrase is brilliant, why did I never think of that?"
I'm reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, now, and I'm doing the same thing. It's good though. It means I'm learning something...right?
I'll stop blabbing now. I just wanted to apologise for not answering to all your comments lately and for neglecting the book blogging community. I promise I'll go back to being a better blogger soon!
In the mean time, thanks for your supporting comments, I really appreciate them:)

NaNoWriMo - Day 1!

It's started! I've joined the National Novel Writing Month for the first time and I'm really excited about it!
I couldn't wait to start writing, I've been itching to see where my story will bring me for the past two weeks, and now the wait is over! Needless to say the reading and the blogging this month will be down to almost nothing (which is not a big change from what I've being doing to be honest! lol).
I know Chris and Amanda have joined. Has anybody else? Let's be buddies:)

So, still no reviews...

...I will have so much to catch up with in the next months! I'd like to say that I have being writing like a mad thing, but sadly I've actually slowed down a lot. First I got discouraged by reading The Goose Girl. The writing and the imagination was so superior I just couldn't bring myself to love my story anymore. So then I decided to put The Goose Girl down for the moment. I tried to read only non-fiction while in writing mode, but fiction just lured me to it again when I was innocently browsing a library shelf. I ended up taking out "How I live Now" by Meg Rosoff, and man, that was good! And thankfully I didn't compare it to my writing that much, because the genre is so different. The ending wasn't what I hoped for, but still the characters, the style, and the story itself was worth it.


Now I'm reading a book that's not published yet. It's called The Thirteen Treasures by Michelle Harrison. It could be chosen as Kids Book of the Month in our shop and our buyer wants to know what we think of it. So far I'm liking it even though nothing has happened yet. There's nasty fairies, and a girl who can see them, and a mysterious ancient house, and an old gypsy woman living in a caravan in the forest. And some children disappearing. It sounds very promising, doesn't it?
Anyway, today I should get lots of writing done. But I'm scared because I got to a very important part, maybe the key scene for the whole story, and I've thought about it so much and put so much expectations on how it should be that now I'm intimidated by it! So instead I've been "researching" without actually writing anything :P
Maybe I should stop thinking how important it is and just write it! I can always edit it later...hmmm. Easy to say...

Ok, I should get going and stop procrastinating!

A little update...

I've been writing. A lot for my standards, if you consider I didn't write anything for months and months!I get up early to write, I even brought my laptop at work to write during lunchtime, because I knew I wouldn't get much done after work. It's brilliant.
I visit NanoWriMo's website regularly to keep me motivated, even as an outsider. And yesterday I was surprised to find out that apparently Water for elephants by Sara Gruen was written doing NanoWriMo! I couldn't believe it. That's got to be inspirational, to say the least ;)
But this wasn't the only inspirational thing I found on their website yesterday. My highlight was Philip Pullman's Pep Talk! This is a wonderful idea. All these famous writers are called to write some motivational/encouraging/understanding words to all the Nanowriters and then they're sent by e-mail to them. Thankfully, they're eventually published on the website, and that's why I could read Philip Pullman's yesterday. I loved it. At the end he talks about how being readers and lovers of stories will help us to become writers as well:

...if you do love reading, if you cannot imagine going on a
journey without a book in your pocket or your bag, if you fret and fidget
and become uncomfortable if you're kept away from your reading for too
long, if your worst nightmare is to be marooned on a desert island without
a book - then take heart: there are plenty of us like you. And if you tell
a story that really engages you, we are all potential readers.

Yes, that's me. Does it mean I have potential? :P

Oh if you have time,read Jonathan Stroud's too, that's worth it too!

ps: I don't know how people, like Dewey for example, can do Nano, have a job and all that goes with it, and post reviews on their blogs too. It's beyond me. So unless days suddenly stretch to 48 hours, I won't be posting reviews for a while...Or maybe I'll try tomorrow if I'm lucky!

It's National Novel Writing Month!

and I'm not doing it! I wouldn't mind taking part, it sounds like a lot of fun and I'm sure it would be immensily satisfying to finish a novel in a month. But I still have my story to finish, that I started 3 years ago, and I don't want to start anything else till I finish this. The good news for me though is that I decided it's time to do it! Let's write this, and get over with it. And what best time then NaNoWriMo to get a writing boost? So I'll be trying to write at least 1000 words for the next month..well, 28 days now. I wanted to start yesterday, but I was hindered by a bad cold and a very annoying temperature. Today I felt much better so I opened that word document again and wrote my 1000 words! well done me.

It's been a great day, after a not so great Halloween weekend. Actually, it must have been the worst Halloween I had since I'm in Ireland! Almost nothing went like it was supposed to. I didn't have a costume till two days before friday. I finally decided to dress up as Daphne from Scooby-doo after seeing it in a fancy dress shop's catalogue, but unfortunately it was gone. Then I said to myself:"How hard can it be to find an orange wig, a pink dress and a green scarf?"
VERY HARD! If you're looking for them two days before Halloween. Never again.
I went into all the shops I knew but didn't find the right dress so had to settle for pink top and pink skirt. Then I ordered the wig online with 24 hours delivery, but they were out of stock. Then ordered it from another shop, and they called me to say they were also out of stock! So I thought, ok, I'll die my hair! Not permanently, only with the colour spray that washes off. Take my word: NEVER try those things on your hair. It was awful! My hair looked like a wig that was used to wipe floors after it was too old and ugly to do anything else!
I was in the shop already, and had to get ready to start the day. So thankfully we had a bright pink wig that I used to cover my sorry-looking hair and a witch hat, and that was it. I was a punk witch. I later bought some punk looking black gloves with white starts and similar leg warmers....and it wasn't too bad! but not what I wanted...
Anyway, life had to go on. I got ready to organise the Halloween party with the kids. Callista kindly emailed me few games to play with them and I used one of her suggestions. It was a creepy story to tell in the dark about a dead woman named Brown, and as you tell the story you pass around her "body parts" which were actually bits of food or other things that feel like body parts. It sounded all very scary and promising. *If only* things were done like they were supposed to be done. But we couldn't have a place which was dark enough, so the kids could see what was inside the bowls, even though they were covered. Some of them were also too old and they spoiled the game. Then, the person that was supposed to be the ghost at the end, was busy doing something else, so the scariest bit didn't happen properly.
Yeah, it was a bit of a disaster, but I was very relieved it was over. I swear this is the last Halloween party I organise.

But not everything bad happened in the last few days. In fact, last Thursday was a very exciting day because I went to the signing of.....drum rolls.....Neil Gaiman! You'll hear all about it in my review of the Graveyard book very soon:)

Writing progresses

Today I feel so good about myself because I've finally started working again on my story. I deliberately put aside such an unputdownable book as "the Blue girl" for the morning, to do some productive work on my precious day off. And I've effortlessly (well, almost) written a decent enough scene that I can be proud of. It was an action scene, and an important one as well, but action scenes are not easy for me, really, so I was kind of putting it off waiting for inspiration. But then last night I used my favourite technique for writing: I wrote the general lines of what was going to happen, or better, I let the pen write, cause honestly I didn't know what was going to happen till I wrote it. I thought I was going to write different scenes and then pick the best one, but the first one was the right one, so I used that. Then this morning I wrote it and it was fun! The words came out naturally and they felt right. I wrote more than 1000 words, which is A LOT for me, and I came to the end of the second part of the story. So yeah, it was a very productive day. I hope there'll be many more to come:)

Life updates and writing progresses...

Ahhhhhhhh!!!I'm so exhausted!!!!So much is going on in my life at the moment I don't know where to start! I've recently:
1) Moved out for the 4th time this year.
2) moved in into a beautiful new apartment, hope it lasts this time.
3) started a as senior bookseller (yay!promotion!!) in another, much bigger bookshop of the same company and
4) last but not least, I've tried to keep that resolution going....BUT, obviously, with so much going on, I haven't had much time. Or energy.

Last night was the first proper writing session I had since I posted my definitive resolution. And it ended up being an editing session, actually. How come anytime I re-read what I've written months ago, it sounds like crap??? I keep changing expressions and sentences to try and make it simpler. I don't like boring, long sentences, but, for some reason I write them a lot. Maybe I should wait till the first draft is finished and then start editing.
Anyway, I think I'm getting somewhere. Re-reading had made me want to write more so I think I'll do some tonight.I have some notes scattered around so I'll write them down properly and see how they sound.
The big problem is that I don't have internet at home yet!!!TRAGEDY!!!
I hope I get it sorted soon. Now I'm writing at work and my break is just over, so I better get going:)
...It's chaos outhere!!!!!!!

Resolutions

I've recently finished reading Love, Stargirl...I think I could read about Stargirl and live in her world forever! This book, like the first one, gave me so much energies and will to do things that I came up with THE DEFINITIVE resolution of the year. I've decided that I have to finish the story I'm writing. I never talk about it. It's my secret dream, to be able to finish it and say "I've written a book", and "let's start with something else!". I always find an excuse for not sitting down and write . There's always a better book, or I'm always tired or not in the mood. But as of today there won't be anymore excuses. Reading books is forbidden within the house. I can read on the train, on the bus, on my lunch break, fifteen minutes break, and MAYBE, if I've written something during the day, I can read before sleeping, in bed. I won't have another lazy day off when all I do is reading. Extra artistic activities are allowed since they help the mood, but only after I've started writing. I don't know why, but the hardest thing it to actually sit down and start. Once I've overcome this first step , I start creating and I have fun. But I guess I'm just lazy. And insecure.
So, since my mother and my best friend both want to read the end of it, I'm going to ban books till I'm finished!!
I'm very proud of this resolution. And I'm writing it on my blog to make it more definite, to take a commitment.
Now, don't ask what the story is about. I will tell you more when it's finished. Let's just say it's for children, it's a fantasy and it's written in Italian, obviously. I hope I will be posting LESS reviews and MORE updates on my writing progresses. Wish me luck!:)

This doesn't mean I won't post reviews at all. I have loads to write!
Upcoming reviews include:
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Boy by Roald Dahl
- Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
and the latest by David Almond, author of Skellig "My dad is a birdman", his first book for younger readers, illustrated by Polly Dunbar and out on 1 October. It's brilliant!


Photo taken by Marta Starosta, 2005