As regards writing...

I haven't recovered fully yet from my cold, which has left me feeling really drained of energy. However, the muse is strong and I am getting the writing done. Unfortunately, I am beginning to have my doubts about my opening of the book (this is my fourth attempt). Maybe it is because I am not feeling well, maybe it is because I think the opening for In Search of the Moon was so good I want to equal it or better. Maybe I should just press on and leave the weak opening for the second draft (maybe the opening isn't weak). Maybe I should start on opening number five. I think it is important to set the tone of the book from the beginning.

Maybe I should leave it til tomorrow when I feel more rested. :S

Congratulations Michele!

A huge big congratulations to Michele and Blackrock Bay (aka J.B) for coming fourth yesterday at the 1 day event in Dunany. You are both stars!

(the above picture of Michele and J.B was taken in May at a Derby day in Cheval, where she also came fourth. Maybe Valerie could give me her pictures of Michele's triumphant day yesterday so I could up date it?)

Happy Birthday Michael Biehn!

50 today.

Ggrrr Arrgggg - watch out for bears!

Silence is golden.

Writing is easy (but not at the moment).

I'm grumbling and growling through my porridge (there was no milk this morning).

I'm trying to break my block.

Until it is broken, I'm sulking.

More difficult than I thought (lost post found)

Til the Moon Fails is proving to be a little troublesome. Questions are popping up in unexpected places. My first draft of the first chapter felt more like an extension of In Search of the Moon than a new book. I want to start with action, but I still have to introduce the characters and bring the reader into the world. I can't assume they have read the first two novels and I want each book to stand well on its own feet, as well as working as a trilogy. Problems are cropping up like how much do I tell of what has gone before? Does it slow down the action? How do I get past the difficult bog of character exposition? Where do I start the story? Maybe it was easier writing In Search of the Moon because it is set two years after the first book, maybe I had the same problems when I started, I don't remember. All I remember were blissful days in France when the words tripped off my fingers like honey and I started each writing day thinking "Where are my characters going to take me today?"
Not so much with this one, but I guess every birth is different.
Here's to another three months of labour pains!

The cruelty of life

I just wrote a beautiful post about writing and struggling with starting my new book, and it didn't publish. I won't try to recreate it, suffice to say, I am finding it hard to get the right perspective and tone.

The book I am reading at the moment

Goals for week three

1. finish part one of Til the Moon Fails
2. Finish part two of Til the Moon Fails

Blueberry update

Took Blueberry into the vet this morning. His jaw is still stable but he has a wound on the side of his mouth which is still bleeding, so he has more antibiotics to take. He has to go back next week to get the stitches taken out and in another five weeks to have the wire taken out. He can't go outside again until he has the wire removed. He loves going outside so much, I don't know if he will kill me or if I will kill him first (he is rather objectionable in his efforts to get outside). Maybe he will learn to be a good cat.

I feel like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window today (no, I don't have a broken leg, I am not a photographer, I don't have a block of flats across from my house and, oh yes, I'm not male) but it is really hot and someone is playing the piano and I remember from the movie some composer was always tinkering away at the ebony and ivory. It is nice. Making me feel sleepy though.

Review of Goals

1. Finish In Search of the Moon - completed
2. Start Til the Moon Fails - completed
3. Write short story - Not started

I wrote 8,760 words this week, which is a little less than last week, but I did spend two days working on the plot of Til the Moon Fails.

I am taking the day off today. All work and no play makes Iseult a dull boy (or, I mean, girl).

In the zone

It is a beautiful day, I've done my exercise, I am feeling creative and I am ready to get my word count written by lunch time so I can take the rest of the day off.

Well, I've started it

I have officially started the third installment of the Moonwolf Chronicles, titled Til the Moon Fails. It is quite a slow start, not as easy as the first two, but I hope it will smooth out in the next few days and the flood gates of creativity will open.

Fudge

As requested...

Fudge as a scruffy little kitten (isn't he cute!) and...
Fudge as a more mature adult cat (still cute though!)

The book I am reading at the moment

A poem for Blueberry

BLUEBERRY
A POEM
By Tottie
Blueberry - you look like hell
Please God - soon you'll be well!
Blueberry - you gave us a thrill
when you were fit and healthy still,
with a throaty purr
and silky fur
You deafened your enemies with a frightening roar.
Blueberry, hurry and give us a bell
and let us all know once you are well!

(This was posted as a comment by Tottie Super Rabbit, but it was so good I had to put it on the blog. Thanks Tottie!)

My second favourite tree

I remember when my mum bought this eucalyptus. I don't think I was even ten years old. Every week I would go outside with my mum and stand beside it to see how much it had grown. It started off smaller than me and then slowly reached the same height and grew and grew until it surpassed me by many metres. It is really tall now. It is still an exotic wonder to me. I almost expect to see a Koala sitting in it when I look out the window.

Some things of note

1. Fudge has been with me six years today. I still think of him as a scruffy little kitten so much in need of love, even though he isn't a little kitten anymore.

2. Simon and Danielle's wedding anniversary today

I'm FINISHED!

Hurrah! Finished In Search of the Moon today. It isn't my best writing, I feel the ending is slightly incomplete (the problem with middle books in a trilogy) and I am strangely sad at finishing it. I think it took me so long to get to THE END because I was afraid of completing it. Now I have to decide how I will celebrate! I just want to lie down and have a nap at the moment. Maybe I will buy Catatonia's greatest hits CD that I saw going cheap in a shop last week to treat myself. I must start book three tomorrow. I shouldn't feel sad at saying goodbye to Hans and Janna because I am going to be working with them again for another couple of months. I hate to think what kind of downer I will have when I finish the third book!

Blueberry update

Here is a picture of Blueberry that I took at lunchtime while I was giving him his meds. You can just see the stitches in his lower jaw and he looks really badly. I saw the x-rays last night. Imagine his lower jaw like an inverted V with the narrow end at the front of his mouth and the wide ends attaching to his upper jaw. What he has fractured is the narrow end, and what the vet has done is placed a wire around the narrow end of the V to draw it back intogether. They have also looped a stitch all the way around his lower jaw and into his mouth. As you can see, he can't close his mouth properly. Some of the wire sticks out under his chin. He has to have it in for 6 weeks and then he has to have another operation to get it removed.
If you compare these pictures with the one posted a few days ago (taken when he was fit and healthy) you can see how badly he looks. He is in a lot of pain and can't get comfortable. He wanted a lot of cuddles last night and is meowing a lot when I leave him alone. I hate to see him suffering so much. I wish I could take the pain away from him. He is on antibiotics and painkillers.

Another day ends

Did a lot of good writing today, or should I rephrase that, did a lot of writing today. I'm making up for my poor performance at the end of last week. I was tired today but feeling like myself again. I'm looking forward to writing tomorrow and finishing (finally!) In Search of the Moon! I can't wait to start Til the Moon Fails. There is something so sweet about starting a new book. Everything is fresh and exciting, and you don't quite know if you are doing or saying the right thing, but you hope it works out. Nothing is quite comfortable. It is great!

Collected Blueberry from the vet. The poor thing is still groggy from the anesthetic. He looks a little like Frankinstien's monster with the wire coming out of his chin and he can't close his mouth. I think Fudge is frightened of him.

I found a baby sparrow in my sister's house this morning (she is away on holidays and I am looking after her dog for her). The poor little thing was fluttering against a window and its parents were outside calling to it. I don't know how it got in. It was only recently fledged because it still had the yellow baby bill that garden birds have. I couldn't open the window with it fluttering against it (it was a sash window) and I was afraid I would frighten it so much it might die, but I knew I had to pick it up to save it. So I said a prayer that I would be able to release it without hurting it and picked it up. It struggled a little, but not too much. It was so small and soft. I carried it down the stairs and out into the back garden. When I opened my fingers, it flew away fast and strong. It was beautiful.

Blueberry update

I talked to the vet a few minutes ago. They x-rayed him this morning and he has fractures on both his upper and lower jaws. They aren't too worried about the upper jaw, but they have wired the lower one. He should be able to come home this evening.

In writing related news, the morning went well and I hope the afternoon proves to be as productive!

My Favourite Tree

This is a picture of our copper beech, it is my favourite tree in the garden. I like to visit it at lunch time when I am on my break. It is nice to get some fresh air and some inspiration from nature. My favourite time of the year (for the tree) is in the early spring when the leaves are new and they are really bright coppery red. They fade and darken as the summer progresses. They are quite dark now, as you can see.

My goal for this week:

My goals for this week are:-

1. Finish In Search of the Moon (carried over from last week)
2. Start Til the Moon fails (the 3rd book in the Moonwolf Chronicles)
3. Write a short story

Bad luck, perhaps?

One of my cats, Blueberry, went missing yesterday and he turned up this morning with blood all over his face. He must have been knocked down and was hiding in the bushes feeling poorly until I went around the garden calling him this morning. I rushed him into the vet, of course. I must have been in the vet every week for a month, with one thing and another. I am sick of having to go there. My pets are certainly having a hard time of it at the moment.

I'm not feeling very well either. I had to give up writing yesterday at 4pm and go to bed. I felt a little better this morning, but still not great.

What with feeling ill and worrying about Blueberry, I don't feel in good form for a morning's writing, and I have a lot of words to do to finish by this afternoon. Depressed doesn't begin to cover how I feel at the moment.

A lot of work to be done today

I just wish I could shake this feeling of tiredness. Not that much left to go on In Search of the Moon, but I am going to have to put some serious hours in to get it finished. It would help if I felt slightly more awake. Well, I suppose I can't have everything.

Some things to note

1. This is Muffin's first month anniversary of her death (or month's mind). Muffin was my dog, the most adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I got her when she was 7 weeks old. She was the best dog in the world, and she died this day last month suddenly at 9 years of age.

2. On a slightly less important note, I started my website yesterday year.

Only starting writing now

I had to go to Drogheda this morning, and then I got something to eat when I got home and defleaed the cats, so I am only sitting down at my desk to write now. I'm not too worried about it though, because I got the gym in this morning so I can work a little later than usual and I also have Saturday morning to make up some time. Also, it isn't as hot today, so I hope I won't turn into a zombie like yesterday!

The only downside is I have to run Charlie this evening (my sister's dog that I am looking after while she is on holidays) but I can forget about that for a few hours.

Day Four

Another morning of writing has been interupted. I will just have to make the afternoon twice as productive. Very hot again today. I must remember to bring gallons of water with me when I am writing so I won't dehydrate and get tired and cranky (like yesterday!) I am hoping to finish In Search of the Moon by tomorrow evening, but with the morning lost yesterday and today I might have to work into Saturday morning. It will be finished by the weekend either way.

A tribute to Leppie

Leppie called into me this morning to help me with some writing. Here he is on my chair thinking about what he is going to write - some recipes for preparing dog, no doubt. Thankfully Marvie is keeping an eye on him for me.

The book I'm reading at the moment

Flowers and thoughts

I didn't get any writing done this morning because I took my mum in to Dundalk to do the weekly shop. She bought me these flowers for my room. Aren't they lovely? They smell nice too.
Here is the view outside my window today. It is really hot today. 26 degress celcius according to the women in Superquinn!

And this is a flower I can see from my window, I think it is really beautiful, I love the splash of vivid colour concealed among all the glossy greens. Your eye wanders over the verdent shrubs and then is shocked by the sudden bloom of red - but it is a pleasant shock.

I went for a walk on Blackrock beach this morning. It was so warm and sunny and the birds were calling and the little worms under the sand were spraying water out of their homes. It was awesome.

James Bond is a Time Lord!

With the randomness of thought, I started musing on Dr Who and the whole time lord thing this morning. I really enjoy the new series on BBC and I think David Tennant is an EXCELLENT Dr - he goes up there on my favourites list with Jon Pertwee and Sylvester McCoy (do not scoff, I thought the McCoy years had a lot of gems, and I really liked Ace). However, it got me thinking of the tricky position that the Dr is in, regards regeneration. He only has 12 regenerations and he has used up a lot of them. Let's look at the list: -

1. William Hartnell
2. Patrick Troughton
3. Jon Pertwee
4. Tom Baker
5. Peter Davison
6. Colin Baker
7. Sylvester McCoy
8. Paul McGann
9. Christopher Eccleston
10. David Tennant
11. Peter Cushing (he did star in two Dr Who movies, but he is always being left out)

So does this mean that Dr Who has only one regeneration left? I would be happy to expunge the awful Paul McGann movie from the Dr's lore (wouldn't it be great to have the Master back?) but it would still leave 10 regenerations. I hope David Tennant doesn't leave anytime soon, because I don't want to see the last of the Dr just yet!

Anyway, my musing led me on to James Bond (who I loathe by the way) and you know, I think he is a rogue time lord. He is doing better than the Dr as regards his regenerations go: -

1. Sean Connery
2. George Lazenby
3. Roger Moore
4. Timothy Dalton
5. Pierce Brosnan
6. Daniel Craig
7. (for some fun) Bob Holness

I think James Bond is a time lord who uses his special powers of time and space to sleep with lots of women and play with gadgets - and do some spying too. Not quite as evil as the Master (who was power hungry) and not anywhere as good as the Dr (who is very interested in other species) 007 falls somewhere in between. Selfish, egotistical and using his powers to his own end, he will reluctantly help humans occasionally. Maybe one day we will see Jimmy pull out his TARDIS and fly off for some adventure on another planet. I'm sure if you think about it, you will see it makes sense.

Anyway, this has got me thinking of another fact about Time Lords - don't they seem to be getting younger with each regeneration? Reminds me of the Orkons (you know, Mork from planet Ork?) they were born old and got younger as they went - so maybe the Dr's next regeneration (seeing as it is his last) he should be a teenager or perhaps even younger?

Back to work

Went for a short walk at lunch time. Wow! What a day. A wall of heat hit me when I stepped out of the house. It isn't like Irish weather, it is like some warmer country.

Back to writing now. Hoping to bump up my word count and getting nearer to my goal of finishing my book.

Message to Leppie: - No, you are not in the room at the moment (as I am sure you know) but I will bring you up tomorrow. I thought you would get bored, but I suppose you could hang out the window and try to catch some birds.

Message to the Leopard: - I wish I was driving in you today! Oh, what fun times we could have! Unfortunately, I don't think there will be any photos of you in my writing room. I don't know how we could get you up all those stairs...

Many the night I've dreamt of cheese - toasted mostly

Lunch time has rolled around again and my tummy is rumbling, so I am off for some food. The morning went all right, had a few distractions, but all in all got some work done. Hope the afternoon will be as good if not better.

Picture of me

Here is a recent picture of me I took with my webcam last week.

My new office

Here is a picture of my new office. I know the picture is quite dark, I will see if I can lighten it and post again in a few days. Now you can understand why I love it so much!

Day Two

I moved all my things into my office last night and I am starting writing from it this morning. It is beautiful, clean and colourful with a window looking out over sunny greenery which makes me think I am in some exotic location and not Ireland at all. Ah, the creative juices are flowing.

This is the best job in the world!

At the end of the day

I didn't do too badly for my first day of writing. I got a respectable number of words done (although not as many as I had hoped) and I am a few steps closer to my goal. I am going to leave it now for the moment, make something for dinner, go to the gym and see if I can start putting stuff into my office so that it will be ready for me in the morning. Maybe I'll do a little bit more writing before bed too.

Roll on tomorrow!

Argh! I'm late!

I wanted to start back at 2, but I got delayed because Pat was just finishing work on my office and then doing a couple of other things and I thought I better hang around and help him. I wasn't much help, of course, probably more of a hinderance, but I thought it would have been rude not to talk to him. Anyway, the good news is that my office is finished (well, I still need a new floor covering, but that can wait a little while) and I am moving in tomorrow!

Now, back to writing. Where did I leave it... oh, yes.

Day One: Lunch time

Well, I didn't have the best morning with one thing and another, and only wrote a little over 200 words. I hope I will be able to get back on track this afternoon.

I should really go back to writing with pen and paper. I think I am intelligent enough to just about manage that.

Probably the stupidest person alive

I was trying to get rid of an old version of messenger on my PC and instead I removed everything important from it, and for some reason I can't install them again even though I have the installation disk. I just want to cry. Great start to my writing career. I wish Valerie was here so she could fix it up for me. She is a real computer whiz. To top things off, we purchased a domain name for the Nodpots, but the existing website wasn't transferred, so it looks like there is going to be a lot of hard work ahead for me and Marvin. And my office isn't ready yet (my friend Pat is painting the spare room so I can use it for my writing) but I hope to move into it tomorrow. I have to write in my bedroom today. Feeling very low at the moment.

Goal for the week

My goal for this week is to finish In Search of the Moon

Literary Pursuits

Sort of. Got some great news - the Disresponisble Nodpots have their own domain name! They are now at the disresponisblenodpots.com (well, they will be, but it will take a couple of days). Marvin is thrilled about it. I hope we don't get into trouble with the Treasurer for going ahead and purchasing it without his consent!

Mungo seems abit depressed at the moment. I think he has got a touch of failurism. Never thought I would live to see the day. He could of course be faking, just to get loads of attention!

I can't wait to start writing tomorrow. I feel like jumping with joy at the thought. What a brilliant thing to wake up tomorrow morning and have a day full of writing ahead of me, followed by another and another and another!

More good news, Valinora Troy (a fellow Nodpot and excellent writer) has joined the internet community with her own website (check out the link at the side). It is still under construction, but I am sure it will be up and running in no time. Also, check out her informative and highly amusing blog (also linked at the side). A must for all sufferers of failurism, or for those who have recovered, or for those who have not yet realised they could be infected.

A little about me

I suppose I should start off with a little about who I am, much as I hate author bios etc. It is so much more interesting writing about my characters than writing about myself. Anyway, I was brought up in a family that loved reading and all sorts of creative pursuits. From an early age I have been writing poems and stories and magazines (which I used to sell to my brothers and sisters!). The Hobbit was my favourite book, and I still know passages of it off by heart, because it was read to me (and I read it) so many times. I blame Bilbo Baggins (I am somewhat hobbit like in nature, fond of meals and mushrooms and not very fond of water, and I think it is because of that connection that I grew to love the little hairy footed creature so much) for planting the seed that grew into my love of fantasy. When I was about seven I started creating the world that would become Reath, with its myths, creation and characters. I have now plotted out roughly four thousand years of its history, which spreads across several continents and even a couple of planets. While my main literary interest is writing about Reath, especially the moonmarked race of wolf people called Epahs, I also enjoy writing science fiction, horror and non Reath based fantasy. The scope of the novel is the most attractive medium for me to work in, but the challenge of a good short story keeps me returning to it again and again.

In my teens I had my first taste of success with my writing and was placed in (and won) several short story and poetry competitions. My writing continued to take a back seat for a few years, but through thick and thin it was the one creative pursuit that I continued to dabble in. In the last three or four years I have started writing seriously again and I have learned my craft as I have struggled with it.

I have always dreamed of writing for a living - doing what I love so much, enjoy, and getting paid for it! Thanks to the generosity of my sister, Valerie, I am now taking the first step into making that dream a reality. I have six months to complete my trilogy, the Moonwolf Chronicles, and to get some short stories written and hopefully, please God, get published.