Thoughts for a Thursday

"Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together."

Eugene Ionesco

I love Criminal Minds. I seriously cannot wait for the new series. And what makes the show even more awesome, is that each episode usually begins and ends with a quote, like the one above. Does anybody else watch Criminal Minds? And more importantly, does anybody else have a slight obsession with Dr. Spencer Reid? (The nerdy awkward genius one).

Edinburgh

Edinburgh was even more fun than I expected. The Fringe Festival is great, there's so much to do! And Edinburgh is such a pretty city, especially the Old Town with its beautiful Reformation Era buildings. I'm just back from a week there with my boyfriend, John, and we did so many things and went to so many shows it's hard to remember them all! But here are a few of my favourites:

Best Comedy 

David O'Doherty. His new show is hilarious. I laughed the entire way through.

Best Theatre 

W;t - a very well acted student production about a middle-aged English professor dying from cancer. The actress who played the lead was excellent. 

Death of a Theatre Critic - inspired by the Greek tragedies, it tells the story of a director who wants revenge on a critic who gave him a bad review. The staging and direction were particularly impressive. 

Best Street Performance

A pair of juggling firemen from Australia (I'm not sure of their exact title), who juggled fire amongst other things. As well as being great jugglers, they were also quite funny.

Best Free Show

Mentalist Peter Campbell-Wells put on a very entertaining late night show. He solved a rubiks cube blindfolded! Most Innovative Show  Claudia O'Doherty's Monsters of the Deep 3D. Her show is based on the premise that she is the sole survivor of an underwater habitation called AquaPlex. Claudia has a hypnotic stage presence, and her performance was so convincing that by the end of the show I almost believed there was such a place.  We visited the castle, the Camera Obscura (highly recommended) and climbed up to Arthur's seat - the main peak of the highland landscape in the centre of the city.  I really did not think I would make it to the top (It's very steep and I'm not very outdoorsy), but it was worth it, because the views were amazing. There's a picture above of me at the top, looking very windswept. Other highlights included drinking tea in the Elephant Café, where J.K. Rowling wrote the early Harry Potter books. It has an amazing view of the castle.   The Edinburgh International Book Festival was great, it was packed with readers of all ages. I bought some books there, including a collection of short stories from McSweeney's literary magazine, which I'm really looking forward to reading. We went to Alasdair Gray's event, where he read from his new play Fleck, an adaptation of Goethe's Faust. And John Green was AWESOME. I was afraid he wasn't going to be as cool as I had built him up to be, but he was even cooler. All the answers he gave in his interview were really interesting. I queued for an hour to get my copy of Paper Towns signed. After deliberating for an eternity about what I should say when I finally reached the top of the queue, I ended up just saying how much I enjoyed the event, and then I told John he should come to Ireland, because he has lots of Irish fans, and he said 'I wanna move to Ireland!' 'Really?!' I said, insanely excited. 'Yeah,' he said, 'They don't tax writer's income there!'

Outta Here

Hi Everyone,

I'm off to Edinburgh for a week! I shall talk to you all when I get back.

Enjoy the weekend!

Puffin does Designer

"Books should be good to hold and good to look at as well as good to read."

Antony Gormley

As part of their ongoing 70th birthday celebrations, Puffin are publishing 6 classic titles with new cover designs by leading cultural figures. The Designer Puffins come with a designer price tag and are limited edition. Each will be sold for £100 and only 1000 of each title will be produced (published Sep 2nd).

The chosen classics are:

Treasure Island with a cover by architect and sculptor Frank Gehry

The Secret Garden by author and illustrator Lauren Child

Around the World in Eighty Days by Ghanian architect David Adjaye

Oliver Twist by artist Sir Peter Blake

Little Women by fashion designer Orla Kiely

James and the Giant Peach by sculptor Antony Gormley.

I love both Roald Dahl's and Antony Gormley's work, so I think James and the Giant Peach is my favourite.  But I also love Lauren Child's design, and it has an introduction by

Sophie Dahl. (No Laura, you do not need them.)

Literary Style

product info

I know I've featured nerdy Hello Kitty in a previous Literary Style, but I just love her. Unfortunately I don't own anything with her on it...yet. And I quite like the Great Expectations clutch...ridiculously expensive but fabulous. 

Links You Might Like

♥Young Writer magazine looks interesting. They accept submissions from writers under 18 years of age.
♥AR Bookfinder is handy if you want to find out the word count of a particular children's or YA Book. Just search the title and the info will come up. 
♥Learn Something Every Day. Brush up on your random trivia.
♥Sarah Webb describes the life of a full-time writer over on her blog.
♥Cute vintage dictionary prints on Etsy.


♥And this is exciting! Penguin Books UK is accepting direct queries from authors for a limited period, Aug- Oct.  A super opportunity for unagented writers ready to submit! 

Thoughts for a Thursday

"A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction."

Oscar Wilde

Down for you is up

So, I've been writing like crazy. Angel Kiss was slightly too short, so I've been up all hours adding in the extra words. You know when you've done so much typing in a short space of time that you feel really buzzed and slightly insane? That's how I feel now. I'm not entirely sure what time or day it is, but I have reached chapter 8, so it's all good. It was hard trying to write the extra words at first, but it got easier.  I don't mind going through that initial bleak stage, where I find it hard to write anything at all or most of what I write is kinda bad. Because I have to go through that stage to get to the good stuff. I've taken my editor's advice and I'm not constantly checking my word count. I'm letting it flow, and within that stream of words will be a few sentences or ideas that I like. And I will pluck them from the mush and build around them, and soon will have something to send my editor. Claire Hennessy retweeted a great quote on twitter a while back:
"Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it." Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) YA Author.
So if you feel like you can't come up with an idea, just write something, anything. Once you've gotten into a rhythm, then something good will come.
I've been listening to lots of songs on repeat, some Phoenix, some Velvet Underground, some Miley Cyrus (you can't beat The Climb!).

In other news:

I'm so excited for the new series of Skins. It's my third favourite T.V. show, (after Gilmore Girls and Freaks and Geeks).  The new cast members were revealed the other day. I remember when Skins announced they were changing cast the first time around. I was enraged, because I loved Cassie and Sid and all the others, and I couldn't believe they would even think of replacing them. But I soon realized that it was an excellent idea.  It kept the show really fresh, I'm glad the producers were so brave. Speaking of T.V., Pretty Little Liars just keeps getting better. Hannah is my favourite character and I couldn't believe what happened to her in the last episode. (I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet). Also, Ezra is back, yay. Apparently we have to wait 'til January for the next episode, so unfair!

At my Puffin meeting I couldn't believe my luck when my editor gave me a copy of The Summer I Turned Pretty. I've just started it, and it is excellent. Also, I was delighted when I found out that Jenny Valentine has a new book out. It's called The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight, I can't wait to read it.  Her debut, Finding Violet Park, is one of my favourite books ever.

Also, my boyfriend bought me a lovely typewriter necklace from Topshop (picture of me wearing it in the collage above!), it's so cute.

Now I'm going to make some popcorn and do some more writing.

Summer Giveaway Result

And the randomly selected winner is... comment number 14 - Janice! The books and pens and bracelet etc. will be making their way to you soon!

Thanks to everybody who entered!

Also apologies for being so quiet this week, I'm doing lots and lots of writing and all the days are blurring together, but I will be back posting soon.

Latest Writing Playlist

Lazy Jane - Belle and Sebastian    
Spent most of Saturday afternoon writing, and listening to The BBC Sessions.


The Writer - Ellie Goulding          
How could I resist a title like that? I wasn't a big fan of her single Starry Eyed when it first came out, but it grew on me, and I really like the rest of her album.


When U Love Somebody - Fruit Bats
I really like the line "When you love somebody but bite your tongue, all you get is a mouthful of blood." Lines like that make me want to write better lyrics. 


Pale Blue Eyes - The Velvet Underground
LOVE this song. 


Fences - Phoenix
I find Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix a great album to write to.


He Loves You - The Pretty Reckless 
I was mega impressed when I heard Taylor Momsen's band. I didn't expect to like her stuff so much, but Light Me Up is one of the albums I'm most looking forward to this autumn. 


Anybody got any music recommendations? What have you been listening to lately?

A little update...

I'm spending this weekend writing, reading and doing laundry. (Up above is my currently reading/to be read pile). I started 13 Little Blue Envelopes today, and might even finish it tonight. I'm also reading Paper Towns. (I often find myself reading up to five books at a time. I'll just pick up a book to see what it's like, and before I know it I'm fifty pages in. I should probably finish one before I start another. Does anybody else do this?!)

I bought 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Outsiders while I was in Galway last week. I was really impressed by Dubray Book's teenage section. I do love a well stocked teenage fiction section, and I especially like when it's removed from the primary colours and the tiny furniture of the children's corner.

I'm rereading Twilight, for research. The final draft of Angel Kiss is a bit too short, so I have to add more words to it, including more inner thoughts of the main character (Bella is all about the inner thoughts). Also today, I wrote more of book 2, and I'm officially very excited about it. The mountain of laundry was less exciting. Why am I spending a large part of my weekend doing laundry? Well, I'm going to Edinburgh in two weeks, and on Wednesday I get the new Angel Kiss notes from my editor. So from Wednesday on, I will be back working on my first book, adding more words, and before I know it it will be time to go to Edinburgh, and I will have sworn to leave enough time for laundry. However, I will of course have to double and triple check every word, and will be typing right up until the last minute before my deadline, whilst someone who I have bribed proofreads my manuscript as it prints, and the only clean thing I will have to take to Edinburgh will be the Primark raincoat I purchased yesterday. So I'm washing all my nice clothes now. And for the next two weeks I'll wear an assortment of very flared jeans and purple jumpers from 2008.

(I just noticed that our dog, Biggie, managed to get himself in the photo without me realizing!)