So this is the last day of nanowrimo and I can’t decide whether I want to try and be a winner or whether I am happy being a non-winner (ie a big loser lol)

I have a day off, I have less than 8,000 words to go, but I am very tired. I am not long out of bed but I am tired haha. Yesterday I had to complete my Literature assignment for Uni, after having to get a week’s extension (it was due on the 22nd but I just needed more time) and that was a bit of writing, plus my Creative Writing assignment also had to be done and sent off. I’m not sure how much more my fingers and my tiny brain can take.

I was going to go shopping with mum today but I have already knocked that on the head, so I will be home and the computer will be on…

But there are a multitude of other things that I need to get done and need my attention, and Christmas is just around the corner. I have some things I need to start making - yes some people are getting handcrafted presents this year - and that all takes time, and some of them need to be posted overseas, so I kinda have a deadline. I also have to be in the right frame of mind to do it, and a little inspiration wouldn’t hurt either.

Ebay has been drawing my attention lately too. I was looking at a car this week but I can’t decide if I want a car or not, and I’m a bit unsure about buying one via ebay.

I was also looking at a signed first edition of a book that I already have in another format, and can’t decide whether to keep bidding for it or not. I want the book just because I just want to add it to my collection and it will probably never get read, so does that make any kind of sense? Besides… it’s pretty.

And since it’s Friday…

Some of my favourite shows are on tonight in the US which means I can look forward to watching them tomorrow morning! Moonlight - can’t wait to see what happens after last week - Project Runway 4 - just because I like to see what they create and all the pretty fabrics - please let me loose in that Mood Fabric shop with a credit card - and Numb3rs which I have become strangely addicted to. I think it’s my INTP personality and the lure of all that math that does it for me. I found a site where I can watch all the previous episodes that haven’t been shown here yet and I may have watched around 35 of them in a really short space of time. *guilty* I’m sure Charlie Eppes could come up with some advanced calculus explanation for that lol

Oh and I watched 300 last night, also online. I liked it. I already knew the history so the outcome wasn’t a surprise to me, but it was very well done. The CG on the movie was pretty good lol all those spartans with identical six packs, and that big freaky looking Persian dude, Xerxes. Who would have thought he played the mild mannered love interest of Laura Linney in Love Actually or that he was actually Paolo from LOST last season. Wow they really did a number on him! ha!

Ah ha, see the best laid plans… etc

I may be staying home today but now mummy dearest will be visiting later, which means I better get cracking on the old Nano if I ever hope to finish…

There is such a thing as being too politically correct…

AFP - Thursday, November 15 02:45 am

SYDNEY (AFP) - Santas in Australia’s largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas’s traditional “ho ho ho” greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.

Read the rest of this entry

I can’t believe that it’s minus 2 outside this morning! Everything is covered in white frost and when I opened the door this morning I was hit with a blast of icy air! brrrr

At least in my new house it is actually warmer inside than out.

I have an essay to finish on the significance of father figures in three different books but I find I keep picking up Valentine’s Exile and sneaking little one page reads in between. I managed to pick up the hardcover in the summer but haven’t been able to get to it until now - not that now is a leisurely time either but I couldn’t resist any longer. Valentine’s Resolve - also in hardcover - arrived yesterday too. I was ordering some Christmas presents and slipped that one in for myself.

I have ordered two copies of The Way of the Wolf and Choice of the Cat to give as presents this year. I’m really gambling that they will at least try them as on the face of it, they wouldn’t be what they read normally. So if I can just get them to try them, I’m sure they will be hooked.

Other book related stuff, I see the cover is finally up for the next Nightside book - The Unnatural Inquirer. I like the colours, and obviously can’t wait to read more about John Taylor.

And I was looking at this amazing book yesterday too.

The amount of work and skill that went in to creating these clothes is truly awe-inspiring, and apart from anything else they must have been so heavy!  I’m pretty good with a needle but the detail on some of these clothes must have taken months of work.

December:

Slammerkin - Emma Donoghue:

Hosted by Ellie. Did you know that a ’slammerkin’ is an 18th-century term meaning a loose gown or loose woman? Well you do now! So who wants to join me to read all about the loose woman and the loose gowns?

Prince Caspian -C S Lewis:

Hosted by Becs. This is the next Narnia novel to get the hollywood treatment, so join us and Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, Aslan and Prince Caspian in the wonderful fantasy by CS Lewis

Immortal in Death - JD Robb:

Hosted by Thea, this is book two three in the ‘In Death’ series featuring Eve Dallas and Roarke, so if you loved the first book, then please join us to discuss the second!

So what are you waiting for? Remember all members, authors included, are free to join us in any book discussions that take your fancy. Discussions are fun, informal and you get to read books at chat about them - what more could you want?

Book Group 2008

Book Buddy and My 52 Books will continue in 2008, but we also have some other great reading challenges for you. Just click on the Reading Challenges 2008 Board for more details.

Suggestions for next year’s Book Group

The suggestion threads are closing and the polls are open! So if you want a chance at getting your favourite books discussed with the Book Group in 2008, go to this board and start voting! Remembe, only vote for books that YOU want to read next year with the Book Group!!!

So we are now into week two of NaNo and does the slowness of the site bug the crap out of anyone else or is that just me? And what’s with the ‘disabled author search’?

Yeah yeah they exist on donations etc but hell, it’s frustrating!!! Someone give them some money please!  I never want to hear anyone complain about the speed on my site EVER AGAIN or I will have to point them to the nano site where you can literally watch paint dry, while cooking and later eating dinner, and still the page hasnt loaded!

So anyway, since we have no way of finding authors, friends etc unless we are lucky enough to spot a post on a forum (with 2000 other people online at the same time!!!) or be lucky enough to be present when they ‘enable’ the author search function. Here’s what I propose.

The Empire of the Cat writing group has a thread over there in the Writing groups/clubs section, so mosey on over there and post something and then we can find you! And if we can find you, well you know we can add you as a buddy, and the more the merrier right?

Here’s the link to our general chat and pep talk thread. So if you read this message, then get over there and say hi. Don’t make me come looking for you, cos that site makes me cranky enough as it is! LOL

Meanwhile back at the writing course…

So I’m doing a 2nd year writing course at Uni at the moment and guess what! Here was me wondering what else to do next year (along with either 20th C Fiction or 19th C Fiction) and bam! new writing course announcement for 3rd year students!!!

New creative writing course for October 2008
Advanced Creative Writing  <— ‘advanced’ no less!

This 60 point Level 3 course will be introduced in October 2008. Advanced Creative Writing will develop students’ writing ability by widening their generic range. The course will work extensively on the forms introduced at level 2 - fiction, poetry and life writing - and supplement these with dramatic writing, showing students how to write for 3 media: stage, radio and film. By widening the range of possible outlets, students will use this richer repertoire and greater variety of approaches to develop their individual writing style and voice. The course will offer guidance on professional layouts and editorial methods, and will be a natural progression after Creative Writing.
A full course description will be available from the Courses and Qualifications website from the end of January 2008 and registration will open on 15th March 2008. <— special note for your diary, Ides of March and the Cat Mistress’s birthday!

Maybe I won’t have to read Heart of Darkness after all!

Oh yeah and about nano and tracking you all down - poke poke poke