250th Post!

My Corrie Flint story, henceforth referred to as "A Natural Talent" (unless it undergoes yet another title change) has been released into the world, landing safely in a magazine slush pile, and I don't expect to hear anything back from it or them for at least a month. But at least it's now officially "out there", so I'll keep you posted should anything come of it.
Whilst adding my latest submission to my log, I discovered I have not submitted any of my work anywhere for eight months! How crazy is that? And I pertain to call myself a writer? I guess I've had a fairly good excuse (busy writing the novel), but still.
I've now decided to try to get a short story or two finished, as well as continuing on with Inter Vivos. I've got 5 chapters to write for the novel, then it's re-write time, and I haven't done much on it in the past 6 weeks.
Now is the time to kick myself in the arse and get a write-on again. I have found that not enjoying the day job is a great motivator to write, so now seems like the perfect time to kick-start my would-be career.
Reread Deathly Hallows again on Sunday (yeah, yeah, I know). I don't understand how one can get so absorbed in a book. Like literally, whilst reading I was impervious to hunger and sleep and the need for the toilet. Dark magic indeed.

Buffy Revisited

Yesterday I watched the first three episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer series 1, and I think they've held up really well. Sure, Buffy's hair and heels are slightly dated, as is the mid-90s Grunge, but the writing feels as fresh as ever. The opening sequence, in which a boy and his date break into school, breaks conventions right from the beginning - it's not the sex-crazed jock who is the threat, but his jumpy, hesitant blonde date (who turns out to be a vampire). And I was shocked that Angel, in those first two episodes, has a personality! Maybe I'm just too saturated by the bland Twilight vamps, but it actually took me by surprise that Angel was sarcastic and charismatic, rather than brooding and mournful. Just shows that both the male and female characters can be strong at the same time - one doesn't supersede the other. The Angel I'm most familiar with is the pouting one from (I think) Series 3, so Angel series 1 is actually really refreshing.

I'm still not finished with my Corrie Flint story - I'm just tidying it up a little bit now. Plus, I can't think of a title. I wanted to come up with something witty and clever, maybe some sort of pun based around fire and talent, but I can't think of anything good. I think the latest draft is called "Burning Talent", but I think I might go with "An Unusual Talent". I can't really decide - neither are right. Suggestions on a postcard please...

Hmm...

I think I'm suffering from "blog block" at the moment. I just can't think of what to write on here. I know lots of gossip, but it's about other people and so can't relate it on here (that's cruel). I don't feel like my life is dull right now, more like I'm just gently bobbing along on the ocean that is life, and there's nothing to report, not even the odd seagull.

I read a really dreadful book the other week, called Marked by PC Cast and Kristen Cast. I read it to the end though, which is more than I can say than some books, but it was truly awful. It was written in first person teen-speak, which in itself is annoying, but in this instance made the narrator and lead character extremely annoying and unrelatable. I mean, kudos for PC Cast getting her daughter to help her with the lingo, but her daughter isn't a teen neither - it's like it's been written by someone who watched Clueless and has attempted to copy it verbatium. Like, totally.

On the other hand, I watched Torchwood: Children of Earth on Virgin on Demand over the weekend (the first whilst still drunk at about 2:30am). This was excellent. I've only seen a couple of episodes from the first series of Torchwood, and it never really grasped my attention - it was too much like a Doctor Who episode, but with added gratuitous sex/violence, just because it was post-watershed. This story though, which was self contained over 5 (I think) episodes, was really tight, and everything there felt planned out - not a single line or sfx wasted. I hope they do more Torchwood episodes like this. Very good (and perfect for my hangover the next day).

Hagging It Up!

I wrote the following last night when I was out and about, and was going to post this to my blog then, but I couldn't get signal for my BlackBerry! Anyway, here it is:

I am presently sitting in Starbucks - since when did they become so ethnic? African drummers on loop on the CD player, and prints of Kenyan elephants and Antigua on the wall. Last time I was in here, I distinctly remember them playing Christina Aguilera. Oh well. Times they are a-changing.

Speaking of which, all seems to be going well with my Semper buddies. Broken Holmes is into its rehearsal period, Phil's book is now available from Amazon (plug, plug), and Hannah is taking over the internet, one tweet at a time. I sincerely hope that I have some news soon, but unfortunately right now all I can report is that I'm writing. It takes so long!

In other news, I have a small project in the works at the minute, more news to follow, but hopefully it will take off and be grand!


So that's it! One more thing I wanted to add to that was, I think I may have found the perfect job! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8138665.stm