What's Up Wednesday! | 07/01/15

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly feature created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for readers and writers to stay in touch!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What I'm Reading

Since the last WUW I've read My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards, The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan, Witch by Damian Walford Davies, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent and White Ravens by Owen Sheers.

Right now I'm reading The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau, and just this morning I started The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse. I'm taking part in the Bout of Books 12 this week; I haven't set myself any challenges because they only stress me out and I don't want to turn reading into something that brings me stress. I'm taking part so that I can get 2015 off to a great reading start!

With that in mind I want to try and finish both The Crown and The Winter Ghosts this week, and I also want to try and read The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier, Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers and A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.

What I'm Writing

I'm ashamed to say I've written barely anything over the holidays! I'm aiming to enter a few writing competitions so I've been trying to tweak, complete and write some short stories that have been stuck in my head for a while. One story in particular has been driving me nuts, so some of the people from my MA course are very kindly going to read it and tell me what they think.

Then yesterday inspiration struck, so I started scribbling in my notebook during my lunch break. I don't think any character's voice, without a story, has ever come through so clearly before; I won't say much (because I'm not even sure what it is yet!), only that whatever it is is from the POV of a biracial dragon whose parents own a Chinese restaurant.

What Works For Me

Actually writing when I get a new idea. I have this habit of thinking of an idea and 'saving it' for later, as though writing it later is going to make it somehow better, but most of the time when I do that what actually happens is that I convince myself it's a bad idea or I forget something (especially if I don't have something with me to jot the idea down!) and the idea doesn't get written the way I want it or it doesn't get written at all.

This has worked for me very recently! The story I mentioned above isn't exactly a story yet, it's just this very loud character talking through me; I have no idea what I'm going to do with what she's telling me once she's finished talking...

What Else Is New

I had a great Christmas and New Year! I spent Christmas with my family and got some great presents, including a bunch of books and DVDs I'd been after. And then I spent New Year in York, the most haunted city in Britain, with my best friend; we shopped, ate, drank, went to the cinema to see Night at the Museum 3 (and I totally teared up near the end; I'm going to miss seeing Robin Williams in new films) and binge watched the first three seasons of Parks and Recreation. Why have I never watched that show before?

I'm still enjoying my job and my wages, and last night I bought tickets for me and my parents to go and see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. I enjoyed it - I certainly enjoyed it better than the other two films which, while good, felt very much like "Bilbo and the Road Trip" to me - but I think I'm always going to love The Lord of the Rings more. Eowyn's my home girl.

What's new with you?