It's not too late to join my Count of Monte Cristo Read-a-Long!
You can find the Facebook group with all the details here!
Or, if you prefer, there's a Goodreads group!
Saturday, 1 November 2014
Friday, 31 October 2014
Classics & Contemporaries | Victorian Vampires
Happy Halloween!
This month in Classics & Contemporaries we're going to explore a section of the spooky genre that is Victorian Gothic, one of my personal favourites. I did an entire module on Victorian Gothic at university and I loved it, so I've been looking forward to this installment!
When it comes to Victorian Gothic there are some very famous pieces of literature; Bram Stoker's Dracula, Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights just to name a few. Today, however, I've opted to explore some of the lesser known, but equally fabulous, pieces of Victorian Gothic fiction out there.
So today we're going to look at some vampire stories, and neither of them are Dracula!
First published in 1871 (that's right - before Dracula!), J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla tells the story of Laura, a young girl who lives in Styria with her retired, widowed father, who has been looking forward to a visit from Bertha Rheinfeldt, the niece of her father's friend. Her father receives a letter from his friend, General Spielsdorf, informing the two of them that Bertha has died under mysterious circumstances which he will soon discuss with Laura's father in more detail.
Disappointed that she will have no companion, Laura's prayers are answered when a carriage accident outside their home leaves a young girl, around Laura's age, in their care. The girl introduces herself as Carmilla, and she and Laura immediately bond when the two of them recognise each other from a strange dream they both claim to have had during their childhood.
Carmilla and Laura grow intimately close, but as the months wear on it is clear there is more to Carmilla than meets the eye.
First thing's first: Carmilla is more of a novella than a novel, my edition is only 108 pages long, so whether you feel intimidated by classics or not I highly recommend giving it a try, especially at this time of year. It's one of my favourite classics, and has one of the most exquisite last lines of any story ever. I love it!
There are plenty of reasons to read Carmilla; it's a pre-Dracula example of vampirism in literature, and when it comes to monsters in literature the Victorian era is possibly the best era to start your exploration; because of the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, Victorian society was terrified by the prospect of devolution. If people really had evolved from apes, did that mean they could revert back to an animalistic state? Was devolution responsible for criminals, homosexuals and over-ambitious women?
Carmilla is beautifully written and utterly haunting, and the relationship between Carmilla and Laura is both fascinating and tragic.
But if you don't feel ready to tackle any 19th century fiction just yet, there's a piece of historical fiction that's perfect for this time of year!
First published in 1999, Sarah Waters' Affinity tells the story of Margaret Prior, a woman who is recovering from a suicide attempt following the death of her beloved father. She decides to volunteer at the nearby women's prison, Millbank, as part of her rehabilitive charity work, where she works as a companion to the inmates. She speaks with them, listens to their stories and their troubles, and is discouraged from growing close to any of them.
One woman in particular, however, intrigues her. Selina Dawes claims to be a spiritualist who has found herself in prison after one of her séances led to the death of one woman and the deep disturbance of another. Though Margaret is initially sceptical of Selina's claims, she slowly becomes enamoured by this mysterious, enchanting woman.
But is Selina all that she appears to be?
Obviously there are many differences between Carmilla and Affinity, the most obvious being that there are no vampires in Affinity! But there are many similarities between them. They are both beautifully written, both claustrophobic and gothic, and both set in the 19th century. I have mentioned Sarah Waters in Classics & Contemporaries before - here! - as an author well known for her LGBT historical fiction, and Affinity is no different. Margaret and Seline's sexuality is not shied away from at all throughout the novel; in fact if you're a lover of historical fiction who would like to see more LGBT characters in the books you read I highly recommend giving her work a try if you haven't already. The majority of Waters' novels include LGBT characters in lead roles, perhaps her most famous works being Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet.
Similarly, if you'd like to see more LGBT characters in your classics then Carmilla is the ideal book for you! It's often described as 'the lesbian vampire story', though whether or not that description is true is debatable; there are certainly elements of the homoerotic throughout the text, but I would be surprised if Le Fanu himself meant it as an LGBT text.
All the same, if Affinity interests you then there's no reason you wouldn't enjoy Carmilla!
Next we have an even shorter and even lesser known 19th century vampire story...
Robert Louis Stevenson is no stranger to the Victorian Gothic genre. He is perhaps most famous for The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Treasure Island, but during his life he also wrote many short stories, and many of those short stories were spooky and included elements of the gothic and fantastical.
Olalla is one such story. First published in 1885, Olalla tells the story of a nameless English soldier who is recovering from his injuries received in the Peninsular War. Still weak, his doctor advises him to stay with a once noble Spanish family, consisting of a mother and her two children: her son, Felipe, and her mysterious daughter, Olalla.
Our narrator feels welcome and comfortable in his temporary home, although he believes his hostess and her son to be slothful and dim-witted, but something seems odd. Though he hears of Olalla he does not see her, and each night when he goes to sleep he hears wild noises as though he were staying in a mad house.
When he finally meets Olalla he discovers that, unlike her mother and brother, she is extraordinarily intelligent and the two of them fall deeply in love with one another. He wishes to take her away from her home, but when he cuts his wrist on some glass while trying to orchestrate their escape, Olalla's family have an incredibly strong reaction to his blood...
Olalla is a very interesting piece of gothic fiction in that it is still being debated as to whether or not it is a vampire story or a werewolf story, for there are strong cases for both. After all, it wasn't only vampires that were popular in Victorian Gothic fiction - werewolves, ghosts and monsters were also very popular!
Just as Carmilla explores the idea of devolution, in Olalla we have an idea common in Victorian vampire fiction: fallen noble families with bad blood. In Olalla it is implied that Olalla's mother and brother, and indeed Olalla herself, are the way they are because they are the product of years and years of inbreeding. This idea of tainted nobility can also be seen in Dracula, the most famous vampire story in history, and it can even be seen in more modern incarnations of the vampire story such as Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque's American Vampire graphic novel series, where a new breed of vampire is able to survive beneath the sun and threatens the existence of vampires who are stuck in their bourgeoisie-esque ways.
But for a 21st century recommendation, I've turned to YA!
Sarah Beth Durst's Drink, Slay, Love is a fun standalone about 16 year old Pearl, a classic vampire - she's allergic to the sun, loves blood and really quite evil - who is stabbed through the heart by a unicorn. Naturally, her family, who just so happen to be the vampire mafia, think she's been attacked by a vampire hunter - because unicorns don't exist! - but what really shocks them, and Pearl, is that she's suddenly able to withstand the sun. In fact, she's slowly becoming less and less vampiric.
Never to waste an opportunity, especially with the Vampire King coming to visit, Pearl's family decide to make use of her new 'talents' and send her to high school. Why? For dinner, of course. But can Pearl really feed her family, and the King, her newfound friends when she's slowly starting to develop a conscience? And does she really have a choice? Because if she doesn't offer up her classmates, she's dead meat anyway...
Drink, Slay, Love is nothing like its 19th century fear-mongering ancestors, but there's certainly elements of the early vampires within the story even when they are being parodied. Like Olalla, Drink, Slay, Love plays on this idea of old, intimidating families who are as threatening to each other as they are to outsiders.
Obviously there are more differences than similarities here - there's a unicorn, for heaven's sake! - but if you enjoy this brilliantly bizarre and self-aware novel, then I don't see why you won't enjoy a 19th century short story.
As always, I hope this has been an interesting installment of Classics & Contemporaries! Happy Halloween!
This month in Classics & Contemporaries we're going to explore a section of the spooky genre that is Victorian Gothic, one of my personal favourites. I did an entire module on Victorian Gothic at university and I loved it, so I've been looking forward to this installment!
When it comes to Victorian Gothic there are some very famous pieces of literature; Bram Stoker's Dracula, Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights just to name a few. Today, however, I've opted to explore some of the lesser known, but equally fabulous, pieces of Victorian Gothic fiction out there.
So today we're going to look at some vampire stories, and neither of them are Dracula!
First published in 1871 (that's right - before Dracula!), J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla tells the story of Laura, a young girl who lives in Styria with her retired, widowed father, who has been looking forward to a visit from Bertha Rheinfeldt, the niece of her father's friend. Her father receives a letter from his friend, General Spielsdorf, informing the two of them that Bertha has died under mysterious circumstances which he will soon discuss with Laura's father in more detail.Disappointed that she will have no companion, Laura's prayers are answered when a carriage accident outside their home leaves a young girl, around Laura's age, in their care. The girl introduces herself as Carmilla, and she and Laura immediately bond when the two of them recognise each other from a strange dream they both claim to have had during their childhood.
Carmilla and Laura grow intimately close, but as the months wear on it is clear there is more to Carmilla than meets the eye.
First thing's first: Carmilla is more of a novella than a novel, my edition is only 108 pages long, so whether you feel intimidated by classics or not I highly recommend giving it a try, especially at this time of year. It's one of my favourite classics, and has one of the most exquisite last lines of any story ever. I love it!
There are plenty of reasons to read Carmilla; it's a pre-Dracula example of vampirism in literature, and when it comes to monsters in literature the Victorian era is possibly the best era to start your exploration; because of the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, Victorian society was terrified by the prospect of devolution. If people really had evolved from apes, did that mean they could revert back to an animalistic state? Was devolution responsible for criminals, homosexuals and over-ambitious women?
Carmilla is beautifully written and utterly haunting, and the relationship between Carmilla and Laura is both fascinating and tragic.
But if you don't feel ready to tackle any 19th century fiction just yet, there's a piece of historical fiction that's perfect for this time of year!
First published in 1999, Sarah Waters' Affinity tells the story of Margaret Prior, a woman who is recovering from a suicide attempt following the death of her beloved father. She decides to volunteer at the nearby women's prison, Millbank, as part of her rehabilitive charity work, where she works as a companion to the inmates. She speaks with them, listens to their stories and their troubles, and is discouraged from growing close to any of them.One woman in particular, however, intrigues her. Selina Dawes claims to be a spiritualist who has found herself in prison after one of her séances led to the death of one woman and the deep disturbance of another. Though Margaret is initially sceptical of Selina's claims, she slowly becomes enamoured by this mysterious, enchanting woman.
But is Selina all that she appears to be?
Obviously there are many differences between Carmilla and Affinity, the most obvious being that there are no vampires in Affinity! But there are many similarities between them. They are both beautifully written, both claustrophobic and gothic, and both set in the 19th century. I have mentioned Sarah Waters in Classics & Contemporaries before - here! - as an author well known for her LGBT historical fiction, and Affinity is no different. Margaret and Seline's sexuality is not shied away from at all throughout the novel; in fact if you're a lover of historical fiction who would like to see more LGBT characters in the books you read I highly recommend giving her work a try if you haven't already. The majority of Waters' novels include LGBT characters in lead roles, perhaps her most famous works being Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet.
Similarly, if you'd like to see more LGBT characters in your classics then Carmilla is the ideal book for you! It's often described as 'the lesbian vampire story', though whether or not that description is true is debatable; there are certainly elements of the homoerotic throughout the text, but I would be surprised if Le Fanu himself meant it as an LGBT text.
All the same, if Affinity interests you then there's no reason you wouldn't enjoy Carmilla!
Next we have an even shorter and even lesser known 19th century vampire story...
Robert Louis Stevenson is no stranger to the Victorian Gothic genre. He is perhaps most famous for The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Treasure Island, but during his life he also wrote many short stories, and many of those short stories were spooky and included elements of the gothic and fantastical.
Olalla is one such story. First published in 1885, Olalla tells the story of a nameless English soldier who is recovering from his injuries received in the Peninsular War. Still weak, his doctor advises him to stay with a once noble Spanish family, consisting of a mother and her two children: her son, Felipe, and her mysterious daughter, Olalla.Our narrator feels welcome and comfortable in his temporary home, although he believes his hostess and her son to be slothful and dim-witted, but something seems odd. Though he hears of Olalla he does not see her, and each night when he goes to sleep he hears wild noises as though he were staying in a mad house.
When he finally meets Olalla he discovers that, unlike her mother and brother, she is extraordinarily intelligent and the two of them fall deeply in love with one another. He wishes to take her away from her home, but when he cuts his wrist on some glass while trying to orchestrate their escape, Olalla's family have an incredibly strong reaction to his blood...
Olalla is a very interesting piece of gothic fiction in that it is still being debated as to whether or not it is a vampire story or a werewolf story, for there are strong cases for both. After all, it wasn't only vampires that were popular in Victorian Gothic fiction - werewolves, ghosts and monsters were also very popular!
Just as Carmilla explores the idea of devolution, in Olalla we have an idea common in Victorian vampire fiction: fallen noble families with bad blood. In Olalla it is implied that Olalla's mother and brother, and indeed Olalla herself, are the way they are because they are the product of years and years of inbreeding. This idea of tainted nobility can also be seen in Dracula, the most famous vampire story in history, and it can even be seen in more modern incarnations of the vampire story such as Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque's American Vampire graphic novel series, where a new breed of vampire is able to survive beneath the sun and threatens the existence of vampires who are stuck in their bourgeoisie-esque ways.
But for a 21st century recommendation, I've turned to YA!
Sarah Beth Durst's Drink, Slay, Love is a fun standalone about 16 year old Pearl, a classic vampire - she's allergic to the sun, loves blood and really quite evil - who is stabbed through the heart by a unicorn. Naturally, her family, who just so happen to be the vampire mafia, think she's been attacked by a vampire hunter - because unicorns don't exist! - but what really shocks them, and Pearl, is that she's suddenly able to withstand the sun. In fact, she's slowly becoming less and less vampiric.Never to waste an opportunity, especially with the Vampire King coming to visit, Pearl's family decide to make use of her new 'talents' and send her to high school. Why? For dinner, of course. But can Pearl really feed her family, and the King, her newfound friends when she's slowly starting to develop a conscience? And does she really have a choice? Because if she doesn't offer up her classmates, she's dead meat anyway...
Drink, Slay, Love is nothing like its 19th century fear-mongering ancestors, but there's certainly elements of the early vampires within the story even when they are being parodied. Like Olalla, Drink, Slay, Love plays on this idea of old, intimidating families who are as threatening to each other as they are to outsiders.
Obviously there are more differences than similarities here - there's a unicorn, for heaven's sake! - but if you enjoy this brilliantly bizarre and self-aware novel, then I don't see why you won't enjoy a 19th century short story.
As always, I hope this has been an interesting installment of Classics & Contemporaries! Happy Halloween!
Wednesday, 29 October 2014
What's Up Wednesday | 29/10/14
What I'm Reading
Since last week I've finished Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (loved it!) and read The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove, and Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders by Susanne Alleyn.
At the moment I'm reading Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield, which I'm really enjoying; it's like a subtle ghost story hidden in a gothic novel, and Setterfield has the most beautiful writing style. It's a great read for this time of year! And in the spirit of Halloween I'm going to try and finish Bellman & Black and Blackout by Mira Grant, and I'm going to attempt to read Half Bad by Sally Green too, all before November arrives.
Let's see how well that goes...
What I'm Writing
I should be plotting and planning for NaNoWriMo, but as is usually the case whenever I try to plan anything, a SNI has been tickling my brain and I've jotted down the odd sentence. It's only a short story, but it's been that long since I've sat and written a short story that I want to try and get a draft of it written this week.
What Works For Me
Being left alone. I know that probably sounds so grumpy and antisocial, but I've finished university (for now - with any luck I'll be able to do a PhD either next year or the year after) and I'm back to living with my parents because it's a very lucky person who can leave uni and afford to leave home, too. I love my parents; they're lovely and supportive and just genuinely some of the funniest people you will ever have the pleasure of meeting, but we live in a bungalow where it's very hard to find quiet, alone space unless I'm in the house when both of my parents are at work. I don't have a desk in my room - again, we live in a bungalow, so while my room is beautiful there's no way I could fit a desk in there - and I couldn't sit and write for hours with my laptop on my knee.
As great as my parents are, it's very distracting when I'm sat at the dining table and they want to talk to me or ask me what I'm doing. It's not that I don't like talking to them and don't appreciate their interest, it's just that I think they're still learning that even though it doesn't look like it, I am actually working when I'm sitting at my laptop and typing furiously. Even if I am still in my pyjamas.
So alone time. Alone time works for me.
What Else Is New
 |
| No, that's not a typo. That's really how you spell my name! |
Oh, I'm also going to be taking part in Sci-Fi November, hosted by Rinn Reads and Oh, The Books! I'm still something of a newbie when it comes to science fiction, which is why I decided to take part. I've already scheduled the majority of my posts for throughout November, which is a big weight off my shoulders considering I'm attempting NaNo this year!
Other than that it's been a pretty quiet week. What's new with you?
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Top Ten Tuesday | Characters I'd Be For Halloween!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find out everything you need to know about joining in here!
This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books/Movies To Read Or Watch To Get In The Halloween Spirit OR Top Ten Characters Who I Would Totally Want To Be For Halloween' which is far too fun to pass up! I don't really read much horror, something I need to change, so I decided to go with the latter - here are the top ten book characters I'd most like to dress up as for Halloween!
1) Georgia Mason from Feed by Mira Grant: To be honest most of the characters on this list aren't exactly spooky or scary, they're just characters I'd like an excuse to dress up as. Having said that, Georgia is the heroine of a zombie novel so she's pretty fitting for Halloween! She's also one of my favourite heroines of all time, so I'd love to dress up as her.
2) Helena Ravenclaw from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling: What's not spooky about the ghost of a murdered witch? I knew someone from Harry Potter was going to be on this list - in fact even someone like Bellatrix would be a great character to be for Halloween - but I decided to go with Helena because I think she's one of the lesser loved Potter characters.
3) Johanna Mason from Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins: All you need is a wetsuit and a bloody axe. If that doesn't scream Halloween then frankly I don't know what does!
4) Carmilla from Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu: Carmilla is one of my all time favourite classics. It's a vampire novella, with a homosexual protagonist, that was written before Bram Stoker's Dracula and has one of the most haunting last lines of any book I've ever read. I think Carmilla woud be a fantastic character to dress up as for Halloween.
5) Victor(ia) Frankenstein from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Frankenstein's another favourite of mine. Genderbend the main character (or not if you're a guy!) and you have a brilliant character for Halloween!
6) Queen Levana from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: I feel like people who love experimenting with make up would have great fun dressing up as Levana. We don't actually know what she really looks like, so that would be a lot of fun to play around with, and I imagine a character like Levana would have some gorgeous dresses.
7) Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris: I think Clarice would be especially fun to dress up as if you could coerce one of your friends into dressing up as Hannibal Lecter!
8) The Other Mother from Coraline by Neil Gaiman: Surely everyone familiar with Coraline can agree that the Other Mother is absolutely terrifying? With some well placed face paint it shouldn't be too hard to put some buttons over your eyes!
9) The Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: It might be a children's book but I've always found something sinister about the Cheshire Cat, and I think he's another character that would be a lot of fun to dress up as - you could really go wild with a lot of bright make up and cool contacts!
10) Lirael from Lirael by Garth Nix: Lirael is the Abhorsen. She spends her days controlling the dead and righting the wrongs of Necromancers. Cool, right? Plus I imagine her costume would be pretty awesome. (Bonus points if you have a dog).
Who made your top ten?
Monday, 27 October 2014
My End of Year Historical Fiction TBR!
It's the last week of October - where has the year gone? - and there are still so many historical fiction books I haven't read yet!
Below are twelve pieces of historical fiction I'd love to have under my belt before 2015!
Below are twelve pieces of historical fiction I'd love to have under my belt before 2015!
by Daphne du Maurier
by Alexandre Dumas
(I'm going to be hosting a Count of Monte Cristo read-a-long in November! If you're interested in taking part check out the Facebook group for all the information you need here!)
by Robin LaFevers
by Rosemary Goring
by C. J. Sansom
by Geraldine Brooks
by Stef Penney
by Sarah Waters
by Hannah Kent
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
by Eva Ibbotson
by Diana Gabaldon
Friday, 24 October 2014
Historical Film Recommendations!
On Monday I talked about some of my favourite historical/period dramas - you can find that post here! - so today I thought I'd recommend some of my favourite historical films.
There's a whole variety of films here, so whether you like serious dramas or something a little more adventurous there's something here for everyone!
There's a whole variety of films here, so whether you like serious dramas or something a little more adventurous there's something here for everyone!
The Mummy, dir. by Stephen Sommers (1999)
The Mummy is usually classed as an adventure film, or even a dark fantasy film, but given that the beginning of the film takes place in Ancient Egypt and the rest of the film takes place in the '20s it's also a historical film. I never get bored of this film, and I've watched it so many times that my disc is starting to skip because it's wearing out! It's fun and entertaining, and a great source of escapism. The 2001 sequel, The Mummy Returns, is also a great film. We don't talk about the third one. Never.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, dir. by Gore Verbinski (2003)
Another fun one, and one that pretty much everyone in the world has seen. This, like The Mummy, is one of my all time favourite films and I love it. Jack Sparrow was my first ever character crush and he's held a special place in my heart ever since. This film put pirate stories back on the map.
Elizabeth, dir. by Shekhar Kapur (1998)
Here we have a more serious film, but it's well worth a watch. Elizabeth tells the story of the rise of Elizabeth I to the English monarchy and all the danger, lust and heartbreak that comes with it. Cate Blanchett is an enchanting Elizabeth. The 2007 sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, is worth checking out, too!
Braveheart, dir. by Mel Gibson (1995)
There are dozens and dozens of historical inaccuracies throughout Braveheart, so much so that one of the history professors at my university cringed at the mere mention of it, but it's still one of my favourite films of all time. It might not be a particularly accurate portrayal of William Wallace's life, but at its heart it's a story brimming with courage and empathy. And it doesn't hurt that I love every single costume Sophie Marceau wears.
Marie Antoinette, dir. by Sofia Coppola (2006)
I didn't actually get around to watching Marie Antoinette until the beginning of this year, and it's a shame I waited so long to watch it because I really enjoyed it! Like Pompeii, this film has a brilliant soundtrack for a completely different reason; the soundtrack is full of '80s new wave and post-punk music, but each song used, from Hong Kong Garden to I Want Candy, sums up Marie Antoinette perfectly. I recommend this film for sleepovers involving cake and face masks!
Which films do you love?
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
What's Up Wednesday! | 22/10/14
It's been a while! I went on a little hiatus while I finished up my MA and I've been rather busy recently, so it's time to catch up!
What I'm Reading
Since I last took part in WUW I've read Deadline by Mira Grant, Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier, Blood Sinister by Celia Rees (reviewed here), The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (reviewed here), American Vampire: Volume 1 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Stephen King (reviewed here), and Printer's Devil Court by Susan Hill (reviewed here).
I've discovered my love for Daphne du Maurier and right now I'm just over halfway through Rebecca and loving it (Mrs Danvers - what a bitch!), and I've borrowed Jamaica Inn and The Parasites from my local library so I'll be reading those soon.
I'm also going to be hosting a Count of Monte Cristo Read-a-Long this November. There's a Facebook group here with all the information you need to know if you want to join in; I'd really love it if more people joined in!
What I'm Writing
After finishing my MA I needed to take a break from Bloodroot and Bracken, because by the time I handed in my portfolio I was ready to tear my hair out. So this year I'm attempting NaNoWriMo (again) and I'm not going to put any pressure on myself to complete a novel, I'd just like to write as much as I can, even if it's crap, about one of the many other novel ideas dancing around in my head. Now that I'm back in South Wales with my family it seems only fitting to write a story that's been in my head recently which is set in Medieval Wales and involves dragons!
If you're taking part in NaNoWriMo and you want to add me as a writing buddy, you can find me here!
What Works For Me
Films OSTs! I like listening to music when I write, but when it comes to music with lyrics I can often get distracted and start singing along rather than concentrating on what I'm doing. But when you find the right film score writing's a breeze! Recently I've been loving the Pompeii soundtrack.
What Else Is New
Okay, quite a lot has happened since I last participated in WUW so this section is probably going to be kinda long. I'll try to be as concise as possible!
Well I finished my MA, and yesterday I got my results and I PASSED WITH A DISTINCTION! I'm so pleased that all that hard work and stress has paid off, and now I can start looking into applying for PhDs which is very exciting!
I also have a new blog design after finally giving myself a kick up the backside and taking an afternoon out to make it look pretty - I'm very pleased with the end result. I think it looks slightly less amateur now!
Over the past month I've been doing an internship with a video game company in Wales where I've been helping them to write the script for a new sci-fi adventure game. My internship came to an end last week and I've been offered a job, starting in January, to work for the company as a Game Writer! I'm so excited - it's very rare to come out of a Creative Writing MA and be able to walk into a writing job, so I'm incredibly lucky and thankful.
On the 11th October, a day after my birthday, we welcomed a new person into our family when my older sister gave birth to her third child, Neive Autumn. We went up north to visit them at the weekend and she's absolutely gorgeous. She's such a good baby; she never cries, she just snuggles up and sleeps, and if she wants to let you know that she's hungry she tends to just start sucking on your shoulder. She has loads of dark hair and she's just adorable. I could eat her up.
So what's new with you?
Well I finished my MA, and yesterday I got my results and I PASSED WITH A DISTINCTION! I'm so pleased that all that hard work and stress has paid off, and now I can start looking into applying for PhDs which is very exciting!
I also have a new blog design after finally giving myself a kick up the backside and taking an afternoon out to make it look pretty - I'm very pleased with the end result. I think it looks slightly less amateur now!
Over the past month I've been doing an internship with a video game company in Wales where I've been helping them to write the script for a new sci-fi adventure game. My internship came to an end last week and I've been offered a job, starting in January, to work for the company as a Game Writer! I'm so excited - it's very rare to come out of a Creative Writing MA and be able to walk into a writing job, so I'm incredibly lucky and thankful.
On the 11th October, a day after my birthday, we welcomed a new person into our family when my older sister gave birth to her third child, Neive Autumn. We went up north to visit them at the weekend and she's absolutely gorgeous. She's such a good baby; she never cries, she just snuggles up and sleeps, and if she wants to let you know that she's hungry she tends to just start sucking on your shoulder. She has loads of dark hair and she's just adorable. I could eat her up.
So what's new with you?
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