Reflections for a rainy day...

This time exactly one year ago today, I was touching down in Shanghai to begin six months of teaching English to kindergarten children. I forced myself to go to China because I despised my job and I couldn't bear to be there a moment longer. Breaking out and going alone to such a different country really opened my eyes, and I can't help reflecting on how different my life is now, to how it was a year ago...

So what has happened in the past year?

Well, I came home from China early in December because I couldn't bear to be apart from the Other Half, and my family and friends any longer.

I got a fantastic job in a school I love.

I got engaged.

I got 40,000 words into a novel I started during NaNoWriMo when I was in China - and then discarded it.

I am now 52,000 words into my current WIP, with no signs of slowing down - I absolutely love this novel, and I can't wait to share it with all of you. At the moment (due to a challenge my Other Half set me) I'm writing 7,000 words of this novel a day and I'm loving every minute of it.

If anything, this year has shown me that there's no knowing where life can take you. Did I think two years ago I'd go to China? Hell no. Did I think this time six months ago I'd be this enthused about a novel? No way. And yet, here I am.

Life is indeed what you make of it. I've had my share of difficulties along the way, but I'm surrounded by fantastic people that I love, who I know will support me through anything (seriously, you should've heard my mum when I told her I was going to China. I thought she was going to have a heart attack, but she ended up supporting me all the way).
Right now, I'm just happy to see where life takes me - and, obviously, writing along the way ;).

So how about you? What has this year brought you so far? Did you think you'd end up where you are?

Happy writing!

Weekend Reads: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder is another one of those books that I just haven't been able to escape from – it seems like everyone loves it, so once again I gave into peer pressure to see what all the hype was about. And boy am I glad I did!

Cinder is the first book in Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles series and it's futuristic retelling of the fairytale, Cinderella. Cinder, a cyborg mechanic living in New Beijing, dreams of freedom from her wicked stepmother, Adri. But as she's a second class citizen on account of her being a cyborg, she's forced to work as a mechanic to order to fund her stepmother's and step-sister's lifestyles. But with a mysterious deadly plague, letumosis, sweeping through the city, a Lunar queen intent on declaring war and Crown Prince Kai desperate to thwart the Lunar queen's plans, will Cinder finally get the life of freedom she's always dreamed of, or will she be forced into a life of a different kind of slavery?

I thought Cinder was really well written – I could vividly imagine New Beijing, with all it's bustle and noise and new technology (though that may just be because I lived in actual Beijing for a while...) and I loved the futuristic world that Meyer has built. She goes into just enough detail about Cinder's situation as a cyborg so that I was intrigued, but not overwhelmed with technical details. Cinder is a great heroine – she's funny, feisty, strong and independent, but she's also totally believable while she's at it. So many YA books these days seem to just plainly tell the reader 'she is feisty. She is funny. She is strong,' that it was nice to have a bit of change and to have Meyer actually show us Cinder's qualities, rather than have us simply read about them.

I really liked the different relationships between each of the characters, and getting inside each of their heads. I especially enjoyed seeing Cinder's feelings for Prince Kai develop. Thankfully, there was no case of the dreaded insta-love disease, and it was so good to see a natural relationship develop between them, even if it wasn't a full-blown romantic one (at least, not where this books leaves off...).

Overall, Cinder was fun, entertaining read that really drew me into the world of New Beijing. It didn't seem to suffer from the same affliction that some first books in YA series do – it offered the reader enough information to keep them guessing what would happen, but there was enough information in there that this book could stand pretty much stand on it's own, as well as being part of a series. Although there were a couple of slip-ups (i.e. in one scene, the rain stops but a moment later, it's still pattering against the window....) and the 'twist' at the end was a bit obvious (or so I thought), I really enjoyed reading Cinder and I'm really looking forward to picking up the rest of the The Lunar Chronicles series.

Final comments: A good, solid debut that will intrigue you and leave you wanting more (in a good way).

4/5 cupcakes

Writing ups and downs...

This week has kind of been up and down, in terms of my writing. On the plus side, I'm all fired up and ready to go with my new novel idea for NaNoWriMo - I'm planning on spending the weekend fine-tuning the plot/setting/characters, so hopefully by November 1st, I'll have some clue of what I want to write about!

On the downside though, I had a very unpleasant surprise this week - I thought I'd open up my other WIP, just to see how far I'd got with it, with the vague idea that I may add to it again, if inspiration for my NaNoWriMo novel failed to strike. However, when I opened up the folder on my computer, I couldn't find my 20,000+ manuscript anywhere....as well as that, all my spreadsheets with my plot outlines, and several other Word docs with notes/scribbles in, had gone too...after searching around my laptop frantically, I decided to check the USB stick where I know I also saved the file (in fact, I'd transferred the file from the USB to my laptop). Unfortunately, there was nothing there either - I don't know how I did it, but somehow when I transferred the file from my USB to my laptop, these documents got lost along the way.

I'm so annoyed with myself for not checking my USB before I put everything on my laptop and it's disappointing that all that work has gone - but not all hope has been lost yet. I've asked my lovely Other Half back in England to check my old laptop just in case there's a chance they are still saved on there...so I'm crossing all my fingers for luck! I guess if they have been lost/deleted by accident, then maybe it's the universe's way of telling me it wasn't very good - and luckily, I still have a majority of my notes on this laptop, so if worst comes to worse, I'll just have to start again ;) - slightly irritating, but hey, that's life!

In other news, I told myself last night that I'd get up early today and get a good morning's writing done...however, due to the fact that I stayed up til after 12.30am writing, that kinda didn't happen...BUT I'm up, showered (not quite wide awake yet - but that's nothing several cups of tea won't fix...) and ready to rock 'n roll!

To be honest, I don't really mind that I've lost a few hours this morning, as I'm happy with the notes I scribbled down last night, and best of all, instead of waking up and thinking 'I suck at this, what's the point of writing, no one's ever going to read it anyway', I'm still absolutely determined not to listen to that little devil on my shoulder - instead, I'm going to keep going until I have a reasonable plot/outline/setting, ready for NaNoWriMo. I may not be the best writer in the world (yet :p), but I'm still going to try!

How are all your plans going for NaNoWriMo? Are you writing up plans, or are you just going to wing it? Let me know - I'd love to hear from you!

On the road again...

Okay, so I know it's been a while since I've last blogged. It's been, what, six months maybe, or more? And I just cannot believe how fast that time has flown in!!

I remember in one of my last posts I wrote about how I'd made some New Year's resolutions that I was determined to stick to - well, let me tell you right now, they haven't happened. But not for the reasons you think (well, ok, maybe part of it IS that I'm still a bit lazy, but anyway, that's beside the point....). So why haven't I accomplished my goals yet?

Simple. Life got in the way. And life just seems to have this funny habit of throwing you into situations that you never ever expected to be in. I'll give you a brief summary:

Basically I quit my job. And I've moved to China. For six months....to teach english.

Yeah I know - a tiny bit of a bombshell! My parents thought the same when I rang them up out of the blue one day and simply said 'mum, dad, I'm moving to China for six months. See you in February.' Trust me on this - that kind of sentence can be a bit of a conversation killer....

Anyway, in regards to my writing, I still don't want to give up. I've actually managed to do a little while I've been out here in Beijing - see, I actually get quite a lot of free time at my job and so I figured, why not use that time to do something useful? Like learning mandarin and writing? (And obviously, planning my english lessons...)

So just in case you were a teensy bit worried about what was happening with me (unlikely I know but, hey, flatter me just this once please :P), that's what's going on with me at the moment. If you want to hear more about my China adventures, you can check out my special TEFL blog here. I'm hoping to get back into the habit of writing on here more - I miss you guys! I miss reading round the blogosphere and see what's happening with other writers, so it's definitely something I'm going to try and keep up with (though we all know how well I keep resolutions!).

Until necxt time, zaijian!

Xx