My Baffling Brain

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Viklit over at  Scribblings of an Aspiring Author . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week. This week I'm celebrating: - I'm all caught up with my dissertation work. My character profiles are done, and so is most of the planning, so I'm all set for Camp NaNo on Monday. - I've caught up with my Goodreads reading goal - I'm at 25 out of 50 books, so I'm ahead of schedule for the first time so far. - I've been invited to a Celebration Lunch at work today for working at Asda (our version of Walmart) for 5 years. I'm not entirely convinced this is something to celebrate, but hey, free food! - The anthology I helped create with my Masters friends has now been published here , which is exciting! It's nice to have a souvenir of my time doing my Creative Writing Masters, other than my assignments.  - Also...3 weeks to Spain! I can't wait :)

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Erin L Funk and Jaime Morrow , and the idea is to let other bloggers know where you are with any writing and reading goals you may have. 1. What I'm reading I'm on a Sarah Dessen kick at the moment, re-reading some of my favourites. I finished Last Chance on Monday night, and now I'm reading Just Listen. 2. What I'm writing I've finished the character profiles for my dissertation, so now I'm working on the story outlines. I start writing the stories on Monday for Camp NaNo , so I need the outlines done by then. It shouldn't be too much trouble.  3. What else I've been up to Still mostly working and working on my dissertation. I've also been getting a lot of reading done, which is nice. There's nothing better than curling up with a good book! 4. What inspires me right now Probably the books that I'm reading at the minute. I...

I’ve decided to use Camp NaNoWriMo to write my dissertation this year. That means it should be much easier than last year, since I’ll be aiming to write 12500 words instead of 50000! Since I’m on holiday on the 19th of July, that means I have to have it done before then, so I have to write about 700 words a day – much easier than 1600. I figured it would be a good idea to use Camp NaNo, so I can have my first draft written and ready to be edited and revised when I get back from Spain in August. My dissertation is due in September, so it should work out nicely. I’m actually going to print it out as soon as I’ve finished, so I can take it on holiday with me and read through it. Dedication! My dissertation will be a collection of character driven short stories. There will be seven stories altogether, so about 1800 words each, give or take. They’re going to be pretty dark – the characters that the stories are based on are going to have tragic flaws that the story will be based around....

I thought I'd published my Express Yourself post yesterday, but Blogger must have been playing up, so I'm putting it in with my Celebrate the Small Things post.  Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Viklit over at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week. This week I'm celebrating: - I got two character profiles done for my dissertation. This is nowhere near as many as I wanted to do - I have seven left to write and I was supposed to finish them today. However, I'm celebrating anyway because at least I've started them, and I'm certainly enjoying writing them.  - Just four weeks until my holiday to Spain - I can't wait! - Last week I told you I had to take both my cat and my kitten to the vet - after some eye drops for the kitten and antibiotics for the cat, they're both back to their usual bouncy selves. I'm a little low on money because of the vets bi...

I just discovered What's Up Wednesday, and thought it would be a great weekly meme to participate in. It's hosted by  Erin L Funk and  Jaime Morrow , and the idea is to let other bloggers know where you are with any writing and reading goals you may have.    1. What I'm reading I'm currently reading Looking for Alaska , by John Green. It's one of my favourite books but I haven't read it in years, so I thought I'd break it out again, and I'm loving it!  I'm also reading some Edgar Allan Poe on my kindle, as I think it'll make good research for my dissertation - I'm writing dark short stories, so it makes sense! 2. What I'm writing This week I'm working on character profiles for my short stories. It's a lot of fun, since they are pretty twisted characters! It's interesting getting to know them; some of them are turning out very differently than I had first thought. 3....

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Viklit over at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week. This week I'm celebrating: - I've been doing a lot of research for my dissertation, and I'm really enjoying it! The subject matter is really dark, so it's a bit surprising that I'm enjoying it so much. I can't wait to start writing it in July (I'm doing it for Camp NaNoWriMo). I've finished the research now, so now it's time for planning! This week I'm focusing on the characters, so that should be fun.  - I saw my friends from my Masters course on Wednesday, so that was fun. We're releasing an anthology featuring all of our work, so we were mostly discussing that, although there was cake! - Misty got her first batch of injections on Monday, and she was so brave! I also had to get some eye drops for her for a minor eye infection, but that looks to b...

The Express Yourself meme is co-hosted by Dani and Jackie . Each week bloggers answer a different question, so they can get to know each other better. This week's question is: What are the last two movies you saw? At the cinema: - Iron Man 3 - I'm a big avengers geek at the minute, and Iron Man is my favourite so of course I loved the film. The humour in it was fantastic, and balanced out the action and emotional side of the movie really well. - The Host - I'd been looking forward to this since I found out there would be a movie, because I loved the book so much. The movie was great, although there were things missing from the book, but that's to be expected! At home: - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One - I had a migraine on Friday, and the only things I can do when I have one are sleep or watch stuff, so my sister and I decided to watch it. It was awesome, of course! It didn't cure my headache, but it at least distracted me for a little w...

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Viklit over at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week. This week I'm celebrating: - I met with my tutor on Wednesday and told him my dissertation idea, and he thinks it's good. He gave me some more ideas for it, so I'm starting to plan it now. - My sister has been home from university this week, which has been nice. She comes back permanently in a couple of weeks, yay! - Misty is as cute as ever, and is fully settled in now. She's also really adventurous - we call her a ninja, because she's great at sneaking up on people! Here are a few recent pictures: I will eventually get pictures of her when she's not sleeping! I have a few, but they always end up really blurry because she's so fast!

The Heroes and Villains blogfest is hosted by Jackie from Bouquet of Books and Dani from Entertaining Interests . The idea is to list as many of your favourite heroes and villains as you'd like.  My favourite heroes: - Harry Potter - thought I'd go for the obvious first. I love the fact that he is a hero without really wanting to be one - he's pushed into it because of circumstances, and he always had a choice. He didn't have to be a hero at all. - Captain Malcolm Reynolds , from Firefly - I just finished watching Firefly and Serenity for the first time, and I loved them. Although Mal can occasionally be harsh, he is a great captain and always looks out for his crew. - Luke Skywalker - he didn't have to leave his home to fight the Empire, but he did anyway, and he fought really bravely. - Buffy Summers - Another 'chosen one', who saved the world a bunch of times, even dying in the process. She comes up against so much and never gives up, ...

The Insecure Writer's Support Group was created by Alex J. Cavanaugh as a place where writers can talk about their insecurities once a month, and receive encouragement and support from other writers.  I've had a few ups and downs this month. In last month's ISWG post, I was worried about the two assignments I had just handed in (on the 24th April). I got the results back for them this month, and I did well! I'm really pleased with the results - they aren't as high as my first Creative Writing assignment, but much higher than I used to get in undergraduate! However, I also got another assignment back, and I didn't do as well as I had wanted on that one. It was life writing, so I had to write a biographical style piece about myself, and I really didn't like it! I guess it's not too big a surprise that I didn't do brilliantly on it. This got me down for a bit, but rather than making me want to give up, it spurred me on to work as hard as I ...

The Express Yourself meme is co-hosted by  Dani and Jackie . Each week bloggers answer a different question, so they can get to know each other better. This weeks question is:  What could you eat everyday and not grow tired of it? Finally, a question about food, one of my true passions! The list could go on forever, but here are a few things I would never get tired of: - Chips (fries in America) - especially if they're covered in salt and vinegar, yum! - Chocolate digestive biscuits - I love these, definitely my favourite type of biscuit, and I'm a big biscuit lover. - Pizza - one of my favourite foods, I would love to eat it every day! My favourite topping is vegetarian :) - Cake - I love cake. Cup cakes, birthday cakes, chocolate cakes...I love them all.  It's a good thing I don't eat these things every day - I'd be huge!

So, I did pretty well on my goals for May: - Start the research for my dissertation - I've had a pretty slow month dissertation wise, but I certainly got a lot of research done! I scrapped my original idea completely, so I have a little more research to do for my new idea, but I like it much more. - Read at least 5 more books - At the beginning of May, I had only read 11 books towards my 50 for the year, and now I'm up to 17, so I achieved this goal. - Work at least 30 hours a week - Check! I got lots of overtime in this month (I'm only contracted 20 hours) Let's hope I do as well with this month's goals: - Plan my dissertation - I'm hoping to write my dissertation in the first two weeks of Camp Nano in July (I'm on holiday for the second two weeks) so I need to get all of the planning done this month. I'm doing short stories,  so it'll be tough to plan them all in one month, but not impossible. Besides, my ideas are awesome, so I can...