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: - seeing A to Z posts all over the blogosphere again - I've missed it. I'm looking forward to the challenge again this year, and already have a theme lined up. - My car passed it's MOT on Wednesday, thank goodness! There was no reason why it wouldn't, but I was worried nonetheless. 

I'm a little late posting today, but better late than never! 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 finished A Witch in Winter last week - it was really good. I can't read the next one in the series just yet, because my mum accidentally got me the first and third in the series, thinking it was the second. I'll be getting it as soon as I get paid, though. I decided to read The Host by Stephenie Meyer after that - I've read it before, it's one of my favourite books. I saw the movie again the other day and it made me want to re-read it. It didn't take me long, and it was just as amazing as always. I'm now reading The Vanished Knight by our very own Misha Gericke . I won it in a competition a couple of weeks ago, and it's great so far. 2. What I'...

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 While I was ill last week I finished  Throne of Glass  and Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas. I loved both books, though Crown of Midnight had the edge for me - it kept me hooked the whole way through. I can't wait for the next in the series. I'm now reading A Witch in Winter by Ruth Warburton. It was a Christmas present from my mum, and I didn't really know what to make of it, but I'm enjoying it so far. 2. What I'm writing What with being ill last week, I haven't really had the chance to get writing yet. Now that I'm better, I should be able to find more time. I have been reading through my NaNo draft, though, and I've got loads of notes down in my little notebook for the first revision. I'm optimistic a...

It's time for the Love is in the Air blogfest, hosted by the ladies over at Unicorn Bell . Here's what it's all about: "It's a celebration of that little thing called love. Be it steamy or sweet, puppy, kitty, teen, aggravating, first kiss or final goodbye, let your scene tug at our heartstrings." Yet again I'm terribly disorganised and didn't have time to write anything new for this blogfest, so I decided to reveal a scene from my NaNo novel. It's still in rough first-draft form and needs a lot of work, but I hope you enjoy it. ‘You know what they say about opposites, right?’ Alexia asked, twirling a piece of hair around her finger. ‘No, what’s that?’ Damian said, the corners of his mouth pulling up. Alexia looked down at her knees. ‘Opposites attract,’ she whispered. Damian turned to face her, and Alexia felt her face heat up as she lifted her head to look at him. ‘I think it’s true,’ he said, his blue eyes gazing into her gr...

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: - finally feeling better! I've been absent from the blogging world since last Saturday, due to illness. It's good to be back!  - I went to the dentist this week, twice in two days - ouch! It's something I'd been putting off for a long time so I'm glad it's finally done, and my teeth feel much healthier now. There's a new dentist, and he's really nice, so that's good too.  - I bought my sister a writing set for Christmas this year, so that we could write to each other since we live so far apart now. She got me one, too, and I finally used it this week while I was ill. I'm looking forward to getting her reply.

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 mentioned the other day that I'm selling some old books from my university days - well they're selling really well, much better than I'd thought.  - I'm joining the gym tonight - hopefully it'll kick start a healthier lifestyle for me. - I finally saw The Hobbit! It was amazing, of course. I'm hoping to see it again sometime over the weekend :)

L. G. Keltner is hosting this blogfest to celebrate her two year blogging anniversary. You can pretty much write about anything as long as it has something to do with endings. I was going to write some flash fiction for this blogfest, but I'm terribly disorganised at the moment and I ran out of time. So I'm cheating a little, and compiling a few quotes regarding endings instead. “There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.”  ― Frank Herbert “Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don't really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way. Ends are not bad and many ends aren't really an ending; some things are never-ending.”  ― C. JoyBell C. “I always had this idea that you should never give up a happy middle in the hopes of a happy ending, because there is no such thing as a happy ending. Do you know what I mean? There is so much to lose.”  ― John G...

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. It's such an amazing group, it even has its own website now, which you can visit here . Mostly what I'm insecure about at the moment is the fact that I'm not doing enough writing. My plan was to start my edits on my NaNo novel in January, and I've only just started the first read through. I'm not too concerned though; I should have a lot of spare time over the next few days to finish the read through, then I can get started on the big edits.  I haven't been doing much other writing, either, and that's a bit of a problem too. I'm hoping to write more short stories this year, so I can enter them into competitions and so I get a little more writing experience. As usual, getting started is the hardest part. I have a lot of ideas though, and there...

I did pretty well with my goals for December, but they were fairly easy: - Read 5 books - I read 6 books in December, and achieved my goal to read 50 books for the year. - See The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - I can't believe I haven't seen this yet. I really really hope I get to see it soon! - Get my Christmas shopping done -   I got it all done and ready in time for Christmas day. I'm going to try to be more organised next Christmas, but I say that every year.  Here are my goals for January: - Read my NaNo draft and start revisions - I'm looking forward to getting stuck into this. I know there's a lot of work to be done, but I'm excited to do it.  - Read 6 books - I read 6 in December, so hopefully I'll be able to read 6 in January - I need to step it up if I want to achieve this year's goal of reading 65 books.  - Join a gym - The plans for this one are under way already, hopefully I'll be joining one within the next week. ...

I can't believe it's 2014. Happy New Year, everybody! A new year means new resolutions, but first let's see how I did with those I made last January. - Stop swearing - I think I've gotten better with my swearing, but I still let the odd word slip every now and then. - Save money - My goal of saving £50 a month really didn't work out - actually, I only managed to save £80 in the whole year. Appalling, I know. I put this down to bad money management and unexpected expenses. Still, £80 savings is more than I had last year, so that's to be celebrated. - Read more - Here's one resolution I did really well at - my Goodreads reading challenge goal was to read 50 books, and I managed to read 51 books this year. - Write more - I didn't quite manage to write every day, but I definitely wrote more in 2013 than I did in 2012. - Do really well with my Masters - I got my Masters degree with merit, which is a great achievement for me, one that I'm extremel...