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:  - Achieving my goal of reading 6 books this month - woohoo! I think it helps writing down exactly which books I want to get read, so I always know what I'm reading next. When I don't, I tend to waver and take a couple of days to pick the next book. - Chocolate. I've been craving it all week, probably because of all the Easter eggs that are out at work. It's nice to get home from work and relax with some chocolate. 

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 reading Book of Shadows , which was pretty good - I'll be reading the rest of the series. I also read The Memory Game , which I got free from Netgalley, and it really surprised me. I was hooked from the start, and the ending managed to completely surprise me - a hard thing to do.  I'm now reading Smoke and Mirrors , by Neil Gaiman. I love short stories, and these are great - out of the ordinary. 2. What I'm writing A to Z posts - still! I need to get a move on, I can't believe it's almost April. As soon as I finish scheduling my A to Z posts, I'm going to crack on with my NaNo novel - it seriously needs some attention. Lots of revisions planned. 3. What else I've been up to I was back to wo...

Not long now until the A to Z Challenge starts, and that means it's time for the big reveal .  I always love choosing a theme for my A to Z posts. The first year that I participated I chose Fairy-tales, and that was really interesting to get into. I learnt a lot that I didn't know. Then last year I chose Greek Mythology, which I loved.  I wanted to keep up the tradition this year and go with a theme that I would love to learn about, and hopefully you will all love to learn about it, too.  This year, my A to Z challenge theme is...(drumroll please)...Ancient Egypt!  I always loved learning about ancient civilisations at school, but we didn't go into them in depth. I hope you all like my theme.  Now, time for Celebrate the Small Things, 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. - I had a great break from work, and I feel...

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 reading City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare last week, which was great - I've already bought the next book, which I'll probably read next month.  I also finished reading Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl on Monday, and that was really good. I've been meaning to read it for ages now, since I finished Beautiful Creatures last year, but I kept forgetting.  I'm now reading Book of Shadows by Cate Tiernan, which has been on my Kindle for a while now. I've been trying to read books about witches as research for the novel I'm writing, so hopefully this helps me with my novel. 2. What I'm writing I'm up to my elbows with A to Z prep at the moment, so not much time for anything else....

I've had this book on my bookshelf for about two years, and I have no idea why it took me so long to read it. I'd read the first three in the series, and I loved them. Possibly I was busy with university at the time - I was doing an English Lit degree, so I guess I had other books on my reading list. The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She’s training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend. But nothing comes without a price. Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her—his mother just found out that he’s a vampire, and now he’s homeless. When Jace begins t...

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.I'm a day late, but I have a lot to celebrate so I didn't want to miss a week. This week I'm celebrating: - Having a lovely birthday meal on Tuesday for both my mum's and my own birthdays this week. It was nice to see my brother and his girlfriend, since I don't see them very often, and of course my sister and my boyfriend. - I had a lovely birthday on Thursday; my boyfriend, Jamie, took me to York for a couple of days, which is one of my favourite places. We had a great time; we went on a ghost walk, which was fun, we walked part of the Roman walls surrounding the inner city, and of course we did some shopping. I had a great time, it was an excellent birthday present.

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 currently reading City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare - it's the fourth in the Mortal Instruments series, and it's been on my bookshelf for about a year now. I can't believe I've waited so long to read it, it's so good! It won't take me long to finish it. 2. What I'm writing A to Z posts! I've finished all of my research, so now I'm on to writing the actual posts. Not long now! I'm hoping to get started on my revisions for my nano novel too, and hopefully some short story planning. 3. What else I've been up to I went out for a meal last night with my family for both my birthday (tomorrow) and my mum's (today). It was nice to see my brother and his girlfriend, who I don...

I read Fraction of Stone by Kelley Lynn as part of my To Be Read Challenge , since it's been on my Kindle for a year now. Wind tunnels, torrential rains and earthquakes tear apart Casden. The cause of the world’s imbalance is unknown, but the mounting occurrences suggest there’s little time before life ceases to exist. Rydan Gale and Akara Nazreth are the only humans with the ability to wield magic. The tattoo on their necks and the discovery of an ancient book, dictate they are the key to the world’s survival. But the greatest obstacle for saving mankind isn’t the bizarre creatures, extreme betrayals and magic-fearing men hunting them. It’s that Akara doesn’t believe the world is worth saving. I really don't know why it took me so long to read this book. My favourite aspect was the character development, which was done perfectly. I loved seeing both of the main characters development throughout the book.  Akara is the character who goes through th...

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: - that I only have four more days at work, then I have nine days off! I can't wait, I haven't had a break since September. Plus, it's my birthday next Thursday :) - I'm almost halfway through my research for the A to Z challenge. When I've finished that, I can start to schedule my posts. - my new hours at work (still). I know I've mentioned this a lot over the last few weeks, but I just found out I'll only have to do two early mornings a week, and that's better than I'd hoped for. It's nice not being tired all the time. 

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 currently reading Fraction of Stone by Kelley Lynn. I'm enjoying it a lot so far; I should get it finished by the end of the week. 2. What I'm writing A to Z posts! At the minute I'm just researching, but it won't take long to turn that research into posts for the challenge. I'm loving the research, it's very interesting. 3. What else I've been up to Mostly I've been working, researching A to Z and watching Grey's Anatomy with my mum. I travelled over to Grimsby (where I used to live) yesterday to see my sister. We made pancakes for pancake day, so that was great. Then I went over to see my boyfriend, and had a great time watching anime with him, and planning our trip to York for my bi...

Laura Crampton has had the great idea to start up a TBR challenge, and I thought I'd join in, since I've got a ton of books on my Kindle that have been waiting for ages to be read. If you'd like to join in, click here . There are a few rules: - I will write a post at the beginning of every month, outlining the books I intend to read. - I will be writing reviews and recommendations of every book that I do read. - I will also do a wrap-up post at the end of every month, showing the books I actually read. And the big rule of course: - NO MORE NEW BOOKS! This rule should be fine for me, since I never have money to buy books anyway. Although, it's my birthday next week, so any books I get for that are OK, right? Right? So, here are the books I want to read in March: Fraction of Stone by Kelley Lynn - This one's been on my Kindle forever. I remember being really excited about it when I got it, so I've got no idea why I waited so long to read i...

OK, so I didn't do much better in February than I did in January, but I'm hopeful for March! These were my February goals: - Get started on revisions - I finished the read-through of my NaNo novel, and I finished writing a revised outline for it. It's not what I had hoped to get done, but it's better than nothing. - Read 6 books - Major fail on this one, I only read two books this month. - Write more - Another failure - the only writing I did was for blog posts and the revised outline for my novel.  I don't feel too bad about not achieving these goals, because I've been super tired this month from work. Now that I have my new hours I should be able to catch up on reading and writing.  That said, here are my goals for March: - Research for and schedule all of my posts for the A to Z challenge - in my opinion it's much easier to schedule posts for the challenge in advance rather than write them on the day.  - Read 6 books - I'm...