Wednesday 30 July 2008

The Dark Knight

Wow! What a great film. It's definitely worth going to see. Went with my brother this afternoon, and I absolutely loved it. Really clever, and the characters were so real! You could actually relate to them, and to their dilemas. Except the Joker, but then, you're not really supposed to be able to relate to the bad guy, because otherwise you start to sympathise with him and get miffed when he's ultimately defeated. However, I really want to write a story where the reader totally cannot make up their mind about which side is the right side to support. That's what I'm trying to do with The Desert Rat, a tale of love, war and betrayal, set in 1916 and 1929, showing how the decisions characters made during the War, often impossible ones to make, affect how things turn out later on.

The Midnight Club

Another James Patterson book. I do like his books, but I'm convinced the older ones are a lot better than the more recent ones, with the possible exception of the Alex Cross books, where the most recent ones really are quite good. This one's definitely one of his earlier books--published in 1989.
I absolutely loved it. The main character is really intriguing, and I absolutely loved him. He's in a wheelchair, and he's a cop working the streets. I love the way he's so determined to keep going, and the book has plenty of twists. I would have liked to see more books about John Stefonovitch, but not now, because he's no longer in a wheelchair (sorry if that spoils it a bit for anyone). I so think he should've done a trilogy or something, it was so cool to read about him, and having taken my mum round places in a wheelchair, I can totally sympathise with how difficult he found some things. Anyway, this one's well worth reading, if you don't mind being completely unable to stop reading, even if your torch is slowly but surely dieing...

Tuesday 29 July 2008

10000 Words!!!!

I managed to write over 10000 words yesterday. Am now quite proud of myself. But a little peeved I haven't managed anywhere near that today. Maybe I need to stay up all night and write... Shall go do some work on Winged Fire I think. It has thrown up a few surprises, despite being a rewrite and so in theory there shouldn't be anything new in there. Humph. But I like what's happened with Ternalice and everything, so it's definitely staying in. Ternalice is just absolutely full of surprises. I never imagined half of hte stuff about him that's happening/being revealed when I first wrote him into my book. He was supposed to be quite like Foaly in Artemis Fowl, but as a love interest as well. Now... Well, you'll have to read my books to find that out. Although you'll struggle, since they're not yet published and I forgot to print the stuff off AGAIN. I will send it off though. I will.

Sunday 27 July 2008

I am purple.

Well, I'm partially purple. I have purpley-reddy streaks in my hair. It took absolutely ages, but I'm really pleased with how it looks. I'll post a picture when I have one. Am now tired. But oh well.

Friday 25 July 2008

Housework

Meh. I hate doing housework. Had to empty the bins and as soon as James has done hoovering mum and dad's room, I have to hoover my room and the spare room. Still. We're going to the Museum of Lancashire soon, because there's a new exhibition on and our family pass runs out today.

Thursday 24 July 2008

Aeroplanes hanging from the ceiling

My dad's just helped me hang another three models from my ceiling. That brings it to a total of 11 airfix (although a couple of them are Revell models...) models hanging from my ceiling, and one wooden plane which came from China. Although the rest probably did as well. So, my giant Lancaster Bomber is finally hanging from the ceiling along with teh rest of them, and the Bristol Bulldog that kept getting broken is in what I hope will be a safer place. And the hundred-and-fifteen piece helicopter that I finished two days ago is also up there, the only helicopter so far. I think I'm under orders to make James' cars up next, but then I've got another two planes and another helicopter to build (205 pieces this time :o , by far the most pieces of any model I've ever attempted...)

Story update

Well, I haven't done all that much reading recently. However, I have done quite a lot of writing. I'm on target for 75000 words this month, and I'm planning on having a mega-writing session next week, but I don't know if it will actually happen.
Two For Joy turned up a couple of surprises yesterday. First thing that happened, was that Lou, who I included just because I needed a drummer and then decided she'd make a good romantic interest for Ash, suddenly decided she'd been Ash's counterpart in a Pure terrorist group, as opposed to the Birdie terrorist group he was part of. And they both joined for pretty much the same reason, and they both stopped for pretty much the same reason, although Ash hasn't really stopped, I think he's going to go back to it. In fact, I'm almost a hundred percent certain that in about the second to last book he's going to return to being a terrorist. The next thing that happened was this little eight-year-old kid turned up outside the church they were sleeping in. I introduced him only to move the story on. But of course, he wasn't content with that, and it transpired that Ash had killed his parents that morning and so the kid had nobody else to stay with. To cut a long story short, he's moving in with Ash.
And then, I was working on Winged Fire this morning. But Ternalice was not content with remaining a nice, quiet guy until a couple of books later any more. Oh no, he's decided to throw himself right into the thick of the action and is currently being menaced by a pair of spear-wielding demons who he's going to have to outwit without drawing his blade if things are to work out properly. So there you go. Beware of seemingly innocent minor characters. They have a habit of taking on a life of their own.

Sunday night...

I meant to post this before, but cos I've written about it elsewhere, I kind of didn't. Anyway, on Sunday I went to church in the evening, cos I've started to do that, and towards the end of the service, Big Dave (we have three Daves at our church. All three are pretty big. Big Dave is the middle one I would say, but the bigger Dave is Heather's Dave...). Anyway, Big Dave said he felt like there were people at church who God was calling to step out and stuff, and they wanted to do something, but they weren't sure what direction to take, and it was like he was talking just to me. I knew I had to go see him and get prayer. And so I did. Anyway, I'll be sending Nutmeg Angel to an agent by the end of this week. Hopefully tomorrow. The other thing that came out of that, was that he told me to write it down when I got home. I was intending to do it on here, but I ended up doing it in a notebook, and it turned into a prayer, and I've found that a really good way to pray is to just free-write and talk to God.

Dad's job...

Yeh, well, the company decided to make him redundant. He's got the job either until October(ish) or another 'mutually agreeable date' for him to leave. So he's looking for another job, but he doesn't really know what to do. I mean, he's been there for the past 24 years, and the current climate isn't exactly friendly towards job seekers. We were suggesting stuff over tea tonight. He keeps saying he's going to go and be a tramp and we can have his redundancy pay. Anyway, I hope he finds something soon. Something good too.

Crazy old folk

I've started volunteering at Bethany House, which is a Christian residential care home for old people. And today, I was helping do an activity where a couple of the people were supposed to be painting plant pots. I say supposed to be, because the staff and me did most of the plant pot painting for them. And then one old lady decided it would be a good idea to put the plant pot which she'd partially painted and which I'd partially painted inside her cardigan, so she could 'take it home with her'. I don't know whether she's joking with that, or whether she really does want to go home, because she keeps saying she wants to go home, but she's something of a character, and so I'm not convinced she's genuinely confused. Anyway, then she decided that it looked a little strange to just have one plant pot in her cardigan, despite my protests that it was still a bit wet, and decided to use one of the unpainted ones to put on the other side of her cardigan. I was highly amused. I mean, you wouldn't expect a child to so something like that, but this crazy old lady decides to wear two plant pots, and that's just fine, as well as very amusing. Anyway, I thought I'd just share that little snippet of life with you. It made me laugh, that's for sure.

Wednesday 23 July 2008

Hello.

Hello. I don't know what to write. I think I'll maybe go update my other blog, seeing as I haven't written in it for ages and ages. I don't want to get too far ahead of the books though. Because it's a kind of roleplay thing for the angel books I write, and so I don't want to give anything away that happens in them, so I have to wait until I get published before I can really get stuck into it. Anyway. I really should go do some writing, preferably on Winged Fire, because I should've finished that ages ago, I'm just rewriting, but I keep abandoning it and doing other stuff. So. I shall go work on Winged Fire in a little bit.
Find out tomorrow whether my dad gets to keep his job or not. Mum had her first radiotherapy session today. Apparently they were running really late. Shall send Nutmeg Angel to an agent this week. I will do it. It's all ready, just needs printing off, stamping, and sending.
Downloaded the new Coldplay album yesterday. It's fantastic. Anyway, I'm off now to write, and maybe I'll have tea soon. Bye.

Thursday 17 July 2008

My Stories

Again, I've not updated this for a while. So, at the moment I'm working on about seven different stories. I'm editing One For Sorrow, because there's a whole new scene needs to go in there and it needs some other bits adding. I'm also working on the sequel, Two For Joy, but I'm writing that entirely in a notebook and then typing it up, it seems to work better for this particular story. Then I'm working on rewriting Winged Fire (second angel book). I'm also doing a little work on Chain Heart (what I think will be the sixth angel book, but two of the ones that come before it aren't written yet), because last night I had this really, really good idea which fixed the stall I'd come across. And then I'm also working on To Steal Faith, which is good fun, but Terry is really, really causing me problems in that book. I was just like 'What!!!???' when he revealed some interesting titbits about his character and past that had never, ever, ever occurred to me might possibly even be vaguely true. I mean, who would've thought it. Terry, a drug addict for some time? And the whole thing with why he hates hospitals too. And I thought Eagle's revelation about his family was big. Still, doesn't quite compare to the thing I've just discovered about Josh and Sammy and Ben too I guess. But it's more precisely about what Ben isn't. Anyway. I'm also working on The Desert Rat, which is a story set partially during the First World War and partially thirteen years later shortly before the stock market collapses and during the collapse. It's me trying to show how the events in the War affect the people afterwards. And then I'm also working on Sky Dancer on and off, which I've been working on since November, it was my NaNoWriMo novel, and I've recently decided to add about a dozen characters, meaning a huge chunk of new plot, and it really is nowhere near finished. I may have to just split it up into three books, like I was originally planning on doing. Hmm, I might do that. I've got a semi-convinient point to leave it. Then I could send it to Bryony and see what she thinks. Hmm... That's worth doing I think. I'll try and wrap it up a little, but leave enough loose ends that people would want to read the next one. That's what I'll do. Bye, I'm off to do a little editing...

The Subtle Knife

The Second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy. It's nowhere near as good as the first, and to be honest, I know can't be bothered reading the third, because while the first was brilliant, the second is pretty rubbish. So, read the first by all means, but don't expect the same quality from the second book.

Fallen Gods

Ok, so I haven't reviewed every book I've read. Can't remember half of them now. Couldn't be bothered I'm afraid. But I will try and do a fair number of reviews. This book, by Quentin Jardine had me up till one in the morning reading it. Very, very interesting. At first I was most confused because it appeared the main character was dead and yet he was supposed to play an important part. Anyway, he wasn't, and he was a very interesting main character indeed. I'm now hunting out the rest of the series, that's the only downside. And as it's something like sixteen books long, I'm really not going to have any room on my bookcase at all.

Thursday 3 July 2008

Transfer of Power and The Third Option

These are the first two books in the Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn. I absolutely love these books! I'd been looking for the first two for a while, since they were the only ones I hadn't read. Well worth reading. I liked the first better than the second, because there was more action in it. Anyway, in the first one, a bunch of terrorists break into the White House and hold the President hostage. In the second, Mitch has decided he wants to get out of the line of fire, but somebody tries to have him killed to publicly humiliate the government... Very good action in both of them, but more so in the first.

Warning!

Do not read a James Patterson book during the middle of the night when you can't sleep. It doesn't help matters at all. I read Hide and Seek last night, and it was very, very good, and I really didn't expect the twist at the end. I was expecting something totally different, but oh well. It's well worth reading, but the combination of short chapters which make you go 'just one more' each time you reach the end of one, and the fact that it was a little freaky in some respects, mean it's not the best book to read when you can't sleep.

Tuesday 1 July 2008

Just two more...


More pictures!











I've posted virtually all of them on Facebook, but I'm posting my favourites on here too. So, here goes...
And for some reason it's all upside down...

Pictures!


This could take a while... Anyway, the prom was great fun, and here are some of the pictures: Wonder why it's gone above... Actually, I'll do this later.