Writing, reading, EDITING EDITING EDITING

 Yes. Editing. The bane of my life, the reason I now hate being a writer. I look at you people who detest the blank page, and I laugh. Ha! Your worries are trivial compared to those of us who have to chop our book up into pieces and reassemble it. Trivial.
 But seriously, if anyone wants to hop in with a few editing tips ('cut adverbs' is one I've seen recently [edit: just been doing that, and besides it being a good exercise, it's also made me realise how often I use qualifiers like 'actually', 'really', 'obviously', and it is driving me insane]) then I will hug you until you suffocate.
 Also, writing. I am sick of my lovely baby, the Saving Grace series. I wish it would a) curl up in a hole and die, or b) write itself because I am ruddy well getting nowhere with any of it. I might have to cut it down to just the one, already second-drafted, novel, and that would be suckish because the other characters have much more to give than the main wimps in that one. Plus, they fit in with what I'm editing, so that would make everything I've done basically obsolete, which would be a shame because I like the stuff what I'm editing (which makes it all the harder to edit, obv).
 Reading-wise, this is going to be a quiet, quiet blog for the next however long because thanks to this guy and what he wrote here, I thought I should maybe read Les Mis. It's nearly a thousand (gazillion) pages long, so I'm not gonna have anything to review for a while, methinks, especially as I am maybe forty pages in and the only people I have met are the bishop (the one Valjean tries to steal off of) and his sister and servant. I know. But on the bright side: the bishop is an extremely good person who, even through the medium of a book, is making me more and more Christian-feeling as I read along, so that must be a good thing (?); and it will probably open my mind or make me a better writer or something, which is always good.
 By the by, watch out for my post for the TCWT blog chain on Tuesday [Edit: FRIDAY YOU DINGBAT. I can't work out dates to save my life, let me tell you] (and nosy around everyone else's too, you evil lazy creature things). If it's not up, I've forgotten and you have the right to berate me.
 So. Back to editing, I suppose... because that's totes what I've actually been doing... gulp...

 Charlotte out!

Good news, everyone!

Those of you who follow anything or anyone VA-based will probably already know this, but I'll tell you anyway:

Fiery Heart (Bloodlines No.4) will be out on 19th November... THIS YEAR!


I know, right? We don't have to wait a whole year! Just 6 months and 29 days! Hurrah!

Fangirl out! 

Book Review: Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

I know, I know. Behind the times, again. You still love me, though, right?
Pat has just gotten out of the bad place. He's really eager for apart time to end. Instead, he's a thirty-something living with his parents being coddled, kept away from secrets that he should already know. And then there's Tiffany.

Book Review: Shadows by Ilsa J Bick

Alex had made it through the first few months of the apocalypse, but not unscathed. Is she really safe in Rule? And what about Ellie? Or Tom?
Only one way to find out.

Book Review: Ashes by Ilsa J Bick

 All Alex wants to do is escape from it all -- the doctors, the chemo...
 Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for, because now Alex is trapped in a forest with no electrical goods and a stubborn eight-year-old who just watched her grandfather die, and, best of all, they're not the only creatures in the woods...

Why Writing in First Person is the Best (and Worst) Way to Write

I know, that title was quite a mouthful, but it's an important point that occurred to me just last night.
 I've been having trouble with quite a few of my WiPs in that they either go nowhere or they just don't seem to do the characters justice. I was bored last night, so I thought I'd do a bit of character profiling. I tried to get to the bottom of the motivations and beliefs of all my main characters from the entire Holistic Collection, as well as those of a few less important characters, and I realised something that kind of shocked me:

Having a rubbish Valentine's Day?

Me too, my friends, me too. But thankfully, help is here!
 Three words: The Indigo Spell.
It came out on Tuesday, so of course I finished it yesterday, and not only was it brilliant, but, Sydrian fans, reading it today will DEFINITELY make you feel better. Trust me. I was screeching like a teenage girl. Probably because I AM a teenage girl, but whatever. The feels will make your brain implode. I was not expecting how amazingly happy one book could make me feel. It's ruined any sort of relationship I will ever have, because there is nothing more amazing that can ever happen than Adrian and Sydney, but there you go.
Read it.

VA/Bloodlines fangirl out!

Writing, Writing, Writing...

Is what I've been doing this week. You haven't heard from me in yonks, I know, and that is partially because -- hurrah -- I've been on a writing course at the Arvon centre in the middle of nowhere, Yorkshire, and it's been BRILLIANT (yay!). I wrote lots of stuff, the staff were awesome, the tutors (Katrina Naomi and Tiffany Murray, check them out) were awesome, and the other people there, from my writing group and another one, were awesome!
 Expect to see more on everyone's favourite page, 'My Writing'!

Writer out!