Tuesday 23 October 2012

Eight Days To Go!

NaNoWriMo continues to approach with speed, and I still plan to meet it head on. Speaking of head on, this is what I did on Sunday

Idiot!

The long and short of it is, I walked into a concrete lamppost. I wasn't watching where I was going, until the last second when I turned and suddenly, post! Scared Katie a fair bit, as it made a fair sound and oozed instead of bled, but I was dandy and unconcussed (and I did get sympathy-ice-cream out of it).

Anyway, as part of my NaNoWriMo preparation, I did another no-edit post today. I'm not entirely displeased with it, which is interesting as I'm never happy with a piece whilst editing and re-editing it, so cutting that slice of creation (or non-creation as it sometimes becomes) seems to help my inner muse. I thought I'd share it with you, as I'm stumped as what to blog about (not really feeling any of the many ideas for a post that I've got written down). It's loosely based around the accident on Sunday (and I've copied it as-is; no editing!)

                                                                                                                                                    

 I remember little from before. Not much, you'll understand, but enough to piece together some of my situation at the time. The day was nice - clear and warm, with a light sea breeze cooling the skin just a touch. Some form of travelling took place - though I cannot recall how or where we went, I know instinctively it wasn't far. My heart soars with the memory of emotion - happiness, love, contentment. Know that in these recollections I do not feel these; I only feel the shadow of what was once there.

There was commotion - distraction; something drew our attention elsewhere. That much remains, though its exact nature eludes me in a blur of noise and vision. My last complete sensations are so brief they have become almost one, only distinguishable by the different ways they were percieved. A loud, sickening crack is the initial by a moments fraction, the sound heralding the crushing sensation in my forehead. Lastly comes the sight of abeautiful woman, brow creased in worry, a question pursing her full lips, her eyes alight in shock. Then darkness.

***

Coming to, the disappointing absence of her face hits me hard, deep in my chest where I would feel hapiness if that emotion was left to me. This is my fifth awakening that I can recall, and nothing is different. The nurse attending machines in the corner of the room is still there, and I'm still connected to them by various tubes and wires. An incessant beeping, which I first noticed the second time I awoke, is still present, and I soon tune it out. Once more, barely have my eyes opened that a man in a large white coat enters. I deduced I was in some kind of private hospital room on my first awakening, though the type of doctor this man is and what facility I am in remains a mystery. As if driven by some predescribed script, the "doctor" speaks the same questions as before.

"Another Dream, Mr. Smith?"
"How do you feel? Any headaches? Nausea?"

I do not answer. I barely move save for the rise and fall of my chest. Even if pressed I couldn't say why I don't - some instinct inside me warns me off interacting with this man.

"How are his biorhythms?" This to the nurse in the corner, "The same as ever?" 

She nods. "Cerebral activity shows he hears you - he understands. I can't say why he doesn't speak." Once more, she repeats the same she has each time I've regained conciousness. He considers me from the foot of my bed, chin in his hand, tapping his lip with a forefinger - again the same act as before. Precisely a minute later - I know, I counted - he nods to himself and leaves.

The reflective glass window, that occupies the opposite wall to me, shakes as the door closes. It's a one-way mirror, of course, though the exact way I know this is, once more, a mystery. It seems this is all my life has become, though obviously aside from the half-dreamt memories, I have no way of knowing what my life was like before. I brace myself, and sure enough the nurse presses something on a console and theres a hiss of pnuemonics. A moment later the pressure in my arm increases, and the room blurs and spins me back into my dreams.

                                                                                                                                             


And there you have it, 571 words. Nothing like the 2k practise that I did the other day, and nothing like the 2k slogs I'll be doing each day come November, but hey ho, practise is practise. And it's getting easier to ignore the urge to self-edit! Huzzah! Now, off to do....I don't know what yet. I'll leave you with this, a lovingly-detailed reimagining of the climatic end of the Horus Heresy by an inspiring artist, Neil Roberts.


Saturday 20 October 2012

Finally!

At long last, the initial elements for my army have arrived! I can finally begin the long slog towards gaming and reintegrating myself into the world of the Games Workshop hobby. Here they are;





That's one Rune Priest to lead them and two Wolf Packs to make up the mainstay of my force (obviously several other troop choices will follow - not to mention other types). I'll be spray-painting them in a white undercoat (funny that, given the skull white spray can in the picture), and taking a couple in for a painting lesson into my local GW store. I've never painted on a white base before, and there isn't an official guide to painting Space Wolves from GW, so I figured getting a guiding hand in selecting what paints in what order would serve me best in starting out. I AM going for the generic Space Wolf colouring (how could you want them any other way!?)

In other news, NaNoWriMo is only 11 days away!! Luckily, my characters are fully personalised, complete with smells, mannerisms, habits, looks and clothing styles. I feel confident in knowing them, even if I don't entirely know where my story will go. So far I've planned the first few scenes of my novel and, as per the NaNoWriMo books I've read, I'm not planning any further than that. I'm really looking forward to the focus and challenge that NaNoWriMo will bring, and hope that I have what it takes to crash headlong through any walls that try and block my way en route to The End!

Work is super-tiring, as per usual now - I'd forgotten how dull and slow-going manual labour was! That said, it's a job and its money, so I'll grit my teeth and trudge through it. We're gearing up for christmas now, and my main job is re-filling the christmas card boxes. Exciting eh. I'll finish the blog post up here and get back to it tomorrow or Monday; hopefully with some newly-glued models to show off!

Thursday 11 October 2012

NaNoWriMo!

That's National Novel Writing Month to you commoners. I found about this by chance, reading through an article on the event in my writing magazine. Essentially it's a world-wide event, that has been running for several years, where all the participants aim to write (and upload onto the NaNoWriMo website) 2000 words a day, each day for the whole month of November. This gives an average (short) novel of about 50,000 words (first draft only, of course).

As soon as I found out what it was I decided to join, and soon after signed up and had my beginnings of a plot sorted out. It's a great program - where you can join up even without a story idea in play. The website plays host to a massive forum with many sub-threads, all designed to help one another get to the point of starting a novel (and throughout the process too!). There are sub-forums for all the main genres, character forums, adopt-a-plot forums where you submit a plot that you just can't do justice to and other people can take it on if they so choose - it's all excellent stuff.

Anyway, I've had an idea for a group of characters buzzing around my head for a few weeks and couldn't find a place to fit them in. Now, however, thanks to the wonders of the NaNoWriMo website, I've a loose plot outline (at least the beginning). I have only got facts on the beginning because, in all honesty, I don't know how it'll end. I intend to do as alot of authors claim to have done for this event and write by the seat of my pants. Of course I've already got some planned out, so I'll be doing that only from a certain point, but it should allow me enough time to get to know my characters and let them react through my writing and make the rest of the novel feel natural and flow well.

I guess my point for joining up is to connect with other writers outside of the Black Library/Games Workshop influence and expand my horizons a bit. Another very good reason is it provides alot of community support, help and encouragement to keep me writing each day and aim to finish the story. Getting a full novel finished, even as far as a first draft, will be a major achievement for me, and give me something to polish and hopefully submit to a willing editor/publisher. Here's hoping!

Sunday 7 October 2012

Shadows Of Treachery Review

So, the latest Horus Heresy compilation novel, brought to me thanks to the efforts of one Jay Sloper (thankyou my pointy-eared friend). The cover, as always is resplendent. Gorgeously graphic, with colours in perfect harmony, and the delights of Neil Robert's handiwork are awe-inspiring to behold. The entire tome is of the same high standard as the rest of the series, and this is the last edition to have been released as a sole-paperback copy (for those of you who don't understand this, head on over to the Black Library website where their blog will explain more).

First off we have John French's The Crimson Fist, a completely new novella-length item to open the collection. I have to confess I only recall The Last Rembrancer, Mr. French's other Horus Heresy piece from the Age of Darkness anthology. I quite like his style, reading through The Crimson Fist, with an easy pace and well-placed description, the prose is pleasant to read and flows well. The story itself and some of the information therein, well, you should read it. Some nice revelations there, I'll say.

Next we have the text-versions of the first Horus Heresy audiobooks; Raven's Flight, the Dark King and the Lightning Tower. I'll admit, having previously-released stories included within did miff me a little bit when I first found out, but reading through them I can see why the editors at BL decided to do this. It's nice to read these three stories in this new context - with so many novels having passed our gaze since their original releases, it's interesting to digest their collective information in a new light. And with an audio drama you can easily get distracted and miss something vital and lose where the story is; with a book its nice to be able to tune out all else (at least I am able to).

Both the Kaban Project and Death of a Silversmith were great shorts, but again, I've read them before. Their inclusion alongside the Lightning Tower makes this volume seem very much Graham's Collection, and whilst they are good stories, they aren't new, and they aren't in a new format. Both are very nice pieces, but in my opinion not as important to the Horus Heresy 'mainline' plots as the others in this book, and this dwindles their influence.

Lastly we have Prince of Crows, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. A lovely piece, centered around Sevatar and Night Haunter, Mr. DB once more proves himself master of the Night Lords legion. I always enjoy this novella; the madness of both Konrad Curze and Sevatar are interesting and engrossing throughout. It ties well into both the Horus Heresy and as a little added information for the Night Lords series.

All in all the majority of the stories contained within this tome are a pleasure to read, as is the normal from this vaunted series. However the inclusion of one or two different or new shorts in lieu of the extra Mcneill ones would have bumped this up in favouritism for me personally. Age of Darkness still remains my favourite Horus Heresy collection of short stories.

Friday 5 October 2012

Slimming World - Goals

I've been thinking the last few days as to what I can post about next, and also ways of jazzing up the ol' blogger. To this end, I now have a list of post ideas (from which you should see the results of in the coming weeks), and have decided to add in more pictures to liven up the page (and break up the more word-heavy posts).

N'awww Look At It!!!


Wow, would you look at that, Jazzy! Anyway, onto the main topic of today's blog - Slimming World! Some of you who know me may not think I need to slim down, but I'm more concerned with fitness and stamina than physical image. In the last few years I've slowed down from what I used to be say, before I worked at the Coop warehouse, and I'd like to reattain that level. I don't really have a set goal fitness-wise, suffice to say I want to be able to do some hard physical exercise (like running for example) without getting tired out so fast. So, slimming world.



Ooooh, so flashy! Slimming World works on a principle of eat what you like, just eat it in moderation. It's not like these other diets where you have to weigh out everything you want to eat, and it certainly doesn't dictate what you should or shouldn't eat. Instead, food is assigned a catagory. These are free, superfree, healthy extras and syns. Generally speaking, you can have as much free and superfree food as you want (though obviously it's unhealthy to eat piles and piles of anything). You should have a healthy A & B once per day ('cause it's healthy!) and then you have fifteen syns to spend on ''naughty'' things (wine, beer, chocolate, crisps etc).

So far on Slimming World (I've been eating slimming world stuff unofficially for about a year now) I've eaten such things as below;






Yesterday (Thursday) was my second proper meeting with the local group, and  I lost half a pound. I know, I know, it doesn't seem all that much, and it isn't. Truth be told, I expected to lose alot more, considering I stayed away from anything overly-naughty, AND stayed within syns, but I'm sticking with it. Katie lost four and a half pounds in that one week period, so you see, it does work. Hey ho, I say, and I've dived headlong back into it today. I've eaten alot of fruit, barely any syns, and biked to work and back (not to mention carrying heavy boxes around the stock room and running up and down the flat stairs after work), so here's hoping for next week.

So; Goals! For a reasonable BMI, I aim to be about 11 stone. I will, however, get to 11.5 and see how things are going from there. This should get me back to being a comfortable medium in T-shirts (which to be fair in some brands I am at the moment), and down a waist size or two! As a further means to the fitness goal, I intend to attempt a physically-challenging charity event next summer (more details to come in a related and following blog post - maybe next week), so becoming slimmer would help mean less baggage to cart around!

Well now, that seem's a nice place to leave it, so I shall leave you with this little number.


Tuesday 2 October 2012

Falling

So here's the song I mentioned yesterday...it's nothing much; I actually came up with it all on a long drive between Coventry and Luton, but hey ho.....



The walls that you broke down are building up once again,
I sometimes catch myself thinking of way back when,
When you drew out all my love, but now I can’t compare,
All I ever think these days is’ it isn’t fair’

Falling, apart at the seams,
You’ve shattered my dreams, to pieces.
Falling, you pushed us apart,
Your breaking my heart in two.

I still look at your picture every now and then,
Oh how the anger builds and so I count to ten,
Sharply I calm down and begin to cry,
I lay down on our bed screaming ‘oh darling, why?’.

And now I’m

Falling, your merciless deeds,
Oh, how my heart bleeds, for you, it aches.
Falling, I’m nearing the ground,
No matter how hard, I look, help cannot be found.

I spend hours staring, thinking of your face,
There’s a hole in me somewhere I just cant replace,
With your stuff all gone its like you weren’t even here,
I scream out in loneliness ‘come back my dear!’.

And so I’m

Falling, I’ve crashed and I’ve burned,
My lessons I’ve learned, I wont love anymore.
Yes I’m falling, broken and poor,
Peerless and without a hope of a cure.

Falling, apart at the seams,
You’ve shattered my dreams, to pieces.
Falling, you pushed us apart,
You’ve broken my heart in to.

And I have

Fallen, you return to my door,
You find me dead on the floor, your too late.
Fallen, the fate that you left me to,
Has taken its cue, I’m in pain no more.

Falling, apart at the seams,
I have no more dreams, I’m done.
Falling, you pushed me away,
My heart died and now I will stay, that way. 





....and there you have it.

Monday 1 October 2012

Different Perspectives

So, I've now had two official shifts at my new employment (I don't really count the two-hour stint I did on the interview day), and I've come to the following conclusion - I'm not used to working! It's hard to believe that I used to work eight hours (sometimes 10-12 depending on the need of the depot and how generous I was feeling) on my feet (or the 6pm-4am shifts at Mcdonalds before that)! All I've been doing so far is pretty much the same generic work that I did at the Cooperative Depot - moving boxes around.

Reorganising the stock room sounds alot easier than it actually is - as I soon found out. Not only is there backlog stock left over from 2010 and 2011 christmas', there is also a load of last years Fathers, Mothers and Valentines Days stock in boxes, often-times mixed, not to mention other generic gifts like Graduations, Communions and Engagements/Marriages. My feet aren't happy with me to say the least, especially after taking an hour to walk around town shopping for christmas presents (yes I have begun already and made some good progress) on Friday and walking the two miles home following that. I'm sure, however, that I'll get back into the swing of things.

Speaking of different perspectives, I've just this past day finished Fear To Tread; the novel-before-latest in the Horus Heresy series by James Swallow. I've heard a wide range of reports on this book, and personally, I loved it. It may not rank up there with, say, Flight of the Eisenstein (my all-time favourite HH book), but I found it enlightening, interesting and, as with all the series so far, full of things that posed more questions than it answered. I'm looking forward to seeing what reprecussions the closing scenes of the book will have, and quite enjoyed the storyline as a whole.

I've moved onto the Games Day Anthology right now, and have finished the first two stories contained therein. The second one that I have just finished today, Extinction by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, is a short precurser to his Rise of the Warmaster series, which details the ascent of Ezekyle Abaddon in the wake of Horus' failure. As with all his books, this promises to be an awesome series, which will have us cheering for the baddies as normal. Extinction is a short and sweet piece, serving extremely well to peak your interest and set you on the path to buying the firs book when it comes out!

Distant Echoes of Old Night, the first piece in the Anthology by Rob Sanders, is Horus Heresy-based, featuring the notorious Death Guard. As I said to Mr. Sanders via Twitter; I was happy to see the revisiting of such an early-delivered legion, and in such a fluid and engrossing prose such as his. I fully anticipate his first full HH novel with relish! Continuing the Games Workshop-flow at the moment, I'm impatient to start my Space Wolf army, and am awaiting the arrival of my first two box sets, which will form part of the core of my force - two troops choices (for those of you who know what I'm on about).

Writing is going so-so at the moment, as I've been more intent on other things the past few days, though I have begun a new side-project that I can chop and change to/from to keep the writing fresh for myself. This comes under the heading of the different perspectives, as I've created a group of six characters without an actual plot/story idea in mind. This is new to me, but I'm enjoying developing their inter-actions and deciding how they fit together as a group. As part of this new look way, I've taken a tip I read online somewhere and am browsing many thousands of pictures for the couple that strike me as being MY characters. Then when it comes to writing I can consistantly check the pictures, maybe even be inspired into new ideas about them! When I come up with an idea that could work, I'm going to try and just write it without actually planning it out, and see where it leads to. I shall keep you posted!

On a sub-writing note, I did have a competition ready to enter, with a piece already finished (ok I finished it a few years ago now), but can't find the particular competition any longer (I can't actually remember the name of said competition, nor who hosted it. Sigh). It was a song-writing competition, and I already have one put together (lyric-wise, at least), that didn't require an audio track accompanying the entry (only the lyrics). Ah well, I shall continue the fruitless search in vain.

University is going well, my tutors have commented on my new-found dedication this year (not that I wasn't dedicated last year, just this year everything so far has been done at least a week before it was/is due, as planned).Tomorrow is my class' first practical module with our newest lecturer, whose first two forays into a relationship with us haven't fared very well. Let's hope she's more organised on the laboratory front!

I may grace (ha!) you all with my written lyrics from yonder yesteryear...some of you may have read it before, and others may not. Make of it what you will (or won't!).