Well, that's that, then... (A NaNo confession)

I've just signed up to this year's NaNoWriMo event.

It's possible I've gone completely mad!

I'm not sure what happened. I came home from work this afternoon, made a cup of tea, checked my emails, signed up.

Okay, that's not strictly true - I've been considering it for a while, but coming up with some really very good reasons not to: I've got a two day course to go on for work in November, the kids will need me to be available for specific reasons in November, I'm already booking up my days off with hot chocolate dates with friends, I'm going to be an aunt and will want to see lots of the new baby.

But, there are some compelling reasons to give it a go:

1. I'm staring at a novel that's just been rejected and wondering what to do with it - I'm not happy with it, but it's been through so many incarnations at this point, I've forgotten what the original point was.
2. Because I've been working on the same novel for most of the year, I think I've forgotten how to write something new. I have no ideas, no characters, nothing even remotely like a plan, plot or vision.
3. I've recently turned my 2012 attempt into a short story that's out on submission - even if I don't win, I might be able to salvage something useful.
4. It's a really good excuse to be lavished with chocolate. I don't drink coffee, so I have to get my caffeine from somewhere, don't I?

So, who's with me? Who's already signed up? Who's thinking about it?

Is chocolate a good enough reason?
Do you have any advice for me?

Chocolate and music!

Check out this gorgeous box of handmade German chocolates. Yes, I've eaten one already - it is past 10am, and they've been in the house for two hours. I think I've been quite restrained.

If you've been hanging around my blog, or my Facebook page, recently you'll know that Hubby has been on a five and a half week tour of Germany to promote the digital release of his album Six Strings... Keep Me Sane. Well, he's back! Yay, everything can return to normal.


I made the decision to put my writing on the back burner while he was away to make sure I was on top of everything else, like cooking. I've been scribbling a few flash fictions for the A-Z Challenge, but left larger projects alone; but now I'm really looking forward to getting stuck back in.

Not writing is hard, but sometimes it's necessary. Before Peter went away, I was in a bit of a writing rut - staring at a blank screen, having ideas running through my head, but being unable to put them into words - and now I can't wait to get back to it. My dreams have been getting more and more vivid, which is a sure sign my creative juices are flowing without a proper outlet.

In related news, it's finally light when my alarm goes off in the morning, and when I walked the dog over the last couple of days, I actually had to take my coat off!

You can check out/buy Peter Crawford's album Six Strings... Keep Me Sane here.

Nothing to declare!

So, the big question is: what do I blog about when I've got nothing to blog about?

I've been pretty busy this week, but not with writing so much. I spring-cleaned my bedroom - I even (for the first time ever) donated four books to a charity shop. I don't usually donate books, because I can't bear to part with them... But the four I donated were different, so they went. Of course, it means I still have piles of books in my bedroom which need shelves, but probably will never get them.

I rewrote a short story, although it's still not exactly what I was hoping it would be. Do you ever have a vision of genius, but not the skill to pull it off? Yeah, that's what happened with this one. I'll probably submit it to a competition anyway - I'm at the stage where I just need to feel my work is being considered by someone.

Today, I might start on another rewrite. Or maybe it's time to sit down and read one of the books I've been buying recently?

Or I might go out for a very long walk to pre-empt all the calories I'll be eating when Hubby comes back from tour with the customary box of Belgian chocolates.

Have a lovely weekend!

Is it time for a chocolate break?

Despite my plans to buy myself a big box of Thornton's to bribe treat myself after a hard day's NaNo-ing, I haven't had any... Yep, 11 days without chocolate... I'm breaking out into a cold sweat just thinking about it. Tomorrow... I'll definitely be going out to buy myself something yummy, tomorrow.

I wasn't planning to post very much during November, but that goes hand-in-hand with not managing to visit many blogs - and the ones I have read, I haven't had time to comment on. Currently my blog post queue stands at 880!

Today I've reached another slump. I've got to about 13,000 words, and all my characters have started receiving the anonymous Facebook troll messages that they're supposed to - but I can't find an uncontrived way of getting all these characters together to talk about the fact they're receiving them.

Instead of staring at a blank page, I thought I'd say hello, and read lots of posts. I might not get around to commenting on many, but at least I'll have a fair idea of what's going on in bloggyland!

Tomorrow evening, after my huge box of chocolates, I'll start writing again... although by that time, I'll need to write about 7000 just to stay on track... No problem... easy peasy...

Today's question: what's your favourite Thornton's chocolate?

And if you haven't heard of Thornton's, what's your favourite luxury chocolate?

What's Your Chocolate? blogfest

When someone asks me a question about chocolate, I can't help but reply!

M Pax, Laura, Brinda and Ciara obviously have chocolate on the brain even more than me, because I'd never have considered a chocolate-based blogfest, but these lovely ladies did.


This is the story of my first taste of chocolate.

I was born on a pretty unique day: the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. This is unique because although my birthday has and will continue to fall on Saturdays, I will be 73 the next time my birthday falls on an Easter Saturday (Western calendar).

Pretty cool, I think!

So, the day after I was born it was Easter Sunday, and at the age of about 12 hours, my dad put a tiny speck of Cadbury's Creme Egg on the tip of his finger and let me have my first taste of chocolate. I couldn't tell you what it tasted like, I was far too busy being cuddled and drifting off to sleep, but I'm sure there was a brief insight of all the wonderful things I could look forward to when I got bigger and was able to do things like roll over and sit up all by myself!

I've been slightly obsessive about chocolate ever since - and especially about Easter Eggs. There's something so lovely about the shape and the size, and the smaller eggs or bars hidden inside. As a grown-up, I've learnt to live with having just one egg (sigh), but I make sure it's a good one!

I really, really love those eggs which have full-sized chocolate box chocolates inside them!

Actually it's been a very long time since I've had a Creme Egg - and I'm fairly sure we Brits stick to having them as Easter treats (by which I mean, they go on sale on Boxing Day). But just in case, I think I'll pop to the shop...

The question has to be, was I the youngest chocolate-eater?