National Novel Writing Month

So it's that time of year... the month when writers buckle down and drive themselves crazy trying to write a novel in 30 days. This year has been a strange one... I started with great intentions and, despite sitting down on numerous occasions, the words have just refused to come out. So with 25k written on one novel and 16k on another, I am setting myself the challenge to complete not one novel, but two!

Call me crazy but it's all or nothing, and hopefully by the end of the month I will have two shiny new novels. Let's do it...

#amwriting #NaNoWriMo2016

Day 14

Author Life Month: Living with an autoimmune disease

So you may have noticed that I'm only on day 14 of my posts yet it's the 23rd of May...have I just been super lazy? I wish...

This is not really something I talk about in my 'author' life but the reality is that I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease) back in 2003. So how does this have anything to do with me being writer?

Well, usually nothing. Until I start going through a bad phase where I'm so exhausted that, despite already sleeping solidly for 8 hours, I drop my daughter at school and go back to bed until I have to pick her up. So many people scoff at chronic fatigue but until you are so bone-weary that even putting clothes on and driving 3 miles feels like climbing Mt Everest, you will never truly understand. And this is when it affects my writing...

Because last week I could barely get out of bed. My hubby and daughter had to pick up the slack and deal with my lack of being able to cope with, well, anything. Even just sitting down in front of my laptop to write a simple blog post took every ounce of energy I possessed. So I went back to bed with all these ideas floating around in my head and no strength to actually get anything down on paper. This is when the frustration sets in...because my mind is raring to go while my body has the breaks on and I know if I overdo it, it will just take longer to get back to feeling somewhat human.

Most of the time I'm fine. I manage my condition well and know when I need to ease off and give my body a break. But sometimes a week like last week comes out of nowhere and reminds me that I'm not 'normal'. These are the times when I curse this wretched disease and want to scream about how it limits my life and just how bloody unfair it is. And then I feel guilty because there are so many people living with this disease who have it so much worse than me. 

Thankfully I have an amazing support system of people who are there to look after me...but I really wish they didn't have to.

To find out more about Ulcerative Colitis please visit https://www.crohnsandcolitis.org.uk/

Day 13

Author Life Month: A Favourite Book

Believe me this has to be one of the hardest decisions I could ever make because I simply can't choose. So many books have influenced my life in different ways so that to choose just one would feel like doing a disservice to the thousands I have read so far.

The first books I really read for pleasure were Enid Blyton's Secret Seven. Growing up in South Africa they really did seem like a world away so they had massive appeal. I quickly moved onto The Famous Five and by the time I was about eight or nine I was reading Judy Blume.

My first foray into the world of adult books probably came when I started nicking my Mum's Harlequin romance novels aged twelve and by the time I was thirteen I had read Flowers in the Attic and had moved on to Jilly Cooper novels. It seems strange looking back to think that I was reading 'adult' books at such a young age but I remember just being completely bored with silly schoolgirl books that didn't relate to my life at all (not that the adult ones did either!!) so I was searching for things that were different. My reading tastes are very varied so throughout my teens I read everything from Stephen King, Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwall and James Patterson to name just a few.

The creation of the Kindle was definitely one the highlights of my twenties... no longer did I have to carry two or three books with me (the curse of tube travel and being able to read a novel in a couple of hours), instead I could load up my Kindle with as many books as I wanted. Don't get me wrong...I love the feel and smell of a book... just not the weight, especially when it comes to Harry Potter.

I confess I'm a complete Potterhead and JK Rowling's story, along with Dumbledore's quotes about life constantly encourage me to keep writing. And even Fifty Shades of Grey, whether you love it or hate it (it's a bit like Marmite like that), has had a massive influence on me; when I doubted myself and my stories I just kept reminding myself that Fifty Shades was originally Twilight fanfiction and if she could do it, so can I. So you see, trying to make a decision like that is impossible...I think I'll just carry on reading instead.

Day 11

Author Life Month: A Fave Review

Reviews, as much as we authors would like to deny it, are kind of like our lifeblood. A good one can make you feel like the hours of self-doubt, countless cups of coffee and stress headaches were all worth it. A bad review, on the other hand can make you cry, reach for a bottle and in the case of a certain few who I won't name, go completely mental and stalk the reviewer! Most of the time reviews tend to be pretty samey but every now and again someone will write something brilliant that has me going 'that person just really got me'. This one totally rocked my world!

Day 10

Author Life Month: A Non-Author photo

Ooh! So many to choose from but I think this might be my favourite one of all time... My daughter fast asleep in her daddy's (who was also fast asleep!) arms. After what felt like hours of screaming (my daughter is lactose intolerant and had reflux so the poor thing permanently had a scrinchy belly) it was one of those rare moments of absolute peace and contentment which begged to be photographed and always reminds me of just how precious my little family is.