Posts Tagged ‘Holidays’

For the last few days, and for a few more, I’ve been on holidays in sunny Melbourne. I’ve been having quite a nice time drinking and hanging out with interesting characters while celebrating Australia day and My sisters birthday.

She just turned *cough* (old) *cough*. A fate I’m doomed to copy in just a couple of short years.

Melbourne has held a number of surprises for me, including arriving in freezing cold weather just on the cusp of a heatwave (As I’m told this mild spring weather is)

But the most fascinating thing I’ve encountered has been what I’m told is called – “The blind fold someone and make them eat a donut while being wacked with a stick game”.

The history of this game seems to be shrouded in secrecy but as I understand them the rules are simple.

Step one - Blind fold someone.

Step two - Make them eat a donut hanging from a string.

Step three - Wack them with a stick.

Step four - Hilarity ensues.

Now, back to holidaying…

Would you like a plum?

Photos, photos, photos!

It’s day four of my holidays and I’m still going strong… apart from the getting things done part.

But!! I do have a more substantial reason for my worklessness today then yesterday.

I had shit to do.

First I donned my shoes -

Then I played with a yoyo -

Then I went digging through the garbage -

… for which I have a reasonable explanation. – I’m a stalker… wait no, that’s my garbage!

I had to go and pick up a shirt that I’d ordered (damn no-having-stock-in-my-size stores!) and realised that while I was cleaning up last night, I’d thrown away the reciept. (cut to me at the store not needing the reciept anyway)

Also while at the store – I got my hair cut, I bought some pizza pockets, I bought some wine, I got my eyes checked at the optometrists (and I didn’t giggle!) , and I bought some new glasses.

Quite an exciting day!

Then I came home and had a coffee with my sister who has come up from Melbourne.

Still doing the photo thing!

Welcome to part three of my holiday series of blog entries.

If holidays are for catching up on things, then today was my day for catching up on sleep.

I found a very in depth review for my short story I’ve been working on in my email box at writing.com. They went through my story quite thoroughly and pointed out most of the errors I had made. – exactly what I was looking for. – Again, I had over-used adverbs and they also stated they had trouble working out the ending. I wanted it to be ambiguous but not down-right confusing.

So it was obvious to me that I had a lot of work to do before I had finished my story. I knew I should get to work immediately, possibly spend all day sanding and polishing my story down to a high sheen.

And so I…

Watched a movie.

and went back to sleep.

Then I played with the cat.

Then I looked at a turtle.

Then I cleaned.

I’m sure I’ll get to work on it soon…

Still with photos!

It’s day two of my holidays and I’m holidaying along just fine. It suddenly dropped 10 degrees last night and it’s been fricken cold all day today.

Big news! – I finished the short story I was working on last night and posted it up on writing.com, as I usually do before editing. Sometimes you can’t find the errors that strangers can find in your work, so I find it very helpful to get some comments before diving back into the story.

This morning I went through the story again and rewrote some of it and I think I’ve gotten rid of all the errors. I’ve posted it back up at writing.com, and I’m waiting to see if anyone else spots something I missed.

There’s a photo… obviously… of my new short story up for review. Yay! photos of computer screens on your computer screen!

I had to do a bit of research for my story. It was difficult finding any information I needed on the internet. I kept coming up with adds and modern adaptations of historical designs. So I went to the fifty-something year old encyclopaedias that I haven’t opened in years. I found some stuff I wish I could’ve used but in the end I just made the stuff up to fit my story – historical inaccuracies be damned!

It was $1 Tuesday at the local video rental so I hired some movies. I got Beowulf – which I’ve already watched and was a little disappointed with, I still can’t understand why they screw with good stories. Who says ‘hey this story has been around for 1300 years… I can make it better’.

I also got out 1408, Death Proof and Alien Vs Predator 2. I’m hoping at least 1408 and Death Proof live up to my expectations. I figure Alien vs Predator won’t be too crash hot but I don’t care, I’m watching it anyway – get off my back will ya? You’re not my real dad!

Then I had a Bertie Beetle.

NOW WITH PICTURES!

Welcome to Bore-a-thon 3000, Part one of a fourteen part series.

In an amazing coincidence The Bore-a-thon coincides with my holidays, to the day in fact. So for everyday of my holidays I will be blogging with progress updates and pretty pretty photos of what I’ve been up to.

Enjoy!

First photo up – My Moleskine. I don’t go anywhere without this superior note taking device. I’ve been using Moleskine’s for a couple of years now and swear by them. If you don’t use a Moleskine, I suggest running out and buying one now. Your notes will thank you for it.

The cover is an oilcloth-covered cardboard. It has an elastic band to hold it closed, a sewn spine so it can lay flat when opened, a ribbon bookmark and an expandable pocket inside the rear cover.

And apparently Moleskine’s are making major cameo’s in movies. Here’s Will Ferrel’s in Stranger than Fiction. – Link

This morning, I did a bit of reading. I’m reading Brave New World at the moment. It’s an amazing story set in a dystopian future of a genetically engineered, hypnopaedian trained populous and an outsider protagonist just trying to understand his place. And by Ford, it’s good.

After that, I got to work. I began working on the short story I wanted to work on from an old first chapter I found (re: previous entry) I actually got a bit done, I’m adding a couple of parts that weren’t in the original just to add extra purpose to the protag’s actions.

Then I had some Pizza Pockets for lunch.

And threw the ball to the dog.

I’m on fire!

Check in tomorrow for more Bore-a-thon 3000!!!

Wahoo!

By this time tomorrow I will be unofficially on holidays. The day after – I will be.

A whole two weeks without work. Am I dreaming?

No.

I still have all the work that I’ve set for myself to do. (Re: Previous couple of entries) – And, as though I hadn’t set enough things for me to work on, I actually found more things for me to do.

Going through some of my old files from last year, I found some fairly reasonable stuff that I’d abandoned for some reason or another. One piece in particular, I had forgotten, was the beginnings of a time travel story. In those days I didn’t think in terms of short stories, everything was novel this and novel that. But I came across this first chapter/introduction and realised it might work nicely as a short story, It’s less than a thousand words and very rough around the edges but a nice little short short story it will make… I think.

I found some other old ideas and notes for things that I had forgotten about. Plans for a story about a serial killer that begins with quite a sinister line about the protagonist having quite a lovely morning if only it wasn’t for the corpse by the coffee table that I found hilarious, A comedy about a superhero that was turning out more dark than funny, Plans for a fantasy story about a man who climbs off the edge of the world to see what’s underneath and a story set in a small town where odd things keep happening.

If I had finished everything I’d ever started, well I’d have quite the library of work.

oh well, finishing stuff is somewhere on my priority list.

Other things to do over the holidays include –

I need to work out better categories for my blog, most things seem to be going into the same two categories which means if someone ever actual wants to read this stuff they’ll have a hard time finding things. (I’m talking about you, future reader!)

Read. I’m halfway through Brave New World and I picked up Jasper Fforde’s second Thursday Next book today which I’m looking forward to reading too. I still have a lot of books on my To Be Read list, so don’t worry about me.

That’s it from me, for now.

Don’t forget to bring a towel.

SIX DAYS UNTIL HOLIDAYS!

Jealous?

Don’t be too jealous, I have a lot to do during those two weeks.

The last few days I haven’t gotten anything done at all. I’ve either been at work or tired or blocked. The next Doug update is on it’s way… slowly. I’m attempting to come up with a little other-world mythology, Maybe I’ll base it on religion, Jesus was a vampire, maybe? I don’t know.

I’m still blocked on Project Surreal. I’m thinking of putting it on the back burners for a while, It’s already been six months since I wrote the first chapter though. I think I just need some new ideas for it.

There will be a new project to take it’s place. I shall name thee – Project Mansion… which is a bit of a clue as to what it’s about. It’s another idea that I abandoned a while back but have come up with a new spin to it. I’m not sure about the particulars but it will basically be a detective story where an out-of-place and down-on-his-luck private eye finds himself at a party for rich eccentrics when suddenly the host is murdered. Who killed him? who had the most to gain? Was it the son who is in debt to certain shady figures or the host’s nurse who was caught stealing from him or was it someone who had a bigger secret to keep? The protagonist will have to use his preternatural talents to solve the case before he too becomes the target.

Sound cool? I hope so. There’s also a really sweet twist at the end – Jesus is a vampire.

I’m keeping Project Apocalypse on the front burners still, even though the heat is on low. I’ve been writing it in my head for so long that the words on the screen just don’t cut it. A tip for any writers out there – don’t plan a novel for any extended period of time, in fact don’t plan it at all. Write the first draft and THEN do the planning.

Anyway, that’s all the time I’m wasting today… wink wink. I’m heading off to do some writing on Project Mansion to get it started. That’s writing, not planning. And I’ll try and do a bit on that Doug update and the short story I’m working on at the moment.

Do you think I try to do too many things at once?