Preptober Loner

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I love October. It’s one of my favorite times of year; when the trees are all starting to turn to rich, fiery reds and oranges, the weather can be brisk, yet chill enough to appreciate a hot cup of tea after a long walk, and above all, it holds the best of holidays at its end – Halloween.

But as a writer, I have another reason to love October, however other literary heads and I know it by another name…Preptober.

In recent years, the month preceding NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) has become affectionately tagged as the preparation or planning month prior to that where hopefully aspiring authors attempt to produce a 50,000 word manuscript in just 30 days.

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Revisiting The 5am Club

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In my 2018 post entitled Just Start – Waking up for Success! I spoke about how I was attempting to change my daily routine by waking up earlier and ensuring I spent the time on those things most important to me (i.e. novel writing, dearest dreams of the heart, etc.) prior to the demands of the day sweeping what precious little time I had away via the petitions of others people’s whims, i.e. the daily job.

It’s currently 5:08 am as I type this draft and I cannot help but reflect that a lot has changed since I wrote that post. Not only have we moved, but I’ve since packed in working the 9-5 with writing on the side and have taken my freelancing business full time; offering services such as article writing, beta reading, copy editing, and of course my pièce de résistance, being an authors assistant. My health and well being have vastly improved and with every new day, I am a few steps closer to achieving my goal of becoming a published author (I’m not counting ghost-writing and pen names).Read More »

So Beautifully Organised – Floral Stationery Box Review

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Anyone who knows me knows that I am obsessed with stationery and books. Let’s face it, I’m a writer and you can’t spend all day bashing away at a keyboard without going slightly crazy. I personally love the aesthetic and tactile experience and nostalgia of writing on paper and am an avid planner, paper-crafter, and pen paller, so when it comes to stationery – I’m a bit of an addict.

As you can imagine, buying piles of planner and stationery supplies can get quite expensive. Not to mention bulk buying can have a negative effect on one’s ability to enjoy said products in an orderly fashion.

With that in mind, I have decided to start a book and stationery subscription box mini-series on my YouTube channel. Within this series, I will be purchasing the odd subscription box from various retailers, seeking the best value and quality, and taking my viewers along on my creative journey via unboxing videos.

Today my first box arrived…Read More »

Coming to an AuthorTube near you!

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I’ve been toying with the idea of starting my own writing channel on YouTube for some time now and with the current situation bringing back-burning projects to the forefront, I have decided that there is no better time than the present.

I previously attempted to start my channel whilst I was pregnant, but with hideous morning sickness I didn’t even want to talk to people in the physical world, my on-screen presence blurred into a distant dream. I was too icky to be on camera.

But now I am only semi icky and so this past week I got the camera back out again and am pleased to announce my first (though actually, it would be my second…) video on YouTube, going live on Wednesday.Read More »

Community Spirit Without Contact

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With potential lockdown on the brink of possibility, I know a lot of people are starting to panic as to how they can remain social, keep up their spirits and most importantly, keeping the kids entertained whilst shut indoors.

And whilst there are people out there still ignoring the safety and social distancing advice – there are others doing everything they can to maintain their community spirit whilst in self-isolation. To these people I applaud!Read More »

A Tribute to Bast – The Cat That Saved My Life

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Some people might find it strange that a grown-up, educated, sensible woman finds it comforting to write an obituary for her cat. But then when it comes to love and loss, we are rarely sensible. Love isn’t sensible.

Bast was more than just a cat to me – he was a friend, companion and in many ways my first child. And he was a cat above expectation. He was a character; loving and something of a mischief-maker. And for many reasons, I feel that he deserves tribute – for his life and his loss to be acknowledged beyond my family’s four walls. For Bast was one of those fur babies that proves that we humans should follow in the path of unconditional love that animals not only instill in us but display to us every single day. Often without our even noticing.

You might also be confused by the title of this blog. After all, how can a cat save a human life? But it’s true, they can. And I will get to that in a bit…but first I would like to tell you a little bit about The Pesky Cat and how he came to enrich the lives of my husband and myself, and why he will be so sorely missed:Read More »

Introducing My Baby Boy

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As you can probably guess I’ve been absent from the blogosphere for a while, mainly due to being rather poorly during my pregnancy. It’s not been an easy ride by far with issues from start to finish; including having a negative blood type, to having hyperemesis gravidarum that lasted 35 weeks, threatening miscarriage, a dislodge pelvis and finally preeclampsia.

And let’s not even speak about all the other delights that go along with being pregnant in general such as extreme fatigue and the fact that your get up and go has got up and gone.

So no – I have not been my usual productive self, and my writing has suffered for it.

But it is all worth it. I know its cliche but it’s true. Having a baby is by far and without doubt the best thing I have ever done. And I cannot express my thankfulness to my darling husband for helping me to bring our little miracle into the world.Read More »

Organizing Project Baby

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The evenings are starting to draw in, the weather is turning chilly and I find myself in a state of awakening despite the seasons transcending to slumber. Winter is fast approaching and for me, the idea of autumn and early twilight always sparks the idea of new beginnings. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that September was always the start of school: a new adventure just waiting to be had. 

Or it could have something to do with the fact that I’m five months pregnant with my first child…

I couldn’t be more excited as I enter this new, wondrous stage of my life. I urn to hold my baby in my arms, smile like a fool for every tiny kick that makes my heart flutter and want to buy all the cute little outfits I can get my hands on. My evenings are spent making plans in my head, cleaning the house in readiness and scrolling through Amazon for anything I might have possibly forgotten to put on my baby list. Read More »

A Change of Pace

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As writers, it is very easy to get into a routine when tackling larger projects such as re-accruing assignments and novels. In fact, it is one of the smartest things we can do – to train our subconscious minds to work on command and thus prevent the detractions that are inevitable when working from home.

And yet, whilst home offices and writing routines are a Godsend for our productivity, they can also become somewhat stale over a long period of time. It’s inevitable really. Eventually, all of us need to re-schedule a meeting with our muse and shake things up a bit so as to get out of a slump or take away the eventual boredom of living every day like the last.

This recently happened to me. Read More »

Why I Use Grammarly

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I recently wrote a post about my experiences with a teacher in High School who seemed hell-bent on giving me bad advice regarding my dream of being a writer. I must say I have been blown away by the private messages I have since received from my readers, many of which have also been from teachers, saying how much you all believe in my decision to power through the criticism and go for gold. Can I just say a huge thank you to everyone who has written to me, as your encouragement means more to me then I can ever put into words!

But this was not why I wrote the post. As heartfelt and wondrous as your comments are (and believe me, I am truly grateful!) my aim with The teacher that told me ‘no’!  was to inspire others by my story. There seems to be a common stigma in our world that writers have to be linguistic and grammatical geniuses and always know exactly where every comma goes. And it simply isn’t true. As much as I have found negative responses to my dyslexia, I have also found that people are more likely to ask me how to spell something because I am a writer.Read More »