A Life Update | Writing, travelling, baby guinea pigs

Posted on 25 February, 2017

Hi, everyone! It seems like it’s been a very long time since I last sat down to write an update post or something a bit more informal and chatty. I thought I should probably catch you up on everything that’s been going on, especially as I have lots of blog posts planned for the next few months.

The blog has been a bit quiet for the past few months. In fact, that’s an optimistic look because it’s been very quiet for the past year. Since finishing my GCSE’s in the summer, I’m now doing my A Levels at college – English Literature, Creative Writing and Sociology. I love college more than I ever expected; it’s completely changed my life.

The other draining thing that’s been taking up lots of my time is the novel I’m working on. I started my second draft in January and am currently 15,000 words in. I’ve set a self-imposed deadline of finishing this draft by the end of May, but with my AS exams I don’t know if that will be entirely possible. I’m going to try and get as close as possible though!

Here’s a sneak peek at a scene from the first chapter for you:

I adore my characters – they feel like my best friends and are so much fun to write. For those of you who don’t know, the book is a YA contemporary road-trip novel about friendship, books and figuring out who you are when your entire life has been thrown upside down. It is my favourite thing ever.

Another very good thing to happen is this little ball of joy who was born last week. I LOVE HIM. His name is Engelbert because we have a theme of ‘bert’ names going on – his grandfather is called Bertie and his father is called Gumbert (don’t ask). As you can probably guess, baby guinea pigs are extremely distracting when they look that cute.

I also went up to Waterstones Birmingham recently to see the Love and Fandom panel with Lauren James, Maggie Harcourt and Miranda Dickinson. I had such a lovely time and got to spend time with my amazing friend Lauren before the event. It was so nice to sit down and chat about writing, books and, of course, guinea pigs.

It was my first time travelling alone to a place I hardly know at all, so I was extremely proud afterwards. It shows how far I’ve come with my mental health and I still can’t quite believe I did it. It’s definitely given me the confidence to travel more in the future!

Current favourites:

Running #ukyachat every Friday at 8pm! I sit down every Friday evening to meet up with my amazing online friends, who always amaze me with their sensitivity, insight and opinions on a range of different subjects. Getting to host the chat every week is one of the greatest pleasures, and I love it!

I’m loving the new series of Call the Midwife at the moment. It’s so obvious that the writers and producers are women – they create beautiful stories that are at the heart of women’s lives, and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Seriously, you need to watch this if you haven’t already!

Netgalley. For those of you who don’t know, Netgalley is a sight where bloggers and book industry people can request to review books and I am OBSESSED. I check it every day without fail and can’t help but click the ‘request’ button when I see something I like the look of. I really do need to have a big marathon read soon of all the books I’ve been accepted to review! It’s also a habit I need to break… I can’t keep requesting all of these books!!

What have you been up to lately, bookish or otherwise? What are your current favourites?

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An Update

Posted on 2 April, 2014

Hello, everyone!

You may have noticed my blog has been down for the past few days and I’ve been feeling as if I’ve lost a limb – I haven’t even been able to access my dashboard to write posts, which has been horrible. I’ve been itching to write! My blog has been down because I’ve been moving blog host – the host is the company who I pay to put my website on their servers. I’ve had a lot of problems with my old host which has made me endlessly frustrated, so I decided maybe it was time to move. Now that I’ve finally done it I can be a lot happier and I have exciting blog news.

I’m having a Queen of Contemporary spring clean at the moment and I am mega excited to show you all the results. Starting Monday, there will be an all new schedule on the blog. I’ll be increasing the number of posts I write each week from three to five because lately I’ve been feeling very limited in what I can post. Hopefully the new schedule will mean lots of great posts!

To help with my spring clean, I’d love it if you could fill as much of this form out as possible!

Other news? I’m in the process of developing lots of blogger events for the next few months. I’m looking forward to sharing everything – the first announcements should be in May.

April Extravaganza is also going on over at Project UKYA at the moment – lots of brilliant authors and bloggers are being featured so check that out!

To round off, have a picture of a guinea pig:

This is Charlie and he’s adorable. He has really fluffy fur and once got angry with me because I moved his box. He wouldn’t stop squeaking at me until I put it back in its correct place. He’s a cutie though!