So, 2013, we meet at last...

Tweet I asked the question on Twitter a few days ago about whether or not I should restrict myself to talking about writing, design and so on, or whether people would like to see more posts that express me as a person. I'm not very good at talking about myself on my blog, but I can't help thinking that solely featuring posts about writing, or arty things, may be a little 'dry'. A few people asked me to do both, so I figured now was as good a time as any to do a more 'personal' post, as I discuss how the holidays have gone!

It's been wonderful to have time off work, time that I've been able to spend relaxing (something with which I often have some difficulty), and doing work for my PhD (on which I've fallen behind a bit of late). I don't often feel that I have the time to sit and unwind, since I always have a lot of things I should be doing instead of relaxing. I also had a very good Christmas, receiving books that are both useful and interesting (Kim Newman's Nightmare Movies, a Boris Karloff biography, and a book on the English Civil War), DVDs, and Nintendo DS games that should keep me out of mischief. I even found time to do a spot of baking, producing one of my now infamous chocolate orange loaf cakes and a collection of ninjabread men for Christmas Day.

What are ninjabread men, I hear you ask. Well, they're gingerbread men made using my ninja cookie cutters! I had a lot of fun decorating them with icing pens as well, and I've included some photos below. Cool, aren't they?

The ninjabread men before...

After...

Close up!

They were also incredibly delicious and I'll no doubt make them again in future. I have some dinosaur cutters that I want to try so you never know, I might feature a gingersaurus or something within the next few months.

For New Year, I originally went to my best friend's house party but a killer headache (and a problem with my shoulder that makes it painful to breathe) forced me home early, so I saw in the New Year with my parents. I was also my family's First Foot for the year, which is a somewhat archaic tradition that we follow in order to welcome the new year. In Scottish and Northern English folklore, the First Foot is whoever is first to enter the house in the new year, bringing with them good fortune (allegedly). First-footers must leave the house before midnight, and return after midnight, bringing with them a collection of 'gifts'. In our house, it's a silver coin (to symbolise prosperity), a piece of food (to ensure continuing food), a box of matches (to bring warmth) and a drink (usually whisky though I've been known to toast the new year with cranberry juice. First footers are supposed to be tall, dark-haired men, but I've done it before, and I'm doing it again. Other countries, or even parts of the UK, have different traditions, but that's how we do things at Castle Sedgwick.

I posted last week about looking back over 2012, and looking forward over 2013, and I did say my main goals were related to fiction projects, my PhD and things at work. Having said all of that, I also decided to make some creative resolutions, and I've decided that my goals for the year are to;

• Read and review at least one fiction book every month,
• Go to the cinema and review at least one film every month,
• Write 100 words every day,
• Produce an image of some form every day.

It may sound like a lot to work through, but I've been reading more than a book a month for 2012 anyway so it is simply continuing that work, and writing a hundred words, be it on an existing project or just as a vignette, shouldn't be too difficult as again, I've been doing it anyway. Producing an image, be it a drawing or a photo, should be easy as I pretty much did that anyway for the latter half of 2012! As far as the cinema goes, it largely depends on what is released, but I let my cinema blog fall by the wayside last year, and I'd like to feature more content on it. Being a film academic should be incentive enough but I'm hoping to have more free time after April to make producing content a little easier.

So now I've said all that...how about you?

Seven Years

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Seven is such a magical number, isn't it? Seven deadly sins, seven virtues, seven league boots, seven years bad luck...it seems incredibly apt that I would have spent seven years living in London. Still, the curse has been lifted and the errant word sorceress may now return to her home beyond the Wall.

As you read this, I am sitting on a train with my brother, heading north to my beloved homeland. Gone are the days of full time employment in office drudgery, and dead ahead lie the tumultous seas of PhD research, part time work and as much fiction writing as I can cram into my days. A few people have asked me how I feel about moving back in with my family but I get on really well with them, and it enables me to afford to study something I've wanted to do for six years. Win!

Still, I bear London no ill will for the fact that our love affair has turned sour. I did really enjoy living in London when I first moved there but the Spirit of the place has hardened towards its inhabitants. I don't regret the move down there, and indeed, a lot has happened in the past seven years. I got my Masters, I've been engaged twice, I've lived in three different flats, I've experienced redundancy, I had my first book accepted for publication, and I've met some wonderful people (special mention goes to the VERY awesome Jen Brubacher, who I just wish I'd met sooner). But it's time to move on. I don't consider my move back to my homeland to be a move backwards, but rather a step further along.

Let's see where the next seven years take me.

20 Things I Miss

Tweet Yesterday, over on her Kommein blog, Deb Ng posted a list of thirty things that she misses. It really got me thinking, so I couldn't help but make a list of twenty things that I miss. I would have done thirty but it would have essentially boiled down to things I miss about my home town.

1) 80s kids' cartoons like Count Duckula or Dangermouse.
2) School holidays.
3) Staying up until 4am just to talk random nonsense with someone online.
4) Receiving actual letters in the post, not just marketing circulars or bills.
5) Wispa Cappuccinos.
6) Having a garden, and not having to visit a park just to enjoy green space.
7) Proper phone calls to catch up, instead of relying on Facebook statuses to see what someone's up to.
8) My rabbit.
9) The clacking of old keys on a typewriter.
10) The deathly silence of a week day morning in the suburbs.
11) Being only half an hour away from the coast.

12) Pretty much the North East in general.
13) Cinema prices being less than a fiver.
14) Dressing up to go out to dinner.
15) Going to the theatre.
16) People talking to one another on public transport.
17) Mobile phones that simply let you call someone.
18) Being able to see the stars.
19) Manners.
20) When people were famous for having a talent for something besides getting themselves in the paper/on TV.

What about you? What do you miss?

Three Words for 2011

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I'm an avid follower of blogger Deb Ng, having discovered her on the Freelancer Writing Jobs blog, and now her new venture, Kommein. On her 2 January post, she follows the advice of super-blogger Chris Brogan and recommends choosing three words to sum up the year ahead.

Now, I realised in the latter part of last year that I don't really talk about myself much on this blog. There's a lot of fiction, a lot of photography, talk about the mechanics of writing, and some discussion of those aspects of culture that interest me, such as art or film, but not very much about me or what makes me tick. A lot of bloggers are a lot more open about themselves - I'm not, simply because I decided my interests are more interesting to a reader than I am. Still, I'm not entirely devoid of emotion, so here are my three words for 2011 - and a little bit of myself to go with them.

Acceptance
No, I don't just mean this in the context of having more work accepted for publication (although this is clearly a goal for 2011). It doesn't even mean acceptance onto my chosen research program to begin the now-infamous PhD (although I'd give someone else's right arm to do this). No, I actually mean 'acceptance' in a more broad sense. I'm the first to admit that I'm incredibly self-critical, and I want to be more accepting of myself in 2011. Many discussions with an incredibly dear friend in the closing weeks of 2010 have at least helped me to see there's not strictly anything wrong with me, I just have different perceptions of things that may be culturally and socially accepted 'norms'. On another level, I'm also a bit of a control freak, so I want to learn to accept that some things are simply beyond my control, and that's no reflection on me, simply my inability to manipulate space/time.

Create
This doesn't just mean in the obvious sense of writing - pretty much anything which requires thinking requires creativity in some sense, even if it's just coming up with a new solution to a problem. I want to create some sort of balanced life for myself that allows time for writing, work, and fun. I want to have actual concrete things in my hands at the end of the year that I can hold up and say "I created this" (I don't mean ACTUAL concrete, either). I want to have enough finished drawings that I could paper the walls of my flat. Basically, I want to keep my mind occupied with creative endeavours.

Silence
I’m a BIG fan of silence (which might be an odd confession for a film scholar who DJs) but this year, I want to try and focus more on enjoying it; that is, actually taking the time to slow down and relax occasionally. Normally I feel like there’s so much to do that I have to be doing something at all times, and that any time spent doing “nothing” is time wasted. However, in 2011, I’m hoping to have more ‘quiet’ time to recharge the ol’ batteries and hopefully combat the persistent tiredness that has dogged me in recent years.

What would your three words be?