That's a lot of words...

It's November 26th, 1:25 as I write this and approximately fifteen minutes ago I hit 50,002 words in NaNoWriMo...

For a few days before the start of November I thought I would never have this moment, that there was no way on earth that I would be able to write 50,000 words in one month, even with a week and a half off at the start...

And now I'm here... Wow. This is a good place to be. There's Crabbies Ginger Ale, bakewell tarts and I ran round the house dancing and singing loudly to 30 Seconds To Mars and Florence And The Machine. I laughed, I cried, (seriously, I did. I think it's the relief and the knowledge that if I wanted to I could just stop right now...), I hugged my Halloween Hello Kitty, (Hello-ween Kitty?), because the cat's asleep on the radiator bed and when I asked her if I could hug her she gave me a look that implied it really wasn't going to happen...

And now?

Well, there's champagne in the fridge for midnight on the 1st of December and at least another 10-25,000 words left to write to finish this story and I have about four and a half days left...

Can I finish a whole novel in a month?

Let's see shall we.

"The time has come," the Walrus said... "Well, almost," I replied...

So... I've woken up with less than nineteen hours until NaNoWroMo with the first line of my novel suddenly stuck in my head... and it's dialogue... and I'm never going to remember it. Is it so wrong to write it down somewhere?

Against all rational and sane thinking I have decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo this year. Last year I considered it but had no concrete idea and felt too net-less to be able to tightrope walk into a 50,000 word novel with no idea of what to write about. This year I hadn't really thought about it yet and then about six weeks ago I had an idea for a short story which was about ink...

The idea had come from my hubby, Frankie mentioning a low budget indie film he'd heard about and had ordered by the same name. The moment he said the word my head filled with images and story elements, but when we watched the film, it was nothing like what I'd imagined... Which is not to say it was bad, because it wasn't - it was possibly one of the best, most inventive low budget, indie movies I've ever seen - so kudos to the writer/director Jamin Winans.

But, I now had a bundle of images in my head of ink; ink staining skin, sentient ink, a crime scene covered in ink instead of blood... I thought it might be useful fodder for a short story or two and then I remembered an idea I'd had a few years ago about a children's school library that had a hidden room full of books. Each book held the trapped spirit of the last person who had read it...

I let it mull and then after a few days I realised this was not a collection of short stories, or even two novellas but one big effing tale just laying there on the writing table of my mind like a big naked grinning Burt Reynolds... And it kept winking at me in a knowing way...

About a week later I signed up for NaNoWriMo and have been making notes on character details, plot elements and mentally pacing the floor anxiously ever since.

I've never done NaNoWriMo before. I don't think I've ever written that much in that time scale ever before.
And I'm not convinced that I can do it...

As 12:01am 1st November approaches I have been swaying from a mildly cocky "I can so do this! I'm going to kick that word count's ass!" to "Oh My God. What have I done? What was I thinking..." etc, you get the idea. I keep half telling myself that it's not too late to gracefully withdraw. But it is. I have to at least give it a try... And shouldn't I be excited about this? The creative abandon, the free reign to let the first draft blow but actually get it down on the page?

And I am, in a kind of I'mgoingtothrowup kind of way.

There are three things that are keeping me going: 1. My hubby may not have signed up on the web site to be humiliated by a global community if he fails, but he is aiming to be writing the 50,000 words with me. Continuing an idea he's been working on, off and on for a year or so, we may even have a word count chart each on the fridge door and housework be damned! So friends be warned, our house is going to be a filth pit of words and forgotten chores for the next month. I only hope the cat can forgive us... Check out his blog to find out more http://autocratik.blogspot.com/

2. A handful of wonderful, brave and talented writers from work are also going to be doing NaNoWriMo this year. I suggested it, so their families and partners may hate me very soon, but by God we're in this together! Fools that we are...
So far the list of these heroes contains: Rowan, Hannah, Sam, Jenny, Ben, Andrea and Jordan.

3. If you're doing NaNoWriMo donate some money to The Office of light and Letters, the charity who run NaNoWriMo, if only because then you will get exclusive pep talk emails from authors but most importantly from the founder Chris Baty. I've had one pep talk from Chris and I think I need to print it out and stick it on the wall because it reminded me what an adventure I'm about to have. Chris's email was like Dr Seuss's "Oh, The Places You'll Go..." Chris, (excuse the first name use but I feel like he's patting me on the shoulder in a reassuring way), takes the fear out of the leap into the unknown by making you realise that anything can happen during the next month... That I may start December with an almost finished novel... A novel of which, not even one word or sentence even existed before 1st November.

Well, except for this one sentence that I'm scared I'm going to forget... It's only 21 words, what's 21 words between friends?

Wow. This is going to be an adventure. This month is going to be memorable.

To everyone out there who's stepping up to the starting line, good luck, keep writing and don't stop. Don't slow down if you're uncertain or look over your shoulder to see who's gaining on you. This is your race and you're doing it to prove that you can. And to have the adventure.

I'll see you during the month.

Writing cheques with my mouth that my mouse can't cash...

Have I experienced a blow to the head? Taken the wrong meds and am suffering from poor judgement? Who knows quite what made me decide to do it, but I've signed up for NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month.

During November, despite having a full time job which will be effected by the approaching mania of the festive season; a husband who is, to be fair, fairly low-maintenance; a cat who delights in waking us between 2am and 6am at least once every night and a mildly interesting social life, I will attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days, approximately 1,666.6 words a day....

Admittedly I have two weeks off at the start of the month so there is the opportunity to bulk up the word count to save my own neck later in the month...

But the anniversary edition of Halo and the new Assassin's Creed: Revelations games come out on the 15th of November!!!

Forgot about that when I signed up.

Bugger...

A Song of Steel and Snow, or how I learned to love Jaime Lannister...

Okay, so I admit it, I’m an addict. I’m addicted to games, chocolate, cake, movies, dvd box sets, twitter and reading, amongst other things. But especially reading. If I could only keep one addiction, I’d keep the books. If I could do a dark Willow and suck all the ink off the pages of a library, I would. If I could jack into a book, Johnny Mnemonic style and experience the world and stories in a teeth grinding explosion of knowledge, I’d stick in the gum shield and say “Hit me.” I think I’d even give up memory space, but only if I got to choose what went...

But with books, and especially with a series, it’s an ongoing relationship, a symbiotic merging of reader and word and that is something worth investing time in. These are literary love affairs with book and reader spending all available time delighting in each others company. And okay, I’ll admit in this area I am a repeat offender; Robin Hobb and I were very intense, as were me and J.K. Rowling, Ursula Le Guin, Garth Nix, Patrick Ness, Brent Weeks and Pamela Freeman. And I’m not even faithful to a genre - I’ve been enthralled by fantasy, horror, teen fiction, graphic novels, crime fiction and general fiction too; Lee Child, John Connolly, Manda Scott, Alice Hoffman, Neil Gaiman, Carla Speed McNeil, Joe Hill and Stephen King have all spent a lot of quality time with me too.

But my newest addiction, my latest literary affair is all HBO’s fault, curse them for their excellent casting and succinct adaptations... I have become obsessed with George R.R. Martin’s Song Of Ice and Fire series and this is despite a rocky start. You see, everyone talking about dwarfs and oral sex on Twitter didn’t really tempt me with the show. It took my husband watching the first two episodes and telling me that I was going to love it to get me to sample Game of Thrones. And for the last seven weeks it’s been hard to get a word out of me or my nose out of the books. So now I’m now half way through Dance Of Dragons, the new HB and fifth book in the seven book series, and I’m concerned about the withdrawal I’m going to go through when I reach the end in about a weeks time.

A wise person might have attempted to pace themselves, drag the five books out for as long as they can in the knowledge that there may well be four to six years before book six. But attempting to stretch out a series over the course of years in order to elongate the reading experience? Forget it! I’m going read through the lot of them at break neck speed, enjoying them all to the fullest and then dealing with the grief and frustration at the end. And at the end, when my heart’s breaking because it doesn’t call or email, I’ll only have myself to blame.

I know they’ll be other series, other authors, other obsessions, but none will be exactly the same. It’s like with Harry Potter; there may be other series which are as financially successful, or as imagination grabbing, as inventive and creative, but there will never be another Harry Potter... Although my heart sinks to say it.

I have never read anything quite like George R.R. Martin’s Song Of Ice and Fire, the amount of detail, the size of the world, the depth of the characters, all comes close to the hugeness of Lord Of The Rings and the wizarding world of Harry Potter. This is a fantasy series where one map isn’t enough - literally! Some of the books even have four... And anyone who knows me knows how important I consider maps to be within a fantasy title. A map in a fantasy book means the author knows the shape of the world and has considered its extremities. A map means an author knows where they are and where they are taking you, and a fantasy book should take you somewhere right? “The road goes ever on and on”...

A Song Of Ice and Fire takes you from one end of a believable if realistically dangerous world to the other. And even better, it takes you a chapter at a time, by the hand of a different character and you walk the world with them, regardless of whether you like them or not. And some of them you really don’t like at all. But make no preconceptions about rugged knights and damsels in distress, in this series no one is what they seem and even if they are, there’s a real chance that they won’t be by the end of the book. This series is full of characters that other authors would consider background; there’re children as complicated and intricate as their adult counterparts; women and mothers braver than Kings; animals who have more honor than half the kingdom and Lords who should be ruling who would never presume to do anything other than their duty...

Jamie Lannister, how I hated you at the start...

Martin has a huge cast of characters and all of them are vibrant and fully fleshed, many of the central characters are female or children and all of them grow, adapt and develop. As they experience the successes and pitfalls of the Game of Thrones, these characters are changed, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worst. Characters you hated for their vanity and greed have to deal with failure, loss and injury, have to learn how shallow their world was. Characters you absolutely love to hate and eagerly await their downfall, you end up just loving. Characters change, people change. And these are as close to people as you’re ever going to find in a book.

If that isn’t enough to get you reading this series, then the story should be. If you take a step back and viewed the whole picture, the plot for the series could probably be summed up in a sentence - a world of characters bicker and fight for dominance and power only to ultimately have to face a foe who could decimate them all... But this doesn’t do the detail, the motivations, the writing, the intensity of each page any justice at all. This is a book where every fight, every argument, every battle, every kiss, every lie, every decision feels important and potentially life changing for these incredible, lovable, hateful characters. Where a person can change as subtly, unknowingly and as dramatically as the seasons - and if you’ve read the books or seen the first series, you know just how important the seasons are. This is a book where you start off loving a few key characters only to find yourself overwhelmed with emotion at the success or suffering of someone you had considered inconsequential or loathsome. Yes, I’m talking about you, Jaime Lannister...

This is an incredible series and I don’t know what I’m going to do in a weeks time, when I finish A Dance With Dragons... Other than wear black and ashes, wail and mourn during the years between book five and six. I would take the Black to read book six early, I would lose fingers or limbs... But not eyes, I need them to read. Well, at least one anyway...

Two of my favourite characters, Jon Snow and his dire wolf Ghost...

Step away from the Xbox and put down the lipstick...

Right now I’m at home with the cat, Marla Singer, for company and I’m sitting around in mis-matched clothes contemplating making scrambled eggs and coffee for brunch, ignoring the dusting, the list of incomplete projects, the scripting/writing I should be doing and the large mouse like chunks of cat hair littering the house...and yet I feel like a domestic goddess... Why, you ask, when my house is clearly in a shambles and the How Clean Is Your House ladies would be freaking out in an OCD-like fit?

I feel like a domestic goddess because I’m wearing red lipstick.

You may be wondering if you’re reading the right blog, if some how the http links have frelled up somehow and instead of reading about writing, comics, books, cats and movies, you’ve stumbled upon some a blog about make up and domesticity... Well, you’re in the right place, I’m just feeling a little girlier than normal and I only have a book to blame.

I’ve just finished reading The Girls’ Guide To Homemaking (TG’GTH, amazing! It sounds orc-ish!) by Amy Bratley, a fiction title which is just positively endearing and not the kind of thing that I usually read at all. Tending towards fantasy and horror, I usually think I’m onto a winner if I pick up a book and there’s a map in the front. I mean seriously, if you write a fantasy title and there’s no Road to go ever on and on, or even worse no map to lead the way for both characters and reader...well, you might as well just start again or write a different genre...

**clears throat**

Sorry, distracted there. To come to the point, that’s what I usually read and every now and then I like a literary palate cleanser, something well written and girlie like Alice Hoffman or Sarah Addison Allen, or something completely trashy... I wasn’t sure where TG’GTH fell when I started reading it but quite soon I realised that it is a thing of beauty. Full of heartbreak, complicated relationships, moving house, ignoring housework, cupcakes and accidentally sleeping with the wrong people, this title raises the bar by being crafty and by that I mean it’s full of women who make things. Being a closet crafter myself (I probably have at least a hundred ongoing craft projects hidden in said closet, the spare room and under my desk) it was exhilarating to read a fiction book that shared the excitement of crafting, had craft groups and women who were making a living from making things that they themselves loved. But the icing on the cake was that a great deal of the domestic advice and craft ideas, recipes and cocktails sprinkled through out the book all came from titles published between 1951 and 1975, predominantly from the fifties. With that and a real love of vintage and retro in the story, it’s hardly surprising that the women keep donning bright red lipstick, vintage dresses and just looking wonderful.

At the end of the book, feeling uplifted by the story, the carry on carrying on attitude and the natural women making the most of what they had, I felt inspired to find the pillar box red lipstick I bought on a whim about two years ago...

And suddenly everything was all right in the world.

I may look more Robert Smith than Dita Von Teese, Tim Curry than Marilyn Monroe, but I feel like I could take on the world, whilst drinking cocktails! And best of all, everything seems suddenly more fun! It may be the two cups of coffee I’ve had, when I haven’t drunk coffee for ages; it may be listening to Nerina Pallot (the girliest music I own! And When Did I Become Such A Bitch is the best music for first thing in the morning!) VERY LOUDLY whilst dancing around the kitchen like I’m having a fit, but wearing red lipstick makes me feel like I can do what-ever I want. It makes me feel confident and gorgeous. It makes me feel like I CAN DO ANYTHING. It makes me want COCKTAILS! I know I would look amazing whilst washing up, but red lipstick makes it okay to ignore it! I am independent, I am fabulous, I am going to spend the afternoon playing Dragon Age and kicking ass!

Oh God. Red lipstick could end the world as we know it... Do they have a shade called Pandora’s Box?

Slam! Bang! KAPOW!

To truly get an accurate impression of Kapow Comiccon you need to imagine a well crafted maze of paraphernalia, populated with some recognisable artists, writers and celebrities and decorated with a sprinkling of hot women, either in superhero costume or wearing tight t-shirts depicting company logos or said merchandise. Add to this a schedule of events and a competitive queuing system operated on an circular balcony above the main maze. Then on a preordained signal, for example the moment when the queue to get into the building becomes hysterical with excitement, let the geeks in! What you then end up with is a packed hall full of people in varying stages of mania and body odour trying to get from one location to another as quickly as possible without missing anything! From above it looked like a really strange version of Where’s Wally with everyone on the balcony either trying to spot missing friends or queuing and passing the time trying to count how many Jane Goldman-haired girls there were, spot the girl in the Black Cat costume with the massive rack or the guy dressed as Bane with the shoulders you could use as a park bench... And I was one of those geeks...

Kapow, it has to be said, was awesome. Yes, it had all of the teething problems a brand new convention tends to have: the difficulty of gauging capacity + likely ticket sales - weather + confirmed appearances - confirmed non-appearances = venue, which ultimately leads to the conclusion that it could have been in a bigger venue and still sold out. This might have brought in some more big name appearances but it’s so hard to gauge in advance. The difficult queuing system should have worked perfectly well, but suffered from being populated by the manic and hysterical, acting like they were queuing for the lifeboats on the Titanic rather than a panel on Skins and Misfits... along the lack of raised stages in the panels and screenings which made it difficult for many to see who the disembodied voices were and the lack of onsite food venues. A few of the coffee stands seemed to twig that they could be making a killing selling caffeine and doughnuts and opened on Sunday - they were probably very happy with the results...

But the things that worked, worked well... The panels were varied and covered comics, film and TV without being too biased towards any one; the stalls were populated by genuinely lovely people who had obviously been pre-exposed to geeks and knew exactly what to expect - including the babes at the London Rockin’ Rollers roller derby stand who dealt with the oogling with grace and knee pads - the independent publishers and artists were enthusiastic and diverse... Everyone was interesting and interested, even we geeks, who on the whole smelt a lot less than I remember UKCAC smelling.

IGN deserve specific praise as their arena provided the essence of all the panels in a far more intimate venue; the interviews with Joe Cornish and the cast of Attack The Block was brilliant despite them all seeming flabbergasted that it was actually happening! Their enthusiasm was infectious and has changed the film from something I wasn’t sure about into something I definitely want to see - even if Adam Buxton might have been the inspiration for the aliens, being stout and hairy... (yes, that was me heckling Joe...). The Misfits appearance was equally entertaining but felt much more like a taster for their event in Gallery Hall, which despite being shared with Skins series five actress Dakota Blue Richards (Franky) was totally owned by Misfits actors Iwan Rheon (Simon), Lauren Socha (Kelly), and the series Executive Producer Petra Fried. The news that Robert Sheehan (Nathan), is leaving the series was a shock to the audience but I can’t help but think it’s going to make series 3 even more watchable - yes, he will be missed, but this is a show with such a phenomenal script and stunning visual style that I can’t help but think that not only will they pull off losing such a favourite character, but that by the end of the first episode we’ll have forgotten that he’s gone!

Other high points are of course the preview footage of Thor, featuring Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) on a panel, including 20 minutes of new unseen footage. As you can imagine the panel was packed and people were queuing for about two hours to get in. I and Frankie (husband, better half and on the day - birthday boy!), only just got into the auditorium by the skin of our teeth and it was so worth it! The film looks spectacular from sets to costume, and the intensity of Hemsworth’s performance really steals every scene. The thing that did surprise and delight is the humour - it is genuinely funny and not at the expense of the story. This really will be a film to see.

Finally, the secret screening on Sunday afternoon was Super, an 18 certificate gritty, violent, realistic superhero comedy - that I didn’t see... By Sunday afternoon my energy was waning, the venue was very warm with varying degrees of air con and the queue for the film was INSANE... I opted for an hour an a half eating lunch in the park with my current proof of choice - Love You More by Lisa Gardner (ISBN 9781409101062), out 21st July. The sunshine was glorious, geek spotting a fun sport and the proof is one of the best crime romps I’ve read for years. I think I may have made the better choice as most of the Cheesemints went to see Super and on the whole were entertained but not blown away by this extremely violent Juno meets Kick-Ass movie.

Kapow certainly had some punch and I can see next year’s event being bigger, bolder and probably at a different venue. Whilst the Business Design Centre provided an intimate venue, don’t we all want something big enough to blow us away? Don’t we all want to be overwhelmed by the incredible choices available? Don’t we all want Cheesemint to have a booth and some panel time? Don’t we? C’mon you know we do!

So, you read it here first - Cheesemint for Kapow 2012! Get to it...

A patchwork of books and a cat...

I realised a few weeks ago that I haven't updated the list of books that I've read for forever... And I thought I'd post most of them as a list here, as I think I've read about 30 since I last did the job properly...

Full Circle - Pamela Freeman 5/5

I, Coriander - Sally Gardner 3/5

Need - Carrie Jones 3/5

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson 5/5

The Ghost - Robert Harris 3/5

The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson 4/5

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest - Stieg Larsson 4/5

Wintercraft - Jenna Burtenshaw 3/5

Lonely Werewolf Girl - Martin Millar 4/5

Already Dead - Charlie Huston 4/5

Fallen Grace - Mary Hooper 3/5

The Passage - Justin Cronin 10/5!!!

Horns - Joe Hill 4/5

Under The Dome - Stephen King 4/5

The Poison Diaries - Maryrose Wood 2/5

The Woman In Black - Susan Hill 4/5

The Black Prisim - Brent Weeks 4/5

The Dragon Keeper - Robin Hobb 4/5

The Discovery Of Witches - Deborah Harkness 4/5

The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher - Kate Summersdale 3/5

Killing Floor - Lee Child 4/5

Die Trying - Lee Child 4/5

Tripwire - Lee Child 4/5

The Visitor - Lee Child 3/5

Echo Burning - Lee Child 3/5

Monsters Of Men - Patrick Ness 4/5

Without Fail - Lee Child 4/5

One Day - David Nicholls 5/5

Toast - Nigel Slater 3/5

Persuader - Lee Child 3/5

Secrets of East Anglian Magic - Nigel Pennick 3/5

The ones of significance were of course Justin Cronin's The Passage, that I spouted and drooled about just before publication - and The Discovery Of Witches, which I had the pleasure of receiving a proof of well before publication this month.

Written by Deborah Harkness, (excellent name btw, how very Stoker), it offers us a modern universe of vampires, witches and daemons, an ancient treaty between the three races and a discovery of a book that may well destroy the peace and all the creation myths the races hold. It reminds me very much of the old school vampire tales, of Anne Rice especially, with its atmosphere, character description and progression, the way the relationships bloom slowly but passionately...

This is a book for horror-fantasy fans who remember Interview With A Vampire. It is the book for Meyer fans to read once they've left their teens... Not that it should be considered a work of an adult nature! More that it has a passion and maturity beyond the simpering crushes of your typical paranormal romance. If the relationships in The Discovery of Witches fail, it might actually be the end of the world, rather than just feeling like it and having to sulk in your room eating ice cream whilst listening to Paramore...

An excellent read, published 3rd February 2011 - but be warned, it is the start of a series. It wouldn't be a fantasy book if they could sum up the whole story in one volume!

Another title worthy of note is One Day by David Nicholls - and I'm guessing a lot of people have already read this... It is incredibly well written, full of the torments of aging over the course of 15 years, from graduation day to something approximating adulthood, full of the social anxieties, pressures, disappointments and hopes of both sexes, as the two lead characters Emma and Dexter fall in love, drift apart and spend their whole lives hoping to fall into each others arms again. This is a love story for all adults that will leave you wanting to live everyday to the full...

Well, I'm averaging at less than a book a week at the moment, so I'd better get back to the current papery chunk of wonder... I so need to get my reading speed up...

Oh, btw the cat is Marla Singer and she is appalled by my book choices - there's no Chuck Palahniuk...