Summer Break is Almost Over

Every year for as long as I can remember, I've been in a cycle: in May/June, we were let off school, and in September (and sometimes August...eugh!) we were sent back in. For the months in between, we did whatever we wanted, within reason.

If I hadn't just finished up college, I would be repeating that cycle again this year. That said, summer break is still almost over, and it's time to really get back to work. I might not have assignments or lectures or someone looking at everything I do with a critical eye, but I do have some things that need doing.

See, I decided a long time ago that I wanted to write for a living. If I could find the letter to prove it to my mother, I've wanted this since I was eleven. At least, that's how long it's been in writing. We were asked to write a letter to ourselves ten years from now. I should have opened it last October but I'm not entirely sure where it is. I'm not even sure I could read it, what with the way my handwriting was back then. I still remember what it said, though: I'd wanted to be studying Journalism at DCU. It was the only college I knew the name of, and it was the only thing I could imagine doing.

Somewhere along the line, I came to fancy the idea of being a teacher. This idea was then encouraged unknowingly by many friends and family who, from the time I was sixteen to before I'd submitted by CAO application (for those who aren't aware - essentially a less-than-fun way to pick college courses!), told me I should be a nurse or a teacher, or a bestselling author. (Many were kind enough to say that to me before they'd even read anything I'd written.)

But the letter, written in October 2002 (which feels a life-time ago, now...) I wanted to be a Journalist. I wanted to write words that people would read and make enough money from that to live and be a Grown-Up.

I don't see why, despite having not studied Journalism at third level, and despite having studied to be a teacher, I should give up on that idea. After all, how many of us really live up to our childhood dreams?

With that in mind, something that I hadn't given much thought to over the years, I've made up a list of things I need to do. It's not just little things like write a blog post, though tomorrow's tasks are kind of step-by-step things towards setting up my new poetry and prose blog. After that, though, I have a lot of work that needs doing in different areas, all towards making my childhood dream come true: to write and get paid for it.

I think I'm used to the idea of getting back to work in September that this rush of motivation so late in the day doesn't feel strange to me. As it is, once I'm done writing this I'm planning on doing some work. I think it's about time, three years after setting up my website, to give it a bit of a re-design. I'm still keeping the same look, but I want to have it laid out differently. A lot's changed in three years, and I think it's about time to reflect those changes online.

Summer break was fun while it lasted.

Day 9: Blame it on the Sunshine

Today, I had good intentions of writing a chunk of The Blood of Leap. This was to accompany today's task of getting the book trailer online. Unfortunately, neither thing happened.

As it happens, while sunny weather has a tendency to bring about storms - which can knock out power - the heat can also cause machines to slow down to the point of being useless. This is especially true when working in the attic. My bedroom is a sauna, and my laptop doesn't appreciate it very much. Though I admittedly spent quite a long time doing the artwork for the book trailer, putting the finishing touches on them on my laptop proved nearly impossible.

Most of the work is done, but the last bit, that I'm not even sure I'm sticking with, needs a tiny bit more attention. If it wasn't taking half an hour for the laptop to do anything, I'd have it all done, by now. Long story short, with this weather it's going to be difficult to finish up.

I'll have to bring my laptop down to the kitchen tomorrow to actually finish up, and to do some work, because I don't think either it or I can handle my room another day, even with every window in the house open. Heat rises, and it can't get out quickly enough. The end result: Paul roasts alive. The end.

I had hoped that by the time I finished up with the last image, I could write some of the book. Unfortunately, my laptop is giving up on me. Writing on it tonight is not going to happen. I've resorted to using my tablet to write this post, but it's much more difficult to do so, and to keep track of how much or how little I'm actually saying. I usually leave this for when I'm too tired to turn on my laptop to write a blog post.

Tomorrow, I'll try get done what I had initially set out to do: write a lot of the book, and upload the trailer. Since it's also New Comic Book Day, I'll be heading out early to ensure I get home early. If I manage 3,500 words, I'll be happy. It'll keep me on par with where I need to be with Camp NaNoWriMo, and it'll take a chunk out of the book. It's about four hours' work, though, if I'm calculating that correctly - and I'm probably underestimating myself - but I think I can manage it. The main priority is the trailer, though.

Right now, it's all just good intentions. The weather could very well kill my laptop again, and with it my progress. Time will tell, but hopefully I don't have a repeat of today on my hands.

Day 1: War Against the Word Count

I made a late start in Camp NaNoWriMo, today. It was after two in the afternoon when I finally sat down to do some writing. I set myself a word count target to achieve before I did anything else: 2000 words.

As it happens, I reached just over 2000 before five, with some distractions. Today has been a lot about getting back into the story, and trying to build on what my plan dictates I write. I'm noticing that the first couple of chapters in the book are a lot shorter than I'd have liked them to be, certainly shorter than the first chapters of Balor Reborn. What this means is that the rest of the chapters will be longer, to meet my target word count.

It's not an ideal way to write, but by notes actually require a lot more to be written later on in the book anyway. The earlier scenes provide a lot of set up for events that, in reality, take place over the course of a few hours. I say "set up", but I merely mean that it's all leading towards the climax. As it's a short book - they're all short books - there's not much to actually happen over a few chapters.

The flip side, of course, is that rather than simply having to reduce how much I write in each book, I have to attempt to include a lot more information about characters early on. With Fionn and Michael, it's easy: I'm working from Balor Reborn. With my later addition to the team, Emily, I have to figure out how to make her a strong enough character so that her personality shines through in her passages.

I've actually given her a lot of space to work by herself in this book. While Michael has been the "side-kick" before, Emily has her own troubles to deal with independently to Fionn and Michael. This is keeping in mind the fact that Fionn is the lead protagonist in the series; he's not alone, and he's never supposed to be, but he's also not the only person in the series that matters.

In the flash fiction stories on ModernIrishMyth.com, I've tried to make it clear that there are other important characters who exist in the country. This includes, but is not limited to, Ogma, Fearghus and a couple of the lead characters from other stories - the ones that don't meet an unfortunate end. So, while Fionn is part of a Grand Plan to save Ireland, Emily and Michael have their own roles to play. Without them, it's just this nineteen year old with a hurl trying to fight off all sorts of monsters and magical beings. But see, here's the thing: he's not always the most level-headed person in the world, and the events of the books are going to take their toll on him - on all of them. He needs other people to go through this stuff with him, and they need to prove themselves independent of the protection he can offer.

So, Emily is kicking ass with her half of the book, having scenes alone to deal with problems that on the face of it are larger than those Fionn has to face a lot of the time. I called her, a while ago, a "strong female character", and this is exactly what I mean by that: she can hold her own, not just against the dangers in the book, but narratively. I wish the term hadn't become cliché, but there you have it. I hope you at least understand from this what I mean.

It was today that it really became apparent to me the sort of person she is. I've made her inquisitive and considerate, and while she's not a natural warrior, she's able to put on a brave face. Except that wasn't in the plan. I just wrote her that way today. (That plan didn't say anything contrary to how I've made her. It just didn't say "Make her smart. Make her brave. Make her ask questions." That part had to come from the moment.)

Writing a series like this isn't going to be easy, I know. Balor Reborn was manageable, because it was just one book, with one clear goal in mind: stop the maniac with the Death Ray in his eye. But there's a lot more to the story that I have yet to reveal to readers, and it's those parts that are the driving force of the series as a whole. Early hints have been dropped in the first book, but I have to address the issues again in The Hounds of Hell, before I really throw a spanner in the works in The Blood of Leap.

I won't say any more about what's actually happening in the series. Don't worry.

The actual writing was fairly easy to get in to, once I had my Excel sheet set up. I like to keep track of how many words I've written in a day. I find that when I'm aiming for a word count target, and I find my concentration slipping, it helps to know how much I have to write to catch up on myself.

It's also handy to have something to judge by when I really get into the writing and smash my target. I think the most I've ever written in a single day is over 10,000 words, and I've managed it on a couple of occasions, but it's a whole-day affair, and it requires a lot of motivation. Still, two days like that a week and I'd write a million words in a year. There's a Thing for that, isn't there?

My advice, for those who are trying out Camp NaNoWriMo this year, is to set yourself realistic target each day. If you know you have a lot of work to do in other areas of your life, don't assume you can write the same amount as you would if you spent the whole day writing. For me, my 2,000 word target took into consideration the fact that I was starting late and had to clean my room. Well, not clean my room exactly, but clear out a press outside my room...which created a mess inside my room. Mainly in the doorway. I can't spend all day writing when I have to do that. Tomorrow, though, if I have a lot of the cleaning up done, I can write for a bit longer than I did today. I might manage 4,000 words, if I'm lucky.

I've also read the advice that you should never start on a blank page. Some writers suggest stopping before you finish a chapter. However, if you can't bring yourself to stop there, I suggest even writing the words "Chapter..." and whatever chapter you're on, on the next page. That, or do some writing warm-ups. I write haiku when I need to get words into my head again. I really have to think about the right words to use when writing them, so I kind of jump-start my brain.

I may need that tomorrow if I don't finish this up and make my room habitable again soon. To my fellow Wrimos, I wish you good luck tomorrow with your novels. To everyone else, I hope you have a happy Tuesday.

Ideally

Worked sucked today. I mean, there was nothing different about it, except that it was unusually hot out. I just didn't want to be there. It's not the first time that's happened, mind you. Every time, it makes me think about what I'd prefer to be doing.

I think you know where this is going: I'd prefer to be writing for at least the money I'm on in the shop. I think the key words there being "at least". I'm not exactly earning a huge amount each week in that shop, even when I work the bank holiday. It's definitely not enough to move out of my parents' house on.

This is where I spend a lot of time planning, how to actually follow through on my dream to write for a living. Being a novelist isn't exactly the gold-mine that a lot of people think it is (and by that, I mean if you have a traditional publishing deal!). So, I'm focusing on a couple of different areas:

- Freelancing. I've been putting it off. Fear of rejection, etc. etc. You know, the usual crap that stops people doing things they actually want to do. However, if I get past that fear and get into freelancing and receive anything close to what I did for my Writing Magazine article (publishing back in the October issue), four articles per month would be worth more to me than my job right now.

- Publishing. It's a ball that's been rolling for a while, but it's really picking up this summer. However, as with all things writing, there's going to be a fair amount of uncertainty around it for a long time. I won't have an average earnings report (for myself) until about six months of publishing a higher volume of titles. All I know is, I need to sell a fair few books each month to match my income from the bookshop.

- Fiverr. I'm tempted to get really serious about a couple of ideas there. I know I can do a couple of things quickly enough that charging $5 for them won't kill me. If I did it for even a little while moderately successfully, I'll be earning a happy little income.

- Submissions. Less certain than anything else so far. I mean poety. I mean short stories. I mean novels. And editors are looking for the best of the best. It's not that I don't think I've written anything worth publishing. The problem, as is the problem for every capable writer, is in finding the editor who wants to publish what you've submitted.

- Advertising. I'm starting a couple of new blogs in the coming months, which will be ad-supported. At the same time, I'll be picking up on my YouTube channel (which now has ads enabled). It's an uncertain earner, but it could - in the long run - provide some sort of financial help.

The only other options I can see right now are getting into affiliate sales more seriously than ever before, or finding a new job. The latter's been on my mind for a long time, now. Almost six years in the same shop, working only weekends, wasn't so bad when I wasn't actually qualified for anything. While I don't plan on teaching for at least a year, I have to consider how to put my degree to use in other ways.

What it all comes down to, though, is making the job I have less...sucky. I think the fact that I'm dependent on the money and there's not much of it - or much responsibility in the job - is bringing me down. If I wasn't tied to this one place as my only source of income, I don't think it would bother me so much. And if I actually  took the chance to get into the sun while it was here, that wouldn't hurt, either.

Smell That?

It's Wednesday. You know what that means? New Comic Book Day!

For a long time, I didn't buy comic books. I didn't read them. I didn't know which ones to follow, what I might like. Eventually, I tried my hand at Age of Apocalypse, a series within the X-Men comic books that I'd seen adapted for television and for computer games repeatedly. I couldn't think of anywhere better to start.

But after that, I ventured into DC. The New 52 had started. I figured, if I'm going to follow a series of comic books, starting at issue 1 is the best place. I was disappointed.

Thankfully, Avengers Vs. X-Men was announced to begin last April. After the twelve book series, Marvel Now! took over. Suddenly, I had over a dozen different series to read in Marvel. Adventures into Google revealed the existence of The Wren, an Irish superhero comic book, which then joined the list of series I would follow. Artos, though only in one issue so far, came from the same company. I thought I had my list.

Then, out of nowhere, Half Past Danger showed up. And, Age of Ultron is coming to an end, soon. There's bound to be more to follow. New Comic Book Day gets more and more exciting. Recent conversation with a comic book enthusiast have lined up a couple of series I'm looking to follow once money allows, too (he specifically mentioned Preacher; I'm also hovering about Sandman in anticipation.)

Today, though, things are even more interesting. There's not just new Comic Book Day to add to the fragrences of the house. Today, I baked cookies. Now, not to be boastful, but my cookies are pretty damn amazing. And the recipe isn't mine. But still, always delicious.

We have people coming down, we're getting food, we have snacks, and there's a smell of baking in the air. Smell that? That's the smell of an awesome summer in the making.

A Good Idea?

Back during my Teaching Practice in January, I wrote a book. This time around, my idea to write an awful lot seems to be happening during exams.

Creatively speaking, it's where my mind is finding itself. I've written four pieces of over a thousand words each over the past week. It's for a future project, specifically that website/blog thing I've mentioned recently. Again, no name reveal yet, on account of the fact that I need to own the domain name first. I need some degree of security.

Is it a good idea to take on such large projects during my exams? Probably not. I mean, with Teaching Practice I could easily finish my work for the evening before moving on to my own writing. With exams, I have to focus a lot on the content that's due to come up on the paper in some way shape or form. Not only is there a lot more work involved, it's a lot more necessary to actually remember it all as I go to sleep (or at least when I sit down to answer the question.)

On the other hand, exams seem to be a great time to channel creative energy into projects that I don't necessarily have to do all the work on now.

I'm planning a day out with some friends, planning a project with a friend, planning my website/blog, and trying to sort out my life. Nothing too big, obviously.

This time of the year is ideal for making decisions about what to do in the immediate future, in most cases. In previous years, I've know how the summer would turn out. Usually, I would be alone for long periods of time, what with friends' work schedules and re-locations back into the countryside of Ireland, or beyond into the world. This year, things are less certain for me, but not in a scary way.

If I find full-time employment, I'll still have weekends to do work and hang out with friends. And evenings. I won't lose them.

And if I remain on my part-time hours in the bookshop, I'll have a lot more time to explore massive projects that will consume much of my time between getting out into the world to socialise and see new places (on some imaginary extra money...)

Basically, I don't see the summer as being a hollowed out block of time this year, which is usually how it ends up by September each year. I suppose the big difference this year is that September won't necessarily end whatever break I find myself with by the end of exams. It won't do to settle into a routine of doing nothing, because it'll be difficult to get out of.

I suppose that's why I've been planning so many different projects. I want to make sure I'm not idle. While it's probably not a good idea to write a few thousand words per week during exams, I can still do some planning. Planning has never hurt me. Right now, my plans are obviously subject to change (even the date I have in mind for my day out as mentioned above is subject to change), but it's not a bad thing.

Life is moving on, and I've been taking the steps I need to that'll make it less terrifying no matter what state of employment I find myself in after exams (as in full-time or part-time). Plus, knowing I can churn out a thousand words per night is something of a comfort, even when the pressure is on with college. Yes, I should be putting my time to good use for my studies, but the simple fact of the matter is this: studying is boring when it's with exams in mind. (Learning for the sake of learning is genuinely more fun. Stay in school kids.)

Good idea or not, I'm going to keep going as I have been. And I definitely won't give up writing something every day.

Life's Everlasting Learning

I've always liked school. Weird, right? I mean, I hated most of the work. A lot of that was mainly that I liked doing other things, and there was a lot of it. I get why we had it, though. It's all part of learning, and because of the way school works these days we had to get a lot of homework just to get everything done. But this isn't about school. This is about learning, which is precisely why I liked school.

See, I'm all about learning new things. I like picking up information and being able to use it. It makes my days so much better to be able to learn something in them.

So, even though college is over for the summer, I'm still learning. Admittedly, I'm not doing my research for my paper, but that can be done at another time. Right now, this is all about learning stuff for myself.

Brendon Burchard, this one guy who knows stuff (Google him!), advises people to set out each month of the year to learn something new. This month, I've been learning business stuff. Vague description, I know. I'm a writer don't you know! Specifically, I've read a book on marketing and a book on strategy, but I have books on other topics and I've been watching videos. I'm focusing on what might be of use as a writer, which subsequently included just about everything Burchard teaches on his different programs. Since I'm not exactly wealthy, I've been going with his free information in his videos and I bought two of his books. I'm still waiting for them to arrive.

I've also signed up for information from a bunch of others in the field, though, and it's meant that I have a stream of lessons coming into my inbox every day or every other day from a few different people. I take notes, I learn, and when I get things get up properly I can begin sharing what I know to save people who don't have it the time I spent watching all those videos.

I'm still looking for more stuff to learn, of course. If you know of someone who produces videos and webinars that are free to watch, even if it means signing up to their website to get them, let me know. I'm always up for learning.

That's all well and good for this month, of course, but what about next month? July is rapidly approaching.

So, I figured I'd tackle something I've been meaning to do for a long time: I want to learn how to cook. I'm going to start basic, and a co-worker and friend of mine has advised a book. She's ordered it into the shop for me to see. I'm pretty excited about it, actually. The book looks amazing, and it'll be worth the investment if it means I can cook my own food for the first time in my life. So far, I'm limited to food that goes into the oven without preparation, sandwiches and things that go into the toaster. The microwave, too, but I don't use that unless I'm just heating something up Mother of Mine prepared earlier that day, usually vegetables.

I don't imagine I'm going to be the most amazing chef in the world, but that's not the point. I need the basic skills to actually learn to cook, and there are some baking recipes in the book, too. Did you know I have a sweet tooth?

So, that's July sorted. August, I'm still stumped for. I mean, I'll be working on my research paper independent of this learn-one-thing-a-month idea, so I guess I just need to find something new. Maybe, just maybe, I'll start learning how to drive. Theory test, initially, of course, but I figure this is a good step. So, I can start learning to drive. Obviously, I won't be able to drive a car by the end of the month. Far from it. But I can at least get myself started on the path towards learning. And if anyone knows me well enough, they know I'll put my mind to this fully. I won't be the best driver in the world, but I'm so damn cautious I'll stay out of trouble.

September... trickier to tell. I have teaching practice and college starts back up and I have something massive to organise, so there's no telling what will happen with the month. Or the months to follow, for that matter. Obviously I'll keep learning to cook and keep learning to drive, but there's only so much I can do on that before I'm breaking the rule of learning something new every month. Part of me would love to learn to play an instrument, but I think I need to go for something more future-specific to get by in this. Possibly I'll start learning a new language.

I've always had problems with this in the past, and it comes down to not applying myself to it. But I figure, even if I only do this half the month as a beginner, I wake up early enough to go to college to listen to audio for about an hour before anyone even gets a chance to talk to me. I can use that time effectively, and I really want to give this a shot.

October... public speaking. Has to be. I mean, I'm already working on it, but it's something I need to get better at. Not just for teaching, but for everything else I plan to do in life. I want to be more natural when I speak in front of people. I tend to stick to notes and all that jazz, though I hate reading them out so I ad lib. I wouldn't be a teacher if all I did was read from a page.

November, I think I want to get better at organising. That sounds too vague, so I'll be more specific. I suck at lesson plans. I suck at schemes of work. I have no proper filing system. I need to get better at that sort of stuff, especially with all the plans I have for the next few years of my life. So hey, there's something. I'm choosing November for this because then the information will be fresh enough in my head even if I get busy to help me prepare for teaching in January more effectively. Yep, strategy. I'm actually implementing it.

And December...? I have no idea. Critically thinking about what I need to do in my life hasn't gotten me that far. That's probably because I haven't written out a strategy for the year. But hey, I reckon what I've got so far is enough to keep the brain going. Odds are I'll probably be learning other things in the middle of everything. I don't see the months as being so strict as to have to stop learning about something because I'm too busy with something else. Heck, if that was the case the school system of Ireland would collapse.

Game on, I suppose. Back to learning from way too many things at once to be sane.

What do you want to learn this year? Leave your answer in the comments below.

Two Weeks of Summer

Since getting off college from exams, I've managed a few things. Obviously, I got drunk after exams. It would be rude not to. I kind of needed it at that stage. But that's aside the point. I did other things.

I'm happy to report, I did some writing. I'm in the middle of a fun project that got interrupted by my desire to read. I'll have more about that project at some stage soon. I did sign someone up to read it, though. It just isn't finished yet.

See, I haven't had a chance to read for a while. College exams and the dreadful workloads that attack us throughout the year sort of make things like that impossible. Too much else to read and to write. I'm surprised I managed to do other things, like Drama and the previous Sooper Sekrit Project. But I did. I just didn't have time to read.

I made up for it over the past week, though. I started off with something light: I Suck At Girls. It was a funny book, an autobiographical piece by Justin Halpern. Less of his dad and the shit he says, but still enjoyable. Following that, Storm Front. I've had it for a long time. I got it in a bargain basket at work. They only happen around Christmas time, and I promise I didn't get last Christmas. Yeah... that long ago. I loved it, I'll review it, etc. You know the drill. After that, I read The Enchantress by Michael Scott. Again, loved it. Even emailed the author to tell him pre-review why I loved it.

I thought, that's it. That's my reading done. Back to writing. Then I picked up a book today about Screenwriting. Well, I read it. All of it. I loved it.

It's something I've been interested in for a long time. I've only ever written one screenplay before now, a twenty minute zombie apocalypse film called Dead Dreams. It was a fun piece, but nothing ever happened with it. Not to worry.

Recently, I've been getting ideas for stories. I say stories, because I see them as both films and novels. I suppose I'll write both. It can't hurt, anyway. Maybe, someday, I'll even get involved in the business. It interests me and terrifies me in equal measure.

Aside from all of this and continuing to work in the bookshop, I've only really done one other thing of note, and that was tea/coffee with my best friend earlier this week. Fun as it was, it's not exactly the most exciting summer so far.

It's relaxing, though, and I suppose I can get by with that. One or two blips along the way, thanks to my college and its requirements for teaching placement, but other than that I can just lay about and read and write all day. Heck, I think I deserve a break! Two weeks of summer has seemed like a long time, though. I need to get busy again, soon, or I'll crack up. Even the couple of hours between finishing the book today and going to vote were driving me insane.

God help me for the rest of the summer...

Exam Conclusion

It's the weekend before the last exams. I've got four to go, which seems like way too many to be true. Alas, with an exam in each of the areas I study (Theology, English, Education and Philosophy) in my course, I'm going to be busy. For each of the exams, I need to cover quite a bit of material, none of it linking up.

However, I'm trying to look on the bright side. In preparation for Monday's exam, I can reuse a lot of the material I covered while teaching in January. We've got World Religions, allowing me to study Judaism and Islam as part of it. There are others I could do, but I think I'll stick with them. As well as that, I can reuse the material I studied for another exam on Inter-religious Dialogue for this one. The only thing that's being looked at for the first time since we studied it is the Phenomenon of Religion. So, that's fine.

Tuesday, I've got Nineteenth Century Fiction. I'm normally okay with English exams, though I don't know if I'm familiar enough with the texts yet. I suppose we'll see, when I attempt to answer on The Awakening and Oliver Twist.

Wednesday, I have no exams. It's likely I'll head to the comic book shop before studying for my last exams. You know, because Wednesday is New Comic Book Day and I'm fairly sure there's a new issue of Avengers Vs X-Men out. It would be rude not to read it.

Thursday, I face the "fun" that is The Language and Logic of Religious Education. Or something like that. I'm wary of that one. Education exams have never been my strong point. I make up for it with teaching in the classroom, but when it comes to answering on things like this... I don't know, I choke? No, more likely I just don't write the way they want me to.

Then, on Friday, I've got Sociology of Religion. Okay, I think the module has a different name, but that's the exam, essentially. It should be okay. It's in the afternoon. It was an interesting subject to study. It'll be grand.

Also, I plan on getting a little bit drunk. But that's after the exams.

After that, it's the summer and I have to get down to work. I've got some big plans for the three months I've got off. Some really big plans. I don't think it'll be easy to get it all done, but I'll have to see what happens. Whether or not it's easy, I know I'll enjoy it. I'll be mixing study for my research paper with lots of creative writing. And I mean lots.

There'll be more on that in the future. Probably lots more.

Mostly, I'm just looking forward to getting these exams out of the way so I can focus on something that isn't college!

Get Out of Bed!

For the past three weeks, at the very least, I've been struggling to get out of bed in the morning. This comes as a result of the combination of late-night and early-morning, though most of the time I can't help either of those. Rarely have I stayed up late intentionally, and even more rarely have I wanted or needed to wake up especially early. It just happens.

While I wouldn't mind so much except that I have an inability to fall back asleep once I wake up in the morning, I tend not to do anything. Even when I've had a good sleep - not a common occurrence - I have this difficulty to get out of bed because I'll be comfortable, even if I know I have to do work. Or worse: go somewhere. I think I've only ever gotten out of bed for something that wasn't work or exams over the past three weeks for one person, and that was because I would be late for a much-needed catching-up session I had been hassling about. Other than that, I've been getting out of bed, wasting the morning still exhausted and entirely useless, when I could have been doing something with the day.

And that's the big thing: doing something. I've found that while getting out of bed for exams is difficult and annoying, it comes with the purpose I need to get ready for the day. So I need to just find something to do every day. Right?

This is, of course, much harder with exam season attacking me from every direction. I find that while I want to do something creative, the exams hinder my ability to do so. I feel a sense of guilt for not doing college work, and when I aim to begin I find myself inundated with a sense of procrastination. The time I need to study is wasted, and I don't accomplish anything.

Bummer, right?

This summer, I aim to change all that. If it means setting myself a task for the day, like four thousand words of a novel or a scene of a play or researching something to do with writing (I've been getting my books ready for that one!) then I will. I'll get out of bed to do something like that, because it's something I want to do.

I suppose I can't wait for the last week of exams just to have a week of getting up with intent. Sure, it will be exhausting, it will be annoying, but at least something will be done. Then I'll be busy writing away for three months.

I have a project I'll be undertaking, the details of which will come as soon as I'm ready to make them public. It'll be fun. It'll last a while. And it'll get me out of bed.

I guess I just don't want to waste my summer when I could be doing a trial-run for what could be the rest of my life. That would be weird, wouldn't it?

Writing Like There's No Tomorrow

I have this habit of procrastinating when it comes to exams by writing a lot more. In this instance, with exams only a week away (it's time to panic, yes), I've been writing a lot of articles and reviews. Okay, maybe a lot is an exaggeration. It's been like eight or something like that. But for me it feels like a lot. I have this habit of not doing much when I get off college for an extended period of time.

But sure, it's all changing now. While I should be studying more - I can sort that out easily - I am doing work for my thesis. So that's fine.

When it comes to the articles, I suppose I'm trying to establish a routine for myself of actually doing something with my time. I enjoy reviewing books and comics and films, so it makes sense that I would do it as much as possible. It won't make me much money - or any, depending on how few people actually click on the advertisements in the posts - but it's good practice, I think, to produce something on a daily basis.

It's all preparation for the summer, and then the rest of my life when I get out of college.

The basic plan for this summer, with a two week teaching period in late August, is to do as the title says: write like there's no tomorrow. I don't have holiday plans (need money to have holiday plans), so I'm going to write books and articles and read and edit and basically spend my summer with words. I will probably make more of an effort to go outside when the weather is nice. If the weather is nice. Wasn't summer, like, four weeks ago at this stage?

The basic format for my published writing goes like this:

• Reviews of recent comics and Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror films and books go to The Phantom Zone. It's a hired position, and I'd like to keep it.
• Reviews of older comics, films and books go to Stories Once Told, my review site, alongside reaction posts to new episodes of my favourite shows. Those shows tend to chance from time to time, with the number of them going up and down as time goes by. Currently they are:
  - Touch
  - Game of Thrones
  - (And, if I like the Pilot tonight) Alphas
  - And possibly Glee. If I can be bothered.
• Articles will be posts on my main site, though those are about writing, generally.
• New issues of World War X will go up monthly on that section of my website. (Is it weird that that still feels weird to put into writing - my website?!)

As well as that, I've got the multitude of ideas for books, plays and screenplays to deal with. I only have three months, but if I write quick enough I can knock out quite a few first drafts. Those are the fun starts, and I can work with them when I can't write new material so much (you know, when I'm stuck teaching or writing essays for college).

I also plan on trying to get myself into the freelancing business. While I know most freelancers don't make a living from it, I also won't make a living working weekends in a bookshop. And I just don't feel ready to go into a teaching position. As if there are many of those. Sure, we'll see what happens with that. Still over a year before I'm qualified, which is a lot of time to develop my skills in the writing trade.

Trade? Sure, we'll go with that.

I do also plan on releasing more ebooks in the future. Again, not a massive money-making field, but for me it's about getting the stories out there. The money would just be the added bonus that lets me live.

This is almost a plan for life as it is a plan for the summer, isn't it? Well, I suppose that's just the way I'm feeling right now. I want to live a life like this, writing for a living and not giving a damn who knows that that's my dream. Because it is, you know? I don't want to work in an office or a classroom all my life. I'd like to see the world, to live a weird life and write the stories that have been going around in my head for the past seven or eight years.

And as far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with that.

System Failure

The past few days have been...boring.

Yes, this is another one of those woe-is-me-rants that I'm so annoying for. Well, not really. Okay, did you ever just want to talk to somebody and you can't because they've disappeared off the face of the earth? That's kind of what happened. That's made the week a lot less fun.

Also, my Internet connection keeps cutting out. We lost it four times since Monday, which kind of put a dampener on writing up a review on Wednesday. We've been trying to get it sorted. Every time the provider gets involved, things tend to get worse. Also, they're only giving us 1.8 MB broadband, when we're paying for 8. They really should have realised that a few years ago when they started receiving money from us. Now they're overcharging us and providing crappy tech support.

The biggest problem with the week is that I stopped writing. Just suddenly. No reason at all. I think I'll go on a mad one tomorrow and write a few thousand words (I am so very exciting all of the time...) Bliss, my Camp NaNo novel, is currently standing at 16000 words, while Dignity has a few thousand more (though less typed...) I want to get Bliss done quickly so I can get back to Dignity. Just needed to write something a little less...real? A Sci-Fi pretty much filled the bill, anyway.

Related to that first thing I mentioned... did you ever almost do something you might regret then have to force yourself not to be an idiot? Just me then. No matter how many times people call me smart, intelligent or any variation of the word, inevitably I will disagree with them because of one point: socially, I'm a bit of an idiot. If the various problem I've caused myself over the years aren't evidence enough of that, I almost used a loophole to get around a rule set for me on a list of things I am most certainly never allowed to do. A loophole. A God-damned loophole. They're great for some things, but not for this. So I went against the loophole, and that means I'm still stuck here wondering what on earth has made someone disappear.

Basically, it's all become a bit aggravating; the boredom of the summer is settling in as the list of things worth doing dwindles down into nothing (hence wanting to talk to the one person who has vanished). I'm still not at the stage where I'm so bored I want to go back to lectures, but I'm getting there. I think once I can get out of this slump (bad mood and exhaustion) I can get back on track to writing and to not having to resort to a blog to vent frustrations over little things in life. (I'm not frustrated at any of my friends, because I know they have lives; I'm frustrated with our Internet provider and with myself for being Sleepy and Grumpy and possibly two or three of the other dwarfs... Dopey?)

If I didn't have work tomorrow, and if my body didn't outright refuse to stay in bed, I would just sleep all day. Nothing beats Sunday morning in bed when you're tired, except maybe sleeping in your own bed after being away for a few days. Or sleeping on the ground.* I'm completely drained, I'm going to the cinema tonight and I'm fairly certain that I won't last another week of losing sleep (because of the heat and the constant muttering in my head wondering why I can't seem to make plans with the people I've seen the least all summer).

Hopefully my Internet connection won't die (again) before Wednesday so I can put up a review. And mayb,e just maybe, my slump will be gone by then.

* Yes, I have slept on the ground before. We did it in Connemara (Galway) during Transition Year. It wasn't entirely uncomfortable, though the sunrise was less of a rising sun than the sky gradually turning more bright blue, because of the altitude and the trees. Yes, we slept among trees. We were warned about badgers. That scared a couple of people. We were told to carry sticks to break if a badger bit us - they don't let go until they break a bone, apparently. Fun...

This time last year

When I compare this summer to last summer, one thing is definitely clear: I am less crazy. Or more crazy and it just doesn't get to me as much. Definitely less bored, though.

This time last year, I was at my wit's end. It had nothing to do with my results going up online (or somebody telling me every minute that they were up, when they weren't!). It had nothing to do with anything, really, which was precisely the problem. I had nothing to do. At all.

This year... well, I've been writing Dignity, for a start, after several failed attempts to get anywhere in this story. The first attempt was terrible. Got barely anything done. The second attempt at it, I made my plan for the story (the plan in my head) slightly longer. The third time, even longer and I completely changed the perspective of where the reader was seeing all of the action from. This time around, I've gone back even further and I'm incorporating a lot more material from the alleged "real life" that has been led and doing something quite strange with it... I'm giving it a plot. Life doesn't have a plot. The things we do each day aren't a plot. If you wrote a novel detailing even three months of a character's life and having every day being interesting and worth reading, it'd be the most unrealistic three months ever. Or the most adventurous.

(Little secret, though: even grand road trips across America can be boring to do, because from the stories I've heard of them, most of the time there's nothing to do. That's why America has so many tourist attractions along the highway.)

Okay, so with Dignity well under way, it's even not enough to keep me interested all the time. Thankfully, I've been given a day extra work each week. Rather than just work the weekends, I work a mid-week day, too! It's very handy for making the weeks seem less boring. When you have breaks in the week of two days each, it feels like school used to before I started working, only with twice the weekends - school, weekend, school, weekend - only in this case instead of school it's working in a bookshop, and instead of a weekend it's Mondays and Tuesdays, and Thursdays and Fridays. The extra work is also great for having that little bit more money.

To fill the days I'm off, I've done a number of things. One of these was a road trip across the country, looping down south briefly before taking the N7 back to Maynooth, and a train home. This day was occupied with chats with the driver, the radio, rain in every county we drove through, rail-way superstitions, music from 1994 and the accompanying dance moves, a new love of The Saw Doctors, Supermacs in Galway (because we're fairly sure it's illegal to not have a Supermacs when you go to Galway) and a double-rainbow on the drive home. Other less adventurous things that have filled the days between shifts at work have been: trips to the cinema, a trip to Balbriggan to see a friend off to Switzerland for the summer, trips to the comic book shops and bookstores in Dublin and a gig, at which I saw The Shoos play, got their autographs and a photograph with them.

Between these miscellaneous adventures in Dublin and around the country and writing Dignity and working in the bookshop, I've been reading a bit. I've read children's books, books about writing, adult fiction (not erotica... I just mean the books that aren't children's books but are fiction) and comics (hence the trips to the comic book shops!) Of the comics I've been reading... well, they've all been X-Men. Because I'm that cool.

Last year... last year had some adventures of its own, the best being a 21st party, but it also had lots of boredom and a bit (understatement) of moaning down the phone at the same person who drove me around the country (and repeatedly called it a boring day). It was a truly unremarkable summer last year. I making up for it this year by writing the book I've been trying to write for over a year (and writing an ending to Meet Sam that I'm actually happy with!) and arranging different odds and sorts to occupy my time between working on the book and working with books (and people... there are people in the shop, too.)

Maybe, just maybe, this won't be as much a bad summer as last year. Maybe.

PS my favourite line I've written so far today:

The context: the main character is essentially referencing himself in the narration in third person, though he's not the narrator... that description makes it sounds weird... okay, it actually is weird, but the description is worse... I'll just give you the line.

"He was too good to be arrogant."

EDGI

Last summer I introduced Miley Cyrus to a concept of good will and charity: EDGI, Evil Deeds for Good Intentions. EDGI requires a few key components.

• Lots of scheming
• A little bit of money
• A third party, kept entirely in ignorance

Sneaking around behind someone's back, the concept of EDGI is to do something for them that they don't expect. I find it best to give someone either something they've wanted for a while, or something they would never expect, or something homemade. If you opt not to give a present but to still do something for someone, you still need that little bit of money to help buy things, unless you're really good at recycling.

Some examples of how to apply EDGI:

• A surprise party, even when it's not the person's birthday
• A scrapbook  - as Miley and I made last summer
• A going-away present that someone doesn't suspect - yeah, we did that one... but she refused to cry for us!

Why bother? Well, for a start the scheming is fun. Going around behind someone's back, having all these little secrets from them, and doing it only for good reasons, to give something to them, gives a wonderful feeling of having been both evil (evil is fun, but frowned upon) and a good friend. EDGI helps to show someone how much they mean to you, make someone feel better about themselves, and, in cases of extreme boredom, gives you something to do.

It's all quite simple, really. Just look out for little things that people mention and you can really make their day out of the blue. I snook about last summer through Dublin to deliver a present to a friend - a Not-Birthday present* - only to later find myself in Offaly doing something else, both aimed at the one person, having gotten things like a scrap book, photos and stickers together to spend a couple of hours making something that weeks later would be the best way we could say how much this one person meant to both of us.

A bit sappy, I know. It's great.

It's just a suggestion, of course, to go through with EDGI. I'd love to hear you're little stories of mischief and good deeds for friends. And, you know, to steal your ideas to apply on my own friends!

* A Not-Birthday is a celebration of someone, but not of their birthday. It's best reserved for people who dislike their birthday intently, and not for just anybody, because that may lead to them becoming selfish and demanding and thinking you're a little bit creepy. Just saying.

These Few Months

April is coming to a close. If that wasn't obvious, look at your calender. Unless it's already May, for you. So, we're one third of the way through the year. Maths, easy. Only, these few months from January to April seem so long and drawn out, and I feel so desperate to write something to distract from the approaching May Madness, that I wished to reflect on the past few months.

January is easy: I started the year in Meath. Lots of people got drunk. People did things I wish I could forget. A good night was had. A couple of weeks later, I started to teach. This was, of course, preceded by lots of panicking and stressing and getting things done last minute. Then for two weeks my days became a monotonous repeat of: Wake up, go to school, teach, go to college, prepare lessons, go home, sleep, and wake up to start it all over again. At least, it ought to have been that way, except that I went into the city with a couple of friends during the weekend between teaching weeks to finish getting things and to generally burn off some steam, and I went to Eddie Rockets another night with a different friend. I had many days of panicking over everything and moaning to people about these new non-teaching panicky Things until finally getting them sorted out, and before I knew it, I was back in college and beginning the lectures that would bring me the rest of the way through the year. Thankfully, my teaching weeks ended with a script being written and submitted to a competition in the college, so I wasn't at a total loss for creativity.

February is where things become... different. I was blogging again. I was reviewing books and I was giving out some general advice I had procured over the years, and right smack-bang in the middle of the month I turned twenty. I was no longer a teenager, no longer able to cling to silly youth and childish games. The next day I got drunk for the first time. Take THAT irony. My best friend came down from Meath for the night - I hadn't really been fused about the whole affair, except that I got to see him for the first time since December. He got me quite intoxicated, failing to hear me say "No more drinks after this one." I still laugh about it, and the moment of realising I was drunk. Things were looking up for the month. Then the big issue with The Book arose in college, and I began to spiral down into this horrible mood. It got to a point where I didn't think I ever wanted to write again. Eventually I was snapped out of it, but not before a non-too-happy reading week.

Come March, I was back in the game of writing. I wrote a piece of fiction that I was really happy with, and I was thinking more and more about writing. I was getting somewhere happy, for a change. I had an essay to write in college, but I was okay with that. I liked the topic. I also had the pleasure of going to the O2 twice. I got to see The Script early in the month, and Elbow at the end of the month. I had a great time both nights, though they were wholly different experiences; the music was different, the company was different, and I got drunk after the Elbow concert. Throughout the month I was thinking about books I'd started and books I'd written and books I wanted to write, and constantly my mind was being changed and even more so I was thinking of ways to fix the broken constructs of novellas I wrote last summer. To bring the month to a close - before the Elbow concert, that is - I climbed Croagh Patrick. It was a good month.

April. Oh April. I didn't do very much in April. College ended un-spectacularly for me. The highlight of the last day was seeing myself in Writing Magazine. A good highlight, but not enough to make the next few weeks bearable. For three weeks I was off college. I did some reading. I did a tiny bit of writing, though not much. Much less than I'd have liked, considering I found study so daunting I couldn't force myself. Just the starting is the problem for me. During the weeks off I had a bit of a freak out - as is natural for me, seeing as I am completely insane - and I thought more and more about what writing I would do during the summer.

Now, with the month coming to a close in less than an hour (for me, at least), I have to face the horrible soul-sucking reality of May; we're talking thirteen exams, even less of a social life than before and only one thing to spur me on aside from the plans to write like a mad-man - the very last night of college. On Wednesday 25th, the people of God College will be getting drunk and it won't matter. They will be drinking until they're forced to go home, and some of them will keep drinking after that. Some of them won't ever be going out as college students again, some of them will be back in August to do repeat exams, and no one will forget the night. Or at least, no one will forget the buzz from the night. Probably half will actually forget the details of the night. But unfortunately, there are, as I mentioned, thirteen exams for me to do before that night of drunken debauchery, beginning with the oh-so-riveting topic of Christology and Revelation. And not the fun, apocalypse Revelations, but the not-so-fun "I see the truth" Revelation that Fundamentalist Christians think is all the rage.

These months have felt like such a long time. It feels weird to be able to summarise them like this, but alas that is the way things go. When trying not to bore people with the details of every single significant event, I subsequently report only the vaguest of details about most things. A whole month of summaries is due to begin as I prepare for my exams. If you don't hear from me, it's probably because I'm on the run for killing someone for trying to borrow a single page of my notes without asking first. In short, I will become even more insane for the month, and the chances of me reverting back to relative normality (i.e. my present state of mind - still totally insane) are slim. I do wonder if I will become increasingly strange and mad as the college work mounts each year... I suppose I'll just have to figure that one out when I push someone to the limits and he has to punch me in the face to snap me out of whatever it is I'm going through.

See you next month! (Or something...)

Summer Writing Plan

In an effort to procrastinate further, beyond gathering all my first semester notes together, I've planned for the second time my writing time for the summer. I've split my time to writing fiction on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; editing on Tuesdays and Thursdays; and writing non-fiction on Saturdays and Sundays, which also includes the necessary research for it.

I plan - perhaps too-optimistically - to write about five thousand words of fiction on each of the days. I hope to write more, so that I can get through more books. I have, at the moment, nine lined up to write. While that seems like I'm already well on track, to me it's nine casts of characters all trying to live their stories all at the same time, and it gets crowded in my head. I have a plan drawn up for one of the books - the first one I'll be writing - and notes for six of the remaining eight. But at five thousand words a day and three days per week, I'm only doing enough writing to maybe finish three first drafts. That's not enough for me, thanks to the modules of God College, which inspired three of the nine books from just the second year work. There are chances I could get yet more ideas next year, which will only drive me completely and utterly mental. Fact.

As regards editing, eleven pages a day. Not a huge amount. I'll probably cover more with some books each of the days than others. It's twenty two pages a week, and with the books I have lined up I still have time to edit a book of about 35,000-40,000 words, based on my estimates. The eleven pages was just my rough estimate for a bare minimum - the higher estimate, mind you, since I'd originally been vague and said between nine and eleven pages. But with eleven, I can get Meet Sam edited within a few weeks. By then, I hope to have the first novel written for the summer. I'll be moving on to edit Love is a Remarkably Destructive Bitch second, taking the advice of another author to use emotional arcs more than actual events when writing; I'll be reconstructing a lot of the dynamics of the book and removing many resemblances to real life. I really liked writing the book last year, so I want it to be something I can still be glad to show my friends, even if I later decide it's not worth submitting to a publisher. The editing will make that decision for me. I have two others books from last summer to edit, too mind you, but I'd like to edit the first novel of the summer early on, so they can wait. If I edit quicker than I thought I would, I'll still have plenty of time for all five books to be edited.

As regards non-fiction, I only have two ideas for books, and only one publisher in mind for them. I haven't exactly gone looking around for another one, I just liked the look of this one. It's not a big publisher, but it will do. I have to research one of the books quite a bit, though I'm fairly comfortable with most of the material already. The other I really just have to write well, because the idea is too simple for me to have to do much research. I will see. That may change. If either one goes well, there's a chance they could be available by New Year's. I think. I'm not too sure how long the process takes, but with my taking the publisher and format into consideration, if a book is accepted and submitted in the summer, it shouldn't be too long before it can actually be bought. They only publish e-books. If someone can verify that estimate, please do.

And of course, I have deadlines to meet with some other things. One of the books needs to be written, edited and submitted by summer's end, though it's significantly shorter than I want some of the others to be, and could actually be written and edited within the space of just a month. There are also short stories with varying deadlines and interesting themes. And I'll be working during the summer, though at the current rate only on weekends. While I do have some plans to do other things, such as step outside every now and then, I have not directly made plans for that. I have simply planned to write a lot more than is healthy and see where the summer takes me. I have personal deadlines for things, obviously. I want to get my first novel done completely before the summer is over. I want to get the shorter book done by about half-way through September, editing included. I want to get most of these done in as short a time-frame as possible, because I will be hand-writing them and will later need to type them. Thankfully I'm a fast typist. I just find that I can let myself write more if I'm not restricted to my laptop. Plus, I can avoid the Internet if I'm writing by hand.

It has been advised I go on walks. I will probably do so. I don't know where I'll go, yet, but as I begin to get the need to see places I haven't seen in a while, I will get my runners on and go for a walk. I will enjoy the sun, until I lock myself away with a book in the making. I will appear anti-social, until I pop onto Facebook and Twitter to announce my accomplishments, like walking a ridiculous amount or beating a target a day.

While I am aware I have to sit exams before all that, I can face the summer with some sort of determination now that I am not just planning to write during the summer, but planning what to write. Last year it was simply write for the summer and be happy. It didn't work out that way. I wrote three novellas, yes, but I wrote them within short periods of time, and a couple were based on dreams. I tried and failed to start another book, which is my first book to write this summer, now that I have a plan, a character and some motivation for the project. I have an idea of where I want most of these books to go, and it will be but a matter of deciding what to write when. And of course, once I meet my targets for the day, I can read. I have my reading list all made up, and I will pick books from that based on how much time I have to enjoy them, and my general enthusiasm for the book at the particular point in time.

This will be a productive summer, and not one I want to let waste. Who knows, it may by the summer that gets me published along the line, and I will be all the happier to know that I went into it ready and determined to show myself what I've got.

Oh, and if you're in college with me and aren't in your final year: I plan to start a Writing Society in the college in September, but you need at least five members to start up. I'm hoping to do a few interesting things aside from just having writers in the college (of anything: novels, short stories, poems, drama/film, songs, personal essays, etc.) come together to work; I want to keep ideas private for now until I can determine some costs in advance, but there'll be some fun stuff to do, and some of it will look good on a CV. If you're interested in joining, could you email me so I can remind you closer to the time? College email number is 22.

Now, it's about time I got on with some study. Jesus isn't going to study himself. (No seriously, Christology and Revelation... it's a hoot!)

Increasingly Busy Plans

It's happened again; my summer plans have gotten somewhat more busy. Keeping in mind they are still plans, I probably won't be too busy. But essentially I'll be doing a lot of writing. I've got two ideas for non-fiction books, now, and a whole lot of ideas for fiction books, ranging from teen fiction to more adult stuff. And then there's the editing... I have the obvious one to edit, Meet Sam, but that's not it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'll be editing the novellas I wrote last summer. I have them printed off (taking advantage of the temporarily lower printing costs in college) and ready to tackle one by one to turn them into better works of fiction. It's not that I ever intend, directly, to do anything with these books, but I'd like to know I have them there in case I wish to use them. I don't know where the next few years will bring me with my writing, but I know that everything I've completed to date will be helping me along the way, though not necessarily because it'll be on sale. I have two books written that will never see the light of day, mainly because they're really, really bad.

One is a poorly written adult sci-fi, which is becoming, in essence, The Jump. The other is an even more poorly written children's fantasy novel that is not only too long, it's too...bumpy. I mean, the overall plot is good, but the way the book is written is just bad! I remember writing it, age 14 (finishing age 15) and aiming for quantity of words over quality. Well, actually, I aimed for pages. Little did I realise in my youth that while I was writing the same amount of pages for every chapter, I was doing so in single line spacing. The book became quite bit, which I didn't really realise, and it wasn't exactly good. There were things I wanted to express but couldn't, and the whole thing needs a re-write. And a lot of stuff cut out of it. I mean, it's 120,000 words long. About half of it is any use. That may be a slight exaggeration.

So, with four books to edit and two non-fiction books to write (one of which requires research) I'm going to be quite busy. So attempting to write things like my YA Apocalypse novel or The Jump or any of the six or seven ideas I have for adults books is just madness. Madness!

I can't wait!

Last summer, I wrote my three novellas quite close to each other. I spent long days writing them, and longer days doing nothing of any importance. I met up with friends quite infrequently, I rarely found excuses to leave the house (note to self: find excuses to leave the house) and I basically wasted away into an incarnation of boredom. In that state, I'm basically the most annoying person you'd ever meet. I do wonder why some people didn't try run me over in a car...

This summer will be different, though. I'll be keeping myself busy, I'll be making some more socialising plans whenever possible, I may be writing short stories and articles to earn money on the side, and if I'm lucky I won't succumb to the boredom all over again. Thankfully I have dozens of unread books on my shelf, more coming into shops every month that I haven't bought, twelve DVDs in my room alone that I can watch (and obviously many more not in my room) that I haven't seen before (three of which contain six episodes each of Black Books) and enough stored madness to continually drive forth my creative spirit.

If all goes well, I'll have had my best ever summer. I'll be doing my best to keep in touch with friends whenever possible and when that fails and I still need fresh air, I'll just go on walks through Dublin, taking familiar routes for the heck of it, just to get out of the house. Besides, I'll also be working - probably only weekends - so I won't be entirely idle anyway.

Oh, except there's one thing that needs doing first. Exams. May is going to be hell. And the four weeks between now and the start of the exams... well, that'll also be hell. Basically, two months of hell for three and a half months of freedom (which has the potential to become hell).

'Course, there's also the chance I could be coming back to college with some publishing experience under my belt. You know, just saying. (Not that I would necessarily have a book released within three and a half months, but if I play my cards right and if I get lucky, I may be on track to releasing a book, which would be freakin' sweet! A man can dream...)

Change of Heart

Yesterday's blog post painted a picture of wanting to write The Jump... well, I've had a slight change of heart. That series won't be what I pay most attention to (in terms of writing) for the next while. It's not that I won't be writing it ever, I just don't want to write it right now. See, shortly after writing the blog post and talking to my friend about all sorts of random crap (that's a technical term), I started writing a Young Adult Urban Fantasy...about the apocalypse.

That sounds weird... good. It's a parody novel, with the narration taking the piss (again, technical term) out of everything. Well, not everything. But as serious a theme as the apocalypse is, that didn't stop me including a penis related joke within the first 1000 words. That's the sort of high brow humour I'm going for, folks. Well, not just penis jokes, but you get the point - it's not a work of serious comical merit, but that doesn't mean it won't be written well. I won't give away too much, but hopefully in reading it people will like the main character and all of his oddities. Let's face it, when you're writing about the apocalypse using low brow puns (That Guy I Am can attest to how poor they are) and penis related jokes, you've got to have a weird protagonist.

As well as that, I will be seeking to get a work on non-fiction written. I am not publicly announcing what it will be about, though I have told a few people in private already (family and a couple of friends). It's not going to be a work of absolute genius, it most likely won't challenge any accepted norms, but it will do as I aim for it to do: give a clear and easy to read account of the topic at hand, using language that anyone can understand. I will be doing my research on the topic shortly after exams (so, in June) and when I've plotted out my notes on writing the book, I will be going to a small e-publisher about it. Or possibly going it alone. I will see. (Thoughts on this greatly appreciated, particularly if you know about this sort of stuff).

About the "going it alone" thing. I've been reading a lot, lately, about self-published authors. With my friend Rebecca Woodhead self-publishing her first book, Palaces and Calluses, within the next couple of weeks, Barry Eisler turning down a half-a-million-dollar book deal to self-publish instead and Amanda Hocking having made two million dollars self-publishing and now selling a four-book series to St Martin's in the US for a contract rumoured to be worth over two million dollars, the whole thing has been getting me rather... I don't even know the word for it! Anxious? Excited? Wantingtotryitmyself? I'm baffled by the figures involved.

Anyway, that's something to mull over. In the meantime, I have to study for exams, write my apocalyptic book (this will be my de-stress hobby for the next two months) and sort out a schedule for during the summer. I need to shuffle about:
- Research for non-fiction book
- Editing of Meet Sam
- Writing of the new book
- Writing of short stories

My summer is going to be weird! It seems like every time I bring it up I have a new plan for it. Seriously. Have you noticed that? I always seem to come up with new plans for the summer every time I look at it in terms of work I can do. I mean, the list above, if I was to include everything I planned on doing, would get a lot longer. I can think of at least two other significant things I have to do that I haven't put on that list!

*headdesk*

Moving on... and back to where I got started. The book, the apocalyptic book, is set in the American Bible Belt. We've been looking at one case of how crazy some of the people there are, so naturally my story is being set in an overly religious area with a school that almost breaks the law. It's fun! Within time, I will be harassing friends to read this book to get an impression of what they think of it.

Oh, and a friend commented on my Facebook status about it saying "ZOMBIES". All I'll say is... not this one.

For A Change

Last night was different... I mean, not in the 'I got drunk' kind of different, but in the kind of different that really shouldn't be different - I actually wrote something. I've had this problem where words just didn't fit together for fiction, and last night I overcame it by handwriting a story that I hope to submit to a magazine when it's all typed up and edited. It's sort of Sci-Fi/Speculative Fiction, but I tried to write it so that it's more accessible than a lot of Science Fiction, which can sometimes limit its audience by being too technical.

It was nice to actually get writing again, to forget about the world for a while as I wrote away, creating a character that's more messed up than even me and having him go through a whole world of change as he goes from whining and depression to bursting with happiness; I won't go into detail about that, too much, because I'd prefer that the story remain mostly a secret until such time that (hopefully) it goes into print.

As I started to write this blog post, I wondered if maybe people thought I wrote all the time, and that was why I called myself a writer. Truth be told, I do more consistent writing on this site than on anything else, because it's a forum for self-expression but with an audience, and it allows me to communicate messages publicly to people without having to embarrass them by naming them or starting a private war. I like that I can write something, convey a message, and if people don't like what I've said they point that out; it's happened before, and I appreciate the comments, because it lets me know that what I'm writing is not only being read, it's being interpreted, and at the end of the day stories are made by the things we interpret.

Mostly, when I write fiction, I write in what I call binges. I go through the same stuff with reading, I might add. During the summer I wrote three novellas - one of which I refer to as the Book on this site. A couple of weeks ago, I read three books in a week, just for the sake of it. When I was seventeen, I wrote a novel in a month. Between reading binges and writing binges I generally do my college work, because I purposely don't let one overlap with it - it gets messy and complicated and bleurgh. That's a technical term.

I suppose last night was something of a writing binge, in micro format, but it was also a chance for me to just get away from things; I didn't want another night of doing nothing, I wasn't in the mood for television or for going out, I wasn't really sure what I would say to people if I decided to call someone, I've had this whole "bully" situation stuck in my head and college work is beginning to rear its ugly head again. So I just got away from it all. It's why I write a lot of the things I do, including those novellas; I turned the world I missed - the college life - into something I could have fun with for some time, and something I could later share, so I could get away from the mundane summer I was going through.

I suppose my summer was only bad because I never had money to do anything. I don't mean a holiday or anything, just regular things. After the shop closed this time last year, my saved-up money only lasted until May, and until about July I was paying people back for money I had to borrow or buying the things that I'd been trying to buy for a while, and I never really had anything saved up to get to do anything at all. The highlights of my summer were trips into town with Miley Cyrus, a visit to her house, a trip to a friend's house in Westmeath and a trip to our friend's house whose dad is a lecturer, and that single 21st birthday party I went to. I had a couple of days with other people, but mostly I was at home feeling like I was wasting my life and writing to try make up for it, and worrying about my friend's exams in August. It wasn't a healthy summer.

While I don't care if I go anywhere this summer - as regards a holiday abroad - I don't want a repeat of last summer. Yes, I want to hang out with Miley if she comes up to Dublin, and yes I would go to friends' houses if they were having people over and if I wasn't in work the next day, but I want more than that, because those days don't fill up a whole lot of time relative to the three and a half months off we have from college and only weekends to work in the shop. I want to write and to submit to magazines, and hopefully to a publisher, and get out a bit more and just do some exploring of the city I grew up in but never really looked at; there are so many places I haven't been that are open to me to explore, just a train away most of them, some of them less than that, and there's a whole culture and a whole world out there that I can see within a few weeks.

I find I always write these things down on my blog, my plans for the summer and my not wanting it to be a repeat of last year. I already know it won't be like last year, though, because so much is different already. For one thing, it's March and I still have a job. And, unlike this time last year, I'm actually happy. There was so much getting me down this time last year that really I wasted time even before the summer months came along. Writing that story last night is, I hope, only the beginning of the changes I'm making in my attitude to life; I don't want to waste days doing nothing. Even if I did nothing but write for a week during the summer, I would be happy, because that could at least lead to something, and the practice is important. Writing is a trade and an art, and people never stop learning about those things.

I'll stop now, before I accidentally reveal my plans for world domination in my ramblings.

Robin Hood, Eddie Rockets and Great Big Hugs

This day was, in short, the best day of the summer so far. Okay, the morning was pretty sucky. I had chores to do. Yuck. But after them, Conor and I headed in to town to meet up with Eileen, Laura, Kevin, Monica and Elizabeth. And sure, don't you know I ran up to Eileen and hugged her before she'd even seen me! I was so happy to see her - proof enough that I miss everyone, if I can't even wait three seconds for her to realise it's me. Laura then got a big hug, then Eileen again, and Elizabeth when she came along, and Monica, and even Kevin when he finally got there.

In all the excitement, we headed from the spire to the cinema, stopping off on the way to get food... 2 Euro shop, anyone? Eileen and I stocked up on sweets (Dolly Mixtures for me!), drinks (Sprite) and chocolate (an as-yet uneaten Milkybar...because I'm three years old), and on to Marks and Spencer to get a bag on five cookies for three euro... we only ate one each. They've been brought home by her. I got a text, instead: "Also, i owe you a cookie and a half". Spontaneous cookies! Yuss!

We went to see Robin Hood when we'd stocked up on food. Seven of us in a line with store-bought food and student tickets, munching away and getting filled with sugar. The movie was alright, too. The ads are deceptive in what they show you; they suggest that he's on the run for the whole thing, rather than actually fighting alongside the king against the French (if you didn't know the plotline, then really I have no idea what you're doing here...) I won't go into the accents... really I wouldn't have noticed them if my boss hadn't shown me the complaints some fans were making on IMDB when the movie first came out. I just ignored them and tried to appreciate the movie for what it was - a remake, filled with all the violence a movie of its type could have, and a bit of humour too. Gotta love Friar Tuck and his beehives...

When we'd had our share of violence and sugar, we went to Eddie Rockets, where we got liquid sugar and some chicken presented in various ways (excpet for Kevin who got a hamburger and Laura who got onion rings). After our fill, we went to town. We didn't stay too long after that; we went to Penneys where Eileen got a scarf from the boys section, HMV, where I got The Doors for €5.99, and then it was on to Eason. Along the way, Laura and Elizabeth went home. Boo urns! But we still had a cracking time. Eileen got a book for her dad, Conor got a couple of DVDs from Tower Records, and I added to my collection of badges. Revamping the pencil case before the start of college in September. I know, long way away, but new ones come and go. It's going to be so cool when it's done! I have such good fun when someone sees my pencil case and has to pick it up to look at all the badges on it. The new design will be fantastic!

When we'd had our fill of fun and people had to go home, we went our seperate ways. That leaves me... here. Yeah, that about does it. The only thing that can make this day any better would be if people like Eithne and Liam got in touch before the day was out. And, you know, if James and Jessica hadn't been working... Still, onwards and upwards and all that! Party tomorrow night! If I have anything to say before then, you'll see me before I go. If not, you may get a nice little story-time about the party. I hope it's as good as I'm making it out to be in my head... Ah sure, feck it. A party is a party, and this particular one is a chance to see some people again! Can't wait to see Emma and Deezie tomorrow (and Christine and Ashling, and hopefully Liam!) Fun fun fun! Gotta get me some hyperactivity!