Birthday

I'm twenty. That's finally happened. All the semblances of youth - hanging on to the teenage years - are gone. Now I'm at that point where I have none of that and I'm still too young to drink in America. Not that I plan on going to America within the next year, but the point still stands. I am in a limbo year.

I have noticed that my birthday is just another day. Except some people give me presents. And my mum asked us specifically what we want for dinner (us being myself and That Guy I Am, who coincidentally also turned twenty today). My birthday has been dull, waiting for the ritual of Facebook messages from people who won't send them and for maybe something to happen that would make the day worthwhile.

Basically... no.

Up until this morning, I didn't even care about my birthday. I literally let That Guy I Am make all the plans for us. I can't say I was even especially ecstatic today. I was in a much better mood yesterday. Today just has too much expectation for anything, while V-Day is just a big ball of suck I can pleasantly be a cynic about.

And I still wait for that anything.

The day matters so little to me, relative to the hype of birthdays, that I've started writing an essay for college on the call of St Paul and his transformation from Pharisee and persecutor of the early Christians to apostle to the Gentiles. That is how little this day matters.

But I still wait.

I wait for the anything and I wait for the messages that won't come because part of me wants the hype of birthdays to be true, to live up to something, to matter. I wanted to let the day matter. I wanted to not be such a moan on my own birthday. That's just not me. But I sat more or less alone at lunch (admittedly it was because my friends all decided to sit on the opposite side of the table to me, but almost entirely out of earshot). I changed my routine of going to the library and doing work or writing or anything else, just because these were my friends and for a while it seemed like they wanted me there.

I wait, and I become a cynic about my own friends and about my own birthday, and I know that a lot of what I say is just the cynicism, and that I did want to be with my friends on my birthday. But I would have preferred if they had actually spoken to me.

And I wait.

Sweetness

It's that most wonderful time of the Hallmark calender - Valentine's Day. Good Lord, someone set fire to the card displays (or just throw them out, like a co-worker accidentally did!). It's not that I don't like the idea of showing affection for people... it's just that I'm entirely opposed to the idea of Valentine's Day. Looking at the relatively new 'Pinkies Blog', I can see I'm not the only person living in Dublin that has this problem of once-annually limited-love.

It gets worse.

So. Much. Worse.

I go to a religious college. Things are supposed to be... well, religious. Not secular. Not at all secular. Not hanging red shiny banners and love-hearts and balloons and bowls of sweets on the tables.

Oh. My. God.

Really? Giving sugar to students? Pretending Valentine's Day means anything beyond Hallmark? It was disgusting (though the same cannot be said for the sweets...). I mean, it's not even like people were displaying any more affection than normal. They were just messing with the balloons and eating the sweets and generally not giving a damn about the whole thing. It was just a secular celebration bastardising a religious tradition of celebrating the martyr saint who believed in marriage. Marriage. See that word? I know you know what that means. It's not about cards with mushy messages on them on one specified day of the year (that's what anniversaries are for!). It's not about chocolates and romantic evenings. It's not about getting that special someone something shiny.

For people who care about presents and who want an excuse to show they love someone, Valentine's Day can be good. Of course, it's also selfish and an excuse for romance, as if it could save a marriage.

Complete and utter rubbish. More couples break up around now than any other time of the year! And the rest suffer through the process of having to get the other person something new and shiny for them to forget about two weeks later. It's like secularised Christmas, only without the mass that people feel obliged to attend.

As one of the candy hearts said today (yes, candy hearts... hence, 'Sweetness'), 'Bye bye'. (What an utterly romantic and fulfilling sentiment...)

Where Things Are Going

Since I've been back online, I've been working at getting my interviews with people - as I announced yesterday. I have five lined up. As well as that, I'll be doing something which will feature on Mondays, though that'll be delayed for a bit as I get my feet on the ground. The same as something which will take up Tuesdays and Saturdays. Wednesdays will be for reviews.

But that's just the blog point of view of things. I have so much more to do, aside from college work. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I have a few places to submit to. I also have plans to continue to work on Meet Sam, and work on a new book. I'll be working on them in rotation - one chapter of the new book, one fifth of Meet Sam. At that rate, I'll get that finished pretty early on while the other book will actually get somewhere in its writing. While that does also seem to block my progress later, I do have to then read over and edit Meet Sam again to make sure it's alright. Lots of work ahead of me...

When the new book is finished, or when I need a break from both books, I'll be working on a play. Or three. Or something. And in the midst of all that, and all my college work, I'll be writing stuff to submit to various magazines and reading books and all the usual stuff I normally do. I just plan on being busier than normal.

Aside from the blog and the books and the plays, I also want to work on screenplays. These will be for either television or films, I don't know yet, but they'll be the screen, anyway. There's a different feel to scripts in plays and films, so it all depends on what I want to write at the time - different ideas will need a different medium. I already have an idea for a mini-series, though I'm not sure how that'd work. I've to read up on that, still.

To get myself motivated for work, I've made up a list of things that I can write about when it comes to submissions - or just general ideas for work! One or two of them require invading the privacy of people, so I've to tread carefully about them and get permission where possible. Basically, it'd be impossible to hide the stories from people if I planned on doing anything with them, so there's no point pretending I didn't write them at all. The other stuff is just common sense, when it comes to the sort of person that I am - books, films, the Internet, religion, etc. Whatever can define me or my activities is what I'll be writing about. Hopefully a lot.

One thing I have to cut out of my life is games, though. Which is a problem, because I'm addicted to them. And when it comes to summer, I need to take something up, to occupy the time in which I need to unwind and a book or a film won't do. I'll probably take a friend's suggestion and go swimming a couple of times a week. I need to see what my working hours are like... or if I even have working hours. Obviously, if I can't afford to pay into the pool I can't go swimming! Sure I could walk, but it's not as good for you as swimming... and I could do with improving the fitness, a bit. Or a lot. I just can't go with That Guy I Am, because he's overly competitive and it just puts me off the whole thing.

So, I've one more week in college - with birthday "celebrations" in the middle of all that - and then I'm off for a week. That'll be the decider week. I have to do college work, obviously, but I also have a chance to get into a routine of doing writing! I'll have a few more weeks of college, then, and three weeks off before exams in May. But after them, after I've burned myself out academically, I'll be free for three and a half months... again. This summer, someone has to force me to write!

Once again, a thousand plans ahead of me. But I like where my head is at right now, so this will be good. I won't just give it all up again. Especially since I'm already suspecting the worst that could happen already. There's not very much that could happen that would catch me entirely off guard, anymore. (Like my shop closing...) I just have to let stuff go, and then I can get somewhere.

Opportunity Knocks

As some of you may know, I have a habit of buying writing magazines. Mostly I don't read them. Today, I bought two. I know, bold of me. Still, I went through them and marked all the things that are immediately of interest to me. I might read the rest, but for now I'm focusing on these parts. I don't buy them unless I can find at least one thing of interest in them to me. Normally if I find that one thing, I find another thing, too.

Today... a grand total of 16 pages marked for reading. Okay, pages means the double-page, not a single page. And it doesn't necessarily mean I'll read the whole thing. These are just places where there could be just one tiny section of interest to me, highlighted again. But other times there are a couple of articles on these pages that are of interest. It was kind of worth the money, this time!

What I hope to do, as a result of finding a few of these things, is take advantage of the opportunities available in them. There are competitions and submission opportunities highlighted that I want to actually do something about. I just felt the need to tell people about this. And really, bothering my friends with texts that are only of interest to me feels a bit weird. (Especially since about three people would get the same text, and one of them might reply...)

In other news (that was news?), I've begun to bother the people of Twitter for my new feature - I'm looking to "interview" people every Friday. This will entail a discussion of 1. them, personally (who they are, where they live, what they do for a living, etc.) and 2. the creative thing they do that has me getting in touch with them in the first place. I'm more drawn to writers, but as I'm also a fan of music I won't turn that down. This is to replace my Friday Friend feature from last year. Well, it's to change it. The old archive is about people I know, with nicknames I gave them for this blog. This new feature will have people's real names - if they use them online - but I won't specify if I know them or not. It occurs to me I'll be able to bother some people I do know, but that's a different matter.

So, why am I doing it? Well, firstly I want to network. I figure the best way to do that is to get a chat going. Through the personal discussion, I'll get to know the person better (and may continue to talk to them privately after the post) and through the other discussion I'll be showcasing new and interesting people to my readers (it feels weird to say I have readers, when it's mainly friends from college who aren't sick of my blog posts). The hope is that the people I interview will also link to the interview they're in, and maybe come back to see who else is being interviewed.

Secondly, I want a feature on my blog that actually interests me and won't dive into people's privacy without their permission. Bold Paul was bold last year. This new idea has me excited already, and I'll be bothering people who I think are suitable for this pretty soon!

Thirdly, I want the practice. As I plan on writing for a living, doing interviews and stuff like this early on will show that I'm fully capable of doing it later in life. I'll be working around college, too, so things will be a little bit busy for me throughout the year. And I'll have basically nothing to do in the summer...

So, if you're interested in being interviewed, please get in touch - if you comment, make sure that I can follow a link (either by including it in the comment or submitting it with your name when you post) so that I can see how suitable you are, and please have some way of being contacted through that - even a Twitter page will do! What I ask in return is that you answer the questions, keep in touch, link to the post (it's showcasing YOU anyway!) and maybe suggest other people afterwards (so I can keep the feature going).

Now, time for me to start answer the door to opportunity. It's raining tonight... must be soaked!

Dealing With Bad News

It's inevitable that we're all going to receive some bad news at some stage in our lives: we didn't get that promotion we were looking for; that girl we're interested in has a boyfriend; a relative isn't going to get better; that manuscript we submitted has been rejected. The list goes on and on and obviously some cases are worse than others. But we have to deal with it, or let it tear us apart from the inside out.

Dealing with rejection, I know, is obviously a hard thing. No one's going to say that it's easy to be turned out by a person or a company. The key is to not let it get to you.

There are some very simple things that can be done to help you deal with bad news, before actually doing whatever possible to sort it out - this isn't a quick fix blog.

1. Take a deep breath. Yes, breathing helps. We need it to live, and it can help calm us down. So inhale, hold it, then exhale slowly. Do it a few times if you're particularly panicky.
2. Get some personal space or find a friend. The reason there's an "or" in there is, basically, because people are different. Some people need to be alone with their thoughts or some music or the sounds that flutter about all around them. Sometimes I'm that sort of person. Other times, I'm the "find a friend" sort of person. Whether you want to talk about what's going on or not, finding someone to talk to can be of some benefit. I don't always tell people what's wrong, if they sense something's wrong. That's my personal choice. I'm lucky that I have some friends who are good for just talking to, or who will do all the talking. I tend to make phone calls rather than trek to the bus stop... or to Meath... It makes the whole situation like being alone but with someone there.
3. Stop thinking about it and try move on. This can take some time. I mean, no one's going to expect you to be on your feet and ready to go within the space of a couple of hours, or right away after following steps one and two. But eventually you have to let go of that friend who wasn't who you thought they were, or that job you thought was perfect for you, and find something new to aim for. Find a new friend, work hard to get that next promotion, and let all that horrible stuff holding you back -  while you let your tears go - go. But you have to stop thinking about it, too, until you're emotionally ready to think about it and not get upset all over again.

Most importantly, if you're in a sort of never-ending cycle of darkness, talk to someone who you know can help. I don't mean a professional, if that's not what you're in to (though it would help, if your situation was that bad), but at least a friend. We all have one friend we can trust, and if you don't feel like you can trust someone, you need to change something about yourself. People aren't the problem then, you are. Trust... it's important, you know? Maybe you don't tell someone the whole truth, but you at least let them in on something about you so you don't feel so alone.

I'll finish there before this turns into a lecture. But whoever you are reading this, wherever you are, remember that bad news or bad moods can be overcome. As desperate as things seem now, they can always get better. I promise you that, so long as you make the effort.

Books About Writing

I have a habit of buying books about writing. I can't help it. It's an affliction. But I enjoy it, and I enjoy reading those books from time to time and getting a different perspective on the craft. My books range from how to write books, in the areas of novels, creative writing, children's books and poetry, to useful things about the business of writing. I'm constantly getting more books, so this list is by no means complete.

Teach Yourself 

The Teach Yourself series of books, I find can be quite helpful in getting the info you need in a concise manner. While I wouldn't necessarily say they are the only place to go to while looking for a book on writing, they certainly do contribute. Definitely trustworthy! Here is a list of the books I have in the series related to writing:

• Writing a Novel
• Creative Writing
• Writing For Children
• Screenwriting

 Alison Baverstock

This author has three books I find to be of great importance for people who wish to write or work with books - three that I've read, at least. I can't stress enough how much I would swear by what Alison Baverstock says: she's worked in the industry, she's gotten books published, she's in the know. In order of what I deem to be the most important books for writers to read, her titles include:

• Is There a Book In You?
• Marketing Your Book: An Author's Guide
• How to get a Job in Publishing

She also has quite a few books on parenting, if you're into that sort of thing.

Miscellaneous Others

Beyond that, I don't have multiples of anything by the same author/publisher. What's left is a mishmash of titles I've found that looked interesting and/or helpful, some of which are of great importance for a writer, and others are just helpful in different ways.

• Terry Prone: Write and Get Paid For It
• Writers Workshop in a Book
• Poetry: Reading It, Writing It, Publishing It
• Writing a Children's Book
• No Plot? No Problem!
• How Not to Write a Novel 
• For Dummies: Writing a Novel and Getting Published 
• Oxford Guide to Effective Writing and Speaking 
• Writing For Television
• The Screenwriter's Handbook
• The Writer's Retreat
• The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction 

As well as those, I find it helpful for writers to have copies of The Writers and Artists Yearbook, a dictionary, maybe a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves and perhaps something along the lines of Bill Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors.

While none of these books can guarantee success, having a look at one of two of them doesn't hurt. It can certainly help in figuring out the craft a bit, and getting someone else's perspective on how to write in a particular genre. My list isn't complete, by far, of course. I still plan on getting more books in the Teach Yourself series, and who knows what else will wander into my collection. All the time I'll justify the purchase of these books with the knowledge that they can be very helpful in getting an insight into the world of books and writing.

Review - Dead Until Dark

During the Christmas holiday from college, I got to watching True Blood - I mentioned this in my last post, and how it got me to reading the books the show is based on. And I mean based. The books have some distinct differences from the show (or vice versa, it depends on which you came to first, I suppose). I won't go into these differences, because I can't think of them all right now.

So... was the book good?
It was. It was good, and it was great, and then it was fantastic, and then it was great again. That's sort of how every book goes. Some skip the "good" and just get into great. While Charlaine Harris's Dead Until Dark doesn't fit, for me, into the instantly great category, it still escapes the drastically bad category. There wasn't a single bad moment in it.

Seriously? Not a single bad moment?
Oh, okay there was. When it ended. It was the sort of book you wanted to keep reading (read as: It was  the sort of book I didn't want to stop reading!). Between the book and the show, I began thinking about loud in a Louisiana accent. Damn infectious literature!

Okay, so how were the myths of the book?
Rather fantastically. That's the simple answer. If you really require more info... well, the vampires, as anyone who watches the show or has read the books can tell you, are not immune to sunlight. The vampires are also not affected by religious icons - considering the fact that there have been vampires in the book's universe for longer than there have been Christians, this isn't surprising. But vampires aren't all we've got. I won't spoil too much, but Sookie is a telepath (it's in the blurb, I don't feel bad for telling you). Sookie, if you don't know, is the protagonist and narrator. She's also a waitress. (Ah her classic response to the question, "What are you?") While I feel Harris could have done a better job with the telepathy, it was still written quite well into the story, and it doesn't feel out of place.

How does the book compare to similar titles?
My experience with the genre is limited. Being part of the whole 'Paranormal Romance' section of bookshops, I avoided the books for quite some time. Eventually I was talked into it by a couple of people who assured me they weren't too girlie. They were right. I've read much more girlie books along the same lines - Twilight, being the prime example. So, how does Dead Until Dark compare to that? Well, the myth of the vampires is much better, the writing is much better, the story is much better, and the protagonist isn't in any way annoying. There's also less disturbance to be experienced, since Sookie is older than Bella Swan of Twilight. While the age difference between Bill and Sookie is still massive, at least she's legally of age to... you know... do it. And the romance of the book is a whole lot less desperate.

Ending the rant, do you recommend this book?
Wholeheartedly! Especially if you like HBO's adaptation of the books in the form of True Blood and you're prepared to accept the differences between the original books and the television series. Or you're into Paranormal Romance but you don't want something terrible like Twilight. Or you just like the Paranormal side of things (which was where I was, before seeing the show, but turned off by the romance) and you can stand to read the romance too.