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YALC Readathon - Day 4

 Thursday 26 June 2014

Well oops. I kind of forgot to any reading for the last couple of days. No, that's a lie because I have knowingly not done any reading because I have been playing copious amounts of Pokemon like a bloody idjit. It was mainly a procrastination from my space OU work but it ended up distracting me very thoroughly from everything else as well. I have got a little bit of reading done but for someone who managed to binge read 4 Alex Rider books last weekend it's rather a pathetic amount.

What I'm Reading
Still going with Dead Romantic I'm now 110 pages in and shit is getting rather Franken-freaky which is in no way a bad thing. Camille and Zoe are getting stuck into their DIY Boyf shenanigans with aplomb and it sure as hell ain't for the faint-hearted!
I've also been reading some more of Revived by Cat Patrick. Now I know it's the wrong Cat for YALC but still it's been something to read! I had a really long spell of not reading this since I kind of just put it down halfway through but I may actually finish it this week. So yay for that.

Posts y'all should check out
Since I've been kinda MIA for the last few days there are a couple of posts from our Lovely Hostesses to share with you.
Jess has a Guest post from Holly Bourne (Author of Soulmates) about authors meeting other more famous authors. With YALC getting ever nearer it's got some excellent advice for meeting your fav writers.
Carly has had two posts. One from Lucy Saxon (Author of Take back the Skies) about some of her top Movie/Music/Book/Youtube picks. Also a fab Dream Cast of Dead Romantic from C.J. Skuse herself.
Michelle has a post from Bryony Pearce (author of Weight of Souls) talking about the book she wished she had wrote. And another post from Phil Earle (author of Bubble Wrap Boy) about finding inspiration to write.

Also do make sure to check out the YALC Readathon Twitter chat tonight at 7pm GMT! Remember to use the hashtag #YALCreadathon and enjoy all the bookish awesomeness.

Right I am going to get some of my science work done now so I can join in the chat later with no guilt :P
Keep Reading!
Ray

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YALC Readathon Day 1!

 Monday 23 June 2014

Afternoon my lovelies! Tis the start of the YALC Readathon!! Hope everyone has enjoyed diving into their stack of YALC books so far! Alas for those of us who have been working most of the day this evening may be when the real reading begins.

What I'm Reading
I've decided to start my readathon with the hilariously macabre Dead Romantic by C.J. Skuse. During my lunch break earlier I managed to get 50 pages into it and so far I'm finding Camille's bizarre fascination with dead things and sudden girl crush on Zoe rather chucklesome. One of the librarians at work said she couldn't get more than 50 pgs into it because she thought it was a bit gruesome; clearly my brain is wired more along the lines of Camille because I find the resurrection of hamsters vair intriguing and I'm interested to see where this is going to lead. Some totes awesies Camille/Zoe Shenanigans in my future methinks :P.

Posts to check out
The four hosts of this readathon, Jess, Vicky, Carly & Michelle will be posting things from some of the fabulous authors due to attend YALC over the next week so keep an eye on their blogs for new posts. Today's posts:
Jess has a guest post from Katherine Woodfine - one of the organisers of YALC
Carly has a guest post from Beth Reekles - author of The Kissing Booth
Vicky has a guest post from Marcus Sedgwick - author of She is Not Invisible & various other books
Michelle has a post giving some recommendations of her favourite YALC authors.

Hopefully I'll have an update with whatever else I get read today later on but for now tis goodbye.

Happy Readathon!
Ray

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YALC Readathon Preparations

 Sunday 15 June 2014

So later this month between the 23rd & 29th there is going to be a Readathon for anyone who fancies reading some of the books by authors who are going to be going to YALC in July. You don't have to be going to the Lit Con yourself but if you are it's an excellent opportunity to make sure you have read some of their works before you meet the authors.

The Readathon is being hosted by several awesome bloggers; Jess of JessHeartsBooks (Bestie Extraordinaire), Vicky at Books, Biscuits & Tea, Carly at Writing from the Tub, and Michelle at Fluttering Butterflies. For all the deets and to sign up with your own blog post click here to go to Jess's blog where there is a linky.

For my Readathon I've got a stack of books that I'm planning to try and get through. I won't be able to spend as much time reading as I would like *shakes fist at work* but I'm gonna try my best to work through these books in the week I've got. It's a pretty good-looking pile if I do say so myself. Only two new-to-me authors but most of these have been lingering on my TBR list for a while and this Readathon will be a great chance for me to finally read them.
On the Stack
Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman
Dead Romantic by C.J. Skuse
The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher
A Kiss in the Dark by Cat Clarke
Trouble by Non Pratt
Say Her Name by James Dawson
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
More than This by Patrick Ness
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

A vair nice selection no? I have a good mix of Contemporary novels, of both the more light-hearted type and also the dramatic thriller type. Plus the dystopia entry from our Children's Laureate, Paranormal from Holly and the Horror/Supernatural entry from James Dawson.

There's no fantasy in this stack but I did read Amy McCulloch's debut book The Oathbreaker's Shadow the other week. And since the sequel to this is due out around the start of July I shall have to pick that up after the Readathon.

So that's what I'm planning to read for the YALC Readathon. Do you think I'm missing anything important? I have read several other books by the authors in the pile but I am aware that there are a lot of authors going to YALC that I've never heard of before. Although there is a limit to how much I can read in the readathon and what I can schlep to the Lit Con in the Trolley of Awesome (see Jess's Instagram for context).

But check back to ze blog on the 23rd for when the Readathon starts and keep an eye on Twitter for updates during that week.

Now to get on with last minute ironing,
Toodles chaps!
Ray

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Bloglovin' - I haz one!

 Sunday 1 June 2014

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

So I know that a lot of blogger folk these days have started using Bloglovin to allow people who may not want to go to the whole hassle of setting up a google account to follow via Friend Connect (do people still use that? Does it even work anymore? idk). From what I've just seen it has quite a similar feel to Pinterest in that nice endless scroll layout. So I thought why the hell not?

So if you fancy following le blog with Bloglovin, click the link at the top and hopefully it will take you somewhere where magical shit happens and you end up seeing my posts there. Such new fangled technology these days y'all!

Anyways have a good evenin' folks!
Ray

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Writing Ray - Mega Milestone

So a very short while ago I finished what is currently the last chapter of my book. And I finally passed 60,000 words. Y'heard right. SIXTY mutha-effing THOUSAND WORDS! :O


Dude I know *I'm* shocked as hell. When I started seriously writing this book back in January I had very little idea that I was going to end up here in June, well on my way to finishing writing my first book. I mean WUT? I have daydreamed ideas for years and excepting my Nanowrimo attempt of 2010, never really started writing any of the story ideas I had. I have several drawers full of notebooks with odd bits of scribblings about various ideas but nothing on the scale of tens of thousands of words.

I ain't finished yet though. I have at least 25K more that I need to write and that includes the first few chapters after the prologue and some important plot development sections from the middle of the book. So no slacking off for me. If the writing gods are nice to me maybe I can get this first draft complete by the time the summer holidays start so I can spend those sunny days *crosses fingers* in my garden editing and planning rewrites, but more likely plotting for book 2.

So there's that. Also I have to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to my twinnie/bestie/Alpha Reader extraordinaire/Primary cheerleader Jess who has been such an awesome part of writing this book so far. Without her reading my scenes when I finish them, pestering me when I'm procrastinating and motivating when I am feeling wobbly, I do not honestly know if I would be at this milestone now. I love you to bits Jess and I can't express how much I appreciate everything you've done for me.


I do also owe thanks to my lovely, lovely boyfriend, Mark who has dealt most admirably with having a slightly crazy writer-girlfriend these past six months. He has given me the chance to write guilt-free on some evenings and then made sure I did my other work on others :P He has listened to me rant and ramble about my book even though he hasn't read all of what I've done (eventually once the first draft is done he will *have* to read the whole thing). He's given me hugs after I dissolved into a sobbing mess  when I wrote the DDS and he has kept me fantastically supplied with cups of tea. Sweetie, you possibly won't see this (unless you click the link on Twitter out of curiosity), but I love you and thank you for putting up with me through this. I will do my best to get my Spacey-Wacey work done as well as finish this book :P


Ok now I need to stop faffing about with gifs and do my ironing since I go back to work tomorrow for the start of my last term working as a TA at that school and I have *nothing* to wear. :S

Thank you again and here's to an exciting June of writing, reading and HOLY SHIT TFIOS!! *prepares all the tissues*
Laters
Ray

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