Truthwitch by Susan Dennard - Book Review

Title: Truthwitch (The Witchlands #1)

Author: Susan Dennard

Release Date: 5th January 2016 (14th January in UK)

Source: Arc won from twitter. Bought finished copies.

Synopsis: On a continent ruled by three empires, some are born with a “witchery”, a magical skill that sets them apart from others.

In the Witchlands, there are almost as many types of magic as there are ways to get in trouble—as two desperate young women know all too well.
Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lie. It’s a powerful magic that many would kill to have on their side, especially amongst the nobility to which Safi was born. So Safi must keep her gift hidden, lest she be used as a pawn in the struggle between empires.
Iseult, a Threadwitch, can see the invisible ties that bind and entangle the lives around her—but she cannot see the bonds that touch her own heart. Her unlikely friendship with Safi has taken her from life as an outcast into one of reckless adventure, where she is a cool, wary balance to Safi’s hotheaded impulsiveness.
Safi and Iseult just want to be free to live their own lives, but war is coming to the Witchlands. With the help of the cunning Prince Merik (a Windwitch and ship’s captain) and the hindrance of a Bloodwitch bent on revenge, the friends must fight emperors, princes, and mercenaries alike, who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch. (Taken from Goodreads)

Review

It has taken me some time to feel equal to the task of writing a coherent review of this book which I read for the first time around the end of July 2015 (yes JULY). I finished my third, possibly fourth – I have honestly lost count – reading of my beauteous US arc *pets fondly* around the start of December and it’s taken me until now to actually complete this review. Truthwitch is now out in the world (still officially a few days away for the UK although I do have my finished copy already) which is such a joyous thing to me after being so utterly invested in the journey of this book since last spring. Holy void wells we’re finally at the end of the road. O_O

First I’d like y’all to do something for me, to set the scene if you will. Cue up in another window this video and then read this excerpt of Chapter 1 of Truthwitch. Now hit play on that song and read the chapter, come back when you’re done. Ok? Great.

*jazzy interlude musak*

You done? DO YOU WANT TO READ TRUTHWITCH YET?! OF COURSE YOU DO! Because that’s basically how that first chapter left me feeling. We’re thrown head-long into the action from the first line and by the end of this opening chapter you’re already breathless with excitement for what’s to come. It’s so magically visual that with the song playing in the background you can practically see it playing like a movie in your mind.

If you want there is also a sneak peek at Chapter 2 over on the Witchlands site that you can read once you’re finished here, which I *highly* recommend you do- there’s loads of other cool stuff over there as well like character quizzes and the most awesome author interview.

*ahem*

Annnnd back to the review. I don’t want to go into too much detail of all the things I love about the story as it’s not fair to veer into Spoiler Town so soon after release. BUT what I will talk about is one of the BEST aspects of the ENTIRE BOOK. Which is the dynamic duo known as Safiya fon Hasstrel and Iseult det Midenzi. Threadsisters for life, literal soul twins, these girls are the most BAD-ASS of best friends. This book slays thanks to the epicness of Safi & Iz’s relationship. Right from the beginning you can see just how much they mean to each other and the lengths they will go to in order to keep each other safe. Like, murder is not out of the question if your Threadsister is in danger. *cracks knuckles*

Besides our two main gals there is a whole host of fascinating characters including two certain gentlemen whose POV we get to read from as well as the girls’ and let me tell you – you are almost definitely going to have a fav by the end so share nicely with the other folk. There’s plenty of Merik and Aeduan to go around :P. Although I would like to call dibs on Aeduan please. At least on Thursdays. If you want more info that that awful tease then you should check out this video (link) where Sooz herself talks about the boys of Truthwitch.

Another aspect of Truthwitch which is SPECTACULAR is the world-building. Just how fantastically vast the world is, you can see from the map in the front of the book (also on the Witchlands website – click everything it’s glorious), and as you read you’re surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells of strange new lands and cities. Diverse cultures and people populate the Witchlands and over the four books in this series (oh yeah there’s gonna be four books people) I hope we continue to explore all the fabulous places on the Truthwitch map.

The other deliciously complex aspect of the world-building in Truthwitch is the vast array of Witcheries that people can possess and how the different elements which fuel magic are used across the Witchlands. The way Susan has woven the magic into the myth and fabric of the world is stunning and I cannot wait to see how everything progresses throughout the series.

It is a difficult thing for me to truly explain why I love Truthwitch so much. A lot of it is tied up in how long I have been following this book’s journey into the world and how much I admire and respect Susan for what an incredible world she has created. Reading this book multiple times has made me appreciate the extreme level of passion and care that has gone into its crafting and just knowing how much Safi & Iseult’s friendship is inspired by Sooz’s friendship with Sarah J. Maas honestly makes me emotional in many odd ways.

If you've ever read a post of mine or follow my twitter then you may know that my best friend on this whole damn planet is Jess of Jess Hearts Books – she’s just posted her review of Truthwitch because of course we’d get them done on the same day – even before either of us read Truthwitch we both related ENORMOUSLY to Sooz & Sarah’s amazing friendship from following them on social media. So when we entered Safi & Iseult's world we instantly fell in love with their relationship and the idea of Threadsisters – friends so close that the very fibres of their being are inextricably entwined – to the extent that now we use that word to describe our own friendship.

Truthwitch has become one of those books so dear to my heart that I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about near enough everyday. I've read it at least three times and it's highly likely that I'll read it another three times at least before Windwitch comes out. 

I know this review is awfully long and more than bit fangirly but believe me Truthwitch is more than worth every bit of praise I could lavish upon it. I strongly suggest you go out and get yourself a copy as soon as possible so you can lose yourself in the Witchlands like I have. I promise you won't be sorry you did.

Rating : Four & a half stars out of Five!

Ray x

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Book Haul - Overexcited Vlog edition

Since I haven't done any kind of In My Mailbox post in a literal AGE, all my book acquisitions have only been shown over on my Youtube channel - there's quite a lot over there although I am a very lazy booktuber who has never learnt to edit videos properly so they are mostly very long and waffley. This particular haul is a combination of books gifted by Jess, one was won in a competition and the rest were bought by me in various places.



Books Featured in Vlog
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (Borrowed from Jess)
Night Owls by Jean Bennett (ARC gifted by Jess)
Simon vs. the Homosapien agenda - Becky Albertali (Copy gifted by Jess)
This Raging Light by Estelle Laure (ARC gifted by Jess)
Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten (ARC gifted by Jess)
The Dead House by Dawn Gurtagich (Won from Jess's blog)
Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas - YAAS <3 p="">Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (Bought from the Strand in NYC)
The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh (Bought from the Strand)
Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson (Bought from the Strand)
Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman (Bought from Barnes & Noble in NYC) MY REVIEW
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (Bought from Books-a-Million in Florida)
Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson (Bought from BaM in FL)
The Archived by Victoria Schwab (Bought from BaM in FL)
The Unbound by Victoria Schwab (Bought from BaM in FL)
The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer (Bought from BaM in FL)
Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper (Bought from BaM in FL)
Strange & Ever After by Susan Dennard - YAS Empress Sooz! <3 p="">The Martian by Andy Weir (Bought from the airport)

Also shown
The fabulous tote bag bought from the Strand
Hermione Granger & Ariel Funko Pops
Ravenclaw notebooks.

So if you actually watched that whole vlog, thank you! It got far longer than I planned but there is much enthusiasm - particularly about Queen of Shadows that bit lasted nearly 3 minutes XD.

I know that things have been a bit quiet on here since I got back from holiday, I do have some stuff that I am working on, albeit slowly so in the meantime, entertain yourself with some of my recent posts if you like.

Until next time,
Ray x

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Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman - Book Review

Now this is quite possibly the fastest I've ever turned round a book review and I'm not even exaggerating. I finished this at 1am and not 12 hours later I've finished writing my review. But seriously y'all this *never* happens to me.

Title: Vengeance Road
Author: Erin Bowman
Release Date: 1st September 2015 (US)
Source: Bought
Synopsis: "Revenge is worth its weight in gold.

When her father is murdered for a journal revealing the location of a hidden gold mine, eighteen-year-old Kate Thompson disguises herself as a boy and takes to the gritty plains looking for answers—and justice. What she finds are untrustworthy strangers, endless dust and heat, and a surprising band of allies, among them a young Apache girl and a pair of stubborn brothers who refuse to quit riding in her shadow. But as Kate gets closer to the secrets about her family, a startling truth becomes clear: some men will stop at nothing to get their hands on gold, and Kate’s quest for revenge may prove fatal." (From Goodreads)

My Review

I heard about this book via Susan Dennard and also when Erin had a spot in Sooz’s Misfits & Daydreamers newsletter talking about morally ambiguous characters. A YA western novel is something I have never seen before and the idea of characters with grey morals and suspicious intentions was so interesting to me. Since I was coming to the US not long after it was released I made sure to put Vengeance Road on the list of books I needed to buy.

First of all, how gorgeous is this book cover? It’s so perfect for the story and wonderfully eye-catching. The hardcover also has deckled page edges which I *adore*. If you weren’t already looking for it, the cover would definitely make you stop and take a look at the blurb.

One of the things that I loved most about Vengeance Road was our main character Kate. Her determination, her stubbornness, her scorching fury and most of all her voice. Ye gods this book had a voice that you’ll be hearing for DAYS after you finish. It’s written in first person present, in a dialect that quite literally twangs off the page from the very start. Never have I had such a strong urge to read a book aloud with the best accent I could muster to replicate the version of Kate I had in my head telling me her story.

Kate’s world is so harsh and brutal, people are fuelled by hate and fear with no qualms about killing innocents in order to get what they want. So when Kate’s father is horrifically murdered out of the blue there’s no one she can turn to for help. Her first instinct is to disguise herself as a boy, grab her Colt pistol and her Winchester rifle and start hunting down the bastards who killed her Pa. She’s prepared to do whatever it takes to get revenge and sure as hell ain’t gonna let anyone stop her.

I loved just how blisteringly angry Kate was for much of the book. Her rage drove her to do some pretty questionable things I’ll grant you, but under all that roiling darkness is the glimmer of person who still has a line, a limit to what they will or won’t do. Kate is so fascinating in that respect and I reckon we need more heroines like her in YA fiction.

The historical aspect of the story is rooted in the Goldrush fever of the late 19^th century where prospectors risked everything on the hope of finding a vein of gold to make them rich. But as you see throughout Vengeance Road, Gold makes monsters out of men. There’s also the unflinching portrayal of the relations between the white prospectors and the Apache natives who lived in the region at that time. You wince at reading how other characters react to Liluye, the Apache girl who Kate rescues. She is just one person but people treat her as if she were responsible for the actions of all of her people. Sadly that kind of prejudice endures and festers through history until its corruption taints even the present day.

It’s a harsh gritty world that Erin has brought to life and a scorching adventure that somehow feels longer than its 300 pages, with sudden twists that have you scrambling to stay in the saddle. Kate is a gripping heroine and I could very easily read three more books of her exploits in that gloriously distinctive voice of hers. Can you tell I’m a fan of it yet?

So if you’re in the mood for a gun-toting gal, hell-bent on revenge charging through the blazing Arizona landscape with murder on her mind, then I think you need to meet Kate Thompson in Vengeance Road.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars 

Well what do you think? Interested in Vengeance Road? Have you read it already? I'd love to know what you thought about it. :D

A little side-note that made me chuckle - this book takes place in 1877 and at one point a character is mentioned as having traveled west from Philadelphia. I couldn't help imagining that she left because of all that trouble with the dead walking around not long before :P (Folk who've read Something Strange & Deadly ought to get what I'm on about).

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this review if you're not still reeling from the fact that I've posted two reviews in one week after at least two YEARS with none.

Until next time.

Ray x

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Reasons to get EXCITED AS HELL for Truthwitch

This is a post that I’m trying very hard not to do in ALLCAPS because oh-my-sweet-baeduan-of-the-void do I want to spend weeks gushing about this book. But this isn’t a review, oh no, *that* will be coming in the future nearer to Truthwitch’s release date of January 5^th 2016 (WRITE THAT DATE DOWN NOW). This post is simply a list of all the reasons I feel should get you hyped as fuck for Truthwitch.

Empress Sooz 

Reason #1 – Empress Sooz

If you don’t know who Susan Dennard is then please allow me to introduce you to the wondrous author of Truthwitch and Empress of the Witchlanders (her intensely loyal clan of fans) and all-around LOVELY PERSON. She is seriously one of the coolest authors I know and is so fantastic and generous with her readers. Sooz is also the author of the Something Strange & Deadly trilogy – a fabulous supernatural adventure set in 1870’s Philadelphia (as well as Paris & Egypt in the sequels) with a cracking heroine Eleanor who is having to deal with attacks from the walking dead while trying to figure out why her brother has not come home.  By a cruel twist of fate this series is only available in the US so getting hold of it in the UK does require some sorcery and a small blood ritual. Maybe once Truthwitch has come out over here somebody will listen to my howling demands to publish Something Strange & Deadly for the UK market. Because if you loved the Infernal Devices trilogy you are probably gonna want to read this series as well.

Reason #2 – This book is fan-freaking-tastic

Just read this.

“On a continent ruled by three empires, some are born with a “witchery,” a magical skill that sets them apart from others.In the Witchlands, there are almost as many types of magic as there are ways to get in trouble—as two desperate young women know all too well.
Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lie. It’s a powerful magic that many would kill to have on their side, especially amongst the nobility to which Safi was born. So Safi must keep her gift hidden, lest she be used as a pawn in the struggle between empires.
Iseult, a Threadwitch, can see the invisible ties that bind and entangle the lives around her—but she cannot see the bonds that touch her own heart. Her unlikely friendship with Safi has taken her from life as an outcast into one of of reckless adventure, where she is a cool, wary balance to Safi’s hotheaded impulsiveness.
Safi and Iseult just want to be free to live their own lives, but war is coming to the Witchlands. With the help of the cunning Prince Merik (a Windwitch and ship’s captain) and the hindrance of a Bloodwitch bent on revenge, the friends must fight emperors, princes, and mercenaries alike, who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.” (Synopsis borrowed from Sooz’s Website)

You might be wondering how I am able to make such a claim when the book isn’t out until January. Well here’s the thing; I’ve read it, twice in fact and I can very safely say that it is one of my top five reads of this entire year. It is possible to get a sneaky look at the first chapter or two if you subscribe to Susan’s newsletter Misfits & Daydreamers (which is a thing you should really do if you want to keep up with her bookish news and get some kick-ass writing advice as well) and believe me just reading the first chapter will leave you so desperate for the rest of the book that you might consider selling your soul.

Reason #3 – Truthwitch Street Team

If the book wasn’t awesome enough then the fact that we have a six clan street team cheerleading the whole way up to publication would tip it over the edge. Organised and commanded by Sooz and the amazing Nicola (who tweets as The Wicked Powers, Truthwitch and like 3 other accounts XD, she also blogs from Queen of the Bookshelves), the street team is made up of six clans; Water, Earth, Air, Fire, Aether and Void (the elements from which all the different witcheries come) and basically the clans are sharing their passion for Truthwitch across social media. There are opportunities each month for 6 more people to join the Street Team and be privy to all the secret clan gossip *wistful sigh because #clanless *. But even for folk not on the street team there are awesome competitions and twitter chats that you can participate in :D.

Reason #4 – LOOK AT THESE COVERS (not even Final versions!)

Photo borrowed from Jess's Instagram - her UK arc & my US one

Much of my brain yesterday was taken over with extreme emotions over the UK ARC versions of Truthwitch which were revealed as part of #TruthwitchTuesday – like seriously it’s not even the final UK cover and I was just about fucking crying over it. The US edition is equally gorgeous with its badass depiction of Safi and the swirling water around her. But look at how shiny the foil is on the UK arc!! Needless to say I will be getting both versions of the finished book and if by some miracle I’m lucky enough to get hold of a UK arc then I’ll have to full set ^_^ Not that I’m a magpie or anything. *hoards all the shinies*  

I think I’ll leave my list at four main reasons otherwise I’ll be off onto an enormously spoilerific word-vomit about everything that I love about Truthwitch. You can look forward to that post maybe in the New Year or a bit before.

SO ARE YOU EXCITED FOR TRUTHWITCH YET?!? ARE YOU?!

BECAUSE I SURE AM!! *goes for a lie down in a dark room*

Ray x

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Monster by C.J. Skuse - Book Review

Good Morning folks! (It's probably not morning in the UK but bear with I'm in Florida ok?). Today I am MASSIVELY excited to say that I have a BOOK REVIEW for y'all! This is probably the first review I've done on here since Seraphina in 2012 so yea... it's kinda a big deal for me anyway. I've been sitting on this review since APRIL because the book as you may already know from the post title is only now coming out this week! So at last I can share some of my feels with you.

Title: Monster
Author: C.J. Skuse
Release Date: 24th September 2015
Source: ARC borrowed from JessHeartsBooks who had received it for review from MIRAInk
Synopsis: At sixteen Nash thought that the fight to become Head Girl of prestigious boarding school Bathory would be the biggest battle she’d face. Until her brother’s disappearance leads to Nash being trapped at the school over Christmas with Bathory’s assorted misfits. As a blizzard rages outside, strange things are afoot in the school’s hallways, and legends of the mysterious Beast of Bathory – a big cat rumoured to room the moors outside the school – run wild. Yet when the girls’ Matron goes missing it’s clear that something altogether darker is to blame – and that they’ll have to stick together if they hope to survive. (Taken from Goodreads)

My Review

 Advisory – This review contains a good dollop of swearing. The book itself also contains a fair amount of swearing and violence so if that’s not your thing then consider yourself warned.

I was able to read this months ahead of it's release date thanks to my dear Twinnie Jess but it's kinda been killing me that I couldn't really talk about Monster until now - spoilers dontcha know? Frankly this is one of those books where it’s best for sheer enjoyment of the story if you don’t know much beyond the fact that there are a group of girls who are the last students to leave the Bathory School for Girls before Christmas when a massive snowstorm rolls in and then well... shit gets fucked up from there.

One of the many things I love about CJ’s books is that every single one is completely different from the last. Some authors keep to a similar genre for all of their work but with CJ it’s a delightful lottery every time I get my grubby mitts on a new book. Her debut Pretty Bad Things (my review) was a riotous candy crime-spree through Vegas; Rockaholic was full of hilarious hijinks following an accidental rockstar kidnapping; Dead Romantic was a macabre FrankenRomance whereas Monster is an adrenaline-drenched thriller with a good dose of Baskervillian terror to keep you up at night.

Our main girl Nash has quite a lot on her plate at the start of the book; she’s working her raspberry socks off trying to impress the headmistress enough to win the Head Girl badge, trying to juggle all the pre-Christmas insanity on top of her newest worries for her big brother Seb who’s gone missing in Colombia. Oh yeah and then there’s that troubling incident where she might have seen the legendary Beast of Bathory. Not that she believes in it. ‘Course not because that would be fucking ludicrous.

I read this waaay back at the start of April (For reasons that people who have seen my review of Pretty Bad Things will understand) and I devoured the whole thing in one sitting. I love a good boarding school story and when you mix the isolation brought on by the blizzard, the group of girls from different cliques with their own secrets causing mischief, plus the menace of a wild beast roaming the snow, you have the perfect recipe for knuckle-biting tension and no sleep.

Even in the midst of heightening drama and the increasing terror that something awful will happen to someone you’re very much attached to, CJ still managed to stop me in my tracks with a line that cut to the core of why I read her books around April 7^th and that really encapsulates a lot of the book. That being the idea that the monsters you can’t fight are the worst monsters of all.

Suffice it to say, I was utterly clueless about how this book would end and HOO BOY was I left mind-blown and suitably awed. This is without a doubt C.J.’s best book so far and one that I plan to get my greedy hands on and re-read nearer to Halloween for all the creep-tastic chills and spine-tingling shudders.

You want a hair-raising boarding school thriller to keep you flipping pages well into the night? Go wrangle yourself a copy of Monster. Trust me, you’ll be sorry that you didn’t. 

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Whew! Thank god I've finally got all that off my chest! In all seriousness I can't overstate my appreciation for C.J.'s books in all their blunt, snarky, awesomeness. Even 4 years after my grandad's death I'm still finding comfort and distraction in her words. It might be a little weird to associate a reading experience with such a devastating event but as J.K Rowling wrote "words are our greatest source of magic" and it just so happened that C.J.'s were the words that helped me deal with a very difficult time. I am so grateful for her books for that reason.

A slight side-note that made me even happier about reading Monster - in the arc version (will have to see with the finished book) on the inside of the FRONT cover is a quote from ME! My review of Pretty Bad Things is quoted!! It is as In the Library of LadyViolet but it's me all the same! The same quote was in the back of Dead Romantic as well so now that's two books that I've been quoted in! Considering how I've never been a really "big" blogger it is something I find really exciting.

Anyway before the day runs away from me I shall be off.

What did you think to the review?

Ray x

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In non-bookish news...

About this time last year I set up a second blog called Ray May Write which was intended to be more of a writing/studying blog as I was about to start two Open University modules in French and Creative Writing. The new blog was supposed to be where I could chronicle my progress and share snippets of stuff I did for my writing module as well talk about my own novel project.

As you might imagine that was a spectacular failure and I burnt myself out over there pretty much before the modules even started. There are a few posts from this year but the most recent is from June when I had a wee bit of an anxiety attack. That is a bit of a downer I’ll tell you now.

That blog might get a bit of a revival though soon as I’m about to start a new module which is also kinda relevant to this blog. It’s a Children’s Literature module and the 1^st Harry Potter book is literally on my reading list ^_^. While I am excited I am also nervous about the fact that I’ve not “studied” literature since my English Lit GCSE way back in 2007 (fuck I am oooold). This is a Level 3 module, like we’re talking 3^rd-year-of-uni-this-is-going-to-count-towards-your-degree-classification level module. Yikes.

Luckily despite all the stress I had doing my two Level 2 modules at the same time (Anyone who follows my Twitter & IG might remember how fun April was) I did actually pass both modules with what I think is a 2:1 which is insane because I fucking HATED every second of my French module and procrastinated the shit out of every assignment. I am the luckiest bitch, how does anyone stand me?

While my Uni modules were going on last year I had very little brain power to devote to working on my novel which I spent basically the first half of 2014 slaving over. I technically had fuck-loads of time that I could have used but I’m an awful human being with no concept of time management. However folk will probably have noticed the resurgence in #amwriting and #amediting posts on my Twitter and IG since June.

I’ve thrown myself back into my novel doing a combination of revising/redrafting/finishing the draft while I’m relatively free (I have been working an odd schedule during the week at my mother’s office). When I stopped working on the project last November I had over 80K of words written and the ending was done save for one chapter. The main problem was the pesky middle where nothing really existed past Chapter 13 until somewhere around Chapter 21 or 22 (my chapter numbers are going to be a mess before long). I had vague ideas about some of the things that need to happen in the gap before I got sidetracked by my uni assignments but nothing got planned out.

Now in my summer “break” I’ve been working to fill this hole although I’m only now getting to the edge of it. I’ve been reworking all the chapters leading up to the gap since several needed redrafting completely while at least one needed writing for the first time – I am a fucking idiot for writing this first draft so out of order. So it’s taken me a long time to get to this point which is ridiculous since I was more productive when I was writing only in the evenings after a day at my mentally exhausting full-time job!

Since last year I have read a metric shit-ton about writing process and craft (Mostly from SusanDennard’s Ah-mazing website which has the best writing resources EVAH, plus she is the loveliest person who writes awesome books to boot – more on that in the near future). Adding all that onto doing a whole module on creative writing where I had to write to deadlines and be objective while editing my own writing I feel like I’m a much stronger writer than I was this time last year.

I can look back at my work from early 2014 (with much cussing and wincing) and see where the issues are and come up with solutions to fix them rather than just despair at the general shit-ness of everything. Even as I’m working through this current draft (which I want to call Draft 1.5 cos it’s not really a 2^nd Draft yet) I’m mentally earmarking bits that I’ll need to revisit on the next round of revisions when I go hardcore and print out the whole damn thing and attack it with highlighters and index cards.

I held off from doing that until I’d got a complete manuscript with no missing chapters and scenes from the main plotlines so I can read it through from start to finish (there are two subplot POVs which I’ve yet to draft because I’m not quite sure how & where they’ll slot in amongst the other chapters). But once I’m done with this round of redrafting I am super excited to go to my nearest staples or whatever and come home with practically an entire ream of paper that will be my book.

So that’s currently where I’m at with non-reading bookish things. Steadily plugging away on the 2^nd act of my book so it meets up with 1 & 3 while everything else gets a serious sprucing-up. Then once the start of October comes I’ll be diving into OU studies again with the hope that I can actually keep on top of the workload and not look like an idiot at my first tutorial on the 10^th XD.

Bookish updates will hopefully be on the way here once I get home and I’m able to do things like film a book haul (it’ll be a big’un), actually post my reading list for the year so far and do several author event write-ups which I’ve been to this year. There are a couple of reviews that I am hoping to post before then for some September Releases that I have a lot of feelings about. Anyone who talks to me on twitter will likely know what at least two of those books are :P Especially those people who were DMing me to share their own feels XD.

Stay tuned my lovelies!
Ray 

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Queen of the Crappy Bloggers

This is going to come as no surprise to anyone who might have followed this blog for a long time.

I am awful at keeping up with blogging.

To anyone who stumbles across this blog randomly or if they click through from either my Twitter or my Youtube channel, I must seem like such a disappointment when they see that the last fucking post I did was in JANUARY.

I am on twitter constantly talking about books and writing. Like you have to cleave me from my phone to stop me checking my feed multiple times a minute. I flail over books I've read, and this year I have read a *lot* of books, not quite at 2010-Rachel level but I've probably almost hit my Goodreads challenge target (another thing I have not updated in months).

Yet you never see anything resembling a review from me. And that's so crap. I have such in-depth discussions about books with my friends on Twitter that it seems insane that I don't formulate these thoughts into posts that other people can find and read months after the fact.

So I'm gonna give this blogging malarkey another go. I have a lot of bookish stuff to talk about from the year so far plus several fantastic books that I have read recently which have literally taken over my brain for weeks.

I'm armed with a list of ideas so let's see how this ship fares. She's a bit rickety but she might still sail.

Bear with me folks
Ray

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My Best Books of 2014!!

I meant to do this at least a week ago but I was a bit preoccupied by getting my Creative Writing assignment done.

I made a vlog of my Favourite books of 2014 earlier today which I'll embed below with the full list of books & authors mentioned. I also talk through the stats for my reading including the woeful lack of non-fiction books and the domination of YA in my reading (which is by no means a bad thing). The list isn't in any particular order but I rated them all as 5 Stars.



My Top Reads in 2014
The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa (Blood of Eden #3)
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan (Lynburn Legacy #3)
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass #3)
Isla & the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare (Mortal Instruments #6)
Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (DoSaB #3)
Half Bad by Sally Green (Half Bad #1)
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me #3)
Taste of Darkness by Maria V. Snyder (Avry of Kazan #3)

Honourable Mentions
Cress by Marissa Meyer (Lunar Chronicles #3)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini
It's not you it's me by Mhairi McFarlane
Half Wild by Sally Green (Half Bad #2)

The above list is only a fraction of the really amazing books I read in 2014, there are loads of books that I read that I rated 4 & 4.5 stars which I would recommend but these happen to be my 5 Star Reads. The Full list of books that I read in 2014 can be accessed from the bar below the header.

Were any of these in your list of Top Books from 2014? Are you planning on reading some of these in 2015? Should I be looking out for certain books to read soon?

I shall hopefully blog again soon about... something, I don't know what yet. I have a worrying amount of work to do for my Open University modules over the next few months so I shall have to focus myself on those.

Happy Reading until next time!
Ray

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Reading Goals for 2015

I know I haven't yet done a post about my Top whatever-random-number books of 2014 or looked at my detailed reading stats but I'll get to that soonish. Today I wanted to lay down some of the Reading Goals for 2015 with the full expectation that I'll look back at the end of the year and realise I've completed none of them. But hey-ho let's do it anyway.

Reading Goals for 2015

1. Read 120 books - I've downgraded this massively from last year's goal of 150 because with me trying to finish my first draft of my novel I have spent a lot less time reading so having a large total of books to read is just not going to happen. Making it 120 is more manageable and I'll feel less like a failure if I only just reach it.

2. Re-reads need to be only 25% of the Reading Goal - I had 53 of my 2014 reads being re-reads which was about 42% of my overall total so I want to try and get that number down to only a quarter so based on my goal that means only re-reading 30 books in 2015. It'll be a challenge but I have more than enough unread books to go the whole year without re-reading but there are some thing that I just have to read annually :P

3. Read some Non-Fiction - I read literally no non-fiction in 2014, not a single book. So I'd like to read at least 1 book a month in 2015, two if possible since I got a lot of non-fiction books for Christmas and I have a lot in my collection.

4. Clear some old TBR titles - I have a worrisome amount of books that have been in my collection since before I started cataloging my library and recording my reading so I really would like to get to some of those ancient titles this year *coughTheBookThiefcough*.

5. If I have something to say about a book, write a review - Doesn't matter how long or short it is, if I get to the end of a book and want to say something about it I ought to get it written down and post it. Most of my thoughts on my reading in 2014 have been voiced during videos I put up on Youtube which comparatively few people see so I need to try and write some kind of actual review here that people can actually find.

I think those goals will be sufficient for the time being, I don't want to set myself loads of really specific challenges that I may not want to do when it comes round to it. I could say I  want to read more classics or some other new genre but I don't want to force myself to read certain books since it might feel too much like assigned reading.

What are some of your Reading Goals for 2015?

Laters
Ray

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4th Quarter Reading Round-off

Oops, I vanished off the face of the blogging planet again didn't I? Not only did I ignore my writing/studying blog but I also left this one to languish for 2-3 months. Sorry.
So I missed doing my Reading Round-offs for October & November, but I'm gonna chuck them in with my December reading now. It's not that many books when you realise that due to Nanowrimo (which I did attempt and failed again but not with such disastrous side-effects) I only read 5 books in all of November.

Here we go!

October
100. Misty Falls by Joss Stirling (1/10/2014 PM)
101. The Maze Runner by James Dashner (15/10/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
102. Talon by Julie Kagawa (15/10/2014 PM)
103. Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan (17/10/2014 AM)
104. Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle (19/10/2014 AM)
105. Frozen (Heart of Dread) by Melissa de la Cruz & Michael Johnston (20/10/2014 AM)
106. Ghost of a Chance by Rhiannon Lassiter (21/10/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
107. Something Strange & Deadly by Susan Dennard (24/10/2014 AM)
108. A Darkness Strange & Lovely by Susan Dennard (26/10/2014 AM)
109. Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George (27/10/2014 AM)
110. The Sleeper & the Spindle by Neil Gaiman (30/10/2014 PM)
111. A Dawn most Wicked by Susan Dennard (30/10/2014 PM)

November
112. Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout (2/11/2014 PM)
113. 3 Weeks with Lady X by Eloisa James (6/11/2014 AM)
114. It's Not Me It's You by Mhairi McFarlane (9/11/2014 AM)
115. The Copper Promise by Jen Williams (17/11/2014 PM)
116. Winger by Andrew Smith (26/11/2014 PM)

December
117. My True Love Gave to Me by Stephanie Perkins & others (5/12/2014 PM)
118. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (15/12/2014 PM)
119. The Falconer by Elizabeth May (17/12/2014 AM)
120. Half Wild by Sally Green (25/12/2014 PM)
121. The Selection by Kiera Cass (26/12/2014 AM)
122. The Elite by Kiera Cass (27/12/2014 AM)
123. The One by Kiera Cass (27/12/2014 PM)
124. The Selection stories by Kiera Cass (27/12/2014 PM)
125. You Had Me at Hello by Mhairi McFarlane (29/12/2014 AM) 

October's Book of the Month

UNMADE!!! Holy crapsticks did this book put me through the wringer. There is a reason I dubbed Sarah "The Soul Destroyer" in my last post. But what a fantastic end to an amazing series even if some bits did utterly break my damn heart *sobs* I look forward to what she's gonna write next although I am fully prepared for it to stampede all over my feels again.
Honourable mention goes to Susan Dennard's Something Strange & Deadly series which I started in October although I still have to get hold of the final book (I have an email that I've been meaning to send for a month about that). It's such an awesome historical paranormal series with a fantastic heroine Eleanor who gets caught up with a ragtag bunch of people who are on the hunt for the Dead, the zombie creatures which are growing in number in Philadelphia. Eleanor is also trying to find out how the Dead are linked to her brother who has gone missing. There's action, society hijinks, Eleanor thwacking zombies with a parasol and well Daniel Sheridan. Need I say more?
Susan is also besties with Sarah J. Maas and they're doing an epic space opera story called Starkillers together on Tumblr which you MUST read!!

November's Book of the Month

Considering how I only read 5 books this month they were a bloody good bunch since 4 of them were rated either 4 or 4.5 stars out of 5. Top banana goes to It's Not Me It's You by Mhairi McFarlane which I was put on to by Twinnie Jess after her gushing review - I don't read a lot of general women's fiction, I am mostly a solid YA girl but this book has made me declare my love for Mhairi and vow to read everything she writes from now on. It's hysterically funny, like you're going to be sat reading on a bus holding back your ugly snorting laughs kind of funny. Her characters are amazing and so vivid that you want to be besties by the end. The romance actually caught me by surprise, it didn't come from where I expected but it was fab and made me stay up waaay too later to finish it.
Also Winger by Andrew Smith was an awesome YA Contemp that dealt with a great range of topics and shocked me to tears at the end but I am so fond of Ryan Dean now that I'm dying for the sequel Stand-off which is coming next September.
Also ALSO The Copper Promise by Jen Williams was the first in a fantasy series that had a bunch of characters that I fell in love with (Grumpy Frith included!) and a world that was so rich and extensive even in this first book so I'm really looking forward to where things will go in the second book The Iron Ghost which is due out next March.

December's Book of the Month

I think if you live in the UK you might just have heard about this one - like from everyone. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, it has been the book that has exploded in 2014 and was not only Waterstone's Book of the Year but also the National Book of the Year. I read it after hearing about it from all of my colleagues at Waterstones (where I worked this Christmas season! :D) and my god was everyone right to gush about  it! It's set in 17th century Amsterdam and follows the story of Petronella, an eighteen year old girl who gets married off to the extremely wealthy merchant Johannes Brandt. He buys her an beautiful doll house replica of their house in Amsterdam as a wedding present and Nella finds a Miniaturist to make furnishings for it. But the exquisite works of tiny art which arrive from the Miniaturist are more than what Nella ordered and they start to tell an eerie story of what changes are coming in their lives at the Brandt house. Beautifully lyrical and suspenseful story that will linger in your mind long after you've finished it.
Honourable Mentions to Half Wild by Sally Green which I managed to read by fortuitous chance since an ARC was sent to my branch of Waterstones and I was able to borrow it before I finished there. I'll be doing a review that will hit the interwebs nearer the publication date of March 23rd. Also I finished My True Love Gave to Me and I was surprised that I enjoyed all of the stories, some I adored. I don't usually find that I like all of the stories in an anthology like this but this clearly was a magical collection of authors. Rainbow, Steph & Laini's stories were my ultimate favs which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me.

So there we are! My Reading Round-off for the last three months and if you would believe it from October to now I've only had 2 re-reads! (that I've recorded because you don't need to know that I binged the entire Shatter Me series again when I was meant to be doing a writing assignment). But seriously guys I'm impressed that I made it only 2 out of 25 books read. It's probably a record.

I will be doing a Favourites of 2014 post soon I promise once I have all my reading statistics configured the way my nerdy brain wants them. I also want to do a 2015 Resolutions and goals post for both Reading and my Writing.

Hope everyone had a Great Christmas and Happy New Year if I don't see you before then!
Ray

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September Reading Round-off

Well hello there folks!! I know it has been quite a while since anything got posted on this here blog but that's because I've been rather busy over on my new writing/study blog Ray May Write fretting and procrastinating my way through September. Which has disappeared alarmingly fast, I'm less than a week away from my 24th birthday and only a few days away from the start of my two OU modules which is a little scary.

But I'm here today to do my September reading wrap-up and tell you what my Book of the Month is, it should be a fairly obvious choice if you follow me on twitter :P

Books Read in September
89. Mastiff by Tamora Pierce (8/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
90. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (11/9/2014 AM)
91. Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini (12/9/2014 PM)
92. Cross Stitch/Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (15/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
93. Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce (17/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
94. Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce (17/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
95. Speechless by Hannah Harrington (21/9/2014 PM)
96. Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan (23/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
97. Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan (25/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
98. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (29/9/2014 PM)
99. Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (30/9/2014 PM)

Oops again with only 4 new reads out of 11 but who cares?

Book of the Month
This is an easy choice as you'll well know that I've been absolutely *dying* to read the rest of this after I got something like 25 chapters in over the YALC weekend. I had quite a time getting hold of a copy since I hadn't realised that the UK release date was over a week later than the US date so I expended rather a lot of stress and energy getting myself to Waterstones when they didn't have it in yet. *sigh* But when I did finally get my grubby mitts on a copy everything was right with the world. I devoured this book, I fucking loved this book and all its characters and the world and dammit I just love Sarah J. Maas ok? Heir of Fire was amazing and I don't quite know what I'm going to do with myself until the fourth book comes out. Thankfully we do have the epic sounding Court of Thorns and Roses due out in the Spring(?) so I can still get my Sarah fix before I find out what's cracking with Celeana. And I always have my re-read binge before the next release :P

Books I'm looking forward to in October
Now I'm going to keep the rest of this brief because I need to go be useful and help get dinner ready. I have a few things that I'm very excited for in October. One of them I finished this afternoon and have already flailed all over Twitter about - Misty Falls by Joss Stirling is part of a series that I adore and love to re-read over and over so I nearly had a heart attack in the library earlier when this book which technically doesn't even come out until tomorrow was already there on the shelf! Like a good addict I snatched it off the shelf and took it home to speed through. I may even re-read before I have to take it back to the library.

I'm also still trying my damnedest to get hold of a copy of Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan since I did my series re-read in prep for the release on the 25th and then no bloody bookstores near me have the book! So it will be the mission of early October to get it and see what Sarah the Soul Destroyer (as I shall call her to differentiate from Sarah of the Sexy Fae) has in store for me. From what I've heard so far, heartbreak and sadness but also perfection. So who knows what the fuck is going to happen?

There's also My true Love gave to Me which is the awesome sounding anthology of Christmas stories from a bunch of my fav authors. I am super excited for this and it should be a great book to read either in October or closer to Christmas when it'll really be fitting.

Anyways that's all I gots for you now, see you guys soon maybe.
Ray

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August Reading Round-off

Good morning chaps! I know it has been a while since I posted on this blog but I have to own up to be being busy with a new blog that I've been setting up to talk about my writing and studying for the next year. So you won't see any more Writing Ray posts on this blog, instead they will be over on my new wordpress blog Ray May Write where I will also be posting about my experience studying two Open University modules at the same time.
While I know it won't appeal to everyone, I hope that some folk who may be interested in some of the things that crop up from studying a Creative Writing or French course might consider heading over there and following the blog. I am going to try and make my posts both interesting and informative :P

Right now that bit's over let's turn to this month's reading. It was a decent month compared to previous this year. 12 Books were read although there were 5 re-reads. BUT I will defend myself by pointing out that two *had* to be read before Isla came out! And another needed to be re-read before I read the second book since it had been a few years.

Books read in August
77. The Masterful Mr Montague by Stephanie Laurens (1/8/2014 AM)
78. A Rake's Vow by Stephanie Laurens (1/8/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
79. The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Divry (7/8/2014 PM)
80. Anna & the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (7/8/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
81. Lola & the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins (8/8/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
82. Blood Red Road by Moira Young (8/8/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
83. Rebel Heart by Moira Young (13/8/2014 PM)
84. Isla & the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins (14/8/2014 PM)
85. Roomies by Sara Zarr & Tara Altebrando (16/8/2014 AM)
86. Tribute by Ellen Renner (24/8/2014 AM)
87. Ruin & Rising by Leigh Bardugo (26/8/2014 AM)
88. Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson (28/8/2014 PM) *RE-READ*

Book of the Month

This is going to be an easy decision because it's the book everyone has been waiting for since they read the first page of Anna & the French Kiss. After a wait that was a bit longer than we expected we finally got our mitts on Isla and the Happily Ever After on August 14th. Except it didn't go quite to plan since the UK pre-orders didn't get dispatched from Amazon so I had a very angry rant on Twitter before buying the e-book and devouring that instead. 

Stephanie is a sorceress I'm telling you - her words are pure magic and her characters make you laugh, cry, lust and generally FEEL ALL THE THINGS! Isla and Josh pulled me through a wringer of emotions, the ups had me grinning like a fool in love while the downs had me almost clutching my heart in the shared agony. It was a sublime ending to this trilogy of connected awesomeness and I am desperately awaiting whatever Stephanie writes next (Although I know she's got a short story coming out as part of the My True Love Gave to Me book which looks to be AMAZEBALLS).

Honourable Mention for Leigh Bardugo's Ruin & Rising (Grisha #3) the final book in her epic YA fantasy trilogy. It also had me running the gamut of feels and finished in a way that I hadn't really expected but really loved all the same. 

I had the really amazing opportunity to meet Leigh along with Moira Young (Author of Blood Red Road) when they did a Writing Q&A event at Birmingham Waterstones earlier this month. It was a fantastic day and I heard some excellent writing advice, even plucked up the courage to ask my own question and also got to chat books and writing with awesome folk. Jess did a great write-up of the event over here.

The week before that event Jess and I were in Birmingham for the David Levithan event. He did some readings from his new(ish) book Two Boys Kissing as well as answering questions from Steve Camden (Author of Tape) and the audience. It was at this signing that David told us that if we coming to see Leigh next week that we should ask her about her High school mascot. Me and Lily  of Whispering of the Pages actually asked Leigh about it as she was signing our books - her reaction went something like the pic below, followed by a vow to punch David in the face next time she saw time :P I also think that David had told fans at his Liverpool event to ask Leigh about it as well since she was tweeting after her event there about needing dirt on him stat. *hehehehe*

So it was a pretty awesome month since as well as going to these two events with Jess, I also went to see Brandon Sanderson (Author of the Mistborn trilogy and more recently the Stormlight Archives) in Nottingham with Le Boyf. He did some readings from a new book that is coming out soon as well as one from the third Stormlight book. I don't know what happened in that one since I had to go stand outside with the other naughty kids who hadn't read Words of Radiance yet since it would be spoilerific *hangs head*. Afterwards he signed books and I schlepped up with eight of the nine books that I own (fucking forgot the first half of the Way of Kings like an idiot) and got them signed, some personalised to me and some to Le Boyf since we've both read almost all of his books.

September is going to be a quieter month I think in terms of bookish things, I'll be gearing up towards starting my OU modules and there are no more author events for the time being so I gotta get to work.

Hope everyone had a good August, summer is nearly over!

Ray x

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Writing Ray - Plot, plot, plot

Now that I've completely destroyed the meaning of the word "plot" for myself I should say that this post is going to have nothing useful to other writers on the subject of plotting a book or anything else like that - for actual advice and helpfulness y'all need to check out Susan Dennard's website and her page of links to awesome blog posts For Writers because seriously she rocks and I've got the page bookmarked to my main toolbar.

This is more just a way for me to journal my writing process over the year so that maybe in another year or two I can look back and rofl myself into a stupor over my naive writer self and her daft assumptions about writing a book for the first time. For funsies and all.

Anywhoooo today I wanted to talk about the fact that I *think* I have the remaining scenes of my first draft plotted out - vaguely. Over the weekend while I was at my parents (and reliving my childhood by visiting Sudbury for like the 7th time) I busted out a crappy A3 pad I bought ages ago and grabbed some marker pens and mapped out about 8 scenes apiece for my two MCs for the middle section between when they meet for the first time and for the second.

It was a bit daft of me to leave the middle until last as by now it's been nearly 9 months since I wrote the First meeting scene and at least 3 since I wrote the second meeting so my thoughts about certain things and characters may have shifted slightly in that time - not counting the fact that I can be a fucking idiot and just forget I wrote some things - so getting everything to match up is going to be a challenge. One that will probably have to be sorted in the second draft.

So I now have two A3 sheets with my middle section planned out; some of the scenes on there have already been drafted so I really only have 12 scenes to write rather than 16/17 which is a bonus I guess. How long all those are going to end up being, I have no clue as yet. My original estimate of the book being 85,000 words is starting to fall short, it's looking like 95-100K will be more like a realistic endpoint for this book.

Setting up all the scene cards in my Scrivener project is delightfully fun and it will be even more enjoyable when I get to change the status of all those cards from "To Do" to first draft or something similar once I've written the actual scenes. Then once I've got all that done I might be able to say I've finished the first draft of my novel! *le gasp*

Now that will be exciting. For now I gotta keep chugging away at it and today's wordcount of 1113 words  has been rather lovely and helpful for getting me to a current overall wordcount of around 71.5K *holy shitballs that's a lotta words* So while the end may be in sight it won't do to give into complacency now.

But that's all for now folks. Carry on!
Ray x

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Some things to check out

Evenin' all this is just going to be a quick post with some links to stuff that has appeared in places not on the blog this past week.

Firstly today I was a guest poster over on my bestie's blog Jess Hearts Books as part of her Armchair Travelling feature. There was a post that went up yesterday as well as today's edition in which I talk about San Francisco! So please go have a look at those posts and all the fabulous places that the bloggers talk about.

And secondly earlier this week I made a rather large leap and posted up both the Prologue and Chapter 1 of my current WIP (the one I'm always tweeting about posting here about) up onto my Wattpad. It was very nerve-wracking after I posted them as Jess very awesomely tweeted about it and quite a lot of people went and read the Prologue... but not so much the first chapter. I resisted the urge to chew my hands off in anxiety. If you've not seen them and are interested, please click the links :D

Pretty please?

So that's all I wanted to say right now. I'll be going. 

*zooms*

Ray x

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From Mah Youtube - Book Haul #29

Since I don't really keep up with the whole In My Mailbox/Letterbox Love memes anymore I just tend to do book hauls as and when I get a reasonable amount of books over my Youtube Channel RayReads. I did a vlog the other day so I thought I'd cross post it over here for you guys :) If anyone is interested in the preceding 28 book hauls there's a playlist of them on my channel page.



Books shown in haul
Eye of Minds by James Dashner
Rebel Heart by Moira Young
Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead
The Masterful Mr Montague by Stephanie Laurens
Three Weeks with Lady X by Eloisa James
Have a Little Faith by Candy Harper
Dictionary of First Names by Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges
The Breaking Point by Daphne du Maurier
Seeking Crystal by Joss Stirling

A mixed haul of various goodies, as you might tell from the vlog it's the Joss Stirling book that got me super excited because ever since I kind of ruined my copy of Seeking Crystal right after I bought it, I have been wanting to get a new copy. Now I have one and it's so beautiful I could cry.

So that's it for now, there may be something else I'll post about tomorrow... but you'll have to keep an eye on twitter for that... :P

Night folks
Ray x

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Writing Ray - The Difference a Year Makes

So yesterday I happened to be pottering about on my Youtube channel and I saw a video I did last July entitled Why is Writing so dang hard? It was about 8 minutes of me grumbling about my difficulties with writing and how although I had several story ideas and many notebooks half-full with scribblings that none of it ever materialised into actual novel-sized pieces of writing.

In that video I showed two notebooks that had both got some notes on the first five pages or so - those are the notebooks for my current WIP that I have been working on this year. The yellow legal pad is now nearly full with plotting notes and scene snippets that I did in pencil (exclusively in that notepad I don't know why I just preferred it that way). The other notebook is not quite as full but it still has quite a lot of pages that are crammed with snippets, thoughts on characters and story timelines.

So if you think that a year ago, all I had an idea that was bouncing round my head, some scribbled thoughts and little else. Fast forward to now when I have nearly filled a notebook and have written **Monday Edit** nearly 67,000 words on this idea... that is some pretty awesome progress. Just since the start of 2014 I have written more than twice as much as my longest previous piece of writing.

According to Scrivener my book is currently equivalent to 215 pages in a paperback so when I get to my intended word goal it will be around 285 pages. If I overshoot a bit maybe it will end up as a round 300pgs. It will be a very strange thing indeed to have to print over half a ream of paper that will have my words all over them.

That's not to say that this year has been a cakewalk getting all this writing done. I've had to juggle my full-time job, my Open University studies and my home life while trying to write. My boyfriend has been amazingly supportive of me, even when he's nagging me to actually get my OU work done when I've been neglecting it for too long. But I think without the push from him last year to try and write this idea I might not have got started and I'd still be that grumbling non-writer lamenting the inability to get her thoughts out onto paper/pixels.

No gushy post about my writing progress will be complete without me mentioning, once again, the Amazing Alpha Reader/Slave-driver that is my best twinnie Jess. She has been my touchstone throughout this project. Every time I've sent her a scene to read I've been sat anxiously wondering "will she like it? What bits will she not like?" and when she sends me her feedback it all gets filed in the "Do not forget" part of my brain and when it comes round to editing this book those emails are getting printed out as the starting point.

So again, THANK YOU WITH SPRINKLES ON TOP Jess for keeping me locked in my Writerly Cage and rewarding me with cashews when I done good :P I'm pretty sure you're first in line for a dedication if/when this book gets itself into an actual printed format. You're the best first reader a girl could wish for.

Twinnie Jess on the left :)

  A year can change a whole lot, while I'm not 100% confident in my abilities as a writer (heck I don't like to think what the real percentage might be), I have irrefutable proof that I *can* get my ideas out in a reasonably coherent manner and create a story that at least one person wants to read. Which is a pretty damn good feeling. Who knows where I'll be next year? Charging ahead with edits on Book 1? Maybe have a first draft of Book 2? Be Plotting Book 3?? All of the above?!

I'm looking forward to finding out. I hope you guys don't mind me dragging you with me on the adventure.
Later
Ray x

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