Writing Ray - an Adventure for 2014

So what most people probably don't know about me is that in addition to being a reading junkie I also like to write. Words are generally what I'm good at except when I go through phases of being utterly incapable of stringing them together for certain purposes (see the lack of reviews I've written these past two years).

Now I wouldn't call myself a writer by any stretch of the imagination since I've never actually finished writing a story; but I do spend a fair amount of time thinking and day-dreaming about stories and plotting out scenes in my head. I have loads of notebooks half-filled with scene snippets, character profiles, and other notes relating to five or six different story ideas yet to date I've not completed or even properly drafted one of them.

However I would like 2014 to be different. This year I want to finish *one* story. I don't want to give myself a super-strict time limit like with Nanowrimo since that might put me under so much pressure on top of what other work commitments I have at any given time that I will probably end up losing my motivation entirely. But I do want to at least finish something for once. Whether that just be an horrific first draft or something more revised and edited- anything is better than half-started nothings.

I should make it clear that I don't necessarily want to finish a story *just* to get it published. While that would be fucking awesome I have enough of sense of reality that I can't expect that to just happen. I want to finish this story for ME so that I can have that sense of pride in myself - like "Fuck Yea I wrote a book, it's probably pretty shitty right now but dammit I love my characters and I finished it!"

Too often I've started a project all fired up only to get disheartened after a month and stick it in a drawer and forget about it. I need to see this through. THE WHOLE FUCKING WAY. That means even if I have days when I can't write for shit and I want to jack it all in I just have to let it breathe for a few days, listen to some more music and come back to it with fresh eyes.

So far I'm doing pretty good with it - I've written something like 10,000 words in just the past two weeks and I have a reasonable idea as to where this story is going. Obviously I'm a looooong way off being done, there's whole swathes of the story that I haven't worked out yet and I'm getting rather fixated on writing one my MC's POV over the other.

I gotta be careful that I don't the same thing as I did with my Nanowrimo story back in 2010 when I basically put writing over everything including my Uni work which effectively was the tipping point towards me dropping out altogether. I have two different qualifications on the go at the moment plus a full-time job and my boyfriend who has to live with me so I can't sink too far into writing that I forget everything everything else.

Well that's about it for now, if anyone is interested in what I'm working on then please leave a comment  and I may post bits or waffle about my characters for you. If you follow me on Twitter you're likely to get lots of spam about my writing shenanigans and my on-going infatuation with the Frozen soundtrack as my writing music (it's already getting out of hand and I only bought it two days ago).

Laters,
Ray

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Surprise Top 13 of 2013 and 2014 Reading Goals

Surprise Bitches, bet you thought you'd seen the last of me...

Yes well I know it's not unheard of for me to just vanish into the aether and then not reappear for 2 years but I think that just adds to my charm n'est pas?

So I return in the New Year with a plan to slowly reintegrate myself into a more active participatory role in the book community and this time I have Gifs! (gods all bless Tumblr).

Top 13 Reads of 2013
Since no one has any idea what I read last year (except those few whom I actually communicate with through other mediums) I thought I'd start with a list of my favourite reads of 2013. This list won't include any re-reads or multiple books by the same author. Also in no order of favouritism.

Angelfall by Susan Ee 

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell  

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Unravel Me - Tahereh Mafi

Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare

Etiquette and Espionage - Gail Carriger

Just One Day - Gayle Forman

This Song will Save your Life - Leila Sales

Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo

Untold - Sarah Rees Brennan

Battle Magic - Tamora Pierce

The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

Reading Goals for 2014

I kinda failed with some of my goals from last year so hopefully I can succeed with this year's.

1. Read at least 150 books

2. Read at least 1 non-fiction book a month

3. Read at least 1 classic book a month

4. Read more from my TBR pile than re-reads

5. Get back into the habit of filling my reading journal properly

6. Try to get back into book community (see already trying with this one!)

What goals are all you lovely folk setting for yourselves in 2014? 

Hopefully y'all will see more from me soon - alas now I have to go be domestic, ironing calls!

Ray

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New Name, New URL, same old me

In the interests of not panicking folk who may come looking for old blog posts (surprisingly it still happens) I thought I ought to post so there something with this new URL and hope like hell that you can still reach the old posts by searching.

During my horrifically long absence from the blogasphere I have mostly been based over on my Youtube channel doing mostly Books Read and Acquired vlogs (Playlist of those videos here) but recently I have also changed the name of channel due to Youtube's incessant nagging about having a proper name to the less confusing Ray Reads!

Now I am not saying that this post is foretelling a return to blogging, god only knows why I am tinkering with all this stuff anyway but because I have meddled I had better let you guys knows in case some people see a new name pop up in their blog readers and wonder "who the hell did I follow?", that's if this shows up at all what with the URL change.

Gah now this is getting rambling and non-sensical (I'm super sleepy and in need of my bed) so I shall finish up here.

Never say never to future posts but I can't make any promises.
Ray

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So I kinda suck at Read-a-thons

Good evening all you lovely people, it's a tad embarrassing coming back here after supposedly starting a readathon last Monday and realising that I just, sort of stopped by Thursday. While I did get some reading done that day (Started on the Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor) events conspired against me and I just didn't get round to updating the blog that day. Then the weekend arrived along with that wonderfully lovely specimen of awesomeness (Also known as my boyfriend, Mark :D) and all blogging went out the window and was replaced by Doctor Who marathons and copious amounts of Cricket (Alas not the Bell variety).

Hilariously I did get a bit more of the Repossession read on Saturday morning while I was volunteering at my local library. I've been helping with the Summer Reading Challenge for les enfants and there was quite a hefty lull so one of the librarians asked if I wanted a magazine to look through, I said thanks but I've got it covered and whipped the book out of my handbag. I'd got it with me just in case although I felt very odd about bringing my own book to a freaking library but eventually got over the weirdness and zoned out. Thankfully there were not many other kids during the two hours I was there.

So my Readathon was somewhat curtailed but it was really great to be able to sit and actually read since July was a very low yield reading month. I think I blitzed about 5 6 books in the first week of August which already has equalled July so I'm hoping to get through a fair bit more before we hit September (although srsly what the frack? I'm gonna be 22 around the start of October and that's getting scarily close!).

The final tally for my Readathon was as follows;
Frostfire by Zoe Marriott - 45 pgs. 4 stars
Slated by Teri Terry - 327 pgs. 5 stars
How to Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn - 375 pgs. 4 stars
Fat Cat by Robin Brande - 327 pgs. 4.5 stars

I think it is rather fabulous that I managed to read four completely different genres of books that almost perfectly sums up the majority of my book collection; Fantasy, Dystopia, Historical and Contemporary. Yea I do have a lot of "classics" but seriously when have I last read a good chunk of those?

I do actually want to write reviews for all the books I've read so far this month (including at least one from the end of last month) so maybe I shall get uber productive and post a review a day for a week or more sensibly post two a week so they last me a bit longer since who knows when I might write another?!

Well this has been a rather lengthy ramble about my inability to finish another project (C'est la vie non?)
But I shall now bid thee adieu.

Yours wistfully
LadyV

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Summer Wrap-Up Read-a-thon Days 2 & 3 Update

The Summer Wrap Up Read-A-Thon is hosted by Jennifer at Some Like It Paranormal and Jude at In Between.

So update time! I didn't actually switch on my computer all day yesterday so I wasn't able to post my update for Tuesday and since I only really read in the wee hours of Wednesday morning it would have been a fairly tiddly update.

What I'm Reading: Currently on the Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer. Started it yesterday but not sure if I'll read more today.
What I've Already Read:

 Number of Pages read today: 0 (as of 1pm)
Total number of Pages Read: 1209
Total books read: 4
Non-Reading Activity: Today I've got to go be a helpful and supportive sister as my lil' sis is going to take her Driving Theory test this afternoon *crosses everything* but I will get some time to read in the car while I wait. Then later it's ironing at Gran's time again - possible chance for reading again

I will update things more later on but I have to dash and get ready to actually go out since I've been idling far too long. Plus I need to eat something for lunch!

Yours Leisurely,
LadyV

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Summer Wrap-up Read-a-thon Day 1

The Summer Wrap Up Read-A-Thon is hosted by Jennifer at Some Like It Paranormal and Jude at In Between.

Well since I did actually sign up to do this read-a-thon I had better get a post up for it! Only really starting today since I was away all weekend and only got home earlier this morning.

What I'm Reading: Just finished Slated by Teri Terry.
Already Read: Frostfire by Zoe Marriott

Number of Pages read today: 485

Total Pages Read: 485

Total Books Read: 2

Non-reading Activity: Got some tedious errands to run shortly so I'm going to have to take a break from trying to read. Will also acquire some noms before my stomach starts roaring at me. 

Thoughts on Read-a-thon thus far: It's been a long time since I did any kind of serisous reading stint so I don't quite know how I'm going to do. I don't think I'll be able to quite manage a book a day since I'm going to get pressganged into doing productive things on numerous occasions methinks. It's sort of a cheat that I've already finished one book since I read the majority of it on the train journey to and from London on Saturday when my boyfriend and I went with the intent to maybe see some of the Olympics. We ended up eating at Pieminister for lunch and Paul Rhodes for dessert and then staggering through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park (getting ripped off for merely sitting on some deckchairs for a break along the way) before tripping into Foyles *heheBOOKS* and then back on the train home. Very little olympics seen but an awesome day nevertheless.

Update 9:30pm
Holy Shit I've just finished Slated and *flails* My God that is one *hell* of a book! You would have had to have been there to understand the noise that I made when I reached the last page and realised there wasn't anymore to read. Outraged indignation is probably the only description I can give it. I'm now going to have to sit glaze-eyed marvelling over this fantastic and slightly terrifying book and also bemoaning how long it will be until the sequel comes out. Teri Terry I salute your awesomeness *doffs hat*

Leave me to wallow into my mug of tea.... *sniffs*

Yours Busily

LadyV

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July Reading Update

A good morning to ye fine folk! I know it's been a little quiet on the blog front for the past week or two but never fear I've not disappeared again! It's just been a much busier month than any other so far this year for very excellent reasons and I've done very little reading since I've basically not been at home most weekends :D

While the whole job front is still a bit uncertain I gotta say that for the first time in 18 months I'm too happy to give a flying fuck. Things will all sort themselves out eventually.

Anyways this is a now rather belated look back at what I've read in July and for the most part it is a awfully tiddly amount due to aforementioned reasons.

Books Read in July
104. Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers 6/7/2012 PM 4 Stars
105. Unrest by Michelle Harrison 19/7/2012 PM 4 Stars
106. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss 20/7/2012 AM 4.5 Stars
107. A Gentleman of Fortune by Anna Dean 23/7/2012 AM 4 Stars
108. Mr Cavendish. I Presume? by Julia Quinn 27/7/2012 AM <4 b="b" stars="stars">
109. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart 29/7/2012 PM 4 Stars

Wow a whole month without a single re-read! (Wait that's a lie I re-read Seraphina for a second time) but still it's impressive! I've discovered my new fluffy book love - Julia Quinn novels! I've found myself very enamored with stories set in Regency England of late and now with the finding of Miss Julia and her wonderfully funny characters and occasional sauciness I am determined to get my grubby mitts on more of her books! Add in the rather delightful Anna Dean books which are Regency murder mysteries where the main character is a bit like Miss Marple with a love of deduction and I have all the Austen-esque fun I could want!

But the Book of the Month has to be The Name of the Wind, an immensely fabulous fantasy novel with the most compelling story that ends so lacksidaisily that it made me flail and want to go out and devour Wise Man's Fear straight away just so I could know what Kvothe was up to next. It still awes me that this was Patrick Rothfuss' debut novel, dude can fecking *write*!

Now to continue with what I'm supposed to be doing (job-hunting) and hopefully later I will get to finish what I'm currently reading - Frostfire by the fabulous Zoe Marriott - and actually start joining in properly with the Summer Wrap-up Readathon that I'm supposedly taking part in this week. *snort*

Procrastinationally Yours,
LadyV

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