Happy holidays! November is over and now we’re in the cosiest and most festive month of the year. One of my favourite months for sure… Mostly because there’s free rein to drink as much hot chocolate as possible.
WRITING
A few nice writing things to report from the month just gone:
I had a poem shortlisted for the upcoming Arachne Press LGBTQ+ anthology Up//Roar! But the anthology is being crowdfunded! If you have anything to spare, I’d encourage you to please donate to this crowdfunder (not least so I might have the opportunity to see one of my poems in print for the first time)!
I finished the first draft of SPARK. Huge achievement! Here it is printed in all its glory ready for the first round of revisions:
I’ve spent the majority of November working through the draft, and I’ve finished about up to the end of Act 1 now. The goal is to finish revising the entire manuscript by the end of the year, so…. Fingers crossed!
I attended the wonderfully stimulating Undo Me or Eat Me workshop hosted by Oluwaseun Olayiwola and met a group of insightful and creative poetry peers. It was the first time I’ve ever done anything like that, the first time I’ve done poetry exercises, the first time I’ve talked about poetry to that level with other poets… The whole thing was really lovely and I hope to do it again someday.
PICS
November just involved a lot of walks, trying to enjoy the rare bits of sunshine in amongst all the rain!
BOOKS
Read a few good books this month — Convenience Store Woman being my highlight. Short and interesting, loved it!
MISC
Josh and I also finished our big project from this year, Linci We hope the game will be a valuable resource for both Welsh speakers and learners and we’re really proud of the finished product, so if it interests you, check it out!
October’s slipped through my fingers and it’s already nearly Bonfire Night as I write this. I love the fireworks but Clara hates them, so she’s safely tucked away at my parents’ house. I always feel unmoored without her. The house is too quiet. The perfect time to write a blog?
October was very, very quiet. I spent most of it writing, but apart from that it was nice to get back to hosting this month after having the house disrupted in September. We hosted our annual Soup Night to great success, though I didn’t get any good pictures! Have these terrible ones instead:
Later in the month we also hosted a movie night Sophie’s birthday party!
quick! everyone have fun!
WRITING
At the start of October I finally finished third draft edits on Book #1 and sent it to my beta reader for its developmental edit. That’s due back soon, so I can work on those and hopefully put it out on submission at the start of the new year. In the meantime, I finally got cracking on something new: Book #2! I am SO excited about this project, it’s completely different from the first book. From fantasy to… speculative AI satire? Psychological thriller? Not sure yet, I need to finish it. Anyway, I ended up spending most of October locked in my lovely new living room writing the first 40,000 words of my new thing and it was glorious. Ah, shiny-new-thing syndrome. How I love thee. Nothing makes you feel better than the endorphins from getting your teeth into something that sweeps your brain away.
MUSIC
Not new but new-to-me, I got a lot of mileage out of Dog Eared by Billie Marten. A layered album that grows on you with every listen.
GAMES
We did manage to play a lot of games this month. Our highlight has probably been Sanctuary. They’ve taken one of our favourite games, Ark Nova, and made it into its own self-contained tile puzzle, and it’s great. Really good at two. We’ve also enjoyed playing Propolis, a bee-theme worker placement and resource management game.
DaybreakPropolisTiny TownsSanctuarySanctuary
BOOKS
Read a few good books this month, more than I realised, actually. Cultish was fantastic, and nice to get back into a little more non-fiction between that and some writing books.
This month I’m dipping my toe back into poetry by taking part in my first ever poetry workshop. It’s called Undo Me or Eat Me by Oluwaseun Olayiwola and I’m really looking forward to it.
September was a busy month of living room renovations. I showed off the nook last month, and this month we repainted the room and had a new floor put in. There was a lot of heavy lifting, chaos, and late nights, but we’re so happy with it. It gave me a chance to reorganise my art and display some new things (notably some beautiful prints Josh and I picked up last UK Game Expo from Norwich-based Dwyn; left above the record player). Here’s some pics of what it looks like now, and a few in-progress shots.
This house has changed so much since I moved in. It’s now the longest I’ve ever lived in one place (five years this month). This is what it looked liked when I moved in, in 2020:
Now it’s so different, and so am I. It’s grown with me. Funny to spot what’s stayed – plants, some art, the mirror, the pets – and what’s changed.
Not much else got done in September apart from house stuff, which is the way it goes! I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t focus on personal projects when there’s so much to do and think about. Being finished with the reno and settled in the new, cosy living room has put my October off to a great start.
GAMES
September’s GOTM is Vantage, a cooperative narrative roguelike board game where you’ve crashed on a planet and have to navigate around. The art is beautiful, the world building is cool, every game is different, and we’ve had a lot of fun with it. I love rolling dice, the randomisation is great.
Josh’s Vantage review: “8/10 Mysteriöse and enticing — makes me wonder what’s next. Roguelike fun — held back by open endedness a little, it can be hard to have a really satisfying game. But there’s so much to see, and the jump in / jump out is a huge plus.”
And of course, we played a lot of Castle Combo (which has had a small expansion added to BGA!👀). I’ve also had the pleasure of introducing Flip 7 and Fishing to some non-regular gamers, and as always they’re both bangers. Other notable plays in September include Daybreak, Hooky, and What Were You Thinking?.
September’s soundtrack was definitely the new Parcels album, Loved. Their last album, Day/Night, was more experimental (and arguably more interesting), but it gets very few plays from me compared to the rest of their discography. Day/Night is something you put on and really listen to, the whole way through, and whenever I do I have a good time, but… something about it doesn’t hit for me as a regular play. But Loved is Parcels doing what they do best. Groovy, fun, laidback, incredible harmonies. Big fan. Safeandsound and Summerinlove are my top tracks.
CREATIVE
September was a month of rejection after rejection, but hey, that’s the way it goes. I did start a writing course – the Cheshire Novel Prize Summer School – which is occupying my Saturday afternoons and giving me some of the basics I’ve never really covered before. So that’s been great!
Book edits also stalled in September due to the renovation. I have about 80 pages left of my current project and then I’ll have a complete third draft. I can’t wait, because I’m raring to go on something different.
EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH
GARDEN
I’ve started gardening at my parents’ house. They have a nice plot and a polytunnel which has all gone a bit out of control, so I’ve been drafted in to help. It’s been really good fun, not something I’m super experienced in, but I do love growing my own food.
LOOKING AHEAD
October is a month to get things back in order. Back to routines, finishing stuff off, and enjoying the turn of the seasons.
Does anyone else feel change in the air? I always get so motivated around September. Last autumn I took a flower arranging course and this year I want to try committing to posting more long-form stuff on here for my friends to read. This is the first update. Enjoy!
August is usually my least favourite month–I hate the heat and the aimlessness–but I have to say that this August was nice. Josh went to the Eisteddfod at the start of the month, and I had Emma A. to stay with me, which was very fun. We were productive, and ate a lot, and tried on some sofas too. During this week I also had the misfortune of finding a very rotten egg (pictured). The smell of this egg almost tainted the whole of August, but luckily it didn’t.
CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to Josh, who not only received his award at the Eisteddfod, but who also performed in a Queer Cabaret at Elysium this month. He delivered an amazingly funny skit with our friend, Mercury. Well done to all performers, it was a wonderful night ⚡️
CREATIVE
I’m still chugging away on Book #1 (working title The Fae Archives). By the end of July I had finished editing my second draft on paper, had transferred all my edits and notes to the computer, and had made a log of everything that I needed to change. My goal for August was to finish making all the necessary changes to the third draft… but I think that was ambitious. I’m chugging away on it though, and definitely know I can finish this by the end of September, so I can send it out to some beta readers. I’m happy with the changes I’ve made, and the manuscript is looking in good shape (to my untrained eye). Word count is currently at 91k, which means I’ve added nearly 20,000 words since the second draft!
I also wrote and submitted a short story (Heavenly Influence) to Folding Rock magazine this month, so fingers crossed for that (pitch: Patrick Bateman is a TikTok influencer). I have another short story idea brewing (working title: Wirebound) that I’ll hopefully write this month.
I also wrote a poem this month, which I haven’t done in a while. It’s a reflection on grief entitled and it’s shaped like you. Not sure what I’m going to do with that one yet, so I’ll keep it under wraps for now.
FOOD
August was YUM! Notable highlights include school cake (beat 400g butter & sugar; add 400g eggs & self-raising flour & tsp vanilla & 1/2 tsp almond extract; bake in a traybake tin @ 180C for ~45 min; make icing and top with sprinkles), homemade Thai food, and lots of bread.
school cakeschool cakepesto pasta salad, coleslawegg mayo metro rollspizza Boyzcherry & almond muffinstofu green currytofu pad see ewrollscheese & chive pull apart rollssoup & rolls
WORK
I’ve been freelancing since June, so about three months now. I’m still getting into the routine of not having a contracted job.
Josh and I launched the beta version of our current project: Linci! It’s a word association game in Welsh that we’ve been working on with my colleagues Tess Fitzpatrick and Steve Morris. I previously worked with Tess and Steve for a year on a contract at Swansea University where I helped create the Mental Lexicon website, among other things. It’s been lovely to work with them again to create a fun original game. Josh has worked really hard and I’ve even learned some programming too.
Linci home page
HOUSE
The house has been changing this month…
We got a new table (kindly donated by my mum), which is much nicer than our old one and EXTENDS! More room for games!
We’ve been updating the nook… Long gone is the horrible blue it was painted when I first moved in. Check the before and after!
painting the nookshelves in the nookfinished shelves and paintingnew cubby!wow!
BOOKS
II unfortunately DNF’d a lot of books this month but I have also read some gooduns:
My Year of Rest and Relaxation, 4/5 Salem’s Lot, 4/5Giovanni’s Room, 5/5
I’ll be turning my mind to more horror and cosy books moving forward. As always, open to recs!
ALBUM OF THE MONTH
Addison Rae’s very solid debut pop album, Addison. Fun, fresh production and good vocals. My favourite track is In the Rain, followed by Headphones On.
Honourable mention to The Beaches’ new album, No Hard Feelings, which came out at the end of August and will, I suspect, be September’s AOTM…
EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH
ShadowClaraSky (L) passed away this month, sadly 💔
WHAT DID I BREAK THIS MONTH?
LOOKING AHEAD
This month I’ll be starting to garden in my parents’ house. They have a big veggie patch and a polytunnel which I’m going to help out with. I’m treating it like an allotment and I haven’t done something like that before, so I’m excited to learn!
