Natalie Allan

Just a quick note to say our corn snake, Python, has just laid the second egg in her first clutch and it looks like there’s more eggs to come – she’s about to lay a 3rd!!!

Both eggs look fertile enough so far and should yeild two baby snakes in about 60 days.

Since Python is still laying – and hey! it’s bound to be taking a lot of her – I’ll post some pics when she’s finished and the eggs have made it to the incubator, and mamma is back in her enclousure and recouperating.

Fingers crossed those babies in those eggs (and the hopeful eggs still yet to come), are fertile and grow nice and big these next two months!

Updates to come as soon as I have more news.

Usually, when I make a “mission” out of something, I do so because that “something” is one of those tasks I really don’t want to do. It’s reverse psychology, the act of turning a task or lengthy project into a mission that I don’t want to do makes it fun, competitive. A challenge that I then want to complete.

This mission, however, is different. It’s a real mission, a 100% bone-fida one, and will probably be one of the most lengthy missions I undertake.

The mission: PUBLISH A BOOK!

“Oh yeah, I knew you’re writing and were like, going to query an agent or something. What’s new about this? Whassup with you telling me stuff I already know?”

Well, this mission is very different from that. These are the objectives:

• Complete content
• Edit content
• Typeset book
• Design cover
• Purchase ISBNs
• Set up my own publishing house
• Approach printer
• Get book printed
• Release book
• Mission Accomplished!

I’ve done absolutely no research into any of this yet, I haven’t looked at print costing because I don’t know how thick my book will be, and I have no idea where I will sell my book. All this comes in time. My first objective is “complete content” because it really is the first step to any kind of book-publishing — whether it be traditional, Print-on-Demand, self-publishing, or setting up your own house.

This is going to be an exciting journey, and I have a lot to learn and a lot of hurdles to jump. I have a good mix of fear and excitement which usually means something is worth doing! All I can tell you 100% right now, is that I’ll keep you updated, and as soon I have my content complete, I hope you’ll join me on my journey to becoming a publisher so I can sell my book!

For some strange reason, ever since the clocks changed and Easter weekend holiday threw out my writing routine, I haven’t written a fat lot of anything — whether it be for the 4th draft of my novel (Village of Vampires), poetry, or short stories. Nothing in my life has actually changed since then, and I haven’t changed my daily routine. My writing life just seems to have blown away in the gentle spring breeze.

Time to change that, me thinks!

On average, and before my routine got thrown to pot, I worked on one-page-per-day of my novel, wrote anything up to four poems, and tinkered with short story ideas every day. That’s right, I did all this each day. Now it’s time to get back at it.

If I don’t, that writing part of my brain will cease up and I’ll end up with a bad case of w-r-i-t-e-r-s b-l-o-c-k, and I don’t want that to happen — in fact, this needs to be avoided at all costs.

So what am I going to do about it?

Force myself to write.

Every day.

No excuses. Whatsoever.

I don’t particularly care about how much I write each day, so long as I do something — it’s quality I’m after, not quantity. And even if I don’t jump back in and write the volumes I was doing before my routine oddly changed, at least I’ll be writing something. Which is a much-improvement on the nothingness I’m achieving at the moment.

I also promise to start blogging more as well. I tend to have stopped writing for everything, so I apologise if it’s been a bit quiet around here lately.

So, all I need to do now, is get off the internet and actually work on something.

Something productive…

Since work on my novel is incredibly slow, I’ve been spending some of my writing time working on poems and I’ve begun a short story. I haven’t written a short story before, so grasping the art of only writing what is necessary, short concise sentences and getting to the point is a real challenge I’m enjoying. It’s a real fun process. Look out for a taster real soon.

Also, it’s only one week to the HIM gig in Birmingham and I’m so excited. I just heard from DLioneye’s twitter they just arrived in Norwich!

Since I began decorating our home over a month ago, I’ve sneaked in three small novel writing sessions where I can to work on Draft 4 of Village of Vampires. I’ve been working so damn hard, I’ve been too tired by the end of it to get any real hard labour in on my novel. It’s a shame, my schedule has gone right out the window.

Before I started decorating, I was already two months behind schedule for finding a literary agent and seeking publication for Village of Vampires. Where am I now? at least four months behind, if not five or six. I so badly want to sit down and breeze through this draft, but I can’t because my home comes first. Don’t get me wrong, I want my home to come first — and my husband. I want to have nice decorations, clean walls and new floors. But the niggling dream of getting this book published never leaves the back of my mind. I’m becoming irritable because I want to work on it so badly.

Poetry

Since I haven’t been able to work on my novel, I’ve needed to keep that writing part of my brain open and still firing so I’m not rusty when I come back to it at a later date. So, I’ve been picking up the old fashioned pen and paper and catching a short poem here and there in between painting walls. So far, I have twelve good quality edited poems to show for it and I’m really happy with them. Who knows, one day I might even publish a small book or pamphlet of my poetry.

Paintings

I’ve also worked on a painting to hang in my fresh-painted lounge (when I have time to put it up). It’s very simple and I haven’t painted in over two years, but I’m very happy with the outcome. Here it is, I called it “Autumn Breeze”:

Autumn Breeze, acrylic on canvas, 27 Feb 2010

Autumn Breeze, corner tree detail. Metallic bronze and copper paints in the leaf detail makes them look as though they are highlighted by the sun.

Autumn Breeze, middle tree detail. Metallic bronze and copper paints in the leaf detail makes them look as though they are highlighted by the sun.

Autumn Breeze, distant trees. No metallic paints were used on these to create depth in the composition.

Autumn Breeze, cloud detail.

Autumn Breeze, cloud detail.

Autumn Breeze, sun painted with metallic gold paint to make it appear as if it is glowing off the canvass. This looks awesome when daylight catches it.

Autumn Breeze, grasses and my signature.

Puppies

On Sunday, a new addition joined our family. Her name is Saffron (call name “Saffie)  and she’s a four month old Papillon crossed with a Jack Russel Terrier. She’s very adorable and gets on really well with our two year ol Springer Spaniel, Rosie. Here’s a couple of pictures:

Saffie and Rosie

Saffron ("Saffie")

Crashing Computers And Screamworks

I’d been waiting for my copy of Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice by my favourite band HIM since the middle of January. When it finally arrived from Amazon after all the trouble I had with the bank cancelling the order from Warner records, I was looking forward to bunging the thing in my computer and just listening to it.

No such luck. When I booted my computer to listen to the damn thing on Saturday after receiving it in the mail, my computer refused to come on. It was dead. As in forever. So I had to go to the trouble of setting up a new PC. I decided not to put Windows back on it and have instead gone back to Ubuntu Linux. I’ve never had a problem with Linux, it just works like it’s meant to.

Recovering my data from said dead PC took all of Saturday and I didn’t get to hear my album until Sunday. It’s absolutely amazing. I love the album and all it’s songs. The bonus CD, Baudelaire in Braille is equally as amazing. I can’t stop listening to it.

I ordered it from Amazon because of the bank rejected the transaction from Warner Records. I received an email today from Warner to say the CD and Saint Scream print has now been shipped and Warner have started to take the money again for the order from the bank. So it looks like I’ll end up with two copies of the CD. I’m giving the CD to a friend of mine in Finland. I love her very much and she deserves to have my copy. So I’ve promised her she can have it for free if and when the damn things arrive!

I’m just glad I get my Saint Scream print

Village of Vampires

I’m back in the saddle of the 4th draft, knocking out about 1000 carefully thought out words a day. I’ve finished my beta reading with only one ongoing manuscript hitting my mailbox so I have ample time now to go about my usual writerly days. I’m still two months behind schedule, but I’ll have to see how I go.

I query agents when I get round to it, when the books complete. No personal pressure…

Once upon a time, I used to wish for more emails. The urge to connect was there, the need to chat with my friends via this free medium was at the forefront of my mind. I would check my email several times a day, only to find my inbox empty and my junk folder full. I felt forlorn, rejected, lonely.

Now, however, rarely a day passes where my inbox is sparse or devoid completely of communication. The emails pour in morning, noon and night. I reply to them, giving necessary details, friendly advice and ongoing chatter. For everyone I respond to, five more appear. The little number that tells me how many emails I have goes up and up, the amount of flags meaning I’ve marked that said email as important or is something I need work on increases. As do the beta reads.

I’ve been a good girl lately, ignoring my own urges to write and complete my book so I can I read through the books others have already written. I’m true to the writer, keeping my eye critical and my advice devoid of personal opinion or changes I’d make if it were my work. I create reports on what worked, what didn’t, why the plot doesn’t arc or why characters seem flat. I read, I advise, I line edit, I send the work back to it’s owner.

Then I begin again, working from early morning like I did today until I go to bed at night. I eye my own novel, still incomplete and deserving my attention. But these other people need my help, how can I say no to them or tell them my work is more important? I can’t turn my back on a friend, and yet, I turn my back on my own novel every day. The emails come in with chapters and sometimes whole manuscripts attached, and I work tirelessly on them until I’ve fulfilled my promise to the writer, my friend.

The hours pass, and by nightfall I have little energy for my own work. It’s been several days since I worked on my fourth draft, the urge to write is practically tearing my brain to pieces. But the emails are there and they won’t go away. I don’t want them to go away because I know I’m doing some good helping the friends these things belong to.

A few more days and I hope I’ll have cleared out the beta reads in my inbox. The other emails that require simple replies to a non-writing friend will have to wait. My novel needs me, and I have to get back to it before all these beta reads get published and my own work is still sat on the shelf collecting dust.

In the face of this, I have to say I can’t take on any new beta reads for the foreseeable future. I have my own novel to consider, as well three full manuscripts I’m reading through for friends. Aside from this, I do partial betas for trusted close friends who occasionally email me a chapter they may be struggling with or an idea that doesn’t settle right. I would love to help you get your book published as others are doing for me, but if I take too much on I’m going to melt. I have to work on what projects I have open first.

I’m now two months behind schedule for querying agents on my novel. I was meant to begin querying mid-March, but it doesn’t look as though I’ll get there until May or maybe June. By all means, when I finally get to this stage I may be able to offer to beta read, but not until I’m finished chewing everything I have in my mouth, swallowed, and digested.

With all this said, it’s back to the manuscripts if I ever want to jump back into my own work.

This week has been mostly boring…

This week, one way or another, has led me to messing around and generally procrastinating, which has taken all my focus off the synopsis for book two.

Time wasting ventures…

Earlier this week I checked the stats on the website to find the bandwidth had gone through the roof. Someone had been hotlinking images and I wasn’t impressed. It took me a whole day to trace the hotlinkers and put a text file in the directory to disable hotlinking via those people. That was a gargantuan waste of time.

Husband passes his finals…

My husband took his last final on Wednesday for part one of his CCNA course and passed with flying colours. He’ll be starting part two on the 10th February, and after that there’ll be two more parts to take him to the end of 2011. He works hard. On Wednesdays, he works 08:30 til 5:00 at his IT geek job, then does college from 5:30 til 9:00. It’s a really long day for him.

Visitations…

My sister and Harvey came around on Thurday and we had a trip to the warehouse to buy curtains and drinks cannisters. I swear to God that child has grown a good six inches since Christmas. He never stops talking, either. He’s learnt a tonne of new words.

Back-ups and crack-ups and why win-blows…

It was my intention to back up my PC on Friday for a re-install. Windows 7 had somehow deactivated itself, parts of the operating system had stopped working, and it was slow and laggy. It took the entire day to back up my 500 GB disk to the slave drive. I tried re-installing yesterday (Saturday) but the thing wouldn’t allow me to un-mirror the drives and convert them back to basic disks and I didn’t want to fuck up any of my data. So I spent all day yesterday trying to bodge the operating system to a working state and re-activate Windows. It seemed to work. I now have a 99% working installation of Windows so it wasn’t an entire waste of time. Windows sucks and blows at the same time.

Exploding speakers…

If I expected to ever blow up a sound system, I thought it would be the amp for my guitar. I play it far too loud. So loud the thing crackles. However, it was not my illustrious death metal rendition of “Ode to Joy” blowing up the amp. In fact, it wasn’t the amp that blew up at all.

I switched the extension socket on for my PC last night and something went BANG! This was promptly followed by the smell of burning and a little bit of smoke. I panicked. I assumed I’d totalled my PC. The PC came on fine, but I didn’t get any sound out of it. When testing the sound card for the problem, I unplugged the speakers sound system, and plugged a set of head phones straight into the back of the PC. Upon getting sound through the headphones, I checked the plug for the speakers and smelt like bonfire night.

Alas, my sound system is no more.

Workaholic…

My husband doesn’t normally work weekends, except this weekend my poor techy-geek was needed for a server install in Cannock. He worked 9:00 til 6:00 yesterday, and went in again at 9:00 this morning and is still there. It’s almost 08:00 PM, and who knows how long that puppy’s gonna take? He has to be there until it’s done. Hence, apart from a short visitation from the parental units yesterday, I’ve spent my weekend all alone and haven’t been able to kill time writing because of the above problems.

Quitting smoking…

Didn’t work. I started again on Thursday, gave up on Friday, and started again today. What can I say other than I needed something to kill the boredom. Want me to appologise or spend further words justifying? Tough crap, I am what I am and what I am needs no excuses.

What I am is bored.

I can’t wait to get back to some productivity…

I Quit Smoking

This post does exactly what it says on the tin, so to speak. At midnight last night, we both quit smoking in a bid to save more money for home improvements. Well, that and the added health bonuses, of course.

How has the first day been? Good, actually. I was a bit snappy earlier on, but since I’ve increased the strength of the coffee at about eleven am, all seems to be going well. My husband’s been going through food and snacks like they’re going out of fashion. The thing I’ve missed is standing in that one corner of the kitchen every half hour. By God, how much more time I’ve had today, it’s incredible.

Helsinki Vampires

The syopsis for HelsinkiVampires is well under way and I’ve managed to outline eight chapters so far. All seems good. Village of Vampires is still with my beta reader for the time being. I can’t wait to see her thoughts on it.

Village of Vampires Edits

Village of Vampires is still in the 3rd draft and growing nicely towards the end now. I’m on the rewrites of Chapter 20, meaning after this one there’s only two chapters and the epilogue to go. I’m still on target for my Friday deadline of this round of revisions.

Future Projects and Ideas

As soon as Village of Vampires is complete hopefully by the end of March and I’ve began querying agents, I’m going to begin work on the sequel to this book and the next part in the series, Helsinki Vampires. After that book is complete, I’m penciling into my shedule to begin work on a novella from a different character’s point of view which links directly into this series. After that, I’d like to begin work on a separate story that’s been following me around before getting back to the main series and working on book 3. 2010 is an exciting year!

Life in General

Life in general this year is going to be a constant cycle of saving money then blowing it as we work room by room to give our home a much needed facelift. We have mismatching furniture that’s all rammed together in a make-do fashion, and I think it’s time for a colour scheme change as well. This time we’re not going to buy stuff just to “make do” until we can afford the very best or what we want. Indeed, we’re going to save the money to work on a room at a time to buy all the stuff we want in the exact finish we want, and hopefully the end result will be pleasing.

Apart from that, there’s not much else on the cards. I’m planning some more tattoos and David is looking forward to building his career. I like to keep “life in general” open to interpretation. I think spontenuity is the key. I love it when we wake up one morning and on the spur of the moment decided to jump in the car, drive cross-country and see a place we’ve never been to. It’s fun and exciting.