Tonight is the last day of a 24-day holiday, and whilst I have read lots it took until New Year’s Eve last night that I actually wrote anything more than a few short sentences. Tonight I’ve written some more and taken The Imaginary Wife to the final section. Now I just need to keep up this momentum, and I will be able to launch my third book at the fourth Hawkesbury Upton Literary Festival in April, at which I am due to appear.

I’m going to also try and keep up the routine of writing in these pages – of journaling my life. This is for me, but if you would like to read them also and draw pleasure from reading about my various creativity endeavours then please do. Subscribe if you like. I’m going to be writing, and editing, but I also greatly enjoyed getting back to my art during Inktober so I intend to do more of that to. And I want to attempt to do an illustration for the cover of the new book and will be documenting my attempts here. Should be fun getting back to my gouache paints!

Now, I’m off to look up a bit of Fairy Queen research and Thomas the Rhymer/Tam Lin ballads for that final showdown…

I’m currently reading Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories – it’s been woefully languishing, started, on my To Read pile since 1995. There is something very comforting in these days at the end of the long Christmas break (for me, who finished work last year on 9 December, an extended long Christmas break) that allows for just sitting in one’s lounge with the Christmas tree and music on the stereo, reading.

Next to a good story, this is the perfect time of year to be reading someone’s diaries too. Last night I spent some very enjoyable hours going through my #100HappyDays photos from the last year in order to put together a video review of the year. The act of doing this brought back so many nice memories. Reading the Bennett diaries has a similar effect – particularly reading these one’s which are smack in the middle of my lifetime to date, but still memories of some 20 years ago.

From 2003 to 2009 I kept a diary pretty religiously and it has been nice to go back and look back on, but since then the more ephemeral Facebook and Twitter updates have taken over – or latterly Instagram photos – as the the primary record of my life and its not the same. This is not to say that my life is of interest to anyone. I don’t write posts with the expectation that people will want to read them, much less be interested in them. But looking back on them? They are of interest to Me, and that is why I write them.

In the same way that I spent hours yesterday going back on the last year’s happy days photos, I am going to find some way of converting six year’s of ephemeral social networking activity into something, well, less ephemeral. And I am going to take today as a marker to write in these pages again, so that in 365 days time I spend some time going back and looking back on my life as it had played out.

I’m probably tempting fate saying this but I’m hoping that this might be the beginning of getting the balance right for the first time in along time. If I have, then bizarrely it might be the new acquisition of my Kindle Fire that I have to thank for getting me away from the lure of the laptop.

• Death Comes To Pemberley – P.D. James
• The Caravan Puppets – Michael Bond
• Polar Shift – Emily Mah
• The Hairy Bikers’ Big Book of Baking – Si King and Dave Myers
• The Girl With Glass Feet – Ali Shaw
• Unrest – Michelle Harrison
• Ragnarok: the end of the gods – A.S. Byatt
• The Moomins and the Great Flood – Tove Jansen
• Longshore Drift – Katrina Porteau
• Independent People – Halldór Laxness
• Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp – Philip Pullman
• Laurel for Libby – Vivienne Green
• Across The Sea – Emily Mah
• Someone Else’s Fairytale – E.M. Tippetts
• Grubson Pug’s Christmas Voyage – Jane-Anne Hodgson

Of this year’s books, which one’s stand out for recommendation and which one’s to be avoided? Michelle Harrison makes the recommendation list for the second year running with her newest book, Unrest, and Ali Shaw’s Girl With Glass Feet was an unexpected find. I read Halldór Laxness’ Independent People, spurred on by cousin’s recommendation when in Iceland. It’s a hard, and depressing read, but if you go to Iceland, I’d recommend it because then you will understand. Not listed here is Philip Hensher’s The Mulberry Empire which was good, but I only got half way through it as I wasn’t altogether into it.

2012 was also the year that I published my first book, The End Of All Worlds, and (preparing for that, and marketing it subsequently) took up a great deal of my time. As the year closes, so my sales hit a cool 100 (although thanks to free promotions, its been downloaded almost 3000 times) and that’s something to be remembered and celebrated.

emej and I also had a fantastic holiday this summer to Iceland. We went full circle round the country which is something that not even I (with my three previous visits) have done, and had a fantastic time seeing all my Icelandic family. I feel so close to them all. 🙂

What else stands out? Attending the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Garden Party on the banks of the Thames in Henley is surely something that will probably never be repeated, and going to see some of the Olympics is something else to be remembered.

I wonder what next year will bring?

That said, there is, in anyone’s life, only a finite amount of time that one can spend doing something, and I do spend more time writing than some, and I am just one of those people, who, whilst being a keen reader, is also a slow one.

So far this year though, I have been, I think, possibly imperceptibly maybe, reading more. But we are now a week into the new year, and before that we had the Christmas week, and before that the lead-up to Christmas. It’s going to be a month pretty soon (if not already) since I have written anything more to Mr Tumnal. I need to get back to his story for it was going so well.

• Artemis Fowl – Eeoin Coifer
• The Winter Ghosts – Kate Moss
• Four Quartets – T.S. Eliots
• Tender, Vol. 2 – Nigel Slater
• Time and Memory – Lesley Clare Walker
• A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness
• Thirteen Curses – Michelle Harrison
• Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book – Terry Jones
• The Crowfield Curse – Pat Walsh
• Thirteen Secrets – Michelle Harrison
• Ghost of a Chance – Rhiannon Lassiter
• The End of All Worlds – T E Shepherd
• Father Christmas: All About Me – John and Judith Atkinson
• The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman

Books I would recommend? Michelle Harrison’s Thirteen Treasures trilogy and books to avoid, the dreadful Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness about vampires and witches in the academia and libraries of Oxford – I gave up on it because quite frankly I just didn’t care.

• Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger
• Enchanted Glass – Diana Wynne Jones
• A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
• Deep Secret – Diana Wynne Jones
• The Merlin Conspiracy – Diana Wynne Jones
• Twilight – Stephanie Meyer
• Four Hedges – Clare Leighton
• The Oxford Murders – Guillermo Martinez
• Living With a Black Dog – Matthew and Ainsley Johnson
• Ring of Bright Water – Gavin Maxwell

Of these, if I were to recommend any to you to read, Four Hedges would stand out brightly as a must. It’s a beautiful book; in its production, in the gorgeous woodcut illustrations, and its writing. Read it, now. Also of note would be Her Fearful Symmetry, the follow up to the amazing Time Traveller’s Wife, and Deep Secret, now shockingly out of print.

If I were to pick one to recommend not to read, it would be Twilight. In truth, I read it as an exercise in trying out my new Kindle and were it not for that I would not have read it. It is lamatable. If I had not known there were vampires in it I would have given up on it much sooner as for a ‘fantasy’ nothing fantastical really happens until you’re 60% of the way through it?!? Its nothing more than a, not terribly well written high school romance. That is all.

I’m currently reading Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl, after which I may read Nigel Slater’s Toast (and maybe on my Kindle)…

• A Passage to India – E.M. Forster
• Smoke and Mirrors – Neil Gaiman
• The Reader – Bernhard Schlink
• 13 Treasures – Michelle Harrison
• Jackdaw Summer – David Almond
• Four Quarters – T.S. Eliot
• Monty Halls’ Great Escape: Beachcomber Cottage – Monty Halls
• The Seance – John Harwood
• The Crossing of Ingo – Helen Dunmore
• The Ghostwriter – John Harwood
• Fleshmarket – Nicola Morgan
• Notes From An Exhibition – Patrick Gale
• The Glassblower of Murano – Marina Forata
• 44 Scotland Street – Alexander McCall Smith

So that’s 14 then – one less than last year. That said, it’s been one of heck of a year of getting married and getting a new job for which I’ve been driving to work instead of bussing it and talking to people at lunchtime instead of reading…

• Voices – Ursula LeGuin
• The Children of Green Knowe – Lucy Boston
• Northern Lights – Philip Pullman (a re-read 12 years on…)
• The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
• Once Upon a Time in the North – Philip Pullman
• The White Darkness – Geraldine McCaughran
• The Deep – Helen Dunmore
• Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day – Winifred Watson
• House of Many Ways – Diana Wynne Jones
• Grass For His Pillow – Lian Hearn
• The Chimneys of Green Knowe – Lucy Boston
• The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
• Alis – Naomi Rich
• Ivy – Julie Hearn
• The Tales of Beedle and Bard – J K Rowling

So that’s 15 then – just one more than last year. That said, it’s been one of heck of a year of moving house and decorating and the like, its no wonder I’ve had other pressures on my time. A look down the list too, and you might notice a predominance of children’s/young adult/crossover titles. 🙂

In 2007 I would like to
– Have finished Blood & Fire to the point of submitting it to a publisher/agent
– Pursue my songwriting
– Find a publisher !!!!
– Get a new (fab) job !!!
– Read lots of great books
– Make art regularly
– Lose a bit of weight and exercise regularly
– Think, learn, develop as a writer
– Find/happen upon love ???

I’ve still been working on my novel, and struggling to come to terms with what I have to do to chapter six. During this process I came across a passage which, whilst very well written in itself, had to come out. Regular readers of my work will know about my choppy style, of cutting between here and nows and different realities and flashbacks and flashforwards. Well this passage in particular confused the hell out of me, so there’s no way in hell that any reader is going to understand it. What was I taking when I wrote it?!!!

In 2007 I would like to
– Have finished Blood & Fire to the point of submitting it to a publisher/agent
– Pursue my songwriting
– Find a publisher !!!!
– Get a new (fab) job !!!
– Read lots of great books
– Make art regularly
– Lose a bit of weight and exercise regularly
– Think, learn, develop as a writer
– Find/happen upon love ???

I’ve still been working on my novel, and struggling to come to terms with what I have to do to chapter six. During this process I came across a passage which, whilst very well written in itself, had to come out. Regular readers of my work will know about my choppy style, of cutting between here and nows and different realities and flashbacks and flashforwards. Well this passage in particular confused the hell out of me, so there’s no way in hell that any reader is going to understand it. What was I taking when I wrote it?!!!

Okay, that’s not quite true. I’ve been thinking about this on and off for a while now. I’m not sure if I believe in the New Year’s Resolutions thing as the only time to make these things, but it is quite a good moment in time to set down things that one wishes to persue. A line in the sand so to speak. So what are my lines in the sand (in no particular order)?

+ to continue to strive towards honesty and tolerance of all people and all things

+ to be fitter (I think I may go swimming tomorrow)

+ to read more. I read pitifully little, sadly, despite loving words, writing and books!

+ to meet with old friends, meet those with whom I have not met in person, and, crucially, make that extra effort to do so!

That is all for now, bedtime, and booktime!

• Swimming, at least once a week
• Half an hours brisk walking every day

Other than that I shall continue to be as kind and caring as I try to always be, and be generally a *nice* person. However, I am not going to allow the views of unreasonable, unfriendly, or in any other ways distrustful people (that I have met in the past), or similar to dictate whether or not I do something that I want to do.

• I shall listen to those good friends that I have and do what I want to do.

• Swimming, at least once a week
• Half an hours brisk walking every day

Other than that I shall continue to be as kind and caring as I try to always be, and be generally a *nice* person. However, I am not going to allow the views of unreasonable, unfriendly, or in any other ways distrustful people (that I have met in the past), or similar to dictate whether or not I do something that I want to do.

• I shall listen to those good friends that I have and do what I want to do.