So long since I've been here.

I know I've been neglecting the blog lately. It has been a mix of financial issues, job seeking, crafting and other things that have kept me from here. I am still carrying on with the list though, just taking things slower and counting on the little victories.

That being said, I've managed one of them - I gave blood on tuesday for the first time after the non starter the first time around where nothing was coming out once they'd got me all set up. I'm proud of myself in the sense that I achieved it and feel that now I can say I've conquered my phobia of needles and it's only taken 21 years to manage it. 

I am also trying to work hard on Pett's Originals as well as still attempting to get a new job. I've been unemployed for nearly 6 months and it's getting increasingly difficult to get employers to notice me and even give me an interview. I am trying to do things to better myself and increase my employability - I completed my ECDL Level 2 and Access Databasing course before the New Year and have just started a Level 2 book keeping course which should take around 6 months to complete. I am also making more items, throwing myself into crafting in between job searching and doing the odd event like flea markets and craft fairs. Right now I'm working on loom knitted hats and scarves, a huge patchwork quilt which is only 1/4 done so far and my gemstone pendants which are currently on etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop/PettsOriginals?ref=shop_name_search_sugg

Getting creative with the challenges.

I'm getting back into my creative processes in a big way whilst being umenployed and doing a lot of experimentation with different craft methods. Obviously I'm still making and (eventually) selling my jewellery, but I've been knitting again and trying out patchwork. I joined a craft group last month called "Crafty So and Sews" who meet down the road from home.  We do a themed project every month and this month's was Halloween. I had a go at making a patchwork hanging with felt applique and started first with hand stitching and then machine work and embroidery to finish it off. I'm quite pleased with the results. I get to unveil it on thursday at the meeting.

 I'm also planning on making preserves and chutneys for family and friends. I'm looking up recipes and working out what I'm going to need. I suppose its a way to keep myself busy and use some of my spare time doing something practical. It also gives me more practical items to add to presents for later in the year. My younger Brother moves out to live with his girlfriend at the end of the month (my folks are having a street party to celebrate... only joking) I'm going to do them a few bits for their new place but am stuck for ideas. Was thinking about making cheese straws, breadsticks and salsa type dips and something with some of my home grown chillis and a bottle of wine. Any other ideas would be so welcome.

getting stuff done, an update,

am trying to change my approach to projects now. Admittedly I have about ten things I need to sort out right now and no way of prioritising them. these include,

• finishing the Sins trilogy (Mine and Husbeast's horror series)
• finishing the crochet projects I've stashed upstairs for future use.
• making the scarves from the knitting kits I bought from the 99p shop a couple of weeks back.
• finishing that scraper foil set I bought last weekend in a fit of boredom.
• reading most of the books I've set aside upstairs.
• planning and making my new jewellery ranges 
• top to bottom cleaning of our flat including washing the carpets.
• setting up the overlocker with black thread and testing it out.
• making the cloaks for sale that i've been ignoring since last year.
• sorting out the boxes from the front door hallway and cleaning out the cupboard under the stairs.

Starting new things.

I have this innate ability to start projects, get bored of them and cast them aside, especially when my mood is low or I'm distracted by real life infiltrating my spare time. I am a mass of unfinished projects forever put on hold or simply cast by the wayside for something newer, more interesting or easier to do.  I jump to the next project gaily then run out of steam pretty quickly which in my growing awareness of my habits is infuriating me.

I am trying to change my approach to projects now. Admittedly I have about ten things I need to sort out right now and no way of prioritising them. these include,

• finishing the Sins trilogy (Mine and Husbeast's horror series)
• finishing the crochet projects I've stashed upstairs for future use.
• making the scarves from the knitting kits I bought from the 99p shop a couple of weeks back.
• finishing that scraper foil set I bought last weekend in a fit of boredom.
• reading most of the books I've set aside upstairs.
• planning and making my new jewellery ranges 
• top to bottom cleaning of our flat including washing the carpets.
• setting up the overlocker with black thread and testing it out.
• making the cloaks for sale that i've been ignoring since last year.
• sorting out the boxes from the front door hallway and cleaning out the cupboard under the stairs.

Not to mention the fact I have started researching and writing a gluten free cookbook as something to do in the evenings whilst Husbeast works out modifiers and stats for his RPG.

A new start is needed, no more procrastination, finishing what I've started and seeing it through to its conclusion. 

Today has mostly be brought to you by...

Music is such a big part of my life, I can't live without it, it helps me with my anxiety issues (especially on public transport), lulls me to sleep and provides a soundtrack to my day.

These songs are some of my daily staples,

(apologies that half of these aren't official videos, youtube is a pain in the rear

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is there anything like an original genre anymore?

#21 on the list is to write in an entirely new genre.

I have to question though, in an industry that completely compartmentalizes literature are there any original genres left? especially amidst so many sub genre definitions. I look at the themes and characters that typify popular fiction and think well, people are repeating that which they think is new and fresh when in reality there are only so many story lines and so many character profiles out there. I know this is nothing new, borrowing themes and stories from older texts has been accepted even in Shakespeare's day. I wouldn't establish it as out and out plagiarism, more a nod to what has gone before, but it makes me despair that there is little to no originality in literature anymore just story repetition and trendy genres.

I read widely but currently write in the horror and fantasy genre and I see this in proliferation. releases follow patterns,  I took a look in Waterstones at these sections and out of all the books typical themes/character the rise of the Paranormal Romance section has been one that I have watched with interest. Books like the "Twilight series" (makes me feel dirty just typing that without swearing), Charlaine Harris' "Sookie Stackhouse" books and the raft of other authors who have jumped onto the bandwagon for lucrative sales. They have followed authors like Kelley Armstrong whose Otherworld books got me back into horror books and at the time had inspired me that there was something other than the prolific writers like Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Fantasy follows similar thematic repetitions. There was a trend of Pauper turned powerful Mage books particularly in the past few years probably started originally by David and Leigh Eddings.

 I got bored of adult fantasy/horror books for some time and got into Young Adult fiction because there was at least some originality with the ideas coming through,. Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl" books, Darren Shan, Percy Jackson, have given me some hope for literature but there is a lot out there that doesn't pique my interest because it all reads the same. In Young Adult fiction though there is an underlying current of what the next "Harry Potter" of their subset will be, although no formal contender to the crown has come to the same level of sales and renown. I would peg books like "The Hunger Games" in this category but although they have a lucrative film deal, Panem and the deprivations of the Hunger Games world don't necessarily outweigh the imagination that is inspired by Hogwarts.But I digress,

Trendy themes also outweigh quality writing. Look at the current phenomenon of "50 Shades of Grey," which originated (allegedly) from Twilight fanfiction and reads like a shopping list of adjectives with some naughty words interspersed. Its main selling point is the frisson of an illicit dom/sub relationship. It has achieved through word of mouth from bored housewives/horny students/bandwagon jumpers what Mills and Boon have been quietly publishing in mass numbers for decades. It is acceptable smut which would have been unheard of in the decades where "Fanny Hill" and "Lady Chatterley's Lover" were banned. It has also refreshed the market for sex toys and bondage gear by its readership longing to try out what they'd just read about. It engenders though all that is wrong about modern literature and the disposable gratification of modern readership especially when if statistics are to be believed literacy is at an all time low.

So what can I surmise from all of this, I have to avoid the current trends, so vampires, werewolves, robots, "mummy porn", trauma stories and most of the fantasy stereotype themes are out. I am considering Young Adult or some type of researched fiction piece.  Any other suggestions - post in the comments,.

Today didn't start all that well...

I overslept for the first time in a long while. I was supposed to be at my training course at 11am but only surfaced around 11.30am. I had to rush about, remember to eat soemthing and finally got my ass down there by 1pm still in a half dopey state. At least today became productive. I did my ECDL word-processing module exam and scored 94% and then 99% on my assignments and then started on my Excel module.

 I've spent part of this evening doing the plod of searching for a day job and cooking something epic for dinner. Husbeast is a roast potato fiend, there are no such things as leftovers when I cook them. I am cooking them with some chicken wrapped in bacon and embracing domesticity by getting more washing done whilst listening to Smodcast in the background www.smodcast.com I've currently got the latest "Fatman on Batman" podcast on at the moment and I'm going to get into the routine of doing some writing later. I am aiming to do at least 500 words a night where possible and do more if I can.

Aside from domesticity I have been doing a little thinking.There's a cliched saying about turning into one's mother and I am halfway between embracing this inevitability and sometimes I feel like it's tempered with the fact I have equal influence with my father's odd little quirks as well. He has this habit of picking up odd things off the pavement if it looks shiny or interesting. I've capitalised on this myself - have found money this way before including a very shiny pound coin earlier today. I should be concerned that I have to work on using fewer one word sentences and having the odd "brainfart" with word finding like he does occasionally. Dad is the king of malapropisms - Titanum becomes "tittitanium", a latte used to be a "latex" and when I used to slope upstairs to ignore the world as a teenager I was always called "anti-unsociable" From Mum I suppose I'm truly embracing my inner child though not to her extent. Mum is admittedly on her umpteenth childhood especially as she's been working with children for nearly twenty years.

 I suppose it's all a learning curve, I need to take things less seriously and become not necessarily more childish, but still have a sense of childish wonder and fun in situations, make myself understood and take notice of my surroundings because the small details can lead to something lucrative or interesting coming along.