First Official Review

Oh wow...what a feeling!!
My wonderful friend Cheryl Hart is the first person to read the novel I have finally completed and her feedback has boosted me more than I can imagine!!!! She is loving it and this has made me want to progress further with, even if nothing comes of it. It was such a fantastic emotion - like a drug - for someone to enjoy my novel as a book and not just a piece of work to critique. For her to give me that feedback, one of a reader, was worth it's weight in gold, and to have this feeling for the first time in 16 years for something that I love doing - well, let's just say whatta rush!!
Thank you Cheryl - next step I need to get the guts and put all the prep work in the post. The hard bits done, now it's just lowering all barriers, crossing all fingers, and finally learning what a post box is for!!

2011....Happy New Year!!

As per Nina Simone..."It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me....and I'm feeling good" bum bum, bum bum, bum bum, bum bum bum bum bum...okay, forget the bum bum bum de bum, but you gotta love that song, and you gotta love the feeling of a New Year. It may just be another day, or great because it means a day off work, but it is also time for us to collectively reflect on the past year and set a new milestone. As I look back on 2010 it was a hard year, but only in the way where a lot of problems came through for us to solve - which we did and that's a positive - but it was more about learning lessons along the way and watching the scenery pass by as if on a treadmill. Now I want to don my trainers and run along to actually move forward. Let's hope that's what 2011 is all about for me....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Feeling broke

Well the funds are certainly taking a knock this year with tvs and cars breaking down, boilers refusing to turn off the heating in summer and we have birthdays galore! Every time we have money come in, something happens where it just pours out again. Guess that's a positive in glass half full world though, that the money is actually coming into us in the first place. I just hate how debt, no matter how big or small, is just part of our life nowadays. The cost of living is going higher, higher, HIGHER, whereas earnings are staying put. I suppose it was expected after the economic disaster last year, and we now have to go down this route to put it but it's playing havoc with our finances lol. Think it's time to start moonlighting!!! (used to love that show by the way / cybill sheppard & Bruce willis - GETTING ALERT,GETTING OLD ALERT!!!)

iPhone geek

Well I am typing this from my new iPhone and apart from a few goes on the iPod touch, this technology is completely new to me with an app for this and an ap for that. I think it is a sign of crossing the age line with a new fear of technology and what it means hor the future, rivalling with the adolescent that stays routed in my memory and who loves her gadgets. It's at times like this I realise how much of a walking contradiction I am. I think it is down to being a Pisces. There is a theory that Pisces are the only sign of the zodiac to have traits of every sign due to being the last one on the circle, mmmm will have to check on that. On to other things, my niece and I are all booked in to see the next Twilight movie, only 15 days to go!!! And I have also completed the next house of night series and I am desperate for the next ond to come out!!!!!! I am on a teenage vampire fascination role....yay! I am also designing my own clipart for my greeting card designs to get around the whole copyright issue and I'm close to finishing my first book. The time is forever getting closer for me up do something with them both and I am scared ax much as I am excited....new territory and rejection letters, here I come!!!!!

Happy Birthday Faye Loretta!

I just have to say a very BIG happy birthday to my gorgeous niece Faye. She is 15 years old, stunning (and way too modest for her own good), talented and way above her years. WAG is not her bag baby and she is a trendsetter in every way. She inspires me to go back to my dreams and I truly hope she never gets a 9 to five!! I've told her so! Happy birthday me hunney and Twilight buddy!!! Love Auntie Katie Mental Pants x

House of Night Series

I have two words to say..."Oh, wow.."...Ok, these words may not fall in the english dictionary category as actual words but anything less would miss my point. This series was pointed out to me by my ultra funky cool niece Faye, and from the first page I was hooked. They say there will be 9 books to the epic, having published 6 of them and no.7 due for release April 2010 (can't wait!), and it has taken me about a week to read the six I had for my birthday!!! Love 'em. It is about a school called the House of Night, and nicknamed Vampyre Finishing School by the locals. It sounds cheesy, and makes you dubious, but this is one heck of a story with a whole new take on vampires....!! My new top favourite.

The Unknown

I have a meeting on Monday that will determine if I go back to my job on the new hours that I have requested, or even if I go back at all. Since initiating the meeting I am now feeling so emotional in case a.) I have to go back and b.) I have to find another part time job to accommodate both children. I am terrified of going back to work for some reason, part of that being leaving Serenity, another part of that dreading the motorway drive in and out, and another piece being the office politics. It's the type of thing where once you have had reflection on it, on how you handled things or dealt with the day to day routine of work, and you discover areas where you want to change for the better and improve; but knowing there is a risk that once you're thrown back into it, the old bad habits come storming back. I know I will be probably be fine once I am back into it, if that happens, but it's the unknown at the moment that is making me very emotional. I feel like going back is going backwards, more away from my goal as writer or doing something more creative for a job; something that I have always worked towards. Being at home, working on these projects have given me the incentive I have always needed, moving closer and closer to my goal, but I fear all of that will disappear again once I'm back at work.
Part of me likes not knowing what tomorrow will bring, but another parts of me hates it. I guess I will know more on Monday, and I will just have to wait and see.