Stu vs NanoWrimo

Tomorrow is November 1st, for most it is just another day for pinching and punching and a few white rabbits. For me it will be this and more with the start of National Novel Writing Month. I've got an idea for the story I'm going to attempt. I'm in the process of writing a quick plan. Yes I know I should have done this already but I've been busy with stag do's and a best man speech which I delivered with a few laughs on Saturday. It may just have been the most nerve racking moment of my life to date.

Stu vs The Stag Do

So yesterday was my little brother's stag do. He's not a drinker so we ended up going clay pigeon shooting before finishing off with a curry. Now I've never been shooting before and it showed at the beginning as i hit nothing after about 20 cartridges. I started feeling like England at Eurovision... Nil point. I tried on my right shoulder and left and I think our instructor was a bit dumbfounded that I couldn't hit anything. Then something just clicked and ended with hitting 6 from 8 in the final round. I didnt change my style at all. Maybe it was all fluke. Suffice to say I think I'll stick with my PS3 controller for my shooting fix. I'm definitely better with it.

Oh and curry was good too. Next stop... The wedding next week and some work still to do. I'll be looking forward to a night of Singstar and getting down on the dance floor.

Stu vs Life

Well it's been almost a month of nothingness. Very little to report on all fronts, with steady work coming in and a more mobile son to look after all else has faded away into the miasma that is my mind. However this may change next week as it is half-term. I'm not commiting to anything though.

However in a few weeks November begins in ernest bringing with it My Novel in a month challenge.

I did have a funny moment in school today. A child asked me what my favourite book was as a child. Obviously I came up with Brian Jacques' Redwall (a book I have a lot of history with). I also mentioned I own a lot of children's books due to the fact I want to become a children's author. They asked me whether I new any publishers to make me famous. Alas I said no. She then replied I should make some friends become publishers so I can become famous, so Ican come to school in a leather jacket and shades and walk with a swagger. Apparently all famous people do this...maybe I should be practising.

Stu vs Another Book Down

Well, that was an easy read. I'm talking about about a Diary of A Wimpy Kid and it was ok. Much better than the film, which was poor. Yes I know it's a kids film but even so.

The book did make me chuckle in places but nowhere near as much as the Horrid Henry books. I did buy the complete set but will hold off on the others while I get back to some meaty fantasy. I'm just about to sink my teeth into the ancient lands of Azeroth and Kalimdor. This is of course the world of Warcraft and has been recommended to me by my brother.

On another note I'm sinking my teeth into another writing project. The Facebook writing group I belong to are creating an anthology of poems and short stories with song titles as the focus. My attempt will be called Wonderwall and that's all I'm saying for now.

Now with all this writing stacking up, I'm going to sign off and actually go do something about it.

Nanu nanu

Stu vs A Novel in November

Challenge accepted!

Regular readers may know a few months back I joined a writers group on the The Book of Face, and although not a regular poster I put my two cents in every once and a while. Well while trawling posts I found a link to a website celebrating National Novel Month (if anyone hasn't guessed it already it's next month.

So I've signed up and accepted the challenge of writing 50,000 words in a month. Now considering I've written precisely 0 in the last two months this seems a little daunting. Hovever with the challenge being non-genre specific I thought I could get a move on with my childrens novel that I can only describe as Rugrats in Space... intrigued I hope so.

Stay tuned for regular (hopefully!) updates on my progress and maybe the odd excert.

Stu vs 25 Books in 2011 - update

Well folks by my own admission I'm a slow reader but A Dance With Dragons took me much longer than anticipated - roughly two and a half months to be precise. As a resultI am way behind my quota of 25 book read in 2011.

I am notgiving up however and have moved onto some lighter reading in the form of A Diary of a Wimpy Kid which so far is turning out to be quite funny and much better than the movie which I recently sat through; completely uninspring!

Not sure which of the remaining 20 I will tackle after this, maybe make a suggestion for me in the comments box!

Keeping reading folks, and to all those aspiring novelists out there, A Diary of a Wimpy Kid was written by a video game develper and if he can do it so can we.

Stu vs Finally Finishing A Dance with Dragons

To quote George R.R Martin: The last one was a bitch, this one was three bitches and a bastard!

Now I intend to talk a little about the book and there will be a few possible spoilers so please discontinue reading if you intend to read said book.

At 957 pages, plus a 50 page appendix (yes George likes to keep us informed on how each character is related) I thought I would whizz through A Dance With Dragons purely on my love of the world and characters. I was wrong and I put this down to not reading A Storm of Swords beforehand. There were a lot of secondary characters I'd forgotten about and the parts of the book set in Mereen were confusing to the point of being laborious.

The book started with a bang and proved Jon has balls to go along with his new title and carried on in muchthe same vain. However George I am disappointed in the direction you've taken Bran. I've been invested in this characterfrom book 1 and his story seemingly came to an end with a whimper in this book. It also seemed there was conflict included just to prolong stories and in parts this was unnecessary. That being said however in the end Dance was a great book and finished on numerous cliff hangers and with the death of one of my favourite characters...

Poor Jon. (what I said there'd be spoilers!) He only tried to do the right thing and along with Dany he paid theprice of trying to help everyone else.

Now come on George and begin work on the Winds of Winter, there is an empty space on my bookshelf waiting to be filled.

P.S. for a more indepth 'review' please stay tuned as a micro review should appear shortly on my website.