Stu vs. Changes

Forgive me blog its been two months since my last confession... I mean blog post. In my defense 2012 has been a crazy year so far. I landed myself a short term teaching post in a year 4class and to say its been an eye opening experience is an understatement. In just 6 weeks I 've learnt more than in the past 18 months and I have a fantastic class to boot who'll jump through hoops for me. This, however, will end in just over a week which leads me onto the next reason for a crazy start to 2012...

In Feb the truely unthinkable happened, my wife was made redundant from Orange, something people were telling her couldn't possibly happen. Well it did and as a result we are upping sticks and moving out of Bristol. Just today we found a house in the lovely town of Crewkerne in south Somerset. We move in 10 days!

To ease a little of the pressure, well not really, Ruth starts a new job on March 12th. She also using her spare time to promote her business www.littlesprinkles.co.uk where she provides cakes, biscuits and sweets for ALL occasions. She's already booked in at some wedding fairs (you can thank me later honey for my prmotional efforts)

So as you can imagine writing has truely been put on the back of he back burner and the resolutions I made with such good intentions are seemingly a long way off. I refuse to give up though. The move has reinvigorated me across all areas. I'll be joining the local library and a local film club - my other passion.

On the reading front I am literally half way through The Hunger Games Trilogy and it is EXCELLENT, just can't put them down. I've actually read quite alot more so far this yeara nd have no intention of slowing down. 5 books down 25 to go!

Oh and I almost forgot the new series of A Game of Thrones starts in just over a month. I'm salivating with excitement!! Cold winds are rising!

Stu vs 2012 (Resolutions for Next Year)

2011 has gone by in a blur and was filled with ups and downs. More on that another time. However by far the best part of 2011 was watching my son go from this:



To this:


Anyway onto 2012. Usually new year resolutions are either made to be broken or are so ludicrous that we have no hope of actually achieving success. I've thought long and hard over the last few weeks about what I actually want to achieve next year and believe my resolutions are actuslly achievable. Some of this determinations comes from reading about my wife's aims for 2012. Please feel free to read about her passion for all things sweet related at http://little-sprinkles.blogspot.com/

Next year I intend to:

1. Read more (My bookshelves are filled with books left untouched). Please look to the left for more on what I intend to read in my 2012 Reading list.

2. Push on with my Writer's Bureau Children's course. I started last May and am currently bogged down with assignment 2. By this time next year I want to be booged down with assignment 6.

3. My lifelong passion is to become a published author. Next year I intend to finish my first children's Book and publish it via the Kindle. So watch out for Captain Cosmo: Space Adventurer on a Kindle near you.

4. Finally get a fulltime teaching position and do away with all this unpredictable supply malarky.

5. Spend more quality time with the family (anyone who knows me knows how much I depend to technology and my gadgets. In 2012 I promise to use these less. Ironically I'm typying this out on my IPad - lol.

6. Lose a little bit of weight. Tone up a little.

Well that's it. Not too far fetched I hope. Anyone else care to share thier own?

Stu vs. The 2012 Reading List

My new reading list for 2012. Most are left over from last year and I fully intend to purchase (I don't condone stealing at all) all the books I dont have to avoid this years debacle.

There a quite a few children's books on this list, I'm doubling up with some research for the Writer's Bureau course.

The Minipins
World of Warcraft - War of the Ancients: Book 3
Magyk
The Borrowers
Astrosaurs: Riddles of the Raptors
The Adventures of Captain Underpants
Muddle Earth
The Brilliant World of Tom Gates
The Warcraft Archive
Scott Pilgrim vs The World: Book 5
Scott Pilgrim vs The World: Book 4
Tales from Earthsea
World of Warcraft: War of the Ancients - Book 2
The Wyrmling Horde - Sum of All Men
Brisingr
Inkdeath
Tom Trineheart and the Land of Dark Stories
The Amulet of Samarakind
How to Train Your Dragon
Edge Chronicles: Curse of the Gloamglozer
Assassin's Quest
Royal Assassin
Assassin's Apprentice
The Bromliad
The Complete Spiderwick Chronlicles
The Subtle Knife
Inheritance
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Five on Treasure Island
Tollins

Stu vs. 25 Books in 2011: An Update

Well as we near the end of 2011 and think about what's in store for us in 2012 (I'll deliberate that later) I thought I would revisit my reading challenge. Looking back this challenge was flawed and doomed to fail from the start. The reason: I didn't actually own all the books on the list. Yes, I intended to but them all eventually but never got around to getting all of them.
Now I'll admit I'm a slow reader but I honestly thought 25 books in a year was doable. I managed to finish... 6! Yes just six. I blame A Dance with Dragons tbh. That book alone took me over three months to get through. Since then I finished a fair few others. My latest conquest being the first book in the Warcraft: Ancients trilogy.

So the list to the left will be altered to 30, yes 30, books in 2012. I'm going to remove those I've finished and add a few more. To quote Yoda, 'Do or do not, there is no try.'

This will probably be my final post pre-christmas, so I will take this opportunity to wish my readers a Happy Christmas. Eat. Drink. Be Merry.

Stu vs. A Dance With Dragons Update

It was a slow starter, more owing to the fact that I really needed to reread the last two books in G.R.R.Martin's epic rather than just the last one. But now however it has reached the levels of awesomeness I was expecting and at halfway through I finding it difficult to put down.

Just 490 pages and probably 5 odd years to wait until The Winds of Winter.

Stu vs. 25 Books for 2011

If I want to be a children's writer I need to read more modern children's literature. So I decided to do a reading list for this year. I'm setting a target of 25 books for this year. Now I may read more but I do read quite slowly and not as often as I would like. Here's the list in its full glory, though not in any partcular order.

NB: Current book - Swallows and Amazons (a book I've wanted to read since I was a kid and never got around to it)

1.   Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
2.   Beast Quest: Book 1 - Ferno the Fire Dragon
3.   Dance with Dragons (released July - can't wait!)
4.   Diary of a Wimpy Kid
5.   Inheritence (released September)
6.   The Subtle Knife
7.   The Complete Spiderwick Chronicles
8.   The Edge Chronicles - Beyond the Deepwood
9.   The Bromliad
10. Assassins Apprentice
11. Royal Assassin
12. Assassin's Quest
13. How to Train Your Dragon
14. The Amulet of Samarkind
15. Tom Trineheart and the Land of Dark Stories
16. Inkdeath
17. Brisingr
18. The BFG
19. The Wyrmling Horde - Sum of All Men
20. The Warcraft Anthology
21. Tales From Earthsea (this book is really four stories in one and I have read the first)
22. Warlock of Firetop Mountain (technically an adventure book, but I want to return to the books of my childhood).
23. The Subtle Knife
24. Scott Pilgrim: Book 4
25. Scott Pilgrim: Book 5 (yes these last two are graphic novels but I still need to read them)

Well there you have it readers; my mammoth reading list for 2011. These will hopefully open my mind up so I can write some more.

P.S. I am currently working on my top 50 films of all time. This list will be up shortly and I'm sure I'll have some controversal titles.