On undeserved awards

I’d wanted to blog more again this month, I really did, but it feels like I blinked and the last couple of weeks were gone. I suppose between visiting relatives and Christmas shopping December just got away from me. And that’s a shame, cause I had a very funny satirical piece planned on recent power cuts in South Africa (now, I’m afraid, it’s a bit dated), and of course a review on The Hobbit – Battle of the Five Armies. I’ll still write that review, but probably only in 2015 as we’re with the in-laws this week so there’ll be little time for blogging. Suffice it to say for now that I can heartily recommend it. In my mind, Peter Jackson and his team finally got it right. Not completely, mind you, but it’s good enough that I’ve forgiven him for the first two.

But I at least wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas (at least all of you who celebrate it – those who don’t, the wife and I still wish you the hope and good will we associate with the season).

And I got an award. I mentioned previously that I’m not really doing awards any more, for as much as I enjoy getting them, I tend to forget about them, I never know who to nominate, and every time I have to share eleven interesting facts about myself I realise anew how very uninteresting I am. But the very least I can do is give a shout-out to the blogger who nominated me, so here goes.

Thanks very much to Belladonna Took for nominating me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. With the (ir)regularity I’ve been blogging lately I don’t feel very inspiring (not to mention inspired) but apparently I do it for some people (freaks).

While you wait for me to write something decent again, why not go check out Belladonna’s blog, American Soustannie in the meantime (if you’re curious about the name, read the explanation on her about page). She’s a fellow South African (expat, though, but we still love her), and she’s sure to make you laugh.

And on that note, I’m signing off for 2014. Have a great last week of the year, party responsibly, and I hope to see you all again on the first when I’ll be talking about how horribly I failed in my New Year’s resolutions for 2014 (haven’t decided yet if I’m going to bother making any for 2015…)

On losing

I have a theory why online auction sites are so successful, as compared to regular online retailers. Auction sites allow you to win. And winning feels nice.

Think about it: shopping in and of itself makes us feel good. The buyer’s remorse comes later, of course, but at that moment you hand over your cash and take possession of that object that you have coveted for who knows how long, your body gets flooded with all manner of feel-good hormones. (Come to think of it, one could probably consider buyer’s remorse the hangover that occurs when one come off the high produced by this particular naturally produced drug.)

But auction sites take it a step further. Even before you hold that coveted item in your hands you get to experience the unsurpassed joy that’s produced when the message flashes across the screen that you have won the auction.

Continue reading “On losing” →

On Losing the Plot

Not literally, mind you. Mostly because I haven’t found it yet. The darn characters keep changing on me, and I can’t seem to make up my mind about the setting. Regarding the latter, I’ve decided to go with the old adage of ‘write what you know’, so the first act is now moving to South Africa. (Act 2 and 3 will, by necessity, be located in exotic locations I’ve never visited, but I’ll just make that up as I go along.)

But in any case the novel will get done in its own time. I’m for all intents and purposes withdrawing from NaNoWriMo 2014. I’m over fifteen thousand words behind schedule and am at present suffering from severe stare-at-a-blank-screen-syndrome. I’ve been trying to write every day since returning from my conference last week, dutifully opening Scrivener, staring at my notes, but since Sunday I’ve only managed a little over two hundred words.

I suppose it’s still possible for me to finish. Three thousand words a day would do the trick, but at the moment I just don’t have any words to write. As I said, I’ve lost the plot.

To start with, my conference was really good, but while I went there for ideas and inspiration, all I came back with are questions I do not even begin to know how to answer. Not academic questions, to be clear, but very distracting personal ones, about where my life is going (or not going), what I will find when (if) I reach my destination, whether I’m even on the right path to start with…

As if that wasn’t enough, I came home to the news that a good friend and former colleague had passed away. I’m going to her funeral in an hour, but it still hasn’t hit home that she’s gone. We’ve lost touch the past couple of years as she moved to a different school and I left teaching entirely, but I’m incredibly sad at the thought that she is gone.

So writing is hard at the moment and NaNoWriMo is just not that much of a priority. It’ll pass, but for now I’ll just let myself feel what I feel, and meanwhile I’ll keep staring at the screen hoping the words come, however few they may be…

On false starts, birthdays and changing one’s mind

Man, I’m out of practice with fiction writing.

NaNoWriMo is going quite well, word count-wise. Day one started with a bang, well, actually not, as I started writing at midnight and the wife was already in bed, so I kept it quiet. But it started well with me exceeding my quota in the first day. The following few days saw me missing my quota, though it was still a vast improvement over last year where I couldn’t start writing until day four.

I reached both the five and ten thousand word milestones only two days behind schedule and was all set of a 5k-Sunday which would have put me back on track and in a good position to build up a lead for the three days I’ll be missing when I attend a conference from tomorrow.

Then I hit a snag. Click here to find out more.

NaNoWriGO!

I blinked, and suddenly we’re at the end of October. I’ve no idea how this happened. Wait, I do. I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time at the school again. It seems even though I’ve been gone for almost two years now, I still know more about what goes on there than anyone else. At first it was gratifying to know I’m still needed, but it’s reaching the point where I’m starting to wish they’d learn to figure stuff for themselves. I suppose I could have left them detailed written instructions and made sure all the curriculum and policy documents were available and easily accessible from a central location in both printed and digital format…oh, wait…I did!

Every time I visit the school I’m just strengthened in my resolve to not go back to my old job. But I’ll do a proper rant about that later.

Because just now I need to focus on NaNoWriMo, which is a mere seven hours away in my time zone. I’m nowhere near done outlining for the new novel, but at least I already have a brief synopsis. Go give it a read, why don’t ya!

This post gets better once you click here. I promise.