Christmas and the Aftermath.

Merry Christmas, Solstice and other festive tradition you may follow.

For anyone who has ever celebrated Christmas, you know it's a stressful time of year. This year, I celebrated it with my immediate family and both of my boys. Introducing my mum to these important men in the same room for the first time was actually probably one of the least stressful things of the day. My brother and sister adored my partner, who they were both meeting in person for the first time.

I may just have the very best family in the world.

Boxing Day was celebrated with an early trip to the local cinema with my fiancee for the first (of many, I hope!) viewings of the movie Les Miserables.



This is not a movie you will go to see because Anne Hathoway is gorgeous. Of course she is. But that's not the focus of this role. The focus of this role is someone that life has treated incredibly harshly. The fact that this movie is a musical means that that horror needs to be depicted in such a way that the main song for her can be understood and empathised with.

Well! Let me tell you. I've been a fan of Anne Hathoway's since The Princess Diaries, when she was a lot younger and so was I. Her role in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland excited me because it was such a different role for her. The Dark Knight Rises had me watching trailers for months before the movie actually came out, and the movie fulfilled for me every promise previously made in Batman canon between the lead character and Catwoman in Batman Returns, another movie directed by Burton from 1992.

This role blew them all out of the water. I'm not going to say a whole lot more, because we are still three days after release date and I know a lot of people wouldn't have seen it yet. Maybe I'll say more on my second, third or fourth viewings ;)

The day after Boxing Day, my partner's daughter flew over from Perth to spend a couple of weeks with us. Melbourne, being the fickle place it is, dropped about 10 degrees and was downright chilly by the time she arrived. Luckily for us, we had a spare jacket for her. Strangely enough, something that is quite well fitting on my partner's shoulders doesn't fit so closely on his eight year old daughter.



I had already made the decision before she flew across that I did not want to be unwell during her stay. A sobbing maudlin mess does not a good carer of children make. It was with this in mind that I made the promise that I would stick to my regime of faux anti-depressants (St John's wort) for a solid two weeks, starting well before

Why is this? you may say. You seemed to be doing so very well on them the last time you posted them. Surely the original two weeks is almost up, you may say.

You'd be correct to say so. But this person over here was just smart enough to decide, 'Well, Self, you seem to be doing well again. Don't need those tablets anymore.'

Big mistake.

So big, in fact, that this ended in a bout of four hours sobbing on my fiancee two days after I stopped taking them, and a shaky several days thereafter. I haven't learned to be happy without assistance yet. It was, maybe, cocky to think that a couple of days would have made all the difference.

So, a solid couple of weeks with them to help me before talking about stopping them a second time around.


As for writing? I have a few ideas brewing, but it's still holiday season! Come back to me at the end of January.

Day Four.

The internet is absolutely littered with stories on how anti-depressants have changed lives, saved marriages, saved lives actually, given people back their freedom, made it easier to get up in the morning, etc, etc, etc.

Less prevalent are the stories from people who used anti-depressants for a specified period in time before successfully weaning themselves off it again. Actually, one of the best of these stories that I've come across so far came not from the internet, but from a book I've been reading in the last little while.

You guys might have heard of it. It's a little novel called, Eat, Pray, Love.

Now I haven't seen the movie, so I have no idea how much depth the adaptation goes into about this portion of the novel, but this passage right here struck me:

"I never relaxed into taking those drugs, though they helped immediately. It never mattered who told me these medications were a good idea and perfectly safe; I always felt conflicted about it. Those drugs were a part of my bridge to the other side, there's no question about it, but I wanted to be off them as soon as possible. I'd started taking the medication in January of 2003. By May, I was already diminishing my dosage significantly ... Those pills might have saved my life, but they did so only in conjunction with about twenty other efforts I was making simultaneously during that same period to rescue myself, and I hope to never have to take such drugs again." (Eat, Pray Love, p. 54)


It was something I noticed on Sunday night: nowhere could I find a story of someone who'd taken St John's wort for the mild depression I'd read it suggested for. Now, of course this doesn't mean nobody's ever tried it with successful results, no more than the same lack of online stories telling of people getting off anti-depressants. Just this morning, I saw my last post was reposted on Tumblr by someone else who had also taken St John's wort and another person Tweeted me that they're getting off the anti-depressants right now.

But still, a fleshed out experience somewhat closer to my own, something to give me an idea of what to prepare for (if anything!) would have been nice so, here it goes:



I honestly don't know if I even expected this to work.

I mean, the link I posted last time listed St John's wort as greater than a placebo, but less than an actual anti-depressant. Well, that's maddeningly helpful. Where, exactly, does this herbal remedy fit on that fairly broad scale?

Still, I was game. I bought my little bottle in it's small paper bag, took my first tablet with a glass of water and followed it with dinner half an hour later, as directed.

Actually, 'as directed' is three individual tablets of 2000mg each day 30 minutes before a meal. There are a couple of problems I had with this. Not the smallest one of which: I don't wake up in the morning 30 minutes before I head off to work. It's more like 10. Why on earth would I eat into my perfectly good solid sleeping time each morning? So that put before the morning meal off the table. More importantly, 900mg was the least suggested dosage I found suggested to take an effect for mild depression. Okay, I thought to myself. 900mg may not be the right dosage for me, but I haven't tried anything like this before, and maybe doubling the recommended dosage per day might be a good first place to start, rather than multiplying it by more than six?

Even so, I was making the decision to lower the recommended dosage on the bottle by three and it was just a herbal remedy. On top of that, I had read the expected time to wait for effects to stabilise was a couple of weeks at least.

I really wasn't expecting much more than the placebo end of the scale. But as soon as I took the first tablet on Sunday night I felt much more calm, like I was taking a good solid step on the path to helping myself.

Monday (Day 2, for those who are keeping track), I took the second of my 2000mg tablets. And a strange thing happened to me. Three strange things, actually, which was what made me sit up and pay attention.

The first was a duality that occurred between my thoughts and my bodily response. It was lunch time, and I was with friends who are known (and loved) for their tendency towards disorganisation. We were meant to be having lunch together, but they weren't ready quite yet. This went on for an hour. Usually, when it comes up to a meal and something is making me miss it, that makes me cranky. It's because of this that I previously had blood tests done to see if this was something to do with my blood sugar levels. Nothing showed up then, and this was the first time I actually believed it. For the first time in what seemed like months, I simply observed that I would kind of like to be having lunch now. With no more bodily reaction to go along with the thought, I continued reading my book. There was no tension in my body, no agitation, restlessness or bad mood that usually accompanies that thought. And, sure enough, by around 2.30pm we were having lunch without further issue.

The second occurrence was a minor irritation at a social engagement that night. I remember a moment of feeling disappointed at something that was said, frowning but then, inexplicitly, a feeling came to me that it would just be more trouble than it was worth to really get annoyed by this. The issue was fairly minor, and I wasn't particularly emotionally invested in the cause of irritation. (This might on its own be obvious by the fact that two days later I don't even remember what this source of irritation was...) The moment passed, but it had got me thinking.

The third and last time on Monday was a sexual instance. This is an issue in most talks to do with depression and treatment of it. Because of that, I felt this account would be incomplete if I left this out. When it came to the end of Monday, I was with my partner and, I regret to say, I was less engaged than is usually the case. In this instance, my body reactions were exactly as normal, but there was an emotional barrier that I just couldn't pierce through. My partner described me as 'eerily calm'.

Unfortunately, this triggered me right in the fear place (too much like anti-depressants; it's swallowing up my sex drive, next it will kill every single one of my writing muses!!) and before my Tuesday tablet, I got him to cut a couple of them in half for me, effectively halving the dose from 2000mg to 1000mg: only 100mg over the originally recommended 900mg daily dose.



I am sorry to say, Tuesday and today (Day 3 and 4) have not been so easy for me. Both days have also involved stressors from work and time in hospitals. (Things I have learned: I am not at all interested in having an MRI scan. If, after all, I must have an MRI scan, it is going to have to be in a private hospital, because those places don't have the white walls and florescent lights that scare the bejesus out of me.)

Tonight, after three hours in a public hospital in the middle of the city for something that was only supposed to take 40 minutes, I gave in and took another half dose of the St John's wort. The last thing I wanted was to be a complete bear to my fiancee who, it turns out, had taken care to ensure there was a full table spread of antipasto foods all ready for me the minute I got home. (Awwwwww.)

Whereas, before the tablet, I had stood in front of the mirror in the girl's toilet in the white-washed hospital and told myself not to cry, after the tablet, I stood up with a straighter back, found a smile from somewhere (I suspect it was hiding at the bottom of my bag) and, most importantly, I managed to offer that smile as well as tender words of thanks and love to my darling boy whose attention combined to make things much better.

In conclusion, not a conclusive result as yet. Whether placebo or not, the St John's wort seems to be doing more good than harm and, even if it's just in my head, it's giving me a bit of breathing space right now when I sorely need it.

Journeying through mental health.

So, I've been planning another post on here for about a week now. Trouble is, I've not been doing terribly well this last week and the trouble with posting to a blog when you're not doing so well is that it's a bit of an effort to sound genuine when, in fact, you're forcing it.

I'm going to try to explore some of those feelings in this blog post.


I don't even know where to start here. Pretty much an overarching statement for me at the moment. So much of the time when I find myself in the middle of a mental health puddle, spiral or whatever, I'm looking around myself and going, 'How did I get here?' Also, perhaps more importantly, 'How am I ever going to get out again?'

I have been seeing a counsellor for about six months about some of the feelings I have been having for most of this year, and that has been helpful, but it hasn't helped. What I mean to say is that it hasn't fixed the situation. It's not in the past yet. It's still a problem I'm having to pay attention to every day, even on my good days, and counting a win on those times when I've had four days in a row without temptation being to burst into tears. Or just throw my hands up and give up on everything. Or else just stop caring. Just for a little while, but the temptation for that 'little while' to become 'just a little bit longer' is there. Trust me, those times haven't been too often.  >.<

I've also been in to see doctors for blood tests to see if there are more physical reasons for things like the exhaustion I've been feeling for almost two years now, as well as the irritation that has been growing only more increased when I miss a meal or even when a meal is a half hour later than I'm wanting it to be. (Times when I'm stuck in a car in the middle of a long drive and suddenly that need for food is upon me are less than pleasant. When you go from naught to crazy within 20 minutes, truck stops become a life saver). There haven't been, and so doctors' surgeries have become another source of frustration, another reason for self-hate and general upset.

The day before yesterday, I was sitting online with Twitter in one window and half a dozen tabs on anti-depressants in another.

It's important, perhaps, to note here: I'm... heavily against the idea of taking anti-depressants. I write this with a mum who has been on anti-depressants since I was in my mid-teens and several assorted friends and loved ones whose lives have been greatly enhanced through the space that anti-depressants offer in order to stand up again and get through day to day life. For them, it's a great help. For me, I'm terrified it will change who I am. I'm terrified I will no longer be able to write. I'm afraid I will start to gaze at everything through a mental glass pane that will separate me from the rest of the world. I'm terrified again that if I start on them, I'll never be able to get off them again, that an anti-depressant addiction will just be one more problem for me to have to deal with.

Whether or not it's irrational fear that has had me haring off in the opposite direction each time anti-depressants have been brought up, the idea I may end up on them despite all of my feelings against them has caused me uncounted hours of stress on top of the already not great feelings of depression, apathy, self-loathing, etc, etc. In short, not a particularly helpful solution on the surface of it.

So I've been trying other things, like seeing a counsellor, seeing doctors, doing tremendous amounts of exercise, all in the effort of finding more 'natural' ways of solving my mental health. And it hasn't been working. And, you know what? I was having a conversation with my partner on Friday night about how my low moods have been making it more or less impossible for me to write anyway of late. For a number of weeks, actually. And I've been quietly feeling really guilty about it. (Enter: feelings of self-hate, self-loathing, etc.)



So there I was on Sunday night, there I was, having a serious look for myself at the information available on anti-depressants, particularly SSRI medications (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) like Lovan, for example. I'm still not sold on this idea of chemical treatment, but I'm starting to acknowledge that what I am doing just isn't working.

And then, staring me right in the face like a little life saver or life line, there was a warning not to take Lovan/Prozac if you were taking, among other things, St John's wort.

Like it was a rope and I was on my very last breath in very deep water, I grabbed onto that life line.

I said to my fiancee, 'Will you take me to the chemist?'

And he said, 'Yes.'

He read with me some of the information I gathered about St John's wort.

This page in particular was a concise and useful source of information on St John's wort -- http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/docs/stjohnswort.pdf

Amusingly enough, the brand of St John's wort that I've just started on (Nature's Own) also comes with Tyrosine. This supplement's main job is to aid in alertness following exhaustion, one of the other problems I'd been struggling with.

Why St John's wort instead of a tried and proven anti-depressant? Because I'm a gigantic hippy at heart. And, because it was worth my while, emotionally, to attempt something that was still within my comfort levels just in case it worked. And because, even while herbal remedies may be seen as bogus when set next to modern day medicines, St John's wort has a history of being used to treat mild depression since ancient Greek times (as it says in the above link). All of this, is enough reason for me to give it a try.

So I'm here. It's now Tuesday, day three, and if I'm lucky, tomorrow will be day four without temptation to burst into tears, throw my hands up and give up, or just stop caring. And if I get to day five, or day seven, or even day seventeen, I'll have something I want to write about.

And, maybe, opening up with this post will make it easier to post here next time even if I don't.

Books, books, books!

A month ago, I wrote about the profound feelings that the novel The Stolen Child brought out in me. That was a borrowed copy that I read.

Today I found a copy that I can read whenever I want because it is all my very own!! We have a little rule in my house, where if the cost of something is under $20, it doesn't count. This was implemented as I used to be a stress head about spending after years and years of either backpacking or being a poor student. However, since this rule has been in place, I have been far more relaxed. Why? Because this is my book buying budget! In the standard Melbourne op shop, you can get 5 or 6 books for that!

So, the cover on this version of Keith Donohue's book is different to the last one and I almost didn't recognise it. Maybe I wouldn't have if it hadn't been still in my mind from writing about it here so recently.



Other treasures from today included Gregory McGuire's Wicked, Robin Hobb's Assassin's Quest, A. S. Byatt's Elementals, Elizabeth Gilbert's Committed and Johanna Harris' The Evil Seed. 



The lady at the store wondered at the fact I had so much time for reading. I said to her, If it's going to keep being too hot to do anything outside, at least I'll still have something to do! She asked me if I wanted to volunteer there.

So, in today's news of the most exciting thing ever--

We're going to be putting a pause on book ruminations for radio-play-of-a-book ruminations.

That's right! For any of those who haven't heard yet, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is being produced as a radio play slated for somewhere in the first 4 months of 2013 and includes such voices as James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer, Benedict Cumberbatch and Anthony Stuart Head.

Neverwhere "tells the story of Richard Mayhew, the strange girl Door and their adventures in Gaiman’s mythical “London Below.” This brilliant alterna-verse is populated with characters named for London landmarks (The Old Bailey), regions (The Angel Islington) and tube stops (The Black Friars). This story is Gaiman’s at his finest and delivers up the perfect blend of fairytale, myth, modern crime story and romance."(Read more here)

Cue me jumping up and down like an absolute fangirl! I will so be on this :D:D:D



(photo and content thanks to http://www.pajiba.com)

Belladonna Publishing

The lovely ladies at Belladonna Publishing are putting together a Black Apples anthology where they are looking for fairy tales

Here's what they say:


"Black Apples is an anthology of gothic fairytales starring the classic fairytale princess – but her ending is maybe not so happy, her quest is perhaps more grim and the darkness of the tale might just come from within…

The Princess might be someone we know, but she can also be a princess we’ve never heard of before. She may come from ancient times, or far into the future. She can be the heroine, or we might not see her on the pages at all – but the story must somehow evolve around the fairytale princess and/or her role as such – and have a dark twist… We’re looking for the beautiful, sensuous and sinister."

I have already submitted to them a short story set in the same world as Gothic (Shadows of Melbourne), entitled 'If you want to walk out of here, you have to learn how to crawl'.

The story is one of a girl who has wandered into the world of Fairie to follow her lover but, once there, it is devastatingly different. She is unable to adapt and finds herself almost lost to suffering. Because I am a soft hearted romantic, the male lead of this short story is in fact in love with his heroine, and he does everything he can to help her become safe, happy and sane again.

The story is further exciting to me because I have gotten a friend of mine Fyodor Krasniy to do the illustrations for this work.

Violin Fairy - Emilie Autumn

I'm lying in my bedroom. The Mists of Avalon lies open beside me, and the pages of the exercise book in which I'm working on my current short story are on the other side of me, with the pen marking the page.

On my bedside table, my dragon lamp is on and my lady with the dove candle holder has two candles burning. Amongst all this, there seems to be a heavy energy of magic and fantasy lingering in the room.


I've just brought music into my room. I'm not sure how much other writers use music to get into the mindset of their stories and / or characters. I know some writers who swear by soundtracks for particular stories of theirs, and can't write a word without one soundtrack or other playing in the background.

Me, I'm nowhere near that particular. Don't get me wrong, I love creating a magical atmosphere around me (see above, right? *grins*) but when it comes to music, I've only just started putting together playlists for my novels, and even when I wrote the first draft of my second novel Revelry, I forgot about the playlist until I'd finished writing.

One song that has just come on though, is Swallow by Punktorian, Violin Faery, musical artist, Emilie Autumn. For anyone who hasn't heard of this beautiful songstress and violinist, here, let me just say this:



I'm not a fairy but I need,
More of this life so I became,
This creature representing more to you than,
Just another girl,
And if I had a chance to change my mind,
I wouldn't for the world.

Not only is she gorgeous and incredibly talented, but she has two CDs out in completely different musical styles. Enchant holds towards a ye olde Victorian majesty, with such songs as Chambermaid and Rose Red, and the tune to Greensleeves is part of her song Juliet. Her second CD, named Opheliac, is inspired by Nine Inch Nails and has everything from Shakespeare quotes in the lyrics of the title track, to her own take on the Lolita story in Gothic Lolita.

"Gothic" and Fairy Folklore

I don't know when it was that my interest in the fantasy genre became a little bit more particular. I remember it wasn't that long ago that I couldn't conceive of a workable urban or mythical fantasy story.

I've written in a couple of different places now the story of my Honours year last year. I was fairly concentrated on my strict subject of fairy tales and Beauty and the Beast in particular and I just got to a point where I couldn't think about it anymore. I was a little bit ahead at the time and I thought to myself, What if I take a quick week off to just write something else. Something flippant. Something that I don't have to edit immediately or get right the first time.

That was the first draft of Gothic. It was a bit strange, actually. I'd told myself I wouldn't write a vampire story. Although I'm intrigued by the idea of writing an epic vampire novel, I just don't think that what I would put out there could compete with the multitudes of vampire fiction already in circulation. But then, Gothic isn't just a vampire story. It's also a story about a human girl, about family, about a community of werewolves. And when I thought about it that way, it didn't seem so daunting to put it out there, even in the midst of all the other vampire fiction.

In the next novel, Revelry, I'm going to be adding fairies to the mix for the first time.

In Celtic mythology, the Sidhe fairies (pronounced "shee") are seen almost as gods, or spirits of ancestors and nature of that culture. European folklore sees fairy kind as the sort who would steal human children and sometimes leave one of their own in their place. There have been countless stories and poems written around this folklore, including



"The Stolen Child" by Keith Donohue, based on the William Butler Yeats' poem of the same name. I absolutely loved this book. Donohue writes from the point of view of the group of fairies who group together to steal the child and leave a changeling in its place. He creates this beautiful mythology where every member of this group was once a stolen child, and in stealing new children and replacing them, they get to go back into the human world they've lived outside of for so long. This novel inspired a whole set of vignettes that I wrote a little over a year ago, some of which I am currently thinking of fixing up and compiling together in a book of short stories.

So here I am!

So here I am at blogger with my new layout put together by the lovely Regina at HeartFelt Promos.

My name is Nicole and, it may not be obvious just yet, but I'm a bit of a fan of fantasy. I'm not quite sure when that started. I could possibly blame it on some of the artwork I am a fan of.



Let's face it, in fantasy, you can get away with a lot more. The lines of good and evil are blurred. Motivations of characters can be more complex as a vampire needs to drink blood, a werewolf needs to change under that full moon. Those kinds of vital urges -whether they are fought against or given into- give a writer a lot to play with.

So, anyway this is my blog at blogger. Feel free to look around. There will be more tabs across the top of the site soon enough.

Until next time.

New Realease - "Gothic"

I come to you today, fresh from my first day at a new job, thinking that I will have a couple of weeks away from my writing to recharge and re-energise after the last week of restructuring one novel, editing another and beginning two new ones.

Here I am, ready to take the world by storm. 

(in a couple of weeks)

Then today, I get an email from my friendly, neighbourhood publisher.

"Erm, ehm, promotion, promotion, promotion!"

Imagine me headdesking at this moment as I scratch my head and utter, 'I knew I forgot something...'

So!

Leap of Faith LLC have been kind enough to take a ... leap of faith :D ... with my new novel Gothic, which is in final stages of editing and awaiting cover art.

Gothic is the first in a new paranormal romance series sketched together in the middle of my Honours year last year (much less stressful than the writing I was actually researching and getting marked on, I tell you! (Anyone who has ever done an Honours year can tell you this is true.)) Of course, then I talked to my partner about this book I had just written and he said, 'So what happens if you did this next...?' and so a series was born.

But Gothic... I have had so much fun writing this story. 

It's a story of a human girl, Dahlia, who's mother died when she was eight. After her father ran away with grief, she was taken in by her vampire godmother and the rest of the werewolf pack of which her father had been a part. When the story starts, Dahlia has just moved out of home and wants to live the 'normal' life, i.e. a life without quite so much vampire and werewolf influence. In the first few weeks of class, she finds out that her godmother has contacted one of her vampire friends to watch over her. He, Elliott, ends up being one of her confidants. Another student, and human girl, Renee ends up being another close friend.

Hijinx ensue! Time for some more visual assist:

Elliot is another supernatural featuring in Dahlia's full supernatural dance card. He is of the mild snark and general hilarity, and claims at times to have brushed elbows with such popular figures as Lord Byron and Bram Stoker.


Renee meets our girl Dahlia through her normal university boyfriend. She's super cute and acts about half her age because she wants to get the university experience "just right".

One of the best parts of this story is that I have clear images for both of these characters. The lovely actors who are acting as muses in my head right now are none other than the lovely Ms Ksenia Solo from Lost Girl and Mr Ian Somerhalder (nicknamed 'Smoulderhalder' with good reason by fellow cast mate AND GIRLFRIEND Nina Dobrev) from The Vampire Diaries. Say what you will about these shows, but these two people are gorgous. Anyone who knows me will know I shamelessly fangirl this TV series that is based on the L. J. Smith series of books from my childhood.

So that's me and mine for in the last little while. More news and excerpts to come next time I get a chance to be on the computer.

One Month, and the countdown is definitely on.

It's only one month now until Gothic hits the virtual bookshelves, and this little brown duck is starting to get just a little bit excited.



A couple of things have happened in the last little while, most of it on the Leap of Faith website. Last time I posted to promote this little work, I know I had a friend of mine ask about where my name was on the list of 'coming soon' books and/or authors. And now, Ta Da!!

http://www.leapoffaithpublishing.com/Nicole%20D.%20Fergusson.html

Does this change me? Does the promise of instant fame, riches and adoration transform who I am at some basic level? Does it inflate my ego, make me feel like my hours spent slaving over my laptop lifeline are all worthwhile now?

Mostly, Gothic's release date makes me keenly aware that there is a sequel novel that I need to finish polishing up, and 20 pages of notes in another document for a third novel in this series that I still need to round up the time to write up. As for instant fame, riches and adoration... I think I'll just settle for picking up a second contract after this one ;)

But I'm chuffed. About Gothic and about having that first book published in a number of years, I definitely feel chuffed. :)

Anyone who has had anything at all to do with writing/editing/publishing knows that this is not a quick process. I first started writing Gothic in October last year, got the acceptance letter for Gothic back in February of this year, and with edits, formatting, cover art and everything else, this project will span almost a full year of work. I'm not the only one who's invested a lot of time and energy into this book. My publisher has kept me awash with how excited she is about this book, how excited she is to have readers devouring it. My editor has kept me humble and continued to insist that dashes are needed where ellipses currently sit. My friends have reblogged my Tumblr posts on their own sites with beautiful messages convincing any and all that they should, must, will buy Gothic if they have anything to do about it.

And, of course, there's my beautiful fiancee, who brought me tea and hot chocolate when I was writing the first draft of Gothic for several hours a day in the space of a week. Who went on long walks talking about this book during the editing process. Who has checked in with me every couple of weeks or whenever it's been a little while since he heard something new on the book front.

Who is singularly to blame for inspiring the 20 pages of notes on the third book, most of which was dot pointed before the second book even got to polishing stages.

And who puts my dream of writing first a lot of the time.

I'm really looking forward to having this book out. I'm really looking forward to sharing that moment with every single one of these people.

Blood of the Dragon

I may have been completely disillusioned by True Blood this last season, but words can't express just how much I'm looking forward to the new season of Game of Thrones!!!

The Scoop

There have been a bunch of people asking me what is going on with this 'new job' that I've been obliquely mentioning on my Twitter this last week. So this is a post that is aimed to answer that.

The Goss:

Two Saturdays ago, I was told I wasn't needed at Of Science and Swords bookshop. Sad face. Lots of big damned crying actually, as well as my absence at a good friend's birthday party. Which is why I haven't gone into detail about that. I loved that job, and I wasn't really happy by the way it was handled at the end of it. But I have two beautiful boys who looked after me and whom I really didn't leave the sight of for the next four days.

*loves on*

I had been looking around for jobs that were going to give me more hours in addition to the bookshop job, as one day work a week (maybe two if someone was sick / had a funeral), was not enough. Especially since I finished my Honours and decided against picking up a PhD straight away.

Last Tuesday I had an interview. Last Thursday I had a job. Tomorrow I'll have been in training for a new job. Not highly interesting stuff but, like at the bookshop, they've been good enough to let me go for a casual pay rate and so I feel like I've had a dollar per hour increase in wages for another job where I can sit in front of a computer and deal with customers. Albeit, I won't be so interested in the product people are asking about but what can you do?

The truly exciting news is the news one of my boys came home with tonight. For the last week, we've been sitting on the news that a company has been head-hunting him. There have been to-ing and fro-ing emails arranging things like his job description, pay packet, location for work as they are a Sydney based company. In the last week, we've been asked if we would consider moving up to Sydney.



We did consider it, and then came back with a firm answer of no. Pretty much, you guys are all too damned awesome to leave behind.

So we're not moving to Sydney. But they were still interested in hiring my boy. Basically, they wanted his experience and expertise and are willing to do a lot to have it. Today, he came home with the news that the job had been formally offered to him, with conditions that he was pleased to accept and that, in two weeks, he will be moving from his current company to the new one.

And spending the next two weeks over in Sydney. Starting the day before his 31st birthday.*

Yeaaah.

Still, many of these things are good things and of the moving forward variety!


*It's the boy's request that if congratulations are forthcoming, they be said in person or through private messages on FB. Thanks :)