“So Helen? What’s all this moaning about being stuck home alone?” I hear you cry “Surely as you love writing then this is a blissful few days of space and time to write away to your hearts content?”
Well yes. I suppose I should be looking on the bright side. And most of the time I can. But it is amazing how isolating being stuck home alone with an injury is. When you have the flu/migraine/stomach bug (delete as applicable) your brain all but shuts down. You’re capable of sleep and …

Hello to you all on another snow covered day in Durham. However the great thaw has started. Today it’s a balmy 4 oC, rooftops and cars are starting to emerge. But before I bore you to death with another blog on snow I realise I haven’t yet written my blog post on the Kreativ Blogger Award which Katie McCullough nominated me for just before Christmas:

“I nominate Helen because I’ve never seen such an eclectic bunch of posts on one blog. You name it she’s got it; politics, writing, photography, lifestyle, …

There are going to be a few changes to my blog over the next couple of months. To add to the blogs you enjoy I’ll be stretching my journalistic wings with a variety of monthly blogs in addition to my day to day ramblings.
Starting at the end of January 2010 I will be doing a monthly feature and I’d like to hear from you. If you (or anyone you know) would like to share your story the details and deadlines are below.
If you have a story to share send your …

I have made the decision today that I won’t complete NaNoWriMo this year. Last Sunday I was about 5000 words behind, which I was very confident I could make up and still cross the finish line of 50000 this time next week. What I didn’t schedule in was a weeks worth of illness. I suspected something was up on Monday evening when I struggled to write 1000 words, then by Tuesday I was too exhausted to do anything but sleep. By Wednesday evening I was properly ill and ever since …

A month of intensive writing unfortunately does not factor in a bout of illness. Last weekend I made up a good chunk of the NaNoWriMo I had fallen behind on and I was on track to get up to date. But on Monday I was feeling tired and grumpy and I only just managed to bash out 1000 words. That was followed by Tuesday when tiredness overwhelmed me, grumpiness increased and anything apart from sleep wasn’t on the cards. It went downhill from there. It turns out the tiredness and …

I’m getting back on track with NaNoWriMo, the word drought has ended and my neglected characters are being revived. The thing that is constantly amazing me about this process is the way my characters surprise me. They ask questions and go on tangents. They behave in ways I wouldn’t have even considered a couple of weeks ago. They are coming to life. The words may be crude and in desperate need of thesaurus, but the story is taking shape and the characters are becoming beings I enjoy working with. Sat …

After thinking that last week would be the challenge as I was away on a conference I underestimated the things life would throw at me this week. I am rapidly falling behind with NaNoWriMo (over 8000 words behind target as I type) and I’m writing this blog over two days in 5 minute snatches between everything else.
On Monday evening I made a dent into the word count shortfall after being away at the end of last week, but as this week has gone on that is a small mercy as …

Yesterday I returned from the PPRG conference buzzing with ideas for work. Serious ideas, which is why I was awake at 7.30am on a Sunday morning (my only possibility of a lie in this week) jotting them all down before I get into work in Monday morning and get caught up in the day to day. I am not going to forget all the valuable information from the past three days.
The conference was great but it’s put me a day behind on NaNoWriMo even with my writing on both journeys …

November is going to be a challenging month. I’m underway with NaNoWriMo and made an excellent start in the first two days getting up to nearly four days worth of writing (6026 words) or 12% of the final goal. But then life got in the way. I always knew the end of this week would be hard because of heading to the lakes for the PPRG conference for three days from tomorrow. But to lose a day of writing yesterday, on day three, was pretty crushing. I’m struggling to get …

Last year I spent Halloween dressed up as a witch, getting hideously drunk at a house party less than two weeks before I was leaving London. Though I had various leaving parties, this was the last time nearly all the people I’d moved to London with and a few I’d got to know along the way.

This Halloween will be considerably quieter and more sober, but hopefully just as significant. At midnight it will be November, and I will be writing the first few words of my NaNoWriMo novel. 50,000 words …

On Sunday I went along to see David Nicholls and Nick Hornby talk about their work and more specifically their latest novels. It was part of the Durham Book Festival. I can’t off the top of my head remember most of what they said, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and felt more confident about my own writing endeavors as a result.
Something clicked on Sunday night which made me understand why I’m so adverse to joining a writing group, or share my work with other writers in general. I can’t put …

I’ve not been feeling great this weekend. Not properly ill, just a little under the weather. I think it’s the combination of shaking off the last of the tiredness from the past few weeks combined with my lack of exercise. With work being so busy last month the regular exercise came to a complete standstill. Considering how long it takes me to get into an exercise routine I now feel like I’m back to square one. I’m back to feeling unfit and lacking the motivation to move my backside and …

Thanks to Jo’s Kitchen I have my very first blog award! Jo’s recipes featured in this blog last month and she has kindly awarded me the ‘Honest Scrap’ award for my blog.

I am rather excited about this as I quite like winning things and getting awards, but it doesn’t happen all that often. In primary school my teachers commented on what a gracious loser I always was. Apparently I would always smile and be happy about the successes of my peers. My netball team in the primary school league ‘Thornber’s …

My blog has existed in various guises since 6th February 2007 but took a whacking fourteen month break before recommencing in October 2008 to make me determined that this time my blog was here to stay.  My 100th blog comes only days after the six month anniversary of it finding a permanent residence at helenthornber.com. In those six months I’ve entertained almost 2000 unique visitors from 55 countries. Not including anyone who reads this via Facebook. That is something I am very proud of.

On the 1st October it will be …

What do I want to do when I grow up? As I’ve navigated my way through life the answer to this has changed, but as time goes on it has become more specific and consistent. I want to work for myself, I want to work with people and I want to write.
There are becoming two strands to this, writing and business. This is where my wish list comes in. The things I’d love to be paid to do. The things I’d still want to do even if I won millions …