The decimal system has a lot to answer for. If we were based on a Octal system then I’m sure I wouldn’t have spent the past two days being quite as fed up. The first eight years of this decade were pretty great. There were lots of ups and downs, but the main thing was that I moved forward. Most significantly in terms of my mental health. Also with education and career. But the last two years of the decade haven’t been quite so fantastic thanks to one big bully. …

Apologies for the tumbleweeds blowing through my blog this month. NaNoWriMo gave way to the flu and even when I’ve had an idea to blog the combination of hiding under the duvet and blogging aren’t always mutually compatible. My sister has just been round to feed me and drop off essential supplies – milk so I can keep myself in warm cups of tea, grapes because they have too many at their house (though it does nicely fit with the theme of being ill) and of course chocolate.
I did attempt …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …