The Diary of Elliot Parker Catch Up Time

Here is a brief summery of books one, two and three, but I highly recommend flying over to my amazon author page to get the first three books to be reaquainted properly for the next installments (Saturdays for the foreseeable future) for The Diary of Elliot Parker… https://www.amazon.com/A.-R.-Appleby/e/B00N96X5L8

 

PART ONE

So, arappleby.com has recently had the feature called The Diary of Elliot Parker. This feature is about to restart and launch into the next part of Elliot Parker’s story.

Well here we go for a little recap to catch us all up. I hope that I get this all sort of right, this is a good way for me to test my own memory.

So… Elliot has a friend called Clover. Elliot liked a boy called Stan. Clover started talking to Stan and pursuing him. Clover then dated Stan. (Not the first time Clover has gone after someone that Elliot liked.)

Elliot has strange dreams where it’s supposed to be a safe place, only accessible to Elliot but that is so not the case. A stranger has access to the room of the dream.

Elliot is still very aware that there is an unconditional love for he who shall not be named aka the ex-boyfriend Adrian Ferisle. Sad huh? Adrian is naturally a difficult relationship: friends or otherwise. He knows how to get under Elliot’s skin to cause a lot of anger and hurt- intentionally or not.

Therefore, Elliot knows the tricky situation with the love life cannot last. After struggling to move on for so long Elliot has developed a crush/feelings for a friend, Jonas. Which is a bit of a difficult situation because you never know if or when it would ever be safe to confess something like that to a friend, especially someone that is inspirational. Especially when you have remained in denial for months and months.

Elliot’s strange dreams that seem to be hackable are able to push into a dream in a dream, where Elliot becomes the stowaway girl on a pirate ship under attack and finds a plan to save captain and crew.

Clover and Elliot have a falling out. Elliot remains silent in the matter hoping to work things out but Clover has other ideas. When Elliot decides to put Elliot first and draw a line Clover reacts badly and while Elliot remains silent on the matter Clover goes out of her way to run Elliot’s name through the mud assuming that Elliot will not know or find out. Which sucks. And Elliot knows. Elliot knows everything…

Except… That the dream hacker is actually the ex- Adrian Ferisle not the person he claimed to be, Adrian Kraig, which was incidentally his mother’s maiden name. But still… How uncool, he created the dream world that Elliot enjoys visiting so that he could talk openly and honestly without getting his own way- like he does in the real world.

So that is everything in short. Please check out the link to buy The Diary of Elliot Parker as a whole… A great way to catch up.

PART TWO

Clover and Elliot finally find a way to bridge the gap and the anger. But that doesn’t clear up Elliot’s own confusion, since her dream hacker revealed himself as her ex she’s felt more confused by their friendship or whatever they are. Things just seem incredibly complicated. She followed an impulse and put on a rune ring. Soon after she began to discover astral travel, intentional astral travel.

Somehow Elliot ends up tapping into Adrian’s dreams trying to get a clearer understanding but this only leaves her more confused. She struggles to navigate and chooses to run in a different way and resumes her dreams of being the stowaway girl, even if things aren’t perfect.

Adrian begins to change and Elliot is noticing, and appreciating the change more and more. But he is not the only one changing Elliot is noticing the change in herself as she begins to stumble into her own clarity.

But its two steps forward one step back when Elliot and Adrian meet up one evening. Things get a little, misinterpreted, which leads to Elliot being hard on herself before she stops wallowing in the funk. But they both are feeling that mid-life crisis when they keep denying to themselves and or one another what they really want. Things go from awkward and distant to worse when Adrian finally finds out how Elliot was feeling, from someone else, Clover. This time however, Elliot was standing up for her damn self and not bending to old habits and behaviours to calm the situation. That means a lot of awkward for a long while.

Elliot began putting herself first again and people were noticing. Elliot allows herself more escapism in her dreaming, heading to the stowaway life again. By allowing herself to be someone else the change is substantial and keeps on growing.

Elliot even puts a second chance on the table. She is taking risks and feeling braver. Even when she manifests a whole bunch of crazy and comes to terms with not feeling ready to start a memoir. She escapes back into the stowaway dreams, but finds the spirit dreams with Adrian are still pulling her in. In his own way, he tells her not to give up.

She takes another risk without any agenda or hope of an outcome and tells Adrian the truth, that she loves him unconditionally.

PART TWO

Elliot takes more risks with no reward with Adrian. Her feelings for him change and become less significant than they have ever been and her focus is changing in big ways.

Her visits to the dream worlds are less frequent and significant as her life begins to change more and more, who she is, is changing.

Elliot is becoming a newer person and it is confusing her exactly who she wants to be… Elliot is making tougher choices and silly mistakes.

Elliot’s relationship with Clover really begins to suffer as Elliot changes and decides who she wants to be and what she wants in her life. There are some big clashes as Elliot is really holding Clover accountable for some incidents in the past and the present. Elliot knows how she wants to be treated and that isn’t going to change any time soon. Fact or fiction she has some evolving going on.

Elliot’s life is changing with a new job, her confidence is growing and that has a far reaching impact. She begins to separate herself from what was once what she wanted and begins to enjoy a new freedom. This new job opens the door to a new future, a happier person is beginning to emerge from all this confusing, overwhelming change Elliot has been experiencing.

PART THREE

Elliot is starting to really move on the more she begins to focus on herself. Elliot is changing and Clover doesn’t always agree with her sticking up for herself anymore. There is a huge change in Elliot in terms of her future and her mood. With new guy Dylan taking some attention Clover begins to destroy the relationship she has with Elliot. There is a lot of upheaval and not all of it will be for the better.

The 2018 Project

So what have I managed to achieve this month… Well I suppose I gave started number 8 to work on completing one of the tattoos. Other than that, it is no where near completing any of those goals just yet but I am starting work on number 2 and 4 as well.

24/7 Goals:

  1. Do Nanowrimo
  2. Write The Diary of Elliot Parker (4)
  3. Draft up book 2 of The Big Project
  4. Re-edit book 1 of The Big Project
  5. Edit book 2 of The Big Project
  6. Learn to drive
  7. See a West End show
  8. Complete at least one of the tattoos
  9. Improve on last year’s site views
  10. Keep learning guitar
  11. Create and keep a manageable writing schedule
  12. Look for/find an agent for The Big Project
  13. Finish the cable knit jumper
  14. Start and finish a cross stitch project
  15. Win the lotto jackpot
  16. Keep growing hair out
  17. Keep doing daily positive aspects
  18. Complete at least one minor savings goal
  19. Have Christmas wrapped up before October 31st
  20. Read around 12 books at least over the year for fun…
  21. Be more time efficient, come up with a better schedule.
  22. Fit into the blue dress again and go somewhere to celebrate it
  23. Begin writing the next big project for the site
  24. Enjoy 2018 as much as possible, be happy at every chance!!!!

Author Update (January 2018)

Welcome to 2018… It seems I forgot to do my author update in December, which I am sure is understandable given how chaotic the holiday season is.

Safe to say, Christmas went well. Not much news on that front. I didn’t manage to write anything at all in December. I spent a fair bit of time at work and if I wasn’t there I annoyed the living daylights out of Boo. Things have been going well though.

The New Year was awesome though. The second day of the New Year I got a new tattoo (another magpie but in lace) which is on my Instagram if anyone was that interested. That was painful but it was worth it, it has been healing really well. The other news? I have given myself weekly writing targets to try to get more organised and on tract. So hopefully the work I do this year will be a hundred times better.

 

The latest binge watching on Netflix? I started watching Grimm which is a bit addictive but not one that I can watch late at night. Late night viewing is reserved for watching the Gilmore Girls

So Guitar has been so very little progress but I am learning Fix a Heart by Demi Lovato  which is another one of those must work on my timing and changes types of songs.

Nothing changes here in terms of throwing plugs in for my amazon books on my author page

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA xxx

The 2018 Project

Well it is 2018 and with that comes some goals to achieve this year.

So obviously wanting to do nanowrimo hasn’t changed. I want to try it at least once even if I never want to do it again. So The Diary of Elliot Parker at the moment remains, unfinished, but hopefully that wont be for long. There is a lot to do on The Big Project front.

No I can’t drive, I may not be able to learn this year, but if I can I will. A west end show, it has to be done, last year’s was brilliant. Of course wanting to finish one of the big tattoos will be on the list. Of course, I want this site to grow too, but I will try to keep learning guitar. I want to actually be able to have a decent time to write over the course of a week.

Some things aren’t changing obviously.

I still need to finish knitting the cable jumper from hell… a little cross stitch is fun so I am sure I will do something. I want 2018 to be very positively focused, and getting things done ahead of time will really help me feel better about the goals so trying to get most of the organizing for Christmas done in advanced will really help me feel secure in that.

I would love to be able to fit in the blue dress I brought a couple of years ago, I haven’t worn it once yet so I want a chance to. I want to begin the next big project for here this year, but it is going to take a lot of time I just hope I can fit it in. There is a lot to do this year and only 12 months to do it in.

24/7 Goals:

  1. Do Nanowrimo
  2. Write The Diary of Elliot Parker (4)
  3. Draft up book 2 of The Big Project
  4. Re-edit book 1 of The Big Project
  5. Edit book 2 of The Big Project
  6. Learn to drive
  7. See a West End show
  8. Complete at least one of the tattoos
  9. Improve on last year’s site views
  10. Keep learning guitar
  11. Create and keep a manageable writing schedule
  12. Look for/find an agent for The Big Project
  13. Finish the cable knit jumper
  14. Start and finish a cross stitch project
  15. Win the lotto jackpot
  16. Keep growing hair out
  17. Keep doing daily positive aspects
  18. Complete at least one minor savings goal
  19. Have Christmas wrapped up before October 31st
  20. Read around 12 books at least over the year for fun…
  21. Be more time efficient, come up with a better schedule.
  22. Fit into the blue dress again and go somewhere to celebrate it
  23. Begin writing the next big project for the site
  24. Enjoy 2018 as much as possible, be happy at every chance!!!!

The 2017 Project

So… This is the very last ever 2017 project… While there were some goals I couldn’t complete there were some that I did, and I am very proud for trying.

So for the final month of 2017 I can officially say yes I did complete goal number 8, I searched for a long time for some agents for The Big Project, while I wasn’t exactly successful I know that I am working on making it a project that I am extremely proud of. So yes it is back to the work shop for this project for a little more tweaking over the next 12 months, but I am proud of the book as it is, I know that it can only get better. I can’t wait to see the transformation and to have that perfect agent and publisher lined up for it.

Number 10, learning guitar, well safe to say I have continued to learn guitar over 2017 and I know I can only get better. So there goes another tick on that long list.

Number 17, looking for the positives more often. While it hasn’t always been the easiest task to achieve, I am proud to say I am consistently making great improvements in looking for the positives. I am going to tick that off, but I am going to keep working on that one for as long as humanly possible.

And finally goal 22 to grow my hair out, so other than a good trim to get rid of split ends, I have managed to grow my hair out, it currently at least brushes my shoulders, which is great. So while it isn’t below the shoulder yet, it is at least on its way in that direction.

So yes, I have managed to complete 11 of my 24 goals which absolutely smashes the aim of seven and I am incredibly happy that I managed to get that far. I want to do the 24-7 goals again next year, it was sort of hard work in a good way…

The 24-7 goals:

1- Write The Diary of Elliot Parker Part 2

2- Do NANOWRIMO

3- Write The Diary of Elliot Parker Part 3?

4- Write the first book of the big project

5- Finish spine tattoo

6- Finish magpie tattoo

7- Finish musical rib tattoo

8- Look for an agent/publisher for the “big” project

9- Learn to drive

10- Learn guitar

11- Finish knitting the cable knit jumper

12- Finish knitting the blankets

13- Improve views on here

14- See a west end show

15- Try and succeed at least three times on the 21 day habit swap

16- Win the lotto jackpot

17- Look for the positives more often

18- Meditate regularly

19- Keep making emotional progress

20- Keep hope and loose more doubt

21- Make posts for here in advanced, consider adding pictures, try to avoid leaving it to the last minute

22- Try to grow my hair long- aim for below the shoulder this year.

23- Become even more open-minded

24- Discover my own special brand of writers magic,

Habit swapping:

Break- Stop apologizing for myself so often. I do it a lot, it is something that really bothers me, mainly because I apologise for things that are completely not my fault and nothing to do with me. I am sick of apologizing for my own existence.

Make- Eat at least one piece of fruit a day. It is supposed to be healthy right?

Make- Write/plot at least an hour each day even on rest days. I have to start getting stricter on myself.

Make- Create and stick to a writing schedule. I have to start being more organised.

Break- Stop being hard on myself, speak kinder words to myself instead. That pretty much explains itself.

Make- A daily list of 3 positive things that I like about my day. Because sometimes it is easy to forget that there were brief sunshine moments.

Make- A daily list of 3 things that I like about myself, physical, non-physical. Because, it can be hard to show yourself some love.

Make- A little notebook of positive aspects, a once a day entry of 10 things that are positive. Literally a list of positive aspects about people, places, things; maybe one day I will post it on here.

That’s it, the final curtain on the 2017 project.