Author Updates (July 16)

Hiya!

So there won’t be much focus on this post today, I’m a bit distracted writing this, but here goes…

 

There are a few quotes about writing that I both like and struggle with…

“You own everything that ever happened to you.”

“If people wanted to be written warmly about they should have behaved better.”

“Never wrong a writer, they get their revenge in print.”

 

All superb quotes. All very hard to live by. Writing is challenging, it can make you vulnerable.

Life makes you vulnerable.

 

This month has been riddled with procrastination at its best. I’ve been procrastinating even though the editing has been strenuous. I am learning guitar (a month and a half in)! Which is hard but fun and my left hand fingers look gross at the finger tips.

And the worst part. I lost a friend. Not like she died. But that she chose to keep her life in a toxic place and I couldn’t think of any way to try to help her (I’ve tried so many times, so many ways) so I tried to shock her into taking action (about her happiness) and it didn’t work how it hoped it would have. I gave her an ultimatum. But she then made things worse by choosing to see how it goes with the toxic side of her life rather than try to fix the rift. So of course when I walked away from the situation she decided to make herself look like a victim in the situation at my hands rather than keep it amicable and clean as a friendship break up. She went from talking about me on social media to actively messaging and calling people to say how I am rubbish.

It is sad that it had to go that way. This is the only place I have and will make a comment on it, the breakdown sucks. But there is little I can do when someone has made their choice twice.

I just want her to know I hope that she gets what she needs, truly gets what is needed. I hope she has a happy life.

 

That aside. I know mentioned I am editing, yup, I sure am. I am hoping to find an agent or publisher to be able to get this story onto some tangible paper!

I am getting ready to prepare something exciting on here too so don’t worry something new and exciting is coming… keep popping in and I might tell a little more next time.

I have spent hours trying to avoid procrastination by writing. I am sure I am not the only one who finds procrastination something that writers would get an olympic gold for. I’ll collect my medal later.

So its been just over a month and a half since I started to learn guitar… So I am sure that there is a little curiosity. I know and can execute the 9 major chords (A, C, D, G, E, E minor, A minor, D minor) as well as a couple of others. What songs have I been learning in my beginner-ness? Get Back- Demi Lovato, Nightingale- Demi Lovato, Slow Down- Selena Gomez, Halo- Beyonce, and the tabs for Shouldn’t Come Back- Demi Lovato.

So while it has been a weird suckish month in some aspects, in others, my god its been wonderful!

I went to a concert with my bro Harry recently- It was awesome! We went to Hyde Park, we saw Pharrell Williams perform and Stevie wonder. The food was good. The freebies = awesome. The atmosphere was the best thing about it, there was such a great vibe going on!  I have learned something by saying yes to going, just follow a good vibe and impulse. It has been awesome to hang out with such positive people.

It is always important to hang around positive energies for certain.

So I want to keep doing more impulse yes moments!

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA xxx

Counting Chapter Thirty Cheeky Extras

Choice

Well that is a bit of a trick. There is rarely ever a true choice, an unpredictable choice. That is the thing, when the choice, the decision is made, it boils down to instinct. What is the instinctive reaction to the environment?

What does it promote? The good or the evil in the world.

Choosing to act on either level is a huge commitment.

The link to purchase the full story on amazon… Due for release on the 26th of August… PRE ORDER NOW 🙂

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GEBKVUM

Author Updates (June 16)

Hiya!

Hope all of you are doing well. I know, I know I am naughty this should have gone out yesterday… But I went out :O I know!

 

Well… Whats been happening this month?

I’ve been procrastinating even more. I have a lot to do, the worst part is I don’t know how or when I will get it done.

I have managed to start doing some degree of editing/writing this month, not as much as I would like but it is all slow progress. A change in postcode has meant settling in has been the main priority.

I’ve almost learned my first song on guitar, I chose to learn “Nightingale” by Demi Lovato. I thought it would be nice and easy… Turns out my fingers don’t agree… I am learning though.

I have to say, the highlight of this month? No it wasn’t the food festival, it was seeing my bestie Harry and his mum. It was great to hang out with fellow writers and bounce ideas about improving the work and the ideas around writing. It created a good degree of momentum for knowing what I want to do.

We went to this place called Dotty’s Tearoom. MY gosh it was cute! And I felt like a lady, which for me, we all know isn’t the traditional association for me.

I am still developing a massive idea that has plagued me the last 6 years. I thought I had reached the point where I felt ready to write the first segment of the story… oh boy was I wrong. The overall arch has grown, I feel like I have plotted a drop in the ocean. Yup, that is exactly how it feels.

Oh I’ve also been working on some lyrics.

Been chatting to a few awesome people, having a little social life as I adjust.

Sadly not finished any knitting projects recently. Maybe in time.

Trying to find a way to be effective and proactive and not at all procrastinate from writing.

Oh I brought two new books I have promised myself I am allowed to read only if I finish editing the current thing on my edit tray. I should really work on splitting that reward into two so that I get even more motivation to pursue the next idea I have for here. I’m getting there though. However slowly.

But it is getting better.

I apologies for the late release of this months author update.

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA xxx

Author Updates (Apr 16)

Hiya!

It’s another short update this month, sorry guys. There’s not much to tell.

I am still not very well so I can’t write this indefinitely, or as long as I would like.

Not too much is happening. I’ve not been able to do much, not done any apprenticeship coursework, feeling this rough isn’t great at all.

It was my birthday as you know. I am now another year older, getting a bit wiser.

I have been very lucky to have very awesome family and friends.

 

I hope you are all enjoying Counting Corvids so far. It wasn’t always the most comfortable fun thing for me to write, re-write and edit.

I am starting to think a little bit about what happens when Counting Corvids is all done and finished. But, there are a few more chapters to go yet… so lets have some fun with it now.

Sorry this update is shorter than the last, there is not much going on that I can write about on here. Not yet anyway.

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA xxx

Another Year Older… Am I Wiser?

Well it is my birthday. And it is a real question.

Did I get wiser since last year?

Well I have healed my belly button piercing at last! After all the issues with it getting knocked then trying to swallow the bar… was very grim there for a while. But it is at last healed!

Oh yeah I have more ink.

Down to one dog. my old boy went to sleep for good last winter. Bless his old soul. Such a wonderful boy, taught me so much about being happy and goofy. And with my spotty little hyper git snoozing by my feet at the moment just waiting to mess around I have learned true unconditional love. And happiness. He is such a joy, I am blessed to still have him. Both sadness and joy in a few sentences but filled with love and affection.

Well I got an apprenticeship and learned what I do and don’t want to do with my life. I am happier for that understanding of self and my nature which I better understand and appreciate. I am less willing to try and fit in some kind of box.

My rebellious spirit is back. Back to being a fiery blaze of energy. I am even learning to focus better. I cant wait to see what I learn in the coming year.

As I mentioned before, I have quite an excited grounding level of energy. I am very much more positively looking at the now and the future. I wouldn’t say that I haven’t struggled but I am facing the struggle in a stronger way from a positive source of energy…

I hope this learning guitar continues on. I like creative energy and the freedom that comes with doing what I want.

As I am sure you have noticed, I do like to test and torture my characters a bit and see what they are made of..

I wonder what more I will write this year?

As you probably know I am still hunting for a literary agent/publisher for some other work that I have done.

I am also getting quite excited for summer even though that means my eyes will be a bit more sensitive to sunlight and I will probably have a bit of a migraine a lot of the time. But for me this summer coming represents freedom for creativity. I discovered the year just passed that the creative time is something I really cannot sacrifice, simply for the sake of my happiness. I am very much a head in the clouds dreamer and learning a business approach to life is both a good and bad thing. But hey I am hoping to use the lessons I have learned.

Not long now until that freedom for creativity will begin.

I have spent the year effectively and essentially single. Though it has done me no harm so thumbs up there. Although I have learned so much from being single. I don’t think my motivations, my energies and my pursuit of positiveness and happiness would have been as effective if that was not the case. This year was the year I rebuilt myself.

I hadn’t realised just how broken hearted I was, or that loving someone who broke your heart, how still loving that person and knowing that the person you have become from loving someone who caused so much pain changes you. So to clarify, yes I still love that person. But the pain of heartbreak is subsiding. It would never be like it was, because I can’t be who I was.

I know now, that the person I have become I owe to them, good and bad, but still with love. But now? What does the future hold for that avenue? I can’t say I know the answer (I do know my answer), but I do know “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” I do dwell on dreams, because I write them, I write the stories of dragons and bizarre creatures and strange people. I do that. But I now know better than to dwell on something out of my control.

My focus for sometime has been adjusted, I have developed mantras for myself, calming and soothing words that propel me forward onto what it is I need to focus upon, everything but that. I cant focus on the love, or the faded pain of heartbreak or what I wish I could change or could have changed. The focus I am trying to change is an alteration of my vibration. That is not to say, that if things changed, if a chance or opportunity should arise, that is to say, should the question be asked, the answer may not, most likely will not be no. (No wonder I cannot be read like I can read another.) I can’t change the past, but the future, that is still such a wonderful opportunity. Not everything is as doomed as some would have you believe. But it never means it would be the same. People do change. I hope I have changed for the better? The positivity that I am trying to bring, the change in vibration, in what I want to attract into my life and dreams and chances, there is so much excitement for a wind of chance.

I sound so hippy right? I should add in an extra “who knows what the future holds?”

But it is true. Since my last birthday: I got an apprenticeship, I learned the value of focusing thoughts and positive thinking, I focused my writing, my attention altered. And now? So have my friendships, my goals and my perspectives. I am more focused on writing and making it a very key feature in my life. I am certainly less love interest orientated. My mantras that I mentioned I picked up from listening to Abraham Hicks occasionally. They are: I am worthy, everything is always working out for me, I am happy that… I am grateful for… It feels good that…

It seems simple doesn’t it? It is something I am still working on one step at a time. I am sure that this is not the last time I will write about the whole notion of positive thinking. It is bloody hard, but when it works it feels good. When things just feel magical and right and natural it feels good.

I don’t mean to talk in riddles. I am just reflective in a non linear fashion.

I have probably spoken a little too much, and revealed a little too much of the private side to myself, the part that stays part of hushed conversations between my best friend and myself over a drink and a chat. Perhaps that is both a good and bad thing.

Anyway. I just want to say thank you for your support and continued reading.

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA x x x