January So Far

   I wasn't feeling too positive at the start of this year. I don't like the number 2013, it's ugly in number and colour. And I turned 22 on the 9th - while that number is beautiful, it did make me negative.

   I'm sure a lot of us get this way when our birthday arrives around this age. When you're young you don't care about the future, but once you get to the age when you really should be employed with some sort of future in front of you, it makes you wonder what you're doing wrong when there isn't.

   Despite the fact that I've been getting older all year, like every other person on the face of the planet, once that number finally changed I couldn't help feeling disappointed with myself.

   I'd not been writing anywhere near as much as I should have been over 2012, and I'd been rejected by all the agencies I'd tried - while this wasn't surprising, in fact it was quite expected, it still knocked my confidence. I began to think I'd never get anywhere, and it's those rejections that I think put a dampener on my writing last year.

   Writing is the only thing I want to do with my life. Sure, when I hit 40, if I've not gotten anywhere, I might just say sod it and self publish, and perhaps I'll go back to school and get somewhere in paleontology. If none of it works out, I'd also be kind of happy to start dog walking again, too. But writing is what I really want.

   Then a couple of days ago, after the best sleep I'd had in a long time, I woke up feeling motivated. I had expected the feeling to pass within a couple of hours, but no such thing happened. I was motivated to distance myself from chocolate, to switch on my little Dell Inspiron Mini and start writing, and to make a lot of new jewellery. This has lasted every day since then.

   A few years ago I set myself a target of writing 10 pages a week, minimum of 2 pages a day Monday to Friday - it doesn't sound like much, but if I keep a steady rhythm, that's 520 pages at the end of the year - a very decent sized book. During the first year of this goal, I wrote 100 pages more than I needed to, and certainly finished what I wanted, though a lot of it ended up rewritten in the end. But after that first year, it started to decline, to the point that I did next to nothing last year. I wrote 7 pages in two days this weekend, and I really believe I can get back on track.

   I also have some ideas for new jewellery - it was enough to make a whole new shop, but I've decided against it to keep the views coming into Peaches and Pebbles. Instead it will have it's own shop section, titled what the shop would have been called, and a domain name redirecting to the section to help advertise the jewellery in relevant places. I don't like to disclose too much in case my ideas get stolen - that's why you'll never ever find out the names or any other pieces of information of any of the works I want to publish until they are actually published. Either way, the first of the jewellery will be up within the next few weeks!

   I'm quite excited about my plans, and I hope they work out. I have some ideas for new projects that may or may not turn into tutorials - I'll be honest: if I can make money off of them, they won't be tutorials ;P

   Now, a question for the artists among you:

   Does anyone know any good brands of pens to use for pen and wash drawings?

It's a medium of art I did quite well with in school, and really quite enjoyed. I wanted

to try to pick it back up again, so I'd appreciate some help!