Free Writing

I decided to free write a post with some general updates, so I apologise if I end up repeating myself.

   I have a lot of thoughts on my mind, and most of them are positive.

   I'm really proud of how my book's going, eventhough I've only just started writing chapter 3, and actually stopped writing it this afternoon to write this post. I've been feeling very productive lately, in a lot of ways, so that's also amazing. I've put a lot of work into my jewellery, and finally come up with a load of new things. They all branch off of things that I've already done, like animal jars and space earrings, but more products are more products. I'm very happy with it - especially because I finally thought of something appropriate for father's day, which I had so much trouble with last year that I ended up not bothering with it.

   I got an email from TopHatter, offering me a partner auction, and after a few emails back and forth, I'm pleased to say is going ahead sometime soon, so keep your eyes peeled here, on Twitter, and on Facebook for an update - there will be a $3 start bid on everything up for auction, and if any item reaches a certain price then shipping is refunded and a free gift thrown in, which also stacks. I'm very excited about it, because we need the money. I have my worries about it - like I might only sell half of my stuff, and I might only get the minimum start bid for each price, which would sting a lot. But it's a risk I have to take at this point. Both of my shops have been silent for far too long. So when I announce the date and stuff, while TopHatter will send out an email newsletter about it to everyone who receives them, it's also my job to spread the word, so I'd hugely appreciate it if any of you could pass it on once I've announced it, which will be as soon as the slot is officially booked.

   We bought Minecraft on the Xbox. I always thought the game looked so awful, and I was never remotely interested in it, but it became very popular, somehow. Seeg bought Don't Starve through Steam a couple of weeks ago - a melancholy survival game - and a friend of his recommended Minecraft because it was similar. He bought it, and so far, it does seem to be quite good.

   We spent the entirety of Saturday playing it together, then most of Sunday, and on Monday - which is today, at the point of writing all of this - I told him I wouldn't play until I'd gotten some proper work done, which I almost have. You know, once I've finished with this post, first.

   The graphics are so very, very poor, that it's not even a problem. It's not as if they've tried to make amazing graphics, but they aren't quite good enough. They're just giant pixel blocks - so bad that to complain about it you'd just be a fool. Though, graphics aren't the kind of thing to influence me, anyway. The Trilby series is a series of amazing point-and-click games that were drawn with MS Paint, but they are some of the cleverest (and scariest) games I've ever seen.

   Minecraft gets quite exciting and scary, too. Zombies and skeletons come out at night, and try to attack you, and when the sun rises they burn and die, unless they find shade or are in water. Creepers also come out then, but they don't burn up, and if you get too close to them, they blow up, dealing damage to you, but also destroying things around them, which is awful if they decide to lurk around outside the house you spent forever building during the day. Then there are Endermen, which are quite scary as far as the theory goes: if you look at them, they will attack you, but they leave you alone if you don't look at them. They also teleport. One of them came in the house we'd built together, and we just stood there staring at the walls until we decided to turn around, look at the floor, and attack it (we knew where it was because we could see its legs). A Creeper also almost came in our house but couldn't operate the door. We just stood at the far end of the hallway panicking until Seeg tunnelled out and lured him away. He could have destroyed everything!!

   I still have my usual worries that my writing might all come to nothing, but a friend of mine keeps reminding me that self-publishing is an option, so, in fact, it's not possible for my writing to be wasted, unless I die before I ever get anywhere with it, and no one publishes it in my memory. Whatever happens, I can print it, and I can distribute and sell it. But I would so much rather do it the "right" way, with an agent. My books could get so much further that way, and afterall, I'd like to make enough money by writing, so that I can carry on writing. And if there's one thing I'm confident about, it's the amount of ideas I have that just keeps expanding. I've got several notebooks full of it all.

   It's also taken me a long time, but writing is finally my priority again. I'm not as interested in playing Skyrim now that Bethesda have announced that there will be no more DLC for it, eventhough it's easily my favourite game in the world, but this is actually a good thing: it means I can turn my full attention to my work. Even my jewellery takes a backseat, because writing is all I want to do with my life. So the fact that I've made it my priority again makes me feel a lot more positive and confident, because I'm getting more work done in a shorter space of time, and it seems possible that I might finish it by the end of the year if I keep going at this pace.

   It's Seeg and my 3rd anniversary on the 17th, and my parents are going away on the 18th, so we have a holiday at home sort of week happening then: take-out, movies, getting up late, along with the responsible stuff like locking up and feeding the reptiles, which is fine until the hoppers or an occasional giant cricket escapes. It's always the biggest one.

   It's been difficult, but I managed to come up with a couple of gifts for him. The problem with Seeg is that he doesn't want very much, and when he does want something, it's points in a game for a new champion, which wouldn't make an exciting present, or a new game that's come out, which he can never wait for, so I can't buy it and keep hold of it until the special day. All I can ever think of are hoodies and t-shirts, but they're both quite expensive, especially hoodies, and with money the way it is at the moment, it's quite impossible. But, I've had some ideas, and once our anniversary has passed, I'll share them with you all.

   I expanded Peaches and Pebbles onto Storenvy, and I'm glad I have. While I've not made any sales from it yet, I have managed to get myself on the front page almost every day, once even as an Editor's pick, so that's given me a great start on there, and boosted my confidence. I've also seen some pretty fantastic stuff on there, too, so it's nice to be amongst so many awesome things. Etsy's great, but there's a lot of stuff on there that has just been copied from other people, and I'm not talking about resellers. I'm talking about the occasional unoriginal people who copy other peoples' also quite lazy work. I mean no offence to anyone, which is why I offer no examples, but Etsy has got an awful lot of rubbish hiding the really awesome stuff.

I'll leave it there for now. I hope everyone is okay!