Routine

I love having a routine. It's one of the reasons I felt so displaced while I was out of work, not having to have set things to stick to every day. I was off work for most of December with shingles and then while it was closed over Christmas and New Year and man, I was missing it.

Last week though, was horrible. I had seemingly forgotten how to wake myself up at the cruel time of 5.45am. I had to re-memorise the bus timetable! But I'm getting back into the swing of things, and remembering how to make my free time valuable.

How about you? Have you settled back into your routine yet?

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Hello Blogging World! I am back.

Oh my god it has been so long since I've logged in to this website. 2014 has been an interesting year for me. Interesting and busy and so so complicated, and blogging had to take a back seat. 

But I am back! Or I am trying to be. I can't make any promises, because I'd only set myself up to fail. But I'm really looking forward to 2015 in the blogging world and all it brings me.

Thoughts on libraries and age rating and those sorts of things

Recently, there's been a bit of a debate online (due to some idiotic articles) about age rating Young Adult and Teen fiction and whether that is an idea that is viable, and if it is how the publishing industry should go about it.

I'd done my fair bit of reading the articles, commenting on it a bit on twitter, RT'ing authors when they make points I agree with, you know. However, last week something happened that made me view it all from a new light.

I was refused a book in a library. A public library. I had reserved Legacy by C.J. Daugherty, the second book in the Night School series. Is good, would recommend. I have lots of problems with the library service in this county compared to the one where I used to live, and quite high up on that list of issues is the matter of paying £1 per book to reserve them. But, the library here is tiny and the only way I get to read anything I want is to reserve them and pay the money and feel bitter for absolutely ages about it.

So on Tuesday I went to collect the book and the librarian serving me asked me my name then searched the books behind her. She looked at me. Then she searched it again. She looked at me again and tentatively pulled out a book. "Yep, just that one!" I said cheerily. She looked at the book and put it back on the shelf and said, "I don't think that's it. That book has a T+ sticker on it."

After a bit of insisting that yes I am twenty one and yes I do still want to read it, she handed the book over. Ironically, I think it's the only time I've ever looked too old for something.

It got me thinking. Age ratings are somewhat necessary in libraries - they tell the librarians where to place the book, readers where to find books they might like, parents where to direct their children to etc. However a goal of libraries and librarians is to promote reading, not prevent it.

I'm glad I'm an adult and I'm stubborn and I can decide for myself, but I hope no young readers get dissuaded from reading something due to lack of access. Read everything, that's what I was always told. It hasn't done me any harm. 

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** Blogger's Bookshelf are holding The Literary Oscars this month!! To vote click here. Remember to check Blogger's Bookshelf on the 15th March to see if your favourites won!**

 

Literary Inspiration - Agatha Christie

When I moved to Wallingford, the only thing that I knew about it was that the 'Queen of Crime' Agatha Christie lived here from 1934 until her death in 1976, and many of her novels were written here.

She's buried in a local churchyard. Her old house is identified by the blue plaque which you can see from the street, and I pass it often on my walks along the River Thames. According to the local museum she shopped regularly in Wallingford town centre, and she was the President of the local theatre group at one point.

I often wonder about her, when I pass her house or I'm having a particularly speculative moment in my favourite chair at Costa overlooking the marketplace. I wonder what Wallingford was like in the 1930's, and if she ever took any inspiration from the river, or the bridge, or the market centre. I wonder if the same things that inspire my writing ever gave her a hint of promise when she was feeling a touch of writers block. It's over 35 years since her death and still her presence is felt here. She's an inspiration.

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Getting Organised

The thing about having a lot of free time is that you get used to have a lot of free time. Before you know it, you've wasted the time that you do have and you're out of all that free time. Are you following?

I found that I wasn't quite feeling accomplished enough at the end of a day, and so I began a quest to get more organised!

First of all, I set myself a little timetable. This might seem extremely anal to many people but I'm working on quite a few things at the moment and always find that I favour one project over another. It also helps me organise my thoughts in relation to job searching... which can get very demanding. I obviously won't stick to living my days by a timetable forever, and if they're others things I want/have to do instead I do them, but this works for me right now.

Secondly, tidy desk = tidy mind! I'm lucky to have quite a large desk, but that does mean that I tend to pile it with crap. I'm making the most of OTHER storage solutions in my room, and using an in-tray for all important paperwork.

I keep a to-do list on the app Remember The Milk which thankfully syncs to both my iPad and iPhone. This helps me keep what I want to do in the front of my mind. I'm also using my diary to write everything in - both my iCal and my pretty Paperchase one!

Let me know your best tips for being organised in the comments!

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Doing things that scare you

The last two weeks have been a bit of a scary one for me. I'm very good at talking myself out of things before I even try them and massively enjoy my routine which I know and love. In the last two weeks I've had to do five things I (tbh) would rather not have done. 

But I've done them. And am I better for it? Probably.

Now, it's time for me to go and give blood. That's number six.


No, I don't know what the point of this post was either.