The Changing Word - hey, let's keep the bats though!

(Halloween pumpkin, 2008, made by my dad.)

For people who might be reading this for the first time;

 I am a horror writer. Mostly, I write vampire novels. I've yet to have any of my novels published, though I've had poetry published online and in magzines. Being a poet isn't me though! So I'm trying to make my dream of being a novelist come true.

I graduated from Edge Hill Uni, with a 2.1 BA Hons in Creative Writing joint English Lit course. I'm now back to my uni, taking a Masters in Creative Writing. I've been called foolish for deciding to do this so soon after spending 3 years getting  my degree. I don't think I am though! If you want something, then you should always go for it. Doing my Masters, just seemed the right move to me. I'm loving it right now! I get to read and write all the time and since that is something I love doing, its a perfect fit!

I know that I've not written a post for this blog in ages. I think this is because the one I wrote for my uni sort of took over and then I found that I was repeating myself acrosss the two of them. The idea of pasting and coping stuff on both blogs also didn't last long. So I think that's why this blog has fallen. I'm back now, because I can no longer write my uni blog and have had to find another source for my blog writing.

Instead of creating a whole new blog, I just thought of updating this one. Now my only problem is I can't seem to change my background. I know one of the key things about someone's blog is what they decided to display behind the words they write. I think though, if I did get rid of the bats, then I'd have gone for books or more halloween/dark things. So maybe, it's wise to just stick with them! I know some people might not like them or thing my page is too dark. I can prove that they do fit in though!

To contuine, my current jobs are a writer and a student guide for my uni. At the minute I'm looking for another job, having need of the money and I'm thinking of doing some online freelance work. I also work in my local RSPCA chairty shop. I voleenter there two mornings a week. It gets me out of bed, in a different envioment and meeting new people. I also get to buy a lot of books!

I found this book today- just with a different cover- stuffed in the back room. I couldn't believe it! I've fallen in love with Marakami's writing. I've read Norweigen Wood and Sputinik Sweetheart now. This book and Hard-Boiled Eggs, were on my list to buy. So I got lucky finding it when I did. It's actually a large book, so I'm thinking of making it a summer read, no doubt that won't happen though! I read the first two pages before and was hooked!

I've lost count of the number of people, I've told to go and read Marakami now. The style of his writing is like poetry, because it flows so well, but it is also very simple langauge and highly effective. You get drawn into this world of Japan that he creates and his characters are very real to life. Though his writing style is so simple, tht themes he deals with are not. They come across on many different levels and I'm always pondering over them. So, yeah, if you've not read Marakami go and do so now!

I've to be off now to walk my dogs.

Moving On

Hi readers,

Sorry I didn’t blog early this week! I’ve been busy with a few things and the days are just flying by. I now have only 3 weeks left in my uni house and then I’m moving out and back home! I can’t believe how fast this year has gone, nor the last 3 year. You just get so caught up in student life that for awhile it does feel like an endless streach of time. Like you could be a student for the rest of your life because time is moving far too slowly. Other times though, (like now!) you wonder where the time has gone too and maybe you lost a night partying or maybe redoing an essay? Or like now when uni is ending and it’s offically the last time.

I keep thinking back to all my memories I’ve of my time at uni. I’m still shocked I’ve made it this far really. I’m dysleix, but I’ve a degree in Creative Writing and English Lit now! I’ve not failed or had to redo anything and somehow it looks like I’ll get a 2.1 over all. It just goes to show though, if you love and want to do something so badly, you can over come all of those obsticals life decides to throw at you to get there in the end. Picking yourself up after a fall is often bad and I’ve had a few of them-espically this year- but I’ve pulled throw with the help of my amazing family and friends. There’s no way I’d be the person I’m today without those people! Plus the really good times equal out the bad ones and I’ve had a lot of good times- mostly nights out and trips to Liverpool. Random conversation in the LRC when we had work to do, but chatting was more important. My favourites though are all the times late at night and the small hours of the morning when I’d be up with my housemates just talking. I’m going to miss the 3/4 of us standing in the upstairs hallway outside our rooms just having a laugh. I’ll miss sitting down to watch movies with them and talking through most of it as well! Or singing along to some great songs and knowing that stuff just didn’t matter any more, because we were having a moment together. Yeah, I’m going to miss student life….not the essays though! Not going to miss them!

So, to catch up on what I’ve been up to then…..I’ve been out twice last week-first time random drinks with my housemate and the second time was the last time in the SU/The Venue and Alpine. That was lots of fun and I do have some pics, but since I put the ones of Chester Zoo my friends have rebelled against me. So, I’ll have to sneak them on soon! Also I’ve been reading this;



I’ve be come addicted and I’m gettting through Quinn’s story very fast. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t more of Lestat’s story, but he’s still making his presence felt. I do love the way Rice writes-she makes this whole world come to life and the characters are so rememberable. I hope my novels will one day capture people the way Rice’s does. I’ve been busy working on mine. Second drafting it and thinking about the way I’m writing. Though I was sadden to hear last week that my tutor who helped me start this work on my novel had passed way. So, I put her name in my dedication, because I’m not going to forget all the help she give me.

I had other things I wanted to write about today, but it loooks I’l have to come back. My housemate is offically leaving and I want to spend a few minutes with him saying goodbye. I hate that stuff has to come to an end. It bugs me! But hopefully a new chapter will be starting soon

New Novel

Hi readers,

I thought I'd stop by my blog and see if anything was happening....yep 396 comments pending for me! So I'll be reading through them once I'm done here. Not a lot has been going on since last time, well with me anyway. As most of my friends are still doing uni work or have decided to move back home for summer. I've been keeping busy through, I've been writing a post-modern, futurist story about rebel groups and strange shadow voices.....I've been keeping my best friend on edge about it, because she's been reading it, but can't figure out what is actually happening. Good news for me, because she is normally the first person to figure out how a novel or movie is going to end. So I've to be really inventive with this novel to make sure that she doesn't see the ending coming! As of yet I've not seen it either. I think that's why I'm currently really into writing it, because I've no idea how things are going to go.

My characters have been leading the plot and there are like a number of different sets of characters now. They are linked by one person at the minute, though things might change....still though it's a challenge to write. When I first started with it, I had this idea of having it set around and on trains as much as possible, because there was just something about this transport that was important. I've still not figure out why, but I know that trains are a key theme! Then I decided that I wanted to have it written in a strange style. I wanted there to be a sheet of glass between the reader and the happenings within the novel. So the read could still get attached to the characters, but the characters would only show the reader so much. Meaning that most of the time the reader is left out of the world which the characters live in. So this distance was created and it's still going on. The reader doesn't know anything! Issue is though, this means I don't know anything either......

Difficult to explain, but hang on a minute. As the writer I should know my characters and the plot. I should be the one making the choices and deciding things, but for this novel to work out how I started it, I can't be in control. Therefore, I don't know myself what'll happen till I start writing and the characters wonder into my mind and show me things. The other restriction I've in place at the minute is not thinking about the novel when I'm not writing it! So not normal for me, because I like to wonder away from the computer, take a walk outside whilst listening to some loud heavy metal music and let my thoughts drift. This way new ideas enter my head and by the time I return I'm ready to note them down and carry on writing. With my new novel, that's not an option, so I've to relay on the characters to keep showing me things whilst I write, so that I can put them in. Luckily, they are still doing this! Here's hoping they carry on too, because I really want to know how things will work out for all the characters!

So, that's been my life lately. I'm having a night out tonight though! It's a friend's 21st, so I'm going to Liverpool with all my housemates, some of others and her friends for a good night of partying and drinking. Though I'm not going to get too drunk, because that's a bad thing. So there'll be photos of that coming tomorrow or Monday....depending on how things go and if we go to any good places I'll write about them too. :)

All In The Name Of Poetry!

Hi! I’m hoping to have some new readers today, because I’ve been giving out my business cards to people about my blog. Today was an applicant visit day for people doing media courses and I’m hoping most of them will now be reading my post!I had a good day helping people and showing off the uni, though it is tiring being on your feet, talking and smiling all day, but I don’t mind. I love being a student guide it’s just get fun and easy money! I like writing my blog too. I’ve had lots of tasks to do throughout the day, though my fav has to be the campus tour, only because I get to chat to lots of people and talk about the different buildings on campus and the useful facilities. I’m working this Saturday too, so no doubt I’ll get to find more people to read my blog.


Of course that and my title have nothing to do with my first photo! It’s of the pie I made last night. I’ve been teaching my housemate how to cook and this pie, plus the pasta bake I made on Sunday, have now been added to his cooking list. The pie was tasty and there’s still lots left. That’s the issue with my cooking-when I make a meal for people, there’s always enough for twice as many people that I’m cooking for! So no one goes hungry for long around me.

So, I guess I should explain my title now. With it being so close to the end of my 3rd and last year at Edge Hill Uni, I’ve many essays on the go right now and one of them is poetry. I’ve my last four poems to submit after Easter, but I’ve been trying to come up with a creative way of displaying my poems. The tutors often encourage this- special with poetry-as its one of those subjects that needs a little more creativity behind it. So over the past 2 years I’ve displayed my poetry in a handmade book, scrapbooks and just normally. This year I wanted to do something different and I’ve had a lot of ideas- orgami and writing with chalk on the street-where just two of the crazy thoughts I had. My housemate and fellow creative writing student has had the best idea though. He wants to take sections of his poem and write them everywhere possible, so these photos below show his first practising;

He’s not a hoodie, by the way! It was raining and he’s writing on our house wall and slates that fell of our roof. He also washed the chalk off once we were done.

Don’t panic about this either! It was ketchup on the bathroom tiles. We washed it off soon after, but the bathroom does still smell a bit ketchupy.

So with him planning that, I decided that I’d like to do something with photographs. So I came up the idea of making a photo collage and placing my poem on top of it. Also because of the poems have to be connected either theme or style, I choice to do emotion and one of the current things that is effecting so many people right now is the earthquake in Japan. So I choice to write a poem about that.

It still need some work but it is only a first draft!


That’s it for this post now, but since I’m working on Saturday and then off to a gig in Liverpool on the Sunday night, I’ll posting another blog soonish.

Human sign post for a day

Hi! This is my uni, Edge Hill in Ormskirk and we had an open day today. It was my second time on the job and last month I was in Hale Hall registering people and this time I was a sign post, so I had to stand around and direct people to the places they needed to be at. Doesn't sound like a very fun job does it? I was slightly worried this morning, but now I'm glad I did it. I meet lots of new people and was mega helpful to all of them. I had fun and I was able to discuss courses and the campus, I also got asked questions about the accommodation, why I came to Edge Hill and where the nearest hot drinks were!

I really like my job, it gives me the chance to represent my uni and shows my love for the place. I just feel the need to let everyone know how good EHU is and how it changed my life. Even if that means I've to spend the whole day outside, freezing and smiling all the time. I'm glad I could happy those people and I hope the make the right choice! Next open day, I'd like to take people on campus tours and show them around, I think I'd be good at that now, I've more confidence in talking to people. Today I learnt that by me starting the conversations it got people talking and so asking if they were going the right way, which I think they might not have done if I hadn't said hi. Sure building my communication skills there. :)

The other thing that happened this week is that I got to meet Adam Marek, writer of the book above. I know it looks a little strange, but its a collection of short stories and each of them have two running story-plots, so they are pretty interesting. He did a reading at the Rose Theater and then a two hour workshop with my class, where he give us tips and had us thing about story openings and what readers expect from stories. That was amazing, I learnt a lot and it reminded me how many different writers come to EHU to talk about their work.

I think I'll wonder off and have something to eat now, but I'll try to come back soon to write some more. :)