May I begin by wishing you all a happy new year and I hope you had a pleasant festive break. It’s been a wonderful week but, I won’t lie, spending today with just my husband and son was a welcome change. My son is just starting to recognise Santa but that’s about it – he doesn’t know the whole leaving presents for good kids stuff yet. Hoping that will be next year where I can use it for bribery! I also have to confess I have barely read a thing this holiday – unless you count endless building and sticker placing instructions. Which, as riveting as they are, I can’t. So with the new year comes more plans. And this year, I intend to stick to them.
What am I going to read? Well, I will begin with the three books I currently have next to my bed. One of these is of the Murder Most Unladylike series, which I really want to get into. I also have Peter Bunzl’s third to finish – which is excellent so far and I have no idea why I haven’t yet! I am planning on branching out a little as well. I read so much teenage fiction, which of course there is nothing wrong with, but then I really struggle to enjoy an adult book when I do pick one up. I think the last one I read was ‘We are all completely beside ourselves’ – which was a reread as I didn’t like it first time and my colleagues were raving about it. I still didn’t like it. You know when you read a book that feels like the author is just trying so hard to use so many complex words to show how upmarket and intellectual their books is but it just ends up coming off as annoying? I’m so pleased I had it on Kindle as the built in dictionary got a proper beating when I read it! With that book aside, I really want to try and read something ‘grown up’. I don’t know how well this will go but I am willing to give it a try!
Another resolution I am making is this blog. I started this in April when my husband bought me the domain and set it up for me. He wanted me to have a go and so here I am. I think I’ve made a pretty solid start; I just need to make sure I am reading enough to get something on here, so refer to previous. Netgalley seems to be letting me down at the moment. There are a lot of titles popping up but then they have a “Not available for request” message next to them – so why they’re even on there in the first place I have no idea! I feel like someone is dangling something amazing in front of me only to snatch it away again. I will persevere but I think I may have to start looking wider for ARC books. If anyone knows any please let me know!
Finally, my husband bought me a book with 101 Flash Fiction prompts. I didn’t know what Flash Fiction was (I don’t even know for sure if it needs capital Fs but we’ll roll with it for now) so had to look it up. It would appear that it’s pieces of fiction written very quickly using a prompt as a stimulus. You are in a cafe and see something interesting outside or write a piece containing 100 words on all four seasons. I want to write and yet i never have any ideas! This seems to be a good place to start and a way for me to wind down at the end of a day. My anxiety is spiking a lot at the moment owing to my toddler deciding bedtime is helltime. But, like other things, this too shall pass and I look forward to screaming in his ear when he’s a stinky teenage boy.
This is what is on the agenda at the moment. More may follow but these seem to be the most pressing to me. As someone who studies and teaches literature all the time, I feel I should be able to at least have a good pop at it!