YA Writer, Tech Support Girl & Tea Addict

Just added two new pics to the Saint gallery – just some rough color pieces. There’s an unfinished upper body shot of Tyler with his wings – probably not going to be finishing it anytime soon, so might as well put it online. Also, a toonier (and grumpier) portrait shot of Tyler, which was fun to work on even if the style doesn’t look right at all.

I’m really quite excited about how this story is going, despite my moments of self-doubt. I just need to get out of my habit of reading editor blogs and query information and then panicking. Just got to concentrate on the task at hand first!

How are all you lovely lot? Let me know by leaving a comment or visiting the forum. How’s your week been, and what are your weekend plans?

Oh my! I’m just back from my usual check of the Gurn From Nairn to see if anything exciting has happened in the town, like a new shop of a stray sofa, and I find a link to this blog on the sidebar. :O

Being a bit of a fangirl of the Gurn, with it’s psychic predictions of Nairn goings-on, reminders to go to events that I still forget to go to, and shadowy network of ‘unreliable sources’, it adds a bit of excitement to the seaside town.

For newcomers, this blog is part of the main site of myself, author and amateur artist Emma Maree Urquhart. I caused a bit of a stir in ‘ness after having a fantasy novel (and later, a sequel) published at the age of 13.  It sold well, though I never made any money from it due to the less than reputable publishers who took a lot of money from budding writers in the Highlands and further out.

I moved  to Nairn with my fiancé chiefly for the cheaper house prices, though I think it’s beautiful as well. =) I now work in IT and continue work on my next novel, when I’m not being a crotchety hermit getting angry at Nairn youths for sitting on the bin.

This blog is for cryptic updates on my writing, reviews of anything and everything, sketches and artwork, and guilty fan admissions of the likes of ‘Ohmygod I’m in love with David Tennant’.

In the spirit of local news, I should say that the heater is broken in the certain Nairn IT consultancy firm where I work. I’ve been surviving on tea and porridge and looking enviously towards the areas covered by the portable heaters they bussed in from Inverness. Arguments have erupted over which is a better warming drink, coffee or tea. You can leave a comment with your pick, but if you don’t say tea I will reach out of your computer screen and slap you.

Hopefully, it’ll be fixed when I get in tomorrow. Then I can shift my focus to solving the mystery of the dissappearing Ian Rankin books, which were ordered from the book club but failed to show up with the rest of the order! Egads.

Now, before I wrap up this blog post – there’s a movement among Nairn blogs right now to get the word out about local blogs, so here are my picks:

The Gurn From Nairn – The Alpha Male of the Nairn blogosphere (did I just use that word?), it knows all.
My Nairn - MyNairn offers some very well-written posts about goings on in Nairn, from rising prices to rising tides.
Where Mountains Meet The Sea - I’ve only just discovered this blog. It’s very beautifull and artistically presented, with stunning photos.

Do you have a blog I haven’t mentioned? Local, personal or otherwise, feel free to link to it in the comments. I haven’t seen any Inverness blogs out there, so I’m curious if some will make an appearance.

 E.Maree
xoxo

Advisory: This post quotes homophobic slur-words.

As often as I use it for reference, the Wikipedia community isn’t one I care much for. Though always stringent when it came to rules, lately they’ve become almost tyrannical, and the sites owners seem to support it, introducing I.P. recording for all visitors – a move that takes a bold step out of the comfort zone for the privacy-conscious.

Buuuuuuttt that’s not why we are here.

Why we are here is to laugh at vandalism.

Some recent edits got flagged up by the forum members, prompting me to do a bit of investigation into the history of some of the pages. And there, I found this beauty:

””’Dragon Tamers””’ is a novel about jared and his adventures with his good freind betty the dragon they get up to all sorts of mischief, in the sequel, mason comes along, he is well known as the evil Lord Gandolf, he is also a dragon tamer, but his dragon, Frodo is not as well tamed as jareds betty, this series is written by [[United Kingdom|British]] author [[Emma Maree Urquhart]].

Jareth - not quite Jared, but close.

Also, a later edit: jared is a poof.

I want this on a t-shirt.
JARED IS A POOF.
Apparantly.

Also amidst this edits were the words “I’m on drugs.” Was this directed at the author of these edits, or at yours truly? We may never know, but to me it seems like a cry for help from our dear intoxicated editor.
His drug-fuelled world is filled with dragons called Betty, David Bowie with insane hairstyles, and epic fantasy focussed on very short people.
Poor thing.

With lolz,
E.Maree
xoxo

I was in the process of jazzing up FK with some plug-ins when I found an automatic wordpress update plugin. Itw worked like a charm, and now everything’s working smoother than ever, complete with a new backend. The admin layout is a lot brighter and fun to use, this makes me happy. :3

Now, this blog has been neglected of late, but I’m working on sorting that. Look out for fun things like this in the future:

- Life updates. My boyfriend and I move in to our own house on my birthday, the second of October, which along with the workload requiredb to afford this is sucking up a lot of my time.

- Writing updates. New short stories are underway, including a new one you can read over at the forum.

- Art updates. I’m still drawing, I just don’t have scanning time.

- Reviews. Books, movies, games, anything really… I’ll be working on developing my critical abilities.

- Essays. I’m still in two minds about this, haha, it reminds me a bit of school, but I should be attempting some essays.

- Site updates. UG’s overhaul is still not completely finished – I need to sort out issues with spam on the blog and news, for instance.

- Merch updates. I will eventually get round to designing new products from Punk Ethic. Where I will get the funds to create these projects is another question entirely.

- Creation of a ‘member’s club’. This is more complex, and still under construction, but I’m working on unifying membes via a feature called E.Maree’s Army. It might involve premium forum status or access, early viewing of sample book chapters, exclusive wallpapers and other such goodies.

How I’m supposed to do this with SMF, WordPress and a normal HTML/CSS site is a good question. xD

…Fun times.

Also, if anyone reading this and is proficient in WordPress design, I’m looking for some help integrating the blog into the main site’s layout. Give me a buzz at emaree@used-goods.net =]

Thanks for reading.

E.Maree

xoxo

Just got my first paycheck today. =D

It’s not much – £90 for just under a week’s worth of work, I’m gonna say around 3 full days – but it gets me out of the messy situation of being unable to pay the hosting bills for my site. Without my sites, Emma is a sad kitten. >: Plus, the site’s form an important, if grossly underestimated, part of my livelihood – publicising my work and giving me an outlet to sell it.

I’m working in Vue Cinemas right now, and it was a slight culture shock to begin with… I’ve never held a ‘real’ job before, and being stuck in the arse-end of the employment, otherwise known as retail, probably wasn’t a nice soft welcome. I had trouble not being able to work at full-potential and help out when I was getting trained up, I am easily wounded by customer abuse, and my ever-mysteriously frail health state meant that after enough hours with movie times and short staffing preventing me from taking a break, I’d be on my last legs and unable to keep standing unless I was concentrating on till-work. This triggered a return of my old mate depression, which didn’t help.

Buuuttttt I’m doing okay now. The hours are long and the pay is next to nothing, but I can do it fairly well and enjoy it. =] With luck and enough saving, myself and my boyfriend will be able to save up and get an apartment of our own and move out of our temporary carvan accomodation. xD But the current housing crisis makes that tricky.

Work is… an interesting experience, and one that’s drastically cutting into my time spent writing and drawing. But it’s contributing – to society, to the relationship, to a future. It’s also being part of the loathed rat-race and being penned in by minimum wage and the restrictions of my age, but it’s doing my best to make my own living. And that’s nice.

SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER SEASON NAO. OSHI- =P

E.Maree

xoxo