While I’m in the Yuletide spirit – I thought I’d share my favourite Christmas song.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And my less-serious other favourite Christmas song:

Click here to view the embedded video.

(I’m trusting that you’ve all heard my third favourite Christmas song, ‘Fairytale of New York‘, because it’s nearly inescapable with Christmas music playing everywhere at this time of year.)

If you’ve got a particular favourite, drop me a link in the comments. I’m off to continue spending my evening with my head in a book…

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

It’s time for more random links! Skiver Tuesday, I guess?

© Sam Rowley

Awesome deer photos by the award-winning and very enviable 15-year old Sam Rowley.  I love deer – this may be because I’ve never experienced the joys of them coming down from the wood to eat my plants. My old home in Inverness was close enough to the woods to have a fair few of them, though being honest I haven’t really seen many up-close. One of the characters in my novel The Network is a Kirin, a deer-like creature of Japanese mythos, and I’ve toyed with ideas for a YA novel linked to the animals. Yay deer. I could browse Sam’s gallery all day.

An article in the BBC covers the tricky topic of parents being abused by their children.Most of us will have seen kids and teens who treat their parents with disgust and anger, or more subtly walk over them, but abuse isn’t a commonly seen or discussed thing. Food for thought.

I try to use my writing to cover a lot of the darker things that people would feel less comfortable with outside of a fantasy setting. For example: both of my current in-progress works deal frankly and honestly with suicide and depression, because those are both important things that the target age range (teenagers) are going to come up against. It comes with stigma – the book dealing more heavily with it comes across as gothic, and the content in my lighter work will probably get called ‘emo’; both will attract negative attention from people who insist they have no respect for the suicidal and think they’re selfish. It all comes with the territory, and despite that it’s still an effective way of getting a message across.

There a Nepal animal sacrifice festival going on this week – the largest sacrifice in the world – where over a quarter of a million animals  ”>are killed. A difficult to believe amount, and understandably it has the animal rights activists up in arms. I’m indifferent – I’d have to be Hindu and understand more about the beliefs behind it to hold a strong opinion, really. However, I am interested in the quote in the article about how the gods would be just as easily appeased by fruit or flowers.

Morality aside, this paragraph caught my eye:

“Festival organisers estimate more than half a million people are already at the festival site.

Many of them, like Suresh, have brought their own animals to be killed. “

Festival organisers? It makes it sound like Glastonbury. Gadhimai-bury, woohoo!

In America, a man found out he was adopted as a child, and traces his mother and father only to discover his dad is Charles Manson. Yikes. D: I didn’t even know Manson was still alive, actually.

Then some inspiring Inverness news, a courageous and beautiful woman who became paralysed after a climbing accident and has still gone on to complete the Great North Run in a racing wheelchair, and aims to go on to be the first woman to sit-ski across Antarctica to the South Pole. Bless her, what an inspiration.

The heating is still broken at work, and the weather outside is frightful. So it goes.

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

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

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

Bear with me, I’m being a bit experimental here – I want to do a round-up of all the random awesome stuff I’ve seen on the internet. If I was cool, I would do this on Wednesday and make it Web Round-Up Wednesday – however, I’m not, and most of my randomly articles tend to be gathered throughout the week.

So instead, let’s make it… Skiver’s Friday! AKA. I should be working but it’s almost the weekend and I’ve found some funny links – day. Then I got distracted and didn’t finish the post, so really it’s Skiver’s Saturday. Shh.

WOO ENTERTAINING IMAGES. If I posted every image that entertained me, I’d never sleep.

Then there’s Iconic Photos, some great photos from throughout history.

In the news, we have lots of stupid people. Including yet another woman who can’t live without her expensive things and someone who got a Pit Bull to look ‘hard’ and couldn’t be bothered to train it.

It seems people are having divorce parties now? Can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not – I like the idea of making things a bit easier in a rough time, but the cakes there – particularly the ‘Hooray, I’m free of them now’ feel of some of them – are just laughably bitter.

Awesome Christmas presents – Fondue Mugs, EatMeCrunchy Bowl, Baconnaise and Marshmallow Fluff. I don’t like Christmas much – not only is it generally quite unlucky for me, but the pressure to find the perfect gifts for everyone really bothers me. I’m quite far behind on my Christmas shopping, argh. D: Feel free to leave a comment with your go-to gifts when it comes to finding Christmas presents for people – this year I’m abusing the use of cute microwavable teddies, and presents from last year that I never managed to post out.

*resisting the urge to comment*

For gamers, there’s a Flash demo of the newest Ace Attorney game. I am rushing to play it as soon as this post is done. <3

(EDIT: Played it! Be careful, when examining the scene it’ll glitch if you examine the chess board first. Examine something else instead.)

If you’re a fan of sparkly vampires, 11 Points’ 11 Random Observations Outside the New Moon Premiere is very funny. The Vatican have also complained about Twilight leading Christians into a world of undead romance, or something.

On the fanfiction front, I’ve been reading some Doctor Who fanfics. Today’s recommendations are short, standalone stories that are suitable for all – ‘This Moment Has Been Prepared For‘, a cute re-imagining of Donna’s ending with a winning first line and ‘Drinking Tactics for Nine Hundred Year Old Minors‘, a comedic story of Elven & Sally Sparrow’s drinking trip turned feminist nightmare and the only good thing related to the Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith that I’ve found so far. Oh, and it makes me giddy that a campaign to Save (Torchwood Character) Ianto Jones raised £12k for Children In Need.

Last stop are some writing related links. The  Reality of a New York Times bestseller has been crushing dreams for a while now, but it’s still required reading for anyone expecting to be the next J.K.Rowling. A follow up to the post is here. There’s the guide to Write Badly Well, which has taught me things like the word ‘syllepsis’. I knew what it was, but didn’t know there was a name for it? Now I can proudly say that syllepsis is (are?) awesome.

For those of you who like reading more than reading about writing, there are the ‘Very Short Stories’ of Edith Zimmerman. An example is below the cut, so click ‘Continue reading’ for a sample.

Candy

October 29th, 2009

A very short story.

“Hi kids!” I said to the trick-or-treaters who had gathered on my porch. “Do you guys like candy?” I asked as I brought out the Halloween bowl.

“Yes!” they screamed.

“How much?” I asked.

“A lot!” they screamed.

“Do you love it?” I asked.

“Yes!” they screamed. “We love it!”

“So why don’t you marry it?” I asked.

“Nooo!” they screamed.

“Why not?” I asked.

“You can’t marry candy!” they screamed.

“Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do,” I said, fiddling with my wedding ring. “Ever.”

E.Maree

xoxo

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

Hey. I’ve been away a while, it feels, though those of you stopping by the used-goods.net front page will know otherwise.

Due to being a dangerously chaotic kind of administrator, and… well, liking plug-ins, the blog was inaccessible for a while.

It’s been fixed, and more cool things should happen from hereon. I still lack my Macbook, though, so the full amount of reviews, artwork, writing and perhaps even podcasting will be held up.
But I’m still alive, so, I guess… this was a triumph.

(Portal references are a lie.)

Love,
E.Maree
xoxo

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

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

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com