IT’S DECEMBER! IT’S WEDNESDAY! And it’s time for an update on all things me-related.

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what’s up. It was created by created by Jaime and Erin. Want to join the party? Go right ahead, and remember to leave a link to your What’s Up Wednesday post in the widget on Jaime´s blog.

What I’m Reading

I’m in the middle of an Open Uni course aimed at allowing music-lovers to clearly describe the different styles and shapes of music out there, as well as understanding the underlying techniques. So I’m reading a ton about musical form and structure. My trick is to imagine celebrities reading the words. Sometimes Johnny Lee Miller or Benedict Cumberbatch. When I’m reading about software testing it’s GlaDOS from Portal. (She loves to test.)

On the book front, I am (unsurprisingly) five books behind my yearly goal. However, by the end of the year I’ll have read at least two full novels for beta reading (three if you count my own, haha).I’m also catching up on beta reading, slowly, but surely. If I have a manuscript of yours to beta, rest assured I’m getting to it, but life’s been crazy and it’s hard to catch up. Next year I’ll cut down on beta reading requests.

What I’m Writing

I’m on a writing break for all of December, but I’m… twitchy. This recharge break means ideas are popping up out of nowhere, trying to lure me back to my stories.

But for now, reading takes priority.

What Inspires Me

Taking a break from writing is, oddly, extremely inspiring. It’s a great way to get the ideas going again. I’d forgotten how necessary brain-rest is.

Also, I’ve been really enjoying Sleepy Hollow. It has a lot of things I love about my other 2013 fav show Elementary (sarcasm, murders, male and female leads working closely together without romance, super adorable characters, brilliant female characters, varied ethnicities, interesting cops) with a whole lashing of fun supernatural elements. Also Ichabod Crane is REALLY good-looking.

It’s not a perfect show but I love it to pieces.

Also, this gallery of work by Korean artist JeeYoung Lee is amazing. She transform her tiny studio into some really surreal, beautiful designs.

What Else I’ve Been Up To

We’ve had some crazy weather here lately.

The photograph on the left is our nearest city, Inverness, where the river banks overflowed during the rain, now and gale force winds that hit us last week.

When I’ve not been surviving the crazy weather, I’ve been wrapping Christmas presents and trying to make sure everyone’s accounted for. Christmas is… stressful. It’s been years since I was in an unstable financial situation, but Christmas knocked my bank balance to the lowest it’s been in years. It brought back a lot of panic and worries, old ingrained stresses from the time when we were literally in poverty.

I sorted it all out eventually (and asked for help, eventually), but yeah. Turns out being broke and nearly homeless has long-lasting effects on your ability to enjoy the holiday season.

 

When not stressing, I’ve been listening to some fun music as part of my music course.

Queen — We Will Rock You
(Good example of: a very clear ‘pulse’ or beat running through a song.)

The Darkness — I Believe In A Thing Called Love
(Good example of: the 4/4 time signature, the most common time signature in rock, country, blues and pop music.)

Linkin Park — What I’ve Done
(Good example of: 4/4 common time. This style of music makes the pattern particularly easy to pick out.)