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EmmaMaree.com

Scottish Writer of Fantasy & Sci-Fi

Personal Life

January Highlights

Photo of a January planner

January Weeks 3 and 4 were a bit of a whirlwind: travelling to London, travelling to Aberdeen, and unwinding with a new video game. Before I get to that, you might have missed my previous January posts:

Week 1, where I was super happy about roller derby (I am ALWAYS super happy about roller derby) and food (ditto).

Week 2, where I was super happy about new ice cream, video games, and spin cycling.

Good Things that Happened

  • Met up with the team in London. It was a really fantastic trip and it was so nice to see my colleagues in person, most for the first time in a year but some for the first time ever!
  • Went to Aberdeen for Dave’s birthday, had sushi, and geeked out a lot about Dungeons & Dragons and our current TV show addiction: Critical Role, a D&D campaign starring a bunch of professional voice actors.
  • We had our newbie intake day at roller derby! It went really well, the new folks are so inspiring. I picked up a bunch of new kit while in London, which won’t be delivered for a while, but I’m very excited to get it.
  • Got a haircut and perma-dyed my hair for the first time. Made a few mistakes and learned from them!
  • Kept up spinning class.
  • Started playing Persona 5, which keeps the fun gameplay of the previous games but has a pretty ‘meh’ storyline so far. Lots of gross sexist tropes, it’s been pretty disappointingly written.
  • Caught up with a ton of radioplays while travelling: the Good Omens BBC radioplay and the entirety of one of my old favourites, airline comedy show Cabin Pressure.
  • Finished season 3 of the ever-funny Brooklyn 99. Netflix has just released season 4, perfect!

I got to hang out with the family a lot, and ticked off a 2018 goal of trying a hot chocolate at Inverness’s SoCoco.

Watched Dave try out 3D printing for the first time, with super-cute results.

And our dog was adorable, of course. It’s not a new year without a new dog photo, right? Right. 

Mac the labrador, looking upset when I left for New Year’s Eve

He’s actually been lying beside me while I type this post, rubbing his face with his paws, and it’s exactly as adorable as you might imagine.

Goals for February

I didn’t get the writing momentum in January that I wanted, so my focus for Febuary is: find my flow again. Get back into a writing routine, an exercise routine, and a productivity routine.

There’s going to be a few challenges in the way: the Roller Derby World Cup starts this Thursday, and I’m visiting lovely Dundee later in the month. But I’ll get through them!

The main thing holding me back at this point is fear: my current writing project is big, and very close to my heart, so the thought of saying goodbye to it is difficult. But I’m looking forward to ploughing on and getting past The Fear.

And hey, once I’ve done my wordcount for the day, I can dive headfirst into new video games. I can’t think of any better reward than that.

Onwards, to a Fearless February!

Previously… September

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This months goals were nice and relaxed:

  • Play some video games
  • Watch some movies
  • Write some stuff

I’m really glad I kept the goals easy this month, because honestly, I needed the time off without feeling guilty about goals not met.

The blog is late today because I just celebrated my birthday! I had a swell time and I got to hand out with my very handsome other half and eat a ton of delicious food, so that was great fun. Here’s some pictures of us both being cuties:

I got myself a Fitbit for my birthday, which has been super fun, and I also got significantly sozzled in proper October fashion…

…tried out a super exciting NEW IRN BRU FLAVOUR OMG….

and spooked myself silly with The Last of Us.

 

Previously in Writing

Plenty of forward momentum, but I haven’t finished the WIP. I’ve been fighting to untangle a few plot snarls, and that work is going to continue into October. Hopefully this month I’ll reach the finish line.

It’s been a year full of challenges, but I’m not going to let it stop me!  There’s three months left in the year and I’m going to make the most of them.

Previous in Reading

My quest to get the fearsome TBR pile down to a more reasonable amount continues. Let’s see how we’re looking…

Books Added this Month:
TOTAL: 15

My Monster Boyfriend [Graphic Novel/Kickstarter Reward]
The Lie Tree [eBook]
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid [Audiobook]
Pride and Predjudice [Audiobook]
The Name of the Wind [Audiobook]
Chasing Embers [Paperback]
Lair of Dreams [Audiobook]
Dominion (The Burned Man, #2) [NetGalley]
Out on Good Behavior (Radleigh University, #3) [eBook]
The Vagrant [eBook]
Ember in the Ashes [eBook]
Geekomancy [eBook]
An Ember in the Ashes [eBook]
Crown of Midnight (A Throne of Glass, #2) [Audiobook]
Jurassic Park [Audiobook]

Books Finished & Removed:
TOTAL:  8

Ink [eBook]
Throne of Glass [Audiobook/eBook]
The Great Gatsby [Audiobook]
Wonderbook [Paperback]
My Monster Boyfriend [Graphic Novel eBook]
The Diviners [Audiobook]
False Hearts [Audiobook/Hardback]
Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, #4) [Paperback]

Not a great month for reading more than I read, but hey, at least I’m reading loads!

Next Time In Goals

  • Be kind to yourself.
  • Finish a video game
  • Read some books.
  • Write some words
  • Keep up the healthy eating and excercise

September’s chill-out went well, so for October I’m continuing to focus on self-care and gentle forward progress. No stress, just progress.

A Word of Advice

Kameron Hurley had a fantastic article this month about finding yourself as a writer: your internal ego, career path & confidence.

I’ve also really been loving Chuck Wendig’s recent posts — his brilliant Here’s How You Finish That Fucking Book has been a lifeline when I needed it most, alongside How a Writer Quiets Self-Doubt and Control What You Can Control. A less optimistic but equally important post has been Tim Waggoner’s Harsh Realities.

2016 Goals!

Women of Britain say - GO! (1915). Military recruitment poster by E. Kealey (dates unknown). 76 x 51 cm (Collection #2411, Eybl collection, Vienna). Two women and a child stand at the window and see soldiers marching as they leave to join the war. After 1915, as voluntary enlistments in the British regular army began to subside, women were expected to perform their patriotic duty and send their men to war.
Women of Britain say – GO! (1915) Military recruitment poster

It’s weird to think that we’re in a shiny new year. Two weeks into a shiny new year, actually, and I haven’t even got my goals up yet. Let’s get that sorted, then.

Goals for 2016

  • Write 180,000 words. Yeah, let’s keep this up!
  • Read 50 books. Seventy was a bit too much last year, and I want to be a lot more punctual at beta reading in 2016, which cuts heavily into my leisure reading time.
  • Finish 2 redrafts.
  • Finish 2 first drafts.
  • Always have something out on submission.
  • Be a better beta reader.
  • Focus more on my finances. I’ve already been working hard on it this January, and our budgeting is already pretty damn good, but this year I want to learn more about advanced budgeting techniques and money-saving.
  • Tidy more, tidy smarter. I improved a lot on this in 2015 but I’ve still got plenty to learn!
  • Keep up the art! (Did you see last year’s work?)
  • Try something new. I’m thinking rock climbing, podcast narration and choir singing, but we’ll see.

There we are. Nothing too fancy, this year, but it’s looking like it’ll be a fun one. I’m 24 this year, heading towards 25 in the tail end, and really looking forward to finding a place of proper financial stability, and those cheaper car insurance rates.  :)

Looking Back on 2015

One of my big 2014 takeaways was that if I spend another year focussing on edits, I would be miserable, so I resolved to focus more on first drafts in 2015.

And then I, uh, proceeded to do entirely the opposite of that and focus on edits all 2015. And it was miserable at times, difficult in a dozen ways and frustrating to the very end, but oh man…. I learned SO MUCH. It was entirely worth every moment for the end result.

I’ll have another post up soon about my achievements over the year, small wins and big successes, but for now I’m just going to look back on the goals I set.

Goals for 2015…

  • Tidy more, and tidy smarter! Yeah, I’ll call this a success. I got a ton better at keeping tidy this year, though I still have a lot of improving to do.
  • Write 150,000 words. It wasn’t as easy I thought, thanks to lots of time spent editing, but in the end I did it!
  • Finish 2 first drafts. Not this year, but in 2016 I will!
  • Get 3 novels out to betas [initial readers]. All redrafts , but they were SO different every time.
  • Get 2 novels out on submission to literary agents. I got one novel out there! I also sent out one short story.
  • Read 60 books. I actually aced this one, hitting 75+ including beta reads!
  • Continue drawing, and work on refining my style further. Not as much as I liked, but there was a definite improvement this year in my use of colour and confidence with different styles.
  • Keep up the fitness routine. “Hopefully I’ll continue with weight training, bodyweight fitness, and running…” Yeah, job done, plus I took up cycling.  This was a good year for self-improvement.
  • Play some video games. I sort of achieved this one: I finished Hatoful Boyfriend, Starfighter Eclipse, The Legend of Korra and my favourite for the year UNDERTALE. Still not as many as I wanted, though. I never got to complete Dragon Age: Origins, Never Alone, Persona 3 and many others.
  • Take the practical driving exam. I DID IT. YES. WOOHOO.
  • Cook or bake some cool new things. I tried a few new things this year, especially healthy stuff like courgette spaghetti, baked oatmeal and broccoli casserole.

All in all, a good year for achieving goals. Let’s hope 2016 is more of the same!

I Can Drive a Car Now, Woohoo!

Back on the 1st of August, I took my second go of the practical driving test… and passed! Which kind of stunned me, to be honest. The practical driving test is a super, super strict and after my first test I really wasn’t sure I had it in me to pass.

Turns out, I did.

drivingtest

(That photo was immediately afterwards, so the stunned, awed look is 100% genuine.)

So, I have to apologise for how quiet the blog’s been over the last fortnight. I’ve been indulging in the usual post-test-pass traditions: getting a cute wee car, and driving literally everywhere as I get used to driving for real… which, for the record, is a lot easier and less stressful than driving for the test.

Plus, all the random road trips are a ton of fun. And I’m still excited every time I can just go to the shops for my dinner, and buy groceries without having to stress about getting them home on the bus, and get home on a rainy day without looking like a drowned rat.

So, yeah. This is definitely going to be one of the highlights of my year, and even now I still feel a bit astonished it’s real.

(I can drive! Unsupervised! On my own!)

(I CAN DRIVE AND I CAN DRIVE WELL.)

(THE GIANT METAL MACHINE IS OBEYING MY EVERY WHIM.)

Normal posts will resume soon, now that this hectic, anxiety-inducing, unbelievably expensive, stressful-as-hell (and yet somehow, totally worth it) life milestone is over.

What’s Up Wednesday: Distracted Partytime Edition

whatsupwednesdaybiplane

 Welcome to another What’s Up Wednesday post, where I’m somewhat distracted.

What I’m Reading

BIRTHDAY

What I’m Writing

BIRTHDAY!

What Inspires Me

birthday

What Else I’ve Been Up To

birthday2

Today I’m off enjoying whatever being 22 involves. Hopefully good books, good friends, and a good meal.

Have a good Wednesday!

What’s Up Wednesday: 24th of July Edition!

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly post, created by blog friends Jaime and her sister Erin!

What I’m Reading

This week has been focussed on adjusting to the new job, so I haven’t had much time for reading or writing. I’m currently reading LIVES OF TAO and BLOOD AND FEATHERS: REBELLION.

What I’m Writing

As above, writing time has been slim on the ground. However I’ve got a few short stories under my belt, and edits on DIVIDE THE SKY continue at a smooth pace. I should be past page 100 within the next few days, fingers crossed.

nightvalelogo-web4

What Inspires Me Right Now

Have you heard of the WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE podcast? If you haven’t listened to it, and you have a fondness for good podcasts, good storytelling, and/or horror, go give it a listen. It is the best podcast I’ve ever listened to. I love it, and it makes quite a change to my usual travelling to work/doing housework soundtracks.

What Else I’ve Been Up To

New workplace is full of ridiculously healthy people, which is a powerful motivational factor…

I walked 3 miles on my lunch the other day. In a cardigan. In 30 degrees celsius. Trying to keep pace with said healthy people. I nearly DIED. Okay, I didn’t, but I was VERY WARM.

This week I also had one of those moments where friend circles overlap (this doesn’t happen often — my circles like to circle within their own circles, generally. Circles.), and it worked out wonderfully.

New friends meeting old friends is always a lot of fun.

SPINNING IN CIRCLES
SPINNING IN (SOCIAL) CIRCLES

How’s your week been, tiny dancers?