Belated updates, events, news, etc

Hello everyone, sorry I am not very good at this blogging thing am I?

 (from hedgehog calendar I just needed a pic to start the post with)

Book update and a Christmas treat

So I haven't talked about it TOO much on here, but most of you know that in November I had my first YA book published by the wonderful Hot Key Books- The Isobel Journal. I thought that it might be nice if I shared a little more about what I've been doing since its publishing and get some links together of some videos, interviews, resources etc for those who are interested, so that is what I will be putting into this post :-)

But I'll start off with a treat for those of you who already know about the book:
I started making a playlist of songs to go with the book a while ago, but never really got round to actually uploading it to 8tracks. The idea was that I would choose some songs which flowed with the themes of the book- starting off with "About Me" (or at least, the fictionalised Isobel) through the love, heartbreak, and optimism of teenage girlhood. The book is full of references to music that I like so I have tried to include those mentioned too. What I'd like is if people could read along, and the music could act somewhat as a soundtrack. Or, just listen to it because you like cool music.
Here it is, finally uploaded as a Christmas treat - sorry about the awful "artwork"!

 

I also illustrated the tracklisting for you- I wish I had my scanner at home but since I took it to uni, I'll just upload this photo for now... I hope it's readable! I think if you click it you can view it bigger.

New drawing + things

Hey Internet, heres a little drawing I did yesterday that I particularly liked. I wanted to post it but I thought I should probably write something to go with it but I didn't really know what. So here are just Some Things I've Been Doing... The last week I've been off uni and back at home, which has been really nice- as you saw from the last post I was starting to really miss it. It was surreal, I'd only been away for 6 weeks but it felt like it had been forever. Then I went to stay at my friends for Halloween and we saw Frankenstein (the Nation Theatre production) at the cinema, and on Friday night I saw a Q&A on Regent Street with Simon Amstell (my hero) and it was ace, I asked him a question and it'll be on the podcast of the event hopefully!!! Will post about that then with a link if I remember. Now I just really need to do my work which is due in on Monday!!! eeeeek. I am slightly doing this blog post just to avoid doing an essay on T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" (stupid poem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 

Anyway here you go, a drawing of a girl looking at herself in the mirror in her pants and thinking about how cool it is being a girl, probably. See ya x

  

A little tiny bit of a catch up

SO hello!!! It has been a little while since I last did a blog because obviously I came to university and it's been busybusybusy. Today I handed in my first 2 assignments and that felt good. I have been doing a lot of things, more than I can really write about. I just wanted to let everyone know I was O.K. Brighton is a very great and cool place to be and I feel like I have only explored like 0.05% of all the exciting things to do, but I guess I have 3 years to enjoy it. I have been doing some book related things, including going to Laura Dockrill's WOT event where I met Mel Geidroyc (omg GBBO fangirl SQUEAL), Caitlin Moran, and obviously Laura Dockrill which felt like a super honour because I have loved her for aaaages and I have all of her books and everything. She is honestly the most genuine and kind person who is very supportive of me. So much that she also took part in a little video interview with me for book promotion which I will post up here soon when it is done being edited by the very nice Sanne and Cait from Hot Key.
I have tried to be a bit cultural and I have seen a stand up show with Adam Buxton at the Brighton Comedy Festival, Kernel Panic, and it was so so so good and then I MET HIM!!! Which was the dream. Sorry this is just becoming a name drop post but whatever. Then last week I saw a great and emotional show called Credible Likeable Superstar Rolemodel at the Soho Theatre in London with the girls from Hot Key. It was a very moving show about the rolemodels children get in 2013. I nearly cried a lot worrying about my 5 year old sister. Bryony Kimmings (who wrote the show) performed the show with her 9 year old niece and talked about their project Catherine Bennett- an imaginary pop star who tries to be a credible likeable superstar role model. It is very very good- google her! I saw a play on Saturday at Battersea Arts Centre called Gym Party which was o.k (6/10) and on Wednesday I'm going to see the lovely Lanterns On The Lake do some songs. Soon I will get to go home again and give hugs to everyone at home which will be really great because whilst I am having a fun time - I promise, parents!!!!! - 5 weeks of not being at home is starting to make me a little bit homesick. Which is of course a totally normal way to feel. I had a nice bit of post from my dad today with a nice record from a charity shop with a nice cover which made me smile.
Tomorrow is the vegetable market and I am going to get lots of yummy stuff- I am eating well don't worry Responsible Adults... It turns out I am quite enjoying cooking these days even if I burn literally everything to the bottom of my pans. I am really into spinach and chick peas and sweet potatoes. I am also enjoying school, English is good and interesting and I'm absolutely loving Philosophy- I'm so happy with it since I knew nothing about it before I came here. It's sometimes like hard maths but I like that it's all about feelings and gut instincts not like science or something. I do keep falling asleep in my lectures which is embarrassing/bad but I think I might take up coffee.
Anyway I guess that's all I feel like writing right now... Here are a couple of drawings I've been doing, one is about homesickness (don't WORRY I'm FINE!) (and yes i KNOW I FORGOT TO FINISH THE PATTERN ITS BUGGING ME TOO) and one is just the view from my window at night (where I saw a badger the other day).

On a date with myself

I have been on my summer holidays now for almost 2 months and it's driving me insane. All I want is my exam results!! I've still got a couple of weeks to go, and then I can get planning (fingers crossed) stuff for university, OR I can start my crying-forever marathon. Either/or, really. Until then I feel like I am stuck in limbo. I just got back from my holiday to Portugal on Sunday and then from Monday to Wednesday I have been into town EVERY SINGLE DAY. I just couldn't think of anything else to do to whittle the time away. On Monday I went with friends, on Tuesday I went on my own, and on Wednesday I managed to convince a friend to come with me again- as though things in the same 3 shops I always go in might have changed since the day before. On Thursday I got GIVEN a free bus ticket and I could have gone again but I decided 4 days in a row was too much even for me, and ended up watching stuff on Netflix and napping instead.

So today I woke up wondering what I would do this day in my wild life. Luckily, I stumbled onto this Rookie article whilst I was hiding in bedroom pre-shower (a man was here to fix the washing machine and I wasn't letting him see me in that state) and I got inspired. Now, most of that stuff isn't really stuff I could achieve today - "trespass an abandoned theme park"?! (which by the way, doesn't feel like something you should endorse, Rookie!!) - but I did decide that maybe I WOULD go to the cinema. Looking at my local Odeon listings didn't really bring up anything I fancied (don't get me started on "mainstream" manufactured films, man) so I decided I could venture a little further afield on the train to Manchester to the Cornerhouse. My eye was caught by 3 out of the 4 films showing today and I decided I would make a whole day of it and see 2 of the films in a row - the Saudi Arabian Wadjda, followed by Studio Ghibli's From Up On Poppy Hill, which I hadn't yet seen. Frances Ha looked good too but I am planning on going to Manchester again next week and decided to save it until then. I asked a friend if she wanted to join me, but she was busy. This didn't phase me though; I always say that the most important thing in life is to be your own best friend.

Photo diary

 

 one rainy afternoon adventure, june

All Of The Planets Wonders

I wrote something in my diary on the 16th of January i thought was sort-of worth typing up here.

I have been listening to a radio series by Josie Long called "All Of The Planets Wonders" in which she talks about some of the same things which she talks about in her stand up DVD "Trying is Good" - the importance of being earnest, self-improvement and the gathering of knowledge. I appreciated this because my new years resolution was to learn more things, become some sort of female Stephen Fry and "expand my mind", and these radio shows were talking about exactly that! There are four shows, one about animals, one about plants, one about stars and one about collecting things. All very good and important things.