You know that you're an alcoholic when...

... You accidentally water the houseplants with gin and tonic because you mistook it for tap water (I haven't done that in a few months, mind, but alas, it has been done).
... You go to the shop in flip-flops when it's cold and wet out, because you can't be bothered to put proper shoes on but you've ran out of gin.
... You can't decide which you need more out of a poster of cocktail recipes and a poster of hangover cures, so you get the 'Shit Happens' poster instead.

P.S.

Almost forgot: I'll be putting up a publishing list, letting you all know when I've unleashed a new piece of writing upon the unwitting world. It can be found at
http://ljperrybooks.blogspot.co.uk/

I may put up separate ones for pseudonyms, or I may just put them all on the same one. I haven't quite decided yet. I'll get back to you all on it.

You know that you're in the middle of nowhere when...

~Not when one of your uni buildings has a field with a horse next door, because while it is odd some people do have enough land in the outskirts and suburbs to keep horses (there were some such people round the corner at home, and I kind of miss being able to walk the dogs past the horses. Maybe I'll go visit the horse here)
~Not when there are fields with cows in them, as while you do not get that even in the outskirts and suburbs you do see such fields lining the motorway and most people who live in cities have indeed seen a cow before.
~Yes, when you see random pheasants off the edge of the path when you're walking across campus. Seriously, a frickin' pheasant. You don't even get those things at nature reserves. I mean, I have literally only ever seen them at my Dad's golf club, and I think somebody puts them there deliberately just to make it look posh. That is how far out in the middle of nowhere I am right now, there are pheasants walking about the place and I swear I was the only person who looked even remotely surprised by it.

Notably, I am procrastinating right now. Not only was I given an essay over a week ago now that I've not yet even started (and I think may be due in for Monday) I also HAVE to start editing, for a story going into an anthology, and I DO have a deadline for when it has to be done by. As anybody whom actually reads this shall soon learn, I am not a fan of editing (and it would seem my stories do need a lot more editing than I often assume, although that's partly because I look for any excuse I can to get out of editing). So, yeah, that's why this blog is being written, because I'm actually supposed to be doing something else.

And in other news, I actually cooked a whole stir-fry all by myself the other night and I haven't died from food poisoning yet - yes, I did actually eat it, and it was for the most part tolerable. I'm quite proud of myself for that.
So, that's about it really. And now I have absolutely no excuse but to get back to work (I always swore that I would never come to think of writing as work; oh how wrong I was)

Research

I have just had my first ever experience of fencing. I have to say, it was a lot of fun, but bloody hell it was exhausting.
As a writer one thing I pride myself on is that I actually do, occasionally, do research, and I do believe that all fantasy writers should at least try a few of the things, like fencing, that their characters are going to have to do. I plan to join the fencing club properly, and will hopefully be giving archery a go this week, all under the guise of 'research'. Truthfully, I'm just a bit of a geek, and archery and fencing are things I've wanted to try since I was a child, along with horse-riding. I couldn't afford it back then, or more my parents couldn't afford it for me, so the fact that my uni has fencing and archery clubs is wonderful for me.
Of course, they also have an equestrian club, but I still can't afford that and I really don't expect that to change any time soon, so I'll just have to settle for watching showjumping on the TV.

Scrambled Eggs

So, it is Thursday afternoon. I moved into university dorms on Saturday, and spent the weekend getting settled in, meeting my new dorm-mates and making an adequate mess of my new room. I was going to post something about it on Monday evening, but one of my Dorm-mates convinced me to go out instead.
Well, I say convinced me, but I'll admit that he didn't really have to work very hard. I
Anyway, Monday evening I got drunk. I got in such a state, in fact, that I received the closest thing to divine retribution there is in the form of a two day hangover. I am not proud of myself, to say the least.
So, I couldn't blog Monday for obvious reasons, nor Tuesday because I think I may have temporarily died, Wednesday I didn't quite feel up to it though I did just about manage to leave the dorm and today is Thursday. And... that's probably all that I have to tell you right now. So, yeah...

Also, in case you were wondering about the seemingly random title, scrambled eggs is my 'hangover food'. As in, it's what I eat when i feel like shit and can't actually blame anybody but myself. Thank F- I can actually at least cook that much.

Lessons Learned

It's been a moderately busy summer, and by moderately busy I mean that I've had absolutely nothing to do. I had some technical issues earlier in the summer, which were repaired some weeks back now, and have gotten back to some projects that had been left unattended over the summer.
I also got a few new stories out, and have just learned a very valuable lesson. You see, I just got an acceptance for an anthology, which is absolutely wonderful, especially since this was quite an out-of-genre experience for me, to say the least (and also because I might be making some money off of this one, but really that's not what I write for). As it's so different to what I normally write, I'm using a pseudonym.
So, my important lessons learned. I could tell you how I've learned that, even if I'm not used to writing something I should give it a go anyway, that I should have more faith in myself as a writer, that I've learned to step out of my comfort zones as an author and try new things in my writing... But what am I saying; what I've actually learned is that, at least when there's payment involved, authors have to fill out quite a bit of paperwork, and that is something that I do not enjoy.
Small price to pay to put "Published Author" beside my name, I know, but it's times like these that I really wish I could afford to hire somebody else to take care of the tedious tasks for me.

Editing

Editing is the absolute bane of my existence. I loath it, I really do. Unfortunately, in writing, it is a necessary evil, and whether I want to do it or not I'm going to have to at some point. The problem is that there just always seems to be better things to do.
I greatly envy the professional authors who can hire other people to do their editing for them. I also envy them that they get paid for doing something which (I assume) they love, and that they're all richer and more successful than me, but lets just ignore all of that for the time being.
However, I am quite lucky in that I find my writing doesn't tend to need a drastic mount of editing or redrafting, though I really should go back and add in a little more description at some point.
More often than not, I can't really cut anything out because I find that there's nothing to cut. Should I ever be given a word-count quota, I seriously doubt I'd be able to meet it.