The year: 2003 - I left the dark, rainy land of BC for the sunny shores of New Zealand and lived there for about a year and a half.
The year: 2009 - I again leave the dark, rainy land of BC for the sunny shores New Zealand, but this time it's only for a month.
It's not as epic but it's still pretty fantastic nonetheless. The mothership is calling me home, all the way back to the edge of the world.
I'll totally be posting while I'm there, by the way. Sometimes it may be once a week, other times it might be every other day - it's hard to say so KEEP WATCHING THIS SPACE! And though I will be trying to read your blogs when I can (you'll see me) I won't be able to do it all that often.
That said, DO COMMENT on here because I'm not going to have time to monitor my sitemeter or pimp myself out, so I actually won't know if you're reading it. Remember, comments make me feel better and let me know that I actually do have readers...
I was sick of the nonstop rain that has been bombarding Vancouver for what seems like the last FOREVER so I thought some bright colours might cheer up my day. Didn't really work and the rain totally ruined the suede on my shoes but oh well. Also must note that taking photos in the darkness and/or rain has led to some pretty boring photoshoots (I work 8-430 so it's not like I have my days free to take advantage of light) but luckily this will be my LAST indoor photoshoot for the next month and a bit :D
You'd think after all these photos taken for my blog I'd learn what doesn't make a pretty picture...no such luck. Thought I'd still keep this one in though.
Sweater: Kenzie Girl Bag: Hayden Harnett Shoes: Mogil Leather Jacket: Vintage Doorknocker Earrings + Cuff: ASOS Necklaces: ASOS and Cupcakes/Cashmere
BTW, re: weight gain - I actually had to go back on birth control pills after quitting them in March. My skin has been acting like a 13-year old boy for the last two months - never had it so bad. They say that when you quit the pill your skin can go haywire 8-12 months AFTER you quit. So I'm back on it, begrudgingly. I have no doubt that it has contributed to my recent mystery weight gain and my mundo water retention. But it's either I'm fatter with clear skin or skinnier with bad skin...in hindsight I think I would rather be skinnier with bad skin but it's too late now.
***For all you Mike Patton fans out there (and Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans), there's a chance that Mr. Patton may be guest-starring on an episode in the near future (as you know, he and the shows creator Danny Devito are quite tight). Can't wait to see that (you can read the full article here: http://www.movieweb.com/news/NEG3nLJMhB6hJN)
I'm anxiously awaiting to hear Faith No More announce their US tour dates. They should announce them in the next few weeks and I would think that IF the tour is being done around April (which I still think it is) that tickets should go on sale in January at the latest. I'm going to be flat-ass broke after this trip but I'll make it happen :)
Addendum - someone pointed out that IF they play San Francisco in April (remember I got all this from Roddy's tweet, so you INTERNET can blame ME if it turns out to be wrong - though I won't be) would make a pretty good warm-up show for...Coachella. If so, that would be awesome. Mike was at Coachella last year anyway so it makes sense. Let's hope! Let's make it happen!
A funny thing happened as I began to write my book...I slowly noticed that I started to dress like my main character. It was to the point where as I was reviewing the manuscript afterwards, I came across one description of the main character "Perry Palomino" and I was actually wearing almost the same thing as her. Bizzare, huh?
And so, since I've slowly started to dress like her, I thought it might be appropriate to do an "Inspired By" post about her (btw the name of the book isn't Perry Palomino).
I don't really look like Perry...she's shorter than me, slightly heavier than I (though most of that weight is probably in her boobs) and has dark hair (dyed black) and blue eyes. I would have loved to have donned my black wig for this however it just wasn't her "style" so I decided to play it safe and keep it blonde. Besides, I was actually wearing this outfit outside! In stormy weather, no less.
Coat: Dolce and Gabbana - Perry normally wears a black leather jacket but since I've been wearing my black leather jacket like a uniform lately, I thought it would be best if I switched it up. I chose my D&G coat for her because it's got that military styling that she likes and it probably would have been a hand-me-down from her ex-model mother OR her younger, designer-concious fashion-blogging sister, Ada.
Sweater dress: ASOS - A rich jewel tone and very comfy. Would bring out her eyes suitably. Perry isn't one to wear bright, happy colours or pastels.
Leggings: Aldo - Perry wears leggings a lot. I used to subscribe to the "leggings aren't pants" motto and it still applies. However, I think they can be pants IF you have a long enough shirt, sweater or tunic so that your butt is covered. That's my opinion. Anyway, I'm wearing leggings right now at work, thanks to Perry.
Belt: Aldo - gives you more of a waist...Perry and I think alike on many aspects
Beret: Forever 21 - she's fond of hats. If I could find my fedora or newsboy cap, I would have worn those too. Better yet, I could have worn the newsboy cap that Dex gave her to wear to cover up the wound she gets at the back of her head but that's all fiction and you don't know what I'm talking about.
Bag: Kooba - It's got studs, zippers, it's metallic, leather. We both love it.
Boots: Doc Martens - Perry is very a much a "90's" child, despite only being born in 1988. Her love for Docs has revived my love for Docs (as you all know by now). She's also big on Converse Chucks and I see a pair of those in my future as well. I don't own a single pair of sneakers, aside from running shoes!
Speaking of my novel, I've been dragging my feet to fix up the mistakes I've found before I send it off to my editor. Need to do this before Saturday! I guess I really don't want to say goodbye to the story for a month or so, but I'm sure once I sit down on the airplane and get ready for a 12-hour plane ride, I'll be starting the next one in the series. Yay!
And three sleeps left for me before I leave! I tried packing the other day and OMG how hard is it to pack for summer when you are in winter? Also, a month of summer. Also a month of summer where you will be doing lots of outdoorsy stuff in a variety of different climates. It's very hard. But I'll do a post about that - my last one before I leave - on Friday.
Also, discovered I can barely fit into my bridesmaid dress. UH OH. Need to lose at least five pounds before Dec 13th! Totally panicking...so damn mad at myself for getting so fat (and I don't know how since I've been very careful about food) but anyway it's happened and it sucks and I'm going to be taking my running shoes to New Zealand...'nuff said!
Happy Humpday!
PS For those confused about my "EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT" in the previous post...it's NOT my birthday LOL. My birthday is on December 11th. Hence why it was an early present.
Well I had a weekend that was terrible/fantastic and extremely memorable.
Friday, the 13th, was the night of The Saints Collapse concert. For the event I decided to wear these Revlon Fantasy Length false eyelashes that the company graciously decided to send out to me. I had several pairs to choose from (and a set of fake nails, thanks!) and decided to go with this pair. I used to wear falsies out all the time when I was much younger(I have thin, weak lashes), so it was fun to try out this look again:
The concert was a blast. I was highly amused that at some point between songs someone in the crowd yelled "MIKE PATTON" at Jesse, the singer - just goes to show that if The Saints Collapse sound like any band, well it's gotta be Faith No More. Or Tomahawk (IMO). I also got to hang out with my girly friends and meet fellow local blogger Glitter Scrubs, who was an absolute doll. And she enjoyed the band immensely which was also a plus. She also said my boyfriend was the nicest guy in the world, which I like to think is true!
After the concert...well that's another story. Let's just say I - and I alone - ended up in a cop car and spent 45 minutes in the basement of the police station at the corner of Main and Hastings at 3AM. It's a LONG story that isn't as exciting as the way I just worded it, which is why I'm leaving it at that. Keeping you on your toes!
So that concludes the "terrible" aspect of the weekend (which in hindsight wasn't actually all that terrible and was rather amusing and exciting, although will prove to be inconveniencing).
The next day however, as I stewed over the events of that morning and somehow survived on 3 hours of sleep, turned out to be MUCH better.
My bf suprised me with an early birthday present - he said we were going to dinner with his sister. Instead he took me out to this snazzy restaurant called CHOP which was pricey but very cool. I had the macademia baked Mahi Mahi which was fabulous.
After the dinner, he then suprised me with tickets to see Evil Dead The Musical.
I desperately wanted to see this show during halloween but missed my chance. Or so I though. Turns out that due to its popularity, they extended the run.
I am a huge fan of Army of Darkness (and I LOVE Billy Campbell) so it was awesome to see the Evil Dead Trilogy come to life in a gory, hilarious, musical way. Sam Raimi would definitely approve!
We were almost seated in the splatter zone too, which I thought was lucky. Then later I realized that I wanted to be drenched in fake blood too, like these people:
Anyway, if you ever get a chance to see this musical, do it...with songs like "What the fuck was that?", great singing, hilarious script and hokey stage set-up, this was by far the best show I'd seen in a long time.
Here's something interesting though that I hope some SEO freaks could help me out with. Normally I get found through google search terms now such as "Leela costume" or "Mike Patton is a madman" and occasionally I get people who searched specifically for "Anywhere But Here Blog."
But yesterday...a Sunday, usually the slowest day (sitemeter wise), when my post was two days old and I hadn't been to ANYONE'S blogs, I had gotten more hits than I ever have before in my whole LIFE (of the blog).
Over 600 individual visits. About 400 of them were from computers all over the world, all using Mozilla, or Firefox or IE, all searching for "Anywhere But Here Blog."
Like...what? Why did 400 people search for that yesterday?? This is really weird, is it not? Did something happen out there on the ol' Internet that I didn't know about? Can someone explain? It's kinda freaky...I don't think my blog became famous and I didn't know about it because I wasn't linked to anything...it was just all tons of different people searching. BIZARRE!
Hope you all had a great weekend (though maybe not as wild as mine) and that your week is off to a great start! Weather here in Vancouver is shit but luckily I'll be in a dress and flip flops this time next week, in New Zealand...hee hee hee.
So this post is about a month overdue - it's not all THAT fascinating but since I have absolutely nothing to blog about today, I thought this would suffice.
If you'll remember I went to Portland, Oregon, back in October, for our Canadian Thanksgiving. I was super excited - not only because it's Portland, which is just a terribly cool city, but because I was doing some research for my book.
As it happens, my main character in my series is from Portland. And one of the really neat ways to explore the city is to go on a walking tour.
Now, when I travel I'm usually alone and I'll usually go on a self-guided tour...eg, wander around a place until I get my bearings. But because we were short on time, I had Mike with me and I had heard that there was one tour that dealt with the "ghostly" side of the city, I had to do it.
It was perfect...not only does my novel (and future ones in the series) deal with ghosts but it was right before Halloween and I just adore being all ghost huntery and shizz (as you probably know from this post here).
My planning, however, was a little bit off. The only tour available for the whole weekend was Friday at 10PM. That meant I had to get off work at 330PM on Friday afternoon.
We got through the border at 5PM which wasn't bad considering it was a long weekend after all, and from previous trips I knew it took "roughly" four hours to get to Portland along the I-5.
I didn't take into account though, stopping for gas and eating Jack in the Box, having to later stop at a gas station bathroom outside of Seattle for a bit (damn you Jack!) and then letting Mike drive for 20 minutes - in which during this time he SOMEHOW managed to get off the I-5 and was heading east for Spokane.
I mean...how do you do that? It's pretty straightforward...stay on the I-5...head south. That's it! But for the five minutes I was looking down because I was fiddling with my iPod, he managed to take some exit and we ended up on a half hour detour.
Enraged I threw him out of the driver's seat and got back in myself. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself!
I don't know how we didn't get stopped by cops - I counted TWENTY police cars on the I-5 that night - but I put my foot to the pedal and vroomed down Washington State at 130KM an hour. I've never driven so fast for such a consistent period of time...I literally did not take my foot off the gas for two hours straight. I was super high on two giant cans of Rockstar, new MUSE was blaring through the speakers and I was just giving 'er.
We pulled into downtown Portland at 9:56PM. Parked it in a nearby parkade and ran down the street to the Old Towne Pizza Parlour where the tour was meeting. We were the last ones and everyone else was waiting for us.
Now I must say I was a bit disappointed when I found out that this tour wasn't going to take us through the Shanghai Tunnels - I was really looking forward to that. But we did get a glimpse of one of the Shanghai Tunnels in the scary basement of the pizza parlour. The restaurant used to be a brothel and is haunted by the ghost of the brothel's owner, Nina (pronounced Nigh-na), who was found dead at the bottom of the elevator shaft.
The basement was also made creepier thanks to the little ghost gadgets we were given - they basically lit up from green (mild) to red (wild) whenever electrical currents were found. There is a theory with ghosts and currents and all that and it was quite thrilling to have it light up in spots that there shouldn't be anything happening.
After spending sometime wandering around the basement, we learned more about "shanghaiing" and the tunnels of Portland:
"From the 1850s to the early 20th century, the tunnels were used to kidnap or "shanghai" unsuspecting laborers and sell them as slaves to waiting ships at the waterfront. According to folklore, as many as 1500 people per year were shanghaied out of Portland through the tunnels. However, there are no records to support this number. Allegedly, victims were drugged or knocked out, taken through one of the trap doors (or deadfalls), and held in a prison cell while they waited to be shipped off. Later, during Prohibition, the tunnels were inhabited by bars that literally went underground to sell alcohol."
Then it was up to the streets where we stopped by the Church of Elvis, a famous, wacky automated fortune-teller:
Next stop, the Benson Hotel, which has numerous ghost stories. One deals with a man who walks down this staircase in the lobby:
The others involve ghosts on certain floors and something very strange the receptionist saw one day...a very freaky story indeed, I'm using it in my next novel haha so I'm not enclined to share it!
The tour took us past haunted bars, such as Kellys:
Past more haunted buildings and stories about ghostly investigations in the area. At this point I was just blown away by the amazing history of the city. No wonder the city's motto is "KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD."
Being so close to the river, Portland has been known to flood, as you can tell by this high water marker. One clever entrepeneur would float down the streets in a canoe, selling beer to people.
One of the last stops we had was at the Portland Police Station. The parking lot across the street used to be where the prison was...and apparently was also built ontop of an "ancient Indian burial ground." As you do!
Nonetheless, when we walked around the parking lot our meters started going crazy. With the full moon in the sky and the dark, crisp night, we couldn't help but feel just a tad spooked out.
The tour ended with a stop at Voodoo Donuts and some more low-key tales. It was a long tour - almost three hours of walking - but was very enjoyable. Our only complaint was that we wished we could have explored more haunted sites instead of just the pizza place and hotel lobby but I guess they need permission...and more time! As a walking tour though, I really recommend it. I feel like I got to know Portland on a much more intimate level, and as I said before, I can't WAIT to go back.
SO - my question for you, dear reader, is this: have YOU ever seen anything ghostly or some strange experience you can't explain? I can't promise it won't end up in a future novel though, LOL.
OH YEAH! Winner of the Forever 21 Dress is....*Drumroll*
ANONYMOUS...lol..at 6:14PM.
Congrats!! Woot woot! Send me your deets via my email (see sidebar). CIAO!
Jacket: Vintage Skirt, top, hat: Forever 21 Bag: Mango MNG Unicorn necklace: ASOS Boots: Doctor Marten
It was hard to dress "1995" without being too on the nose (1995 was a special year for me as you'll read below), but I thought Doc boots, tights, floral skirt, a beanie, a unicorn necklace, a big bag and a "Singles"-esque leather jacket was pretty good. I actually went shopping in this outfit and didn't get as many weird looks as I thought I would. Screw the 80's, the 90's is where it's at!
BTW I used to have these Doc Martens back in the day and wearing them now I just never want to take them off. They have to be the MOST comfortable shoes in the world. I swear to God, I could sleep in these things! I'm even wearing them at work as I type this, though I admit they aren't exactly office appropriate!
On to my inspiration for this outfit, The Smashing Pumpkins:
Let's take a trip on the "WayBack Machine" shall we?
The year is 1995. For my birthday I would receive a CD that would change my life (musically).
It was the new double disc from The Smashing Pumpkins, Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
This CD rocked my world. The music was hard and edgy, beautiful and melodic and unlike anything I had ever heard before. I was a bit late in the game with SP as they already had 3 CDs out before this one but I quickly snapped those up and became immersed with the Pumpkins.
Soon I had their posters on my walls, I watched their movie Vieuphoria at least once a week (it was awesome), recorded all of their music videos on Much Music, was buying all the bootlegs I could find (I even made my mom take me to this record store in Hemet...California...because they had bootlegs. Granted we were in Palm Springs at the time so it wasn't a huge journey, but still...) and was a harcore "Pumpkinhead."
Jimmy, Billy, Darcy and James: Emo, before Emo was "cool"
My three good friends at the time were also just as obsessed as I was which was nice (though pity anyone else who had to hang out with us at the time).
Anyway, one of good friends Kelli and I decided to go on a pilgramage to see them in concert. They weren't coming up to Vancouver but they were playing at The Moore Theatre in Seattle.
Somehow I managed to convince me mom to drive us the 2.5 hours down the Seattle (we were only 14 or 15 at the time) so we could go to the concert and also have us stay at the swanky Four Seasons Hotel - I had deduced that when the Pumpkins tour that the only stay at the Four Seasons Hotel. I'm not sure how I figured that out in a year where the internet was barely up and running but I did.
The minute we arrived in Seattle, the excitement began.
As we were coming into the hotel, we passed by a woman with black hair and a very tall guy with cap. I didn't really notice them but as we entered the hotel, the doorman leaned in and whispered "You just missed a rock star."
Kelli and I were immediately like "whaaaa?" and screeching as only 14-year old groupies can screech. We looked behind us to see the tall guy and the woman disappear around the corner.
Though we didn't see his face, and though he had a toque covering his bald head, there was no mistaking the walk and figure of the 6'4" Billy Corgan. The woman though we had no idea, it wasn't the bassist Darcy. But at least this confirmed that we were staying at the right place!
After checking in and calming down, we had to go walking through the streets of downtown Seattle to the Moore Theatre to line up for tickets. The Moore is an amazing place, very small and they only sell tickets in most cases on the day of the show. No Ticketmaster here, you have to be there and line up.
So my mom, Kelli and I are walking around and we want to start lining up even though it's only about 2PM. My mom thinks it's a bad idea to have two 14-year old girls waiting for hours on the streets of Seattle, so we stop at a street corner to have a little argument.
So I'm yelling at my mom and she's yelling at me and Kelli meanwhile is whispering "Shut up, shut up, shut up."
And I turn to her, "WHAT? You shut up!"
Just as Billy Corgan and a black-haired Courtney Love walk by.
Like, literally, they walked around us and our argument.
So I freeze and I am like "OH MY GOD" because to my teenage self, he IS God.
And I slowly turn to look at him walk past.
And he turns around to look and me and LAUGHS.
That's right. Billy Corgan LAUGHED at me. Best moment of my life haha.
So after that very surreal experience - the fact that we saw him twice already that day, that he was with Courtney Love (tidbit here - she was the singer for Faith No More for a few months before Mike Patton showed up) and that he laughed at my childish temper tantrum - we then went and lined up for our tickets. I guess my mother felt safe knowing Billy Corgan was wandering around the city. Maybe he'd look after us.
Anyway, we lined up only for a few hours and got the tickets without a hitch.
Here it is:
Even the ticket was cool!
We went back to the hotel for dinner and then got back to the theatre two hours before they went on stage, knowing we wanted the best spots in the concert.
The Moore Theatre is TINY y'all, so it was good that we did this. We ended up being exactly at the very front, pressed up against the barricade, the only thing between us and the stage.
Fun fact - The Moore Theatre is featured on Pearl Jam's Evenflow video where Eddie Vedder hangs from the balcony. Someone would later do this during the Smashing Pumpkins concert and he actually dropped on the crowd below. Luckily no one was hurt.
They started off their set playing it acoustic, all of them sitting on stools on stage in their pajamas - awesome. The second part of the set was them rocking out, Billy in his Zero shirt and it was just moshing pandamonium. The barricade was pressed up so hard into my stomach that I was in pain for most of the concert but I didn't care one bit.
After the show we went back to the hotel and promptly waited in the lobby for our beloved band members to return. Even though the hotel staff had their eye on us - we kept telling them we were waiting for our mom. Anyway, we were staying there!
We saw Darcy walk past and we wanted to after her but we were too chickenshit. So we continued to wait, way late, in the lobby chairs. All the while we kept hearing this strangely familiar "huh huh huh" laugh coming from the hotel bar around the corner. I say "familiar" because we had watched their Vieuphoria video enough times to know what the band sounded like in humourus situations.
Then, we saw the culprit: amazing drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, walking towards the elevator. Well we were not going to let this opportunity pass.
We ran up to him with our pen and our picture to autograph. The guy was very drunk but very nice and signed it despite missing his elevator.
"Can I keep this?" he asked, holding up our pen.
"OK!" we squealed. No idea why he wanted the pen, though later on we would find out that Mr. Chamberlain was hardcore into drugs (if you'll remember their keyboardist later died when they both went on a binge)so who knows.
Mr. Chamberlain disappeared in the elevator with our pen and we were left with a snazzy autograph and the best day we both had ever had.
I stopped listening to new SP stuff once Darcy left the band and they had a revolving door of bassists but in late 2007 the band (which still had Jimmy and Billy) came to Vancouver to promote Zeitgeist.
I'm proud to say the concert was still amazing all these years later and I was happy to hear so many of my favourite songs off of Siamese Dream.
I'll leave you here with two of my favourite songs, Cherub Rock( TURN THIS SHIT UP!)
And the dreamy, sad and very early 90's Rhinoceros (love Darcy's blue tights!):
And that's the story of how I became a Smashing Pumpkins groupie one year.
Mike Patton, you better watch out - I'm coming for you next!
PS have you entered the contest to win a snazzy Forever 21 dress? Scroll below or click here :)
PPS OH YEAH! I finished the novel. 85,382 words, 300+ pages of crap completed at 2AM. But it's done! I've officially written a book, and in less than 6 weeks! :)
So, I have a whole bunch of winners to announce - but before I get to that, I must announce that I am doing yet ANOTHER giveaway.
I know I said that was my last one and it was, however I got an order in from Forever 21 and one of the dresses is too short for my taste (really prefer things to be knee-length if possible). I haven't even tried the thing on, I just KNOW (damn my long torso!).
And as such, the dress is now part of a giveaway.
To enter, leave a comment below and this Wednesday I will announce the winner. It's open to everyone, too. Here is the dress and details:
Size Small, New With Tags, comes with belt:
Is it just me or are Forever 21's dresses just getting shorter and shorter? Cuz I can tell you, I'm not getting taller.
****Well, the countdown has officially begun - in two weeks I leave for New Zealand. Um...EEK?! and all that.
I've also found the perfect wedding present for the bride - I'm seriously the best Maid of Honour ever. Well, I hope the happy couple enjoys it - I know I am extremely JEALOUS of the present haha and unfortunately because Bridey reads this blog I can not tell you what it is. I'm buying it tomorrow though and even that is actually very exciting for me. Fingers crossed that I can actually purchase it though, which is part of the excitement. Oh my, I am such a nerd.
****Speaking of my bestie, she recently wrote on my Facebook enquiring who this mysterious, sexy brooding Mike Patton man on my blog was. I told her not to look into it until I get to New Zealand because the man has done so much, it would be very overwhelming and if her first impression of Mike Patton came from listening to Disco Volante or something, well I just might lose her forever.
Anyway I just linked her to this video for Everything's Ruined (which I have posted about before so bare with me) and that's when I started to realize how relevant the meaning of the lyrics in the song are.
Patton and rad bassist Bill Gould wrote the lyrics in 1990/1991 but it's amazing how much it applies to what's happening in the world right now, or specifically, what led up to the recession. This could be the theme song for Wall Street's greed, a comment on the global depression:
Faith No More's "Everything's Ruined" Lyrics Things worked out better than we had planned Capital from boy, woman and man We were like ink and paper Numbers on a calculator Knew arithmetic so well Working overtime Completed what was assigned We had to multiply ourselves A bouncing little baby A shiny copper penny And he spent himself Would not listen to us But when he lost his appetite He lost his weight in friends Baby became a fat nickel so fast Then came puberty Exponentially Soon our boy became a million People loved him so And helped him to grow Everyone knew the thing that was best Of course, he must invest A penny won't do But he made us proud He made us rich But how were we to know He's counterfeit Now everything's ruined
Of course, Patton has said not to read too much into his lyrics and has repeatedly said how he's not a very good wordsmith, but self-deprecation aside, I think all songwriters say that. Unless you are Billy Joel.
And one more thought on the subject: I believe Faith No More will be announcing their USA and/or Canada Tour Dates very soon. Probably within the next month. If my findings that they are playing San Francisco in April 2010 (once again it was Roddy who said this) are correct then they would have to start confirming it soon as tickets usually go on sale 2-4 months ahead of time. I wouldn't be suprised if we see announcement for US tour dates for FNM after November 14th, when their last show in Mexico is over.
****Oh and I'm fairly certain my novel will be completed tonight/tomorrow - I'm at 78, 382 words which is a mere 1,618 words from my goal. I can definitely say there is at least 5-10,000 words left to write as well. I'll be drinking champagne when I write the last word, I can tell you that much. I'll also be pretty sad and feeling mighty lost. Luckily I get to start REWRITING it before I send it to my editor*, then I can start planning the next in the series. I'm so glad this is a series, I think I would jump off a bridge if it had to end.
That said, I won't be able to do any writing in New Zealand but I think it would do me some good to take a break from writing for a month. Just hope I can get back into it again...
****Do you like to match colours in your outfits? As you can tell below, I sure do. In fact it makes me feel anxious if I don't have at least two colours in my outfit that match. True story.
Of course the bag doesn't match - pink with red? What was I thinking? But live and learn. Bag: Nat & Mat Skirt: Kenzo Boots: Bata Tank + beret: F21 Blazer: H&M
AND THE WINNERS:
For the Forever 21 Giveaway for the E-gift card, the winner is: Delightfully Tacky!
For the other three-prize giveaway, I realize I said that I would give the winner a choice of what they won but because I am running out of time to send things off before I go, I can't really do that. So without further ado, the winner of ANYTHING they want in my store is:
EMILY! - you didn't provide me with an email address though, so please email me (see sidebar)!
Winner of the ASOS necklace is: MYEDIT!
Winner of the mascara is: AGATA!
Congrats - and hey, why not enter again? Step right up let's make a deal, ride the ferris wheel.
*my editor - I'm paying someone to edit and give me feedback on the book, in no way do I have a book deal of any sort but believe me if I did you would all be the first to know. And for those asking - no - I will not be putting any excerpts on the blog. Not because I'm afraid of plagiarism, but because you'll think it sucks. I'm not even letting my boyfriend read it :)
PS - my ex-boyfriend (the only one I don't have anything bad to say about) just sent me this link on Facebook. If any of you are taking part in National Novel Writing Month (which I am signed up for, however...) this will come in handy. Great article and inspiring. I actually have started to dress more like my character in my book (look for that "Inspired By" look in the next two weeks): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703740004574513463106012106.html?mod=rss_Today's_Most_Popular)
