Where does one begin?

That's my current dilemma. I need to revise my WIP and I don't know where to start. If it was easy, normal revisions (ie. reading it through from beginning to end and editing and changing to make it better) it wouldn't have been so difficult. However, I need to more or less re-write the last few chapters and I need to add scenes in the middle.

This is new to me since my first MS didn't need these kind of changes. For some reason that one worked out much better from start to finish, though I have a feeling that in the end this new WIP will be the better story.

I just have to figure out how to do it. I guess I'll just have to pick one scene and simply write it and add it. I can always make it look nice and neat later in the proofreading and second round of revisions (once the rougher ones are done).

Just feels like such a task. But I want to get it done, because eventually I want to start writing on MS#3. I already have almost 10 pages of notes, so I really look forward to it. But for now, I need to stick to my current WIP.

In the meanwhile, to relax a bit now and then I delve into the World of Warcraft game that I'm recently so addicted to. I never played a lot of games, but this one really has me hooked. I play an Undead character, so that's kind of funny. I've put a picture of her here, I named her Braithe. Isn't she pretty? *lol* Half-rotting skin and all...

You can click on the picture to get it bigger, btw.

Otherwise there's no news really. Just spending my days at work (as usual), and waiting for end of June when I've got some vacation and am going to Sweden to visit my family.

I guess now I had better look at that WIP again... *sigh* Anyone else ever find revisions troubling? Just knowing where to start is somethings difficult.

And then there were none...

My apartment seems kind of empty and quiet this evening.

This morning (as I left for work) my family packed up and went back home, so by the evening when I returned the place was empty. It feels both sad and good at the same time. I'm sad to see my family go (since I don't meet them all that often), but at the same time it's kind of nice getting my apartment back to myself.

Squeezing five people into a two-room apartment isn't the easiest of tasks (to put it mildly).

I'm not too sad though, since I'll be going to visit them in just over two months. Not very bad at all (considering it's usually 6 months between the times I see them).

Feeling quite good at the moment to be getting back to my life. I've had a bit of time to consider what I want to do with my current WIP, so this weekend I can get started on the revisions. Which, btw, I've realised will include re-writing the last five chapters or so. But it'll be for the best, and I can still use some of what I've written, just need to change some stuff and write some new scenes. But some will need to be re-written. Kind of looking forward to it though. I just want to get started and get it done so that I can work on the details.

Well, it's late over here and I need to get some sleep. Looking forward to tomorrow evening (since it means the weekend starts!)


Current obsession: World of Warcraft (game) (So over chocolate eggs by now!)

Easter

It's that time of the year again. It's Easter!

Have you collected your eggs, taken in the rice and prepared the food?

Easter is a very old tradition, and in my home country (Sweden in case anyone forgot) we celebrate it differently than most places. Sure, we celebrate the Christian holiday, but having been heathen for quite a long time the Nordic people still cling to a lot of old traditions that kind of merged with Christianity.

(In case you didn't know, we still celebrate Midsummer's Eve in June.. which is originally a festival in the honour of the Norse Gods.)

I like Easter in the North because it's quite different from the rest of the world. First of all, we don't have the Easter Bunny. Sure, we have chickens and eggs and all that, but no bunnies. What we do have... are witches!

Let me explain this tradition a bit further. It springs from the old days when the Nordic people were very very superstitious. We believed in trolls, stable gnomes, witches and a whole lot of other things. (I should probably mention that we're talking like 1000 years ago, so not all that recently.) Back in those days it was believed that on the night before Easter all of the witches would travel to a place called Blåkulla (losely translated to Bluehill) where they would have a big celebration and meet up with Satan. (I'm thinking the Satan bit was added on later since that's part of Christianity.)

So everyone would take precautions, silver under the bed, a cross above the door... You know, all the usual remedies to keep witches at bay. Also, big bonfires were supposed to do the trick.

Anyway, though we don't believe in witches as such anymore. The tradition of witches lives on, and has turned into that we dress up our children as witches for Easter. After this, the traditions vary depending on where in the country you live. In the village where I grew up you would draw little pictures and fold them into letters which you put candy inside. Then you'd take them to your friends' houses and toss them inside the door, yelling 'Happy Easter!' Your friend was then supposed to chase you, and had to catch you before you reached the gate/fence.

It was all great fun. :)

So, no Easter Bunny for us. We have a lot of old traditions from a long time ago that's merged with the "newer" Christian traditions (fortunately when they turned us from heathens our old traditions were pretty much at the same times of the year, so it made it all much easier for them to convert us *lol*) It's funny though, if you look at the Swedish name for Santa Claus, it can be literally translated as the Christmas Gnome. (Naturally dating back to the time when we thought that gnomes lived in the stables and would take care of the horses and cows. If a pot of porridge wasn't set out on Christmas Eve the gnome would get angry and wreak havoc in the stables.)

I could tell you lots more, but it'd bore you. Basically, I'm happy that it's Easter and that some of my family is visiting and celebrating it with me.

What are your Easter traditions? How do you celebrate it with your family?

(The photos are of my baby brother when we dressed him up as an Easter Witch some years ago.)


Current obsession: Still House M.D. (getting a bit tired of chocolate Easter eggs by now!)

Finally!

I got my couch put together, and someone came to take the old one out! Yes! I could finally put my dining table back in the livingroom (instead of the bedroom!) and do some vacuuming. Didn't have time to clean as much as I should have, but at least it resembles something that's presentable.

Doesn't the new couch look much better now that it's actually in one piece? *lol*

My family will be arriving tomorrow evening, so I'm very much looking forward to seeing them. Well, not all of them are coming of course. But it'll be my mom, her partner and two of my brothers (the youngest and the oldest).

Thursday is my last day at work this week, and then I'm off until (and including) next Wednesday to spend time with my family. That'll be an extra bonus :)


On Friday I was at a Japanese restaurant, for the first time in my life! It was an outing with work to celebrate my supervisor (who is leaving for a new job in Rome!) and a colleague who is getting married. Chopsticks is not for a beginner, that's for sure! I finally managed (a not so beautiful) grip to actually eat something, but it almost gave me a cramp!

It was funny about my supervisor btw, I got the new job in her department... came to work my first day... Conversation went something along the lines of...
Supervisor: "Hi Em! Welcome to the dept! Oh, and I'm leaving."
Me: "Oh. Um... Congrats?"

Well, I think that was all from me today. I've done very little on my WIP (but I'm still on my break before revisions, so I'm justified!) but I now have 8 pages of notes for my next MS. Hmm...


Current obsession: House M.D. (and chocolate Easter eggs!)

What a day!

I've been on adventure today. One that I'd just as well have skipped.

I was watching a recording of Medium when my friend came banging on the door and said that I had to come immediately to drive her to her boyfriend's apartment. Didn't even get the time to shut off my TV. Turns out her boyfriend has called a gazillion times crying and upset, saying that he's going to kill himself.

We hike off to his place, while my friend is calling the police. They meet us there and since we can get no contact with the boyfriend via phone they actually break his door down (in case he's lying dying on the floor or something). Turned out the apartment was empty though.

Oh, and then they sent a second dispatch to our building (she has the apartment above me and we share an entrance) and instead of the police asking us if anyone has a key, they start trying to bash our door in too! (Our neighbour has a key... Who is also our landlord, who was not happy about the police trying to smash the door...) Fortunately someone caught them before they smashed the door entirely to bits, so it's just slightly damaged.

If you're wondering, the guy finally showed up at his apartment and the police took him away (he was unharmed btw...) to put him in a cell for a few hours. (He'd apparently heaved a couple of bottles of wine in the space of 2 hours). They're going to let him sober up for a few hours and then let him talk to a shrink. I'm thinking that's a good idea cause the guy obviously needs help.

So... that was my Saturday. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? How was yours? Did the police try to bash in your door?

In the end...

...everything works out.

I've always considered myself a pessimist. And I am, in certain ways. But I've realised that deep inside of me an optimist is hiding. Because I always have this feeling (even if it never shows itself much) that everything will work out in the end. Things'll get better.

No matter how depressed I might be feeling, at a certain time, I always know that things will get better. They have to. It might take a while, but it won't be like this forever. I think that's why I probably never fall into the deep pit of 'Everything sucks', 'There's nothing worth living for'... Because I think there are several things worth living for, even the simple things like enjoying a dinner with friends, reading a good book, watching a great movie. Travelling, seeing new places. Being with your family and friends... I could go on and on.

I'm feeling this optimistic at the moment because I was up until half an hour ago despairing of having my place in order before my family arrives on Wednesday. But a man working for the same organisation as I do is buying a house, and he's getting the keys on Tuesday. Since he has no furniture at all, two free couches are great for him. You see what I mean with things working out? It's a bit last minute and I'll have to scramble to have everything setup in the evening for when my family comes, but at least the couches will be out of the apartment.

I just hope I'm not celebrating too early and something goes wrong now. (See, there's the pessimistic side.)

Currently reading: Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
Status of couch: Still not assembled
Status of MS#2: Taking a short break before starting revisions, will start once family has come and gone. In the meanwhile I'm scribbling notes in preparation for MS#3 (the ideas just won't leave me alone! I think I look forward to writing this because my heroine is quite different from the first two. Sure, the first two were different from each other, but both were fairly level-headed...)

Chaos

If you thought my livingroom looked bad on yesterday's picture you should see it today. Or actually, you shouldn't.

I've had to bunch my old furniture in a corner so that a guy can come and pick it up tomorrow. My TV and DVDs are on the floor (since I'm getting rid of the tv-table, but the new one isn't done yet... that one is lying face down on the floor waiting for me to finish with it), the new coffee table is shoved off to the side with the remaining parts of the tv-table on it.

Oh, and let's not forget that my couch is still spread in pieces along one wall.

Oh! Oh! And my dining table and chairs are in the bedroom since I can't fit them in the livingroom until the old stuff is gone!

Sounds beautiful, doesn't it?

I'm planning to have it all sorted by the end of the weekend though. Fingers crossed, please! Because Wednesday evening next week some of my family is coming to visit for Easter, and I want my apartment to look really nice for when they come. (Vanity I guess.)

I promise to write about more interesting stuff eventually. It's just that I have time for little else right now but work and try to sort out my apartment when I get home.

What I'm currently up to
Watching on DVD: Dead Like Me, season 1 (one episode to go!)
Addicted to: LOST, CSI, Medium
Listening to: Simple Plan
Reading: The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll
Writing: Revising TAMING OF THE RAKE (and I had that title before Eloisa James' new book! It's not a rip-off! But I guess it's time to find a new title now though... *lol*)

Surprise, Surprise

I think that one would say that surprises are usually a nice thing. Or at least I like to think so. Not always though. I had a somewhat nasty one today. Saturday I did go to Ikea and I ordered the couch I wanted. Today it was delivered... In pieces!! Who in the world delivers a couch in pieces!? (Well, Ikea obviously...)

So instead of being able to sit on a nice, comfy couch today, this is my current one...

Lovely, isn't it?

Doesn't it look exquisite? And can you see the lovely colour? No? Oh well... that might be because the covers are stacked in a box somewhere and wrapped in ten layers of plastic!!!

And you know what tops the chart? You have to be two people to put it together. In case you didn't know... I live alone. My family is in another country. Well done, Em! One would think that the furniture store could have warned me. Oh, by the way... We'll send your couch in bite-size.

Fortunately I bought a chair too.. so I have something to sit in. Not the same as crawling up into a nice, comfy couch though...

Ok, going to stop whining now. But I'm still growling... Even if just a little...

Life

... or the lack of it. I thought about it when reading something my sister wrote about not having much of a life. So I started to think about my life. Do I have one?

Well, I'd like to believe so. Maybe it's a life that'd bore some people, but then I'm sure that their lives would bore me.

I enjoy the simple pleasures. Like writing, reading... watching a good movie. Now and then I like meeting a friend for a coffee or dinner. Or going to the cinema. This life might seem boring to those who love to surround themselves with people and friends at all times, people who love to go out drinking and dancing (I like going out for a drink.. but once every 6 months or so is sufficiently often for me; dancing? Forget it!) Then there are the people who love going to the gym, they do it several times a week. I'm sorry, I must admit that I never managed to find any joy in that. It bores me to death. Sure, I'll go rollerblading in the park, or take a walk.. but push myself into a gym? Never.

I love spending hours writing... Creating characters, plots and events. That's what I do. While others might go crazy by being alone, I fill the lonely hours with imaginary people (no, I'm not insane, send those men in white coats back where they came from!). We all have our own pasttimes I guess.

Bored yet? I don't blame you.

Today I was planning to go into town to look for some office clothes, but when it comes down to it I can't be bothered. Next weekend (or possibly tomorrow) will be soon enough. This afternoon however I am going to go and buy a new couch. I'm very much looking forward to some changes in my livingroom. I think it'll look much better once I'm done. (Though I don't look forward to having to put the new tv-bench together piece by piece... That's IKEA furniture for you... Do it yourself!)

What kind of things bore you? Reading bloggs? How do you fill your spare time (you know, those few hours between coming home from work and bed time.. I think there's about 10 of them in a full week... *sigh*)