Yesterday I spent the day with Laurel from Ooh La La Vintage - it started with brunch at the Honeypot Cafe, continued with a Magical Mystery Tour of all the best vintage shops and thrift stores of central Christchurch, and ended with a glass of wine in a pavement cafe by the river! So much fun. These pictures were taken in the 'retro room' of one of the thrift stores - a cupboard-sized space stuffed with 'retro' clothing of dubious origin. I've never had much luck in there, but it's so much fun to crawl right in and rummage.
I'm still mooching along with my Nanowrimo novel, but an influx of client work and the revisions on Actual Book that Needs to Go to Agent in December (working title) have been eating up most of my time. Excuses, excuses! In reality, I could make time to catch up on my word count, but at the moment it is more important to me to make steady progress and not become too stressed. Particularly since a cold is hovering at my writing desk, threatening to descend and fill my head with glutinous goo.
Here's this week's A Cat of Impossible Colour Nanowrimo Round-up! As always, please don't be offended if you are not featured - I choose posts that I think will appeal to the largest number of people, and I read all your Nano reports with pleasure. Go here for the full list of participants.
- Sara shares one of her Polyvore sets and explains the inspiration behind it. She has made some gorgeous ones for the different characters in her novel - check out the Polyvore group to see them!
- Kate discusses the importance of the reader when writing memoir.
- Andrea is debating whether to take a different direction with her novel.
- Lola talks about plot snags and procrastination.
- This isn't exactly Nano-related, but huge congratulations to Teresa, whose short story In a Seaside Cafe was one of the thirteen winners of the Bridport Prize. This is a really big deal, a prestigious award, and a huge achievement. Well done!
- Valerie has posted yet another great list of writing prompts to take your story in crazy directions and save your sanity. If you feel like you're stuck in a rut, check them out! (And if you're really, really stuck, start a chapter with 'And then the aliens arrived,' and see what happens).
- Susie is looking for a name for her female main character - see if you can help her out.
- Priscilla shares her Nanowrimo playlist.
And today's Nanowrimo challenge: list three to five things that you LOVE about your book. The things that make you want to keep going. Go!
(And here are mine:
Living graffiti
Creepy moments with dead animals left on doorsteps (I'm not as evil as I sound, I promise)
Reverse empaths
A really bizarre love story
The setting, which I'm too superstitious to describe).
15 comments:
Old books
Turkish coffee
Large black cat with golden eyes who might be a jaguar in disguise
My main character
Being nearly finished ^_^
Andrea, my partner and I are landing in Christchurch tomorrow! If you had to pick three cafes and three stores we absolutely must visit, where would you suggest?
Also, are there any fanstastic geeky spots/stores we should go to? The developer partner would be mighty pelased if I surpised him this way!
here goes:
the delicious food that forms a kind of fragmented backbone throughout the text
the love story that I'm currently trying to write - and another that will come later
the switching between points of view that gives differing insight into time and place
Thank you so much for including me in the round-up! There are some great links this week again - I just love Priscilla's playlist and Valerie's prompts.
Here are my favorite things about my book:
- the setting (New York city in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when it began growing upwards - I get chills just thinking about it)
- my strong female characters
- there is a lot of crap I'll have to wade through come December, but throughout are moments that I think are magical, that were unplanned and just unfolded as I wrote them; this project has done wonders for my confidence as a writer
- that, though this book, I get to answer the questions I've had about this family story that I will never ever know for sure
cute pics in the retro room!
-Beautiful scenery (even though I totally made up this world)
-A fantastic backstory that I love incorporating
-A great variety of different characters
-The grace of one specific character
-My love story that gives me a fuzzy feeling inside.
Okay here are my five things I love about my novel
A swashbuckling hero who is skilled in fighting occult menaces
It's set in a time when there were both swords and guns
Flying demons
I get to describe the 17th century equivalent of a Bondian headquarters
Super secret organisations.
Thanks for these, everyone, keep them coming!
Adele - what kind of stores are you interested in? If you let me know what kind of things you like, I'll tailor my recommendations to your specifications. :) But here are my top 3:
Tete a Tete Vintage, Hereford St (between Colombo St and Oxford Terrace - look for the sign on the pavement. And tell Vanessa I sent you! ;) ) There is also Two Squirrels, owned by the same couple, which has curios, books and antiques as well as vintage clothing. That's in Cashel Mall, above Trade Aid. It's also worth wandering down High St - some really awesome stores down there! One Big Sugar Bowl, The Hat Shop and ... I always get the name of this place wrong, but I think it's called Where the Fox Sleeps. Pretty sure. Anyway, that place sells work by local fashion designers, and it's really cool.
Smiths Bookshop - Manchester St. Amazing second-hand bookstore on three floors.
Cafes:
The Coffee House - Montreal St (opposite the Dux, just down from the Art Gallery). Really good coffee! Honeypot Cafe on Lichfield St is also very good, and both are open at night. C1 on High Street is a real Christchurch institution as well - big range of teas and comfy couches.
And anywhere in Lichfield Lanes - down the brick alleyways - is good for a nice drink/dinner. Bar-wise, I really like Cartel. Phu Thai on Manchester St has the best Thai food; Joyful on Colombo has the best Chinese; and Mulberry Cafe at the north end of Colombo St is my favourite for fine dining.
I'm not sure about geeky spots - it depends what form your geekery takes, really. My husband's into camera gear, so Photo and Video in Merivale Mall is a good place for that ... And Comics on Manchester St is a good place for graphic novels, games, etc. No cool computer-y stores are coming to mind, though. If he's into cars, there's a really cool car museum/store on Lichfield St called Fazazz.
Anyway, let me know if there's anything more you'd like to know. As you can probably tell, I love my city! :)
1) bird migration
2) a really pissed-off mermaid
3) my m.c. wearing moon boots and getting made fun of for it by a girl who is half fox
4) the surprises in the plot--the love interest is a totally different person than I'd first thought, and it turns out this way makes much more sense
Nice pics. And glad you enjoy the day. ;D
Solo
Travel and Living
Job Hunt Pinoy
- The setting. I love West Texas, the desert, and its wide-open skies.
- My characters and how they reveal themselves through the smallest things as I write.
- The idea that I might have a non-traditional mystery in the works. I love the idea of writing a "literary" mystery a la Tana French, where characters are key.
"Creepy moments with dead animals left on doorsteps..."
Hmm sounds familiar... ;-)
Here are my five:
*the fact that I'm writing something at all
*the beginning of my story - I love the way my two main characters meet and the jarring situation one of them finds herself in
*getting into my zone, or flow or whatever it's called and forgetting time and my list of things to do and surrendering to the process
*the way my characters take shape as I write even though (or especially because?) I didn't flesh them out fully in the beginning
*the names of my characters
Thanks so much, everyone!
Rachael - not stolen from you, promise. :P
Thanks so much for mentionning my Bridport news, Andrea. Just got back and will be posting about the whole experience soon!
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