The Girdle of Melian

nusual sort of post today. I haven't been editing lately due to stuff happening at home (good things, but things that take time), and I'm very far behind in updating the knitting blog! For this week's ROW80 update , then, I'm cross posting a knitting update from my Simple Scarf blog! First a quick recap of 2013 in my knitting life: I was nominated for a Liebster Award in February! As part of the award, I answered eleven questions and, funnily enough, this was the first one: 1. What prompted you to start your blog? I was trying to keep knitting and cats off my writing blog! A temporary lapse in format, I suppose! I also offer the Liebster Award to anyone who'd like to accept it, but I've got eleven questions for you to answer! Next up, I shared knitting related photos from a visit to the New York Public Library , and then I offered a sneak preview of mini-Alex 's Doctor Who scarf ! Inspected by Sam, along with a Christmas scarf that

elated ROW80 check in - from last week! (By the way, the honeycomb in that B is for all of you who might be suffering from colds or flu this week.) So I haven't actually done any editing this past week. I did finally share my vignette with a couple of betas, and am eagerly awaiting feedback. I also hope to participate in the January Exercise on the Forum before the month is out. It's a great one! " A Moment of Explosive Change In every life, there are moments where change comes upon us suddenly, unexpectedly, or with a force we could never have predicted. And in fiction, it's change we want to see. What is explosive change? Anything that has a permanent impact on your character, good or bad. What kinds of things are we talking about? Well, there are break-ups, deaths, unexpected positive pregnancy tests. There are stunning events - terrorist attacks, natural disasters, revolutions - whether we're involved in them directly, or only seeing the world as we

offee, coffee, coffee! I love coffee! As a Turkish Anglophile, I keep trying to like tea. I drink it the Turkish way, and I've tried it the English way, with milk, but... I just can't do it. It simply doesn't taste as good as a shot of espresso with steamed milk, or a 'perfect cup' (where the filter is set directly over the mug and hot water's poured over the coffee grounds and filters directly into the mug. Yes, there's a proper name for this, but I can't remember it). I do love a Turkish tea with simit (sort of like a bagel), though! But back to coffee. Why all this coffee talk, you ask? Because Michael 's hosting a bloghop on Friday! I'm a little early, but that's because I've already had a few lattes... I love coffee! I mean, look at this happy row of lattes! Look at this yummy coffee! My favourite is actually a flat white, as they call it in New Zealand, apparently. No foam at all, just steamed mil

oal time! A new round of A Round of Words in 80 Days has begun (not to mention a new year). My goals in January 2013 were to: Finish editing Druid's Moon and share with betas Done and done! Well, sort of (see 2014 goal below). Continue querying Out of the Water Done, a few times. No joy. Unfortunately, even this story needs more editing. Start typing up Captive of the Sea Started and finished! Now to print and edit... Finish editing Rome, Rhymes and Risk Hmm, I never got around to this. Get some of my short stories fixed up Done, and how! One of my stories was shortlisted for the Surrey International Writers' Conference Storyteller's Award . Introduce some new tabs on the blog, linking to snips that I've posted and events I've hosted Done! Lots of one-off snips there, including for our Stream of Consciousness exercises on the Forum and Twitter. Scale back on Facebook Done! I only check about once a week now. Keep up with knitting pro

oin me on 3 December for a toast to Tolkien! I shared a post over at Deanna Raybourn's blog the other day, all about how to kick start your writing ! And now... The annual Books Read Statistics ! Books read : 188 , of which 124 were novels and kids' books (I count 'em all!), 21 were short stories, 13 were poems, and 30 were essay collections and comics and the Bathroom Reader, and so on. This is compared to 142 novels and short stories in 2012 (plus poetry), 124 in 2011, 92 in 2010, 131 in 2009 and 101 in 2008. That's not counting the thousands of words written and read for writers' houseparties over at the Compuserve Books and Writers Forum, plus other forum writings, and magazines and newspapers, etc. My average over 50 weeks , not counting the poems, is one more than the last couple of years, 3.5 books per week (or three books and two short stories). I think I read more non-fiction this year than usual. Authors read : 88 (counting board books