The Clock of Time

The year is almost over and it’s time again to look back and evaluate the months that passed by. Was it a productive year? Did you use your time wisely?

Lately I’ve come to realize the importance of time, and I don’t mean time as we know it, not the minutes that are ticking steadily on our perfect and accurate clocks. No. I’m talking about our personal time, our internal clock that moves and adjusts according to our needs and moments.  

So, what time does that clock say?

People

There are many people in our lives. 

There are those who are bound to us like parents, sisters, brothers, cousins and uncles. Those are the people we didn’t choose, but we somehow “inherited” since we came to their lives and they came to ours without any consent.

Then there are those we encounter while growing up. Friends, lovers, colleagues and those whom we just kindly wave as we pass by the halls, many times not even knowing their names.

The Scorch Trials

It’s been a while since I read the first book in this series. Although The Maze Runner was a book that thrilled me, I didn’t feel the need to keep reading. So I kept postpone it until I saw the books collecting dust on my shelf and I thought: It’s now or never.

So let’s take a look at The Scorch Trials.

Feed the Reader

Reading is a huge part of my life. I’m one of those people who can proudly call herself a reader. Yes, I am a reader and I enjoy every single part of the reading process.

It starts with going to a bookstore, walking slowly around the aisles, reading back covers, observing the covers and even sniffing the books when no one is watching. I pick them up and then carefully put them back down as if I disturbed the story when I touched it.

InterWorld

This year is practically dedicated to Gaiman, for no particular reason. I just happened to read many of the books I wanted to read for so long. And let’s be honest, what is better than a Gaiman story?

This time every year

Autumn is here, or at least is coming with rapid steps, and even though I like autumn, my love for summer can’t actually be compared with any other time of the year. I’m a summer girl, I breathe sea salt and bathe is sun light, I laugh in the heat and enjoy the beach for as long as I can.

And all that drafts

I’m swimming in drafts.

I don’t say drown for the truth is that I know what I’m doing now. The knowledge I acquired through those years of learning the craft of writing is like a life jacket, so I float for I have tons of things yet to learn. But this doesn’t change the fact that I created a pool of drafts and dived into it for quite some time.

Snow, Glass, Apples

I have a special love for Neil Gaiman and I bet many people have. His writing, his voice, his imagination can be very addictive. So lately, I find myself picking up many of his short stories.

And there is one that I cannot stop thinking.

Snow, Glass, Apples

The Red Room, by Nicci French

What would you do if you had to return to the site of your worst fears? Kit Quinn is called by the police to advise them on a simple murder inquiry about a young runaway that has been found killed by a canal. But nothing seems simple in this case. Especially when the chief suspect is a man that injured Kit the last time they met.

Will Kit help the police to convict this man?

The drafts

August seems to be my month. Or better my novel month. It was last August that I finished the first draft of the second book in my trilogy and it was March when I decided to rewrite it.

I took my time, I didn’t write full time and I decided to create a new file and start writing from scratch. And I did it.

It’s August again and the second draft of my book is ready!

The Power of Self-Dependence

I’ve read a book and since then, I cannot read another. I try, I really do, but that book is still in my mind. Maybe because it was not a fictional story, maybe because it was not a story at all but a book, written by a psychotherapist-or as like he calls himself-a helper. I read The Road of Self-Dependence by Jorge Bucay.

Weaving life

I wake up a sunny day but there’s a heavy feeling in my gut. The sun is bright, the day is promising and the summer weather should make me cheery and happy. 

But I’m not.

Voice of the Soul

I have this thing. 

I love loud music. And when I say loud, I mean maximum volume while the same song is playing on repeat and I write. This is my thing and I have missed it so much.

Land of the Living

“When you know you’re dreaming you wake up. Sometimes you wake into another dream. But when you wake and nothing changes, that must be reality.”

Here we are in the Land of The Living, as Abbie calls it, the place where we are free to act as we please. We work, meet friends, we eat and drink and have fun without restrictions but the ones we set.

What if suddenly those simple things were snatched away from us? We find ourselves in a dark place and as much as we blink, the darkness won’t go away.

Reading Hound

Do you hear the bells? Do you, by any chance, see the red flags quivering in the corner?

Do you “investigate” the book you’re reading or do you let the writer guide you throughout the story? 

I always believed that there are two kinds of people: those who take the writer’s hand and travel along with him and those who leave him behind and march on an adventurous hunt.

Summer Girl

There I am, sitting cross-legged on a comfortable wooden chair on the porch looking at the deep, blue waters. The sun is bright but I don’t mind the heat since there is a cool air waving my tunic and actually making me chill.

The Sense of an ending

I bought this book just because the title was so powerful that I couldn’t resist. I didn’t read the synopsis; I didn’t give it a second thought. I just stood there, watching the words on the whitish cover: The Sense of an ending.

“We live in time – it holds us and moulds us – but I’ve never felt I understood it very well. And I’m not referring to theories about how it bends and doubles back, or may exist elsewhere in parallel versions. No, I mean ordinary, everyday time, which clocks and watches assure us passes regularly: tick-tock, click-clock. Is there anything more plausible than a second hand? And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or pain to teach us time malleability. Some emotions speed it up, others slow it down; occasionally, it seems to go missing – until the eventual point when it really does go missing, and never to return.”

Teaser Tuesday #17: Monster

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

The act of surviving

I have this friend that I know for many many years. She is a little younger than me, and since I can remember there’s always a cloud above her head. It’s like in her world is always cloudy, so cloudy that I cannot clearly see her anymore.

She’s the most pessimist person I’ve ever met, she’s sad and even when she laughs her eyes are teary and it breaks my heart.

On writing: Burnt out

There comes a time when life seems upside down. When you suddenly stop doing the things that you love to do. For me, that’s reading a book or finding some time to write a few sentences for the book I’m writing.

So, I’m there, at that part of my life and I feel hanging in the air, but as the blood floods my brain, I realize the reason.

Teaser Tuesday #16: Stardust

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Shooting the Characters

There's this thought in my head, one that I cannot easily dismiss, and I happened to think about it while rewriting that second draft of my book.

Why do we torture our characters this much?

The Hive

I’m tired.

Here it is, I admit it out loud or else the words won’t leave my mouth. I’m so tired, both physically and mentally. I’m one of those persons who just can’t shut down, I always have to do something since time is like a noose and if I stop I think that it’s going to choke me.

On Writing: Struggle

There was a book on my shelf for quite some time now. It waited since it was more different than those I’m used to read. The title was: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. 

Until I woke up one day and I told myself: It’s time! I do want to know how artists work. I do want to know, and maybe I’ll find myself a bit related to some of the rituals, I’ll read? Maybe?

Teaser Tuesday #15: Opposition

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Granny

I miss you.  

It's been seven years since I last saw you but you didn't see me. You couldn't. You were cold, motionless and still but it didn't stop me from standing near you, touching your hands as if you could still feel it. And I didn't let you go until they took you away from me.  

On Writing: Rewriting

There is a magic in rewriting a story and I discover its beauty the more rewriting comes to an end. I’ve rewritten 21 of the 27 chapters and even if I cut some of them and expanded others, the fact is that the original story is on its end.

But my story is not!

The Amazing Gaiman: The Graveyard Book

When I hear the name Neil Gaiman, I think of strange stories, most of them dark but fascinating and mysterious. I dream of strange-looking characters and a very interesting plot. When I read the title, The Graveyard Book, I thought of ghosts, darkness and death.

And I was right.

What an usual book this is! A boy, surviving a cruel death, and ends up in a graveyard. How is he going to survive? Who will raise him? A place like that is not a place for toddlers.

Teaser Tuesday #14: The Graveyard Book

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets

The journey to Harry Potter world continues since I can’t find a reason to stop reading this series. Yep, I’m not young enough for those books, but we’re kids deep inside, right? And I did enjoy this second book!

On writing: Deadlines kill creativity

When I’m planning to write or edit or when I set a deadline or something, I know for a fact that I WON’T make it! It’s like when I’m trying to make plans, little goblins surface from their underground caves just to make sure that I'll miss that deadline.

And they always win!

Did you ever wonder why this is happening?

I can’t find a logical explanation but I know some ways to stop the goblins! We will get those chapters done! Here’s how:

Made of stardust

"We are made of stardust …"

That is how a quote began on Goodreads some days ago and I found myself stopping there, mid-sentence and reading again the same words. We are made of stardust but the magic that gives us life is different.

The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy series

Yep. I read this crazy trilogy of five and I’m ready to share the excitement. But what can we really say about those books, huh? I don’t think that my words can describe the magnificent and yet so complicated and mind-blowing story that came out of Douglas Adams’s head so many years ago.

If you’d ask me to say one word that can describe this series is: Paranoia!

Teaser Tuesday #13: Frankenstein

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

On Writing: Show me some teeth

These last few months, I'm rewriting the second book of a story I started years ago and so far it’s been like child's play. I created a new Word File and since I knew where the plot is heading, I wrote chapter after chapter and created a new story. It was wonderful and easy and I felt so powerful and happy that I foolishly let myself believe that I would finish it up in a blink of an eye.

Yesterday though things got an unexpected turn.

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Jenna Gray’s life changes so fast due to a terrible accident and the only thing that keeps her sane is moving to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast.

At the same time, DI Ray Stevens is tasked with seeking justice for a mother who is living every parent's worst nightmare. Determined to get to the bottom of the case, it begins to consume him as he puts both his professional and personal life on the line.

The story starts with the accident and immediately I felt eager to know what was going to happen. It was vivid and strong and I was overwhelmed with emotions. But then things got a little hazy.

On writing: Castaway

It came like a wave, as it usually does, and I gladly let it wash over me and carry me away like a raging river. I took a deep breath and let the water guide me until my lungs screamed for air.

When I surfaced, I didn't find myself in the cold, pale waters of a river but in the vast, deep blue waters of an ocean. And in the back of my mind I knew that I had swum in these waters before.

Teaser Tuesday #12: I Let You Go

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser Tuesday #11: So long, and thanks for all the fish

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

A Letter to You

Dear self,

Sometimes I know that you just let it go. You're tired, maybe your head hurts or you are not in the mood, and you think: I'll do it tomorrow there's no harm done.

And tomorrow comes and passes by so fast and you're still lost somewhere between life and responsibilities that you barely realize that another day is over. You lay in bed, thinking that you'll do it tomorrow and without even acknowledging it you're in a loop.

Beat the Clock

It's a new day it's a new life .... it's a New Year!

I always feel cheery this time of year, don't you? It's like we reset the clock and we get to do the things right this time. Or differently if you prefer.