Writing, being myself and relaxation

(Just like Bloom in Winx, writers are not to be messed with. They can write anyone and anything into their wips) 

Up until now I've been reluctant to talk about my wips. I'm not sure if it's normal to be a bit paranoid about people stealing story ideas or not. I certainly haven't put hardcopies of early drafts in the recycling bin (telling myself one day I will shred them all). I know that copying someone's stories is uncommon, so for the most part paranoia is unfounded. 

But, with one of you asking about my ideas in a previous post, I'll spend the next few posts talking about my current wips (and possibly others). Note to all copycats - just don't do it. These are my ideas, which will be told by my Muse, in my own words. 

I had wanted to say them all in one post, but I have a tendency to go into detail (will learn to summarise for querying - that is one area I will not talk about. I may say once a book is finished editing, but I will speak no news, not even a tally of rejections, until I get signed up) plus I'm tired and feeling a bit cranky due to a possible virus, so I need to keep this one short. 

No wip in this post - more that because of the complete unpredictability of my medical condition, I won't necessarily be writing every single day of my life. I'm finding that by resting a lot more, I'm more productive when I do write edit. By avoiding writing/editing when I feel a bit ill, I recover quicker (which is awesome), and I don't hate whatever I'm working on at the time. I used to feel guilty not writing as often as I believed I 'should'. Turns out there's no normality for any writer. Life has a way of bringing all sorts of scenarios for us to do battle with. I do write when I can, especially if I'm up early in the mornings. It's all about taking advantage of what you do have, and forgetting what you don't. Or comparing yourself to others. There's only one person like you (unless you have a clone...) 

Be proud of who your are. I probably won't say this at a later date, but I honestly didn't think that my first book being queried would have Muslims in. It sounds a bit odd, but I felt it wasn't really 'mainstream'. Now I'm really happy with the story, and yes I have lots of books without Muslims in. However, it's fun having a character who I can relate to more than a lot of characters I've read who aren't Muslim, as they have some values which are quite the opposite to mine.  I get so happy when I pick out all the shared values I have with non-Muslim characters. And when I do find a Muslim character in a book, I get pretty excited about that too, as I like to see how they are portrayed. On the whole they are portrayed rather accurately. It was fun helping Keren David work out the character of Shaz in her latest novel, Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery. Keren had got the feel of what happened in the mosque spot on. I won't say specifics so I don't spoil the story, but the way the story ends for Shaz is beautiful, and I'm hoping there might be a sequel. It presents options for people of what does happen quite often. 

Right, I'm going to be true to myself and watch anime tonight (French & Japanese - separate dvds,  not the same one!), in my aim to rest up and stop this virus in its tracks. 

I'll be watching...

(a picture of Loulou dancing in a dance class - she wasn't a student, and the evil directrice (headmistress) banned her from lessons) 

Loulou de Montmatre. It's an original French cartoon, has lots of drama and I'm hooked on it. 

(this one needs no intro!) 

Winx - I like to watch at least ane pisode a day. I did watch 3 episodes of the spin-off series Pop Pixie

Here's PIff receiving her pop magic (which I saw this morning and was so happy about)

And her actual costume change when in pop magic mode

Bones - watching this means I get to do craft! 

If anyone has questions, I'd be happy to answer them, and would love to hear your views on the topic discussed.

(Somehow this didn't end up all that short...)