What's Up Wednesday #18 and IWSG #9

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme run by Erin L Funk and Jaime Morrow and is a great way for readers and writers to catch up!

What I'm reading

I finished reading Holly Black's fabulous Curse Workers trilogy! I can't recommend this enough, especially to urban fantasy fans looking for something wildly different and original. Superb stuff.


I also read The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon. This book caught my attention because the author's the same age as me, and wrote this book while still at university - and it got picked up by Bloomsbury! It's the first in a gritty futuristic paranormal series which mixes dystopia with clairvoyance, one of the most original dystopian novels I've read. The world-building's certainly ambitious and I've no doubt this talented author is on her way to a successful career!

Also, I read Darkfever, a book that's been on my Goodreads TBR list for ages! I want to read more adult urban fantasy, but it's tricky when there are so many awesome-looking books, all of which seem to be the first in a long series. (I like series. My bank account does not. I may have a slight addiction to Kindle one-click buy...) But I'll definitely be carrying on with this one. It's a fantastic take on faeries and Irish mythology, with a great lead character.

Lastly, I read The Maze Runner, which kept me hooked for a very tense couple of days! James Dashner sure knows how to write tension-packed scenes.


What I'm writing

This week marked the end of NaNoWriMo and the start of the #WIPMarathon! I'm carrying on with the first draft of my MG fantasy, which has been a slow, frustrating struggle, but I'm getting there! I'm only managing 1000 words a day, but as long as I keep on track, I should be finished within the next couple of weeks. There is a light at the end of this tunnel!

Meanwhile, I sort of accidentally wrote the opening to another book, the YA post-apocalyptic fantasy I've been planning. I remember this exact same thing happened with my current WIP - in fact, it happens every single time I start a book. Starting a book is the one part of the process that I don't plan. I can't do it on purpose. It just happens. I think it might be the intimidating idea of starting to write that means I have to trick my brain into thinking I'm not going to write it yet...and sooner or later I'll have an open word document with 500 shiny new words in it and no clue how it happened. Once I have that starting point, I can get into a routine!

So yes, I started another book. But I'm being good and finishing my WIP before I change my focus (besides, if I get into Pitch Wars, I'll have to switch my attention back to Beneath the Waves!).

What else I've been up to

After the excitement of last week, I've been getting back into a writing/reading routine and catching up with everything. And as I hinted earlier, I made the decision to enter Pitch Wars! So I've been stalking blogs and perfecting my query. And then on Monday...I hit SEND. Four times. I did it! *flails*

Other than that, I've been editing for clients and reading submissions for my internship. It's been a hectic few days!

What inspires me right now

The #WIPMarathon and the fabulous online writing community! :)



It's also the first Wednesday of November, which means it's time for The Insecure Writers Support Group, created by Alex J Cavanaugh!

Well, I'm a crazy bundle of nerves this week, because (as I mentioned above), I entered Pitch Wars! This is the first time I've ever taken part in a writing contest so publicly, so as you can imagine, it's quite a step. But I'm sure I'm not the only writer suffering from jitters this week as we wait for the results! And stalk the Twitter hashtag, wondering if mentors are reading my submission... *bites nails*

This, along with waiting for another editorial email of doom (on the mega-rewrite of Darkworld Book 2 I did a couple of weeks ago), has made me an overly neurotic, freaked-out mess the last few days. Checking my inbox is something like this:



And my life in general is something like this: