Celebrate The Small Things: 20 December Edition

Welcome to CELEBRATE THE SMALL THINGS. Here we are at 20 December! In Celebrate The Small Things we celebrate the small pleasures and excitements and kindnesses of the week. There's a linky to sign up on.

A few things:

• Next week, will be the end of the year and we will have been celebrating for a whole year. Can you believe it? I am therefore going to suggest that NEXT WEEK we celebrate the WHOLE YEAR. What have been the small things that have stuck out for you in the year? Though by all means celebrate the week, it's just a thought.
• It is lovely if people can hop around and visit others but I wouldn't want the thought of having to visit the WHOLE LIST to put people off signing up. If you sign up and can visit say 10 or 15 on the list who are near you on the list, well, that's fine.
• This week, apologies, I likely WON'T make it around everybody's blogs to celebrate with you due to the holidays. Next week I'll likely be late in my visiting but I will try and make it round the end of year round up then.
• I'll do a list tidy up at some point over the holidays.

My celebrations this week then:

1. It is nearly Christmas. At the moment I am mainly thinking that this means TIME OFF and a break but I am sure I'll soon be excited about the holiday itself.
2. Fully recovered from food poisoning, yay!
3. Time off work! I don't know about America but most people here take days off over Christmas and travel and see family and it's a proper wee break. I have 10 days off or something like that, and I am looking forward to it.
4. CHOCOLATE. There's lots of it about this time of year.

How about you? Happy Holidays to you!

Here's the linky:

Celebrate The Small Things - 13 December

Greetings and Celebrations ;) It is Celebrate The Small Things time!

The rules are simple: Sign up on the linky, Celebrate in your blog, hop around and celebrate with others. The celebrations can be as small or as big as you like.

I love to hear what everybody is cheerful about this week. I do hope everybody else does too!

Well this week I am celebrating:

Christmas meet ups and dinners with various friends.

I am NOT celebrating that I somehow got food poisoning and am feeling rather rough, but what can you do. Here's to a speedy recovery and then more Christmas Food Fun.

Here's the linky...

Celebrate The Small Things - 6 Dec

I am very disappointed that I missed "Insecure Writers Support Group" this week. My work has been so crazy busy - roll on Christmas break!

I am squeezing in a Small Celebration however as we Celebrate The Small Things ;) The rules are simple: Celebrate, sign up on the linky, Celebrate with others! :)

This week I am celebrating:

• The start of Christmas meet ups with friends
• Critique partners who swing into action when you need help/advice
• That it isn't many weeks until I get some days off over christmas

Also, we are nearing ONE YEAR of CELEBRATE THE SMALL THINGS. I will be extending the linky for another year, if people are up for carrying on? However over my Christmas break I am going to absolutely prune it, so if people haven't joined in recently I'll be cutting it way back.

Here's the linky:

Celebrate The Small Things - 29 November edition

Greetings Bloggers and here we are celebrating again! How did that happen?

The rules of CTST if you can call them that, are simple: post celebrations in your blog, sign up on the linky, and hop around and celebrate! The Celebrations can be as small as you like.

For all my American friends: Happy Thanksgiving! It is an appropriate week to be celebrating so mine are all thankful related:

This week I have been thankful for:

• Friends
• Pizza
• Patience
• The weekend!

How have your celebrations been going this week?

Here's the linky:

Celebrate the Small Things - 22 November

Greetings all and time to Celebrate The Small Things! It is that time of the week when we celebrate what's been happening in our lives, however big or small.

The rules are so simple they are barely rules: Just sign up and celebrate! It's nice to have a wee hop and celebrate with others too.

I have had one of those grumpy weeks where nothing seems to go right, but where I should absolutely celebrate that I'm lucky enough that stressful meetings and late trains and mild bouts of insomnia are the worst of my troubles. So that's what I'm celebrating!

How about you?

Celebrate The Small Things - 15 November

Greetings and welcome to Celebrate The Small Things. It's the 'Crikey how is it the 15th November already' edition ;)

How are you all? I hope you are ready to celebrate! The purpose of this is not complicated, not even a bit. Just post some celebrations in your blog, of whatever size, and sign up on the linky, then celebrate with others by hopping around the list! Just join in celebrating, is the only rule! If you can't join in regularly and don't want to go on the list, then celebrate when you can anyway!

This week I am celebrating:

Going to an interesting lecture about King Lear. It took me back to being a student and really made me want to do this more regularly.
Seeing my friend for a good catch up.
Getting to the weekend at work.
3 gym trips!

How about you? Let me know :)

Here's the linky:

Celebrate the Small Things: 8 November

Greetings all and Happy Friday to you!

We are here to Celebrate The Small Things where the aim is simple: Celebrate whatever happenings of the week you would like, however big or small! Sign up on the linky, and celebrate with others on the linky!

My celebrations are:

• I officially completed 'Couch to 5k' and ran 5km! Okay I had to use the 5 min warm up as well as the 30 min run, but I'm calling that a win!
• I have a new gym programme from my gym instructor to help keep up my stamina.
• I have handed over a difficult project at work to a colleague, which is a relief for me.
• Something went wrong with dinner and I served my boyfriend COLD PEAS but we had a good laugh about it. I have a record in things going wrong with dinner. It's not as bad as the COLD POTATO incident.
• It's FRIDAY. Nearly the weekend folks!

How about you and your celebrations?

Here is the linky:

IWSG: Feeling Disconnected

Time for another Insecure Writers Support Group, which is a fantastic place to connect with other writers and be reassured you aren't alone in your worries and insecurities. Here is the link for the sign up: behold, shiny new website!

This month I am talking about feeling disconnected. I feel left out at the moment because (gasp) I am not doing Nanowrimo. I think it is a GREAT challenge and I wish I was joining in, but the timing just wasn't right for my projects. I haven't quite settled on a new idea. I need to do some edits on my current MS. The timing wasn't there, and rather than drop where I am and draft something I'm not sure about (which may have worked out well, who knows), I am just not joining in.

As a result I feel pretty much disconnected from the entire writing community, ha ha! The planet is doing Nano it seems with sprints and word count discussions. Which is great of course, that's why Nano is so encouraging.

But I am left feeling a bit, well, left out! Plus my work/life is endlessly busy at the moment so any blogging/tweeting/writing time is all a bit squeezed in, which adds to the feeling.

And Left Out feelings I suppose make going my own way feel a bit of a struggle oh I could just watch TV instead of writing. But that's not the attitude. My Nano time will come another year, and in the meantime I cheer on my fellow writers doing it and join in that way as best I can. So go you with that word sprint! Are you on Nano-track?

Anybody else feel disconnected, for whatever reason?

Celebrate The Small Things - 1 November

Greetings and Salutations 
(movie that's from anyone? ;)) 

How are we all as we hit NOVEMBER? Time to celebrate small again! The rules of Celebrate The Small Things are simple: sign up on the linky, post your celebrations, and hop around and celebrate with others.

Do you see the rules there: SIGN UP ON THE LINKY. Guess who hasn't signed up on the linky (until now?). Yes that's right: ME!!! Ha ha ha! I wasn't on it! I guess because I 'host' it I thought I didn't need to, or it hadn't occurred to me to. For TEN MONTHS. That's a *facepalm* moment.

So I have signed up now. :)

My celebrations for this week are:

• We had the clocks 'Fall Back' and an extra hour in bed, YAY!
• I am becoming a godmother to a friend's son - Christening is this weekend. I am quite excited and honoured to have a godson. And star in 'THE GODMOTHER' :)
• Made it to the gym three times this week - not too bad!
• Seeing a good friend for yummy Thai - YAY!

How about you?

Here's the linky... with me on it this time!

Celebrate The Small Things - End October Where is the Year Going edition

Greetings! Time for another Celebrate The Small Things!

I have no idea where the year is going off to, speeding along like a road where most of it's in the rear view mirror. Time passes quickly these days. Anyway, here we are at Celebrate The Small Things, which is a quite simple blog hop: Sign up on linky, post Small Things you wish to celebrate (anything) and hop around and celebrate with others.

I have had one of those weeks. You know: busy job, late tube, migraine, broken freezer. Nothing serious but 
A Series Of Grumbly Events (a future book title maybe). 

So I need to Celebrate The Small Things. Like for example:

• Yummy Fish N Chip Takeaway the day the freezer broke
• Bumping into my friend on the tube on Tube Delay Day
• Migraine does not have such an 'upside' but the boyfriend did take good care of me
• It's Friday so the weekend and 2 days rest - HURRAH!

How about you? What celebrations?

Here's the linky:

Celebrate The Small Things - 18 Oct

Greetings!

Where has the week gone? In a blur of work and busy for me, but here we are Celebrating The Small Things again ;)

I did another wee tidy of the list so please do just check I didn't accidentally delete you if you are still joining in, and add yourself if I did!

This week I am celebrating:

- Visiting a wee Border Terrier puppy! He was v. cute ;) Just learning all his sit, stay etc.

-Cups of tea on a cold chilly day.

- Wrapping up warm under a blanket

- Fluffy socks. I love big fluffy socks!

How about you?

Celebrate The Small Things - 11 October

Greetings and here we are Celebrating on a Friday ;) How is everyone?


The rules are simple: Sign up on the linky, post Celebrations no matter how small, and hop around and celebrate! :)

My celebrations for the week:

• It's FRIDAY which means the weekend!
• Am going to see my friend and meeting her new puppy tomorrow which will be nice!
• Made it twice to the gym which isn't too bad considering the work week I've had. Discovering how important music is to a workout!
• Over using exclamation marks today clearly! 

What are you celebrating?

Here's the linky:

Celebrate The Small Things - 4 Oct

Greetings all and it's Celebrate the Small Things time! 

Celebrate The Small Things is really quite simple. Post what you are celebrating this week, however small, sign up on the linky (you need only do this once -  not every week), and hop and celebrate with others!

Thank you to everyone for your kind words to my post last week, and apologies again I wasn't able to hop around. I'm also aiming to do a list tidy in the next week or so, so apologies if there are a few links which need to come off.

I'm celebrating...

• Going to the 100th birthday and seeing the card from the Queen! My boyfriend's Grandpa had a successful 100th birthday. How amazing to reach such an age.
• Having a nice break away from work and clearing away cobwebs.
• My mum unexpectedly being in London and being able to briefly see her.
• Orphan Black. Am SO enjoying that show (am on ep 3 over here).
• SNACKS. What's the day like without them?

What are you celebrating this week? What's your TOP SNACK?

Here's the sign up linky:

Insecure Writers Support Group - 2 Oct: Enjoyment

We all write because we love it, that goes without saying - or does it? It's so easy to get caught up in *feeling insecure about it*. In worrying about word counts achieved and rejections to query letters received. In angsting because that chapter isn't coming out right, or because we aren't sure what path to take, publishing wise.

However, we do it because we love it. Don't we? And yes, with that comes wanting to feel that the scene is the best that it can be and that the characters are being done justice and that the paper matches what's in your head. That the story might be able to 'get out there' and be enjoyed by others and how long will it take you to get there etc etc.

I went to a 100th birthday party this week. The man in question spoke about how he started painting at school, and it's a hobby which carried him his entire life. He's sold paintings and had them displayed, but it has mostly been an interest - a LOVE. He is lucky enough to be fit enough that 2 weeks ago (at 99 and 50 weeks old) he was finishing a painting. I was awed by that, and humbled.

Dammit we may not all live to 100 and be fit enough, but the point of a hobby that lasts your lifetime and that you still get enjoyment from is a key one. I hope that I'm still making up stories in my head and inventing characters throughout my life. I hope I never lose that love.

So let's not be insecure about it. Let's remember that we love it, first and foremost.

Celebrate the Small Things - 27 Sep

Time to Celebrate the Small Things ;) The Rules are simple: post celebrations for the week, however small, whatever you like ;) Sign up on the linky, and hop and celebrate with others. Today's the anniversary of my Dad's death and although it's many years now, I always feel a bit mournful today. So Celebrations are needed most likely. I am off to a 100th birthday party this week for my boyfriend's Grandfather, all being well, so I am celebrating him reaching a ripe old age! Those celebrations also mean I won't make it around anybody's posts this week due to lack of being near the interwebs, so I apologise. I love visiting everyone but by the time I'm able to, we'll be at next week. So I wish you all well.

Celebrate The Small things: 20 Sep

Greetings! It is time to Celebrate The Small Things Once Again! The rules are simple: sign up on the linky, post celebrations and comment and celebrate with others!

This is a quick one for me this week. Quite simply I am celebrating all of you. Thank you, for joining in and commenting. I enjoy my weekly posts, especially when I feel like I don't have much to celebrate and all of you so help. Thank you! I hope you enjoy celebrating as much as I do.

Now, eat cake ;)

Celebrate The Small Things: 13th September

Friday the 13th Everybody. Time to Celebrate again! 

This is a simple weekly hop to join in on as all we do is CELEBRATE and the items we celebrate can be as small, medium or large as you like! Just sign up on the linky, post your celebrations and then hop around and celebrate with others!

My celebrations are:

• This weekend is my anniversary of my first date with my boyfriend, ah, so we are off out to celebrate! :)
• I worked last weekend so also excited about TWO DAYS OFF IN A ROW. Not to be sniffed at!
• I ate gourmet popcorn which was being handed out at the shops for people to try. Goats Cheese Popcorn. Gin n Tonic Popcorn. It was weird but I am just celebrating that it EXISTS. Good for you man who puts whiskey in popcorn!

What are you celebrating this week? What weird popcorn flavour would you want?

Here's the linky:

Celebrate the Small Things - 6 SEPTEMBER edition

Greetings all and how are we in September? What are you celebrating this fine week?

Celebrate The Small Things is simple: sign up on the linky, find something to celebrate, and hop around and celebrate with others.

It is September, and the children return to school and people return from summer holiday. So what are you celebrating?

I'm celebrating that I haven't taken my week off yet, so in a month or so when everybody's forgotten their holiday I'll still have mine!

I had a fun day with my nieces, as I said last week - ahh I do love the cries of 'Auntie Vikki.' :)

I am working this weekend, so I'll hop and visit people on Monday  ;)

What are you celebrating?

Here's the linky:

IWSG: September

It is September, and time for the Insecure Writers Support Group, hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Today is the 2nd Year anniversary of this group, which is an amazing achievement. Many thanks to Alex for all the writers and their insecurities he's helped over the past 2 years.

I wrote a Dear Diary on the Writer Diaries recently, and about how much writing is about keeping faith in oneself. The full post is here if you are interested.

I wanted to talk on a similar theme for this month's Insecure Writers post. At times it is hard to have the faith, or self-confidence to believe that one day we'll make, or that this manuscript will turn out okay, or that we have the ability to do it. It's hard to keep on going. We can rely on other's at these moments to lift us up and say we can do it.

We can celebrate those in between achievements. It can be hard to feel like you'll ever get to celebrate the published book or agent found or finished manuscript when you are in the throes of a difficult chapter, but you can celebrate getting 100 words done or sorting out a plot point. They all add up.

We'll all get there, and when we do, we'll only set ourselves another goal to aim towards and worry we won't make.

So perhaps we should just quit worrying. Easier said than done! Any thoughts?

Tara Tyler Blog Tour: Pop Travel!

Today I'm really excited to be hosting my good friend Tara Tyler as part of her Pop Travel blog tour. Handing over to Tara!

I'm so happy to be visiting Vikki today. We've both been pretty busy lately and need to catch up with each other! Thanks, sweet friend, for letting me come over and talk about future technology for my Pop Travel blog tour.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: If necessity is the Mother of invention, laziness is the Father.

We don't really need more technology. What we need is a cure for cancer! I wish all these techies who keep upgrading us could put their genius brains to work in that field.

But, being the insatiable techies they are, they will keep getting ideas for newer, better, faster stuff. (and mostly from us sci fi writers!)

In Pop Travel, I have lots of cool future gadgets. Pop travel itself, is teleportation, created by Hasan Rakhi, a quirky bio-medical engineering student who first invented the bio-gen laser. Then, there's the QV – like a smart phone that projects 3D images from a wristband. Some other items from the future include:

• the electrogun – delivering varying intensities of electric shock, like a wireless Tazer gun
• receptionist and civil servant androids that look more like humans all the time, but are annoyingly friendly, like customer service prompts, go ahead and tell me what you need… why can't I talk to a person!
• hovercarts – golf carts that hover, hover technology is still too expensive for cars
• and of course, everything is voice and/or touch activated

I came across this surprising new discovery in my research for Simulation the next book in The Cooper Files – Adventures in the Future series

blood battery - Panasonic is looking into using human blood to power electrical devices. It's researching how blood could break down sugars to generate power like it generates energy for the human body. This type of "human battery" could ultimately power nano-devices implanted in the body. (source)

And I found more exciting ideas being researched here.
Lucid, dude! (future slang for cool)

What inventions would you like to see come to life in the future?

Thanks again, Vikki, for having me! Here is a little about me and my book =)

Cooper thought he could get through
life without having to pop...

Pop Travel by Tara Tyler
A tale of deception and teleportation.

When a distraught client enters J.L. Cooper's small town detective agency ranting about a pop travel teleportation cover up, Cooper takes the case. He blames pop travel indirectly for his wife's death and would love to expose a glitch in it.

But the glitch turns out to be disintegrating travelers. And now, his client is dead, his secretary is missing, and a hitman is stalking him. Plus there's all the webcams watching his every move. So, Cooper has to find a way to expose the deadly flaw, while using pop travel to escape the maniacs covering it up, not to mention save a couple of tag-alongs he's not sure he can trust. No problem.

Available now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Goodreads  <==>  Trailer  <==>  FB Author Page

After having a hand in everything from waitressing to teaching math to rocket engineering Tara Tyler now writes and teaches in Ohio with her three active boys and Coach Husband. In addition to her novels, she has published short stories and poetry in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, and Humor. So many stories to tell!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Celebrate The Small Things - 30 August

Greetings Celebrationistas! Time for our weekly Celebrations!


You all know the rules by now ;) Sign up, post a Celebration, however small, and then hop around and celebrate!

Let me know what you have to celebrate this week! I love hearing people's good news and happy thoughts ;)

My celebrations are:

• Day off today to see my small nieces, ah. I do love seeing them!
• Weekend then off to rest - I've been so busy lately so that's nice ;)
• Only two trips to the gym...but that's not bad!
• The colour teal. I just love it. I'd have a teal house if I could!

What are you celebrating?

What's Up Wednesday - 28 August

Hello everyone! It's time for What's Up Wednesday!


I missed last week, mostly because my work has been crazy and my life busy with summer and people's events/weddings and what not and it leaves spare time at this much *holds fingers a little way apart*. Still, here I am today!

What I'm Reading: Looking for Recommendations! I need a good Young Adult or Adult Thriller please as I'm between reads. Any thoughts?

What I'm Writing: All edits finished and set aside, so I am working out what to work on next, and playing around with a couple of ideas.

What Inspires Me Right Now: The thought of a day off doing nothing, just watching TV. Soon please?!

What Else I'm Up To: Work work work and busy busy busy mostly. Trying to keep up going to the gym!

How about you? Would love to hear everybody's news!

Celebrate the Small Things - Friday 23 August

Greetings Celebrationers! (The 1D premiere in London has put Directioners in my mind, ha ha).

How are we this week?


We're here for our weekly look at what we're all celebrating. 

The rules are simple: post what you're celebrating, sign on the list, hop and celebrate with others! The celebrations can be as small, large or medium sized as you like! Let's celebrate lint (small) to Mount Everest (big) if you'd like.

Last week, I asked whether we should do weekly sign up or master list. Master list seemed to win out, so I'm going to carry on with that. I am however, going to stricter about taking people off. I don't want to be too strict - the point is celebration, not to feel like you HAVE to post. However, in order to keep the list trim, if you miss more than a few, I'll take you off. i.e. if it's a month since you posted I'll assume you aren't joining in- you can always sign up again, right?!

I hope that's okay, and also that I haven't removed anyone in error! (Apologies if I have!)

My celebrations:

• Bank Holiday MONDAY folks - yes an extra day off.
• Nearing the end of the tomato plants - yes, you thought you'd escaped the tomato plant references but you haven't ;) - they've been good!
• Four gym trips! I am starting to get into a routine of it. Also, I had lost a few pounds so that's motivating me to go more, ha ha!
• A week until I spend the day with my small nieces, yay!

Here's the list!

Celebrate the Small Things - 16 August

Time to Celebrate the Small Things again, and here we are in the middle of August! How did that happen?

The rules are simple: Sign up on the linky, post something to celebrate in your blog, no matter how small, and then hop around and celebrate with others.


Before I go into my celebrations: a question. 

Would you prefer to just add your link weekly to that week's post, rather than there be a master list kept up all the time?

It's more work on a weekly basis, I guess, but means you can just hop around people you know are joining in that day?

People can't always join in every week - but if I see people do join in semi regularly, I am reluctant to cut them from the post altogether. I could possibly just be a bit more stringent and if people don't join in for a few weeks, remove them - after all, you can always add yourselves again when you have a bit more time ;)

I welcome thoughts!

My celebrations are:

FRIDAY! I am seeing a friend tomorrow for a facial - I hope it doesn't make my face all red ;) I am hoping it'll be relaxing and am looking forward to it.
Am in an inbetween stage writing wise, where I've set one aside, and need to decide what exactly to focus on next, which is quite nice.
Parks and Recreation - catching up on it on DVD and I LOVE IT.

How about you?

Here's the linky:

What's Up Wednesday

Greetings all and it's What's Up Wednesday time!

This week...

What I'm Reading: I finished The Sound by Sarah Alderson and actually on the look out for recommendations. What's a great YA you've read lately?

What I'm Writing: Finished my edits, yay! So took a break this week, started to play around with new ideas.

What Inspires Me Right Now: Everybody in WriteOnCon - there's such great stuff out there!

What Else I'm Up To: Mostly jealous of everybody who's going away for the summer. 

What are you all up to? I feel like I've had a bit of an inbetweeny not much to report week!

Celebrate the Small Things 9 August Edition

Time to Celebrate The Small Things again! The purpose of this weekly post is simple: Celebrate the Small Achievements or Joys or Experiences of the week - the welcome cup of tea, the catch up with a friend, the finishing of that awkward chapter.


Sign up on the linky, post your celebrations in your blog, and hop around and celebrate with others!

My celebrations for the week:

They think the panda at Edinburgh Zoo is going to have a baby. Cue cute baby panda!
I finished this set of edits on work in progress.
I have been to the gym three times, which isn't bad. I think I'm starting to look forward to going, even!

How about you?

Here's the linky:

IWSG and What's Up Wednesday

Two aims to my post today; it is Insecure Writers Support Group time and What's up Wednesday.

IWSG wise, I am insecure about time (again). I am posting this from my phone as I didn't have time to sit at my computer. I am slowly learning that sometimes, something has to give. At the moment that's the time I have for blogging. But I strive for balance, to achieve the pockets of time I want for everything... How do you do it?

Time for What's up Wednesday.

...reading: The Sound by Sarah Alderson. It's about a girl who nannies in America for the summer and falls foul of a serial killer. Am enjoying, her writing is pacey.

...writing: my edits! Though I am pretty much done, slightly ahead of my plan yay!

...feeling inspired by: my real life writers group. We met this week and it always inspires me to crack on.

...what else: the gym! Trying to get fit, but it feels like a struggle.

Ok, am going to post and come back later and tidy up if I've done this badly on the phone!!

Celebrate The Small Things - 2 August

Goodness me, it's AUGUST already. How did that happen? Time to Celebrate The Small Things again!

The point of this weekly post is this: post small events/happenings/thoughts/observations from the week you'd like to celebrate. They can be anything, from enjoying being caught in a storm to that welcome cup of tea to finishing that chapter. Sign up on the linky, and hop around and celebrate with others!

My Celebrations for the week:

• Working from home in the quiet still of an empty house, with rain pattering the window outside.
• Catching up with old friends and having a giggle.
• Keeping up with my exercise - four gym trips this week.
• Cracking on with my edits.
• Receiving awards OMG how lovely from Brandy and Tara Tyler. They are SO appreciated!

What are you celebrating?

Here's the linky list:

Celebrate The Small Things - 26 July

feeling hot hot hot

Celebration Times Again! Yes, here we are at Celebrate The Small Things. We aren't just here for the big things in life, like an engagement or book deal, but for the small things too: the clearing out of a cupboard, or the achievement of that pose in yoga class.

Sign up on the linky list, share your celebrations, and importantly, go, celebrate with others! Don't let anybody have zero comments! :)

My celebrations for the week are:

• Eating our yummy yellow tomatoes still
• The weekend is here (nuff said about that, after my busy work week).
• I had a long walk, and took a circuits class, AND went for a run, so not bad on the exercise front. (The long walk was because the tube broke, so I am entirely trying to look on the bright side of an unexpected hour long walk on the hottest day of the year which made me late home and swear (that's curse to Americans I think?) under my breath.)

What are YOU celebrating?

What's Up Wednesday - 24 July

It's Wednesday! And that means What's Up Wednesday, with the Ready Set Write Check in. Do check out the link for more information.

How are we all doing? How was your week?

What I'm Reading:
Actually just got Leigh Ann Kopans "One" which I look forward to, as superheroes are definitely my thing!

What I'm Writing:
I achieved my five chapters close edit! Hurrah! It is SO much slower than a big picture edit though isn't it? And I only achieved that as I didn't have many plans on this weekend. So let's try for five again and see how I go... it would be great in a few weeks to be able to set it aside! So that's my Ready Set Write longer aim: 3 weeks to setting it aside?!

What Inspires Me Right Now:
This week, nothing specific inspires me, except perhaps having had that quiet weekend. A weekend without work, or busy plans meant I was able to spend time on my edits, and also with myself, if that makes any sense. (And with the boyfriend too!)

What Else I'm Up To:
Being HOT! ;)

That's hot as in 'it's hot outside' btw, not 'I've got tickets on myself hot'.

What are you up to?

Celebrate the Small Things - 19 July

Celebration time again this week! How are we all? The UK is in the middle of a heatwave and I for one am sweltering ;)

It is time to celebrate - the small things. The completed chapter or the mastered pilates stance. The flowering plants and the fun night out.

This week I am celebrating:

A weekend of no plans! I have had a series of fun times, with weddings and birthday do's and such, but it is nice to be looking forward to a restful weekend, especially when the sun is shining.

Went to a Brazilian restaurant with friends last night. Aside from fabulous food, they had 'Refrescos' on the menu - non alcoholic cocktails. All the yum factor and none of the hangover of regular cocktails - I'm a fan!

My Bedroom Fan. I wouldn't be sleeping without it. It's got a remote control. I swear it wasn't a fancy one, but it randomly comes with a remote control so I can switch the fan on and off from my bed. I don't have that big a room, so this is a completely unnecessary luxury/amusement.

What are you celebrating this week?!

What's Up Wednesday - 17 July

Time for What's Up Wednesday again, featuring the Ready Set Write check in ;) It's so helpful having this weekly catch up!

What I'm Reading:
Finished Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach and I thoroughly recommend it. It's a fresh, psychological thriller which definitely held my interest. Here's the goodreads linky.

What I'm Writing:
My aim last week was to edit 10 chapters - and I did! Hurrah! Those were big picture edits though, and am now going back through my novel with a closer edit. So let's say 5 chapters this week and see how we go...

What Inspires Me Right Now:
Gosh. The fact my sister-in-law did a triathlon. My published friends. Sunshine. Good friends. Restful Sunday afternoons.

Those might be too general, but that's how I'm feeling.

What Else I'm Up To:
Attempting to keep up with going to the gym, but work is busy so I end up working late or staying at my desk rather than popping out at lunchtime and no GYM happens! Ah well!

What about all of you?

Celebrate The Small Things - Fri 12 July

WIMBLEDON!!!

Time for another Celebrate The Small Things! What are we all celebrating?

We know the 'sign up/post celebrations/celebrate with others' rules by now don't we?

So what am I celebrating:

ANDY MURRAY WON WIMBLEDON!!!! First British Male Singles Winner in an age. So exciting.
I do like the tennis.
& I like Andy Murray ;)

That and sunshine, and a weekend off, and I'll see some friends at a wedding (not mine).

How about you?

Here's the linky! Go celebrate.

Cover Reveal: Kinetic by S.K. Anthony

I am thrilled today to be joining in the cover reveal for S.K. Anthony's "Kinetic".

Kinetic is an NA Urban Fantasy being released in September 2013.

This awesome cover design is by Mae I Design & Photography.

Here's what Kinetic is all about:

Being strong is one thing. Being an unlimited source of power is quite another.

 Genetically altered by the Organization, Annie Fox takes down criminals CIA-style with her luminary strength. With nothing to mend but her broken heart, she is relentlessly pursued by her boss Derek Lake. Just when Annie is about to give him a chance, her ex-husband unexpectedly comes out of hiding. 

A wanted man, Nick Logan is a cold-hearted murderer who is considered enemy number one, and orders are clear: kill on contact. He is more powerful than ever and threatens the lives of those she holds most dear. His plan? Get his hands on Annie and use her Kinetic energy to destroy them all. When Annie finds herself with an opportunity to end him, she pauses, horrified by the scars covering the face she once loved. A split second that will cost her everything…

There's the COVER over there on the right. Isn't it cool?

Here are the all important links:

Goodreads  /  Facebook / Twitter / Website

Let's meet the author:

S. K. Anthony is a writer, a reader and a make-stuff-up-er who lives in New York with her husband and toddler twins. She is a wine connoisseur, which just really means she knows she loves it, and a caffeine addict. When she isn’t busy with her family she finds herself being transported into the world of imagination. Well, either that or running away from spiders…she is convinced they are out to get her!

So, go, add it to your MUST READ list ;)

What's Up Wednesday - 10 July

Time for another What's Up Wednesday! I missed last week's as I was IWSG posting, apologies.

What I'm Reading:
Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach. 

Here's the amazon blurb:

Leila has never met Tess, but she now knows more about Tess than anyone in the world. She’s read all of her emails, researched her past and asked Tess for every detail about her friends and family. Tess has never met Leila. But if she wants to slip away from the world unnoticed, she needs to trust Leila with her life. At first, Leila finds it easy to assume Tess’s identity, and no one has any reason to distrust her. But as Leila is soon to discover, there is much more to a person than the facts and there are things about life you can learn only by living it . . . Original, haunting and utterly gripping, Kiss Me First is an electrifying debut from a phenomenally gifted storyteller

I can say that I am enjoying so far!

What I'm Writing:
Well 2 weeks ago my aim was 10 chapters edited, and I can say I achieved that.. in 2 weeks! So not exactly my original intention ;) I blame the distraction of the TENNIS. So 10 chapters this week now the tennis is over, that's the aim...

What Inspires Me Right Now:
ANDY MURRAY. I am going to go on about his win all week ;) But talk about hard work paying off!

What Else I'm Up To:
Working! And being too hot too sleep, but mustn't grumble, nice to have a summer...plus I've got a cover reveal up today too! Coming soon ;)

& talking to Tara Tyler over at TheWriterDiaries!

How about all of you?

Tara Tyler: Pop Travel Release Fun

Just a quick party on post because Tara Tyler's Pop Travel is out!

In a futuristic cat-and-mouse game, hard-boiled detective J.L. Cooper is chased across the world using Pop Travel teleportation, which has a deadly flaw he is determined to expose.

Doesn't that sound awesome?

I'll be hosting Tara later in her release excitement on this blog, but I had to join in being excited for its release day!

Get it on Amazon

Celebrate The Small Things - 5 July

Celebrate the Small Things is here again and we have reached JULY. How did that happen?!

Fireworks for 4th July?

The concept of 'CtST' is simple - sign up on the linky, post items you are celebrating, and then hop around and celebrate with others!

This week I am celebrating...

Summer!
Sunshine!
Andy Murray getting to the Semi's!

My friends having books coming out...Tara Tyler's Pop Travel is out on the 7th (whee!) and Ellie Phillips book Scissors, Sisters and Manic Panics is out now! It is SO exciting to have this happen for my friends.

Also we ate some of our new yellow tomatoes with dinner last night ;)

Hope my American pals had a good 4th of  July.

Do hop around the list ;)