Sunday 3 June 2012

Camping and yoga.

1st of June has always meant first exams of the year, waiting another long hard month for vacation time and last year it marked the impending doom of a serious deadline waiting at the other end of the hot wet summer; Master's thesis! I finished, got my diploma and life went on even if it did not seem to be the case while I was writing. I had seriously neglected writing, reading, exercising, seeing friends and family (and probably many other things) to get to this point in my life. I had opted out of competitions that I would have stood a good chance in and enjoying the things in life that mattered. Now almost a year later I find that life is slowly returning to normal albeit a bit more stressful. I still have the same crappy boss for freelance work, I am still looking for that dream job I know is waiting for me out there (might have found it, but that is another story), my husband is still as loving and caring as he has even been, the cats are still bastards, my family estranged and my addiction to food is still overwhelming. But I have slowly started the progress towards becoming a more rounded me; I started a 30-day yoga program today that I will work hard to finish!
Go here to take a look:

http://wholefoodfitness.blogspot.dk/p/30-day-yoga-challenge.html

And thanks again Becca!

Besides from making yoga a firm addition to my lifestyle I am also participating in Campnanowrimo both in June (now) and August. In between I am of course doing the Coursera course in literature - see http://theyear2011-cassandra.blogspot.dk/2012/04/short-blog-post.html for a blog post about this.
I have so far written 808 words in 3 days which is way too little and I must get going today, once shopping is settled and over with. I am thinking notebook, allotment and me might be a good bet for what I will be doing most of this afternoon. Anyway, my nano project in June is called A lost city (working title) and is a fantasy romance set in a very warhammer-ish background, without falling victim to copyright infringement of course, starring childhood sweethearts reunited in a time of crisis. It includes knights in shining armor, maidens not wanting to wait for said knights to fix their problems, scoundrels with big hearts, priestesses that are anything but pure, crazy bakers/sales-men/council members, zombies, demons, magic and fire. It will be epic! I might set  up a donation version of my august trials, but it is yet to be seen. Is it really fair to extort money from friends and family if you are not sure you can sell the damned thing? I leave you with the synopsis for my work in June:

When childhood sweethearts Merija and Eigen are reunited after years apart, much has changed between them in their separate quests to forget the tragic event that forced them apart. Returning now to her childhood city to mourn the death of her parents, will Merija be able to forgive and forget, and will she once again find a home in the lost city where nothing is as it seems? Battling supernatural horrors and the corruption of the city council they are facing a race to reconcile in time to save their families, their city and possibly their love before they too are consumed by the evil that lurks both in the forest, but also in the hearts of men.

6 comments:

  1. Cassandra,

    Loved GMing WHFRPG, so your story having one foot in that Warhammer-like background just has my imagination drooling for more. I've never really gone in for the romance story, as a reader, though David Eddings 'The Belgariad' certainly dips into that arena quite nicely without the reader being too overwhelmed by it (I highly recommend you give it a read), so when done tactfully I suppose I have no objections to it - so long as it doesn't turn into bodice-ripping Mills and Boon kind of stuff!

    Synopsis - now there's a tricky one. I've never uite worked out how best to write a synopsis without going into waffle mode and writing an essay and giving way too much away? Any pointers?

    As for yoga - I did that back in uni and loved it. It has a massive benefit on the human body, mind, and even maybe the soul(?). It certainly made me feel centred and balanced within myself.

    I wish you all the best with the yoga. Looking forward to reading your fantasy when it's done :)

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    1. Oh don't worry it is not going to be Cartland material. The romance plays a very important role in it yes, but without it turning too YA. My main focus is the setting of the village and telling the story of two very unlikely heroes who may/may not save the day. I got to a point were I got tired of reading about heroes with super powers/millionaires/super assassins so while I can't promise you that there will be no real romance or ripping of bodices, the main focus is how the little man can fight back.
      As for the yoga I have done it before, but what I could really use was a personal program to tackle some of the areas that I having the most problems with like my knees and back

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  2. Camp and yoga sound like a great combination, Cassandra. I just took a look at the syllabus for the course. Looks like fun! Much of it I've read before, and some of it I've read quite recently (just finished Doctorow's Little Brother). I might be one of those keeners who shows up to class with a chunk of the syllabus already read!

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    1. I have read most of it myself, but it will interesting to hear his view on it as well, I have spent a wooping sum of 5 pounds so far on class material because he has announced that most of his readings will be free.

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  3. Hi Cassandra. Mark and I have very similar tastes in fantasy literature. I have read the Belgariad by Eddings and his sequel series the Malloreon. It's pretty awesome as a series of ten novels in all. I read the first one when I was thirteen and haven't really looked back since.

    By the way, I like the sound of your planned story. Please start writing that as soon as possible, I want to read it!

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    1. I need to add it to my reading list I suppose after all the other things I need to be inspired by *sigh*. So many book so little time!
      I have written 2400 words of my novel so far and will be posting a small bit of it later today for everyone's amusement.

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