Reading, writing, scrapping, all the good things!

I have to admit that I have been laxing lately in all the things I should do. I have not committed enough time on the lessons that I am writing for the Green House, 100 words per day crashed the other day, so I have to start over again...and well, I have to say that I do not feel all that terrible about it.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have just been enjoying myself, and done avatars for the fun of it, discovered digital scrapbooking and found that it is damned addictive - and well, it feels good. I have learnt a lot of new things in Photoshop too, and that's always something that makes me feel good.

I have been pondering a lot, too. When it comes to Art Garden, it is hard to not always look forward, try to come up with new things to try out, to always stay ahead when it comes to developing the community. And well, that's what you have to do if you want your community to be successful - you have to give it an edge, develop that edge and continually try to think of new ways to stay ahead of other rivals, to offer your members something unique. And that, my friends, is not easy. It is never easy to start something new, and keep it going.

My latest read has been "Wicked!" by Jilly Cooper. I do have to say that I love Jilly Cooper as a writer - and Wicked! has been one in the line of her Rutshire Chronicles. These are a series of novels, with recurring characters that bind together the novels. Technically, they are standalone books - but as they reference back to previous books, you kinda have to read them in the order they were written. Wicked! is about...ah well. I'll give you the backside blurb!

At Bagley Hall, a notoriously wild, but increasingly academic, independent, crammed with the children of the famous, trouble is afoot. The ambitious and fatally attractive headmaster, Hengist Brett-Taylor, hatches a plan to share the facilities of his school with Larkminster Comprehensive - known locally, as 'Larks'. His reasons for doing so are purely financial, but he is encouraged by the opportunities the scheme gives him for frequent meetings with Janna Curtis, the dynamic new head of Larks, who has been drafted in to save, what is a fast-sinking school from closure. Janna is young, pretty, enthusiastic and vastly brave - and she will do anything to rescue her demoralized, run-down and cash-strapped school.

Neither parents nor staff of either school, are too keen on this radical move, although some can see the possible financial advantages. For the students, however, it offers great opportunities to get up to even more mayhem than usual.

There you go. I highly, highly recommend Jilly Cooper's novels - they are my favorite summer novels to read in the sun. The stories have adultery, infidelity, melodrama, money issues, murder - and they are set in glorious England (ok, maybe not so glorious) but with lots of glamour and wealth.

Riders
Rivals
Polo
The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous
Appassionata
Score!
Pandora
Wicked!

So yes. Read Jilly Cooper, you won't be disappointed.

Writing Woes

You know, I made a very optimistic resolution at the beginning of this year - I was going to write everyday. Well, essentially I have been able to do that, but I have cheated and counted everything from journal thoughts to writing tutorials as that. So now I have just made a new resolution - I will write at least 100 words a day for 100 days.

This is an idea from Club 100 - you can find more about it HERE. Write 100 words a day for 100 days, very simple. You can write more than 100 words per day, but they do not carry over into the next day. And if you do not write 100 words in a day, well, then your 100 days simply starts over.

So far, I have been at this for roughly two weeks, but I have managed to write at least 100 words every day - and the 100 words have been the continuation of my NaNo piece, too. So all good on my behalf. I might even be able to finish this story (I wish, at least). If not...well, then I have at least something to work with - I havea fantasy world brewing in my head.

Hell on Heels

Ok, so I figured that in order to actually get some posts here in the blog, I ought to post about what I am reading. Or have read. You get the idea!

Hell on Heels by Julie Kenner, Kathleen O'Reilly and Dee Davis.

Alright, so the Devil wants to retire. To get more time for...well, whatever the Devil does when he is not all busy in Hell. So, he needs a heir, and so he turns to the children he has spawned over the years - in this novel, his daughters. Three ladies, devilishly delicious, each with her special talents and history. Oh, they just have to finish this one assignment for Daddy, and Hell is all theirs.

I really liked this one, it was a good read - oh, and some steamy sex scenes as well. Not too bad when it comes to characters and such, but a little flat - only to be expected since the book is divided into three parts, and each daughter has her part (written by one author). And apparently there is a previous book where the Devil turns to his sons - I have to get that one to read it too. It was funny, smart and I just have a thing for this kind of supernatural chiclit where the Devil plays a role - funny as hell. Hehe.