When life rushes by...

It's hard to believe I last posted on my blog over a month ago.  Sometimes life is just a little too hectic and we don't make time for the important things in life like blogging.
The last month and a half has been hectic to say the least.  There was NaNoWriMo which for the first time in 5 years I did not reach my word target.  However, it doesn't make me a failure.  I still managed to get 30 000 words done and that is an accomplishment.  Especially with all I've had going on.  Besides working on Diary of a Dancer for NaNoWriMo, I was completing the last revisions for Hush Baby.  Hush Baby is now finished and available on Amazon.com as both a paperback and on kindle.
And then of course there are end of term reports and our school's application for authorisation form which was immense.  Add in some birthday parties, a big staff Christmas do and the protests in Maidan Square, life is all go living in the Ukraine.  Oh and I forgot to mention the snow.  It arrived.
The following photos of the protests in Maidan were taken by my good friend Soizick Vossart.

And then of course Nelson Mandela died.  A great man, an icon, can't believe he has finally passed on.  But then, the only two things one is sure of in life is death and taxes.

Really can't believe that next week this time I'll be winging my way to the USA.  This will by first visit and I am excited.  My knowledge about the USA is based on watching TV shows and movies.  It will be good to see what it is really like.  Maybe there isn't a bunch of serial killers active in every city!

One week to go...then it all starts again in January.  A hectic mad rush to get everything done, work, work, work.  Maybe it's good I accidentally booked myself a flight to Venice in March...but that is another story!

Have a good one!

Cindy

First draft of Hush Baby and NaNoWriMo

It's hard to explain the euphoric feeling you feel when you finish a first draft of a novel.  It's like you become all bubbly inside like a bottle of champagne.  Relief as the tension is released out of you, POP!
Hush Baby was started in NaNoWriMo last year November 2012.  For those of you who don't know NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and happens in the month of November every year without fail.  I've participated in NaNoWriMo for the past five years and The Case of Billy B, Not Telling, Defective and CU@8 all had their start in the month of November.
This year I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo again with Diary of a Dancer, but this time it will be more of a biography than a novel.
Back to Hush Baby.  The last few chapters are with my editor now and I must move away from it for a while and start on my next project.  Some space is always good between the first draft and the revisions.

Here's what I was thinking for the back blurb/book description thing:

Kyle Rushton appears to have everything going for him.  His own home, a successful business, a beautiful woman in his bed and an adorable son. 

But when things start to go wrong in his relationship it spreads like a cancer into every facet of his life.  With his life turned upside down, he goes to his sister and some old friends for help.

Sometimes things are not what they seem.

Caught between a need for revenge and a search for justice, Kyle and his friends turn to the past for answers and the more layers they uncover the darker the truth becomes.  Until he finds himself asking – is knowing the truth going to help him move on with his life?

Cindy Vine currently lives in Kiev, Ukraine, and is the author of The Case of Billy B, Not Telling, Defective and CU@8.  All her books are available on Amazon, Apple iStore, Barnes and Noble, Sony.

As NaNoWriMo approaches...

October to me only means one thing.  It is the month before November.  November is the craziest month of the year.  No it's not recovery after Halloween or the start of frantic Christmas shopping.  November signifies NaNoWriMo.  The month when you drop everything and write.  I have written 4 novels during NaNoWriMo time.  It gives you that kickstart you often need to get that novel out of your head and onto your computer.  Teresa Trent, author of A Dash of Murder, shares her experience with NaNoWriMo.

Crazy Days With NaNoWriMo

by Teresa Trent

    Have you heard of it?  National Novel Writing Month?  The goal is to write at least 50,000 words in one month.  That works out to 1676 words per day.  Every day.  For an entire month.  Let's travel back in time to my life about a year ago.  I was writing, but not daily.  I had published my first book and was slogging along on my second book, but not daily.  I had characters, plots, subplots all coming along nicely, but my fictional garden was growing weeds between work sessions.  I decided to join National Novel Writing Month just to see if I could do it.  I went to the site nanowrimo.org and signed up for my month of fun.  Now, the rule is you cannot have a single word of your novel written before November 1, so the novel I had been working on had to be shelved temporarily.  I had to start at word number one, so I created another story.  Here are some guidelines for the weeks before NaNoWriMo.

    Setting Up Your Book:  You can't write any chapters or scenes, but you can work on your outline prior to NaNoWriMo.  Not only can you, but if you want to succeed, I highly suggest doing this.  Work out your plotlines, research your settings, write up your character and setting sketches.  Imagine if you were going to paint a portrait.  You would need to prepare your paints, choose your colors, get the right size canvas, find your model and set up your work schedule to get it done in a certain amount of time.  This is what you do before NaNoWriMo.  If you go in with nothing prepared hitting that 1676 words daily can be harder than you ever imagined.  That being said, once you are into the flow of writing that novel be flexible to make changes where they're needed.  Many times I plan events out in a book  and then find a hole in my plot. For example- If character A is doing this here then character B needs to hear it.  I'll need to write them in or write a scene that sets up a clue for the reader.  Don't be so rigid you can't let your story breathe.

    Ready Start Write:  This part seems so easy in the beginning.  A little less than 2,000 words?  Piece of cake!  Then you realize you are in what month?  NOVEMBER.  The month of preparing and having one of the biggest family gatherings of the year.  Last year I was writing on my ipad to and from Louisiana trying to make my daily word quota.  Did I hit it every day?  No.  I admit it.  I took Thanksgiving off but then tried to double up on the weekend.  It took me several days to really get back on track with the book. 

     Picky Writers-Chill:  If you tend write and then rewrite-that's good.  Doing this during the first draft process, though, is time consuming.  There will be plenty of mistakes in your manuscript in the first draft, but that is what the second draft is for, right?  Too much backing up and fixing will ruin your thought flow for writing your story.  Go, Go, Go.  Need I say more?  Get from beginning to middle to end and then start all over again and correct your mistakes in December. 

    Don't Give Up:  So there I was, on the last night of NaNoWriMo with 47,000 words and an important choir rehearsal to go to at my church.  Did I mention the end of November also coincides with the beginning of all the Christmas crazy scheduling?  It does.  I was ready to give up.  I could cling to the fact that I had done so much in one month, and I just felt like I was out of story to tell.  Other writers write books that are hundreds of thousands words long and someday I hope to be one, but for right now I am what I am.  I was trying to write but ~BLOCK~.  Then it hit me, probably as I drove  to choir.  Let's hit somebody in the head with a frying pan!  That's right.  I visualized an old German beer glass my father had with a lady hitting her inebriated husband on the head with a frying pan.  That image stuck in my head and I rushed home and wrote that scene at 9:30.  The contest would end at midnight.  By 10:30 I had the scene in and uploaded my novel. 

    (Trumpet Blast).  I had achieved NaNoWriMo.
    Before you get too excited, you don't get any major prizes for winning NaNoWriMo except for that 50,000 word novel you now have to work with, submit and/or publish.  Even though you have to upload your novel, the NaNoWriMo people aren't reading your words—just counting them.  After writing this book, which is my second mystery novel, Overdue For Murder, it still took me until around Easter to finish the rewrites.  I have to admit that once I was out of NaNoWriMo my work slowed down, but one thing I learned from my experience was consistency is the key.  If you want to write, then set a goal and WRITE EVERY DAY.  If you stop, then you will lose that precious thought thread going on in your brain.  As November rolls around again this year, will I NaNoWriMo?  Can't wait!

Teresa Trent wasn't born in Texas but after a few glasses of sweet tea and some exceptional barbecue she decided to stay. With a father in the Army, she found herself moved all over the world, settling down for a while in her teens in the state of Colorado. Her writing was influenced by all of the interesting people she found in small towns and the sense of family that seemed to be woven through them all. Teresa is a former high school teacher and received her degree from The University of Northern Colorado.  Teresa is presently working on the third book in her Pecan Bayou Series.  Her second book, Overdue For Murder, came out in June of 2012.  

http://teresatrent.wordpress.com/

Coping with an Empty Nest, headaches, no power and NaNoWriMo

So the nest isn’t 100% empty, I have one chick left for the next eighteen months.  But the absence of the older two dwarfs everything else.  I was doing okay with just the one chick left at home.  We’d got into a routine, kind of, learned to put up with each other’s foibles and moods.  Rolling along rather like a car on a slope without a foot on the accelerator.  Not much effort, just existing, heading ever forward to the time the last chick leaves.  Our idealic life was blasted into a high energy one with the arrival of my middle chick for a two month stay.  Then the eldest came for two weeks and I realised just how much I miss not having all my chicks in my nest.  So much activity, sparkling conversations and debates, putting my body on the line to stop them from killing each other, eating together as a family, going away to Kenya - our first big whole family holiday in a year.  All that brought back so many old memories and created so many new ones, that I realised how much I miss out on with us all spread around the world.  Our solitary life, just the youngest chick and I is more of an existence than an actual life.

Saying goodbye to the eldest as she set off to start a new life on a ship was hard.  As she’s got older she has become a best friend.  She knows me better than I know myself.  I feel a large part of my heart went with her.  But I survived that goodbye knowing I still had two chicks in the nest for another month.  Yesterday the middle chick left.  I felt worse than I did after my divorce, the other huge chunk of heart that’s gone with him has left a void and a feeling of such emptiness and sorrow, there are no words to express it.  The house is silent; the youngest chick and I both experiencing our loss in our own way.  No happy banter, quarrels and fighting over which channel to watch on TV.  Just an eerie silence and the noise from the cicadas in the garden.  I expect I can only have myself to blame, passing onto my chicks the love of travel and living in strange places, exploring new worlds, living life as an adventure.

All of which does not help when you are trying to get into the right frame of mind, The Zone, for writing a novel.  NaNoWriMo couldn’t have come at a worse time for me.  50 000 words in 30 days was always going to be a big ask.  With a full nest it’s a near impossibility. Distractions too numerous to mention.  Add in a full time job and you start getting the picture.  NaNoWriMo has been tough this year, but I am still determined to get to the finish line even if it means writing like hell the last four days.

This past week has also had migraines added into the mix.  Chronic ones where you just get fuzzy concentric circles affecting your vision so you can’t read a page, see a computer screen or keyboard.  The medication I take knocks me out for two hours at a time.  These migraines plagued me on and off for four days.  Dehabilitating.  In the extreme.  Not good for NaNoWriMo either.

For two months, since the middle chick’s arrival, we’ve had virtually uninterrupted power which is definitely not the norm here.  This past week, the power has gone off a few times but nothing as bad as its been in previous months where we sometimes had up to 72 hours with no power.  And just so you no, no power here means no water either as you have to pump it into your tank attached to your house.  Yesterday, the power went off on three separate occasions.  First in the morning, putting an end to an early bout of writing, then when we came back from taking the middle chick to the airport we arrived home to no power, and at 6pm sharp the power went out and stayed out.  We watched the new season of Nikita until the laptop battery died and then put on the generator.  By that time I was unable to construct a simple sentence, let alone work on a novel.

So although this might seem as if I am just making excuses for not completing NaNoWriMo this year; watch this space.  Wednesday I’ll be at that finish line, just you wait!

Have a good week ahead!

Cindy

Gathering steam with NaNoWriMo

The rainy season appears to have arrived, bringing with it more ants.  The damn things are everywhere, so invasive.  I HATE THEM!  But enough about my pet hate. 
A week ago we suddenly started to catch rats.  It could be the new trap we bought at the market.  The commercial traps have so far met with no success at all.  A total waste of time and money.  The homemade trap from the market has been awesome and a credit to human ingenuity.  It’s a wooden box with sides made from strips of soda cans.  A hook hangs down like a fish hook that you hang the meat onto.  The rat has to enter the box to get the meat on the hook.  One attempt to touch the meat and the trap is sprung, resulting in the rat’s instant decapitation.  The actual mechanism of the trap is similar to that of a clothes peg.  Very clever indeed.  So far, FIVE rats have succumbed to the temptation to taste our tasty treats.  I LOVE IT!  Bring it on, Ratty!
NaNoWriMo has passed the half-way mark and I am still a way behind.  Work constraints, ant and rat-catching are distractions I can’t ignore.  The good news is I have crossed the 20 000 word mark, so that must mean something.
It’s amazing how difficult the first 10 000 words are.  Even though you have your outline and character sketches, that’s not enough.  Developing the characters and plot requires a lot of thought and grey matter that is often tired after working overtime throughout the day at work.  Writing and working full-time is not easy.  But by the 10 000 mark, something magical happens.  Writing is no longer a chore.  The plot is moving along, the characters have formed, and they start taking over so that the writing just flows.  My fingers develop a life of their own as they race across the keyboard.  This is the best time and when writing is at its easiest.  So even though I am behind where I should be my gut feeling is that I will eventually catch up.  My characters will see me right and carry me to the end.
Have an incredibly great restful weekend!
Love
Cindy

Moshi Wildlife Park

I've decided to open up my house to the public as a wildlife park.  I reckon I can make more money than I do from my writing by selling all day passes at my gate to tourists keen to see the real Africa.  Forget lions, elephants and buffalo.  Seriously, they are completely over-rated and look the same as they do in the National Geographic.  Rather experience the everyday wildlife found in Moshi houses.
Besides many different species of lizard which grace my garden, the bright turquoise ones with the neon orange heads are my personal fave, scratching in the lush tropical plants might unearth a snake or two.  But the best is the five different species of ant that have taken over my house.  The big sugar ants attack anything sweet.  The big black ants with a ferocious bite use my toilet bowl as their personal watering hole.  If you use the toilet in the middle of the night without turning on the lights, prefering to go in the dark, you are at risk of being bitten on the bum by an angry ant who was there to drink water.  Then there are the tiny ants which appear out of nowhere and descend on any kind of drink or foodstuff within seconds; and the medium sized regular ants who march in single-file along the doorframes of the house.  Just outside the back door are the giant siafu, dinosaur-type ants who attack you en masse if you stand still near them for anything longer than 5 seconds.
In the rainy season we had the flying termites leave piles of discarded wings underneath the outside lights but thankfully their time has passed.  Big fat juicy geckos hide in all the curtains waiting to drop on you when you open or shut the curtains.
At least once a week a giant cockroach makes its appearance before getting taken out by a spurt of DOOM.
But the most exciting thing I can offer at my Moshi Wildlife Park, is the chance to go on the trail of the cleverest rats on the planet.  You can follow their poo, see samples of their diet (half-eaten fridge magnets, soap with bite marks, chewed candles, half-eaten painted egg shells) and try and find their nests.  These rats have super-powers, able to drag the rat trap across the floor, remove the special treat, without setting off the trap.  In broad daylight a chicken carcass mysteriously disappeared and was found later, well-chewed, behind the fridge.  The rats even managed to lick off peanut butter which had been spread lovingly across the trap without setting it off.
The crows in my big tree next to the barbecue create a fuss everytime I light a fire and dive-bomb me while I'm cooking outside.  Seriously, how stupid can they be to build a nest in the branches of a tree above a barbecue!  They should get some brain matter from the rats.
The dogs next door save their howling, barking, yapping, whining, crying for between 11pm and 1am, so unless you want to do a night drive, you might miss out on them.
And this is November, the month I look forward to all year, the month I compete in NaNoWriMo and attempt to write 50 000 words of a novel.  Here's hoping that my wildlife grant me some respite so that I can get to do some writing this weekend!
Have a great weekend, and if you know any rat-catching tricks, please pass them on!
Cindy
PS. An added attraction might be the askari I am thinking of locking up in a cage after he entered my house while we were there, and stole my Blackberry off the kitchen benchtop.  He was hired as a security guard to protect the house occupants from local criminals, but instead turned into a criminal himself.  Luckily, the askari chief arrived and used psychology to persuade him to give the phone back.

NaNoWriMo

So I finally did it.  I bought myself a Kindle and now I am addicted to reading.  I have to wonder about the timing though, with NaNoWriMo about to start.  If you plan on writing a whole heap then there's no time for reading.
For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo happens every November, where thousands of writers all over the world attempt to write 50 000 words of a novel in 30 days.  It's a huge ask and requires motivation, dedication and a huge abundance of time.  For me the issue is time.  I don't really have the time available and am not too sure how successful I'll be this year.  I did manage the previous two years, but this year it is going to be a struggle and a challenge.  I just hope I'm up for it.
I've done the ground work, research, plot, character sketches.  But despite my preparation I don't feel as if I am in 'the zone.'  I'm not sure how to get there and am hoping that once I start doing my 1600 words a day I'll just somehow magically fall into 'the zone.'  At this late stage it's all I can hope for.  Which is why I'm trying to frantically finish the new Jonathan Kelleman book I downloaded onto my Kindle.
Just over 24 hours until I start the 50 000 words.  Wish me luck!

All downhill from here

You know that little engine that goes, "I think I can, I think I can," when faced with a big hill?  Well, the past few weeks I have felt just like that little engine felt when looking at that big hill.  The end of a school semester is always a stressful time.  So much going on, so many deadlines to meet.  It's all a little crazy.  To top it all I was busy with NaNoWriMo which was putting undue stress upon myself.  With all the school deadlines, I  was trying to write 50 000 words in the month of November, crazy isn't it?  But I did it!  Just.  How I managed that I'll never know; I was forced to reach down deep into reserves I never knew I had.  For the first time NaNoWriMo wasn't fun, writing wasn't fun; it was all just too stressful.
Overlapping NaNoWriMo was report writing time.  But I can happily say that today I printed out the last report, now it's all downhill from here.  I feel like I made it to the top of the hill, desperately clinging onto my sanity and the view from the top is amazing!

NaNoWriMo is finished for 2010.  I still have to finish the novel and that I'll do in my own time when writing is fun again and something I look forward to.  Report writing is over until next May.  The swimming gala snuck in and besides two little kids nearly drowning because the older kids supporting them were so competitive they forgot the little ones couldn't breathe under water, it was uneventful and quite successful.  Work dramas and troublesome personalities are receding into the background.  Siobhan's play, The Apple, was very good and she was excellent again.  She is so talented.  Thursday, tomorrow, is a public holiday.  Friday is my last day of school before the holiday.  I'm leaving a week early to see a breast specialist.  Saturday morning is the Junior Triathlon and in the afternoon is the swim gala, both of which I'm organising, but after the past few weeks those should both be a piece of cake.  Monday morning I fly to Cape Town.  I'm counting down the hours...

Deception Point by Dan Brown

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Hmmm. I have to think about this. I know that many people say that Dan Brown's writing jarrs their literary veins, and he makes every mistake authors are told to be careful of. But, he is able to write a page-turner that you can't put down, filled with action albeit some a little improbable, that you get so caught up in you don't care if he uses the word 'coffee' five times on a page and overplays the adverb hand. You don't care, you just want to find out what is going to happen next. If it's highly improbable, so what, it takes your mind off the stresses of your life as you read about the stresses the hero has to endure. Dan Brown offers pure escapism and Deception Point is exactly that. He doesn't care about using perfect metaphors, he doesn't want to be a literary guru. All he wants to do, is write bestsellers that make people forget about their own stinking lives. That makes him money, so why should he care that people criticise his writing style? Deception Point is fast-paced, the action flows off the page and you are quickly caught up in the story. So what if it reads like a Hollywood script, it works. I won't say this is one of the best books I've ever read, but it did occupy my weekend and take my mind off all the crap at work.



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love
Cindy

Power cuts, rugby losses and a good book

Now that the Tanzanian elections are over, there is no need to keep the population happy by supplying regular power.  The last ten days have been awful with daily power cuts, the longest one lasting 30 hours.  Of course, this does put a dampener on your writing, when you are desparately trying to write 50 000 words in the month of November.  My laptop, although less than a year old, has a battery life of 7 minutes.  Caused, they say, from our frequent power surges.  I now have a special adapter to control it, but it's too late, the damage has already been done to my battery.  Despite the power problems, I have managed to get in a couple of hundred words here and there, and am now sitting on 30 000 words for Defective, my new book.  This of course leaves me with having to do 2000 words a day to reach the magical 50 000 words on the 30th November.  I know what you are thinking.  Stop writing this blog and get back to writing while the power is on.
Siobhan and I have been playing a lot of Scrabble by candlelight.  (If I invested in a generator I wouldn't have this problem at all!)  The best thing to come out of a power cut, is that I missed the rugby game when Scotland beat my beloved Springboks.  I was only angry about missing it up until the time I found out we'd lost.  Now I am ecstatically happy that I didn't watch our boys stumble and falter and probably knock the ball on.
A friend at school gave me a book to read a while ago, and with our power cuts this week, and being unable to write, I finally picked the book up to read.  I didn't really care about the content, it was the writing that moved me.  Beautifully written prose, great streams of consciousness.  I decided that when I grow up, I want to write like that.  But then, as I sit in front of my fully-charged laptop, I realise that I can never write beautiful prose like that because it is not me, and I don't want to lose me to try and be like someone else.  Pretty profound for a Sunday morning, eh?
Made custard slices yesterday, so am dying to try them today and see what they taste like, but will have to dress myself and drive down to the supermarket down the road as I need icing sugar to complete my masterpiece.  At the moment, I need to write at least two thousand words before I go anywhere, make good use of the power while it lasts.

The Sisters Antipodes by Jane Alison

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This has got to be one of the most beautifully-written books I've read in a long time. I'm not usually one for memoirs, but the story about two couples starting out as friends and then swapping partners could be the story of my childhood as that's what happened in my family. The resultant jealousy, feelings, rivalry still occur in our family 37 years later so it is definitely something I could identify with. For me this book was more the creation of an artist than a writer, as the descriptions felt like I was in a painting, and I was pulled in. All I can say is, wow magical writing. The actual story was sad, tragic even, and I feel for the author who obviously has deep issues and hasn't managed to move on. Reading the book, I was aware of so many good things, happy parts of life, that she missed out on as she was so caught up in her own misery; she was only able to see the negative in every situation and that is the true tragedy in my book. Even though her stepsister was portrayed as the 'dark and troubled' twin, I truly believe that she experienced happiness. She lived, she loved, she had fun. The author on the other hand existed, always wanting what wasn't there or what she couldn't have, she never allowed herself to appreciate or enjoy what she did have. There is a big difference between existing and living. Jenny lived, Jane existed.



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NaNoWriMo is killing me

One has to wonder why we intentionally place stress upon ourselves. Why we have the urge to challenge and push ourselves when we could just be spending free moments sunning ourselves in the garden with a good book. NaNoWriMo happens every year in the month of November, when crazy people decide to write a novel of a minimum of 50 000 words. Yep, this is not a joke, thousands of people all over the world take up this challenge. Being a little bit crazy myself, I decided to take up the challenge again this year, as I had managed it successfully last year. this year I worked out a more detailed plot scheme so it would be easier to write. However, with my current work load it's not always possible to write the required amount of words each day. This is causing me stress. One of the things to suffer in the month of November, is my blog. Today I thought to hell with it, let me at least update my blog before I get back to writing to try and make today's target.
The latest news, is that The Great Mountain to Mountain Safari is now available on Amazon.  Now I put pressure on myself planning the next adventure to write about.  June/July we're going to backpack through Egypt and the Middle East.  This has been a dream of mine ever since I was a teenager.  When I was about fifteen, all I wanted was to go and work and live on a kibbutz in Israel!

Our flights for Cape Town in December are booked.  We'll be leaving on the 13th December at some ungodly hour.  With Kerri flying in from China it's going to be a great holiday!  Part of the holiday we'll be staying at the family house on the Garden Route near Knysna.  I'm counting the sleeps already, but I have to conquer NaNoWriMo first!  Hopefully, can get a lot of writing done tonight and tomorrow morning as it's a public holiday.

Siobhan has been very active of late, taking part in a netball tournament, a horse show and this past weekend - she climbed Little Meru which is 3801m high!  One of the highlights for her, was one of our teachers who accompanied the students on the trip, who just so happened to be Australian (of course), who wore shorts, leggings and flip flops when everybody was wearing serious below-zero clothing!

The Associate by John Grisham

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I was looking forward to this, not having read John Grisham for a while. Normally, I am caught up from page 1, but for some reason the story seemed to drag and it took me until three quarters of the way through to be gripped to read for greater lengths of time. The plot was a bit same-old, same-old, not fresh at all. The ending was very different though, in that there wasn't one. There was no closure, no sense of satisfaction, in fact I double-checked to see that the last few pages hadn't come loose and fallen out. The story just stopped ending so up in the air, it seemed unfinished. It wasn't a twist ending, it just stopped. It was almost as if his editor had given him an impossible deadline to meet. The first three-quarters was bordering on the tedious, the next bit was the usual gripping Grisham content you're come to expect, and then it stopped. I know I've said that a couple of times, but I'm just astounded it stopped when it did. Die-hard fans might still enjoy it, but there are so many other crime novelists with courtroom dramas around these days that have surpassed this quality of book. Yeah, I am a bit disappointed with this read.



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Stuck on a merry-go-round

Occasionally, life begins to feel as if you're stuck on an ever-faster spinning merry-go-round, and you cling fearfully onto the thin leather reigns of your bright red circus horse to avoid being flung off into the back of beyond somewhere.  My life was starting to feel like that, so much to do, so little time and the weight of exhaustion and fatigue was dragging me down.  Throw in several bouts of chronic hayfever and seemingly endless meetings and you'll start to get the picture.  All of that is normal end-of-term sentiments for any teacher anywhere in the world.  It's that that makes us grimace and smile through gritted teeth when people refer to teaching as a half-day job with great holidays.  Teachers need the holidays the same way that parents need term-time.  We all want a break from the little blighters!
This past October break, Siobhan and I headed to Nairobi in Kenya.  We managed to get doctor's appointments with a top endocrinologist there, had a mammogram and then attended a week long conference in Nairobi.  Nairobi is great!  We had been warned that it can be quite dangerous and should rather be called Nairobbery, but I have to say, we felt quite safe there.  In the end I didn't drive there but went in the shuttle bus which was quite pleasant.  My car was only operating on 3 cylinders, so had to have an engine overhaul.  It was probably a good thing I didn't drive there, as the traffic in Nairobi is unbelievable and I wouldn't have known where to find the fantastic shopping malls!  We are totally in love with Village Market and the Java Houses at some of the malls.  We spent three days in different malls, watched a movie each day in the cinema and had a ball.  Of course, it goes without saying that we spent way too much money!  There are so many hospitals in Nairobi and the ones we visited were top class.  I never got the results or mammogram film though, but the endocrinologist gave me some new thyroid meds and my tiredness and exhaustion has evaporated and I feel like I am that super-charged pink bunny in the duracell adverts.  My feet and ankles swelled up during the conference, the week after I saw the doctor, with quite a severe oedema, which I imagine is from all the sitting I did.  The 8 hour bus ride back to Moshi exasperated it, and they haven't yet gone back to normal.  I feel like I am walking around with huge cushions on the end of my leg-bones.  I should put my feet up, but have so much writing to do.  On top of that, I seem to have picked up a bladder infection, so while I feel like a bundle of energy, I actually feel quite yucky with my swollen feet and burning bladder.
Talking about writing, I've finally completed The Great Mountain to Mountain Safari and it's gone to the publisher and they posted me the proof copy today.  I'm now all set for NaNoWriMo which is National Novel Writing Month which happens every November each year.  The goal  is to write 50 000 words in a month.  During the only boring workshop at the conference, I worked out my character sketches, setting and plot outline for the novel I plan to write during November.  So, I guess you can say I used my time wisely and am rearing to go!  The new novel is going to be called Defective, and I think the plot-line is a goodie!  I can't wait for the first of November so I can start writing!

Have a great weekend!  There's a wedding across the road from me with a brass band, so I guess I won't be getting much sleep tonight!  Hopefully, the bride and groom will want to slip away quite early for their wedding night!  Only 9.30pm, still an hour before I fetch Siobhan from a disco at school.

love

Cindy

xxx

Just get up and brush yourself off

Why is it that sometimes everything just seems to get you down? I came back from India all excited, I'd survived another plane trip, proof that I'd conquered my fear of flying, and then sank into a depression. Every little thing that I'd normally ignore, irritated and frustrated the hell out of me. There were many times this past week, when I was ready to load up my car with our stuff and just start driving to the Malawi border, heading back down to Cape Town.

In retrospect, it could be as a result of a very long term. I'm just feeling a little burnt-out, brain-dead. Friday was a holiday at school so we had a nice long weekend. I thought I'd head into school anyway, and do my planning for my new unit of inquiry. The internet was so slow at school, it was taking 40-50 minutes to load a page. The server kept crashing and I could find no sign of the past planners I was supposed to use as a base for my new one. My co-ordinator who had promised faithfully to come in and help me plan the unit, was a no-show. It was time to pack up the car and drive into the sunset. I was so mad with frustration at not being able to get anything done, that I went straight home and made it my mission to finish The Case of Billy B.

So, if I look back and reflect on what could be a nightmarish week workwise, I can feel proud and satisfied that I completed the NaNoWriMo challenge of writing 50 000 words in 30 days. Yesterday, I finally finished my first draft of The Case of Billy B and now the editing starts. The serious editing and revising. I should have started that already, but as it's such a big job, I've been procrastinating. Siobhan had a sleepover last night and the blasted girls were banging things, breaking glasses and giggling until 5am when in frustration I got up and washed the dishes and had a cup of coffee. No sleep for me last night, so no wonder I'm not in an editing mood. "Sorry," Siobhan sang as I stomped down the stairs at 5am. "Too late for sorry," I snapped back, wondering how I can punish her for keeping me awake all night.

It was a good day to finish my first draft though, as the 28th November is my late grandmother, Winifred Ada Vine's birthday. My grandmother meant the world too me, and although she's been gone sixteen years, I still miss her so much.

Instead of editing this morning, I collected all the ripe tomatoes from my garden and started making a tomato chutney. Which reminds me, I'd better go and give it a stir. I promise when I'm finished that, I'll get stuck into my work even though it is Sunday. I just feel so shattered, so tired. Those damn girls!

So I guess what I'm wanting to say, is when you feel down, just get up and brush yourself off. And remember, as it says in the Bible, "This too shall pass."

Have a great week ahead!

love

Cindy

Writing until the cows come home

Why NaNoWriMo where the challenge is to write 50 000 words in a month is in the same month as report writing, I'll never know. I think the gods must be angry or something. But, I'm giving it a go and trying to write a minimum of 1000 words a day on The Case of Billy B. The report writing, I've done a little bit here and there, came up with a great bank of comments that I can cut and paste from, but it still takes time, time I'd rather be spending on getting The Case of Billy B completed. Writing this book has been a challenge, and I've had to dig really deep to be able to do it. Luckily, Charlies Campbell in the US has been helping me to Americanize everything. (Note my use of a z instead of a s) The book is set in America, and it is really difficult setting a story in a place you've never visited. So, if you're feeling generous, send me a ticket to the US!

Procrastination. My first draft of my reports are due tomorrow. I'd promised myself that I'd spend all day Saturday doing them. Saturday has come and gone. However, I did manage 1700 more words on The Case of Billy B, and I did go into school and prepare some worksheets, homework sheets etc, for the relief teacher when I'm in India. I fly to India on Wednesday for a workshop on The Exhibition. So, this morning when I woke, I told myself, at 9am sharp I start on my reports. And here I am, blogging. Mind you, it is only 8.05am! I still have 55 minutes left to do my blogs and hubs and whatever else I can think of, to delay the start of my report writing. The sad thing, is that once I start I'll fly through it. I know that, so why don't I just do it, why do I keep putting it off? Sometimes, there is no logic in our actions.
The heat is increasing and I love it. I feel sorry for all my friends in China who are getting ready for an icy winter. I'm definitely a sunshine person. The hotter, the better. I've booked for us to stay in the school house at Pangani for Christmas, only costs $15 a night and is right on the beach. 4 Weeks holiday, what bliss! Tony is coming for Christmas and I'm looking forward to seeing him. I'm hoping that by that time, I'll be on revising and editing The Case of Billy B, and getting it ready to go off to the publishers. As I finish each couple of chapters, I send them off to Charlie Campbell in the States, and to Rob Stark in London. Both give me suggestions which I haven't looked at yet. When I come to the editing, I'll look through their corrections and suggestions and revise, revise, revise. Goodness, I must be besotted with writing. How did I move from having a blissful holiday on the beach to talk about editing? It's the reports. They've screwed with my brain.
Last weekend, the MYP Coordinator here got married to her long-time Canadian friend. They secretly did the church thing, but the Geography teacher decided to let out the secret and organised a surprise traditional Tanzanian wedding for them. We all met at her house which is next door to Jaimala's, the MYP Coordinator, and waited for the special wedding band to arrive. They were late, which is typical in Tanzania, everything works at African time. Their vehicle broke down at the entrance to the school campus. Eventually, they sorted it out and they arrived, their wind instruments blaring, playing the same jazzy number over and over again. They don't appear to have a large repertoire of tunes to play. Traditionally here, the musicians sit on the back of a modified pick up truck, and lead the wedding procession through the town. After dancing around to the same tune over and over again, we all climbed into our vehicles and made a convoy behind the musicians. The tradition is, that you drive round each roundabout in the town three times, which we did. The music teacher had gotten a lift in my car, and decided to jump out every time we slowed down, sprint to the car in front and jump in there, and repeat that until he got to the front car where the wine was kept. He'd fill his paper cup, and sprint back from car to car until he eventually worked his way back to mine. By that stage, most of his wine was already finished. I'm not sure if he drank it or spilt it in his mad dashes!
8.25am, getting closer to my 9am report start. Internet has just been lost, hopefully I'll be able to reconnect otherwise I won't be able to focus on the reports. I know myself, I'll be wondering about the internet and cursing it all the time, instead of coming up with good comments about the kids in my class.
Talking about cute comments, on Friday, one kid told me his brother had got his 'independix' out. But still, after 23 years of teaching, I'm tired of it. I feel a bit washed out, brain dead. I think I'd like to become a child psychologist and work with abused children. But then, I'm too old to change careers. Maybe, after a 4 week holiday I'll feel a bit more refreshed.
Well, let's drink a toast to next weekend in India! I have one day of shopping and have to try and find stage make-up and costumes for the school's production of Cats. Siobhan's in it! It's on the 3rd and 4th of December. Tony will just miss it, as he arrives on the 5th!
Have a wonderful week ahead! Hmmm, awesome view of Kilimanjaro as I look out my window. Looks like it snowed up there last night. The glaciers seem wider. By the way, I have updated my website www.cindyvine.com. There's now a page where you can buy my books directly from Amazon. Fear, Phobias and Frozen Feet has been revised and reprinted and is now available on Amazon, together with Stop the world, I need to pee! So, if you're looking to buy gifts for the holidays or stock up on reading matter for yourself, buy my books!
love
Cindy xxx

NaNoWriMo is around the corner

Last year I stumpled upon NaNoWriMo when I was surfing the net. With all good intentions, I gave it a go. The challenge is, to write 50 000 words in the month of November. Easier said than done. Last year, I found out about NaNoWriMo the second week of November, and thought, it's a bit late but will have a go anyway. The result, I only got to 20 something thousand words. School reports dug into my writing time and stifled my creativity.

Well, this year I am more relaxed, and after my many battles with the ants feel that I am fighting fit. Ready to write, ready for action. My goal is slightly different in that I am about half way through The Case of Billy B. I reckon I need about 50 000 words to finish it, and that's what I'll be doing for NaNoWriMo - finishing The Case of Billy B. Makes sense, doesn't it, to kill two birds with one stone?

So, for all you would be writers out there, go to http://www.nanowrimo.org/ and sign up. If you complete your 50 000 words in 30 day challenge, you get a free proof copy of your novel with free shipping to anywhere in the world from Createspace. After the 3oth November, you have about 6 months to edit and rework your scribblings and submit it to Createspace, and then you can sell your book on Amazon. So, my friends, get cracking, get writing and sign up!

Besides NaNoWriMo, I'm back at school, holiday ended. The good news is that we've had continuous power since Wednesday morning. Hold thumbs it continues! Been raining every night the last week, so my vegetable garden is getting well watered. I hope my baby carrots are reaching adulthood! Yesterday, Patricia (my neighbour the DP coordinator) and I drove the 80km through to Arusha to do some grocery shopping. Spent way too much money, might have to put my car's service on hold for another month. When I grow up, I want to have enough money to go shopping and have my car serviced!

Have a great week ahead!

love

Cindy