It's my birthday!

So, today was my 23rd birthday - well, technically since the blog date says it's the 9th, my birthday was actually yesterday.

I had a very chilled day, or at least a semi-chilled day since I edited two chapters of the sequel to She-Wolf. *bangs head* Edits really aren't my strong point. Unfortunately the technical side of writing is a learning curb for me, and one I am treading very slowly. My poor editors. I should buy them gifts.

Anyway, birthday...


I'm feeling very odd, and by odd I don't mean "Oh, I'm another year older..." odd. I'm a very deep thinker, and every now and again I will just feel... odd. I don't really know how to explain it, but I decided that I would follow last years theme and make a list of 23 things. Except, instead of having random facts about myself O_o I thought I would list 23 things I have realized this last year.

So, anything from a random discovery to something personal. I think I will start with my most recent realizations and try and go backwards. Maybe.

So, the 23 things I have discovered/realized this year are...

1. I really like nachos. (Had some the other day : P )

2. I can't survive without my MP3 player. Not being able to listen to music while doing anything is like having my ears cut off.

3.  M. Night Shyamalan is amazing. I love all the films he has done - I just hadn't realized he was the one who had done them, and he wrote pretty much all of them : O He's awesome!

4. I suck at giving my work constructive criticism. Despite the fact that I love all my characters, and there will be bits of each story that I love or that will make me giggle... Well, as soon as I have finished writing the story, and the edits come about, my constructive criticism is... "Does this book even make sense? What was I thinking? I suck."

5. My self-esteem/confidence is pretty much where it has always been.

6. I have very bad writing habits, which are as follows:-

a) I edit while I write - aspiring writers... don't do this. It wastes time, can ruin your flow, and will teach you to pick at yourself.

b) I shoot ideas down without even thinking them all the way through. It's the whole I suck thing again. I'm very silly.

c) I'm really bad at technical writing. I hold my hands up, I can admit it. I will gladly write story after story, but I suck at polishing it up to the point of perfection.

d) I'm a really bad panster. I write, then I plan. Tut, tut. Very bad.

e) I have a habit of comparing myself to other writers. Yet again, bad. I have my own voice. I have my own ideas, and my own time frame for writing.

7. I have a naughty mind - yes in that sense ; P but - it shows me new story ideas when I need to be concentrating on one - if not more - stories at the time.

8. Despite the fact it does fluctuate, I am a lot more positive then I was when I was a teenager. Yay!

9. I miss acting.

10. I go through phases of using certain words in every day life. Right now I am in the habit of calling people geeks, but I of course mean it in the nicest possible way. I, myself, am a geek in many ways.

11. I expect to get everything right the first time round.

12. I'm really glad I moved. I love my little cottage, and the area I am in.

13. I have a major crush on Oliver Queen - played by the handsome Justin Hartley - in Smallville. I'm a sucker for a guy with a killer smile. *melts*

14. I want to visit all the places I have wrote about - or rather set stories in. So far:-

Inverness and Farr, in Scotland. (I have been to Scotland, just not that far up. Badum, that was a bad joke, but it's the truth.)

LA. New York.

15. I really have no life outside of my head O_o

16. I would really like a peek in to my future so I would stop worrying so much about certain things

17. I'm not good at juggling projects. I prefer to work on one thing at a time.
18. Time is going as quick as my mother promised me it would, once I had left high school. Damn, I thought she was kidding. High school dragged.

19. I always get teary when animals get hurt/killed in films. (Horse Whisper. Dumbo. Bambi. Hocus Pocus... I cried.)

20. I'm a romantic at heart. A big one.

21. I like the sims 3 a bit to much.

22. I have a lot of deja-vu.

23. I'm really bad at gardening

So there we go. 23 random, professional and personal things. Some funny, most a little negative, but like I said I'm a deeper thinker, and I am also not ashamed to remind myself that I am human, and that it's normal to have a lot of doubts and worries. If I was 24 this year, I probably would have added in that - I have discovered that despite all of that, I do actually keep pushing forward. Yay for me. I guess I will have to save that for next year ^_^

Now for the fun part. If you - for some reason - read all of that, you deserve a chance at getting a present, right?

So, leave a comment and be in with a chance of winning a copy of either She-Wolf, or Razel Dazzle. The comment can be anything from a simple hey, to perhaps telling me about your last birthday. Or anything else you would like to say.


This little competition is open until next monday - 15th August - 1pm eastern time. I will then use Random.org to help me pick two winners.

Don't forget to tell me which ebook you would like if you should get picked. Now have a drink and a slice of cake on me : )