Friday 28 August 2020

The Babysitters Club

 



Did you read The Babysitters Club when you were younger? I loved them, along with the Sweet Valley Twins and High series (there wasn't much else in the teen section of our local library, so it's lucky I enjoyed them). As well as the copies I borrowed from the library, I also owned a few, which I kept hold of and passed onto my oldest daughter, who then passed them onto her younger sister. My daughters both loved the series too, so when we heard that Netflix had made its own adaptation, we had to watch it.

Adaptations don't always live up to the books, but I thought the series was great and it definitely delivered the hit of nostalgia I was hoping for, plus I liked the tweaks they'd made to characters and story lines to bring it up to date. My only teeny, tiny niggle was the horror of seeing Alicia Silverstone playing one of the mums *insert screamy-face emoji*

To me, Alicia Silverstone is Cher from Clueless, who is fifteen (sixteen by the final scene, but whatever), not a mum. And especially not a mum to a teenager. It doesn't matter that I'm a mum to a teenager now as well - it was still a slap in the face and a reminder that I'm no longer the kid reading about Kristy and the gang during the long summer holidays.

Seriously though, Netflix has produced a brilliant series that I hope will have another generation picking up the books and devouring them.


Have you watched the series? What did you think?

Friday 14 August 2020

A Quick Catch Up


I haven't done one of these for a while, so I thought we could have a little catch catch up. Let us know what you're up to in the comments below :)




I'm between writing projects at the moment as I've just finished the first draft of Book 12 and I'm having a little writing break. In September, I'm going to start planning Book 13, which is a festive book that I'll be writing a big chunk of for Nanowrimo. I wrote 50,000 words of The 12 Christmases of You & Me during Nano 2019 (my first ever attempt at Nano) and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in again!

While I'm on my writing break, I'm going to be working on my family tree, which I've been building up on and off over the past few years. I love history, so delving back into the records and piecing together my family tree is a lot of fun!






I'm currently reading On The Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher. It's been on my Kindle for a long time but this year I told myself I was going to stop neglecting the many, many ebooks I've one-clicked and abandoned. I'm doing well with my pledge as I think it's about a 50/50 split between ebooks and paperbacks.




I know lockdown hasn't been easy, but it has presented me with the opportunity to watch things I missed the first time round. With shows being broadcast again to fill slots and box sets being added in the catch up section, I've managed to find some real gems. My favourites are:

Last Tango In Halifax
The A Word
Car Share and
Bad Education

I also binged my way through seasons 1 and 2 of Dark on Netflix in preparation for the third and final season (and then binged that too!)


What have you been Instagramming?




Books, books news and writing, stuff from my garden and Luna.


So that's what I've been getting up to. Don't forget to let us know how you've been getting on in the comments below!


Friday 7 August 2020

Reaching 'The End'



I did it! This afternoon, I reached The End of the first draft of Book 12! It's a pretty messy first draft, so there's still a lot of work to do before it's a coherent, can-be-read-by-someone-else manuscript, but the main ingredients for the book are there.




I started the book on 20th April, about a month into lockdown and homeschooling, so I was bit apprehensive about what I could achieve during this time. I set myself a goal of finishing the book in September, which meant I could write 4,000 words per week (or 800 words per week day), which seemed doable under the circumstances. I also gave myself little pats on the back for every 10,000 words I reached in the form of post-it notes, which I shared on social media:




Writing a book during a global pandemic hasn't always been easy, but it has been quite nice having an escape into a world where coronavirus doesn't exist, where characters can meet up with friends (and hug them) and popping on a mask to go to the supermarket isn't the norm.

I'm going to have a little break from writing (it's needed, believe me!) so I can recharge my batteries before I start planning Book 13...