September Happenings (+Spring has gone on Strike!)

~Well, Hello all!~

Can you believe it’s the end of September already? It’s gone by so, so fast. I need a few days to catch up. Anyway, it’s the end of September, which means it’s time for our wrap up post!

Breaking News: one of two things has happened in Australia. A). Someone forgot to tell Spring that it was time to wake up. B). Spring has gone on strike.(Note: I just saw Cait @ Paper Fury complaining that Australia forgot about Spring entirely and has jumped straight into summer. Maybe in your neck of the woods, but not in mine).

Either way, whilst the temperature has warmed slightly, the weather has been atrocious and not springish at all.

~Writing~

I haven’t done very much writing this month (horror! What happened?), however I’ve done a lot of planning and editing (well, a lot of planning and a lot of procrastinating on editing). I’m currently editing Black & White for a few brave Alpha readers who will (hopefully) be reading it in October. This isn’t going as well as I would have liked as the changing of a few key details has meant the whole thing has dominoed. Which is frustrating, to say the least.

Editing of Black & White (look at that first sentence: The mouse squeaked and struggled?????

But the planning of my new novel is going well, so I’m really happy with that. This is my novel which I’m writing for NaNoWriMo (any other hopeful participants out there? This is my first time, and I’m kind of panicking about it!). Currently, it has no title and no plot, but it does have sixteen characters, so that’s a start. It’s also of the dystopian genre, and I’ve never written a dystopian novel before, so that’s a new experience for me.

I entered a short story of mine, Origami Cranes, into a competition and I’m anxiously waiting for the results. Also, I got the news that another short story of mine, Manfred, was shortlisted in another competition. That was super exciting, but it has made me more eager than ever to finally win first prize one day.

~Reading~

I only read one book this month.

But it was Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (and that’s like 655,400 words long, I looked it up), so I think I’m excused. And my goodness, it was so good. It is easily one of top five favourite books, it’s up there with The Lord of the Rings, which is rightly one of my favourite books/series of all time.

Les Miserables is just so…how do I even explain it? It’s exciting, draws you, pulls you along, enchants you, makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you cry for these people who Hugo has captured in his masterpiece. As much as I love the musical, the book is a hundred times better. There is a depth that can’t be replicated in a two-and-a-half hour long show, it is so much more complex and the characters are much deeper. The characters are simply amazing, so real, so strong, Hugo truly makes you care about them. I love them all, but I feel particularly for Fantine, Eponine, Enjolras, Jean Valjean and Combeferre.

Anyway, I won’t ramble on any more. If you wish to flail with me over the amazingness of this book, you know where to find me.

~Doing~

September was so busy!! It started out with visiting my grandad down on the coast to celebrate Father’s Day and to have a family memorial for my grandma, who died almost fifteen years ago. It was a really beautiful day by the ocean for all of us, and I got a lot of lovely photos.

This is probably one of my favourite pics from the first Saturday of September.

Then it was my birthday and I turned seventeen. Before you ask, I don’t really feel any different. It seriously hasn’t changed since I was sixteen. I got my own phone for my birthday, which was exciting. You can see the extent of my Les Mis passion when you look at these screenshots:

Yes, I also worry myself. (The background on my phone is, by the way, a photograph of a page of Les Mis.)

I went to a book fair and bought some exciting books, which I don’t have enough room for.

I went to a missions conference and wrote a blog post on it here.

And then I went to a wedding, which was really beautiful and exciting!!

Went geocaching with some friends, and I took lots of photos of the brilliant wattle photos. If you don’t know what geocaching is, look it up. Some people find it captivating. I am not one of them, but I got some nice photos.

Also, listening to the Newsies and convincing my sister that she’ll love it as much as she loves The Phantom of the Opera.

My family and I visited an old church in our area and my sister, Skye, and I took a lot of silly (and occasionally aesthetic) photos.

She’s trying to look suave and I look sunburnt

I’ve got no idea whether this is artistic or anything, but I took it and I like it.

Also, my siblings are the best. They built a barricade with me. My little brothers were loving it, my youngest brother (who’s almost four) greatly enjoyed hitting people with the “hocker” stick he was using as a carbine.

so it took my brothers a little longer to get into Les Mis but now they are just as obsessed as my sister and I. My middle brother likes Gavroche the best and likes to belt out his lines. 😀

Finally, today I had a Scottish dance performance which was fun, even though it was super windy. That meant there were a lot of skirts blowing up and petticoats showing (awkward). I didn’t get any great photos, but my brother got a couple of my sister and I after we’d danced.

Just before we began our Highland Fling by bowing

In full regalia

 

Now it’s your turn! What did you get up to in September? Is Spring on strike in your part of the world? Have you ever built a barricade? Have you ever seen a Scottish Highland performance?