ROW80 Round 4 - 7th Update

Even though I finished all my uni-related stuff last week, I still haven't done much since the last check-in; my brain was still recovering from this year's workload, and I've had to work a fair bit (made more difficult by the fact my job is essentially lifting and carrying stuff and my knee is still dodgy). I also spent the weekend with my nan, and generously helped her to eat the tray of chocolate fudge she'd made (because I'm a caring granddaughter). However, today I opened my novel document (for the first time in a few months, I think) and have so far written 500 words. I'm hoping to get another 1,000 tonight. A lot of my time today was spent simply staring at the existing pages, hoping to get into the headspace of the story again, but I'm hoping that will get easier as I write more.

I did do another painting though, copied from a photo on the internet of the Nakagusuku Casttle ruins in Japan:

I still have an anxious wait ahead until I get my uni results, but for now I'm off to keep attacking my novel :D

Settle down, Judgemental Dog, I'll get some writing done eventually...

See how other ROW80ers are going here.

ROW80 Round 4 - 6th Update

First up; this post has a lot of pictures. But they're cool pictures, so it's okay.

The biggest news I have this week is that I have finally finished my thesis. 75 pages, 19,451 words of academic wankery. Here it is in its bound and printed glory:

I also got the hardcover copy of Belvedere, my illustrated children's book in the mail the other day:

And, the little watercolour paint set I ordered many weeks ago finally arrived last week, so when I've been in a procrastinating mood, I've been having a play with my new 'toy'. Here are a few paintings I've done:



I also discovered Jerry's Artarama, an online American art supplies store where I can buy like double the stuff for half the price I could find it here in Australia, or even on eBay. I know where all my Christmas money will be going...

Anyway, I've just finished marking all my assignments for the semester, which means I officially have No More Academic Activities, so I'm off to write my novel, or paint a picture, or die of exhaustion. And nuts to Judgemental Dog if he doesn't approve.

See how other ROW80ers are going here.

ROW80 Round 4 - 5th Update

Short post tonight; I'm still finishing off the full draft of my thesis, which I have to send to my honours supervisor by tomorrow (the final thesis is due Friday, so that gives her time to give me feedback and then me time to make any required changes). I'm now at just over 12,000 words (probably a bit less because I don't think tables are meant to be included in word count), which is 2,000 over the required minimum, so at least I don't have to worry about waffling for the sake of word count. I don't really have that much left to do; just another paragraph or two in my Results and Findings section, and then my Further Research and Conclusion sections, which shouldn't take too long, though I need to add a few references in at various points. I also have to format it properly, since at the moment it looks like the Frankenstein's Monster of text and layout.

I just hope my printer can survive spewing out the 60 or so pages :D

Also, the MRI on my knee showed some bad swelling inside the joint, but no signs of any injury that might have caused it. It's good in a way - a torn ligament or damaged cartilage would have been very bad news - but at the same time I'm kind of annoyed that I still have no idea what happened to my knee or why; it seems as though I must have twisted some small inner muscle in the wrong way and that was enough to aggravated it (though in that case I have no idea what the loud snap was). I'm on crutches for the rest of the week (and therefore can't return to work, so no money for me :( ) and I'll be seeing a physio later in the week. My knee feels slightly better - probably because with the crutches I got yesterday I've actually been able to rest it more - but it still hurts and feels wonky if I put much weight on it, and trying to straighten it is still very painful.

Anyhoo... Back to thesis-writing I go!

She'll be right, Judgemental Dog. She'll be right.

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ROW80 Round 4 - 4th Update

Another day, another update. I still haven't touched my novel, but I have done almost another 1,000 words of my thesis. I need a total of 10,000 words (ideally 12,000 if I can push it that far) by the start of next week. At the moment I have about 8,500, and after I do my results section (which I'll be working on tonight and tomorrow) I should be close to meeting my goal (and then I'll just need my conclusion and intro and all that crap). And it should be easier to do that since now I can't work... (I'll get to that soon) Overall this round, I haven't been able to keep up with my writing as much as I'd have liked (I think I said at some stage I wanted to try for 500 new words of novel each week), but I guess with the amount of uni work I've had to do, it was never going to happen. Just like NaNoWriMo probably won't happen. I'm registered and intend to get into it with my novel in mid November, but I'm not really optimistic about my productivity levels.

Also, since I uploaded Belvedere, my illustrated children's book last week, someone has bought a copy! That means I'm a published author with a real live audience! I don't care if I've only sold one copy, it's a technicality and I'm running with it. SQUEEE! The book is available for preview (or purchase) through the above link (only in hardcover or paperback at this stage, but I'm hoping to make an eBook copy available soon).

In slightly less awesome news, my knee exploded on Monday night (okay, it didn't explode, but it felt like it did, and writing 'explode' made it look cool). I'd like to say it was while I was doing something awesome like martial arts or getting into a bar brawl or rescuing a child from a rabid goat (shut up, that could so happen), but in reality, it happened while I was... walking. Over perfectly even ground. Yup, I was just wandering across campus after uni and suddenly my knee cracked and went out from under me (at which point I emitted a high-pitched girly shriek). I'm having an MRI tomorrow to find out what has actually happened, but so far it looks to be a torn ligament. I'm hoping it's something that can just be fixed with rest or maybe a bit of physio, because I have to use a walking stick to get around at the moment and I feel (and probably look) like an idiot.

And I had my final exam ever yesterday! I think I went well, though not as well as I hoped to, but that's okay.

The painkillers are making me feel special.

I wouldn't be too worried about Judgemental Dog this week; he's perfectly happy to spend all day 'recharging'.

See how other ROW80ers are going here.

ROW80 Round 4 - 3rd Update

IT'S FINISHED! IT'S FINISHED! IT'S FINISHED! After a semester of planning, writing and drawing like the caffeine-crazed lunatic I am, my illustrated children's book has finally been sent to the printers. Belvedere is the story of a dragon who is shunned by his own kind but still finds somewhere to belong in the end. You can preview it here at Blurb.com. Best part is, I now feel justified in having a Completed Works page, which makes me feel all writerly and stuff.

~EDIT: People have asked me about purchasing the book. It is available for purchase through the preview link above; just click the shopping trolley "Buy" icon under the bottom right of the preview (or click here) and you should be taken to a page where you can add it to your cart and then check out. At this stage it is available in soft cover and in hard cover, and I am hoping to make an eBook version available soon (. I hope people enjoy it :)

Anyway... I know I've been a bit scarce around these parts the last few weeks. I've been so busy with tutoring, usability assignments, prototype testing, thesis presentations and children's book illustration and layout that I've barely had time to do anything else, let alone blog about it lol I probably won't be around much for the next few weeks either; I still have an exam, assignment marking for two subjects and my thesis to finish writing, but after that's all done I should have more time to a) write and b) be more active on the ROW80 blogs. :D (I'm also working five days a week now. Like an adult or something. Bleh.)

Also, NaNoWriMo starts on Tuesday! WHOOO! (the same day as my exam. BOOOO!) I'm doing NaNo this year, even though I won't even get to touch my novel until mid November (damn thesis). If you want to add me, I'm RebeccaJFleming_DemonicDragon.

Here is another art journal entry I did last week sometime; a crimson rosella:

Judgemental Dog has let the power go to his head.

Check out other ROW80ers' progress here.

ROW80 Round 4 - 2nd Update

Since last week's check in, I've finished my user testing for my eBook prototype (yay!). I've also kept chipping away at my usability assignment and my illustrated children's book. I've got a fair bit done, but still have a lot to do, including drawing most of the human characters. Here are a bunch of sample page layouts (including the cover) for my book (most don't have text so far):

Here's another addition to my art journal, a random character design for a gothic manga girl:

I also painted an apple, but it looks crap, so I haven't uploaded it :D

Yesterday, for one glorious half hour, I actually worked on my novel. I didn't get much done - perhaps 500 words or so - but it felt good to just be adding words to the manuscript. I had decided not to touch my novel until after handing in my thesis, but I had a scene idea that wouldn't go away, so I had to write it down. Earlier in the week, I also had an idea for yet another novel (even though I really don't need anymore) after listening to music on YouTube, so I've scrawled down a few notes to expand on at a later date. The novel is a fantasy Samurai/Feudal Japan-esque story, which is odd because the music that inspired it was more Celtic (the theme songs from The Boondock Saints and The Last of the Mohicans). Yeah, my brain is weird. The story has been quite vivid in my brain for a few days now, but I don't know whether it's because I'm onto something good or if it's just a case of "Oooh New Shiny Sparkly Idea!" syndrome. I'm planning on working on Dark and Silent Waters for NaNoWriMo (which starts in just over two weeks! WHOOO!), but depending on which story I'm in the 'mood' for at the time, I may decide to run with the Samurai one and see where it takes me.

I'm now in the process of collating my user testing results for my fantasy eBook prototype, since my final thesis presentation is sometime in the next week (have no idea when because the academics haven't settled on a date). Squeezing it in with the rest of my already overloaded schedule this week will be interesting :|


Indeed it is, Judgemental Dog. Indeed it is.

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ROW80 Round 4 - 1st Update

Since the start of ROW80, I haven't got as much done as I was hoping, even though it feels like I've been going flat out. I've created another background for my children's book and drawn a few more characters, but I still have heaps more to draw, before arranging backgrounds/characters/props on the pages and then adding text. I was hoping to get it sent to the printer by this coming Wednesday, but that's not going to happen. I've started user testing on the fantasy eBook prototype I built for my thesis (and had positive responses so far :D) but I still need to find another 2-3 users within the next week. I'll be doing a few all-nighters to try to catch up on my children's book and my thesis write-up, and the fact that I seem to have caught my old man's cold won't do much to help in that regard :(

All the drawing I've done for uni projects lately has awakened the artistic bug. So when I couldn't concentrate on work yesterday because Dad was continuously coughing and wheezing and snorting like an asthmatic pig a few metres away from me, I happily stepped into the loving embrace of eBay, where troubles are forgotten, bargains are found, and money is all too easily spent on things you want but don't really need (except I do need those new books and art supplies and clothes. Shut up. Don't judge me.).

I already own pretty much every coloured pencil collection known to humanity (I should have shares in Derwent, Faber-Castell and Prismacolor), so there wasn't much for me to waste money on in that department. I'm not really into pastels as I find they're too messy (I already own some pastel pencils and some oil pastels anyway), and I still have the sets of mini tubes (mostly still untouched) of oil, goauche and acrylic paints I scored years ago at the newsagent on clearance, so there was no point buying any of those (although I do need a new tube of green acrylic after I stood on the other one and squashed it all over the carpet, but that's another story). However, after randomly stumbling across an art review blog (any other artistic ROW80ers out there might want to check it out, he has very thorough reviews of a massive range of art products), I discovered a cute little watercolour box set with a waterbrush included (it'll fit in my pocket and the waterbrush means no messy bottles of water to carry around, so I can take it to uni for some quick paintings or sketches in my breaks). Since I don't have any watercolour paints (besides watersoluble pencils, which aren't really the same), I decided I must have one. I also found some good quality watercolour sketching journals with purple covers, so of course they went into my cart as well. Now I just have to wait for my new 'toys' to arrive :D

In related news: late last night, while trying to work on assignments, I came to the conclusion that I just really could not be bothered doing anything uni related. Thus I decided, what better time to start that art journal I've been putting off for so long? Though I won't have as much time to work on it til after I hand in my thesis, I'm hoping to start building a collection of drawings and paintings to try to improve my somewhat rusty skills (I was actually quite good at still life illustrations when I was younger but I haven't really done any for a good ten years). I think it will also be interesting to look back over my journals in a few years time and see the progression of my work. The first three entries of my journal are below:

Though I couldn't 'attend' Wednesday's ROW80 Twitter party, Judgemental Dog made sure to make an appearance, at least in spirit:

Check out other ROW80ers' progress here.