Look what arrived today!

Soooooo guess what arrived for me in the post today?  Something that got me all excited and motivated and weepy.  Ok, maybe not the weepy part, but the first two for sure.

I'll give you a clue:

That's pretty much as good as clues get, seeing as it gave the answer away completely.  YES!  The 'Children's Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2013', aka the author bible.  I remember buying this back in 2004 when I was like 12 and had ambitions of making it as a big-time author... no, seriously.  When I was 12 I was much more motivated than I am now, and much more naive, obviously, seeing as I'm 22 - ten whole years later - and still unpublished.  Worked out well, eh?

But you see, that's why I bought this book again.  I'm halfway through a manuscript that I'm taking very seriously, and while I have written several projects that have exceeded 50K+ words, I don't think I've ever been as excited about one as with this one.  I'm not saying it's amazing or publishable, but it definitely feels more like a book than anything I've ever written before.  To put it bluntly, I believe that it's workable.  It's raw and completely unedited, but I believe I have an exciting and malleable idea that can be moulded into something that eventually - with a bit of luck and hard work - can be made into a publishable novel.

That's the dream, at least.  But until then, I just need to keep writing and keep doing my research, which is where this little beauty of a reference comes in.  There are lists of literally every publishing house and literary agency that you can think of, as well as useful articles from writers who've 'made it', so to speak, and their wisdom with regards to how you can 'make it' also.  So I'd highly advise any aspiring novelist such as myself to invest in this little tool-kit.

Right now, I have my manuscript opened up in front of me and it's exactly 38,549 words long.  To make it sound a little bit better, I'm going to bump it up to 40K, just for arguments sake.  I estimate that the completed manuscript will be between 80-100K words, so I'm about halfway.  Its really exciting.

Some beta-readers would be nice, when I'm ready.  I obviously have no idea where to begin looking for them, so if anybody could appeal to me on that front then I'd really appreciate it :)

Thanks for reading, guys.  

Here goes...

Hey!

Ok, so here's my attempt at starting a blog - just a place to document my journey as an aspiring writer and whatnot, amongst other things.  I don't really know what sort of thing people can expect to read from me, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, here's a few stuff about me that might interest you:

- My name's Lee, I live in Wales.

- I recently turned 22, for which we dressed up as old people.  Here's a photo you might find hilarious, embarrassing, stupid or a combination of all three:

- That's me on the left (with the classy rolling-pin) and on the right is my fiancé, Tom.  You'll probably see a lot about him.  We've been together for a year and a half, and we've been engaged since June, when he proposed to me in the most amazing way possible.  Here's another picture, just so you can get a feel of how he did it and so that you can get all weepy and fangirl-y, just like I did:

- I'm in my second year of University at Cardiff Met, studying towards a degree in English with Creative Writing.  It's equally exciting and tedious, all at the same time.

- I've wanted to be a writer for a very long time now, and I think I'm at that age where I need to start taking it more seriously.  Not saying that I'm gonna make it big or anything, but that's the dream.  

- I need a pee, so I'm gonna stop now.

But yeah, that's a very short introduction to my life... follow me if you want, I'm probably gonna follow a lot of writers/book bloggers, just so I can get some advice and see what's out there, but I'll probably post about lots of stuff.

Right.  I'm gonna go pee now.

Thanks for reading, if you did.  You're cool.

Bye bye.