Adverbs get a reprieve...

Read an article on 'luck' in the weekend paper's magazine this morning and decided that your luck improves if you are a little crazy. Crazy means taking some risks, doing things outside the routine, speaking to complete strangers and more, and all of these things can expand opportunities - all good if you are an author. The more I think about maintaining a little bit of craziness in order to survive being a writer, the more I realise that it may actually advance your career as well.

I had an e-mail this morning to say a story of mine (one of my personal favourites - yay) had been picked as one of fifty finalists in the third and final round of the Smories Competitions (http://www.smories.com/ ). It will be up on the website July 1st. This is very nice. I also managed to finish one of my projects (well the part of it I had to complete by now - there's still a lot to do but I've taken the all important first step and will hear back about this hopefully by the end of this month - fingers crossed in a major way). Now I just have the other project - a university assignment - to complete which has a strong whiff of 'I don't really want to do this' about it. I am going to have to force myself to complete it and of course once its done I will need to start all over again on the next one. Still as my SO likes to remind me I brought this on myself. Right back at you baby. He goes under the knife next week for a knee operation followed by several weeks of convalescence and yet again 'No driving!' Next time he wrecks a joint I will just pass him the panadol and the duct tape and they will have to do.

In recent times I have given adverbs a hard time and argued against their use. I softened my stance a little as I realised they should not be eradicated wholesale (I certainly couldn't do entirely without them myself) but now I can send you to this juicy link at Nicola Morgan's Blog which really does explain how adverbs don't totally deserve their bad rep and provides guidelines for their safe use in your writing. And because this gave me a lump in my throat and beautifully summed up what the gift of a love of books really means here is part of Kate Di Camillo's speech when she was awarded Indies Choice Award for 'Most Engaging Author', which I first came across at Beattie's Blog. Enjoy!