The undecidedness of it all...

Yayayyayayayayayay - tarantara - 500th Post. I'm thinking I may have to run some kind of competition in honour of this auspicious milestone. Look out for details soon!!

There should be a rule or something that the next season can't turn up until the previous one has been and done its thing. Summer, you have been a bitter disappointment. And all those ads and catalogues for Autumn just rub it in that I haven't really had any value out of the summer clothing I bought. Pah! A decent Summer is the only thing that makes Winter bearable. I am VERY annoyed.

A multi-talented friend who read my latest novel suggested I should write an adult thriller. I must admit I'm developing a taste for reading them. I would like to write a darker story but I am still keen to write more for the YA audience. Would it have to be for adults if it got darker? Was interesting to see recent news that actor Daniel Radcliffe was drunk at times during filming for Harry Potter - based on earlier reports I suspect it was during HP and the Half Blood Prince. He says he got off the booze and cleaned up his act for the final movies. Another minor HP regular was dropped from the final movies due to a weed habit. I think that one might have been involved in the recent riots in Britain as well. What's interesting to me is that these things aren't reflected in the HP stories or in many others. Harry has a very chaste kiss or two in the last four books/movies. He gets a little jolly occasionally on Butter Beer and the 'liquid luck' made him very laid back but on the whole he's almost a monk.  Is he a real teenager? The only thing that really gets explored is violence. I loved the HP books and movies. There is a lot to enjoy in them. But these teenagers aren't living the life of your average teenager. Where are the pimples, and the experimentation with sex and substances? Where are the arguments, the raging hormones, the flip-flopping of tastes, opinions and emotions. The undecidedness of it all.  I don't think teenagers are quite as bad as the ones portrayed in the UK series of Skins (and more recently Misfits) where it is nothing but sex, drugs, violence and alcohol. I know the HP series began as children's books and it would have been inappropriate to dash too far ahead of this readership even though Harry was growing up as the books progressed. One of the perils of long series I guess. But if I write for teenagers I want to keep it real. Their lives are messy. Do I want to pretend otherwise? I remember wanting to read the kinds of books I'm now thinking about writing when I was a teen.  I wanted to know about the messiness of growing up. I want to write about it now. Or am I just afraid of writing a book for adults.

On days like this I believe in summer...

Wow, the sun is out with a vengeance today - not even one solitary little puff of white to be seen in that fabulous blue dome above. It was almost too hot for the little white flea hotel on our walk this morning at 9.30. On days like this I believe in summer. It is one of my three most favourite seasons. I think after the last few months I need a mini holiday, my brain and body feel a bit weary. Of course a spot of tropical cruising would be the best, but then there's the whole what would I pay for it with? Maybe I'll just try lots of movies, reading and lying around instead. I'll give it a test drive and see if it does the trick!

I want to start wearing my christmas earrings and get the festive feeling too but November is just too early. Of course once December comes I'll be fretting about the christmas shopping. When Justine Larbalestier's new book 'How to Ditch Your Fairy' came out she did a few blog posts on what kind of fairy's her blog readers had and the ones they would like to have. I would like to have a gift-shopping-savant fairy - one that automatically knew what the ideal affordable gift was for any recipient. The one I seem to have is the ability-to-think-like-a-child-and-so-find-where-they-put-lost-objects fairy. Hmm, not as useful except on christmas day itself. Ah well. Best go and dig out the tinselly earrings in preparation.