Good morning, Readers!

​This last two mornings were a colossal struggle to wake up and head to the gym.  I still went, though.  I'm dead tired.

And that's enough complaining.

Just one more, my aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmsssssss!

Okay, now I'm done.

Last night was the second of the Witcher 3 live streams.  I fought a gryphon, and only died once.  I died lots during the rest of the game, but just once to the gryphon.  I'm proud of myself.  I fully expected to die much, much more than I did.  Go me.

I didn't do any writing yesterday, alas.  I was genuinely too brain dead from my new schedule to do any of it.  I have things to write, but just didn't.  I'm not proud of myself.  I do intend to do a bunch of writing today.  I'm aiming for my usual 2 000, but will be glad if I can get more.  So far, this second attempt at a rewrite of Outcast is going better by far than the previous attempt, and I'm liking it much, much better.  It is much slower than the first book, and I'm wondering if I'm losing readers at this point because of it, or if these new people and situations are as interesting to them as they are to me.

That's always the struggle, isn't it?  I never know if what I find fiercely fascinating will be the same for others.  Probably not, since I have very specific fascinations.  Oh well.  All I can do is keep writing and hope that someone loves what I write enough to give it a home.  Le sigh.

Le sigh.

On that note, I should go and start writing.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I have spoken of Marie Bilodeau before now, but for those who need a refresher, Marie is a bright sparkler of a person, who adds glitter to life and makes it lovely.  She's fun, funny and an absolutely delight, not to mention a brilliant writer and storyteller.

Well, her and her flatmate have decided to open a business together, and it is, in true Marie style, the sweetest idea. Ever.  Essentially, you can order a year's worth of beautiful postcards sent to your favourite person, and best of all, you can customise the note for each month.  Send a monthly reminder to your person of choice how great it is to be their friend, or write a twelve line love poem, released one line a month, or something.  You can get pretty creative with it.

If you don't want to personalise each month, you don't have to.

And then they receive at least one piece of mail a month that is not a bill for a year.

Check it out here!

It's honestly such an adorable idea, and I really, really love it.  It's a perfect gift for someone you love, like, or admire, but don't quite know what to get.  They're currently only mailing in North America, but I do hope they expand.

Anyway, they've launched their business quite recently, and I want to help spread the word, largely because I'm so enamoured of the idea.

Do check them out.

Oh, I should note, this post is not sponsored, and I don't write posts of this sort unless I'm genuinely tickled by something.

Right, I have things to do!

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

This year, my long-suffering, much repaired, absolutely ancient Lululemon Ta-Ta Tamer sports bra broke beyond repair.  It absolutely had to be replaced. There was nothing for it.

I hate bra shopping.  I hate clothes shopping in general, because I never come out of it feeling good about myself, but bras in particular are a special kind of shopping hell.  Oh let me tell you all the ways shopping for bras killed my self-esteem when I was little.  Anyway, I hate it.  That's why I didn't get a new one the first time my old one broke.

Alas, this time I was given not a single choice, and absolutely had to get a new one before my old one disintegrated entirely.  Now, I'm not a small lady, and my chest is not a small one.  However, my breast to rib cage ratio is a little on the unusual side, in that very few bras are ever made to that side.  For the longest time, bras made for me came in white, black or tan, and hell to you if you wanted fun colours or designs.  Sports bras for people built like me simply did not exist; not that ones that worked in any case.

Finding one the worked (mostly) from Lululemon was a damned miracle for me.  It was an expensive miracle, but still.  That bra served me for years and years.  It wasn't without its problems, though.  Namely, it didn't really contain the bounce as well as I would like, and the straps cut into my shoulders something fierce.  Hello sore, red marks.  And sore, aching shoulders and back.

So, it was with a great deal of sadness that I began researching sports bras for bustier women last month.  It was days of reading reviews and watching ads and examining photos.  I settled on one, which, while not inexpensive, seemed to satisfy most of their bustier purchasers.  The bra I went with was the Ultra Run Bra from Sweaty Betty, a UK company that has expanded into North America.

Folks... Folks... I love this bra!  I mean, as much as you can love a bra.  It holds well, with very little bouncing (you know how much that can hurt, ammirite?), even while I was jumping.  I decided to test the bra by going skipping, and found it incredibly comfortable.  I used it during martial arts training, which can be quite high impact, and forgot it was there.

There was no back pain, either, which can often happen with a bad sports bra.  Also, the straps are really well designed, and don't dig into my shoulders... unless they're twisted.  Then it sucks.

Look, finding a sports bra for someone built like myself, with my cup to chest circumference ratio being one that bra makers simply do not cater to, is something of a small miracle.  This bra is great.

Granted, it works by squishing everything together, resulting in a bit of uni-boob, which some wearers weren't fans of.  Frankly, at my size, that's just unavoidable.  And I don't care about it all that much to be honest.  I'm wearing a  sports bra because I'm training, not because I want to look fantastic.  I'm working, and I need something that'll keep everything in place so there's no painful bouncing, or back pain, or other annoyances.  This bra does it.

Let me say again: I did not have to double up on bras to jump or train martial arts. 

I love this one so much, I went and ordered a second one in red.  I'll keep my black one for martial arts stuff.

Sweaty Betty has a whole bunch of other sizes and kinds of bras, suitable for most everyone.  Some even come in cool colours (my choice has black or red.  I mean... can't win 'em all).  Their sizing is really inclusive, and Victoria Secret could learn a thing or two from them, thank you very much.

I highly recommend them.  If you want to check them out, you can do so here.

This post was not sponsored (but hey, Sweaty Betty, if you want to send me another bra, I sure as hell not complain).  I'm just here to try and help a busty sister out.

Right, I'm going to do things with my day today.

​Ciao!

November is my birthday month. I would appreciate it if you would help me celebrate by spreading some light in the world. Join my Have a Heart Campaign team on Kiva, or find a charity that speaks to you and donate.
https://www.kiva.org/team/have_a_heart_campaign

Good morning, Readers!

I'm in a great mood this morning.  Sunday was a fantastic day, in which I did nothing but laundry, sleep, watch YouTube, play a little God of War and FINALLY defeated Sigrun (which is the real reason for my great mood, let's be honest, and the reason for today's blog post title... you have no idea how accomplished I felt), spoke with my mum, had a shower, and then went to bed.

It was the first Sunday in a little bit when I had only minimal things to do, and I did them (laundry! Yay clean clothes!), and also relaxed the rest of the day.  This was sorely needed.  I feel rested, which is huge.  It's been a long time since I've felt well-rested.

This morning, I found it fairly easy to wake up and head to the gym to work out.  There has been some significant improvement already.  For starters, there is very little pain in my left arm this time around.  I might be finally starting to heal whatever was going on there.  That's a great thing, though it has revealed how much weaker my left arm is compared to my right.  The damage done to my strength on that side from the almost year-long injury is insane.  It's also holding back my over all strength, since my right side progress is practically ignored while I try and catch my left side up.

It's frustrating, but today I was able to laugh about it, as I struggled to curl a mere 17.5lbs with my left arm, while my right barely felt the weight at all.  Long gone are the days of 35lbs.  Le sigh.  But I'll get there again.

For my birthday, in addition to two PS4 games, I bought myself a weighted skipping rope.  Is it weird that I'm excited to give them a whirl tomorrow?  I did the first week of skipping (one minute intervals for 30 minutes) with a regular rope, and found it stupid easy.  I'm expecting tomorrow to be a lot rougher.

Also, I know I'm a writer, so this work-out talk is probably boring you all to death, but I do find it interesting, not especially since I think physical activity is super important, particularly for writers, since so much of our occupation is so very sedentary.  Also, also, I write a lot of badass women, and I feel kinda left out.  I wanna be a badass woman, too.

Anyway.... In other life news, I should be viewing my next tattoo design soon.  I hope I like it, and there's not too much back and forth before the appointment to have it done is booked.  I'm getting antsy.

Today, on my workout playlist, I got a huge nostalgia bolt (warning: clip contains the voice of a dead person):

Yothu Yindi, and indigenous Australian group, was the the soundtrack of my early years in Australia.  It was them, John Farnham and Jimmy Barnes.  I really loved Yothu Yindi's music, still do, and I credit them with helping me develop my love for folk music fusions.  I adore "western" styles of music that use the traditional instruments of other cultures by groups in that culture.  It's why I'm in love with Bloodywood, a fantastic metal band from India (think old-school Linkin Park, but, like, Indian), and Arkona (a folk-metal band from Russia).  Recently, a friend sent me a song called 'Wolf Totem' which is by a group called The Hu.  Get it?  The Hu!  They're a Mongolian group and they're fantastic.  There's a song called 'Oracle' by Timmy Trumpet (stage name, obvs) which is an old-school 90s dance thingy, which uses traditional Irish songs, and it's great.

Are there any groups you reckon I should look into?  I'm always up for new music, particularly fusions.

Right, I have writing to get to today.  How was your weekend?  What are your plans today?  Let me know below.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

It's been three days since I decided to get back to training.  Despite struggling to wake up this morning, I am feeling better today than I was at the beginning of the week; particularly about how I feel in my own body.  It's something that I've struggled with since I can remember, and I find it eases when I'm working out regularly.

I dragged myself out of bed, late, and got to the gym, late.  Still, I got there, and I worked out for about half an hour.  Unlike Monday, the heavy weights station had room for me, so I got to do some of that this morning.  Not well, and not nearly at the level I was at before I took the break, but I did it.

And I did it all with a pinched nerve in my back.  It's still pinched.  I can't seem to get it fixed.  Maybe this afternoon when I go for a swim.  On the bright side, it hurt so much that I didn't even feel the pain in my left shoulder that has been there for going on a year now and hindering my progress.  So, there's that.

Right now, I'm happy sipping my morning coffee and letting my mind wander.  I lack the energy to really control that wandering, so today might just be a day for day-dreaming.  Day-dreaming, incidentally, is integral to my writing process.  I usually solve tricky character and story issues by just letting my mind wander about the worlds I create.  It's great.  A note, though, to not let your day-dreaming become the entirety of your writing process.  You still have to eventually sit in front of the computer and write.

Yesterday, quite late in the day, I managed to reach another two thousand words and finished two scenes.  Outcast is now roughly 15% complete.  I am feeling much better at this second attempt at a rewrite.  There is an unexpected hero that has emerged from the new cast of characters, and I'm quite impressed with him.  I think I'll keep him.  For a while at least.

Tonight, I begin live streaming Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. Now, the Wild Hunt is one of my favourites from Celtic myth, and is actually a motif that runs through many, many mythologies; European and not.  That's an aside.  I doubt the game has much to do with the mythology I am familiar with.  I have been cautioned that I will die a lot, and to play on easy rather than normal.  I think I might start off at normal and see how I do, but I will definitely be upping that autosave regularity.  I'm excited to get stuck into it.

Right, I am now off to go do writerly things.  Like day-dream.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Day two of the gym: Skipping.  It went well.  It was easier than I expected, given how much I hate skipping.  My cardio isn't terrible, it turns out.  Now to get my strength up.

Yesterday was international men's day, apparently.  I missed the celebration, largely because I'm salty at the moment, but I do want to take time to thank the men in my circles — friends, family, and chosen family — who are not entitled shit bags.  Thank you for being decent human beings, and lovely, supportive folks.  I love you and feel so lucky to have you in my life.

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance.  Take the time to sit, and listen, really listen, to the transgender people in the world about what it is they're going through.  And shut down bigotry when you see it.

Writing yesterday went fairly well.  I managed to reach just over 2 000 words, and very nearly finished a scene.  Today's task it to finish that scene and, if I'm being really ambitious, finish a second scene!  That's the plan anyway.

Right, I have to go now and do the thing.  What thing are you doing today?  Let me know in the comments.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Today marked the re-start of my morning workouts.

It was... disappointing.

I originally took the time off from training to give my injured arm some time to rest.  But last week was the last straw.  I was feeling particularly blobbish, and entirely too unhappy with myself, so I decided to start my early morning training sessions again.  My left arm isn't all healed up.  It still hurts.  I promised myself that I wouldn't go too hard, and I'd stop if there was too much pain.  But I couldn't do nothing anymore.

There wasn't too much pain.  A couple of pangs here and there, but nothing major.  Still, I was disappointed with it all.

I have lost so much strength.  Granted, it was my first day back after a few weeks, so I was going easier than before, and I did alright on the things that mattered to me, but I'm still not all that happy with my performance.  I don't feel like I worked.  I don't feel like I improved anything.  I just feel disheartened and sad.  Which, granted, probably has a lot to do with my depression, but still.

I'm not unhappy that I went to the gym.  I will be going again, obviously.  As far as weight training this morning, though, it was pretty much a bust.

Tomorrow is cardio.  For my birthday, I bought myself a weighted skipping rope.  That's what I'll be doing tomorrow; interval skipping for half an hour.  Don't worry.  I won't give myself a heart attack.  I think.

So, for those of you who might be in the same boat as I, and feeling a bit down, days aren't always going to go as well as you might like.  What's important, though, is that you keep showing up.

This has been my PSA.

Now I have to write stuff.

​Ciao!