Anna Aden Writes

I'm in the midst of tidying up so the desk is a more cluttered compared to normal. Starting on the lower left hand side and working clockwise, is my calculator. It's a casio job and solar powered. This has seen me through a flurry of professional exams. Next to that is How To Draw Anything by Mark Liney. This is my next drawing project. I am to draw all the 260 drawings in it. I've already done about 48 or so, and I'm looking to complete it sometime this year. It's part of my goal planning practice. After that is my dairy - I had to get one for work as it's a pretty meeting-rich environment. No, electronic calendars don't quite do the job.  Under that is a copy of the latest UK Cosmopolitan magazine. It's been reduced to a pound but the paper quality is also poorer, not the nice glossy paper. I guess it feels more like the stuff used in American magazines. Under that is a notebook. Next to pile is a bottle of castor oil for my hair. Something tha...

Goal: was to complete all the 131 drawings in this book, and I finally finished all the drawings in the  'How to Draw Manage in Simple Steps by Yishan Li. It got complicated towards the end, and I got a bit bored but I pushed through.  Below are my copies of the final illustrations. Start Date:  9th March 2019   Completion Date:  27 April 2019 Background: I love picking up instructional books, there is something empowering about them and I feel my life would change but more often than not it's just a 'pick me up' to be tossed in the corner and never used again (if I bought a copy), or returned to the library - unused. But having discovered an article called a guilt-free plan, I decided to start small and use this book to see.  https://dabwrites.blogspot.com/2019/03/daily-writing-journal-guilt-free.html  I put in all this post, including a plan. Reflect and review of goal What went well. Once I'd outline a plan I felt committed to doi...

Nothing interesting this week as work has been very busy and by the time I get back all I want to do is have dinner, unwind and then go to bed. Travel is back to normal I'm back on my normal bus route, so it's cheaper now and less eventful. I just posted Liverpool street as an image. Mastery by Robert Green This is another book,I picked up from Director Boss while he was sorting out his cupboard, and I borrowed it. So I'm going to work my way through it, to be honest I'm unconvinced. It gives the same old self-help power rhotic but hey, who am I to turn down an offer to be a MASTER? Apparently it gives all the secrets away and helps in the pursuit of mastery. That is a tall order for any book to offer. However since I'm not buying it and can borrow it for free, I'll read it. It only costs my time. However note I do have a health amount of scepticism reading these types of books.  However what really irritates me about these books is that everyone ...

Novel/novella:  Thomas brother #1 (working title - basically Leyton & Angelica's story) Last Week's Goal  A1.1 Need to decide if handwritten pages are typed or edited on paper  Done - so it's all on typed up and ready to be edited.  A1.1.1   smoothen transitions to make it fit the rest of the manuscript Not done. A1.2 Outline a plan for practicing grammar - this is mainly to polish the draft. Done A1.3 Outline a plan to revise plotting and setting lessons so I can apply Done A1.4 Read HL's next editing lesson. Done A2.1 Write a difficult reveal scene, I'll probably need to write this from two different view points. Done How did last week  (of  21th April 2019)  goals go  It went rather well though I didn't manage to smoothen the transitions in the manuscript. The Holly Lisle lesson was great on paper but rather complex to apply so I struggled with that. It was to do with conflict and action so th...

This is a court or alleyway off Charing Cross Road and in the centre of London's theatre. It's full of bookshops selling spiritual, self-help, occult and memorabilia - pop, film etc.  It probably inspired the bookshops (aka Daigon Alley) where Harry Potter got his book or wand from. I forget. This is the length of the court without the fancy lighting of Harry Potter studio effects.  This is one of my favourite stores when I'm looking for a different kind of self-help on the spiritual side, or relaxation CDs I come here. I know most people now us apps and I do on some occasions but sometimes having a CD is the best. Also before Hay Publishing became huge, you could get all the books here. Other bookstores. Need new ideas for locations I'm running a bit short of locations ideas. So I was thinking of drawing up a list...so this is my list for now but I'd be doing it in any order... The rules are I'm NOT paying for anything so it has to be FREE, no...

Yes, I'm breaking the rules! How? I am only have a twenty pound note, you can see it's different in appearance from the five pound and ten pounds notes. Those are made from some polymer plastic thing. Don't ask me why. Well apparently its more durable and less likely to be copied and made counterfeit, but the new design is yet to be rolled out to the twenty pound and fifty pound notes. Anyway, I need flexibility in my life and this challenge is getting a bit too much with me looking for change, or putting in IOUs so I'm taking CHANGE. Yes, that's right, I'm taking CHANGE FROM THE MONEY POT! So I'm putting in a twenty pound note which means I'm getting three pounds back. So after opening the money pot, I dipped  my fingers in the jar and took out the three pounds coins. I put the twenty quid (pound) note in the jar and that's all. Now I have my three pounds change. Not sure what I'm going to be using it for though. Maybe I should dave it ...

This is really for the big screen with all the CGI images and plenty of stunning visual special effects with great fantastical  undersea creatures and creation of an underwater world. Just lots of craziness. There are also great fight scenes, explosions and chase sequences but very little on story line - well it's a simple very simple linear story. It's also a little long just over two hours but overall, if you don't like to think too much and want to escape into something simple and easy to watch the probably try this. Also if you have over 12 years olds (or mature enough) and need a nanny this should keep them occupied for while - but note it may be a little too long so they could get bored. I watched it with Big Momma and she said it was like a video game, and I thought yes, it was. The story It' starts off a bit slow and messy but after a while the real story starts. Basically it's quest and adventure story with a number of trials to find the true king of...

Okay I'm starting from the lower left handside in a clockwise direction. So that's my note pad with  notes for a difficult scene in the book.  I wrote the scene but I'm not happy with it. I guess first drafts are rarely any good, but they never come out the way I think them in my head. Away on top of the pad are my spare glasses - yes, I do wear specs for computer work. On the upper right hand side are three pots of pelargonium peltatum  (I typed this straight from the label) that Sis brought me as a gift. I just found out they are also called ivy geraniums. They are just there for the time being. The pots are one a bunch of papers and a book....yes. After that a broken index card holder which contains my pack of index cards for my story, yeah, I have touched them for weeks now, a cat from a greeting card, and my NetGallery freebie. Same old stuff as in the bottle of castor oil, a packet of tissues, and my desk lamp.. Moving downwards is my pencil case sitting on to...

Chaos Going To Work - Rebel For Life. A few protests on Waterloo bridge affected me going to work the more economical way and doubled my travelling time. Normally, I'm one for the bus but there was so much traffic on the diversion route I got off and walked over the bridge to my connections. In the background is the city, and foreground is a protester just chilling on the road. I guess they didn't care about bottled water having a carbon footprint. Well, just saying. Love the trainers/sneakers.  did cross the bridge to see what it was all about, but it tripled my travelling time. However it's nice to walk in the middle of the road with out getting run over. Yeah, someone can't spell future but I'm bad at spelling too, so can't complain or shame. This was on the second day, when I went for after work drinks and didn't realise it was going on. So after walking to bus stop, I was too tired to track my steps back to the underground an...

I've changed the title to Destination Publication since that's the main goal. Last Week update I wrote twenty pages of the new segment and it's pretty hot. Then only thing is now I either have to edit on paper or type up my notes. I'm more inclined to type up my notes. As to the editing lesson, I'm putting that on hold for now until I get a lesson that resonates with me. All writers write differently and since I've been writing for decades - though not for publication, I'm inclined to think I know what's best for me. I hand write because I flow better and there is less chance of a distraction. It's hard to go on social media or read up on something. Actually that's not strictly too. I got distracted by side stories, so I did manage to outline the villain's story. Sometimes, I have secondary antagonists  or characters that are redeemable or have a story so I tend to outline those. Typically this novel is centred around a family of men...

Okay, I'm now looking at south of the river...London joke as I keep saying. Work went for leaving do meal and drinks at Mercato Metropolitano, the Newington Causeway. This is trendy space - yes, literally a huge space with food stalls, benches and tables, a brewery and a cinema/movie theatre. It's feels like a new age, sustainable place for the cool people to hang out, with cool and exotic street food. A bit like a low rent Borough Market, but more exclusive in a way. The food is reasonable for street food well basically the same old £5.00 to about £10.00 and there are lots of different kinds of typical street food, so Turkish, Thai, Italian, Greek, English, West Indian, East Indian etc...the usual suspects. I had a Vietnamese summer roll which is basically rice noodles wrap with a vegetable or meat filling. It was okay. I just wanted something light to eat rather than heavy. I think I'd already had a big breakfast and there was lots of cake at work, so I'd...

I'm not sure it's the best thing to write and post a journal in a grumpy mood. But then again, this is about saving money when I'd rather be spending.  So the picture is upside down but money is money, right? So I was short by a pound but thought rather than put another IOU in the money pot, I could scavenge around my home for the cash. So I found forty pence in my bag, fifty pence on my dresser and  ten pence on my desk. So that made up a pound. Why don't I have a pound? It's pretty much a cashless society so I tend to use my cash cards all the time. I rarely used money though I might start again because cash cards lead to impulsive buying, especially food snacks. It's harder to keep to a budget when making purshases on cards. A long time ago, I only made big purchases on cards but now even with transport, I use it. Anyway not time to digress. You should already know what the other two notes are....I'm not going into them. Then  next  so very interestin...

Hollywood is OBSESSED with Kong! Anyway, this is yet another remake the old classic, and again I'm watching it - mainly just for a movie to blog about. I saw the one with Jack Black, and the classic when I was a kid. This one starts Samuel J Jackson and Tom Hiddleston, where Jackson acts a crazy war obsessed soldier and Hiddleston  - not sure. what his role was really...a tracker but he was some kind of potential bad boy and potentially romantic hero. John Goodman also makes an appearance as the mad scientist but in a similar role to Jack Black's role in his version of Kong. It's essentially an adventure movie with a high body count caused by monster predators. Yes, I found it a bit scary and violent (with hungry monsters upping the body count), but there was also an underlying story of true love, kindness and respect (other people or creatures spaces). Apart from Kong who is just one of his kind. Maybe they could do a movie where he finds a kong mate of his kind and siz...