Scrapbooking

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most artistic person in the world. I think the artistic gene skipped me and went straight to my sister. I'm creative, sure, but it's words rather than colours or pictures or... anything like that.

So I know my scrapbook isn't the prettiest in the world, but it's very therapeutic and it's something I'm really enjoying at the minute. For years I've kept a "memory box", if you like, full of random souvenirs and random things that mean stuff to me. I've got important things like the funeral orders of service from my grandparents' funerals (x3), I've got things from ex-boyfriends, birthday and Christmas cards, tickets to sports events, music events, theatre events etc... Photos, tickets to university nights out, random photos and wristbands... Lots of random stuff, anyway.

And it was getting a bit cluttered. I'd been given this gorgeous scrapbook several years ago (I can't even remember who gave it to me now!) and hadn't even touched it. So I figured, with all this time on my hands, and with everything from high school and university all finished now, this would be a good time to start work on this.

I'm pretty pleased with it so far, although my memory box still seems to be as full as ever. Oops! If you're interested (and even if you're not!) here's a couple of pages I particularly like so far...

Some bits from a family holiday to South Africa in 2005/2007. Probably bits from both - I can't really work out what's from when. That's me and my sister in the bottom photo. She's 18 now, all grown up!

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These are from a school cruise in 2004. We went to Greece, Egypt and Turkey, and it was an amazing trip. The photo in the top corner is of Leanne, my best friend from school who I don't see nearly enough these days because we both moved away to study, and now she's planning to live where she studied, which makes me sad. She's still wonderful though, I love her lots!

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And this is from when I went to see Muse play at Wembley - twice. Once in 2007 and once in 2010. Amazing both times! There's a bit of a story behind my 2007 trip, so if you'll indulge me a moment more, I'll share it with you:

I was due to go with my boyfriend, James. We split up, and he gave my ticket to his new girlfriend. Fortunately my friend Alison (top corner) knew someone with some spare tickets, so we went with Leanne and had fab seats (much better than if I'd gone with James, which was even better!). It turns out that the person who gave Alison the tickets was my current boyfriend, Ollie, who went (I think) with his then-girlfriend. How strange! And how strange that our paths didn't cross then!

Anyway. Enough chat from me - I've got some serious scrapbooking to do this evening!

What a difference a day makes!

When I woke up this morning I was all ready to write a blog for you about the changing nature of my job-hunt. I was getting to the point where I was sure I wouldn't be ending up in a publishing-related job this time, and had already been expanding my job search to include more local jobs, admin or receptionist type work as I've got plenty of experience.

This is still very much the case. But then mid-afternoon I had a response for a job I applied for about a month ago, and had almost assumed a rejection. Instead I was invited to the "first round" of interviews, which immediately made me very excited and very nervous. This is the first interview for a "real job" that I've had since leaving university. And while I've had job interviews before, they've all been for short-term/temporary positions, rather than a full-time, permanent vacancy like the one I'm going for now.

And while I'm being very realistic (or, if you prefer, pessimistic) here and thinking that I'll be up against a lot of excellent candidates, and that it's very unlikely I'll get the first job I interview for, it has done my confidence and enthusiasm a world of good.

If you've been job-hunting for a while (I'm up to a few months now, though in that time I have been busy doing work experience placements), and you've repeatedly failed to even get to interview stage, you'll know how disheartening it can become. So even if I don't get this job, this will all be worth it for helping to boost my enthusiasm for the whole job-hunting process once again.

So. I'm busy trying to balance optimism with realism and excitement with nerves, and the interview isn't until next Tuesday.

If anyone's got any super interview advice and/or tips, I'd love to hear them! And in the meantime, I'll be going preparation-crazy in the next few days.

No more internships!

Last Friday I finished up at what is my last publishing-related internship that I have planned for the near future. While I love the industry, I can't afford to keep doing all this unpaid work with no guarantees of a job at the end of it.

I completed two weeks at a Camden-based literary agency. I signed a confidentiality agreement on my first day, so I won't name them, and I won't tell you much about what I did there. However, I will tell you that I was slightly disappointed. I'd heard good things about them, but once I was there I became more or less a glorified receptionist. The way it was meant to work was that they'd have two interns at one time (which they did) and the two interns would alternate days providing reception cover. For some reason this never happened, so for two weeks I was there as a receptionist first, and then doing odd bits of reading and writing reports when I could grab some spare time between phone calls and dealing with the post etc.

So that was unfortunate. But most of the people there were very lovely, and I did get to read a couple of fabulous manuscripts that I need to make a note of. One was the first book in a longer series, and of course I now want to know what happens in the rest of the series, so I'll have to keep an eye out over the next couple of years, I guess...

But now I'm finished with internships, and I don't really know what to do. I've got about four months worth of experience in total, and am keen to find a full-time job, but there aren't many out there at the minute and so I'm back home looking for other work. We'll see what happens. I'm still waiting to hear back from a couple of jobs in the industry, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. And if nothing happens there I'll have to find myself something else to be doing in the meantime, and also keep my eyes on the industry so I know if/when the vacancies open up.

Lots to think about. My brain is currently very scared by the big expanse of time that's opening up in front of me, with nothing to fill it.

Hmm. Something will turn up.

Johnson & Alcock

Yes, this is another internship-related post. I was actually at Johnson & Alcock a couple of weeks ago, right at the start of the month, but I've been a bit quiet on all fronts lately and forgot to do any kind of follow-up post.

I was there for two weeks, in their offices in Clerkenwell Green, London. I'd actually worked in the same building with another literary agency last summer, so it was nice to know the commute and the area (and the Krispy Kreme doughnut stand in the Tesco at the end of the road!) before I started. This was another unpaid position, though they did make a contribution of £10/day towards travel expenses.

Johnson & Alcock is the smallest company I've done any work experience with. I've had the opportunity to work in a small team before, during my time at Oxford University Press, but obviously it's very different working in a small team that's part of a much larger organisation, to working in a very small team. There were six members of staff at J&A, one of whom only worked half the week. The office had a very nice feel to it and you could tell that everyone got on well with each other, making for a very pleasant work place to go into.

The majority of my time was spent reading unsolicited manuscripts, sending out rejections and passing things I thought were good onto the agents. I also got to read something that one of the agents was considering, and provided her with a report on it giving my thoughts. I helped sort out some rights reversions, and wrote a couple of pieces to go on their website, which provided a nice break from the reading!

One of the best things, though, was that I got to sit down and properly read through a contract, and then I had a short, sit-down meeting with one of the agents where I had the opportunity to ask about anything I didn't understand. It was a very valuable morning, and gave me a much better insight into how a literary agency functions at the business end. We also had a chat about e-books, from which I came to realise that actually, no-one really has a clue about what they mean for the future of the industry..!

So while this placement involved doing lots of things I'd done before, it also gave me lots of new opportunities. I really enjoyed my time at J&A; the staff were friendly and welcoming, and I was sad to leave after only two weeks.

A big thank you to everyone at J&A - it was wonderful to have the chance to work with you, and hopefully our paths will cross again in the not-too-distant future.

Creativity: in which I'm writing a novel.

The title says it all, really.

In the last few years I've written mainly poetry. I wrote a lot of fiction in my earlier teens, even into mid-teens when I got 80% through a long novel that I wrote over a couple of years, and then scrapped completely. I've never had much luck with longer creative projects. But I'm hoping that'll change.

I haven't written any poetry since the turn of the year. Nor, strangely, do I have any desire to, at present. None at all. Not even a lingering thought at the very back of my mind. Right now, I would be perfectly content never to write a single poem again. I find this strange, but not as disturbing or upsetting as I would have done in the past. Possibly because my creativity seems to have migrated over to fiction.

This might be because I've been reading a lot of fiction in the last few months, both published books and manuscripts at various work placements. Or it might just be because I've found an idea that I really want to run with. Either way, I'm currently writing a novel.

It's been in the planning stages for a little while. I've worked out an outline and written the prologue, and am currently taking that first big step into Chapter One. I'm reasonably happy with the prologue as it is - I started with a good idea of what I wanted those 1000 words or so to say. The first chapter is proving a little more difficult. I've had an interesting idea that I want to introduce as it would explain a lot of things that I want to bring in later in the plot, but I can't quite seem to get it right.

Possibly because there has been a house full of screaming girls (my sister's school friends) this afternoon when I've been trying to write. But who knows. With some peace and quiet now I might have another go.

Either way, I'm writing. And I just wanted to share this fact with someone because I'm excited about it!

Wish me luck!

Reading in Review

Gosh. Welcome to May, everyone! A third of the year has been and gone, and it seems like as good a time as ever for me to take a quick look back at what I've read so far this year. If you've not already seen, I keep a list of (new) books I've read here. My goal for the year is 50 new books (not counting re-reads or things I don't finish).

Despite an awful April, when I only read two books, my year's total so far is 19. A pretty good start, but not as good as last year (or so my trusty notebook tells me). Between January and April last year I read 25 books, but that was also when I was taking a class on Shakespeare, so that includes seven of his plays.

Some general thoughts, then. This year has seen my love for Margaret Atwood's writing grow; I've read a couple of her novels this year and they've been some of my favourites. I also absolutely LOVED the HUNGER GAMES trilogy that I read at the beginning of March. And I was thrilled to read the conclusion of the EARTH'S CHILDREN series (The Land of Painted Caves) at the end of March. I read a handful of the Orange Prize longlisted books - favourites include THE SEAS and REPEAT IT TODAY WITH TEARS, which was so heart-wrenchingly beautiful (and disturbing) that it made me cry.

I was just trying to think of what has been my least favourite book I've read this year. I was underwhelmed by ANIMAL FARM, but I'm glad I read it because now I don't have to just pretend. Other than that, THE FIVE PEOPLE THAT YOU MEET IN HEAVEN didn't please me as much as the other books I've read. It was very different, and a great idea, but I didn't fall in love with it the way I've fallen in love with most of the other books on that list.

All in all, I'd say I've had a pretty good book-year so far. And all this talk about books is making me want to go and read something. I'm not sure what, though, because I'm running out of books. (Ha. That's a lie. But I'm running out of books I want to read.)

So I'm off to sit in front of my bookshelves for a while until I figure something out.

Ciao!

Flat-hunting

This is quite an exciting (terrifying) time for me, all things considered. I have (unofficially) completed my university education, pending graduation in July. I am currently seeking full-time work in the publishing industry, preferably London-based, preferably an Agent's Assistant position. And if all that wasn't enough, my boyfriend and I are planning on moving in together.

I'm not sure when we first discussed it, but it's something that's become more and more likely as the months have gone on. It'll be a big change - while I was at university in Norwich, he has been doing his final year of study in Bath. And right after our relationship started a couple of years ago, he moved to London on a placement year. Closer than Bath, but a two-hour train ride between us still made things tough...

But we've talked about it a lot. And we've recently been looking at flats, which makes the whole thing all the more real/exciting/scary. We might have found the one we want, though, after all of this. Well, actually we found two, but one of them was just... in the wrong place. We'll see. As it is, of course, my boyfriend will be living there on his own for a while, because I'm unemployed and don't want him paying for me to live there.

But it's exciting to know that even if my job-hunt has ground to an unsuccessful halt because I've not found any jobs to apply for in the last couple of weeks, at least my search for somewhere else to live is going better. Who knows: maybe this means things will start turning around for me.

I'm feeling good. I'm feeling like pretty soon something will turn up, job-wise, and I'll be able start on this whole new chapter in my life.

Fingers crossed.