Just keep running...

"Running. First you feel like dying. Then you feel reborn."

There's something to be said for inspirational quotes, whatever they're related to. Sometimes you find the perfect one to fit what you're trying to say, then other days you find ones that make no sense and almost have the opposite effect to what you're trying to create. Take this one for example - I was looking for something to try and explain how running is making me feel better. Revitalising me and giving me more energy... Maybe this works... Or maybe it's just enough to put off anyone who had thought about taking running up as a hobby recently!

Anyways. What I am trying to say is that I am nearly four weeks into my nine-week program for the 'Couch to 5k' training. I have to admit that the quote I picked, which I can't find an owner for, but it is one I took from Google, and not my own, (so no copyright intended), though seemingly harsh, about sums up my journey so far...

That first day I went running, although I did much better than I expected, having run when she told me to for as long as she told me to, I felt like I was dying. I won't lie, that first sixty seconds was more than I bargained for, but I can honestly say that with every tiny step, I have felt more and more capable. I am now in the tail end of week four and the running part of the training is for five munites at a time. The first time I did it I was expecting to struggle, but actually found that the five minutes were over before I realised I'd been going so long. The second five minutes of the session was harder, but I still did it and recovered quickly once home.

The last session I did was the first time I have genuinely struggled. I decided that it was partly due to the fact that I have been running in a morning, whether it be late morning on my days off or an early run before work on the days that I have a later start than normal. When I went yesterday, it was after a full day's work, plus a slightly strained ankle and the weather was undecided between muggy clouds and rain. It was the first time that I had to slow to a walk when I was supposed to be running. I prided myself on not stopping. I kept a brisk walk for a few seconds and regained my breath and determination and then set off at a steady jog again until I was done. 

It was the first time that I got home and felt a little disappointed with the run, though I was proud to have gone at all having not been before work as planned. (I totally used the light drizzle as an excuse for an extra half hour in bed - my own fault really!)

As I mentioned in my last running post, I have been listening to Jenni Falconer's new running podcast, RunPod. It's been a great motivator, listening to others talk about their journeys, their running habits and some training tips. It has also been highly motivational hearing what others have accomplished and why. One of the recent podcasts was about the marathons... Well, I am sure that you can imagine how that one turned out! 

My long-term goal is to take part in a marathon - I am blaming Jenni Falconer for everything! I am not daft, I know that it takes time and determination, so I have other smaller goals in place, and am hoping to take part in a half marathon by summer next year. I'm not sure that I am capable of running said marathon, but it would be amazing to be able to say that I completed one, and my aim will be to set up an interval timer and run/walk consistently all the way. You never know, by next summer I may be capable of more, but I'd like to keep all goals achievable by my current standards so that I can always seek to improve, rather than disappoint myself because I have been unable to achieve a ridiculously set goal...

My next goal is the MyMarathon for The British Heart Foundation - I will be taking on the challenge of running (and brisk walking) the 26.2 marathon miles over the course of May! I have an Every Day Hero sponsor page and would love to see some donations made in support of my challenge!

I have set a goal of £150 to raise across the month, and am determined to fit the 26.2 miles in over the 31 days. All support (not just the donations) will be gratefully received - feel free to send motivational quotes and images over the course of the month and follow me on Instagram to keep up to date with my progress. I will be posting regular updates over the course of the month, with a running tally of my miles achieved! 

Please, please, share this post and consider donating, or getting involved - every little helps and all that.

To donate, head on over to my MyMarathon page and click the green 'GIVE NOW' button - then share the link for the page :) 

~ Vanessa x

Woah, we're half way there...

Halfway through April already... that means that I am half way through Camp NaNoWriMo too!! How time flies when you're actually measuring it against something.

Anyone who read my starting line post knows that I was working on what will be the sixth Hidden World Novel, Slayer. I had my planning, my character notes and a general gist of what was going to happen and off I went. I set off to a decent start, the scenes I had in my head went down on paper really well, but it wasn't long before I started to get a few issues, mainly, the plot line to the whole story wasn't really going anywhere. I've had this happen before, with the last novel I wrote for Camp. When I first started writing Nel's story, The Original Sin, I really struggled to find a storyline that kept pace with her punchy character.
In the end, I benched her story and wrote what is now Inner Magick and published that first. I may have a similar situation this time around too... I have had to put Slayer on the back burner as I was struggling to get anything down for a few days and I didn't want my efforts for Camp to go to waste. You can see where I started to struggle around day twelve, my counts slowed down, one day I barely managed a couple of hundred words before calling it a day. It was killing me.

So, Sunday night I gave myself a good talking to and went old-school. I ran myself a nice, hot, bubbly bath and took a notebook and pencil and a bag of mini eggs up with me and just started writing what was in my head.

Earlier in the day I had been horse riding and on the way home, I pass a small church and the graveyard backs up against the road. There is an old gravestone in the corner of the grounds that have ivy growing up the back of it and it always catches my attention. It was waiting to be written about. I have several other characters waiting for their place in the Hidden World and on Sunday, one of them took shape on the page and I have written several scenes for her story since then. (You can see my word count pick up on the graph!)

So, there might not be a draft of Slayer at the end of April, but I am now confident that I will achieve my 30,000-word goal and maybe even fight my way to the 50k target I had in mind!! We'll see :)

Wish me luck!

Spring Cleaning

Spring is here, the weather is trying hard to brighten up and stay dry. Have you noticed how everything starts to look more positive when the sun comes out? I'm working on a healthier lifestyle - that started with my healthy eating plan, and we are still on it, nearly four weeks in. I've only had one unplanned slip, and I didn't even enjoy it. I picked myself up the next morning, dusted myself off and jumped straight back on the wagon, more determined than before to stay on track.
I continued my health kick venture with the Couch to 5k running challenge and I am at the end of week two. Six workouts in and feeling better - don't get me wrong, I still feel like I'm dying every time I am out there, but I feel better for it, and my fitness is improving ever so slightly with each run! I am a little less red in the face when I've done now, I am going a little bit faster and a tiny bit further each time. I'll take my successes where I can get them!

Now that spring is upon us, I've also gone into cleaning mode. It started with the garden a couple of weeks ago. I am by no means a gardener, but I do like getting out in the garden in the sun, which means I have to put a little effort in to make it look nice. Over the winter I just leave it to grow wild, so it took some serious effort to get it sorted. We enlisted the kids at the weekend and started tearing out the crap to find what was left. I pulled up all the weeds and turned over the soil, plus I tore up some of the crappy plants to make room for some new ones. Simon ripped out the dead ivy that was growing over the back wall after we had it poisoned at the end of last year, plus he cut down the ridiculous tree that grows up the garage. The kids cleared up after us and we found several stone decorations out there that we didn't even know existed.
The following day, Simon cleared the garden of all the rubbish and cut the grass, so this weekend, we made it outside to play before tea on Friday. The good old skipping ropes made an appearance and the kids loved the sticky bat and ball!


Now that the weather is improving, it is also bringing with it more opportunities for our weekend adventures. The kids love going out and it's one of my favourite past times, so I'm quick to pack a picnic and get us out for a walk and an adventure! This weekend we headed for Leeds and hit Roundhay Park. It was a great day, everyone loved it. Big smiles all round and lots of great photo opportunities. Plus there were castles ruins - always a bonus for me!

My cleaning habits kicked in again this week and Simon and I started spring cleaning the house. I started with the living room, as that's the room we spend the most time in, so after work on Monday, we dug in with a hoard of cleaning supplies and plenty of determination. I threw out all sorts of crap, moved a few things around, and Simon rearranged the sound system and projector to move all the cables to make the area more rabbit friendly. I have managed to do away with all the ugly bunny proofing for some cleaner tactics and well-placed items to block up holes. Not that it stopped the little monster from finding a way past my defenses overnight. There were some rearrangements made and I think I have it cracked this time. He is quite enjoying the new level he's realised he can jump up onto thought - it means he can come and say hi from a different angle when I'm sat on the sofa!

My workspace is next - either later today or tomorrow - we'll see how I feel. I want to rearrange a lot of things and make the space more usable, bearing in mind I use the dining room table. I need to be able to clear it off more easily to use for its actual purpose. I'll keep you posted on that and the rest of the house :) until then, I will leave you with my pretty flowers from Simon, they brighten up my living room perfectly!!

Let's get running!

Health Kick check-in...

So, I'm on top of the healthy eating part... I'm over two weeks in and feeling good about the food aspect. I've cracked the meal planning and am getting good at the prep, making sure that I have lunch ready rather than grabbing crap out of the cupboards in the morning. I have breakfasts planned, so I know exactly what I'm doing when I get up each morning for work. It's going great. I've even managed to stay away from the chocolate - I'm very proud of myself.

To add to the Health Kick, I decided I needed to get off my ass and get moving too. I had very little motivation for this until a friend mentioned she was trying the 'Couch to 5k' challenge. For anyone who hasn't heard of it before, it's pretty simple. There are apps to help, and the workouts are set up to ease you into running. It is an eight-week program and it claims that it can have me running 5k in that time. I'm still a little skeptical about the timeframe, but we'll see.

Amanda and I agreed to spur each other on, though we wouldn't be training together. We don't really live close enough to be going out running, it would make it hard work to organise, and a pain to get around to. So, we said we would train alone, keeping a check on each other to keep us motivated, and at the end of the eight-week program, we are going to get together to run the 5k!

Sounds so simple!

I downloaded an app, and the following day, I took on the first workout. I have to admit, I was somewhat pessimistic about the idea, I've run before, and although I do quite like it, I've never particularly been very good at it - it's more of a slow jog for a start, and I never seemed to get any fitter when I was doing it before. However, I got my music sorted and set off.

The first week, I was to do three workouts, all the same. It started with a five-minute brisk walk to warm up, then was a 60-second run, a 90-second walk, for just under half an hour, then a five-minute walk to coll down again. By the time I got home again, I was incredibly out of breath, very red in the face and in desperate need of a drink. But I felt great!!

My stats didn't look too bad. I covered just over two miles in the time I was out. I ran when she told me to run, I walked when she told me to walk, and I made it all the way through without having to stop. I then spent twenty minutes on the bed recovering before I could find the energy to get a shower, but it's all about the small steps. I got off my ass and did it!

Since then, I have done the other two workouts for week one, and my stats have improved ever so slightly each time. A little bit faster, a little bit further. Not quite so knackered and recovering faster. I'm still very red in the face by the time I get home again, but I will take that for now!

To add to the moment, when driving to work this week, Jenni Falconer was on Heart Radio with Dixie and Emma, discussing her new podcast. Now, I have never listened to a podcast before, I wasn't really sure that it was my thing. But as seen as this one was all about running, I thought I would give it a go. I listened to it during my run for workout three and loved it. It was great to listen to them talking about running and being a runner as I was out there jogging along at my snail pace. I have subscribed and will definitely be keeping up to date with them during my runs. The best part, it was perfectly timed for my workout session!

Eyes open for the next Health Kick update - there are more things I am trying :)

March's Reading List

Another month gone. Wow, this year is really flying! I fit in another six books and have started the seventh...


First up was After the Eclipse by Fran Dorricott. Fran is a fellow Waterstones Bookseller and was signed with Titan Books - After the Eclipse is her debut crime thriller novel!!

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Two solar eclipses. Two missing girls. Sixteen years ago a little girl was abducted during the darkness of a solar eclipse while her older sister Cassie was supposed to be watching her. She was never seen again. When a local girl goes missing just before the next big eclipse, Cassie - who has returned to her home town to care for her ailing grandmother - suspects the disappearance is connected to her sister: that whoever took Olive is still out there. But she needs to find a way to prove it, and time is running out.

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Wowsers - crime isn't really my thing, but I am slowly developing a liking for psychological thrillers. After the Eclipse was stunning! It kept you guessing all the way through and the ending was definitely no let down - My review is a good one :)


Hashtag Authentic by Sara Tasker

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Instagram is the fastest growing of all social media platforms, with 400 million monthly active users worldwide - half of whom are under the age of twenty-five. While some use the app as a personal networking tool, many also use it to build their creative business endeavours; whether in food and drink or fashion and lifestyle.

Sara Tasker has done just that, and since setting up her account whilst on maternity leave in 2013, has become an Instagram coach, iPhoneographer and social media influencer. Her chronicle of authentic everyday life and her mindful Me and Orla blog has developed into a business in which she provides access to free insta-tips, alongside some hugely popular paid for e-courses for independent creatives.

Hashtag Authentic draws on the lessons Sara has learned over the past five years to provide readers with tips, advice and guidance on how to turn their personal Instagram account into a profitable creative outlet. From visual storytelling and improving photography skills to archiving day-to-day life and changing the work/life balance, this book is both an inspiring manual and an interactive tool for finding an online voice, growing a tribe and becoming an influencer.

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An amazing book - truly inspiring and beautifully written and laid out. There are some wonderful examples to draw from and lots of great advice. I'd highly recommend if you're using Instagram and want to raise the level of your posts. Check out my review.


I follow Claire on Instagram, so when she began advertising and promoting the new series she has co-written I had to get it pre-ordered. Bane (Carnal Pleasures Book 1) by Claire Marta & Summer Stanton is the first of the new series and something a little different!

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Carnal Pleasures is the most exclusive BDSM club in the supernatural world. Renowned for their specialized Dominant and submissive training, people come from all over to explore what the club has to offer.

Cold and commanding, Adam Archer is the club manager. Though he hasn’t taken on a submissive in years, he agrees to see to the newest member of the club.

After surviving a horrific attack, Bane is left broken. The lost wolf is sent to Carnal Pleasures at the bidding of his Pack Alpha. Wrapped in pain and self-doubt he doesn’t want to be there. After all, who would help a damaged beast?

Their attraction is instant, but Bane is distrustful of the demanding vampire. Not used to following the orders of anyone but his Alpha, he fights against his temporary Master at every turn.

Determined to make him let go, Adam submerges Bane in a world he never thought to dream of. A place where trust and submission go hand in hand.

Both men are stubborn and fight tooth and nail to make their arrangement work. When they do figure it out, they find they have more in common than mutual attraction. Together, they might heal more than just Bane's broken confidence.

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I will admit that I was skeptical about this read due to it being different to what I am used to, but just like the world it portrays, it's good to be pushed past our normal boundaries sometimes. Bane and Adam were fantastic characters and the world Claire and Summer describes is great. Taught me a few things too... Check out my review :)


Whilst checking the release date on the newest of Tiffany's books, I discovered a Sinners' novella that I had never read!! So obviously, I purchased it instantly to read... The Last Good Knight by Tiffany Reisz is a short story based before the beginning of the first book in the Original Sinners series.

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The 8th Circle - Three years before The Siren When Mistress Nora, newly separated from her lover Søren, encounters a sexy newcomer at the 8th Circle it is lust at first sight. But when their session is cut short by Kingsley Edge, Nora vows to seduce the gorgeous submissive, even if it goes against all of Kingsley's orders.

The Last Good Knight is an Original Sinners novella told in five
Part I: Scars and Stripes
Part II: Sore Spots
Part III: The Games Destiny Plays
Part IV: Fit to Be Tied
Part V: The Last Good Night

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As expected, this was amazing!! Tiffany never fails to disappoint, especially when it involves the Sinners! This series is my all-time favourite. It's not for everyone, but I love it! Check out my review :)


I thought I was being clever by fitting this one in just in time for Book Club at work, only to get there and realise I was a month ahead of myself and the ladies at Book Club didn't know about this one yet... Oh well, I'm on the ball! If I Die Before I Wake by Emily Koch was Waterstones' Thriller of the Month for March!

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Everyone believes Alex is in a coma, unlikely to ever wake up. As his family debate withdrawing life support, he can only listen. But he soon begins to suspect that his accident wasn't really an accident. Even worse, the perpetrator is still out there and Alex is not the only one in danger.

Alex must use a series of clues from his past to solve the mystery of who tried to kill him. He needs to protect those he loves - before they decide to let him go...

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Read this in a couple of days!! Had to know what happened and 'whodunnit'! A seriously good page-turner with a satisfying ending (in the sense that it could have been a pretty lame one) - Check out my review for a bit more, I've tried to avoid spoilers as much as I can.


Had this one on the shelf a while, and with the World Book Day title to go with it I figured I had time to squeeze it in!! Bad Mermaids by Sibeal Pounder is a children's 5-8 title, but I couldn't resist!

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Mermaids Beattie, Mimi and Zelda are enjoying a summer on land with legs when they receive a strange CRABAGRAM ordering them to return home at once. Some seriously BAD MERMAIDS are on the loose and the girls are the only ones who can stop them. If they're going to save the day, they'll need answers. And a clam car. Definitely piranha-print nail polish. Possibly not the talking seahorse. CAN THEY DO IT? Filled with magical mysteries, fabulous fashion, and a serious piranha problem, Bad Mermaids brings a whole new twist to the underwater world of mermaids. If you enjoyed The Little Mermaid, you'll love this too!

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I have to be honest and say that this wasn't as great as I was hoping for. It's a great story, and the characters are fantastic, but I struggled to get into the adventure... Check out my review here.


I started The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden as I was due to meet her last Saturday, but haven't quite finished it yet, so I will put that one in the start of next month's run down!

Keep Reading :)

Camp NaNoWriMo

The first of April means only one thing to a writer - it's time for Camp NaNoWriMo! What is Camp and all those letters I hear you cry, well let me explain...

I took part in NaNoWriMo in November - the National Novel Writing Month - hence the acronym and twice a year, they run a virtual writing retreat for writers where set our own goals and work towards them. We are sorted into virtual cabins where we get roommates that help us to stick to the plan. We encourage each other and support one another throughout the month. It's a great way to get focused!

April is the first Camp of 2019, the second will be in July! I am all set to go - I have set my goal and have all my plans ready. I will be writing the first draft of the sixth Hidden World Novel and cannot wait to get started.

My goal is 30,000 words in 30 days, however, I am actually aiming for 50,000. 50k is the November goal which is the same for every writer who takes part. it averages out at 1667 words a day, which I know is more than possible as I have won NaNoWriMo for three years now, so I'd like to achieve the same target for Camp. I do know that I have other commitments though, so I do not want to set the goal and it be unachievable. I will be happy with 30k - I will be ecstatic with 50k!!

So, check out my writer's Facebook profile and Instagram feed for more regular updates - but I will check back in here around the halfway mark and at the end to let you know how I got on :)

Wish me luck - it's time to get writing!