July 1st 2016

So this is me trying to add a post to the blog at least once a month. The 1st of the month seems like a sensible plan to me.

July was strange. Major upheavals in UK politics have seen me becoming obsessed with political shenanigans for perhaps the first time in my life. I suppose I need something to fill the void now that GAME OF THRONES has finished for another year.

Last week, taking me utterly by suprise, I started to write a new novel. It's called Edgeland and is the synthesis of three seperate ideas I had for short stories, none of which seemed to work entirely on their own. I've been researching Dachau concentration camp, 1940s sound recording technology, urban blight, an old folk song and various other bits and pieces. More importantly, I've written almost 7,000 words of first draft prose, a circumstance that pleases me greatly after suffering from a creative block for the best part of three years.

It's good to be writing regularly again.

I've decided to grade for Shodan (first dan black belt) in December and have started training like a motherfucker to give myself the best chance of passing. It's a life goal for me, something that has come to mean so much that I feel rather emotional even thinking about the prospect. The next few months are going to be tough, but I like to think I'm tough enough to get through it all and keep smiling.

My sensei always says that gains are made only when you push yourself out of your comfort zone, and I believe that too. In karate. In writing. In life.

Keep pushing. Keep gaining. Keep failing better. Inch by inch. Bit by bit. What else is there to do?