Gems.

It's been a little while!

I've been feeling creative lately, producing jewellery like nobodies business, so I wanted to take time to dedicate a post to Sparrow and the Wolf boy Jewellery.

It's been about two years since I started making 'bottle-necklaces' the first being the feathery beauty below (still on my desk as a means of inspiration). The idea for these creations came from within Tellan, but over the last two years that idea has evolved quite dramatically!

This one was pretty literally inspired from within Tellan, for that reason, I think, it will always be the favourite.

For the last few months I've been taking my creations to local craft markets around Dunedin (I'd been meaning to get into the market scene for a while, but since I've only been selling online for the last year I never really had enough bits and bobs on hand to justify it). It took an assessment-less mid-semester break of sitting on the lounge floor creating, but I managed to create a pretty impressive collection of awesome necklaces.

Typically my necklaces are made from stray inspiration or the discovery of a cool new material, but since the markets have started I've been selling so much more stuff!! I am now patiently waiting for parcels of pretty chains and things to arrive from almost everywhere and my jewellery making has been slowed down rather substantially. This, however, has turned out to be a bit of a blessing, I've had tons of time to focus on making some pretty wacky brooches and pins.

bunny must be my favourite brooch so far.

there is also an orca and a tiger.. 

And since all those pretty bits and bobs are, four weeks later, are still touring the world, I've been making pictures, narwhals and mugs as well! 

Needless to say, I've been rather busy. Since the first market I have opened up a second shop on felt.co.nz, most of my stuff was going to the states (Neat to think that people so far away love my wee bits and pieces made here in NZ!) so felt was an attempt to reach more kiwis! 

And soon you may be able to find Sparrow and the wolf boy jewellery in some shops! 

imaginary wonky houses. Fun to draw!

I am drafting a second post right now about Tellan and her sequel! That should be up real soon. It's exam time though so forgive me if I disappear again without leaving a note... 

In the meantime, check out what I've been making! 

Sparrow and the wolf boy on Facebook

And on etsy

And lets not forget felt

Read a bit! you know you want to! xx

I no longer have the first three chapters of Tellan up on the net. I deleted my wattpad account and took Tellan down to re-write the first chapter! I might put it up somewhere here in a few weeks so keep your eyes peeled!

Sorry :(

Jennifer.

Books.

---watch this space--- 

(Ancient history can wait)

This is not an official study-break...


Well, my busy week at Uni, bled straight into exam time, which is always a bit of a slog... I am finding it difficult to tear myself away from coffee and spelunky to get all those study hours in, fortunately for me I am a fastidious note-taker and don't really need to read anything. Being a total nerd pays off.

Tellan continues to wander through cyber space, visiting family and friends for a wee read. Things might get a little more exciting for its pages soon... we'll be keeping you updated on that one...

It's good to have so many friends willing to read Tellan, feedback and conversation has been so ridiculously helpful over the last -nearly two- years. I am particularly grateful for those friends who tirelessly read each chapter over-and-over and emailed me back and forth for so many months.

I promised to write about book two, my current work in progress, but, to be quite honest, I have been a bit mentally pre-occupied to really hash-out something interesting to say! 

I suppose I could write about how the second book deconstructs the idea of 'inherent evil,' but this comic says it better than I ever could just read it, please. This aspect of the book has been more fun than it should be. I guess, the circumstances and the idea make the book a little 'darker' and we all secretly love stuff that's a little dark.

Other fun things in book two:

• A kind of military circus.... 
• Some wolves that some people ride on... 
• A couple more super interesting 'bad guys.'
• A magical map-book.
• some more wolves that try and eat people.
• Bows and arrows.
• The love-triangle that all the beta readers knew was coming... 

xx

asap!

It's so much easier to write and study thanks to the recent arrival of a desk for my glorious computer! I now have a dedicated space to annoy you all from!

When I began this blog, I was endeavouring to document the writing process of book one. However, I finished writing Tellan long ago now, and have stated on many occasion how difficult it is to write about the editing process. It's even harder now Tellan is being queried, there is very little for me to say about it... but its all a part of the process, so I will try my best.

However, maybe its time I talked more about my current project? Part 2. I am endeavouring to pull together a small synopsis and some other thematic bits and pieces to throw up asap! for now though you'll just have to wait. Uni is pretty busy this week so while i promise to provide all of this is the next 72ish hours, i can't be entirely sure that I am not lying.

xox

Young Readers!

It's been such a crazy few months that I nearly forgot to mention what I consider THE coolest opportunity Tellan has given me so far! My Mum lovingly hunted down some Beta readers that were within my target age-range, gave them an old copy of the manuscript and then told them they would have to email me feedback (In the end they insisted on meeting me face-to-face, so I popped into their high-school on my way from Wellington to Dunedin).
It was utterly amazing listening to them rant and rave about all of the characters they loved! I was worried going into the classroom that they would have nothing to say and it would end up being really awkward, but it was epic. They inspired me to go home and finish the round of edits I was working on at that time.

To see the manuscript met with such enthusiasm certainly makes all of the hard-work worth-it!

xx

And this one, woodkid make amazing videos (try 'iron' and 'run boy run' also)

Let this music video inspire you.

Welcome, internet!

 Dunedin!

didn't see that coming? Neither, basically, I decided that  my course was cool, but not exactly what I wanted it to be. I enrolled for film school and got in (which, at the time, I was super stoked about), but then I found myself torn. So, I brought a thirty year old Toyota, enrolled at Otago, now here I am.

It's been a while but I finally have the internet. It was strange living so long without it, (like six weeks!?) but at the same time, I got over it and now I have no idea what to do with it... Updating my blog seemed like a good place to start (I felt weird trying to do this at school so I had to wait, please forgive my negligence).

In this lapse of silence I have written a good third of Tellan's sequel, and Tellan-editing is going really well... Uni has kept me pretty busy, but I keep telling people that I'm going to take my laptop with its sketchy plug to Starbucks and sit there all day drinking coffee and writing like a true hipster (will keep you posted on that one.)

xx

In the interim...

What a hectic few weeks it has been! Since finding out that the one place in the country that I can get the degree I want is at he other end of New Zealand, I have been in a mad rush to get all of my applications , transfers, etc, etc ready to shift!! (phew).

So, just to clarify, sometime in the next few weeks I am going to be packing up the car that I am going to buy with the money that I don't have, stuffing the cat in a cage, taking a boat across the ocean and venturing down to my new life at the university of Otago... in Dunedin. What a mish.

In the meantime, cleaning, jewelry making and editing are still in progress, but slightly back-seated (unfortunately) Although I am pleased to announce that Tellan is way better than it was. The wonders of rigorous editing under the stress of trying to organize ones life...


Anyone want to sell me a car?

xxx