I just snapped the C sting on my cello. Irritatingly, it happened whilst I was trying to FIX it. 

OH WELL. It was buggered anyway. Definitely in its death throes in Orchestra on Tuesday. Allow me to demonstrate through the medium of letters the sound it was making: EEEEEARRRFGHKEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIERRDFGHKKKKKSSEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
I think that no c string is probably an improvement.

Also, by the end of January, my GYWO wordcount stands at 30,000/ 250,000 - which is roughly 12%.


Which is way over my goal, and shall stand me in good stead for May, when I doubt I'll be writing much, if at all.

Entering getyourwordsout  was a mistake really, given I am also doing AS levels this year. OH WELL. My soul is sold now.

And what do I  want to write? A Victorian style Gothic novel with mystery, adventure, parody and fantasy elements. I am well aware that this is insane. I think that I should probably do some research for this, to avoid the use of [square brackets] which infested my Nano.

If anyone has any recommendations for a) non fiction books on the Victorian period (19th century London in particular), b) 19th century Gothic novels that you think I should be reading (I've got Northanger Abbey, Dracula, Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights) and c) any modern novels which deal with 19th century gothic/ fantasy settings; I've only read Susanne Clarke's Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell, and Joanne Harris' Sleep, Pale Sister, then please, let me know.

Thanks :)

Oh, finally, I took a look at next year's History syllabus, and you know what one of the research topics is? The Age of Justinian, which is one of the most fascinating periods of history there is. Unfortunately, my history department only likes Modern History, and so we are all researching the Russian Revolution. Yay.