Matt Phillips's Blog

that is all.

I’m delighted that I took part in NaNoWriMo this year, what a fabulous concept! It was well organised and the communications were inspiring and witty, with just the right balance of encouragement and humour. I’d recommend that you give it a go next year. And if you did give it a go this year, I’d encourage you to donate to the good folk at NaNo (if you haven’t already). I’ve been blown away by how much such a small group of people can achieve, and they need our support to keep it going.

I hit...

A weekend binge of writing has put my NaNo quest back on track.

On Thursday I was at a word count of a touch over 15,000, 8k short of the target for that day. Over the past few days I have rattled off just under 15k words, putting me nearly back at par (30,000 as at today). Phew!

Do say hi on the NaNoWriMo site (http://www.nanowrimo.org) if you are taking part – I am registered as plotmash.

Just signed up for NaNoWriMo, my first ever!

I’m currently on holiday in the US. My first stop is Pasadena, and this week I’ve visited the very impressive Huntington Library. As one guide book notes, calling it a library is something of an understatement. The collection totals more than six million books, together making up one of the most impressive collections of British and American history anywhere in the world, one that attracts almost two thousand scholars every year. And that’s just the library: The Huntington also boasts an amaz...

A new permanent page for the site. Check it out http://plotmash.wordpress.com/things-i-am-not/

(or not, you know, whatever)

Hi there! I’m sat at the Bayview Chateau Tongariro looking at this view:

OK, so there are a couple of reasons why that’s not entirely true. . . First of all it’s cloudy and misty, so I can’t see the mountain at all. Also, it’s not currently erupting. At least, not as far as I can tell through the mist and fog.

Oh, I guess there’s a third reason: I am facing the wrong way. But with the cloud and fog it doesn’t really matter, and the desk was setup this way, so moving it around just to look at th...

I went to see the Riverdance farewell tour (http://www.riverdance.com/) in Wellington last night. It was Fabulous! (So much so the capital F was required). I had expected to enjoy it (I was a teenager when the Riverdance phenomenon swept the globe: there was going to be nostalgia value at the very least), but I wasn’t prepared for how impressive it was.

The music was sensational, and performed with real energy. The dancing was – as you might expect – superb. What impressed me most was the show...

Hi there, how’s it going? That good huh, I’m pleased to hear it.

OK, so the plotmash project is over and I have now taken over this blog for my own evil purposes. Mwa hahahahah!

Ehem.

OK, so maybe not 100% evil. 100% random maybe. The next project off the slate is the sequel to ‘The Truth about Sharks and Pigeons’. A number of people have expressed an interest in a sequel. I secretly suspect this is out of politeness…

“I’ve just finished your book. Is there going to be a sequel?”

“Sure is – Heck Y...

OK, so that’s finally it: the last part of the Plotmash story is up. It took longer than anticipated. Sorry.

That means it’s also time for this website to change its purpose. That means goodbye Plotmash the project, hello Plotmash my general purpose blog. I guess what I am saying is that the number of ‘Random Musings’ on here is going to increase. Skyrocket in fact. If that scares you – run!

Oh, the story from the Plotmash project will be edited, proofread, hacked around and published under the...