Kirstiekins Blogs: May 2015

Blue is The Warmest Colour - Graphic Novel Review.

Friday

I have been reading a lot of graphic novels recently, something that I have been meaning to do for a long time, but never got around to doing so. I wanted to start reading them when I was around fifteen, but never really found any that interested me - all I could find were the standard superhero, good versus evil bullshit, and at that point in my life, that is not what I was looking for. I love super heroes as much as the next person, but I wanted more substance, more passion, more life. Of course after browsing for about ten minutes, I gave up and returned to the Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy sections, and never spoke of my failed attempt to branch out again.

It wasn't until a few years ago when I was reading up about the Cannes film festival that I had my interests in graphic novels peaked again. I came across the film 'Le Bleu est une Coleur Chaude' - Blue is the Warmest Colour, and discovered that it had been based on a French graphic novel. I was determined to read it, but as I do not know French, and I could not find a translated edition, I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't meant to be, and settled for watching the film - with subtitles. I fell in love with the film, I thought it was brilliant, and it made me want to read the graphic novel even more. And then, as I do most things, I forgot about it. I became fixed on something else, and Blue faded to the back of mind.

Wednesday

In celebration of finishing my degree I decided to indulge myself in a touch of retail therapy, so with my debit card at the ready I headed to Oxford Street - or later that same evening, opened my laptop - and bought myself some of the things I had been eyeing up for quite some time.

Evan Rachel Would shirt: First up was this Evan Rachel Would shirt. If you haven't heard, Actress Evan Rachel Wood (known for Thirteen, True Blood and Running with Scissors) has launched a campaign inspiring people to be fearless in their decisions. It's a great campaign that is highlighting real issues and is encouraging people all over the world, to take control of their own lives. You can buy the shirts through Wildfang who send out their products insanely fast (I was told it would take 3-5 weeks from the US to the UK, and I got it in three days) , and I was so stoked to find the hand written personalised notecard when I opened the package. I also picked up an awesome Gwen Stefani x No Doubt 'Just a Girl' shirt, which I haven't pictured as I haven't had a chance to wear yet, but if you keep a check back on my instagram I'm sure It'll be featured at some point or another. If you want to find out more about the Evan Rachel Would shirts then you can watch the video here, and as she is one of my favourite actresses, I am going to do a little bit of promo, and tell you that you can find out more about her as a person, here and here. QUICK HINT: She is a complete badass!

Sunday

I wanted to write a post for Mental Health Awareness Week but every time I sat down to write something I couldn't decide on what to write or how to write it. I think in order to be able to write mental health, you have to first be able to understand mental health, and although I know what it means for me, that doesn't mean it applies for everyone else. Everyone suffers differently, no two people are the same, every mental health condition is unique, and the sooner doctors, nurses, the general public realise that, the sooner we will be able to find treatments, and the compassion that we seem to have lost somewhere along the course of our existence. I don't mean you and I individually, but humans in general. Too many of us have stopped caring about those around us, and are only focusing on number one, but if we were to actually take two seconds of our day to look up from our phones and smile at another person, we could make a huge difference.

Wednesday

I have been working on a novel for the past year or so, and although I have written thousands of things before, this is one of the first things I have actually been confident about finishing. I am not going to go into too much detail about it, I don't want to bore you or anything, but I just wanted to share a little part of it with you. When I say a little part, I mean a quote.

Due to the confidence I felt over the piece, I decided to enter one of the chapters into an anthology competition, where a team of people would read through all of the entries and decide on which ones that they wanted to publish. As the weeks went by I had let copious amounts of self doubt build up inside of me, so imagine shock when I received an email to say that they wanted to publish it. In fact, I almost deleted the email without even reading it, as I was sure it was going to be a rejection, lucky for me that I didn't.

Sunday

Cue stereotypical 'look I've finished my degree, here is my dissertation' photo.

I have finally finished university, which means I have more time to dedicate to the blog. If you didn't see my previous blog post, I took a break from here a few months ago so I could focus on working on my essays and writing my dissertation. After seriously messing up my sleeping patten, and spending almost thirty-seven hours in the library (I took a break and went for a three hour nap at my friends house, half way through) I finished my dissertation, and handed her in ten minutes before the deadline, and let me tell you, it was the greatest most terrifying feeling of my entire life.

I have been studying Creative Writing with History for the past three years, and before that I was doing my A-levels, and before that it was my GCSE's. I have never not been in education, so this moment is pretty scary for me. I have applied for a Masters, which I have received a conditional offer for, but this is the first time I have ever not really known what I was going to be doing within the next few months. If I don't get the grades that I need, then I won't be able to do my Masters, and then I don't really know what I'll be doing with my life. Ideally I would like to get a job, move out of my house, and contribute to society, but that fantasy is a long way off.

Until then, I am just going to bask in the glory of having finished my work, and wait until the dreaded graduation date, where I have to walk in front of hundreds of people and try not to fall over.

I hope to be posting a lot more on here in the near future, including my thoughts on the books I have included on my Summer reading list.

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