My Favourite Feel Good Motivational Songs

I love music. I listen to music all the time. I love having music on in the background while I work and write as it helps me focus. I find it really difficult to work in silence and working on my laptop in a coffee shop is my most productive 'office'. I also love listening to music to relax, while I'm reading a magazine or just scrolling through Twitter or Pinterest.

As someone who is self employed and a 'woman in business' I love girl power songs about following your dreams and goals. They are great motivation and bring some positivity to the days when things aren't going exactly how you want them to. Some of these songs you'll know really well and some you may not know at all.

Katy Perry ~ Rise

Kacey Musgraves ~ Follow Your Arrow

Cassadee Pope ~ I Am Invincible

Philippa Hanna ~ I Am Amazing

Sara Bareilles ~ Brave

Cam ~ Want It All

Katy Perry ~ Roar

Lauren Alaina ~ Road Less Traveled

Philippa Hanna ~ Arrow

Rachel Platten ~ Fight Song

I hope you listened to the songs and enjoyed them. Bookmark this page and return to it whenever you need some motivation and/or positivity :)

Leave a comment or @ me on Twitter what you think of my song choices and if there's any you would add. I may mention them in a future blog post!

~ Katie ~

Word Scribbler Reading Challenge - Week 21 and 22

It's week 22 of my 52 book reading challenge (1 book per week for a year). You may have noticed that there wasn't an update last week (still reading The Infernal Devices series) so this week I'm reading 2 books. Any excuse to read more ha ha.

Week 21. A book with 'Summer' in the title.
Week 22. A book with a music industry theme/musician character.

Book blurb - A Summer to Remember by Victoria Connelly.

Escape deep into the English countryside in this perfect summer’s day read. Fans of Alexandra Potter and Katie Fforde won’t be able to resist.

Nina Elliot is tired of her life. She’s not sure how it happened but, somewhere along the way, she lost track of where it was all going.

So one fateful day, she makes a brave decision: she’s going to leave it all behind. Taking a job deep in the English countryside, Nina does just that. Ensconced at the Old Mill, she settles into daily life with the Milton family, where she works as a researcher for author Dudley.

With endless summer days stretching out ahead of her, Nina couldn’t be happier. But her quiet life is soon interrupted when the handsome Milton boys return home – for they plan to make sure this really is a summer to remember…

Relax and enjoy a breath of warm summer air with every turn of the page in the delightful new novel from Victoria Connelly - bestselling author of ‘Wish You Were Here’. Perfect for fans of Katie Fforde and Alexandra Potter.

~~~

Book blurb - Made in Nashville by Mandy Baggot.

An on-stage attack left Honor Blackwood with more scars than just the one on her face. It’s been ten years since she left her spot as Nashville’s brightest country music star. Is now the time to return? And is she brave enough to do it?

Country rebel and rock star, Jared ‘Jed’ Marshall is hot property on the Tennessee music scene in more ways than one. He’s wild, he’s sexy and everybody wants a piece of him. But when he sets his sights on Honor, is it pure attraction or just distraction on his mind?

Honor’s record label signs the ex-boyfriend that dumped her and suddenly going back to her old life is harder than she thought. Can she get a new contract? Will she get to perform at the Marlon Festival? Or will Dan Steele destroy everything?

When a secret from the past becomes public knowledge it’s no longer just about the music. Are all the people in her life lying to her to get what they want? And who is really behind the anonymous gifts she keeps getting sent?

If you want to join in with my reading challenge this week you can read the same book as me (info/purchase links are on the right), or choose from your own bookshelves or local library/bookshop. If you do want to join in please leave a comment below this blog post with the book you're reading and/or tweet your chosen book tagging me @word_scribbler . Share this blog post with other readers, tell them what books you're currently reading and discover new series to read :) 

* Special shout out and recommendation for Week 22 - if you haven't read Playing for Love at Deep Haven by Katy Regnery then add this to your 'to read' list now http://amzn.to/1QZKMTo. I loved this book so much when I read it last year and it would fit this weeks music theme perfectly. For my reading challenge I'm reading books I haven't read before, if not I'd read this again this week :) *

1. A book with 'Winter' in the title.  I READ Winter Wonderland by Belinda Jones. REVIEW
2. A book set on or by the sea/ocean.  I READ The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen. REVIEW
3. A book with a red cover.  I READ Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong . 
4. A book with a colour in the title. I LISTENED TO the audiobook of The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner (read by Tom Hiddleston!) :) 
5. A book with 'Love' in the title. I READ A Very Accidental Love Story by Claudia Carroll. 
6. A book that has been made into a movie or tv show. I READ Insurgent by Veronica Roth AND Paper Towns by John Green.
7. A book recommended by a friend. I READ Looking for Alaska by John Green.
8. A book set in a place you want to visit. I READ The Apartment in Rome by Penny Feeny AND The Travelling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones.
9. A classic. I READ Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
10. A book set in a city. I READ A Week In December by Sebastian Faulks.
11. A book with an orange cover. I READ Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
12. A book with 'Spring' in the title. I READ Promises of Spring by Jenny Lane.
13. A memoir / autobiography or similar. I READ On Writing by Stephen King.
14. A book written by a UK author. I READ Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. 
15. A collection of short stories. I READ LOL (a romantic comedy anthology).
16. A book with food in the title. I READ Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher.
17. A book set in your favourite place. I READ Paris for One by Jojo Moyes.
18. A book your mum loves. I READ Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
19. A book with a yellow cover. I READ Catch Me If You Cannes by Lisa Dickenson.
20. A trilogy. I READ The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare.
21. A book with 'Summer' in the title. I'M READING A Summer to Remember by Victoria Connelly.
22. A book with a music industry theme/musician character. I'M READING Made in Nashville by Mandy Baggot.
23. A book that was originally written in a different language.
24. A book everyone has read but you.
25. A book where the main character has your dream job.
26. A book with a green cover,
27. A book set in France.
28. A book with a film industry theme/character.
29. A book set in your hometown.
30. A book by one of your favourite authors.
31. A book set in Italy.
32. A book with a blue cover.
33. A book set in London.
34. A book about a road trip/journey.
35. A book with a one-word title.
36. A book set in the countryside.
37. A book with 'Autumn' in the title.
38. A book with a purple cover.
39. A book set in New York.
40. A book with a number in the title.
41. A book with an animal on the cover.
42. A 'banned book'.
43. A book that was published the year you were born.
44. A book set in Los Angeles.
45. A book with a black and white cover.
46. A book with 'Chocolate' in the title.
47. A book published this year.
48. A book set at Christmas time.
49. A book by an author with the same first name as you.
50. A book with snow on the cover.
51. A book you learned about because of this challenge.
52. Reread your favourite book.

My chosen book for week 21 is - A Summer to Remember by Victoria Connelly.

My chosen book for week 22 is - Made in Nashville by Mandy Baggot.

What are you reading for week 21. A book with 'Summer' in the title / 

22. A book with a music industry theme/musician character ?

Any books you've read that you would recommend to other book lovers?

My New Years Resolutions

It's a new year and this is the first blog post on my new blog. Hello!

As everyone does this time of year, I'm going to start with my New Years Resolutions. I think that New Years Resolutions that include doing something on a daily basis are doomed to fail. My resolutions are weekly or monthly to make them more achievable and there is still time to catch up if I get behind!

* With all the required reading I had to do as part of my degree, including non fiction books and analysing almost every novel I read, this year I want to read more fiction. I want to read for fun, not to study or because I have to. I want to enjoy reading again. I have set myself a reading challenge on www.goodreads.com of 52 books in 2015. I hope to read even more than this. The 2 books that Goodreads says that I've read this year I actually read over Christmas. To make it fun I have set up a reading challenge on the blog for anyone who wants to join me --> here!

* I want to finish writing the first draft of my debut novel. I'm not aiming for so many words per day or week.

* I plan to enter 1 writing competition a month. These may be flash fiction, short stories, novel chapters, scripts or plays. This gives me something regular to work on and a feeling of accomplishment just by entering. If I win anything that's a bonus :)

* This is probably a bit of a contradiction to the first resolution but I want to work on my screenwriting more and therefore read and study more screenplays. I'm going to aim to read 1 screenplay a month to make this easy to achieve.

* I'd like to edit/rewrite the short film scripts I've already written to a final draft/complete stage and get at least 1 made into a film.

* I'd like to edit/rewrite the short plays I've already written and get at least 1 play performed.

* I love live music but I didn't get to go to as many gigs last year as I was hoping to. This year I want to improve on last year.

* I love watching films, whether at home online/on dvd or at the cinema. I missed many films at the cinema this year, mainly due to study commitments. I want to go to the cinema more this year. At midnight on New Years Eve I was at the cinema (The Hunger Games; Mockingjay part 1) and I went to the cinema again on the 1st January in the evening (The Theory of Everything). I'm starting 2015 in the right way!

* Ditto Theatre.

* When I moved to London 5 and a half years ago I took so many photos and I really enjoyed it. Over the last couple of years this dwindled to hardly taking any and it's something I miss doing, I rarely use more than 2 or 3 settings on my camera and I'd like to learn to use every setting and experiment with photography more,

* Be more creative and go to more events. Writing, photography, embroidery, art etc. Go to more art galleries and photography exhibitions. Go to more book events.

* Get better at tech stuff - Photoshop, HTML, Windows Live Movie Maker.


What are your New Years Resolutions?



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