She, ever the crafter, kept on crafting

Hello everyone, I’m Jess and I blog over at Ever The Crafter. I’ve been asked to do a guest blog here which is very exciting. I love connecting with other bloggers.

So, a bit about me. I’m mid twenties and have had severe M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis also called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by some people) since I was 15. Which is coming up on 10 years now. Not really an anniversary I will be wanting to celebrate. But we have to make the best of our situations and in my case that means using the energy I do have to be as creative as possible.

I’ve done lots of crafts over the years. At the moment my main ones are crochet, cross stitch and card making. Although I am foraying into the unknown territory of quilting. Wish me luck with that as I think I will need it! (The blanket above is my favourite crochet project that I’ve done. It’s Tunisian crochet and it took me nearly two years!)

I sell my cards and cross stitch patterns online. You can see them in my etsy shop or on my Conscious Crafties shop. I’ve only just started so there aren’t many designs but I’m adding more all the time. Christmas cards and gift tags have just gone up in both that you should check out. Conscious crafties is an awesome website where people living with chronic illnesses can sell their makes.

I also love to write, although its a lot more taxing on me. After having to give it up for a few years I’ve recently started again. I decided to write down a harry potter fanfic that had been keeping me company for the last few years on my worst days (and I had quite a few worst days). It’s basically a retelling but without Harry Potter and with a Slytherin main character instead. You can view it on ao3 or fanfiction (my fanfiction profile also has a couple of older Merlin fics on as well). At the moment it only has 6 chapters up but I have written 18. I’m pacing them out so I can update regularly as my illness decides what I can and cannot do.

Recently I’ve been playing with an original story idea that I’m still planning out. It’s very exciting for me. The last time I tried to write one of my stories down I got too ill and had to abandon my idea. But this time (with a year of managing to write fanfic) I’m hoping I can stick with it. This time round I’m only well enough to write things on my phone so lets hope it doesn’t die on me!

I’m planning on doing my own mini nanowrimo this year. Not for my actual novel but short stories for all my main characters so that I can get to know them and the world they live in and their voices before I start writing proper. I don’t know about you, but I hate having to stop every other line to look something up or think of a name for something. So hopefully this will help stop that from happening when I do start writing it. My nano username is Princess Blue if you’d like to add me as a buddy (the name of the ship the characters are crew on in the story is called The Princess Blue, I’m not just in the habit of giving myself royal monikers). I’ve never taken part in nano before and I’m stressed very easily so I’m really hoping I don’t psych myself out before I start.

 

As a writer I obviously love reading. I review all the books I read at the end of each month in my memo pad posts. You can see the latest one here. I also use goodreads to keep track of everything I read. If anyone wants to friend me on there I’m Jessica Crafts.

My favourite genres are fantasy and sci-fi so most of my favourite books are from those genres. The most popular ones being A Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, which are both amazing. But also lesser know favourites would have to be The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. The whole series is amazing and they’re pretty short books as well. As soon as I’ve finished them I end up wanting to start again! I do read a lot of series but my favourite stand alone books would be Peter Pan (if you haven’t read the actual book you should it’s so much more than the Disney story) and Enders Game (also so much better than the film but then most things are) and A Darker Shade of Magic.

I think I was only suppose to name one book for this bit but that was too impossible. I actually think I did really well keeping it down to half a dozen! Oh no. I’ve just thought of more. I won’t bore you with a long list though! I have a favourites shelf on my goodreads if you are interested in more.

That’s it from me, if you’d like to see more from me you can visit me on my blog (linked up top) but I’m also about on twitter so pop by and say hi!