Empty White Pages

Musical Stories Special Edition: The End

2012-03-10T12:32:00.000Z

And so it ends. Thisspecial edition is the last chapter of my Musical Stories. I've beena bit self-indulgent this week, so I hope you'll forgive me but I'llget to that in a moment. We have three Fridays before The A-Z ofBlogging begins, and I thought I'd use that time to try out the newseries before I take a break. This could be absolutely brilliant, orI could fall flat on my face, but we'll see.

I was going to give youall the details here, but it made this post far too long, so I'll do that separately on Monday. If you're interested in taking part,all you need to do right now is have a short pitch or query, whateveryou like, ready to email to me after Monday's post. It will be up toyou whether or not you allow critiques. There's no word limit, butremember, shorter is usually better (leave me something towork with though!).

To end Musical Stories, (and I suppose to introduce the new feature, although there's noblurb), I decided to choose three songs that represent the story I'mcurrently revising right now. Like I said, self-indulgent, but I'mreally excited about this project, (turns out I didn't hate revising,I was just working on the wrong story), and I want to share. Just forfun, see if you can guess what genre it is. And 1000^thMonkey, you're not allowed to guess :-)

No explanations thisweek, just enjoy the music.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Campaign Challenge 2

2012-03-09T15:20:00.000Z

There will be a special edition of Musical Stories tomorrow morning, but I'm sneaking another extra post in this week, for the Campaigner Challenge.

I found this one very difficult, but I was determined to complete it. The original story was written very quickly - reducing it from 1100 words to less than 200, took hours!

I've used all five prompts in the following story, which is 199 words. For an added challenge it's the dystopian genre, which is new to me. (Although to be fair I couldn't come up with a story in any of my usual genres that the prompts would lend themselves to).

Also as an additional challenge I'm happy for anyone to offer any constructive criticism that would help me to improve. To be honest, I think the story has lost something in the word reduction, but rules are rules :-)

ETA: Forgot to add the link to Rachael's page, where you can view the prompts.
(I'm number 93)

Pure
He was obviouslyprivileged, judging from his scarlet coat. Seeing him, after passingkids scrabbling through trash, made me want to scream.

Distraction made mecareless so, when the flash came, I was flung off the bridge. Iwasn't injured but I needed to get out of the water quickly. I swamto the support and climbed. The boy was there.

“Are you hurt?” Iasked.

He pointed to a gash onhis leg, nothing serious.

“Where do youlive?”

“Nowhere. Men cameand took Nana, 'cause she's a creator. I hid, but then I got lonely.”

The cabal. Because ofthem, the few remaining water creators were hidden, only helpingfamily or the wealthy. The rest of us drank the stuff the dailyflashes poisoned.

At home, after I'dcleaned his leg, he wanted water.

“Sorry kid.”

He grinned then grabbedan arid pear, balancing it on a wooden spoon.

As I stared, the pearvanished and a spray of pure water shot across the room.

“You're a creator?How? You're a kid.”

He shrugged.

The world was saved.I'd take him to the authorities, they could find others.

But what if theydidn't?

I had water now.

Insecure Writer's Support Group 6 - Rachel Morgan

2012-03-07T10:11:00.001Z

Remember I told you that Rachel Morgan was visiting today? Well, as her visit co-incides with our monthly meeting of the IWSG, she very kindly agreed to talk about how her dream has changed. Hopefully, her words will be an inspiration for those of us who still have no clue what path we'll be taking :-)

Follow Your Dream -- Even If It Changes

Two years ago I knew exactly what my writing dream was: get published by a major publishing house. Two years ago, when anyone asked me if I’d considered self-publishing, I politely said something along the lines of, “Uh, you know, that’s not really the way I want to go,” while inside I was thinking, Hell, no! I want to be a REAL writer! (Apparently, in my mind, you could only be a real writer if some big publisher said you could be. I didn’t actually know at that point that there were books I’d read and loved, like Eragon and The Shack, that were initially self-published.)

So what does this mean, two years down the line, now that I’m embarking on a self-published writing career? Does it mean I “failed”? Does it mean I gave up on my big dream?

No. It means my dream changed.

Seriously. I’m not just saying this! Yes, I may still query publishers in the future for as-yet-unwritten novels. Will I be excited if one gets accepted? Yes! Will I be excited if I can walk into a bookstore and see my own hardcover sitting on a shelf? Yes! But you know what else I’m super-duper excited about? Self-publishing the Creepy Hollow series. I am LOVING every step of this journey! (Okay, not the part where I had to apply for a US Tax ID number to blah blah blah boring story that has no end yet . . .) I love designing the covers, I love the formatting (yes, the formatting!) and interior design of ebooks, I loved organizing this blog tour, and researching marketing methods. Heck, even receiving an email attachment with a list of ISBN numbers was downright thrilling. You should have seen me: “I have ISBN numbers that belong to MEEE!!”

So what’s my bottom line here? Sometimes a dream grows and changes and transforms into something you never thought you’d be striving for. And that’s okay, because it doesn’t mean you failed your old dream. It just means you have new stars to reach for.

~ ~ ~

Rachel Morgan is the author of Guardian, the first novelette in the Creepy Hollow series. She was born in South Africa and spent a large portion of her childhood living ina fantasy land of her own making. These days, in between teaching mathematics to high school children, she writes fiction for young adults.

Buy Guardian from

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords

The Creepy Hollow Series

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Book Trailer

Author Info

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Google+

Rachel Morgan's Guardian

2012-03-05T09:24:00.000Z

Rachel Morgan over at Rachel Morgan Writes is celebrating the release of her novelette today. I'm not usually a lover of faces on covers but I adore this one. How could I not, when my favourite colour is purple?

I'm delighted to announce that Rachel will be visiting here on Wednesday, but for now let her tell you about the book.

Today the Creepy Hollow series kicks off with the release of the first story, GUARDIAN.
GUARDIAN introduces readers to the magical world of Creepy Hollow, a realm where fae creatures — both safe and definitely-not-so-safe — dwell. Things are cool as long the fae stick to their own realm. It's when they find their way into the human world that things start going wrong...

1. Receive assignment.

2. Save a life.

3. Sleep.

4. Repeat.

Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day’s work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she’s about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until one of her assignments—a human boy who shouldn’t even be able to see her—follows her into the fae realm. Now she’s broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion.

The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he’s discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? But Nate and Vi are about to land themselves in even bigger trouble—and it’ll take all Vi’s training to get them out alive.

Buy from Amazon US
Buy from Amazon UK
Buy from Smashwords

The Creepy Hollow Series

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Book Trailer

Author Info

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Google+

To find out more about the series, the author, and the characters, check out the blog tour that’s happening over the next two weeks.

Click here for the blog tour schedule

Musical Stories 30: Romance

2012-03-03T12:51:00.000Z

So here it is, the last official issue of Musical Stories. I'll do a couple of special editions over the next couple of weeks and then we'll be moving on to our new feature, which I still don't have a name for. (Any suggestions welcome!). I'll be doing a post all about it soon, and asking for volunteers to submit, so watch out for that.

It seems fitting that we're ending with romance. After all, isn't love supposed to make the world go round? Whether you believe that or not, I hope you find something to enjoy amongst this week's selections.

The first story has been sitting on two lists for a while, this one and YA. I've included it today because I don't care how old you are, when you feel it you feel it. Boy, does this guy feel it!

The second one, perhaps as a counterpoint to the first, is proof that romance isn't the province of the young. True love is what remains when that first flush, that 'I-can't-bear-to-be-away-from-you' wears off.

The final entry for Musical Stories is one that is very special to me. It's not 'my' song, it doesn't remind me of anyone or anything in my past, I just think it is one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and although I've heard it sung by many different people, this is the singer I think does it best. This is another one of those songs that I have avoided using because I didn't think it told a full story but, thanks to Denise Covey at L'Aussie Writer I have the answer. It's a vignette. Denise says (and I hope you don't mind me quoting directly from your blog Denise):

"Vignette" is a word that originally meant 'something that may be written on a vine-leaf.' It's a snapshot in words. It differs from flash fiction or a short story in that its aim doesn't lie within the traditional realms of structure or plot.
(Originally from The Vine Leaves Literary Journal).

Thank you all for sharing my Musical Stories with me, and for all your comments and suggestions.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Counting words with Annalisa Crawford

2012-02-29T09:40:00.000Z

That was some partyyesterday, wasn't it? No time for hangovers though, I have to cleanup around here. *Sweeps confetti under the rug*. I've got a guest!

It's my absolutepleasure to welcome Annalisa Crawford from Wake up, eat, write, sleep to my blog today. (If she added 'blog' to that title, she'd have mywhole life!) Annalisa's novella, Cat and the Dreamer was released on 14 February. Here's what you want to know:

Asa teenager, Julia survived a suicide pact, while her best friendRachel died. Julia’s only escape from her guilt, and her mother’sover-protection, is her imagination. When Adam arrives in the office,Julia’s world takes a startling turn as she realises reality can bemuch more fun than fantasy. Finally she has someone who can help hermake the most of her life. But can she allow herself to be trulyhappy?

Buy it here:

Vagabondage Press (inc, PDF version)

Kindle UK

Kindle US

Nook

Now, take it away Annalisa!

Firstly, a big thank you to Sarahfor inviting me over to her blog today. Posting on someone else’sblog is a bit like being inside your TV and looking out, slightlydisconcerting but lots of fun.

Didyou know that War and Peace has approximately 570k words (a Googlesearch brings up varying counts – that’s an average), To Kill aMockingbird has 99k, but The Color Purple only has 67k? Idid - because I’ve previously Googled them (and before Google, Isearched Yahoo!). I used to be obsessive about word counts. In factbefore the internet, I’d grab books from my shelves just to countwords:

Averagewords on a line x number of pages – 1000 or so for empty spaces =The Word Count.

Andthen I’d compare the counts to my own novels, fall short and feeldisappointed. Putyour hand up if you recognise yourself in this… erm… please tellme I’m not the only one!

Ialso – still – buy books based on their thickness. There’snothing better than seeing a short novel on the shelves: if theycan get published at that length, so can I! I’ve found somewonderful books doing this, but I also realised they were theexception to the rule.

Inan attempt to increase my word count, (unpublished novel #1 forexample, started life at 23.250 words) I developed The Method,otherwise known as Write & Delete - a six-point plan to increasemy wordage:

1.write your story, preferably longhand

2.type up the first draft, editing and developing as you go

3.print out and then delete the file (or move it to another part ofyour hard drive if you’re not brave enough to delete it completely– just don’t lookat it anymore)

4.read the print-out, make notes, scribble all over it, huge chunks ofprose should appear as if by magic

5.retype

6.return to #3, and repeat as many times as you choose.

BUT,WAIT… these days, isword count so important? Am I stressing about nothing?

WhenI wrote Cat and The Dreamer – the first version was written aboutseven years ago – I loved the story, I thought it was perfect, butI assumed it would never get published, solely based on the fact itwas only 22,000 words – too long for a short story magazine, fartoo short for a novel.

Sevenyears ago, if you remember, was before the explosion of ereaders andebooks. And when that explosion happened, people were suddenlyclamouring for books to read on their Kindles. Now there are Nooks,iPads and smart phones too, the clamour has grown. Canyou imagine reading War & Peace on your smart phone?

Shorterpieces, it seems, are now much more desirable than they are whenprinting volume costs and unit costs have to be taken intoconsideration. Basedon this, and after some thought-provoking comments on my blog, Ipulled Cat and The Dreamer out of its drawer and submitted, and therest is history!

It's taken me a long time to realise it, but in today's market size is not important. People are selling individual short stories of 2000 words, and making a name for themselves. Simply write the story you want to write, make it the best it can be, and there will be more of a market than you think!

Thank you so much to Annalisa for visiting, and for making me feel more hopeful about all my work that doesn't seem to fit any known word count! Do you think word count is still important? Or do you think 'anything goes' these days?

Alex J. Cavanaugh and CassaFire

2012-02-28T15:52:00.000Z

I've sneaked an extrapost in today, but I know you won't mind when I tell you that it'sfor Alex Cavanaugh's newest release. I don't think there's anyone outthere who doesn't know what an awesome guy Alex is, so here's hopingCassaFire is a huge success!

The blog tour for CassaFire began yesterday and will run through to March 9. Anyone who comments on any of Alex's posts during this time will be entered to win all the goodies shown in the picture, courtesy of his very kind publisher. There will be other book giveaways during the tour too. For more information about them see Alex's blog for details. Don't forget, if Twitter is your thing, you can join in at #CatchFire.

CassaFire

by Alex J. Cavanaugh

CassaStar was just the beginning…

The Vindicarn War is a distant memory and Byron’s days of piloting Cosbolt fighters are over. He has kept the promise he made to his fallen mentor and friend - to probe space on an exploration vessel. Shuttle work is dull, but it’s a free and solitary existence. The senior officer is content with his life aboard the Rennather.

The detection of alien ruins sends the exploration ship to the distant planet of Tgren. If their scientists can decipher the language, they can unlock the secrets of this device. Is it a key to the Tgren’s civilization or a weapon of unimaginable power? Tensions mount as their new allies are suspicious of the Cassan’s technology and strange mental abilities.

To complicate matters, the Tgrens are showing signs of mental powers themselves; the strongest of which belongs to a pilot named Athee, a woman whose skills rival Byron’s unique abilities. Forced to train her mind and further develop her flying aptitude, he finds his patience strained. Add a reluctant friendship with a young scientist, and he feels invaded on every level. All Byron wanted was his privacy…

Want to buy it? Here's where you can:

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

And, just because it's cool:

The Evil Genius Blogfest

2012-02-27T23:59:00.001Z

The Golden Eagle over at The Eagle's Aerial Perspective is having her second blog birthday today, and to celebrate she's holding The Evil Genius Blogfest. The rules are simple: create a story,or non-fiction piece, in any format about an evil genius. It can be an already existing person from history or literature or you could, as I have done, create your own.

At 450 words, my entry is a little bit longer than The Golden Eagle's suggested limit of 400, but I hope you'll forgive me. Also, please bear with me. Humour is not something I usually tackle!

Handsome hero creptround the corner, punching First Anonymous Bad Guy in the face.Second Anonymous Bad Guy was no problem either. Handsome Heroback-kicked him without even turning round.

Handsome Hero made hisway to the pool area, not even caring that he still had his shoes on.Rules were made to be broken. There she was, Plucky Heroine, bound toa chair, gagged . She'd held her own so far through this longadventure, but now it was time for him to rescue her from theclutches of Evil Genius.

He ran over to her,breaking another poolside rule, and began to work at the knotsholding her captive.

“Mmmph,” shesaid.

“Sorry sweetheart?”He was still concentrating on the task at hand.

“MMMPH,” she saidagain, more urgently this time.

He looked up. Therestood Evil Genius, a gun in his hand.

“I knew you'd come.This time Handsome Hero, it really is the end for you. I don't knowhow you escaped the ski lift of death, the roller-coaster of doom, orthe runaway-driverless-subway-car of destruction, but no matter. Youwon't get away this time.”

From the corner of hiseye Handsome Hero saw something move. Turning his head to look, herealised that the pool wasn't empty. There were several sharksswimming in it. Sharks? Really? Even as he'd stuffed the Sharkrepellent in his pocket this morning he hadn't thought he would needit. Sharks were so last decade. On the other hand, it would make thisall a lot easier. He would be forced into the pool, then whilst EvilGenius was recounting every last step of his incredibly long anddetailed plan to take over the world to poor, helpless PluckyHeroine, He, Handsome Hero, would despatch the sharks, silently climbout of the pool behind his nemesis and knock him unconscious. Hesighed. It was a shame he had to get his hair wet.

“Stand on the edgeof the pool,” ordered Evil Genius.

“I suppose youthink you're going to make me jump in. No way that'shappening.” Handsome Hero was pleased that he'd finally got someuse out of the reverse psychology degree he'd taken all those yearsago.

Evil Genius grinnedan evil grin.

“Know why they callme Evil Genius?” He asked.

“No, why?”

Evil Genius raised hisgun and shot Handsome Hero in the head. He watched as his enemy'slifeless body toppled into the pool.

“Because I learnfrom my mistakes.”

Plucky Heroine watchedas Evil Genius walked away. She wondered how hard it would be tochange her name to Evil Badass Sidechick.

Musical Stories 29: Horror

2012-02-25T05:00:00.000Z

If you would like toread my entry for the Campaign Challenge, it's the post below thisone. Or you can just click here :-)

On a personal note, ifany of you live in Indiana, please could you email me?

Thank you for takingthe time to vote in the Musical Stories poll. The poll is open foranother week, but I've had 40 votes already, way more than I expectedand, unless there's a mad swing, it looks like we'll be moving ontopastures new when this series comes to a close. 70% of you have votedfor the synopsis idea, which is exciting, and also a little scary!I'll post about that later on, but today we're back to the Horrorgenre. As this is probably the last horror week I've included twosongs that have been on my list of possibles since day one.

I didn't think I couldoriginally include the first one, because it isn't truly a story buttoday I realised something. It's flash fiction, so it definitelycounts! (Also the video is rather creepy).

Our second story mightnot seem like a horror story at first but, if you listen to thelyrics there's a definite horror story message there. Trust no-one.Especially not the people you think you can trust. (I should add thatthe last 30 seconds of the video are a teeny bit gory, just in casethat's not your thing).

Our final horror entryis a bit heavier than my usual offerings, but it's definitely aclassic plot!

Don't have nightmares!If I've scared you, don't worry, next week we'll be getting romantic:-)

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Campaign Challenge 1

2012-02-24T08:26:00.000Z

Musical Stories will be up later tonight, but here's a little extra post for you, my entry for the first Campaigner Challenge of 2012. You probably know the rules by now, but just in case:

It's a flash fiction story beginning with the words 'Shadows crept across the wall.'
It ends with the words 'Everything faded'.
It includes the word 'orange'.
It's the genre I'm currently writing.
It's 200 words exactly.

I think I've fulfilled everything, so here it is. (If you get that far, it's entry 188 on the list).

Shadow Puppets
Shadows crept acrossthe wall; a dog, then a rabbit, then something that Emma thought wasan elephant. Robbie obviously liked it. His sweet giggle pierced herheart.

“More, Daddy,more.”

How she would miss herdarling boy.

From her vantage pointby the door, all she could see was Robbie's back, his head covered bythe oversized orange baseball cap. It didn't matter though, everypart of her son's face was etched in her brain. She wished to God shehad the strength to fight this.

Jack's head appearedfrom behind the sheet that he was using as a screen. Even from acrossthe dimly lit room, she could see his raised eyebrow, that meant 'areyou still here?'. She felt for the doorhandle behind her. He'd won.The evidence he'd gathered about Robbie's illegal adoption saw tothat. She could walk away, or end up in prison. Whichever, she'dnever see her beautiful son again. Instead, the man who wasn't reallyhis father would be left to raise him.

As Emma left the houseshe strained to hear just one more peal of laughter, but she couldhear nothing. The music, Robbie, even Jack. All gone. Everythingfaded.

Daniel Marvello and the Magic Appreciation Tour

2012-02-22T22:27:00.000Z

If you're wondering what the poll on the right is all about, read this post for details.

If you read or write Magical Fantasy in any of its many forms, here's something that will interest you. The Magic Appreciation Tour, brainchild of Daniel Marvello of The Vaetra Files, is a new website going live on March 1. I've used some of Daniel's own words to help me tell you about it.

What is it?
The Magic Appreciation Tour (MA Tour) and Book Sale is a website that helps fantasy readers find out about new authors and get great deals on Magical Fantasy books. Each tour will run quarterly.

The term 'Magical Fantasy' refers to any fantasy book that includes a force or power that readers would recognise as magic. The book might be considered an urban fantasy, epic fantasy, romantic fantasy or whatever. The critical element is that it has magic of some kind.

What's in it for readers?
It serves readers by collecting Magical Fantasy books in one place and displaying them in a format that makes it easy to find the books that interest them. It also gives readers the opportunity to learn more about the authors of those books.

Readers participate by visiting the book sale and author pages of the MA Tour website.

What's in it for writers?
It serves authors by showcasing their work on a site that is dedicated to their genre and by helping them form new supportive relationships with other authors.

The Book Sale page shows the cover and blurb for every participating book, along with links to buy, see reviews, and learn about the author.

The Author page shows a picture (or avatar) and a bio for every participating author, along with links to visit the author's blog, read interviews of the author, and read guest posts by them.

Authors participate by making their book available on the MA Tour site and by engaging with other participating authors through their blog and social networking during the tour. By pooling their social connections, authors help each other get the word out about their books and make new friends.
FAQ

Note that the MA Tour site does not actually sell books; buy links take readers to either Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords. Listing books on the MA Tour site is NOT a violation of the KDP Select terms, as long as the buy link goes to Amazon.

I've added links to Daniel's blog, and to the MA Tour site itself if you would like more information but, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I'm sure Daniel will be happy to answer. I should add that Daniel didn't specifically ask me to blog about this, I just happen to think it's a really great idea, and one that I'd love to see take off. Also, the guy has an excellent blog photo :-)

(Finally) A Poll

2012-02-20T23:25:00.003Z

Happy Monday everyone,and thank you all for your well-wishes. After about a week of feelinglike my head is going to explode, and my limbs weighing about asmuch as a small car, I'm finally feeling something like my usualself. I've got some catching up to do so apologies for not respondingto your comments, or reading your blogs over the last few days. Ihave nearly 700 blog posts on my feeder, so it could take a while!(And no, I'm afraid I'm probably not going to read every single one).

I felt awful about notputting any Musical Stories up last Friday, I think it's the firstweek I've missed, but they'll be back this week. For those new to theblog, this is the first one I did, which has an explanation of whatthe series is about. There are two more weeks to go and then we'vecome to the end of another series so I'd like to know what you wantto see next. I love doing them, this isn't me looking for a way out,but I only want to carry on if you're still enjoying them. I didwonder about dropping the number of songs down to two. I know we alllike to read a lot of blogs, and maybe three songs a week is just toomany.

I've added a poll to my sidebar at the top, which will be therefor the next ten days. I'd really appreciate it if you'd take a fewmoments to complete it for me. You'll notice there's a vote for the'synopsis idea'. Laura at Daily Dodo had a really interesting idea.She suggested I get you to send me a short pitch or synopsis of yourstory, and I'll pick a song or two that I think suits it. I love thisidea, but obviously I'd need some audience participation to make itwork! If you have any other ideas you think might work, feel free todrop me an email or leave a comment below. Thanks guys.

Now to catch up with you all :-)

Sick

2012-02-18T15:01:00.000Z

Apologies for the fact there are no Musical Stories this week. I didn't feel well last night. Today I feel worse, so I'm going back to bed. Hopefully, I'll see you Monday. Have a good weekend.

George R. R. Martin to the rescue

2012-02-16T00:09:00.000Z

It recently came to myattention that I hadn't actually read the third book in the HungerGames trilogy. Blame my daughters' school library, they didn't haveit in stock last year. Last night I decided to put that right. Ofcourse, I had to read the first two again. Do other people do that?(Whenever a new Harry Potter book came out, I always had to read allthe previous books before I could enjoy it. I've read the first oneabout eleventy million times, the last one only once). About fiveminutes ago, I finished Mockingjay. Am I the only one who thinksthat, with one paragraph, Suzanne Collins came within a whisker ofbeing able to subtitle this book Animal Farm 2?

It was a pleasure tospend the whole day reading. I don't get to do that very often. Itdoes explain why you don't get a proper post today, as it's almostmidnight and I want to catch up with some of your blogs before I goto bed. To make up for it, I'm leaving you with something that I findamusing. Enjoy :-)

Musical Stories 28: Children's Literature

2012-02-11T03:54:00.000Z

After today I promisenot to mention the girls' college adventures again, (at least untilwe find out if Diva gets accepted), but I just wanted to share somegood news and bad news. The good news is that, the same day as Diva'snew application form arrived, so did a letter thanking her for hercompleted application form. I called them to confirm that they hadactually received it and was told that yes they had, and a letterinviting her to interview was on its way. That letter hasn't arrivedyet, but at least we know it's coming. The bad news is that, as thedeadline given for invitation to interview has now passed, Bluehasn't made it. We knew it was a long shot, they only take twentyBritish students per year, but I still hate seeing her unhappy. Nowshe has to decide which A-levels to take. Tough decision for someonewho has absolutely no idea what she wants to do in the future. Andwhy should she know? She's fifteen years old. I'm secretly quiteexcited that she's looking up entry requirements for creative writingdegrees at University though, although I'm keeping quiet.

Anyway, on with thisweek's Musical stories. It's Children's Literature week, and I havethree quite different songs for you to enjoy.

I think children tendto fall into two camps. The first are those who can't wait to getolder, so they can stay up as late as they like and eat ice-cream fordinner, (or was that just me?). The second group, which is where ourstory fits, like things just the way they are thank you very much, andpaying bills and going to work are for other people. They want tostay kids. Now that I'm an adult, I can definitely see theattraction!

Our second story isabout the adventures of starting school, and how it's so much betterif you have a special friend to share it with. It's no fun diggingfor worms on your own, you know :-)

When I first heard thelast one, I could see it in my head as a picture book with beautifulillustrations. It seems as though someone had the same idea becausetonight, whilst trying to find a decent version, I came across anAmazon entry for a picture-book of the same name. Furtherinvestigation revealed that it wasn't co-incidence, the two are thesame. I suppose that means that technically I shouldn't include it,as these are all imaginary books but, you know me, never one to shirkthe breaking of my own rules, I'm including it anyway because itmakes me smile. (Incidentally, there is nothing wrong with yourcomputer, the song is playing over a black screen, sorry but therewasn't a lot of choice).

I hope you enjoyedthese. Prepare for chills next week, as we're revisiting the horrorgenre.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Fourth Writers' Platform Building Campaign

2012-02-07T14:45:00.001Z

I'm pretty sure thatyou've all heard the news by now but, just in case you've somehowmissed the announcement, the Fourth Writers' Platform-BuildingCampaign is upon us. I was part of the last one, and it was a lot offun. You have until 15^th February to sign up and you cando so here, at Rachael Harrie's blog, Rach Writes. . . This time aroundit's a mini campaign running until 17^th March, so it's aperfect way to try it out if you're new to the campaign, before thebig one in the Summer. It's a great way to make new friends :-)

In other news, I foundout yesterday that The Old Geezer's blog has been hacked by spammers,so if he's on your reader it might be a good idea to remove hisblog. Ron, if you're reading this, I hope you're back with us soon.

After fourweeks of waiting, Diva phoned the art college yesterday to ask whenshe might hear from them. You know what's coming next, right? Yeah,they didn't receive her application. So, it's back to square onewhilst we wait for a new one to come in the post. So, please keepthose fingers crossed for a few weeks longer!

Today's post is a short one, so I'll leave you with a new trailer for one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year. Enjoy!

Musical Stories 27: Fantasy

2012-02-04T12:58:00.000Z

Apologies for the verylate post today. By the time I chose the songs last night I was tootired to battle with Blogger. (For some reason, it takes four or fiveattempts to post a video since they 'improved' the dashboard). Then,this morning there was a crisis in the kitchen when the the browniesthat Diva was making to take to a Sherlock Holmes sleepover didn't goas planned. We managed to fix them and they're safely out of the doornow. (That is, Diva and Blue are out of the door, not Diva and thebrownies. Although, sadly, the brownies have gone with them).

I had a great long listof songs to choose from this week but when I went back over thelyrics it seemed that a lot of what I thought was Fantasy wasactually Sci-Fi or Horror. There's definitely a fine line betweengenres these days, which I think is no bad thing :-)

The first song wasrecommended to me a while ago by Diva, but I only recently got roundto watching the video. As soon as I did, I knew I had to post it thisweek. It's one of those stories that in no way has an original plot,but the execution of it, (both the tune, and the video), is justwonderful.

I'm a great believer inmeaning being in the mind of the reader (or listener). To me, thesecond song is how Lucifer felt when he was first cast out, before hebecame the 'big bad' that we know and – as storytellers, ratherthan from a religious aspect – 'love'. I'd be interested to know ifany of you interpret it differently.

My final song is ademonstration that the best fantasy comes from our own imaginations.We can be anything, go anywhere. (Have fun reminiscing over thevideo, too :-)).

I hope you foundsomething to love this week. Next week, we're revisiting Children'sLiterature.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Insecure Writer's Support Group 5

2012-02-01T19:15:00.000Z

It's the firstWednesday in the month, which means it's time for the InsecureWriter's Support Group to come to order. So, what insecurities areplaguing me this month?

I think I might havemade a mistake and over-estimated how good I actually am at thiswriting thing. Not the writing itself, I'm not amazing at it, but Ican write stories that (usually) make sense, that have a beginning, amiddle and an end. It's what comes afterwards that I'm having theproblems with, the editing.

I know lots of peoplehave difficulties with this, they read and they learn and they workthrough it. I've read, I'm learning, I'm taking advice and I stillcan't get it right. I had some brilliant feedback from someone aboutthe story I'm working on but, no matter how I try, I can't seem tomake the changes in a way that makes sense. I'm now at the pointwhere I dread opening up the damn document. I just want to start thefirst draft of something new and forget this one exists. But I'vedone that, four times. I promised myself that 2012 would be the yearI finally got something 'finished'.

I'm actually not asbothered by this as I was a few weeks ago. I'm beginning to resignmyself to the fact that I might never finish something. Is it the endof the world if I just write story after story, first drafts, all ofthem? I never expected to make any money from my writing, so perhapsthis is where it ends, a whole bunch of ideas sitting on my computer.I'll still be writing.

Musical Stories 26: War

2012-01-28T11:51:00.000Z

Thank you so much to all of you who commented on my last blog post. There were some great comments and suggestions for improvement. A quick note to those of you who commented on the pov change. The original piece was handwritten with indented paragraphs and a space between the two povs. I didn't pay enough attention to the formatting when I typed it. I'll try not to make that mistake again. Can't promise anything though :-)

Can you believe we're up to week 26 of Musical Stories? Over six months of music, (if you count the special editions), and you're still listening, commenting and, hopefully, enjoying. You lot rock! Sorry to those of you who couldn't listen to the second song last week. If any of you have a burning desire to listen to Don't you want me by The Human League, there is a new link underneath the original video.

This week the genre is War, and it might just be the easiest week ever. Every song was suggested by one of my lovely readers. All I had to do was pick a video and enjoy!

The first one comes from Julie Fedderson from Gypsy in my soul. This one was new to me. It's a reminder of the fears of the family left behind. We often talk about the parents, children and partners of soldiers. This one is for the siblings, and all those other relatives who sometimes get forgotten but whose fears are every bit as real.

I can't believe it's taken three series, and a reminder from Margot Kinberg at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist to include this second one. (I swear Margot has forgotten more songs than I will ever know!). This is the tale of how raw excitement turns to jaded reality for young soldiers.

Finally, Rick Watson from Life 101 introduced me to another song I hadn't heard before. I've included this one as it's the tale of the Everyman. Anyone, in any town, in any generation could be uttering these words.

Enjoy this week's stories. Next week we'll be back in the world of Fantasy.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

The Lesson

2012-01-25T20:02:00.001Z

She sweeps theclassroom door open with an imperious gesture that doesn't match herinner feelings of unease.

“In.” shecommands, with a slight tilt of her head towards the waiting desks.

Five minutes later,thirty pairs of eyes are fixed on thirty sheets of paper and her feardisappears, only to return as she catches him staring at her, anunfathomable expression on his face.

'Pull yourselftogether. Why be afraid of a fourteen year old?'

But she is.

She roams theclassroom, making a comment here, a correction there. She forcesherself to stop in front of his desk.

“Get on with yourwork.” Her voice is louder than it needs to be.

“Yes Miss,” theboy murmurs, so quietly she can barely hear him.

He bends his head overhis paper, a shock of yellow hair hiding his expression from her.

Her insides arechurning like a live thing trying to escape the confines of herbody. She sits down quickly. He knows, she is convinced. The boyknows she is a fake. Her tough exterior will be an easy shell topenetrate. Surely, she is on borrowed time. How long before heattempts to break that shell? Will he smash it in one piece orchisel it off, blow by blow? She gazes at the clock. When will thislesson end? How much more can she take without cracking? She issurprised she has managed to last this long without giving way. Shethinks back. This is the longest she has survived without someonediscovering her true self. Now it seems she will have to look foryet another job, jump before she is pushed.

She begins to shiveras he pushes back his chair and approaches her desk. This is it shedecides, the moment of truth. He falters for a moment, and stares,wide-eyed, at her. After what seems an eternity, he simply grabssome paper and returns to his seat.

She knows then whathis plan is. He is going to keep making her feel that a confrontationis imminent, then he is going to back off. Will her nerve crackbefore he tires of that game, or will he say something to her thatwill prove to his classmates what he already knows, that she can'thandle them? They are a most unruly class and if they senseweakness, she will be helpless. The jailer has become the prisoner. What was once a pleasant lesson has become a weekly nightmare. Shewatches the hands crawl round the clock. A minute or two before thebell is due to ring he approaches her but, as he opens his mouth tosay something, the lesson change signals.

“It doesn't matter,”he says, and turns away to pack up his things.

He is the last out ofthe door, and as she moves to close it behind him he turns back andstares at her for what seems like forever before she looks away andshuts the door. She sits down, shaking. Another lesson over, onlyone more to get through before she reaches the safety of home, butit's too much, she can't do it.

He hates this lesson. There is something not quite right about this new teacher, althoughno one else has noticed anything yet. As usual, she has them allworking hard and silently within minutes of the lesson starting; buthis pen soon slips out of his hand in favour of his daydreams. Heisn't here in this stuffy classroom any more. He is a seagull flyinghigh in the sky, soaring above everyone else...

His flight of fancy isshattered when a harsh voice breaks into his thoughts. It's her. Heblushes, realising he must have been staring at her. She speaks a fewsharp words to him and he bends his head in a posture of obedience.

When she moves away, hedecides to draw his daydream. She won't notice, and anyway it's whathe's good at, unlike all this other pointless stuff. He searches hisfolder but can find no paper so he leaves his place to get a piecefrom her desk. As he draws closer he stops suddenly, unable to stophimself from staring. There is definitely something wrong with her. She is pale and wild-eyed and, although it is a hot day and beads ofsweat crowd her forehead, she has goosebumps over her arms. He tearshis eyes away and sits down with his paper. He thinks of her for afew moments but then his desire to draw overtakes him and he has toget his ideas onto paper. It's not right though, he scrunches it upand heads for more paper, but then notices the time. Only a fewminutes left.

“It doesn'tmatter,” he tells her.

He thinks she looks athim rather oddly but decides he's imagining it. Anyway, who cares? It's time to leave, thank goodness.

As usual, he's lastout of the classroom. She follows him to the door and he looks backat her. She looks scared. She turns away and shuts the door.

'Weird woman.'

For a brief moment hewonders if he should tell someone. But tell who? And tell what?Anyway, it's time for Art, his favourite lesson of the week. Heforgets her as he heads for the one hour a week he really enjoys.

No- one saw thecrumpled drawing of a seagull that she'd clutched as she jumped. Itbecame dislodged and the wind soon stole it, where it soared, free.

Constructive criticism very welcome.

Musical Stories 25: Chick Lit

2012-01-21T11:41:00.000Z

It's Chick Lit weekbut, before I get to the musical stories, I wanted to ask those ofyou who have used polls on your website, are they easy to do? Isthere a link to somewhere that will show me? I have something to askyou guys, and I think a poll will be the easiest way to do it. Anyhelp you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

I think it's safe tosay that this week's musical stories have got a bit of a sub-themegoing on. The best way to describe it would be 'better no man thanthe wrong man'. So grab your chocolate and a glass of wine, andenjoy. And no, I still didn't include I will survive :-)

The first entry wouldbe more of a short story than a novel. It's not very long but it saysall it has to say. It's really sweet but, like many short stories,there's a sting in its tail.

For some reason, thesecond song always reminds me of the musical A Star is Born.(Slightly off-topic, but don't you think that film could beconsidered a chick flick?) .

Update: There is a link below the second video for those who can't view the original one.

The final entry thisweek was always my 'goto' song when things didn't work out with aboy. Does anyone else think the lady doth protest slightly too much,though? Whatever, she's not about to let him see how much he's hurther. Thankfully, it's been a few years now since a box of tissues anda homicidal attitude accompanied my listening of this song :-)

I hope you had fun thisweek, but if it was all a bit girly for you, we're moving on to Warnext week.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here
Version for those that can't view the above

Lyrics here

Letting people down

2012-01-19T16:06:00.000Z

I mentioned in my lastpost that we spent last week working on college applications, and itwas way more time-consuming than expected. So much so that I missed adentist's appointment, and forgot to return my library books. Luckilyfor me, the dentist knows the family quite well, and it's the firsttime I've done it. As for the library books, well, I'm sure the finewill be put to good use.

There was somethingelse that I forgot last week though, something that wasn't quite soeasy to fix. I've been trying to write about this for the past fewdays but it's been really difficult. Back in December I volunteeredto do something for someone, something that was supposed to happenthis week. I received a confirmation email before Christmas, with theinstructions that I should contact the person a week before I wasgoing to help out, with some specific details. You know what I'mgoing to say. It completely slipped my mind. I emailed her lastFriday in a real panic, apologising and asking if there was anythingI could do to fix things but got no reply. I'm not really surprised.I let her down. Sorry to be so vague about what the favour was, but Idon't want to mention anyone else's name. It was to do with bloggingthough.

I've felt bad aboutthis all week, and it made me realise that I really need to get myact together. It's fine when my lack of planning and organisationmean I mess something else up for myself, but when it affects otherpeople, I need to change things.

So here's where I makemyself accountable. I will not agree to, or offer to do, anythingelse without making absolutely sure that I have the time to do it,and that I have the mechanics in place to remind me. If I win a book,I will not offer to review it until I've read it and am happy to doso. 'I'll review it sometime' is not an acceptable reply to give tosomeone. Also, I won't then put myself in the position of havingagreed to review a book that I don't feel positive about. If youmention your new book and I say 'it's going on my list', I mean that,(I always have), but being on my list does not necessarily mean thatI will be able to buy it in the immediate future, it means that whenmy circumstances change, yours will be one of the books that I wantto get hold of. If I agree to host you on a blog tour, or otherwisedo anything blogging-related, know that I will not let you down. IfI'm not sure I can fulfil what you've asked for, then I won't makethe offer.

I hate the way I'mfeeling right now, I don't want to let anyone down again.

Musical Stories 24: Literary

2012-01-14T10:15:00.000Z

It's been a rough weekin our house. Both the girls have had college applications tocomplete. One of them left it until the very last week, despitenumerous reminders. I'll write more on this at a later date, butlet's just say I'm really not looking forward to Universityapplications in two years time!

I have two limericksI'm trying to write as a result of a rash statement I made on lastweek's musical stories. I promise you'll see the results, I justcan't tell you when!

This week we're on theliterary category in our musical stories. This is the week where, yesthe story matters, but it's more about the beautiful words. All threeof these songs are particular favourites of mine, so I do hope youfind something special here.

I recently discoveredthat the writer of the first song wrote it about a 'composite of many people', including one C. S. Lewis. Isn't that what many of usdo with our characters? Combine traits, I mean, not write about C. S.Lewis necessarily!

What can I say aboutthe second one? I could choose any of this man's compositions forthis category. Perhaps it's my imagination but I always feel anundercurrent of melancholy flowing through the happiest day of thisgirl's life.

If ever there was astory with the message that every day is precious, and we shouldcelebrate. It's this last one. If you can, tell someone you love themtoday.

Next week, it's theturn of Chick Lit. And I'm still not posting I will Survive :-)

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Musical Stories 23: Crime

2012-01-07T07:24:00.000Z

Thank you guys for yourwonderful comments on my last post. I haven't answered them all yet,but I will do so over the weekend. I know I've said it before, and Iexpect I will say it again, but this really is an awesome community.For those of you who were asking, the story I referred to in my lastpost can be found here at Laura's blog, Daily Dodo.

After our holidaybreak, we're back to our regularly scheduled episode of MusicalStories. This week, it's crime and I've got three fantastic songs foryou. Although of course I would say that, wouldn't I?

The first story thisweek is a grim reminder that we really need to check our facts beforerushing in to mete out our own brand of vengeance. Or not, of course.In writing, we can make our characters do whatever we want, and nevermind the tragic consequences!

Our second storydefinitely leaves us with more questions than answers. How and whybeing the two most obvious. This may not be a story in the true senseof the word, but the first two lines alone make this a must-listen asfar as I'm concerned. When I grow up, I want to be able to writesimple, perfect description like this.

The final entry thisweek is one that I've considered including, and rejected, twicebefore. Not because it isn't a crime story, it is. Not because Idon't like it, I love it. But because I thought it was 'too' famous.Too obvious. Then I heard this version for the first time, and problemsolved. Something slightly different for you. It's a duet between theoriginal singer and his daughter, recorded in 2007, 30 years afterhis death. If there is one single person who listens to this todaywho can honestly tell me they have never heard any version of thissong, I will write a limerick with their name in it for them! (Ichose that because I can only ever write four lines, so it would be amajor task for me – I'm confident I won't have to do it though).

I had a lot of funchoosing this week, I hope you enjoy listening.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Insecure Writer's Support Group 4

2012-01-04T20:56:00.001Z

I can't believe thatthis month's meeting of The Insecure Writer's Group is here already.You know you're getting old when time flies, whether you're havingfun or not! If I haven't read your post yet, I'll catch up with youthis week.

For Christmas, as partof a lovely blogfest, (a sort of creative 'Secret Santa'), I wrote astory for someone. I tailored this story specifically to her and herblog. Most people taking part in the SantaFest didn't know who theirgifts were from. My recipient did, as she was the organiser,delivering all the gifts, so there was no way for her not to know whohad sent hers to her. I didn't have a problem with that. Although thestory was a simple little thing, I was pleased with it, and it was anice way of thanking her for her friendship.

A few days later myfriend posted the story on her blog. I was really flattered, as I'mpretty sure that meant she liked it. She didn't say who had writtenit, but offered me a chance to 'out' myself in the comments. Icouldn't do it. Nobody said anything mean about the story, the commentswere good ones, but I just couldn't bring myself to admit that I wasthe writer. I thought after I had sent my first draft to anotherblogger before Christmas for a critique, that I was over this. Itseems, however, that I have progressed only as far as letting oneperson see my work. I know every little helps, but I really need toget over this ridiculous fear of letting people see what I write, orI'm never going to get anywhere.

Did any of you havethis problem in the beginning? What's the best way to get over it? Idon't know what the problem is, it isn't even that I'm worried aboutcriticism. The environment I'm in right now, us, is such that I knowany criticism would be useful and kindly worded. Any advice would begratefully received!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T00:47:00.000Z

It's New Year's Eve andtime for my last musical post of the year. I have three songs for youthis week that are each beautiful in their own way, and each, to me,tells a story of our hopes and dreams for the coming year.

The first song shouldmore accurately be classed as a Christmas song, but I knew I had toinclude it this week instead, as it definitely represents a messageof hope for the future. The video also makes me cry. Every singletime I watch it.

The title of the secondsong will probably tell you instantly why I've included this one. Thelyrics will just illustrate the point :-)

Finally, just to provethat I'm a traditionalist at heart, I've included the one song thatwill be sung around the world as the clocks strike midnight.

Thank you to the peoplewho have welcomed and supported me in the past nine months. I've hadsuch fun, and learned so much. I've shed a few tears for some of you,quietly behind my keyboard, and cheered for others. I can't wait todo it all again next year.

Happy New Year!

It's a good job other people have great ideas

2011-12-28T21:34:00.000Z

You know what issupposed to be here? My entry for Heather's competition* over at My Demon Spirits. In fact, I had planned to post it last Monday. However, you can't post what isn't written, and right now I've gotnothing. Instead, I bring you a couple of public serviceannouncements.

*The deadline mentioned in this post is 19th December, but Heather has kindly extended it to 31st December.

I'm pretty sure thatyou're all following SB Jones Publishing but, just in case you didn'trealise, he released Guardian, the second novel in his EternalGateway trilogy, on December 15^th. Go here to see how youcan tweet to be in with a chance to win a copy until December 30^th.Don't worry if you haven't read Requiem, the first in the series. SBis offering everyone a free ecopy from Amazon, also until December30^th. You can download it for the Kindle, or for theKindle app (if, like me, you still haven't got a real Kindle andyou're pretending that your pc is an ereader).

This is a link toAmazon USA

This is a link toAmazon UK

Have you got a romantic'short' just looking for the right home? Jami Gold on herParanormal Author blog is offering a great chance for writers. I'lllet her explain it herself, as she did in her post here:

Severaleditors from Entangled Publishing will be visiting my blog in thesecond week of January to take pitches for shorter length works. They’re interested in stories with strong romantic elementsthat end in a “happily ever after” or a “happily for now.” They’re looking for stories in the 10-60K word range and areopen to many genres:

Contemporary
Historical
Romantic Thrillers
Science Fiction, Dystopian, Steampunk
Paranormal and Urban Fantasy
Fantasy

Ifyou have stories already completed that would fit those guidelines,get them polished. If you have ideas along those lines or ifyou’ve thought about attempting a short story, get writing. (Another great thing about short stories is they’re quick towrite and revise.)

Theeditors have promised they’ll make at least one request from thosewho pitch on my blog, and for the pitch that excites them the most,they’ll offer detailed feedback.

So, if this sounds likesomething you might be interested in, check out Jami's blog beforeJanuary 10^th and make sure you get your chance to pitch.Good luck!

In the meantime, if youneed me, I'll be here in the corner trying to turn a vague idea intoa 500 word story.

A musical Christmas to you all

2011-12-24T01:43:00.000Z

By the time you read this it will probably be Christmas Eve and, in the spirit of the season, I'm suspending Musical Stories for two weeks. This week, in a move that is neither surprising nor original, you get Christmas songs :-)

I love me some Last Christmas by Wham!, and Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl is probably my favourite Christmas song of all time, but I've gone for two songs that, in my opinion, aren't played enough, and a third that I heard for the first time only this morning and knew I had to share. It was hard deciding which one to push out to make room for it, I can tell you :-)

The first song has been covered by many many people, and I spent a lot of time listening to various versions with the intention of bringing you something different. In the end though, I had to admit defeat. Nobody sings it quite as well as this woman!

I've loved the second song since I first heard it as a little girl. At that time, it never struck me as an odd pairing - I was about eight - I'd never heard of either of the singers. Since then, I've decided that whoever thought of putting these two together was a genius.

The last song was one I heard for the first time this morning on Sarah Wesson's blog, Earful of Cider. I think it struck a chord with me instantly, because my parents live abroad, along with my brother and his wife and three children. I feel the distance especially at this time of year. I wish I could be there with them, drinking white wine in the sun!

Whatever you celebrate, have a wonderful holiday. I truly hope that all of you can be with people you want to be with, doing things you want to.

Musical Stories 22: YA

2011-12-17T08:44:00.000Z

I've had a cold for afew days which seems to have progressed to some kind of flu-likething. I sat down to rest on the sofa last night, and woke up this morning at five am. I was covered with thespecial blankie that we only use when we're sick. Nearby was a glassof water, nasal spray, flu tablets, a box of tissues and the blistexcream for chapped lips. The kitchen, (which I hadn't cleaned), wasspotless, and there was even a cup and teabag laid out next to the full kettle. Ilove my wonderful family :-)

This week's MusicalStories are from the YA genre, and we're hearing it from the boysthis week.

I heard the first songon Leigh Covington's blog, Something to Write About. I know thateverything we go through when we are young makes us who we are todaybut, be honest, wouldn't you love to go back and give your youngerself just a few words of wisdom to make the transition a little bitsmoother? I know I certainly would :-)

I just want to shakethe boy in our second story and tell him to look at what he's got,right under his nose. Also, Stacy honey, never bring a boy home onthe first date!

Our final entry thisweek wasn't supposed to be this one, but as soon as I heard it on J.A. Bennett's A Book, A Girl, A Journey I knew I had to include it.It's less of a story, more of a chapter, but as I listened to it Icould picture him and her laying on their backs on a beautiful day,seeing pictures in the sky and making plans for the future. Justperfect.

Next week's chapter ofMusical Stories is supposed to be crime, but who wants that on theFriday before Christmas? Musical Stories will be taking a two weekbreak, but if you like Christmas songs, come back next week for someof my favourites :-)

I'm supposed to begoing shopping today, but I'm going to relax at home and not worryabout everything I still need to do until Monday. I hope you all havea wonderful weekend.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Deja Vu Blogfest

2011-12-16T10:09:00.001Z

This week's Musical Stories will be posted tonight, but today you get an extra post. This is my contribution to the Deja Vu blogfest. Click here for details.

I chose this post because I've decided that I might start entering competitions next year. This is my reminder of what not to do. Yes, this post is absolutely true. It's the story of my one and only entry to a writing comptetion :-)

First posted May 4 2011

How not to win a writing competition

20 easy steps to guarantee failure

1. Find out about a competition ten days before the closing date and convince yourself that you can produce something of a high enough standard to enter, even though you rarely write short stories because you have trouble with the 'short' part.

2. Spend the next five days writing your story, even though you're not one hundred percent sure that you've managed to interpret one of the required elements correctly. Edit and re-edit until you've made it as tight as you possibly can.

3. Congratulate yourself on being 1000 words below the required maximum word length.

4. Re-read the rules and discover that you're 1500 words over the maximum word length.

5. Spend four days trying to reduce the word-count without destroying the original story.

6. Read the finished story immediately because you don't have time to let it sit like you'd planned.
Realise that you now have something so flat that it reads like an example on a 'how not to write' blog.

7. Read it to your beloved partner, even though he has a history of sending you back to the drawing board, because you need another opinion and he's the only one around.

8. Listen to, and agree with, his suggestions which involve you going back to the drawing board.

9. Struggle with writing a new opening. Write a rubbish one for now just so you can continue. Realise 1000 words into your new effort that you're boring yourself. Screw up latest effort and throw it across the room.

10. Go to bed.

11. Wake up the day before the competition deadline determined to get this right. Spend the day making some progress, realise that you're going to be working late into the night.

12. Spend the evening watching DVDs with your daughters because they came home a day early after being away for a week and they want to spend time with you. Go to bed late.

13. Set your alarm clock for 9am. Dream that your competition entry should have been posted instead of submitted online so that when your alarm goes off you think you've missed the deadline. Go back to sleep.

14. Jump out of bed in a panic at 10.30am, realise that you have no time to finish your rewrite.

15. Have a quick read through of your original entry. Decide that it would sound better in present tense. Rewrite and do a quick spell check. Realise you have 15 minutes to deadline, so submit story without even a read through.

16. Be too ashamed to even read it back once it's been submitted as you know there are formatting errors, and probably a ton of typos and it's too late to do anything about it.

17. Resolve never ever to submit anything to a competition again that you are not proud of, and thank the writing deity of your choice that no-one, except the judges, will ever know what you did.

18. Hope that the judges of a competition for a TV station will never judge any other writing competitions and be glad that you don't have an unusual name that would stick in a judge's mind.

19. Make a note to check the competition website on June 1st to read the three that did actually make the short-list.

20. Go and work on your novel.

Contests and blogfests and corn, oh my!

2011-12-13T09:54:00.006Z

The family trip to the art college on Saturday was a huge success. Practically from the moment she walked in, Diva was sure this was where she wanted to be next year. Each new thing she learned about the studies involved only strengthened her resolve. She's already working on extra pieces for her portfolio to show her diversity. Fingers crossed that she's accepted. They accept 200 students a year and last year had 420 applicants so it isn't a foregone conclusion, but at least she knows what she's working towards. I wish we could say the same for poor Blue. The school she has set her heart on accepts about 20 students from the UK and have over 500 applicants. So far, we haven't found any other viable schools that offer the International Baccalaureate rather than A' levels, but we keep searching! Send us positive thoughts if you would :-)

I have some interesting things to tell you about today, so let's start with some contests:

Medeia Sharif is offering a book of your choice from the Book Depository. This is an international contest which closes on 31st December. Click here to enter.

Joanne at Whole Latte Life is offering a $20 ebook gift card for her lucky winner, but this one closes tomorrow so be sure to click here today to enter!

Here's a nice one. Heather at My Demon Spirits is holding a competition for the best short holiday story (it doesn't have to be Christmas related). The closing date for entries to be posted on your blog is 19th December and she's offering three prizes including a $25 Amazon gift card. Go here for all the details.

Now for some blogfests:

A nice easy one to start. Katie Mills at Creepy Query Girl is co-hosting the Deja Vu blogfest, along with Nicole Ducleroir, Lydia Kang and DL Hammons. Click on one of the links to sign up, and repost one of your old posts on 16th December. Easy, and a good chance to remind us of something you might be particularly proud of :-)

The Wrap It Up blogfest is being organised by David Powers King, J. A. Bennett and Leigh Covington. Sign up before 16th December, then write something in less than 300 words for somebody, (real or imaginary), and post it on your blog before the closing date. There are prizes for this one. Click on one of the links for full details.

Finally, if all this Christmas joy is just too much for you, here's a bloghop especially for you. Grumpy Bulldog is offering his very own Bah Humbug Blahg fest. Hit the link to sign up before 15th December then, on that day, simply answer the question: What are the 12 things I hate most about the holiday season?

Before I go, I promised you corn. Enjoy :-)

Musical Stories 21: SciFi

2011-12-09T23:45:00.003Z

Thank you all for your kind comments and suggestions on my last post. It really meant a lot, and stopped me feeling sorry for myself. Things are moving on in the editing department, but more about that some other time! Tomorrow, Techno and I are off to visit an Art College with Diva to see if it will be a good fit for her next year, so wish us luck!

After our recent special editions, it's time to begin the third series of Musical Stories. As usual we're starting with SciFi. Enjoy :-)

I'm almost certain that somebody recommended the first song to me. Unfortunately I didn't make a note, so if it was you could you please let me know so I can credit you? On the surface, this is a cheerful, cheesy song but, listen closer, and you will realise it's actually very sad. (It's also a retelling of another, very famous, SciFi song).

If you watch Breaking Bad, I have two words for you: Gale Boetticher.

The second story comes at the usual 'humans meet aliens' idea from a slightly different angle. The reaction our visitor has, after seeing how people on Earth behave towards one another, is one that I think we would all have now and then if we had the choice.

This week's final song is a boy's fears that he is no longer exciting enough for his love when she returns from an amazing journey. He points out some of the good things there are on Earth too. I'm not sure I'd include fried chicken but, hey, whatever works!

Next week it's the turn of YA literature. Have a wonderful weekend :-)

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Insecure Writer's Support Group 3

2011-12-07T21:50:00.001Z

It's time for this month's post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Thanks, as ever, to Alex Cavanaugh for putting this together. Here are the participants if you'd like to read more.

So, what am I thinking about this month? If you read my last post, you already know my feelings about editing. This is kind of an extension of that.

I'm not sure I actually have a full length novel in me.

Before I started my first novel, I assumed I would write long and have to delete thousands of words. At school, my stories were always longer than everyone else's. At uni, my essays were double the length they needed to be. I used to cut and paste them. I mean, literally. I would cut paragraphs up, move them around and stick them onto paper. My dissertation, which had a 16k limit, started life at 40k words. So I resigned myself to having to kill a lot of darlings.

I wish. I've written four stories, (I can't bring myself to call them novels), ranging from 36,000 to 55,000 words. I know there is stuff that needs to be added, but there's stuff that needs to be removed too. I think my problem is that, whilst I have good ideas for main plots, I don't have sub-plots. I tell myself to concentrate on the stories and not to worry about the length, but if I do that then I feel like I'm giving up on publication. Which isn't so bad, publication still seems like pie in the sky to me right now anyway, but then I feel like a fraud, being here with all of you, having this blog.

Perhaps these are just not the right stories, but I love them. In the right hands, I think they could be really good. If only they were longer.

Starting with the basics

2011-12-05T23:31:00.001Z

Now that NaNoWriMo is finished, it's time to turn my mind back to editing. I had just started to edit one of my stories at the end of October, and I thought that I would continue that whilst writing something else. I realised very quickly that it wasn't going to happen. Still, another month of leaving it to sit won't have hurt it at all.

I'm after some recommendations, if any of you have any, as to some good books that might help with the editing process. I've got a ton of posts from around the web, saved in my editing folder but, faced with a mass of my words, I'm really struggling to know how to do this. I know that you should leave the small stuff until last. What's the use of correcting punctuation and deleting adjectives if you're going to rewrite great swathes of the story? Still, it's those little things that I find myself focusing on because I'm not exactly sure how to go about fixing the big picture.

What's frustrating me is that sometimes I'm sure there's a good story buried among the rubble, I'm just not sure how to find it. I'm scared I'm going to end up as one of those people who just write story after story, and never edit any of them. I have four now, and not one of them has had a proper edit. To steal someone else's analogy, I've painted all the bedrooms before I've built the staircases. Can anyone help me with a good carpenter?

Musical Stories Special Edition: He's just not that into you ...

2011-12-03T06:14:00.002Z

Sorry I've not been around this week. It's mostly due to the end of NaNo and joining the beta test of a new online game, Star Wars, The Old Republic (WoW in space and absolutely amazing). I'm hoping to catch up with your blogs over the weekend and, from next week, I'll be blogging three times a week for the foreseeable future.

This week is the last special edition of Musical Stories before we start series three. I know that 'he's just not that into you' is not a genre but the title was too good to pass up! I'm not sure there's a category for broken romance, but perhaps someone could put me right on that score.

I've broken my own most rigid rule this week. The last of these songs is over eight minutes long. I had to include it though, as it is one of the best examples of this kind of story I have ever heard. I've tried to balance it out by choosing two other songs that are shorter than usual. I hope you enjoy them.

My first choice has to be the ultimate demonstration to a woman that yes, it really is over and he's not going to change his mind. And, even if he does, girl you really don't want him back!

For the second song, you just know he still loves her, but he's going to keep telling himself he doesn't until he believes it. I actually wanted to give you Elvis Costello's version of this song, which is incredible, but I couldn't find it anywhere online. So you get another singer who I love instead.

The final choice is a truly epic tale. If you get the time to watch the video, you should. The interaction between the singers is great. A true cautionary tale for loved-up (or 'lusted-up') teens everywhere!

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend. I'm looking forward to catching up with you all soon.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Musical Stories Special Edition: Memoir

2011-11-25T23:37:00.003Z

Happy Friday everyone. I hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday, and that those of you who went shopping today grabbed a few bargains, and no bruises.

You might remember last week that I said I would showcase a few Musical Stories that didn't quite fit any of our genres before I got started on the third series. I think today's three could all be classed as the memoir genre. (I wish I'd thought to include Memoir when I started this!) I'm sure I don't need to state this, but I will anyway, I'm not suggesting that these are real memoirs, rather they are the stories of the people depicted in the songs.

You get an added bonus with the first song as the best sound quality version I could find is played against a backdrop of scenes from Thelma and Louise. There are other versions of this song, but I don't believe anyone could sing it better than this woman, although I suspect the singer's memoir would be way more exciting than anything the character in this song could experience.

I first heard the second song when I was too young to understand the words, and it has remained a favourite of mine ever since. I bet there's not a single one of us who hasn't, at least once, wanted to give it to someone with both barrels :-)

My final choice for this week is a bit of a self indulgent one. Yesterday was the twentieth anniversary of the death of someone who I consider to be the greatest showman ever. You're still missed mate.

I hope you enjoy these, we'll have another special edition next week and then we'll start series three.

Lyrics here

If you want to know how Harper Valley was faring 15 years later, here's your answer.

Lyrics here

Stupid Comments

2011-11-19T02:57:00.001Z

If you're looking for this week's musical stories, it's here, but you can't comment on it. Too many people were unable to comment on my posts so, much as I loved the comment system I was using, I uninstalled it. In doing so, I lost all comments since 16th September. I don't know how I messed it up, and I'm really upset about it but from now on there shouldn't be any problems.

Musical Stories 20: Romance

2011-11-18T23:55:00.005Z

I messed up and you can't comment on this post. There is a newer post above it if you would like to leave a comment. Yes, I'm an idiot :-)

Thank you so much to all of you for your prayers and good wishes for Diva. She is absolutely fine now. She went to school today dressed like Annie Hall, which is a style she thinks she has invented, (for 'dress down' day), excited to tell all her friends about her trip to the hospital. Oh, the resilience of youth! She doesn't read my blog but I did tell her that all my friends were thinking of her and she wanted me to say thank you from her too. So, thank you from Diva!

By the way, I can't believe I forgot to mention this, but I was interviewed over on Emily's blog, Get Busy Writing. It was last Monday, but I thought I'd mention it in case you haven't discovered Emily's blog yet.

It's hard to believe, but we're at the end of our second journey through our musical stories, which means we end on a romantic note. The choices this week are a reminder that the course of true love can be anything but smooth.

The first song is proof, if proof were needed, that guys are just as scared as girls of getting it wrong and spoiling things. If you're not sure what to say, say nothing and enjoy the moment.

Song number two is the sad tale of what happens when you fall in love with someone you shouldn't. You see them when you can, instead of when you want.

For the final choice, the whole world knows this guy is in love, now, if he would only admit it to himself! If that description didn't give it away, I'll be very surprised.

So there it is, the end of series two. I do hope you've enjoyed it. There might be a third series, but for the next couple of weeks I'm going to showcase a few songs that didn't quite make it. These are usually ones that I think have a great story, but if they were books, I wouldn't quite know where to shelve them :-)

I'm thankful

2011-11-17T11:39:00.002Z

Blue has something wrong with her, medically. It's still undiagnosed, and it's not major, but she suffers at times with her health. In contrast, Diva has the constitution of an Ox so it was a shock last night, when Diva came home from school and complained of having had pins and needles all up her left side during the bus ride home. It had started in her arm, moved up to her shoulder and travelled across her face. Her mouth and gums had gone completely numb. When she was talking to me, she sounded as though her tongue was swollen, and her speech was slurred. The pins and needles disappeared, but her arm had gone numb, she couldn't feel anything. I phoned the Doctor, and they said they would see her in the morning but to phone if anything changed in the next half an hour. I'd barely put the phone down when Diva began to panic that her arm was burning. I was back on the phone straight away and they agreed to see her in half an hour. Five minutes later, her arm was no longer burning but it was too heavy to lift, and very cold. I couldn't feel any difference in temperature, but it was obviously happening. That's when she told me that earlier, her leg had also gone numb and she struggled to walk for a few minutes.

By the time we went to the Doctor, most of the symptoms had subsided, but she now had a headache on one side of her head, which seemed to be moving round, spiking, fading, moving then spiking again. Lights were hurting her eyes and she felt sick. Outwardly, I was very calm but inside I was panicking. The symptoms seemed to be coming and going so fast and I had never seen anything like this before. I'll be honest I was really scared. After examining her and doing some tests, the Doctor called the paediatricians ward at our local hospital and told them to expect us. He told us not to go on the bus but to take a cab. This is the point where I really grew frightened.

I'll cut the rest of this short, but some of you may already know what the diagnosis was. The hospital (and the Doctor, it turns out, although he didn't say) are positive it was a migraine with aura. The type of aura (all the symptoms before the headache) is rare but still common enough to diagnose easily. They can't officially diagnose a migraine as there needs to be more than one to call it that but they are certain that's what it was. Strong painkillers eased the headache enough to the point where I was allowed to take her home rather than her staying overnight as they had originally wanted. This morning she has no more than a mild headache.

You may think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, and maybe I am, but last night, for a couple of hours I thought there was something seriously wrong with her. Don't get me wrong, I'm not underplaying the severity of migraines but they can be managed, they are not life-threatening, and she may not get another. If she does, we'll know what it is and be prepared. The things that were going through my mind – stroke, poisoning, tumour – are a lot harder to deal with.

I commented this morning on a post asking what I am thankful for. Today, I am thankful that last night my daughter had a migraine.

Musical Stories 19: Horror

2011-11-11T22:33:00.002Z

Life's been a bit hectic this week, but I couldn't miss my regular chapter of Musical Stories, so here I am. Before we get to that though, a very brief update on how NaNo is going for me. In a word, badly. Apparently, I'm set to achieve my 50,000 words on June 15, 2012. Hopefully, I'll pick up this weekened though as Phil from A Time to Phil and I are doing one of our regular team 10k events, where we write 10k words in a weekend. This is our third time, and we've always managed to push each other over the finish line in the past, so wish us luck for this time too!

This week's Musical Stories are from the horror genre. I've gone for a slightly more tongue in cheek theme this time, rather than out and out chills, but I hope you enjoy them all the same.

The first one is a great example of the writing 'rule' where everyone should have a motive for what they do, even the bad guys. This gentleman's motivation is that he loves his work!

I love the second story, it's a wonderfully creepy YA tale. If it was made into a film I have no doubt that one of the boys would be changed into a screaming girl, but I like it better this way.

For my final choice, what happens if you're turned into a zombie and your co-worker won't speak to you? Why, you send him a memo of course! This song is fun, as well as being creepy but - and this is a serious warning – If you're one of those who can't watch The Walking Dead, don't watch the video. Minimise it and just listen to the song, I really don't want to gross anybody out.

Next week, we reach the end of our journey for the second time and we'll end on a romantic note. In the meantime, have a lovely weekend, and don't have nightmares!

Musical Stories 18: Children's Literature

2011-11-05T09:12:00.002Z

I'd like to tell you that I'm late with this week's Musical Stories because I was hard at work writing or editing, but I'd be lying. The truth is, I went to bed at 8pm last night. One of these days I'll find a decent sleep pattern!

Better late than never, this week's Musical Stories are Children's Literature. They're all quite different, but each is special in its own way.

I love number one almost as much for the video as for the song itself. The singer mimics the mannerisms of a small child beautifully. I hope you're able to watch the video as well as listen, and you'll see what I mean.

Number two is a reminder that the world can be a harsh confusing place, and sometimes children have to find this out early. This one never fails to bring a lump to my throat.

The final song for this week was recommended by Margot Kingberg from Confessions of a Mystery Novelist. I do have other songs that, perhaps, tell more of an actual story than this one but it was so beautiful I just had to include it. (Sorry if there's an advert at the beginning, it was the best version).

Next week is the penultimate chapter in this series and it's horror, so be prepared to be spooked!

And we're off!

2011-11-01T00:03:00.003Z

It's 12:04 am. I might as well start while I'm feeling enthusiastic :-)

I'm registered as Sarah Pearson if anyone wants to find me. There are a few of us, but I'm using the same picture as my blog one.

This is going to become my theme tune, not just for NaNo, but until I get published.

I nabbed this from Sommer Leigh's blog Tell Great Stories. If you liked that, she has more here.

Best of luck to everyone taking part, officially or unofficially!

Musical Stories 17: Fantasy

2011-10-28T23:51:00.003+01:00

Wow, can you believe I've been running this feature for over seventeen weeks, and we're almost at the end of the second series? This week, we're revisiting the Fantasy genre, and I've got three very different songs for you.

The first one is by special request. I mentioned last time round that this artist had been on the shortlist, thanks to Patsy Collins who introduced me to her, but hadn't made the cut, and a couple of people were disappointed. This song in particular was mentioned as a favourite by Jenny of Fulfilling Dreams. So, especially for you, Jenny :-)

I love number two. Pity the poor Angel who's been on Earth for years, witnessing misery and devastation and unable to stop it all, all he wants to do is go home.

Number three is fantasy of a different kind. What happens when you mix a wonderful story with recreational drugs? You get this!

So , that was our fantasy week. Next week it's children's literature.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Some very Special People

2011-10-26T23:49:00.006+01:00

I'm the first to admit that I'm really really bad when it comes to passing on awards. One of the reasons for this is that, other than Musical Stories on Fridays, I only post once a week and something always seems to come up when I'm planning an award post. This is partly why I'm planning to post an extra day a week. I probably won't start doing this until December because of NaNo, but I've got so much great stuff that I find, and want to share, that it's something I need to do.

That was all a long-winded introduction to tell you about a really special award that I received a while ago. Julie at rosewood pencil box gave me an award that she and J at Concrete Pieces of Soul had designed. (Well technically J's talented fiancé designed it, but you know what I mean). They've named the award 'The thumbs up from Skunk award' since “we all feel like stinky, stinky skunks some days” and there are people who “make us feel (and smell) a lot better”. I don't know about the smelling part, but there are definitely people who make me feel better :-)

Thank you so much to Julie, and I'll let her explain the award:

Since the Random-Things-About-Yourself trope is getting a little tired, J and I decided to make this award different. Of course, still thank and link back to the person who gave it to you. Thumbs Up from Skunk is about confidence, believing in yourself, so we think it'd be great for you to list one Thing About Yourself That Pleases You, one thing you LOVE. It could be anything, from your writing, to a good meal you had, a conversation with a witty cut-up... something good. To get the ball rolling, J and I are passing the award onto five people a piece, but you can give it to as many or as few as you like. You can even hold onto it, if you'd rather, until a particularly uplifting something occurs, and then pass it on accordingly. Or, as J says in her post, “until someone comes along and changes your universe.” I love that.

Okay, something about myself that pleases me? Fifteen days ago (not that I'm counting!), I started a diet, and I have stuck to a sensible eating plan instead of some get-skinny-quick crash diet. There's a long way to go, and it's not something I'm going to bore you all with by blogging about (although I might, occasionally), but right now, it's something I'm proud of.

Now for the hard bit. Obviously, there are so many people I would like to pass this on to, so I decided to pass it on to people who either inspire me, or make me feel good, without knowing that they do so. Feel free not to display it or pass it on if you choose not to, (at least one of these people doesn't display awards), I just wanted you to know that you make a difference. I managed to narrow the list to six, so in no particular order:

E. R. King at Get Busy Writing and

Vic Caswell at hairnets and hopes

Emily and Vic, thank you for being my friends. Your emails cheer me up, and you both have the ability to make me laugh even when you don't know that's exactly what I need :-)

Margot Kinberg at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist

Margot, you write a fabulous crime fiction blog and I've expanded my knowledge of this genre so much since I've been reading it. More than that though, you are kind and patient and you never mind when I make stupid comments. Your kind emails have stayed with me, thank you.

Denise at L'Aussie Writing

For making me feel that you believe in me, and for having faith that one day I might be able to write a decent romantic scene :-)

Michelle at Hot Pink Combat Boots

For your sense of humour and fun blog, (the name of which suits you perfectly), in the face of constant moves and a difficult job. I admire the way that you get on and do things that others only think about.

Brooke Busse at Paper Mountain

Because every piece of flash fiction you write makes me want to know more about the characters. I think you are incredibly talented and I cannot wait for the day I can buy something published by you. Your writing inspires me.

You six, you inspire me, and make me feel good. So now you know :-)

I apologise for the weird spacing, font size and everything else. I've typed this post three times. Blogger hates me.

Musical Stories 16: War

2011-10-21T23:53:00.002+01:00

First, hello to all the people who have followed me on Twitter. I'm pretty sure I'm following you all back. I'm still a bit quiet on there, but I'm slowly finding my feet. Thank you for making me feel so welcome.

Our stories this week are all about War. So what have I chosen?

Number one is one of my slight cheats as it's less of a story and more of a character study. Still, it's all about the writing, no?

I know I said this week would be less girly than last week but I still managed to sneak a ballad in. This is a sweet, very sad story, that actually brought a lump to my throat, (although I think I've already mentioned I cry very easily). I found this song on someone's blog a few weeks ago but neglected to write their name down so if it was you, please let me know so I can credit you.

This week's final song is a definite cross-genre story, just right for this time of year. By the way, I refuse to be held responsible if the chorus gets stuck in your head!

Next week, it's all about the Fantasy!

Broadening my horizons

2011-10-19T23:50:00.004+01:00

Well, I've finally gone and done it. I've joined Twitter. Actually, I did it last week, I just haven't tweeted anything yet. Or told anyone I'm there, until now. So far, I'm following three people and watching two. (These are people who came up on my google account). I haven't really got to grips with it yet, mainly because the little bird on my task bar who is supposed to turn red when someone tweets only does it about one time in three. I'm sure I'll work it out soon though. I'm SarahPearson9 if you're interested, but I wouldn't bother just yet. I do have one follower though, Techie bless his heart, which is funny because he doesn't actually tweet either. Also, if he wants to say something to me he could just turn round. At some point, I'll try and work out how to put links on my blog. At some point.

Also, I'm on Goodreads. I joined ages ago, but I've just started using it in the last few weeks. It seemed a better idea than my 'books I want to read' page, which I never remember to update. Join me there if you like.

Lastly, who's doing NaNo this year? I wasn't going to. I was just going to use it as a challenge to write 50k words in November, but then Sommer Leigh of Tell Great Stories (who's running a series of great posts about it) asked me why I wasn't actually signing up. I don't actually have an answer, so I think I'll probably just take the plunge.

Before I go, I just wanted to let you know that I'm probably going to revert to the old comment system. I've had at least four people let me know that they were unable to comment on my last post. I've been looking at it and I can't see why, so it'll be all change again soon.

Update: Apparently, if you click on the actual post title, the comments box will appear. If you still have problems, could you please email me and let me know?

To finish, here's a little something I nabbed from Sarah Wesson over at Earful of Cider, who got it from I Can Has Cheezburger. This is just brilliant :-)

see more So Much Pun

Musical Stories 15: Chick Lit

2011-10-15T18:49:00.003+01:00

I know I'm a day late with this week's Musical Stories, but I wanted to give you all a chance to enjoy my awesome selections for the Pay It Forward blogfest. That's my story anyway! Talking of the blogfest, welcome to all my new readers and visitors that have found their way here. I'm well and truly over the two hundred readers mark now, so thank you!

This week is Chick Lit and I'm going to start with one that I was in two minds about posting. It has a very definite story line with a woman protagonist but I wonder how many of you would be able to warm to an MC like this. I think she could be made into a sympathetic character, but it might take some skill. This is one of those times when the plot triumphs over the characters, I think!

I had a hard time at school, and a wise person once told me that I should think kindly of those Queen Bees giving me grief, because their popularity at school was the best things were ever going to be for them. I didn't understand then, but the second song explains it perfectly.

My final song of the week epitomises our strong chick lit heroine. It also demonstrates that a happy ending can take more than the obvious form!

Don't worry if this is all a bit too girlie for you, next week's genre is War :-)

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Paying It Forward

2011-10-14T17:44:00.003+01:00

If you're looking for this week's Musical Stories, they'll be up later. For now, I wanted to take part in the Pay It Forward Blogfest that Alex Cavanaugh, and Matt from the Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment have devised. The idea is that we each choose three blogs to introduce you to, blogs that we love, and if you don't already know them, feel free to check them out.

Once you've done that, Click on Matt or Alex's list above for a full list of blogs taking part if you fancy finding plenty more great new blogs.

If you're taking part in this, then you'll know how hard it is to pick just three. I've finally managed, and I hope you love them.

Linda G at Visiting Reality is funny and smart and has plenty of sass. Also, every week on hump day there are camels. How can you resist?

Michael Offutt from SLC Kismet is a man with opinions, which he's more than happy to share. I don't always agree with him, but he often makes me think. Plus, he has excellent taste in TV programmes :-)

Roland Yeomans of Writing in the Crosshairs writes the most beautiful prose, and has a wonderful imagination. On top of that, he's kind and supportive and will reach out a helping hand to anyone in the blogosphere who needs it.

So there you go, three out of hundreds. Please go and say hello if you get the chance.

South of Charm with Elliot Grace

2011-10-10T08:42:00.007+01:00

I'm absolutely thrilled today to be bringing you an interview with Elliot Grace of So close, but ... This is the fourth stop on Elliot's tour for his wonderful book South of Charm.

This is an excerpt, courtesy of Goodreads:

We're huddled in the far corner of my bedroom. Arms wrapped around our knees in the dark. The approaching footsteps grow louder. Ominous thuds. Our mother, but somehow not. She's standing outside my door. We listen to the creak of the hinges. My sister clenches my arm. "She's coming," she whispers. "She's broken."

You can buy the book from Amazon UK Kindle edition

also from Amazon .com Kindle edition or paperback edition

Now let's see what Elliot has to say.

Describe South of Charm in your own words

While South of Charm doesn't really fit into the general selection of genres available, (something I'm actually proud to admit), I liken it to a coming of age story in the mold of King's Stand By Me, or McCammon's A Boy's Life. This is a story of small town innocence, of the drama surrounding a young boy and his sister, fallen victim to personal tragedy, and of a certain magic that only happens in neighborhoods where last names aren't necessary, and front doors are left unlocked after hours.

From starting to write, to getting published, how long did the process take?

I began South of Charm while laid off from my day job at that time, then continued on after being called back to work, for fear of losing the “groove” as my wife likes to call it. It took me three years to complete a manuscript worthy of speaking of. After signing with Wooster Books, revisions, rewrites, and final edits burned up another eighteen months, followed by six months of waiting. Needless to say, in this biz, patience is an absolute virtue.

Why was this the story you had to tell? It can't have been an easy one.

While I've played around with other story ideas, this was the one with the strongest character drama, the one I felt carried the best message of hope. This was the story that made my wife cry, which was most convincing of all.

Which character was the hardest to write?

Danny's mother proved the most difficult simply because her character demanded the most attention to detail. It took several re-rewrites to figure out her illness, her thought processes as her family crumbled around her. She's been the most challenging character I've dealt with to date.

Were there any favourite parts to write?

Growing up surrounded in athletic ventures, and now as a youth ball coach, penning the baseball scenes were a blast to write. I've since begun work on several new projects involving sports related themes, and enjoying every minute of it ;)

What, if any, advice would you give Danny?

What a great question! To be quite honest, following the end of Danny's struggles, and the respect demanded of him upon the final decision he makes, I think perhaps it would be me going to him for advice, as opposed to the other way around.

Being a regular reader to Elliot's blog, I expected this book to be well written and I expected it to tell a great story. I also expected it to be a cute MG book that would while away a few undemanding hours. You know what they say, two out of three ain't bad. This is not an easy book, but it is a rewarding one, and the characters will stay with you long after you've read the last page. I thoroughly recommend it. I also recommend this wonderful review from Anne Gallagher at Piedmont Writer.

Elliot's also holding a contest with some great prizes. Go here to find out how to enter and what you can win. The details are below his tour itinerary.

Thank you so much to Elliot for allowing me to share the fun of his book tour, and also for being my first ever ~~guinea-pig~~ interviewee.

Musical Stories 14: Literary

2011-10-07T23:49:00.005+01:00

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my last post. I know people always say this, but it really does make a difference knowing that I'm not alone, and that you all understand and have my back.

It's literary week again on Musical Stories. This is the one week in the series when, whilst story is still important, the real beauty is in the words themselves. From today, there will be a link below each video to the lyrics of the songs. This is for the people who've told me that they can't view the videos, so they can still join in.

Apparently the first song has been used in a film I haven't seen, (I gleaned that from watching another video), but I've chosen a version with lyrics instead. I'm not hating on the film, I just don't want sparkly vampires to distract from the words :-)

For the second song, originally I was going to pick Hallelujah but I decided at the last minute to go with another Leonard Cohen song which, in my opinion, has equally wonderful lyrics but doesn't get the love it deserves.

The last song is a recommendation from SBJones. Thanks SB. There are two videos for this song on YouTube. The other one is almost seven minutes long so I've picked the shorter one. I should warn you though, that the video for this song was made to highlight awareness of human trafficking. As such, you may find it disturbing, although there are no major scenes of violence. I suggest you play the song with your screen minimised if you prefer not to watch. The song itself was actually written as a tribute to a band member's Mother who died. I think it's beautiful.

I hope you enjoy this week's selections. Next week we're revisiting Chick Lit.

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Lyrics here

Insecure Writer's Support Group 2

2011-10-05T20:51:00.003+01:00

Remember last month when I wrote this post for Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Group?

Well guys, things are kind of tough right now in a lot of ways. Ways that are having a knock -on effect on my writing. As in, I'm pretty sure I've taken a great idea and turned it into a boring story, and I don't quite know what to do about it.

So I'm asking you all for this:

In return, I promise you this:

Sorry it's not in my own words, but other people can say it better than me today.

Musical Stories 13: Crime

2011-09-30T23:31:00.003+01:00

The Musical Story chapter this week is crime, and I've got some real treats. Two of the songs deal with the same crime but I couldn't bear to leave either of them out so I hope you'll forgive me. Things I have learned this week: If you meet someone you think you want to spend the rest of your life with, it's best to finish with the current love first. It could be seriously bad for your health otherwise. You're welcome. Also, all three of these song titles would make brilliant titles for books.

I had a very hard time choosing which version of the first song to use. In case you're interested, on Youtube there are also great versions by Kirsty MacColl, (and if you've been here since the beginning, you know how much I love her), Nat King Cole and some random guy with a harmonica. In the end though, I went with a classic. This song is a testament to good manners. No matter what is going on in one's life, one should always remember to cancel those social engagements that one cannot attend!

For the second song, I deliberately picked a video that showed the lyrics. If you're able to, read those lyrics while he's singing. The singer was only about twenty when he wrote this. If I'd been able to write description like this at twenty, I'd have been a very happy girl.

What can I say about the third song except – enjoy!

Internet - Luxury or Necessity?

2011-09-28T23:55:00.003+01:00

This post was supposed to be my entry for the second Campaigners Challenge but I've got nothing. I even tried a poem, but it was just a lot of pretty words strung together with no real meaning behind it. I may be sitting this one out but that's okay, there are plenty of great entries out there. I have to say, I've been very pleasantly surprised by the high standard, considering the words given. It's been a really interesting challenge.

This week I received a telephone call from the local council who I'm negotiating a debt repayment with. We currently disagree on the monthly figure I should pay. Among other things, I was told that having the internet was a luxury I didn't need. I explained that I felt it was necessary as there are two adults in the house looking for work, and two teenagers who have important exams next Summer, who are constantly set homework assignments that require the internet. The Official said that wasn't a good enough reason to pay for such a luxury and it would have to go. He wasn't querying the amount I pay for it, just the fact that I pay for it at all. It's academic really, because even if I got rid of the internet, and made the changes that he said I should, our disposable income still wouldn't reach the amount that they are asking for.

So here's where I want your opinion, and I mean this genuinely. Am I wrong in considering the internet to be a necessity these days? Putting aside the fact that I'm a writer and a blogger, I could still work on my wip at home obviously, only research would be affected. The amount I pay for my internet would pay for 5.5 round trips per month between Techno and I to visit the Jobcentre and the library. The girls could probably stay late at school to do their homework. There are some problems with that, but I won't complicate things.

I'm honestly not just looking for you to tell me that the big bad council is wrong, (unless that's what you believe, of course), but I'm wondering if I have a false sense of entitlement, if actually the internet really is something that I should be prepared to get rid of.

So, internet - luxury or necessity?

ETA: This post has been edited to remove some of the more personal elements that I probably shouldn't have shared in the first place.

Musical Stories 12: YA

2011-09-23T23:48:00.002+01:00

So far so good, there seem to be more advantages than disadvantages with the new comment system. You should be getting email replies from me as I post my replies on the blog, so I hope that's happening. I know it doesn't recognise your blogger ID, but if there are any other issues with it please let me know.

Time for my favourite part of the week. This week's Musical Stories are Young Adult. I've got three quite different choices for you, so hopefully something for everyone.

Number one is a classic. I like to think there's a happy ending for our MC. It's not looking so good for her parents but, as this is a YA story, I think they should be grateful they haven't been killed off!

Number two was a tough call. I debated whether this belonged here or in another genre. I made my decision based on where I thought it would be shelved if it was a book, so here it is. I'd like to make it clear that I'm not trying to make light of any events that have happened in the past by including this, it's just a demonstration that YA stories cover a very wide range of genres and topics.

Number three is something special. Apparently there aren't enough male MC's in YA literature so here's my contribution, evidence that boys have their hearts broken too!

The very first time I heard the third song, upon hearing the first few lines, I thought it was David Beckham talking about taking a penalty in some new football anthem. In spite of that, it's become a favourite of mine.

Competitions, good news and something special

2011-09-22T21:59:00.003+01:00

What you were supposed to be reading today was my entry for the second campaigner challenge but as I have to find a dictionary to work out what I'm supposed to be writing about, I'll think I'll devote a bit more time to this one. Tomorrow is Musical Stories, so you'll see my entry next week sometime.

In the meantime, I've got a few things to mention. First is two competitions that I've been meaning to tell you about for a couple of week s now.

Are you a fan of Dean Koontz, Stephen King or Laurell K Hamilton? Would you like to win a book autographed by one of these three? Roland Yeomans of Writing in the Crosshairs is running a competition to win just that. All you have to do is write a review of one of his books for Amazon. This competition is running until October 1^st and is open internationally. I'm particularly excited about this as Stephen King was my first 'grown up' author and Dean Koontz was my second.

The other competition I want to tell you about also has an awesome prize. On 1^st December, D. J. Kirkby is giving away a kindle. Go here to find out how to gain additional entries. Follow the blog for future posts on how to gain even more entries.

While we're on the subject of competitions, I have some good news to share. Although I didn't place in the first campaigner challenge, (see here for the winners) I was lucky enough to win a random prize which turned out to be a critique of a full ms of up to 85,000 words by the lovely 1000^th Monkey. I've been in touch with her, and I'm very proud to say I have my first deadline. Admittedly, it's a loose deadline, but it's still great. I work so much better under external pressure!

Still on the first campaigner challenge, I'd like to thank all the judges for their time and effort and, in particular, Michael Offutt who had the huge task of delegating and organising the judging. Not a task I would have relished.

One more thing to mention before I go. CherylAnne Ham wrote a guest post at Bird's-Eye View earlier this week extolling the virtues of a blog tool called IntenseDebate. Red more about it there, but the two things about it that really excited me were the fact that you can respond individually to each commenter and, when you respond to a comment by email, it automatically posts the comment on the post. At the moment I'm doing that separately, so I'm going to try this. Let me know if there's anything you don't like about the new comment system (assuming I've installed it correctly, of course). I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Finally, here is something special. I'm afraid I can't remember whose blog I got this from, I've had it a while, but I often look at it when I need reminding that it's okay to do what I do. Don't peek at the end before you've looked at it all, but I have the last line stuck up next to me on a post it. I hope you love it.

Musical Stories 11: SciFi

2011-09-16T23:37:00.002+01:00

This week the Musical Stories begin all over again with the Sci-Fi genre. For those of you who haven't been here since the beginning, this is where you can find the first Sci-Fi stories. Don't forget to come back and enjoy this week's choices though!

The first song this week is a classic, although you might not know this version. It may be exciting travelling beyond the stars, but it can be lonely too.

Song number two proves that even in the SciFi genre, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Or does it? Is he thinking of only her while they're all that distance apart? I have my doubts. I guess you might say this one is a bit cheesy, but it's fun!

Finally, a story where an alien is preparing for first contact and doesn't want world domination? Now that would be quite an original storyline!

I hope there was something you liked there. Next week we're going to tell some young adult stories.

If I could be anyone...

2011-09-14T12:29:00.005+01:00

As I suspect you've noticed by now, there's a bit of an event happening for the release of Talli Roland's new book Watching Willow Watts. You can buy the ebook at Amazon UK or Amazon .com.

Talli asked us who we would choose to be for the day. I promise you, the name of who I chose is entirely coincidental, in that it happens to be one of my favourite names.

I had real trouble deciding who I would be. So many names of people I admire went through my head but then I'd think about their traumatic personal lives, their bad habits, their unsuitable spouses … you get the picture. That's when I realised it would have to be someone I know everything about, so the person I would like to be is Willowslayer, my dwarf warrior from the online game World of Warcraft. (Yes, I wanted to call her Willow, but the name was taken. Nobody ever used her full name anyway.) I played this game for a lot longer than was good for me and made many many characters, but that's all they ever were, game characters. Willow was different, she was the first character I ever created. The only one whose name and appearance I never chose to alter.

There are a number of races to choose from in this game but not many people choose female dwarves. They're not pretty like some of the other races, but that's why I like her, she's different. None of my friends ever blamed me when I died, or got lost, it was always 'oh Willow's in trouble again'. I was never really very good at the game, but I tried hard, and I loved to help people, so that became Willow's personality. Don't get me wrong, I am aware of the line between fantasy gaming and reality, but the people I knew online didn't know me, they only knew Willow the clumsy dwarf. Willow got to fight dragons, demons and monsters. She got to stand at the front taking the blows while others did the damage. She rode a ram, and later an insane motorbike. She could fly anywhere she wanted on a beautiful multi-coloured hippogryph. Best of all, when she died (which was a lot), she got to resurrect and do it all again! She also had the dirtiest laugh I've ever heard on a game character!

If you've never played an online game like WoW, you're probably thinking I'm a bit weird right about now, but if you have, I suspect you'll understand!

With Love

2011-09-11T01:37:00.003+01:00

For all of you.

Musical Stories 10: Romance

2011-09-10T01:37:00.004+01:00

I've got bad news and good news. (Yes, I know it's usually the other way round, I like to keep you on your toes!) The bad news is that this is the last week of Musical Stories, sort of, as 10 seemed a good number to finish on. The good news is that I've decided to do it all again, so next week we'll be going back to our first genre, except with different songs, obviously!

This week's genre is Romance, so you can all come out from behind the sofas after last week's horror choices. Let me tell you it was much much harder than I expected. After all there are gazillions of songs about romance, right? Sure, but you would be surprised at how many of them are actually about doomed romances, which is no good for us. Our romance readers like to end with at least a hint of a happy ever after, I'm sure! Then there are the many many songs that, whilst about love and romance, don't actually have a storyline. I've never been an editor, but I'm pretty sure I can guess what their reaction would be if they received a story that was basically 'I love you, you love me, wow we're happy'. But, of course I persevered and I came up with three that I hope you'll enjoy, and if you don't, come back next week for the SciFi :-)

Song number one I actually pinched from my friend Abby at Something to Write About. I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of the artist or the song until she posted it on her blog a few weeks ago. Something made me note the name, and I'm glad I did, so thanks Abby! What I like about this song is that not only does the singer reference what some consider to be the most romantic tragedy of all time, but she still manages to give her story a happy ending. I guess that's what they call a new twist on an old idea!

The second song is a slight cheat as it isn't a whole story, but I think it does a wonderful job of describing the build up to the first romantic encounter, and I don't think the scene would be out of place in a romance novel today, even though the song is thirty years old.

I'm putting my pretend editor's hat back on for the last one. 'This story has far too much back-story, and is all tell and no show. It is also the most romantic thing I have ever read.' Or something :-)

Insecure Writer's Support Group 1

2011-09-07T13:10:00.005+01:00

I know I just posted yesterday, but today is the first meeting of The Insecure Writers Support Group, brainchild of the rather awesome Alex J. Cavanaugh. Click on the link for more details, but it is what it says, a bunch of us insecure writers getting together to share those insecurities and give support to each other. If you'd like to read some of the other posts, click on the badge on the right and it will take you to the page where the other members are listed.

I'm probably the most insecure writer I know, just like many of you are probably the most insecure writers that you know. Most of us are, right?

Today though, I'm not going to write about my insecurities, I'm going to talk about this brilliant means of support. It's the one thing that's kept me going when nothing else has worked, not even chocolate.

Have you guessed what it is yet? Yep, it's you. Yes, you there, and you, and you, even you at the back, trying not to be noticed.

It might sound corny but this whole community is one big blanket of support. I'm not just talking about the people who read my blog, but also the ones who have no idea who I am, but still post stuff that resonates with me, that makes me feel like I'm not alone, others have felt like this; and that maybe it's not automatic that I'll be a big fat failure.

Of course, the people who read this blog are extra awesome. There's the published author that still leaves funny little messages that makes me think she likes what I wrote, there's the man who - unknowingly - gave me a lift right when I needed it and then, through emails, became someone I consider to be a friend. There's the woman who's now at the querying stage that seems to see something in me that I don't see in myself. There's the guy that made me rethink something I'd previously taken for granted and actually got me to start using my brain again. I could fill pages with what you guys have done for me, and how you've kept me going, even when you've never known it.

I now 'talk' to people that I once wouldn't have dared to approach, and we talk as equals. I'm not afraid to ask for advice and support when I need it.

If there's someone you admire, even if they don't know you yet, drop them a line and tell them. I don't care who they are, I bet they'll be thrilled. If you read a blog and someone seems a bit down and you've got a few minutes to spare, drop them an email, let them know you care. Someone did that for me once, I promise, it made a difference.

It's tough out there, thank God we've got each other.

If you missed yesterday's post, I'd appreciate your opinion of my flash fiction piece. Thanks.

Campaigner Challenge 1

2011-09-06T10:50:00.006+01:00

The first campaigner challenge is here. In Rachael's own words:

Write a short story/flash fiction story in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, including a poem. Begin the story with the words, “The door swung open” These four words will be included in the word count.

If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), use the same beginning words and end with the words: "the door swung shut." (also included in the word count)

For those who want an even greater challenge, make your story 200 words EXACTLY!

Here's my attempt. I've gone for the extra challenge of the beginning and end phrase and exactly 200 words. I'm not great at flash fiction yet, but I relish the chance to practice. Also, please don't judge me on the title :-)

I'm number 147, if you would like to vote :-)

Prisoner of the Mind

The door swung open. For a second he stared at it, too frightened to move. Then excitement overcame fear and he scurried across the cell. Peering into the corridor, he saw it was empty, and the door at the end – the one that led to freedom – was open too.

On the verge of running, he paused, uncertain. What if it was a trap? What if they were hiding, waiting to see what he would do? Maybe they just wanted another excuse to beat him. His smile was smug, he was too smart for them. He wouldn't play their game.

He shuffled back to the far corner of his cell, waiting. For them. An hour later, although he didn't know it was an hour, there was a shout from the far end of the corridor.

"Which idiot left the outer door open?"

Then another voice. "Jesus Christ! The auto mechanism' s malfunctioned, we've lost him."

Running footsteps then, approaching the cell. A head poked in.

"Panic over, he's still here. Idiot probably didn't even notice it was open."

He smiled to himself. They thought he was a fool, but he was too smart for them. The head withdrew, the door swung shut.

Musical Stories 9: Horror

2011-09-02T23:55:00.003+01:00

Today in Musical Stories we're moving onto the horror genre. I think this is one of the most subjective genres I've tackled. After all, everyone gets scared by different things. I hope there's at least one in this week's choices that sends a little chill up your spine :-)

The first one is a demonstration that horror doesn't have to be set in a dark forbidding building or a creepy forest, and it doesn't have to be a stormy night. The tune to this song is pure and sweet, like visiting a beach or a park on a sunny day. It's only when you get closer that you see the dark underbelly. In this case, the lyrics. Words and music, total contrast.

I promised something a little heavier this week, at least by my standards (it's no secret I'm the ballad queen), and the second choice is it. Sometimes what you see is what you get. Presentation, subject matter, narrator, it all screams horror.

Finally, an example that proves that you don't have to bite someone's neck or rip their heart out to be scary. Imagining what's coming next can be just as chilling. My tongue may be in my cheek a bit with this one, but I do think the ending is genuinely creepy. Don't forget to check the toy box before you go to sleep tonight!

(In case anyone is wondering, this last video is made using in game footage from World of Warcraft.)

I hope you find something amongst this lot to enjoy.

New goal and own goal

2011-08-31T23:43:00.005+01:00

Kate Ellison of the blog Southern Scrawl has changed her name to Kate Avery Ellison. She's also got a book available on Kindle from Amazon. Congratulations to her on the publication of Once Upon a Beanstalk. There's another Kate Ellison. This Kate has a book, The Butterfly Clues, due out next year. If anybody knows this second Kate Ellison, could you please point her in the direction of Southern Scrawl so Kate Avery Ellison can forward the lovely emails she's been getting for her?

The girls go back to school tomorrow. The beginning of September has always been my New Year, the time when I make plans and set goals. This year is going to be slightly different in that the only goals I'm going to set are writing ones. I'm posting one of them here in the hope that I might work on that procrastination habit of mine, and hold myself accountable. Well, anything's worth trying, right?

The big goal, then, is to stop faffing about. A few words written here and there followed by deletion, is no good to anyone. I can tell myself it's okay, it happens to everyone. Or I can realise that aiming to one day be a professional writer means behaving in a professional manner. This is why I've ripped the guts out of my current wip and am, to all intents and purposes, starting again. My big goal then, is to have the first draft of this story finished by the end of October. I have other opportunities that I won't be able to take advantage of if I don't do this properly. Playtime is over and the new term has started.

Talking of procrastination, here's what can happen when you suffer from it. Today is a perfect day to tell you this story as it was the final day of the football (soccer) transfer window. (Mixed fortunes for my team). Readers who have been around for a while may remember this post. For those who don't want to read it, it tells of an idea I wrote down in my early teens that later turned up as much of the plot line in the film Sleeping with the Enemy. It happens of course, there's no such thing as an original idea. To be fair, at the time I wasn't ready to write any novel, let alone that one.

It was a different matter last Summer. That's when I first began to think seriously about trying to write a novel. I thought about the old old adage 'write about what you know', and this is the outline I came up with:

Summer is 15. She has supported Liverpool FC all of her life, it's something she shares with her dad. She's never seen them play live as they live on the other side of the country. Her father gets tickets to the 2005 Champions League final to be held in Istanbul, Turkey.* Dad dies a few weeks before the match and Summer decides to run away to Europe to watch the match, taking her father's ashes with her. The story will end with her walking into the stadium at the start of the match.

There were a lot of notes, but that was the basic premise. I love Liverpool FC and I was really excited about this idea, but then that nasty little voice crept in. The one that told me it was a stupid idea, that boys wouldn't read a book about a girl, and girls wouldn't read a book 'about football'. I should have written it anyway, because it was the story I wanted to tell. Instead I wrote something else, that turned out to be a novella rather than a novel.

A few days ago, whilst struggling with the current wip I decided to make some more notes for my football tale. Whilst doing research I found this story (and how did I miss this back in May?) Again, for those who don't want to read it, it's a news story discussing an upcoming film about a boy who runs away to Istanbul to watch the 2005 Champions League Final in memory of his dead father. If there's something you really want to write, just write it. Before somebody else does.

*This final is widely held to be the best ever in the history of the competition. Liverpool, the underdogs, were 3-0 down at half time. Nobody had ever come back to win from that deficit in this competition, much less against AC Milan. They finished the match 3-3, then Liverpool won the championship 3-2 on penalties.

Musical Stories 8: Children's Literature

2011-08-26T08:24:00.009+01:00

I knew I might gain some readers when I decided to take part in this Campaign, but honestly I had no idea that things would explode. I'm thrilled to have reached, and exceeded, the one hundred followers milestone. (By the way, am I the only person that hates that our readers are called followers? I can't find my way to the corner with a map and a compass at the best of times, without 116 people behind me trusting in my non-existent sense of direction. I'll stick with 'readers' thank you!) I won't be running a contest, I'll save that for when I finally have a job, but please know that I appreciate every single one of you that took the time to click that little button. To my new readers, I hope you find something here you like and decide to stick around; and to my old readers (in time served, not age of course, dahlings), thank you for supporting me. At the risk of sounding corny it really means a lot to me that you come back, time after time, and leave comments. Not to get all mushy, but you don't know how much it helps having all your support. Actually, you probably do, you've all got blogs too! Anyway, thank-you.

It's Friday, and some of you know what that means. It's time for Musical Stories. I choose a writing genre each week and then pick three songs that I think fit. Mostly they're songs that tell a story in the particular genre. Occasionally I cheat slightly, but there's always a good reason for it :-)

Thanks to all of you who contributed genre and song ideas. Those that don't get used the first time round have been filed away for possible use next time. This week it's children's literature.

The first song was one of a number of lullabies suggested to me. This one is from Jamie at Mithril Wisdom. I see this as a picture book that is being read to a child at bedtime.

To me, number two is also a picture book, but one that the little boy or girl reads under the covers with a torch (or a flashlight, depending where they live!) when they're supposed to be asleep.

Number three was a late contender. I already had all my choices picked out when I came across this, and I'm so glad I found it. (I won't tell you what it knocked out, because I'll use that one next time). Here's a perfect example where the narrator's story, although the truth as a young child sees it, isn't quite the one that the reader picks up on. I have to mention the graphics in this video which I think are lovely.

Next week, we're changing the pace completely, and getting a little heavier, (for one song anyway!) with the Horror genre. For now, enjoy!

I've joined a campaign

2011-08-23T09:50:00.003+01:00

A few times I've seen blogfests and other challenges around the blog and I've been quite tempted to join but, apart from the 80k in 80 days challenge, I always end up thinking 'I haven't been blogging long enough, I don't have anything interesting to say' so I let these things pass me by and watch (or read), from the sidelines, wishing I'd been brave enough to join in. Well, what better way to get over those worries than by jumping into what looks like being one of the biggest events of its kind in our community?

Rachael Harrie from Rach writes... is running her third Writers' Platform-Building Campaign. From what I've read about it, it sounds like great fun and a lovely way to meet new people. I don't know much about it but lots of people who have been involved previously sound excited to do it again and there will be challenges. Challenges sound interesting, as long as I don't have to eat live bugs or something. Sign ups began yesterday and close on the 31^st August. I've signed up to the YA and the Adult Fiction groups. (You can say I'm hedging my bets, I say I'm unpublished and versatile!). I've also signed up to the beginner blogger group. The campaign runs until 31^st October, by which time I'll either have met a ton of new people or retired to a darkened room with a bottle of Tequila. So, win-win. Also, my blog gets a shiny new badge.

Hello by the way, to the people who were more organised than me and have already come over to introduce themselves. Get the kettle on, I'll be right over.

Thank you again to those who took the time to answer my questions last week. I've decided to continue to respond to comments on my blog but also to email those that I can. I was really pleased by how many people come back to read the comments, it's more than I thought. If there is anyone who would be annoyed by receiving an email response, please let me know and I'll make sure you don't get one.

There will be at least three more genres for Musical Stories thanks to all your suggestions for songs and genres. After that, I may repeat the genres :)

I've also decided that I'll be brave, and if I want to interview someone I'll just ask them. The worst they can say is no. It will only be occasional and only if I think I have something interesting to ask.

You guys are great. Is this what they mean by interactive blogging? ;-)

Sometimes writing comes second

2011-08-19T22:32:00.002+01:00

(Click picture if you wish to enlarge).

Normal service will be resumed next week. I have a gaggle of teenage girls in the next room. They are very loud, and 'A very Potter Musical ' is even louder.

Happy fifteenth birthday Diva and Blue, I'm so very very proud of you.

Thank you all who have answered the questions in my previous post. I appreciate it, and it's been a great help.

Questions, questions

2011-08-17T21:54:00.002+01:00

I received a few more awards recently, for which I thank the lovely people concerned. Since I recently had an award post, I'll save them for next week if nobody minds. For today, I've got a few questions for you all. Before I get to those, I just want to let you know that the fabulous Jen Daiker over at Unedited has interviewed Jen Violi. I mention this because Jen Violi's new book is called Putting Makeup on Dead People which I happen to think is a superb title for a book. If you pop over and say hi to one or both of the Jens you stand a chance of winning one of three copies. You know you want to win so that you can read it on the bus and tell people it's a 'how to' book. Or is that just me? Don't forget to come back after you've done that. I need your help.

Okay, first question. How many of you come back and read my responses to your comments? I love replying to you, but I understand that people are busy and there are too many blogs to read as it is, without coming back to the same post twice. Sometimes it takes me a few days to respond, although I do respond to them all. The thing is, I really do like replying to you so I was thinking either I could try and respond faster, the same day at least, or I could email a reply back to you. For those of you who email replies to comments on your own blogs, do you copy and paste the comment or is there something on blogger that will do it for you? There's no sense in me replying to your comment if you can't remember what you wrote! I'd love to get all your opinions on this one.

Now to my second question. Regulars among you know that I run my Musical Stories series on Fridays. It's been going for seven weeks now and I love it. Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that last Friday I didn't announce this week's genre as I normally do. The main reason for this is that it was going to be children's stories. I had two songs in mind (no novelty records!) but it turned out that one which I thought told a sweet story of a lullaby was actually a song about suicide. (Sing by The Smiths if you're interested, it's beautiful). Which leaves me with one, which isn't enough for a genre. So that one goes on hold until I come up with two more. So far we've had SciFi, YA, Crime, Literary, Chick Lit, War and Fantasy. Without getting into sub-genres, can you think of any genres I've missed? If not, would you like to see the series continue, repeating the genres but with different songs (obviously), or would you like me to think of something new? I should add that it won't be running this Friday as it's a special date for me, so I'll be posting something else, for one week only.

Last question. What do you guys think of author interviews? Recently, someone who I follow released a book and I wanted to interview him. However, he had an awful lot of followers on his blog (not something I usually think about after I've hit the follow button) and I didn't like to ask him because I didn't think he'd see it as an effective use of his time. So this is a two part question. Would you like to see the occasional interview on this blog and, if you are a published author, would you see it as a waste of valuable time to be interviewed by someone with a relatively low readership? I won't take it personally, I'm really interested. I'm not even sure I'd have the nerve to ask anyone anyway, but it's nice to have some opinions.

I'm really looking forward to hearing what you have to say and, for now at least, I'll be responding in the comments box :)

Musical Stories 7: Fantasy

2011-08-12T23:58:00.004+01:00

Before I get to this week's musical stories, I want to apologise to you. Due to having to deal with officials about financial stuff this week I'm really behind on reading all my blogs. I just can't bring myself to delete my favourites without reading them so you might suddenly find random comments from me on a days old post, or I might only comment on the most recent. I just want you all to know that I'm still reading, and enjoying them!

Okay, so this week it's the fantasy genre, and here's another apology. These are all longer than I like to post. I know people don't have time to sit and watch videos but we all know this genre tends to run long, right ;-)

Number one. I heard this sung live on the radio way back sometime in the early 1980's. For some reason, the first few lines stuck with me over the years, although I never heard it again. When I started this feature, I typed the lyrics into google on a whim and lo and behold I found this video. For those of you who read or write 'swords and sorcery' type fantasy stories, I defy you to tell me this is not a perfect example of what I'm trying to achieve with this series. (Although I don't like the video maker's choice of 'bad guy'!)

Number two had to be included simply because I think the subject of this song is the ultimate fantasy antagonist (or protagonist, if that's your thing).

Number three is one of my occasional cheats. It's not exactly telling a fantasy story but, if you have the time, watch the video all the way through, and I guarantee you'll understand why I had to include it this week. I'm only sorry it pushed a more worthy contender out, (Loreena McKennitt's Stolen Child), but I so wanted to share this video with you.

I'll be honest, I'm a bit nervous about how this week is going to go down with you. I hope you all like at least one of them!

There are more good people than bad

2011-08-10T23:54:00.004+01:00

Okay, to counterract the insane stuff I've been watching on my television, as parts of this country tries its hardest to destroy itself, I've got some fun things to report on.

Today, Jen at A book, A girl, A Journey passed a meme onto me. It's a fun one so I thought I'd give you lot a hint into my psyche by answering the questions. Incidentally, if you want a peek at her writing, you can read part of her first chapter at Blackbird in my Window. If you're not following Jen by the way, you should, she's lovely.

So, here are my answers:

Show us the cutest most adorable picture of your favorite animal.

Because giraffes don't get enough love.

You have five seconds to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. Choose one friend who would save your butt and tell us why you choose them.
Jen chose her husband and I'm going to copy her here. Except I'm going to choose my husband, not hers, because that would be weird. I haven't even met him. Although he looks rather cute in that picture on her blog (sorry Jen!) but no, my husband – well, partner (seeing as bigamy isn't allowed and I, uhh, haven't got a divorce yet. Don't hate me) - is the most awesome, all round together guy I know, and I don't doubt for a second that he will take care of us when the Zombie Apocalypse comes.

Share a quote with us.
'Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason'

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Thanks Claudia)

I know you had trouble choosing just one, let's have another.
Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain'.
If anyone knows whose quote that is, please can they let me know?

Using exactly 27 words tell us your life story.
Grew up, moved across the country. Married, had kids, moved back then back again. Went to uni, husband left. Found new love, started writing, penniless but happy.

Please do not throw your hands up in the air. This is not a stick up.
Not possible. One of my arms doesn't work properly :)

All the dead rock legends live again. You're standing in a fifty mile long line for:
Umm Does Elvis Costello count as a rock legend? Although, he's not dead.

Describe yourself using six words that start with the third letter of your middle name.
Natural, naïve (apparently), nerd, nocturnal, not neat.

What is your middle name? (This is for research purposes only. Your response will not affect your chances of employment.)
Lindsay

I'm not sure how many I was supposed to tag with this but the questions are fun, so anyone who wants to have a go at this one should do it.

Also, I received this award last week:

I'm really pleased. This is my first ever award and I received it from two people. The first was
Abby at Something to Write about, who awarded it to me last Friday. She's a fairly new blogger but has already become part of the community. The second, on Saturday, was Krista from I Take the Pen. I credit her with finally persuading me to try out flash fiction in a non-scary environment!

The rules of the award are as follows:

The Liebster Award (meaning “friend” in German) is meant to connect us even more and spotlight new bloggers who have less than 200 followers – but hopefully not for long. The rules are:

1.Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2.Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3.Post the award on your blog.
4.Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the Internet – other writers.
5.And best of all – have fun and spread the karma!

It was difficult to pick out five people for this, not least because three of the people I had picked out received it whilst I was too busy watching things burn to write a blog post, but here are five blogs that you should check out if you haven't already:

Claudia Moser, at The Story. Whatever life throws at her, she always does her best to come up smiling.
Lauren F. Boyd: My Path to Publication. She's working hard to get her work out there and is generously sharing her experiences.
Rebecca Bradley, at Life in Clarity. I love Rebecca, she's in a similar place to me, writing wise, and I feel like we have a lot of things in common.
Rebecca Kiel. She compares making jelly (by which I've just realised she, of course, means jam. Jelly is jello in America, right?) to writing and made me look at a blue square to make my climax hotter. How can I not love that?
Lastly, and I probably shouldn't do this because although she writes, it's not a writing blog and she doesn't often post but Neon Stitches is written (occasionally) by someone special :)

I hope you find something to enjoy among that little lot.

Musical Stories 6: War

2011-08-05T21:48:00.003+01:00

Before I get on with today's musical stories, I want to say thank you to all of you who took the time to comment on my last post. I really feel like I'm starting to belong in this community now. I also feel like I should quit whining and start writing something – anything – so that's exactly what I'm going to do, and that's down to you lot for reminding me that I can. So big hugs to you all.

This week's musical genre is War. Surprisingly I ended up with about eight songs to choose from, so I found it quite tough. I hope you like the three that made the cut.

Number one is from a band I love. I was about eleven when I first heard this and when I found out what it was based on, I went to the library and looked up the details. No internet in those dark ages! I discovered that the jaunty song I'd been singing along to was about the aircraft, Enola Gay, that dropped the first atomic bomb, (codenamed Little Boy), in a wartime situation. I remember that every time I hear this song.

Number two – well, what can I say about this one? A story of one woman's loss during a war. The same story multiplied millions of times over the years. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Number three is one of those times where I cheat slightly. It's not exactly a story, but it is about war and the video has an awful lot of shots of Sean Bean, so I'm sure at least some of you will forgive me!

Next week's genre is Fantasy, in three different forms, (unless I change my mind about one of the choices in which case it'll be three songs, two forms).

Full of ideas, but all out of words

2011-08-03T12:07:00.004+01:00

Well, after more than a week of upheaval, Diva and Blue each have a beautifully clean and tidy bedroom. We've thrown away enough rubbish to build a recycled replica of Buckingham Palace and I now have a dozen black bags of clothes in my hallway waiting to be donated to charity. Yesterday we visited the local library and handed over as many books as the three of us could carry up the hill, and any week now someone from the council will come and remove the sofa-bed from my driveway.

The only trouble is that somehow every single room, apart from the girls' rooms, is now a complete mess and full of things that don't belong there. The garage is overflowing with stuff (it's a good job we no longer have a car!) that nobody seems to want but we absolutely have to keep and, now that they have perfect rooms, Diva and Blue have lost interest in helping me. I don't blame them. They've worked really hard, they deserve the time to relax. Just like everything else round here, it'll get done. Eventually.

You would think that all this physical activity would really put a dent in my writing time wouldn't you? Well, you'd be wrong. The truth is, even before we started the house beautiful project, my writing had trickled down to almost nothing. I've been wrestling with trying to revise Looking for Lola (my one and only full length first draft) for weeks but I can't seem to make the story do what I want it to do. I think there's one of three reasons for this. The first could be that I'm just not a good enough writer yet to fix what I think is broken. The second could be that I just need to give it even more time before I go back to it – in which case, this week will have done me good – or the third reason (and the one I'm most worried about) is that the story itself just isn't good enough. I'm not sure which it is, but I'm not ready to give up on it just yet.

I did start to write another story, but a few thousand words in I wasn't sure the idea I had was strong enough to sustain a whole book. I haven't given up on that one either though, I mulled it over and made the odd note in my head as I threw furniture and moved rubbish. Then yesterday, something Diva said on the way home from the library gave me the germ of an entirely new idea. I jotted down a few thoughts and tried to file it away but it keeps coming back to me. There's not enough there yet to sustain a whole novel but it's coming, I can feel it. I'm a bit nervous about this latest one because it has to be set in an American high school and all I know about American high schools is what I read in books. Still, the internet is my friend, so it needn't be a deal-breaker. Whatever I decide, I need to do it soon. It's been a long time since I've gone so many days without writing anything, and just as I thought I was getting better too!

So, come on guys, what are you all up to? Has anyone else been through a slump like this? Am I wrong to try and force some words out, however bad they are, or do you think the act of writing itself is enough to get creativity kick started again?

Musical Stories 5: Chick Lit

2011-07-29T22:56:00.003+01:00

Apologies for being quiet this week. My house is upside down as we change rooms around and turn the junk room into another bedroom. It's taking longer than I thought so I might be missing for a few days next week too. If I take a while to get to your blog, I'm sorry, but I will get there. I have to take a lot of breaks from lugging furniture around and I keep sneaking looks at a few blogs at a time :) Please bear with me, normal service will be resumed as soon as all the right furniture is back in the right rooms, and someone has come to move the sofa off my driveway.

This week, the theme for musical genres is chick lit. You don't know how tempted I was to include I will survive, but I resisted the urge! The songs I've picked don't all have 'happy endings' as such, but if you think of them as the first half of the book, they would all make great plots.

Number one is such a fun song. It was so so hard to pick just one track from the wonderful Kirsty MacColl that I cheated slightly, in that she wrote and recorded track number three too. In the interests of diversity though, I've picked someone else singing it. Kirsty was the same age as I am now when she was killed saving her child from a speedboat. I won't go into it, it's on Wikipedia if you're interested, but the world lost a great talent that day.

Number two is beautiful. I think of the story as really being about the person who's singing the song, not the person she's singing about. How many of us have had to watch a friend make a mistake, knowing all we can do is pick them up when they fall?

I picked number three because how can I have chick lit week without mentioning shoes? As I said before, this is another of Kirsty's songs but the person performing it here was new to me. Be warned, the girl is hawt!

Next week's genre is War. Yes, I may be expanding into sub genres but let's keep that to ourselves shall we? :)

Musical Stories 4: Literary

2011-07-23T00:53:00.003+01:00

Sorry I'm late with this today. I had a 'little nap' that lasted seven hours!

This week's genre is literary fiction. When choosing for today, I wanted songs with beautiful lyrics. There is still a story there, of course; but with these songs it's as much about the beauty of the words as what they mean.

Number one seemed to me to be an obvious choice for this category. I'm still not quite sure I understand exactly what this is about, but I know what I think it means and that's what's important. In the interest of bringing you something you might not have heard before, I very nearly gave you the Barbra Streisand version. However, much as I like her, there's only one version of this song for me, and this is it.

Number two was suggested some time ago by SBJones. I hadn't heard this version before, but I love it and think it's perfect literary material. He's suggested a few great songs, and I'm trying to find categories to work some of them in :)

Number three is by someone who might be my favourite artist of all time. It's very difficult to choose one from him as I think many of his songs fall into the 'literary' category. I chose this one because I think that, while on the surface it seems quite simple, the imagery in the words is beautiful. Sorry, it's one of those 'album cover' videos but I have to take what I can find!

I hope you enjoy these. Next week's genre is chick-lit.

There's more to fear than fear

2011-07-20T23:13:00.003+01:00

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself ( Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

We all know that quote. If FDR was around today, his words would be the leading sound bite on every news bulletin. But, you know what? I disagree. There's a whole lot more to fear than fear itself.

On Monday, Chantele Sedgwick at My Writing Bug wrote a post about fear. There was a line in it that particularly resonated with me.

“I'll always have fears no matter what part of my journey I'm in.”

Years ago, when I was trying to get pregnant, my biggest fear was that it wouldn't happen. That fear was realised and my husband and I went through IVF. The only thing I had to worry about then was the treatment working. It did. Worry over, right?

Of course not. The first three months of pregnancy are the most dangerous. I could stop being scared once I got past that, not before. Except then there was the rest of the pregnancy, the premature births, intensive care, the fear of cot death, vaccination side-effects, and then...and then...right up to the present day and a whole new set of fears I have about my teenage daughters.

Yesterday I sent my Mum an email which ended with the line 'I'm forty-one years old Mum, stop worrying.' I got a response back asking 'at what age will you stop worrying about the girls?'

Okay, score one for my Mother.

Before I was pregnant, I really believed that at some point in the Motherhood process I would stop worrying. Ha! Just like as a writer I once believed that all I had to worry about was getting the first draft complete; but once I'd done that I had a new fear. What if I can't revise it well enough? That's where I am right now. Chantele's fear right now is of success. I bet I'll be scared of that too. Right after I've finished being scared of not finding an agent, not finding a publisher, not getting a release date and then...and then...

“I'll always have fears no matter what part of my journey I'm in.”

I understand this. I bet most of us, if we're honest, understand it. Not just about our writing, but about many things in life. That's okay. It's fine to be frightened, to have fear. Life can be scary.

What's important is how we react to that fear. We can wrap our kids up in cotton wool, or never let anyone else read our work. Or we can be frightened but, as Chantele says, learn how to deal with it and believe in ourselves. In other words, get on with living.

Free books from nice people

2011-07-18T23:55:00.004+01:00

I want to share some competitions with you today, but before I do I'd like to mention a 'just for fun' contest that Krista at I Take the Pen started a few weeks ago. Every Thursday she posts an opening line or paragraph for you to finish in the comments. It's fun, and good practice for those of you who like to write flash fiction. I made it onto her hall of fame this week, yay! She also tells me she's going to use one of my musical stories to write something linking the three songs together, so I'm going to hold her to that. (Okay I'm not, because that would be mean, but I think it's a great idea).

Now, who would like free books? Or Amazon vouchers? Well sadly I can't offer you any at the moment but I can do the next best thing and that's to point you in the direction of people who are:

Over at The Story, Claudia Moser is offering an Amazon gift card for her very first giveaway.You have until July 31^st to enter this one. I know she'd love to see you, so why not go and say hello?

Medeia Sharif's début YA novel, Bestest. Ramadan. Ever. is being released this Summer. (It has a cupcake on the cover, you guys!) Also, next month her blog is two years old. She's celebrating by offering an autographed copy of her novel, another book of your choice from Elevensies, a group of YA and children's début authors, and a swag-pack made up of promotional material from the elevensies authors. There are three sets of these prizes on offer and this one closes on August 12^th.

As well as her own, Medeia has a link to another giveaway involving the elevensies. The 2011bookfeast is giving away 3 separate packs of books. This one runs until August 31^st and there will be another giveaway in the Winter. There's also a whole list of their authors, and I've already found some more new blogs to follow :)

ETA: I'm sorry for not checking the small print earlier. The bookfeast contest is open to US and Canada residents, (including overseas military installations), only.

One more for you. This one ends on July 25^th so go for it if you're interested! Over at My Writers Craze the prizes on offer for first place are Divergent by Veronica Roth, Graceling by Kristin Cashore and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. As well as that, the prize includes a $50 Amazon gift certificate AND a critique of your query and partial. As if that wasn't enough, there are also second and third prizes too!

I've linked to these competitions because they are from blogs I like and follow, (although I was lucky enough to start following one the day she announced the giveaway which was very nice timing!) I thought it might be a nice way of introducing people to other people who might not know each other yet. Share the love, that's what I say :)

Good luck to you if you decide to enter any or all of these!

Musical Stories 3: Crime

2011-07-15T19:28:00.002+01:00

This week it's the crime genre. I tried to stay away from the obvious, so no Bonnie and Clyde, or Ma Baker. Two of these songs have been inspired by real life events (I don't know about track two).

I wanted to pick another track by Nick Cave, that you might not have heard of, but most of them are over six minutes long so you get this one. Track three is six minutes long and i think one is enough :)

I hope you enjoy this week's choices. Next week's genre will be literary fiction, should be interesting :)

I'm a winner!

2011-07-14T00:20:00.004+01:00

Apologies for the late posting but I've been a bit poorly this week. Nothing more serious than a heavy cold, but unfortunately Techno caught it, whereupon it mutated into that most deadly of strains, man flu. I try to steer away from clichés – you know, what with trying to be a writer and all – but honestly, that man is nothing but a walking cliché right now.

So, enough of the excuses, on to more interesting things. Like the fact that I won a competition.

Jami Gold at Paranormal Author had a prize draw to celebrate her one year blogiversary, and I won. Yay! What's really great is that I get to choose the prize (within reason of course, I don't think she'll spring for an African safari for me and 45 of my closest friends, sorry guys).

I'm dithering between a 3000 word in depth critique, and a 25,000 word beta read. My new writing project has stalled right out of the starting blocks and the revisions for Looking for Lola (well, I couldn't keep on calling it Joe and the Angels, could I?) are not going well. So much so, that I pretty much haven't moved forward at all in the last week or so. That's why I'm so thrilled about winning this competition. It's motivation; a deadline, if you like. I definitely work better under pressure.

Normal service will be resumed next week when Techno will either be better or buried alive in the garden (right now, I'm not too bothered which). In the meantime there's this. You may have seen it, it's been around for a while but even if you have, take another look. I bet you smile!

Musical Stories 2: YA

2011-07-08T12:01:00.002+01:00

This week's Musical Stories are YA. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, this is last week's post that started the series).

Number one is not technically a 'story' but it screams 'YA' at me every time I hear it, so let's cheat and call it a character study :)

Number two is simply because not all YA stories are dark, whatever some newspapers might think; although it doesn't have the happy ending I always thought it did :( (PS sorry about the ad – but you can skip it. It was the only one with the official video).

For number three, I was going to pick one from last week's comments, but then I found this video. I'm a Buffy freak and I thought this was fun (and no, the song has nothing to do with the series), so I'll even forgive the singers for info dumping the back story ;-)

Next week we're moving onto the crime genre. I think I'm going to have trouble choosing just three!

I've got a new hobby

2011-07-05T09:51:00.005+01:00

Before I start today's post I need to point you in the direction of the lovely Meagan Spooner's blog. It's her birthday and to celebrate, she's buying one of her lucky readers a book. Someone needs to explain to Meagan how birthdays work, but go and see her anyway and recommend an awesome book or two. I suggested two fantasy series. One of them was the series I'm currently reading (as recommended by Techno when first we met). It's the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams. All I'm going to say about it is that it's fantasy, of the 'Swords and Sorcery' type and up til now it's been awesome. I've only read The Dragonbone Chair so far. The others are Stone of Farewell and To Green Angel Tower. This last is split into two parts, Siege and Storm in the UK, and parts 1 and 2 in the US. Techno tells me that the books just get better and better so I can't wait.

There is a connection to my new hobby, I promise. This series I'm reading, along with The Pendragon Cycle I read before it, a fantasy series by Stephen R Lawhead, based on Arthurian legend, made me want to create my own fantasy world. I can see you rolling your eyes and saying 'big deal, all writers do that'. I've done it myself, plenty of times; but this is different. This time it's not a means to an end. I've no thoughts of writing a novel at the end of it. As much as I love fantasy, there's no way I could write a good story. I want to go way more in depth than I ever have before. I've started writing a list of things I want to know about, education, religion, politics, food, transport, entertainment, weather conditions and so much more. It's going to be something I share with the girls. Diva will be creating the maps and drawing the races of people based on my descriptions, and Blue is going to help me create names and languages. Even Techno has joined in, discussing different ways of building dwellings and water irrigation systems. (Don't ask, we know how to have a good time !)

I can see this taking months, as we have to do all that for each race we invent. At the end of it, hopefully, we'll have a fully realised world (or country, at least), populated with people we know everything about, in a land that holds no secrets for us. And for what purpose? Absolutely nothing, except that we can! I've never created a fantasy world before, most of my previous world building has been for the SciFi genre so this is something new. I'm going to try not to spend too much time on it, my 'real' writing has to come first, but everybody needs a hobby right?

So what do you think? Is this a pointless exercise? Is it weird (as one friend suggested) that the whole family are getting involved and there's going to be no 'pay-off' at the end, or is it worth it (as I pointed out to her) just for the sheer fun of it? Have any of you ever created a whole fantasy world? Anyone got any tips?

Musical Stories 1: SciFi

2011-07-01T22:43:00.004+01:00

I had such fun picking out music last week that I've decided to make it a regular Friday thing. I had a great idea for a 'series'. At least, I thought it was great idea, I may change my mind if I run out of ideas! (Also, how many times can I use the word 'ideas' in one paragraph?)

So, here's my awesome idea. Each week, I'm going to pick a story genre and choose three songs that I think fit that genre. I'm going to try to choose a mix of songs; some classics, some you may not have heard of and probably some just plain cheesy, but I hope you enjoy them, and maybe hear something new. Every week, I'll tell you what next week's genre is going to be, so if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know. Next week is going to be YA. I only have one so far, but it's an amazing one and perfect for the genre, so let's hope I can find two more in the next seven days :)

This week is (as you can tell by the title), SciFi. There were loads I wanted to use, but I went for these three because, in my opinion, they all show different aspects of the SciFi genre and they might be ones you haven't heard for a while, which is why – as brilliant as it is – David Bowie's Space Oddity didn't make it. I hope you enjoy. (There's no video for the middle one, because the embed thingy is disabled on the official video on YouTube, sorry).

Saving it for later

2011-06-29T21:56:00.002+01:00

As I've mentioned before, I'm currently unemployed. I also don't have much of a social life. The second is a direct result of the first, I think. (Don't feel sad for me by the way, the world is a scary place and I like it at home!) The up side of this of course is that I have plenty of free time. You would think that means I'm on top of everything, right? You would think.

Phil, at A Time to Phil, had a great post today about my problem. He calls it SIFS, save it for Sundays. Being at home all day I don't have to wait until Sunday, I just SIFL (which sounds even more like a slang name for a nasty disease than Phil's does, but never mind). I save it for later.

The girls come home with a letter from school that needs to be signed and returned. I read the letter. Then instead of signing it with the pen that's RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, I put it on the table to deal with later. I read junk mail, and instead of dropping it straight into the recycling box in the hallway, I put it on the table to deal with later. Nothing ever gets done now. I need a check up at the dentist? Instead of calling them when I think of it, I make a note to ring them later.

Everything gets done, eventually, but why do I do this? Why do I wait until I have five different phone calls to make? Or until there's a pile of paper on the table that's starting to resemble that famous Italian edifice? I even, sort of, do it with my writing. When I started MYWYN I was determined to write 1k words a day. It didn't happen. Sure, there were other reasons, but if I'd managed my time properly I could have done it. I don't beat myself up about it because I can write 4 or 5k at a time in a decent session, which is usually every couple of days. I tell myself that's my preferred working method but I can't help thinking about how much more I could do if I could just make myself sit down and do that every day.

None of this is a problem at the moment, but sooner or later (I hope) someone will actually employ me, and maybe one day someone will even be interested in one of my books. If either – or both – of those things happen, I'd better get myself organised. I use google calendar and I make lists, but there's no cure for procrastination – except getting my ass into gear!

Thanks Phil, for giving me the idea for this post

Memories are made of this

2011-06-24T16:59:00.004+01:00

You know how when you smell a certain aroma or fragrance it can take you instantly back to a place, a time or person? Well, music is like that too, at least for me. If Techno wants to torment me, he plays 'Charlie's death theme' from 'Lost'. Even before I recognise what's playing, I feel the tears start to form. Happens every time. If you never watched 'Lost' that will mean nothing, but if you did I'm sure you know where I'm coming from.

I thought I'd share some songs that instantly transport me to another time and place, and ask you what songs bring back a specific memory every time you hear them?

1983, school trip to France and my happiest memory of my school days. There was a jukebox on the ferry on the way home and we played this song, (which had been THE song of the holiday), over and over again all the way home.

1988, My best friend was engaged to a soldier. She lived with his mother who didn't think she should go out while he was away. We used to listen to this song every weekend whilst getting ready, and as soon as Lisa's future mother-in-law went to bed we used to sneak out of the window (I swear, we really did!), and go clubbing.

1990 - My first serious heartbreak. I'd been with the same boy, on and off, for four years. We both knew it wasn't going to work - we'd been engaged three times - but I was the one who ended it by moving across the country. He sent me this single in the post.

1999 - I worked the night shift in a petrol station. Worse job EVER but every night around 2am I would lock the doors so I could mop the floor. This song would come on and I would sing it at the top of my voice whilst cleaning.

It was so hard to choose just four. I might have to do this again :)

Guess what I did?

2011-06-22T09:24:00.002+01:00

Guess what you guys, I did it! Yesterday I finished my first ever first draft of a full length novel, (66,000 words counts as full length for YA, right?). The only thing I've managed before this was something that was supposed to be a novel but is complete at 36,000 words so I'm very happy.

I know the more experienced among you are probably grinning to yourselves and thinking, 'yeah, that was the easy part kid'. (I'm not sure why I imagine any of you would call me 'kid' but let's go with it). I expect that revising this novel will be tough, not just because of all the things I'll discover when I read it through, but because of the things I already know need fixing, due to me changing my mind as I was writing it and not going back to edit it. I have nine pages of notes that say things like 'Sam's broken leg in ch 11 is now a sprained ankle' and 'Glenda isn't needed, take her out and turn her son into one of Lola's mates'. My MC's Mother died and came back to life on four separate occasions (and no, this isn't supernatural!).

My favourite change will be the title. I gave this book a working title of 'Joe and the Angels'. Yes, I know it's rubbish but I had to call the files something. The only thing is there are no longer any Angels in it and he isn't called Joe. Other than that, the title rocks :)

I had to change my MC's name because I imagined Joe as a particular boy who had some very specific experiences and talents. He's changed beyond all recognition but I know that one day I'll want to go back and try again to write the story of my 'ordinary Joe'. I can't imagine him being called anything else, so this Joe is now Jamie.

Do I think this story is good? Yes I do. Do I think it will be the one that makes me a published author? Probably not, but that won't stop me doing my very best with it, and making it the best YA thriller that I can.

I know that in the grand scheme of things, writing a first draft (especially for the first time) isn't that big a deal, but to me personally it is. It's a sign that I believe in myself, that I think I'm worth taking seriously enough to actually make the time to sit and do this every day. Whether I still think that after a few weeks of revisions is another story, but for now it's a good feeling.

I'm going to take a few days off and read a book called Radix by A.A. Attanasio. It's something that Techno has been urging me to read since I first met him, and promises to be a very strange experience! After that, I'll start writing something else and in a few weeks time I'll start revisions on my first ever novel. I love saying that :)

P.S I forgot to add that I had to write quite an emotional part in the last chapter, and I made myself cry! How weird is that?

Advice to my selves

2011-06-18T11:25:00.007+01:00

We've had some heavy discussions here lately so, in the interests of lightening the mood a little, I thought I'd give you a little giggle at some of the not-so-smart things I've done in my life!

A long time ago I had another blog. It didn't last very long as a few weeks after starting it I lost computer access for a long time. By the time I got it back, other things had taken over. There were a few entries in it that I quite liked, and I thought I'd share this one from August 2008. I've only added one piece of advice since then. So tell me, what advice would you give to your younger selves?

Age seven – Do not carry on a shouted conversation from the toilet in your classroom to the kid in the toilet in the adjoining classroom, especially when you tell a pack of lies about how you are the new girl from America when A. you have been at the school for a year, and B. you have a totally English accent. When you exit the toilet you will discover that the entire class, including the teacher, has been listening to every word. They will all laugh, and you will cry.

Age ten – When you are asked if you have any doubts about the family that are going to foster you, be honest. If you lie to avoid hurting anyone's feelings then both you and the family are going to be stuck with each other for seven long years.

Age twelve – When you are told that there is a place at Grammar school for you so you will be able to get higher qualifications and go to university at eighteen, but you will have to start working to your potential, do not tell the headmaster that 'what you see is what you get'. You will stay in a school that is due to close the year after you leave which means everyone, including the teachers, stops trying and you will leave at sixteen having never worked to that potential.

Age seventeen – When you go to college to get the qualifications that you should have got at school, so you can still go to university, do not spend the first year of the two year course in the pub. This will lead you to fail your end of year exams and you will not be allowed to return. You will then end up in a 'safe' utterly dull job instead of doing what you really want to do.

Age nineteen – Learn to control your eating habits. When you stuff all that crap into your mouth and people ask how you manage to stay so slim, do not reply casually 'yeah I know, one day I'm gonna wake up fat'. Because one day you will.

Age twenty – When your parents tell you they are emigrating and taking your eighteen year old brother with them, don't let pride stand in the way of telling them you want to come too. They only didn't ask because they didn't think you'd be interested.

Age twenty-two – When your friend tries to set you up on a date and you tell her you can't possibly go out with someone named N****, listen to your instincts. Run fast and far from this man.*

Age twenty-six – When you are 32 weeks pregnant with twins, do not wish you were no longer the size of a small block of flats. Because when the babies are born 8 weeks early you will spend 3 weeks watching them in hospital thinking it was your fault.

Age thirty – When you move to the other side of the country and you are secretly relieved when your husband tells you at the last minute that he's not coming, so you'll only see him for four days out of every fourteen, listen to the warning bells. Something is wrong here.

Age thirty-two – When you decide after a year at university that actually social work isn't for you, try to pick a more useful degree course to transfer to than sociology/applied psychology. Sure, it's fun, but it won't get you a job.

Age thirty-five – When you lose lots of weight and look great after becoming a single mum, check your graduation outfit before the day itself. That way your Mother won't have to pin your shirt to your trousers so they don't fall down.

Age thirty-six – When you meet the man you want to spend the rest of your life with, talk more about whether you should live with him or he should live with you. They have good schools there too.

Age Forty – When you spend 9 months losing five stone in weight (again), don't stop going to the slimming club. It will all go back on in less time than it took you to lose it.

Present day – accept that all the things that have happened in the past have happened for a reason, and have led you to this point. Sure you could be financially better off, slimmer and have a tidier house; but you aren't and you don't. What you do have is pretty damned good so hold on to it, appreciate it and be happy.

*Name redacted so I don't offend anyone. (Also, this guy wasn't my husband!)

Trust and the Internet

2011-06-15T23:32:00.005+01:00

My last post got me thinking about trust. Generally, except for the very cynical among us, we assume that people are who they say they are, even on the internet. I don't mean 'Hotlips27' or variations thereof, who seem to spend their time spreading vitriol and bile on random internet forums, but people like you and me, people with blogs, who are part of a community.

You know I'm a middle-aged Mother of two, with two daughters. You know my name and what I look like. Or do you? Well, yes actually, because I'm not a liar. There are things you don't know about me and that's fine, but I don't make up other things to take their place. To twist something I wrote in this post, everything you read about me is true, but you can't read everything true about me.

Suppose though, that I was actually a seventeen year old boy? Would you still take the same meaning from the words I've written? Of course you wouldn't because you wouldn't know which were true and which were lies. It's easy to tell you to focus on the words and not the writer but I truly believe the two are linked. I know Talli Roland is a sassy blonde author because that's what her picture, and her words, tell me. If she was really a fifty year old bloke I'd feel cheated. There's nothing wrong with fifty year old blokes. I read blogs written by men, I'm sure some of them are somewhere near that age, but none of them are pretending to be a cute blonde female. (Sorry Talli, you happened to be the first name I thought of, I hope you don't mind).

My default setting is basically optimistic. I will always believe people are good and honest until they prove otherwise. (Sometimes they get several goes at proving it, too). I believe all the blogs I read are by people who are who they say they are. If I found out differently, I suspect that any pleasure I'd gained from their writing would be lost, and yes, in some small way, I'd feel betrayed. If people want to be anonymous, awesome, go for it; If they want to give themselves a different name then that's great too, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people who tell lies – not comedic exaggeration, not faulty memory, but lies. It's one of the reasons I get upset when I find out memoirs are not true. I won't rehash old stories but there's a huge difference between 'I may not remember the exact order of events, who said what or even who was there', and 'this is completely untrue, it never happened, but it will spice my story up'. There's a word for those stories, they're called fiction.

I'm not sure if I've explained this as well as I might, and maybe I'm over-sensitive in this day and age, but If we don't trust the writer, how can we trust the words?

For the record, I believe in every single person whose blog I read, otherwise I wouldn't be reading their blog :)

Honesty and the Internet

2011-06-13T22:54:00.004+01:00

Amina Arraf was a gay girl in Syria. Her blog about life in Damascus, and her part in the anti-government protests was followed by journalists and activists worldwide. When it was posted last Monday that she had been seized by armed men, the news was reported around the world and an online campaign began to secure her release.

Except, as some of you may have read, Amina Arraf does not exist. She comes from the imagination of Tom MacMaster, a forty year old American student currently studying at Edinburgh University. Quite apart from the very real damage that Mr MacMaster has probably done to the people of Syria who are genuinely trying to get their message across (which is described here), what of the people that he has unwittingly involved? Jelena Lecic had her photographs used both in news reports and on Facebook under Amina's name. Sandra Bagaria, a woman living in Canada appeared distraught that the woman she had built a close online friendship with, and one whose release she was campaigning for, might not be real.

I cannot pretend to know how difficult it is for the people of Syria, I take my freedom to write pretty much what I want for granted, From what I have read, Mr MacMaster gave a very accurate portrayal of happenings at the moment. What a pity that all that good has been undone in an instant.

He said “people should stop focusing on the hoaxer and really be focusing on the most important people, the real people who are suffering in Syria.”

They should, but they won't. I suspect they won't focus as sympathetically on the blogs coming from Syria in the future either. I accept that he didn't think his views would be taken seriously if he blogged as himself but there had to be another way, surely? I don't know if having 'Amina' seized was his way of trying to end the charade when he appeared to be in danger of being 'outed', but I bet this has done every bit as much harm to the cause of the truth tellers of Syria as it would have done to the fictional Amina.

P.S. If you read no other links on this post, I urge you to click this one and read the first comment after the article, from a guy known as AllTheMuppetsAreDead. The last three lines are priceless.

I know I said I wouldn't but I did

2011-06-11T22:47:00.004+01:00

Yes, I entered another short story competition. This one was different though. Run by Lesley Galston at Sloanwriter, it was a nice friendly competition. Maximum 500 words on the theme of 'fifty'. My entry placed fifth, and I promise you I have stuck to the theme, although you might not think so at first! If you go to Lesley's blog you can read the eight placed stories.

Just one more thing before you read my story. That other competition I entered? I have another reason, as if I needed one, for being annoyed with myself about my poor entry. The top eight entries have been invited to Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate where the winner will be announced. I found out today that Rebecca Bradley from Life in Clarity is going. I really like Rebecca's writing and it would have been awesome to be able to meet her. Ah well, maybe next year!

Anyway, here's my story. Feel free to tell me how I could have improved it but don't mention that flowers bud and THEN bloom. I spotted that stupid mistake as soon as I saw it on Lesley's blog. D'oh!

The Last Snows of Spring

Although it was almost the end of March there was yet no hint of Spring. Roger leaned forward and tried to catch a glimpse of the passing scenery from the car window, but in the pre-dawn dark there was nothing to see but his own eerie reflection. The man on his right pushed him roughly in the chest.

“Sit back,” the man shouted.

It was not his native tongue, but Roger understood the man well enough. After all, he'd had a long time to learn. He sat back.

“I wonder where we'll end up this time.” He turned to his left and spoke quietly to his friend Bernard.

“Who knows?” The other man gave a shrug that indicated he wasn't really interested in such matters.

Slowly, lazily the first hint of dawn tapped the sky with frost-dazzled fingernails. The snow outside became visible, and the road ahead was deserted. In another time this journey could almost have been pleasant. He wondered where he would be when the first green shoots of Spring deigned to make an appearance. What flowers would he watch bloom, bud and ultimately die? How long would it be before he could observe nature's annual miracle at work in his own garden? Not too much longer now, surely?

Roger felt the full throated roar of the car slow to a gentle purr and realised they were stopping. He turned again to Bernard. The Frenchman indicated with the merest lift of one eyebrow that he didn't know why. All became clear when the other two passengers alighted and fumbled with cold hands for cigarette packets. Moving a few feet away from the car, their chatter drifted idly towards the two men left in the back seat.

“Damn, I could do with one of those.” Roger muttered.

Bernard just laughed. “Soon enough my friend, soon enough.”

There was a shout from one of the men outside and the driver climbed out and joined them. After a brief conversation he returned to the car.

“Out.” He said, as he pulled the back door open. “You can relieve yourselves over there, ” he jerked his head towards a clump of snow-kissed bushes, “but don't go too far.”

As the two men hesitated he continued. “I suggest you do so. We have a long way to go.”

Roger felt it prudent to do as he was told and headed toward the bushes, Bernard following.

For a fraction of a second Roger didn't recognise the sound, so familiar yet so alien in this tranquil landscape. Then, as he felt the pain and saw Bernard collapse next to him, he understood.

Roger Bushell had no way of knowing that he was one of fifty men who were to become famous for being illegally executed for what they had done. He would also never know that he would live on in history as the mastermind behind what would forever be known simply as 'the great escape'.

I've been tagged

2011-06-08T04:18:00.005+01:00

I had a post written about the WSJ piece on YA literature but over the past couple of days I've read so many excellent pieces on the same subject that said what I wanted to say, only better, that I pulled it. So I had this post shaped hole on my blog. Luckily the lovely Rebecca at Life in Clarity saved me by tagging me for my first meme. Yay I got tagged!

So, here are my totally honest answers, much as I wanted to change a couple :)

Do you think you're hot?

Not since about 1992. I'll settle for being warm instead.

Upload a picture or wallpaper that you are using at the moment

This is today's. I have about six that automatically change on a daily basis (my screen-saver is the same as my wallpaper right?) If I had done this yesterday you would have got a picture of Daniel Craig emerging from the sea.

When was the last time you ate chicken?

Last Friday, home-made curry. The last one I'll have for a while as I started a diet on Monday so no more creamy sauces.

The songs you listened to recently

Eliza Doolittle – Back to front.

I heard a snippet of this on Doctor Who Confidential on Saturday and just remembered to look it up and find out what it was about an hour ago. I've read about Eliza Doolittle but it's the first time I've actually heard one of her songs. I like it very much.

What were you thinking of as you were doing this?

Umm, my answers..and also whether a new player, Jordan Henderson, that Liverpool FC are supposed to be signing is going to be a good buy or not. (It's the last thing I was reading about before I started this).

Do you have nicknames? What are they?

Only from Techno. He never uses my name. That's as honest as that answer gets.

Tag 8 people

Okay, from what I can tell, 8 out of the 15 people who follow this blog haven't done this yet and they are:

Phil at A Time to Phil

Janice at Janice Horton - Writer and Novelist

Louise at Writer in Progress

Roland at Writing in the Crosshairs

Talli at Talli Roland

Debbie at Bluestocking Mum

Ellen at Pink Tea and Paper

Annalisa at Wake up, eat, write, sleep

I know one of you is on holiday in New York (Lucky lucky Ellen) and one of you is a brand new blogger (Hi phil!) but feel free to play if you'd like to :)

MYWYN Update 3

2011-06-02T00:27:00.005+01:00

So, we're at the end of day 32 on the MYWYN challenge. When I last posted about this, on day 18, I was over 5,000 words behind. My total word count so far is 32,280. Yay, I caught up!

I had a major crisis of confidence this week. I wrote a long post detailing all the ins and outs but, as the post involves someone else and I haven't spoken to them about mentioning it on this blog, I've decided not to post it. I will say this though. The kind words and actions this week of one of our own have reminded me, as if I ever needed reminding, that the community I'm now part of, is a generous, supportive one that I'm proud to belong to. I also realised that, in spite of not being published, in spite of having a blog that's only two months old, in spite of not even finishing a novel (except one, but it's only 36,000 words long so it doesn't count) I am part of it and that rocks!

I don't know if there's any connection, but in the last couple of days my WiP, which I thought was going to idea heaven along with the last one, suddenly sprang to life again. I had been going to abandon it, but decided to trudge through, just for the experience of actually finishing something, when I realised what was wrong with it. It isn't an urban fantasy, it's an urban mystery. This was a bit of a shock, since the fantasy part was the kernel I started with, but suddenly it made perfect sense without it. Sometimes humans are just good or bad without supernatural interference. I know this means I'll have to do a major rewrite in the first five chapters, (well, four as I can drop chapter one completely), but that's okay. I'm back on the right path and I'm so happy!

On that chirpy note, I'll point you in the direction of Sally Jenkins, who's rounded up a couple of interesting looking competitions if you've got something that might be suitable. I actually thought about adding a bit to my finished short novel and entering it for the second one. Yeah, no. Good luck if you do though!

What's in a name?

2011-05-30T22:11:00.005+01:00

Warning: This post is quite long, and isn't about writing, and tells you stuff about me as a person and not as a writer.

Since it was mentioned by a couple of people in the comments on my last post, I'll tell you the story behind my multiple surnames. The story itself isn't that exciting but it does bring up an interesting topic, that of pen names.

I've read a lot about pen names, written by people both for them, and against them. Here's my issue, and the reason why I've only just added my surname to my blog. I wanted the name on my blog to be the one I would use if I ever do get published but I didn't know what that name would be. Not because I wouldn't want friends and family to know I'd got a book out – who's going to buy it if not them? – but because I don't know what my name will be when that day comes.

I have no emotional attachment to surnames. I had my Father's name when I was born, which was nice of him as he didn't give me much else. The funny thing is he didn't even give me that really, the way my name is spelled on my birth certificate is different to how he spelled it for his own use. (He also made up four first names for himself. Honestly. I first saw a copy of my birth certificate when I was ten and thought I actually had a different father than the one I was led to believe was mine!)

After being in care, I was fostered at the age of ten. My foster parents decided I should have their name. Apparently this is unusual when there are no plans to adopt. I wasn't happy about this. I'll admit, the biggest problem I had with this idea was that they had the most common surname in England and I liked the one I had already, it wasn't a family loyalty thing, at this point I had no family. I complained, but the voices of ten-year-olds aren't very loud and it was done. They really should have done it officially, getting a passport was a terrible struggle, but luckily little girls don't have that many official documents so by the time I was an adult the name was mine.

In the meantime, at the age of fourteen I'd met and formed a relationship with my birth-mother. At the age of eighteen I was asked by my foster mother to leave their home. It was a good idea and one that neither party ever regretted. A year later I moved across the country to live near my mum and her family. She lived with a man who she'd been with since not long after leaving my Father. When I was 20, she married this man. (He's the man I call Dad) I took their name. This time I did it by deed poll. It was much easier to get a new passport.

Six years later, I got married and took my fourth surname. The one I now have. Seven years ago my marriage broke up. I now have a new partner who I expect to be with for the rest of my life (as much as any of us can expect these things, anyway). Which brings me to today. My ex-husband and I never got divorced. We'll probably do it when the girls are sixteen, when judges won't be anxious to 'fix' childcare arrangements that are not broken. I keep his surname purely because it's the same as my daughters and it makes my life easier. I suspect I'll change it when I divorce, but to what? Techno's name? That's a strong possibility, although I doubt we'll marry; or the last name I had before I got married? Another contender. The one thing I was quite sure of was that I didn't want my ex-husband's name on a book I'd written. So I was dithering about which of the other two choices I should use for my blog.

Then something one of my girls said to me a week or so ago, made the decision for me.

“When you have a book published, I can't wait to show my friends at school.”

She has three years of school left. I didn't have the heart to tell her she'd probably be out of school and university before I ever get a book published, but it did make me realise. That surname I'm not bothered about? It's not just my ex-husband's name, it's my daughters' name too. So, for Diva and Blue, the first book I ever get published will be by Sarah Pearson. Whatever my name really is by then.

When I originally wrote this post, there was lots more stuff in it about my life that was nothing to do with names. It was fun to write though. I think I will write that autobiography after all!

Notice anything different?

2011-05-27T20:14:00.003+01:00

Did you notice anything different about my blog today? No? Have a look around. I'll wait.

Yup. The eagle eyed among you might have noticed that I have replaced my lovely picture, drawn by Diva, with a photograph. Of me. Also, I've actually put my surname on my blog. So when you don't see my pink haired girl in your comments section, it's not because I've disappeared but because I've moved from fantasy to reality.

When I started my blog, I had every intention of putting up a photograph from the beginning, but when I looked through my pictures the only one I had that I was prepared to share was one of me with pink hair. (Hence the artwork I chose to use).

The problem is that picture is about six years old and I don't look anything like that any more. Now I know this isn't a dating website but still, one day I might actually be trying to find an agent, or publicise a book, so I thought it would be a good idea to actually look vaguely like my blog photograph. And I'll be totally honest, the reason it took so long to get a new picture was because I had to wait until I'd had my roots done. I don't mind keeping it real but even I have my limits :)

I didn't have my surname on my blog simply because I didn't know which one to use. (That's a post for another day) I've chosen now so I'm all set. If I keep this up, soon I'll be a real blogger!

First I laughed, then I cried

2011-05-26T10:04:00.009+01:00

After the post I wrote last Friday about finding critiquers, this post from The Intern on Monday was perfect timing.

Then yesterday, on AuthorCulture, I saw this video. Yet more proof that a small change in words can make a big difference.

I thought of it first!

2011-05-24T13:33:00.005+01:00

Before I start, I just wanted to say thanks to those of you who commented on my last post. I have some ideas now about how to go about finding readers and becoming part of the critiquing world. I'll let you know how it goes :)

Yesterday I was searching through some old writing files for details of a Writers Bureau course I started years ago. (I had thoughts about going back to it, but that's a story for another day). I'm talking about honest-to-goodness paper files here, from before I owned a computer. I was somewhat amused to come across my 'ideas' book. I've had this book since I was in my early teens. Anything that I thought might have the remotest potential has long since been transferred to my computer but I can't bear to throw the book away.

I've copied the following outline exactly as it was written in my book, including punctuation. Bear in mind I was about fifteen years old at the time!

A teenage girl marries. Soon realises it is a disaster. Husband an alcoholic, beats her and often rapes her. Eventually at 18, she gets pregnant. Final straw when he pushes her down the stairs in a drunken fit, causing her to miscarry – a fact she doesn't discover until later – she butchers him up with a carving knife, leaves him for dead, takes the car and starts a new life. 10 years later she's remarried and has twins. A man starts following her. It is her husband who wasn't dead after all – he' s tracked her down and he wants revenge for the stabbing which has left him in a terrible way. Her life is in danger when he kidnaps her daughter in an attempt to lure her to her death – then they fall for each other all over again.

I'll be honest here. I seriously considered omitting that last line from this post, I was so embarrassed by it.

then they fall for each other all over again.

I don't know what I was thinking when I decided that was a good ending. It's probably safe to say that these days no writer would think of ending this type of story like that, and if they did, no agent or editor would accept it.

(I was amused by the fact that whilst completely avoiding the issue of accidental bigamy, or any mention of her new husband, I deemed it important that she 'takes the car').

The reason I'm posting this today (apart from the obvious chance to give you all a nervous giggle at the insight into my teenage mind), is because underneath all the melodrama and plot holes I think that I had the tiniest seed of a good idea back in the 1980's. Hollywood must have agreed with me. Sleeping with the Enemy anyone? I remember the first time I saw the film. I told anyone who would listen (and a few more who wouldn't) how that was my idea and the success of the film obviously proved that if only I had written it, it would have been a best-seller. Obviously. Never mind the fact that I'm not Julia Roberts, not to mention a dozen other reasons why my assertion was wrong. You know what the biggest reason was? Yes of course you do. I didn't write a word of the damn thing. Ideas are easy. I've got loads of 'em. Some of them are even good; but they're not worth a bean until they become part of an interesting plot with well drawn characters. Almost three decades later, that's the part I'm still working on. (I also know now that two people can have the same idea and produce two totally different stories).

Did any of you ever have an idea that you thought was great, only to see it turn up later somewhere else?

Searching for that special someone

2011-05-20T18:36:00.007+01:00

I need some help from you, my very small but oh so beautifully formed group of readers. I'm not ready for beta readers or critiquers (is that the right word?) yet but one day soon I will be. Now before you panic and click away, pretending to yourself that you never saw this post, I'm NOT asking for volunteers! What I am asking for is some hints on what would be a good way to go about finding such people. I know that it's a two way street, and actually that excites me. I'd love the chance to critique someone's work, I just don't know how much use to anyone I would be right now. Everything I know about writing I've learned from the internet. No-one has ever read what I've written, I've not been on any courses and I only own a few books on the craft of writing (although to be fair, one of them is Stephen King's awesome On Writing). I know lots of other people are in the same situation and I only mention it so you can see why I don't feel qualified to critique anyone's work yet.

Obviously I make it a point to read as much as I can about the actual craft of writing. Somewhere in my perusings I came across a post linking a site that was a good place to join to get to know people with a view to finding a critique partner, but I'm darned if I can find where I filed the link. I'm asking for your advice at this early stage of my WiP because I'm guessing it could take time to find someone who is comfortable enough with me to let me see their work and vice versa.

So here's where you lovely people come in. What I want to know is what skills should I be developing to become a good critiquer? (still not liking that word). Is there anything specific I should look for when trying to find a critique partner, and are there any sites that you can recommend as being a good place to find like- minded people?

Finally, how important do you see beta readers? I use that term to mean people who may not necessarily be writers themselves, but who enjoy reading and are prepared to say what worked and what didn't for them, even if they can't say why. I sort of have a beta team. That would be Diva and Blue. I was concerned that if I let them read anything they might go too easy on me. On Wednesday, Blue asked if she could make a few notes on a three page outline I'd typed for a possible project. After reading her notes (written in red pen of course) I know that at least one of them isn't afraid to tell it like she sees it! Don't worry, I've almost recovered :)

PS If anyone needs 14 year old beta readers I know two who will work for chocolate - and Playstation privileges :)

MYWYN Update 2

2011-05-18T22:39:00.003+01:00

I thought it was time for another update on my May – You write your novel project. As I'm sure you know by now this is where participants write 80,000 words in 80 days. That's the only 'rule'. Luckily for me there isn't another rule that says you need to write 1,000 of those words per day .

Today is day 18 and my word count is – drum roll please – 12,812. Yes, you read that right. I've managed to fall over 5,000 words behind in less than three weeks. For the past few days, I've only managed a few hundred words a day, most of which I've deleted the next time I've sat down to write. I've finally admitted (temporary) defeat on the story I'm working on.

I've tried, but I'm not a 'pantser'. I don't need a detailed outline but I do need more than a couple of characters to be able to write a story. I've given myself until tomorrow to decide between two other ideas I have, and I'm going to start one of those instead. One is, I think, a really good idea but it might require some complicated plotting to make the story work as I want to tell it. The other is one that I keep promising my girls I will write as it's a subject dear to their hearts. I'm just not sure there's a full length novel in it. I'm still undecided but I have to make a choice soon as I have a lot of catching up to do!

I'm determined that I will have finished something by the end of this challenge, but to do that I really need to start again. I think I should stop calling myself a writer until I've actually managed to type 'The end' on something longer than a blog post.!

This is a blog about writing, honest

2011-05-17T11:22:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was mad around here. Techno has been suffering from toothache for days which, aside from the obvious, involves him doping himself up to the eyeballs, sleeping in odd places and at random times and asking me 'if it's not too much trouble' to cook him different things from the rest of us at stupid o'clock. Which of course I do because, well, I don't know why but I do. We have an emergency dental appointment today. I say 'we' because I have to go too. I'm hoping it will be better than last week's emergency appointment which seems to be what's caused this latest problem.

As well as poor Techno wafting around the place like the spectre at the feast, I had both the girls off school yesterday. They complained in the morning about not feeling well. Diva had a mock GSCE test that she was determined to go in for and kept trying to tell me she was 'fine'. I was vindicated when she threw up an hour later, at which point she stopped pretending she was okay and went to sleep. They're both fine today thankfully.

ETA Blue was sick in the middle of one of her mock exams. She insisted on staying to finishing it so they let her carry on in the nurse's office then sent her home when she threw up again. My poor little munchkin is now fast asleep upstairs.

Today is my birthday and the day I get to try a piece of the cake that the girls made for me on Sunday. The cake that they used crunchy peanut butter for the filling and that has been in the fridge for two days. It's the thought that counts.

Sorry this isn't a writing related post but things are going a bit wonky on that front for me at the moment. I'll probably witter on about that next time. In the meantime, so as not to get done under the Trades Description Act whilst referring to this as a blog about writing, I have some excellent links to share with you.

The beautiful Talli Roland is publicising this competition in which India Drummond is giving away five kindle copies of her new book Blood Faerie when it's released on June 1st. I also have to thank Talli for including the link to Kindle for PC in her post. After I downloaded it, I checked out Amazon and ended up downloading a ton of free ebooks.

This open letter from Adam Rex struck a chord with me, and I don't even write childrens books.

Six signs you're not ready to make a living as a professional writer made me laugh, in that uncomfortable 'It's funny because it's true' way. I think I'm only guilty of one of these, or maybe two, but I'm not telling you which ones!

Finally, I'm including this Interview of a Librarian just because. If you don't read any of the rest of it, read his last thoughts. Although, I suspect I'm preaching to the converted there.