My Writing Odyssey

Christmas 2010 has now been and gone, and hopefully it will have left all my readers and friends with happy memories.  I hope Santa has remembered you all kindly as he stopped by on his annual visit. I think he must have remembered me very kindly indeed, as I opened a wonderful collection of presents this year!  I received some special combs for my hair (E-Z combs), a lot of bath things and smellies (which come in useful to someone who tries to bath every day!), some slipper-socks (x3 - thank you Grandma), some pretty candles, some lovely cups, a lot of tasty food and some Christmas earrings from my auntie! But there were three presents I opened that I was especially happy with and deserve special note.  The first was from my fiance's sister.  She gave us a beautiful framed photo of her equally beautiful two year old daughter.  I have two nieces and a nephew from my fiance's sisters who I don't get to see as often as I would like, so I am always pleas...

Christmas is almost upon us all now.  The presents should for the most parts be bought, wrapped and labelled.  Some of the more prepared of you may even have gifts under the tree, although mine are currently in the spare room with the christmas munchies... Sometimes presents are not a surprise to us.  In fact, maybe some of us hate getting presents that are unexpected.  It saves disappointment in a lot of cases. However, some surprises can brighten up even the most nightmarish weeks, and I am happy to say that I have had three!  My guardian mask from Hing Lung restaraunt  The first arrived on Thursday afer a late night shopping trip led us to our favourite chinese restaraunt.  We go there regularly, and the week before I had sent them a christmas card.  They have made the last year, throughout which we have visited them very frequently, and my fiance and I felt that this deserved some acknowledgement.  Upon arrival, the owner happily thank...

Christmas is almost upon us, with shiny decorations and the promise of nice presents to come, and will be followed quickly by the new year... Which is why (once I've finished my lunch break) I'm currently updating some of our report files at work for 2011. It is not very exciting, and has become so time consuming that I may have to complete it next week, but it has to be completed.  But why do it now instead of doing it later on?  The answer is simple: if I don't do it now it will not get done!   It's a simple story I write for you this morning:  No matter how good the intentions are to complete the task, if it is done in stages some aspect of it will inevitably be forgotten about. The same applies to writing.  The best method is simply to keep at it, rather than messing around with the internet or television.  When I start well I can write 1000 words minimum, sometimes going much higher. So in this new year I resolve to put m...

At some point in everyone's life, they take an interest in some form of conservation.  Usually, that interest is due to some sort of animal. You know the kind of interest I mean: "Save the Dolphin!"  "Save the Tiger!"  "Save the Panda!" and many others.  Pretty much everyone has got behind at least one of these causes, often more than once.  All of these animals are endangered, they are all cute and (perhaps most importantly) they all have adorable babies! Thanks to the wonders of the internet, digital television and book publishers, the modern population is more or less up to speed with the wildlife that live and that have lived on the planet.  Conservation icons such as the Lion Man and the late great Steve Irwin have inspired millions with their passion for wildlife and their desire to preserve it as best they can.  It would also be very rude to ignore the contribution and effort of the legendary Sir David Attenborough.  He has become such...

  Today I have written hundreds of words, and have a slight headache for my troubles.  Sadly, all of my writing was in the form of Christmas cards... It's that lovely time of year again, and I'm not being entirely sarcastic by that remark.  I actually love Christmas and the surrounding holiday.  The weeks adding up to it, however, I hate very much.  It's not the constant play of festive music (I like that) or the way the shops get trimmed up (I love that, but I do object to some stores doing it so early).  It's the sudden mass of people who just seem to appear within every shop, shopping centre and high street that you choose to visit!  I'm not a very people person, and I get uncomfortable in large groups of people, so I try and get things like Christmas cards at silly times like September and take full advantage of late-night shopping days.  Online shopping helps a little, but I'm wary even of my favourite shopping sites (Play, Amazon and Dis...

  That's the opening line of my proposed entry (or first entry, if I feel ambitious) for the Write Space competition on the theme of "Moving On."  But more of that in a moment.    Firstly I would like to celebrate the fact that my little blog has a follower!  A big welcome and thank you for joining me on my own Odyssey, Sam.  I hope your blog helps you to express yourself on your own journey to becoming an author. Anyhow, back to the competition entry: Currently, the opening line is the main development, and was devised about an hour ago in the bath!  That is where I get the majority of my inspiration, although nothing has made me leap out of the water and run to my laptop like certain ancient philosophers did (although not to a laptop, of course). At the moment all the details of this story are sketchy at best, but that does appear to be my writing style on professional works.  If this were a work of fan-fiction the whole ...

  Thanks to a very  late bus (well, only five minutes or so, but late is late!), I found myself wandering into WH Smiths and spying a familiar magazine... In September my subscription to Writers Forum - a magazine that has given me a lot of encouragement - came to an end.  Sadly I was unable to continue the subscription at the time due to money issues, and since then one thing cropped up, then another, and another.  It seems on the eighth day, God was stuck for something to do, and so came up with the excuse!  In the new year Writers Forum will be receiving my subscription for sure. In all honesty, what made me sieze a helpless copy and dash to the counter (where I bought chocolate, which had been the original intention for visiting the shop) was the promise of an article regarding greetings card verses.  That was an industry I had considered trying to enter when I was seventeen, but completely forgot about never got round to realising it.  It may...

There is an old saying: "Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining..." The purpose of the saying is to remind us all that something good can always be gained from a calamity, regardless of how big or life-stopping it may seem.  A similar meaning can be found in the biblical saying: "Whenever God closes a door, he opens a window." To me, this saying is all well and good if you ignore all the fiddly details.  What if God's window is on the top floor and a long way away from the door?  Will you find it in time?  What if your great big cloud only has a tiny silver lining?  In the case of the last question, it makes the saying sound pretty dire, especially for those of us (like me) who think too much about everything! In these modern times, where things genuinely seem to be getting worse with every day, I have found that this particular saying needs some updating.  The original Batman movie, starring the excellent Jack Nicholson as the Joker, introduced me to a much...