My Writing Odyssey

My mother and father-in-law have very generously offered to pay for our wedding flowers, and today we went to the florist to make the arrangements.  In all honesty I had no clue what to begin with when it came to flowers, but this florist knows what she is doing.  She listened to my sketchy ideas and numerous "well I like that flower...what's it called?" and turned it into a lovely bunch of ideas.  On the way to the florist, we passed many things, but one thing caught my attention.  We had driven past a street of shops, but one was shuttered up.  I only passed it briefly, and wouldn't have paid it much heed if the words "Church Centre" hadn't caught my attention. What a funny place for a church centre to be - right in the middle of shops!  But that's when it occured to me that many churches are having to find new homes.  In fact my own church has been practicing in a former nursery school for many years, although it is still not recognised by the...

After a hectic month of overtime, illness and doctor's appointments, I have finally realised that it is time to give up on the Write Space competiton. If I'm honest, I think that I was going to give the entry up at any rate.  I was struggling with a concept for the theme, and the two entries that I had actually started were turning into something else entirely!  This is a common occurence in most of my writing projects, but normally I can rescue it. Some of you may have noticed that I have added some new tabs to the top of my blog.  These are pages for th new novel-related projects that I have got planned.  At the minute they are all bouncing around in my head, fighting for my attention (I thought I had troubles with fan-fiction !!!) so maybe if I give them a home here I will reclaim some head-space and...just possibly...get some writing done. I've had an unpleasant month with my continuing stomach pains (for which I now have to put up with a 3 month wait just ...

This week I got my first letter from my auntie of the year.  She writes to me very regularly, as well as to various other members of our family.  Today I popped my reply into the post, which should be starting its journey down to Buckinghamshire. Let me tell you some things about my auntie.  She does not have Facebook, or Twitter, or even an email address.  She has not even been familiar with mobile phones for very long.  She is in her early fifties, and used to teach at primary school.  She's never married or had children, but has been writing letters to her nieces and nephews since we were all little.  They have been something of a constant in my life, and she has always had something to say. Whilst I was writing my response, I began to think about this new and modern world that we live in.  Nowadays the "done thing" is to send an email, or message the person you want to speak to using the social network of their choice.  Just how many ...

Posting the Mslexia competition entry seems like an entire lifetime away, especially since my recent bad health has slowed down my momentum.  Whilst I have been itching to start something else, a niggly little voice at the back of my brain kept wondering if my last competiton entry had reached its destination on time... Most competitions allow for the entrants to get acknowledgement for the receipt of their stories.  Let's face it - if you devoted weeks or even months on writing something, you are not going to be pleased if it gets lost in the post!  As someone who is naturally paranoid anyway, I had sent the standard SAE with my entry so I could be assured that my entry had arrived safe and sound. My flats have outside post-boxes, the limited space of which is balanced by the fact the sorting office is across the road.  For the past ten days I have been opening up the post box and peering hopefully inside. I have had lots of post, both welcome and un...

This has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with my writing, but the thought is a good foundation for a new blog entry.  I am determined to keep the dust from re-settling over here. I'll admit that I've been a little bit lax this week.  I've had lots of nice food and have enjoyed visits from some excellent friends.  I've taken a moment to catch up with my DeviantArt profile, and had a lot of fun reading the blogs I follow. I've been very fortunate to gain two new followers to my little blog!  A very big welcome to Chloe and my mystery follower.  Unfortunately Blogger has left you nameless, so I can't welcome you personally. Unfortunately, I have been unlucky with my health again.  The sleeplessness is slowly sorting itself out, with some credit due to my Sominex sleeping pills, but it has been replaced by the most intense stomach cramps I have ever experienced.  On Wednesday night they became so bad that I was struggling to breathe, and wou...

The Mslexia entry is finished at last - editing is completed and it was posted today - 4 days before the deadline.  I have been cutting it very fine, but I have had other factors to consider, and at last it has been completed Tuesday night, I put my foot down and started typing like a woman possessed (hence the title).  I was determined to make sure I met my first competition deadline of the year and was not about to let sleeping issues beat me.  I'm actually proud of what I wrote, although it was a violent scene that I am not accustomed to writing.  As such I doubted that I was going to do very well with it, certainly as I was feeling unwell.  But I found that I could type out the scene with relative ease.  Could it be that I have secretly been wanting to write about blood and murder?  Or that I've been reading C.J Sansom books too much (which aren't short of a grisly murder or two) and have been influenced by it?  Or maybe I just knew e...

It's been over a week since I last posted on my blog.  I've been trying to get my short story completed, but I'm still struggling with getting my sleeping pattern back on track.  Things are now getting close... Friday is going to be my deadline for this story entry - it being the 21st.  I'm feeling optimistic about getting it completed, provided my methods of writing it continues the way it has been. At the minute I am writing the story in what can only be described as wild spasms of frantic (but constructive ) typing, spaced between periods of inactivity where I stare at the laptop screen, then the keyboard, then the screen, and so on, while pulling various facial expressions at both.  I've been very good, managing to reduce my evening usage of Facebook, Deviantart, Youtube and my Kindle (er.....better than I thought I would, actually :D) to a minimum.   Once this story is over and out of the way, I will give myself a couple of days to rest and catch u...