Wednesday 30 September 2009

OOH, A BLOG AWARD


Ooh, thank you Debs, whose blog is utterly fabulous by the way, for this gorgeous award.

The "Your Blog is Fabulous!" Award stands for: Integrity. Commitment to Excellence. Stubbornly Optimistic.

THE RULES:
List five current obsessions:


1. My wonderful family and friends – No explanation needed.

2. Writing – See my blog for details.

3. Injustice – Ooh, I could go on and on and on about this – but I won’t. We see injustice in every corner of the world and sometimes in our own lives. And, in truth, I try hard not to obsess about it NOW – So it’s not, in fact, current – ooh, er have I broke the rules? But the way I see it is this, if there’s a way to solve the injustice, I will do everything in my power to do so. But I’ve learnt, as I reach the grand age of 25 (Okay, okay, 30 ;-)) that sometimes you just have to let go.

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Reinhold Niebuhr

4. Bullying - See above!

5. The baggage retrieval system they’ve got at Heathrow. ;-) – Best ask Monty Python about that one!

I would like to pass the award on to the following super-duper blogs. I know some already have the award, but hey what the heck, let’s live a little!


Helen P


Tom Foolery

Jarmara

Suzanne

Karen

Helen H

Fionnula (Who it's good to see back in blogland!)

Thursday 24 September 2009

Writerly Ups and Downs

On Sunday, we went to The Orchard at Grantchester. It's wonderful there, with a marvellous ambience of bygone years. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Rupert Brooke saunter from the little restaurant with a cheese scone and a cuppa.
Oh, and on the way back we dropped into Bury Lane Garden Centre and I found this notebook!





It’s from The Ladybird Archive Collection – isn’t it fab? It’s brought back memories of my early school days! Awh! I’m going to carry it everywhere, so I can jot all kinds of writerly things in it!

And talking of writing; this weeks certainly had its ups and downs.

On the upside, I’m editing a chapter a day at the moment and have now reached halfway! YAY!

But on the downside, I’ve had yet another rejection from Woman’s Weekly – that’s the sixth! Crumbs, they are a hard nut to crack! Or perhaps they don't like my style.

And to add to the downs; I had a rejection from an agent! Yes, okay, I confess, I dabbled. I sent out my first three chapters to one agent and I now have a bad case of burnt fingers. So I will now reflect a while before sending it out again. I need to be fully happy that I’ve done all I can to make it as perfect as it can be - and that could take some time. :-)

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Crumbs, has it really been that long...


I am thoroughly ashamed of myself. I remember a time when I blogged daily – Okay, so I was a little addicted, but nothing that a bit of electric shock therapy didn’t sort out. But now I think they should pull out the plugs, as I'm not blogging at all!

Although, I do have an excuse. My novel is almost edited! And the first three chapters are ready to go! In fact, I was almost tempted to send them out there, whilst editing the rest. But reined myself in, resisting the temptation. But it won’t be long now! YIKES!

Oh, and I’m a bit over-excited today. I’ve just received the Spring Edition of That’s Life Fast Fiction Australia, and my story’s in there – woo hoo! And what’s makes this even more special is I’m sharing the pages with some fantastic writers: including Karen Clarke, Sally Quilford, Womag and Teresa Ashby. Looking forward to a nice cup of hot chocolate later, when I'll be reading the magazine from cover to cover.