Red Letter Days

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, but oh, those couple of weeks have been eventful.  I've had so many red letter days it's quite astonishing:

A SQUIRRELLY SORT OF A GOOSE-BUMPY DAY

First, I had a trip to Sheffield to stay with friends and managed to get photographs and a video of a squirrel, out from his lair to eat the bird food my friend had set out on a tree stump.
I have to call it a red letter day because I adore squirrels.  There were robins out there in the woodland of Graves Park too - and a larger version of a tree-creeper I can't remember the name of.  And then there were my favourites - the geese - all bad-tempered and hissy-fitting because Spring is here!

WRITE ON

SEX-DRIVE AND SWEATY SOCKS
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/mywanderlust/forum/the-weirdest-thing-youve-eaten-on-your-travels_2930

The link, above, takes you to my comment about the fruit, Durian.  I tasted it on a trip to Kuala Lumpur.  It is famous, they say, for improving libido - increase your sex-drive!  I've entered this into my 'red letter day' posting, because it was the first time I had used the 'My Wanderlust' site on the Wanderlust website.  It costs nothing to join and it's amazing: a great place to post information, photos etc. about holidays and trips. 
There's also a members forum, which is where I posted my comment.  Have you ever tasted Durian?  It's an experience, I can tell you! Some people say it tastes like rancid cheese or putrid fish.  I rather liked it!

THIS RIGHT HONOURABLE WRITER

"Well, I never," I said, when I looked at the Writers' Weekly 24-hour Fall Contest winners page, "I got an honourable mention."  There was a first, second and third prize, followed by 20 honourable mentions - and I was one of them.  My 850-word story, 'Meet Me off the Train' had won me a year's subscription to 'The Write Market' magazine and an e-book of my choice. 

Any writer out there interested in entering the Spring 24-hour contest, here's the website link:
http://www.writersweekly.com/misc/contest.php 
Now that was a red letter day indeed!


COMMISSIONED FOR CASTELNAU - Moi? Bien sûr!

La Greze, Castelnau de Montmiral, is the location of the wonderful gite where we stayed with our friends in 2009 as part of a tour of Annecy, Provence and the Midi-Pyrenees in France.

The owners, John and Judi have invited me to pen an article about our stay at La Greze, including the romantic hilltop villages amongst the vineyards, the meadowland and forest areas surrounding it.
I'll be writing about their beautiful gites, swimming pool and gardens - and their wonderful hospitality.  I'll be publishing text and photographs of the villages around and about.  I'll give the reader tips and hints on the best places to visit for day-trips away. To view 'La Greze', go to: http://www.lagreze.iowners.net/


Barbeque at La Greze (the Grange) '09



 POETIC LICENSE

Below, there are links to my attempts at poetry.  I've written about HAIKU, SONNETS, the SENYRU and the SESTINA.  If you like poetry (or even if you don't and you just want to try it out for the heck of it!) 
Go to the links below for my published poetry pieces to date, with the publishers, Authspot and Bookstove - and the writing community, Fan Story.

                                                                              
 

Haiku

http://authspot.com/poetry/haiku-42/

Winter arriving (haiku)

http://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?id=375156

Spring Woodland (haiku)

http://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?id=407030

Dusk ‘til Dawn (haiku)

http://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?hd=1&id=377310

Setting the Scene for Sestina

http://bookstove.com/poetry/setting-the-scene-for-sestina/

Moon-Dappled Magic (senyru)

http://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?id=389390

Fan Story: Things that go Bump in the Night (sonnet)

http://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?id=406153

Of course, Shakespeare really knew what he meant when he said to me, 

'Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day'!

(Ah! Did I hear g-r-o-a-n-s?)

AU REVOIR - FOR NOW.
THANKS FOR READING ABOUT MY RED LETTER DAYS
TALK TO YOU VERY SOON, CONSTANT READERS

A Competitive Edge

I'm bursting to tell you I just won a writing competition , so I'll tell you...
...I JUST WON A WRITING COMPETITON
The theme was 'About Writing'.  It's called...

A Strange Tale of Writer’s Block

ON: http://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?id=399045

and I hope you enjoy!

Having won my competition (a-hem), I feel I have the right to talk to you about writing - from an expert's point of view!!  Seriously though, folks, I'd just like to offload some of my writing ideas - and get some feedback - and some of your ideas - if you care to leave me a comment when you've read this little blog entry.

It is a strange thing, this writer's block (albeit that my story wasn't about writer's block so much as about the story's protagonist trying to block herself from writing) and it can happen any old time.

. 

The thing that you need to remember at these times isn't that your ideas haven't stopped flowing, not at all.  It's just that your ideas are tangled up inside your brain and won't untangle or come out the right way up!

What you need to do is sit with pen and paper - or sit at your computer - and wait!  You might wait for hours.  It might seem that you're going to explode, or your computer's going to explode, before you can extract an idea from all that jumble inside your head - but it'll happen,  And when it does....well...EUREKA!

You might want to try collecting stories and flash fiction from magazines and e-zines to jolt you into an idea - and action.  There's a great little website called 'Every Day Fiction' where you're emailed a short story (less than 1000 words) every day - and you can enter your flash fiction to them for consideration too.

You might want to carry a notebook with you wherever you go.  There's always some little thing that will attract your attention while you're out and about.

You might want to give your story-telling a face lift and follow the directions my insightful e-course writing tutor - and my writing group colleagues - have always given me:

1. Make your main character a 'sympathetic' one - one that readers 'care' about
2. Make sure there's enough 'conflict' to keep your readers on the edge of their seats
3. Don't make your story too complicated
4. Have no more than two points of view in a story - one's even better!
5. Keep the drama going. 
6. Make sure there's a good sense of person and place
7. Start your story at an exciting time in the protagonist's life - and end your story with a BANG

Those 7 points will make sure you don't fall by the wayside and commit any of the 7 deadly sins!

I've fallen by the wayside too many times to even think about.

I know that writing's a tough old world - much tougher than I ever expected it to be when I made a kick-start into writing last April - but it gives you your rewards when you write a good story - better still when you get a piece published.

And for me, just now - it's all about winning that competition!  It's my first win.  I might be wearing rose-tinted glasses: I might have a smile as wide as the Thames: but I need my moment of glory, so WOO-HOO to me - and the best of luck to all of us newbie writers.



Big Grin - Rose-Tinted Glasses



WRITING'S SIMPLY MAGIC!  IT'S ABSOLUTELY WIZARD!

Talk to you soon, Dear Readers (I pinched that from Stephen King [who better!])