Truth vs Creative Fiction:

..All but one of the statements I made about myself last week were true.

The statements were:

1. Lobsters terrify me.
2. I have no middle name.
3. When I was a child I played the role of Mary in a school nativity play.
4. I love doing bungee jumps.
5. The first time I smoked a cigarette, I was 12.
6. When I was a teenager I was in a samba-style drumming band.
7. I play the same numbers in the lotto every week.

 #4 is the only falsehood. I have never done a bungee jump, though I would love to do one one day, and a parachute jump as well. All the others are in fact true!

200 days

Tomorrow it'll be 200 days since I gave up smoking!!!

Yay me.

There were some difficult days. Like moving house. And exam time. And various other occasions that I always associate with smoking. But I'm glad I quit....will just have to see if I manage to stay off them long term.

According to the facebook app I've added 17 days to my life as well, by not smoking for 200. Well, you know - as long as I don't get hit by a bus or whatever.

There are nearly 5000 cigarettes I haven't smoked too. That's a pretty scary amount for a little over 6 months. Funny how it's that figure rather than the life saved or money saved which tends to hit home for me. 

Busy week so I haven't done any writing, got a few rejections but haven't sent pieces out again...I'll get to it. Will catch up on everyone's blogs as well, haven't been reading or commenting much this week. Hope all is well with everyone & everyone's writing :-)

Creative Blogger Award!

Firstly, thank you to the darkly talented Pixie J. King who passed this award on to me!

The Creative Blogger award is a 'pass it on' sort of concept, which means that I now get to nominate others for it. Oh, and tell some lies. *ahem* I mean creative fictions.



Specifically, I must:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link to them.
2. Add the award to your blog.
3. Tell six outrageous lies about yourself and one truth. (Another variant: Tell six truths and one outrageous lie.)
4. Nominate five creative liars/writers and post links to them.
5. Let your nominees know that they have been nominated.

So #1 is done, thank you, Pixie :-)

#2 is also done.
 - So now for the fun stuff!

Are these six lies and one truth, or six truthful statements with just one single lie among them? Have a guess, in the comments (and if you know for sure, don't spoil it for the others!)
:-) I may tell you next week...though I have been very forgetful, of late. Muahaha.

1. Lobsters terrify me.
2. I have no middle name.
3. When I was a child I played the role of Mary in a school nativity play.
4. I love doing bungee jumps.
5. The first time I smoked a cigarette, I was 12.
6. When I was a teenager I was in a samba-style drumming band.
7. I play the same numbers in the lotto every week.

So, now to nominate 5 others! This is the hard part...I don't like upsetting or insulting people! And I'm still quite new to the blogger network so I don't have that many connections yet, but some of the people I know all know each other so they've already been nominated! Conflustering. So here goes:

E. J. Tett - Em's Blog of Waffles.
Lee Hughes - Lee Hughes Writes
Lily Childs - Lily Childs' Feardom 
Rev. Wayne Austin Goodchild - The Change Has Started
Craig Saunders - Petrified Tank




So now to go let these people know I've nominated them, and then I'm done :-) Overall this was definitely fun to do, and it's a great way to showcase other writers' blogs and hopefully get everyone some more hits and followers and fans! So thanks once again, Pixie, and I look forward to reading all your thoughts on which of my fantastic facts are true and which are lies!

What I'm working on...

Probably the last regular Friday update for a while. Not that I'm going to go away or anything, but next week I'll have to start studying so I can get a headstart before the baby comes...and then there'll be the small matter of becoming a first-time mum. So now as Summer becomes Autumn, I'm having to accept that I might not have as much time for writing. Nappies and night feeds as well as assignments might have to take priority for a while.

Don't worry though, I'll still update the blog and share stories and poems! Just probably a little less, especially once the baby arrives.

So, what I'm working on:

I finished a draft of the little hillbilly town story, but it needs an awful lot of work yet. So I'll probably try to get some more work done on that. I think now that there might be several stories, set in several different Odd Little Local Towns rather than just the one, as there seems to be too much to fit neatly into one story. Or one town.

I also wrote a piece called Disfigured. Just a flash fiction, but I quite liked it, so I submitted it somewhere as soon as it was edited. Fingers crossed!

It's been a good week, with one story published on Thrillers, Killers 'n' Chillers and another accepted into a Pill Hill Press anthology.

Done some reading this week as well - read The Empress Graves by E. J. Tett, and I'm also reading Stitched Up!, the House of Horror anthology which features one of my stories, as well as some other great tales so far. Since next week I really need to start reading Hamlet and and some chapters on cognitive psychology, a YA fantasy novel and some short stories about zombies are the perfect diversion at the moment!

Now, since it is Autumn, I think I'll light the fire and try to get some writing done while listening to the rain beating against the window, and the dogs snoring. There's inspiration there, somewhere...

Lucky Pen (Short Story)

Inspired by an idea I had when doing a Friday Flash Fiction piece for Lily Childs' Blog (which is well worth a visit, by the way).

Every Friday, Lily posts three words which readers are then invited to turn into a story of 100 words or less. You can scroll down the comments here to read my original 100 word piece (as well as pieces by other writers). I liked the idea, so I figured I could rewrite it a little longer - and without necessarily having to use the original three words.

So here is the newer draft of the story, now entitled Lucky Pen.

Comments welcome :-)

P.S. Thanks also to David Barber (whose blog is also worth a visit) for pointing out that it's much easier to maintain formatting when copying and pasting from MS Word if I use Edit HTML mode rather than Compose mode. Cheers!

Lucky Pen.

Olivia read the exam questions carefully and decided which one to answer. In her head, she composed the essence of her argument before she reached for her pen to begin writing it.

It was her favourite pen that she selected, the one she had picked up years ago in an odd old shop in a sleepy seaside village. She always seemed to do better in exams when she used that pen, though occasionally she would get mesmerised and distracted by the ornate, unusual designs on it.

Olivia read through her first paragraph before moving on, trying not to allow thoughts of her future to take her mind from the task at hand. This was her final exam, after all. Her last ever one. She could look forward now to the rest of her life, starting with the holiday her boyfriend was planning to take her on.

Just before she continued writing, something in the first paragraph caught Olivia’s eye. The colour of the ink was lighter than usual. Rather than black, it seemed to be a rusty brown. The most recent words, in fact, were almost red. Olivia touched the ink. It was warmer than she would have expected, and sticky.

As the realisation that it was not ink, but blood, came upon her, Olivia tried to drop the pen, but even when she released it from her grip, the pen did not fall to the small table. It clung on. When she looked at it, she realised it was already larger than it had been before, and it seemed to be pulsating. The designs which had captivated her before looked like veins now as they pumped her blood around the growing object.

Olivia tried to scream, but her throat failed her. When she tried to use her left hand to pry the sinister object from her right, it too was unable to help. The grip of the pen was too strong, it stuck to her like a leech.

Other students scribbled answers to the questions, oblivious to Olivia as the pen sucked the lifeblood out of her. Her fluid draining, she couldn’t even shed a tear for the tragic fact that her final moments were to occur in an exam.

***

The exam was over before anyone realised what had happened. The pen lay dormant once more, shrunken back to its normal size, its veins masquerading as beautiful symbols again. While some students screamed and others fainted as the invigilators tried to keep everyone calm until the police arrived, one young woman was not as interested in Olivia’s shrunken corpse as the pen which still lay in her hand. As she filed past, Maria slipped the pen out of Olivia’s grasp and into her own pocket. It was such a beautiful thing, after all. In spite of what had happened to Olivia, in fact, Maria felt it might even be lucky, and she had one more exam to do. 

This is why I won' t get a tattoo...

It's been a couple of months, so I figured it was time to change the background.

Back in the days I had myspace I used to change the profile page every few days.

I could never get a tattoo. I can't imagine one image that I'd want to commit to for the rest of my life.

I like this theme now, but in a few months, who knows? I like to have the option to change my mind.

Paying for Book Reviews

An interesting post recently on Writer Beware Blogs - which is a great place for exposing vanity publisher scams.

The particular article which caught my eye is with regard to paying for book reviews, you can read it here.

As many of you know, I am one of three authors of a self-published anthology of dark short stories and poetry. The anthology is called Casting Shadows and is available from Lulu, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.




We have been reviewed twice, so far - once by Holly Christine of the Pittsburgh Books Examiner, and once by Geoff Nelder on his blog, Science42Fiction. Both are pretty good reviews, which is excellent.

We got these reviews by emailing Holly Christine and Geoff Nelder - and we did not pay for them.

I would never pay for a book review.

It is certainly true that it is very difficult for self-published authors to sell their books. No arguments there. And that getting the word out by getting reviews helps. Again, no arguments. However, I don't think that paying for book reviews is the solution.

First of all, if your book really needs major errors in grammar & spelling to be pointed out, perhaps you would be better paying the large fee that reviewers charge to a professional editing service, or even just having it proofread by someone who isn't related to you and has a good grasp of the English language (or whatever language your book is written in!). Though an occasional error will still slip through - I see them in books published by major publishers as well. All people are only human, after all. An occasional error is one thing though. A book full of them is a different story, and unfortunately gives all self-published works a good tarring with the same brush of unprofessionalism.

Secondly, while many paid-for review services claim not to give only positive reviews, it's highly unlikely that such a service will get many clients and make much money if they make a habit of strongly criticising books they review. First and foremost, these "services" are businesses, and need to make money. That's their function, and the best way for them to do so is to give mostly good reviews to ensure more clients sign up for their service. However, this means that the reviews cannot be trusted - certainly not wholly. The blog post above makes the case that reviews have always been paid for, to some extent - because newspapers and magazines are supported by advertising, and publishers are among the advertisers. However, anyone who has ever read book review columns in respectable papers knows that regardless of how big a publishing company is behind a book, they are quite willing to tear a book to shreds if they feel that the book deserves such treatment. And while this may cause problems behind the scenes, for the sales staff, ultimately the publishers continue to send the reviewers their books, and also continue to pay for advertising. These reviews are clearly honest, and can therefore be trusted.

Ultimately, if people want to spend their money paying for book reviews, that's their business, I suppose. But I don't feel that paid-for reviews add anything to a publishing market which is opening up due to the availability of Print on Demand services, while many traditional publishers are more willing to publish a third "auto"biography of a Z-list celebrity (ghostwritten) detailing the mundaneness of their vapid existence than take a chance on a new author with an original idea. (Ok, this isn't true for all publishers, but the book retailers have increasing power as well, and they like celebrity faces on their bookshelves).

Ultimately, a paid for review is tainted with the suspicion that if it is good, it is only good because it was paid for. Self published authors already have to contend with the stereotype that if the book was any good, it wouldn't be self published, so paying for a review may just add to their problems rather than the opposite.

Comments and opinions welcome, I'm sure many people have views on this subject! (This post has been scheduled so I may not reply immediately, but I will reply to comments!)

What I'm working on...

Friday update!

Well I managed the 24 part of the 24/7 writing challenge - writing a piece every day for the first 24 days of August. The final part involves working on editing/revising a piece every day for the final seven days of the month. So far, so good! I tend to edit the twitter fics as I go, but the flash fiction pieces and the poems do need work, so there's plenty to keep me busy there.

Also, I'm working on an erotic horror story. It's for an anthology but I don't know if I'd use my own name if it got accepted...still, cross that bridge when I come to it I suppose! Got to finish the story, edit the story and submit the story then hope it gets selected before I really need to worry about the blush factor!

Also working on a story about a strange little hillbilly town. Inspired by a village near where I live - the radio always goes funny when I drive near it, and it gave me an idea for a story. Only got a few hundred words so far though, got a lot of work to do so far on that one.

No work on any of the other pieces I'm supposed to be working on. Got a couple of rejections this week as well as the acceptance so I need to go hunt through duotrope for some more markets to send them too. One is a sadistic serial killer story, the other a flash fiction piece detailing one woman's reaction to the end of the world.

So yeah, some nice lighthearted pieces there, as always! Heehee. Got quite a bit done this week considering I've had a lot of other stuff happening, so a good week overall!

Thanks for congrats and other comments by the way, they're all very much appreciated! I really like knowing that I'm not just talking to myself on here!

What I'm working on...

So, Friday rolls around again...

What have I been working on for the last week? Well, I spent some time updating this blog.

I've also been working on a sort of serial killer piece. In first person, about a character who delights in her evil. That was difficult, as I had to get inside her head, and since I was working on it yesterday as that story about the woman in France who killed her babies was breaking...well, as I say - it was difficult. Sometimes reality is even more gruesome than fiction.

Then there's an idea that came to me while walking the dogs one day this week - about an old married couple who have grown apart somewhat. I suppose that'd be classified as literary.

I also had another idea, about a woman who is trapped...I have started it, but it may be too similar to my Just the Dust story which appears in Casting Shadows. Still, I may be able to do something with it.

I've also been tweeting and mentioning on here and on facebook about Stitched Up, the House of Horror anthology which will feature one of my stories. Yup, that's me mentioning it again!

I've been writing a few funny/silly little poems as well. Not sure where to submit them to, so you never know - I may post one or two on the blog!

It's a bank holiday weekend so that means time with friends and family - not a whole lot for writing, probably. Though I do have Folded Word 24/7 coming up. I have to write a piece a day for that, starting on Sunday. Still. I never go anywhere without my notebook anyway!

Beware custom layouts

I used to have a layout for my blog from some site that offered them for free.

It was great - looked pretty cool, in the colours I wanted.

One problem though - comments. People couldn't make them. They'd click the 'comment' button and absolutely nothing would happen. There are also layouts that screw up the word verification stage, so that there is no box in which to input the captcha text unless you click like mad immediately after hitting the comment button.

 One person who has kindly started following my blog, and commented on it, has a blog layout that won't let me comment. I would comment on yours in return, but your layout is making it impossible. My advice is to try the new layouts from blogger as they don't screw up the coding and you can still customise them all you want - it's what I did. After all, it's fun to know you're being read!

So, Stitched Up, the anthology one of my stories will appear in, can be pre-ordered from the House of Horror bookshop. If you do order a copy, please mention my name while ordering it, it helps me! 

Also, I've spent some time creating a page, Publication Credits, which features information and links on all my published stories and poems to date. Have a look! You can click the link in this post, or the tab at the top of the page.

While you're there you can also click Poems or Short Stories to read any poems or short stories which I have published here on this blog and can therefore be read for free!

Blogs about Blah

Been flicking through the "next blog" link here on Blogger looking for something amusing (it's up at the top there, on the left, near the middle. Feel free to click it once you're finished here).

It just struck me how many blogs there are about people's children and god. Seriously. Go ahead and click it and I bet that in no more than 3 clicks, probably fewer, you'll come to a blog where people post *cute* pictures of their children or talk about how much they love god/god loves them.

To my untrained eye, all the god blogs are the same and all the brats blogs are the same. I'm actually pregnant with my first child and very excited about it. However, I don't see the need to describe the minutia of said baby's existence online for all the world to read about. As for the god ones...well, they just bore me. I'd happily ignore them, but there are so many of them.

I do wonder what people are thinking when they post naked baby photos of their kids on the internet though. I mean, I remember being a teenager and at some stage during those years I went through all my photo albums and tore out anything in which I was naked. Imagine if those pictures weren't in a book in a chest in the attic, but posted on the internet???

As for the god-blogs...surely if you believe that strongly in god, surely you can't possibly imagine he needs the internet to hear your prayers (if so anyone who lived before 1995 or so is well screwed!)? Posting how much god loves you all over the internet doesn't make it true any more than me writing Jo-K (hearts) XY all over my maths textbook at school got me a boyfriend.

Oh well. Off to do some more clicking and see if I can come up with something funny or interesting instead of pictures of babies who all look the same or religious imagery.

Quick edit - I know the internet is a great way to communicate with distant friends and family so I get that people might therefore use it to display baby pictures. BUT, it is not that difficult to make a blog private/invite only. You don't need to display the pictures to any random stranger who can find them just by clicking through blogger.

An elephant never forgets...and neither does the internet

I know it's sad/pathetic/egotistical or whatever but I googled my name yesterday and while several good things came up such as this blog, and various links to Casting Shadows, there were also some links to an old livejournal blog.

Immature, opinionated, self-righteous rants. I wanted to cringe. Actually, I think I probably did cringe. I tried to log in to livejournal to delete them, but couldn't remember my password, so had to get it reset, and for that I had to log in to my old email address and trawl through over five thousand spam emails.

Finally I got the livejournal email and then got rid of those embarrassing old blogs. It just goes to show, however, that the internet never forgets. Beware what you make public as it could easily come back to haunt you! Or alternatively, don't use your real name unless you're absolutely sure you'll be able to live with what you wrote in five, ten or twenty years.

I'm off to google my name again! :-)