Reality Blog Award

Thanks to Anne for nominating me for this award






The award is lovely as are the rules which are nice and short;

The rules are -  visit the person of the blog who nominated you and link to them on your post. Answer the questions, nominate more bloggers and let them know.

1. If you could change one thing, what would it be?
Men would have to keep their shirts on in the street during the summer - in fact all year round. I know I'd miss out on the odd (very odd) Adonis but at least I'd be spared the sight of rolls upon rolls of tattooed flab.

2. If you could repeat an age, what would it be
My early twenties so that I could relive the days when my sons were small.

3. What one thing really scares you?
Something dreadful happening to my sons.

 

4. If you could be someone else for a day, who would it be?
A first class passenger on the Titanic as long as it was a day between 10th and 13th April 1912. If it was the 14th we would hit the iceberg late at night and if it was the 15th we'd sink in the early hours so I wouldn't fancy either of those days thank you very much.

I'm supposed to nominate people for this award but I always struggle to choose just a few and besides, I know a few of you already have it so without wishing to cop out I nominate anyone who hasn't received it yet.

I give up

I don't mean to sound defeatist because that is not who I am or what I am about but it occurred to me yesterday that I need to give up on the last year.
I tend to work from April to April in writing terms - it's what I do in the day job and it just seems to naturally transfer itself to writing  - and to be honest with April fast approaching I realise that the year 2102/2013 has not been a raging success in fact, being perfectly honest I have had nothing (as in 0) published and I will be almost embarrassed to declare my extra earnings to the taxman. He'll take a look at my meagre royalty payments and feel sorry for me.
To be fair to me though I didn't submit much until about October.
I do still have a few things out there but they are with the editor that I nudged a few weeks ago so I have pretty much given up on those.
But I have had bad days/weeks/years in my day job though and the only way to deal with it is to put it behind you and concentrate on the next one which is what I'm going to do. I think I might have mentioned it before but next year I will have another project that I will be working on but I want to also find time for more writing. Maybe I could combine the two.

Surprise!!! Maybe.

I'm almost certain that my volunteers are planning a surprise for that big birthday that's fast approaching. I keep coming across them with their heads together and conversations stop when I come near, bless 'em - though I might not be saying that if there's a banner hanging over the monument when I  drive to work and 50 balloons hanging out the front of the shop.
There's not a lot, well nothing happening on the writing front at the moment though I do promise to knuckle down to some scribbling and editing soon. I haven't sent anything new out for ages and there's no news on what is already out there. I just can't seem to get into the way of it at the moment so its a good job that its not my job or we'd be starving.
I'm still trying to come up with the list of 50 things for that other blog but am currently stuck on number 32. Who would have thought that it would be so difficult? Maybe one of the things should be to tell my everyday friends that I enjoy writing - nah maybe not. I want it to be a list of things that I can do and I'm not sure I could do that one.
Anyway enough of this waffle. I just thought I'd drop by and let you know that I was still here
TTFN

Cosiness returns

I am happy to report that the very nice chappie from British Gas has been and cosiness has been returned to the bedroom. Turns out that a valve had decided to turn itself off for no apparent reason (which is a bit of a worry) but its back where it should be now. So no more random midnight posts as I avoid going to a cold bedroom. Is that a collective sigh of relief I hear?
On a different note I'm finding myself really looking forward to that "BIG" birthday year (the one I'll be blogging about here) in five and a bit weeks time. It feels like a new beginning, like the first 49 years were for learning and the rest are for living or something like that. To be honest I'm not sure that I've learned a whole lot in the first 49 years other than you should never take your happiness for granted because life has a way of kicking you in the teeth. That's just given me an idea for a blog post - what I've learned in the first 49 years.
I finished "Death Comes to Pemberley." today which I thoroughly enjoyed so now we have the major decision of what to read next to contend with.
You'll gather by all of this that news is very thin on the writing front. Still no word from the editor that I nudged a few weeks ago so I think that I can probably give up on those three stories and everything else I have is non fiction so I don't expect to hear about them just yet. I haven't written much recently apart from this and the other blog - too busy trying to come up with a list of 50 things to do next year. I had no idea it would be this hard.
I'm also feeling a bit of a revamp coming on with this blog but that's for another time. Right now there is cannelloni to make.

As promised.

As promised last night when extreme tiredness and a reluctance to go to a radiator less bedroom induced a random post here is the bit of me that I said I would share. This story if you can call it that was written when I was going through my "very" short fiction phase.
Hope you enjoy.

On the Bridge at Dawn

 By

 Colette McCormick

.

Marion stood on the stone bridge and looked over its edge at the deep waters below. How had it come to this? When did it get this bad? There were so many questions but so few answers.

Marion knew what she had to do. She had known for weeks but had lacked the courage until now. Was it courage or was it desperation? Did it really matter?

In her younger days Marion could have hopped on top of the wall at the bridge’s edge with one leap. But that was many years and several stones ago. Now she would need help.

She looked at the wooden box in her hand. She placed it on the floor with deliberation. She knew that it would take her weight. She had tested it last night.

Slowly she climbed on to it.

Damn, she was still too low. She had underestimated the height of the wall.

Her mind raced frantically, desperate to come up with a solution. She had come so far, too far to go back.

Marion hitched up her skirt exposing a knee that was encased in a heavy surgical dressing. Forcing it to bend was a struggle but Marion fought the pain. Physical pain meant nothing to Marion anymore.

She forced the knee on to the top of the wall and looked around for something to pull herself up with. There was nothing.

She put the palms of her hands on the wall and tried to push off from the leg that still stood on the box. Could she support her weight? She would have to.

But she could not.

Wrists weak from arthritis gave way under her bulk, her weight dropping back on to her standing leg. The box underneath that leg slipped under the unusual pressure.

Marion heard a crack as she fell but her knee remained where it was wedged on top of the wall. She felt a needle of pain shoot through her standing leg as it landed on the floor. That knee gave way beneath her.

As the leg crumpled she fell backwards and in the split second that it took for her to fall to the floor she noticed with extreme clarity the beauty of the dawn sky. And after the bang of the head on the cobbles came the darkness.

And after that?

Nothing.

Random waffle to avoid the inevitable

I see I have lost a follower which is very careless of me. Note to self - be more interesting.
I'm thinking of posting something I have written here for no other reason than I think I would like to share something with those of you that are left but I haven't decided what yet.
I could waffle on a bit more but I'm just putting off going to bed. The radiator in our room isn't working and it is frreeeezing. Himself put a little fan heater on in there for me before he went to bed but ... oh its just not the same.
Can't put it off any longer though I have to be up in just over 6 hours.

Thought provocation.

My other blog hasn't reached the particularly interesting stage yet though I hope it will, but thinking about it has or rather is proving to be ...well though provoking.
When I was a little girl I was hit by a car. I was thrown into the air and landed in a gutter. My head was open from front to back on my left side and I was unconscious. I remained unconscious for four days and when I woke up it was apparent that I had suffered paralysis down my left side. My parents had been told to expect the worse but my waking up was a good sign.
After a week in hospital I was transferred to a convalescent home and in fact, the first thing that I can remember about the incident is realising that I was in an ambulance going up a steep driveway. I don't remember much else about the week I stayed in there other than a doctor who said I wouldn't be able to go home until I could smile from ear to ear and grinning like a Cheshire cat at him and the daily game of "Simon Says" to get my left hand/arm working. Oh, lets not forget my sister (who is 12 years older than me) holding my head still while a nurse took my stiches out.
Anyway, without labouring a point, I could have died then but I didn't and I've had a couple of other near misses along the way too and this week I asked myself why.
Why didn't I die then?
I'll let you know if I ever work out the answer.

Email

I had an email today from a magazine editor who had asked for some non fiction ideas which I duly provided. Well the ideas didn't blow them away but they have asked to see some writing samples. I have now provided them and I'll wait another 2 months for a reply. I don't mean that to sound the way that I realise it does because this particular editor always takes that length of time so I'll not be looking out for a reply any time soon.

Second nudge?

Two weeks ago I nudged the editor that had had a couple of my stories for 9 months. You may remember that I was uncomfortable doing it. I read today that Jill Finlay has had to put a stop to submissions for a couple of months and reading womags post you can appreciate the amount of work that an editor has to do. I haven't heard anything back from my nudging yet but I guess I can forgive them for that. Just out of interest how long do you give it before you give a second nudge?

More of me

This is what I hinted at last week.

Sorry for the dullness.

Apologies for my previous post which was dull, dull and then a bit duller. However in its own way it served a purpose because it has prompted me into action, well only in a manner of speaking anyway. There will be more procrastination involved first but then there will be some action - I promise but more of that next week. There will also be writing in that notebook (the one that I don't want to write in because its so pretty) because I have come up with the perfect thing for it - the thing that I must have been waiting for. But like I said, more of that later.
On a different note, hasn't it been a lovely day, maybe spring really is on the way.

A new level.

I have realised that I am not alone with feeling awkward about (metaphorically) nudging editors that haven't got back to you and I have a feeling that I am not alone with this one either.
A am such a procrastinator. I believe I may have taken it to another level.
Any tips on getting beyond it?

Nudging

Heard on the grapevine (well Facebook) yesterday that an editor is up to date with the stories that they have received for which I am sure they were doing a happy dance. However, I sent them a story back in the first half of 2012 that I still haven't heard about  so I have had to email them and ask about it. Why do I always feel like a pest when I do that. Not that I have done it very often but when I have, I 've always felt like I'm being a nuisance.

My thoughts on friends

Giving a friend your work to read is a tricky one. Like everyone has said, and I am with them on this one, how can you tell a friend if their stuff is bad? You can't, well not without possibly ruining a beautiful friendship.
The good thing about JW (maybe I'll ask her if I can use her name) is that she is like a sister to me. We are much closer to each other than we are to our own sisters but even so I never ask her to be objective about my writing. I often ask her if she has enjoyed something and to be honest it wouldn't be the first time that she said "No," but always in a nice way. Its the same when she sends me a copy of some new artwork that she's created. About 90% of the time I look at something she sends me and think "What the ...?" and I'll say something along the lines of it not being my cup of tea but then every now and then she'll send me something that I think is brilliant and I tell her so.
Anyway, I don't think that I made myself clear in my last post. All that JW is doing is interpreting the editor's email for me - to read between the lines if you will. Its part of her job just in a different field so it's a bit like asking an estate agent to tell you what a house spec really means. As for RS, I never and I mean NEVER give her anything to read because she is too sweet to be objective about anything that any of her friends do and that is part of the reason that we love her. She was just commenting during a conversation that we had.
Its a bit like my day job. I am a "friend" to the paid staff that I work directly with on a daily basis but not really friends with if that makes sense. I have to keep that distance because I have to manage them and it would be really hard to tell a friend that something they had done was totally wrong
To my way of thinking friends are friends and professionals are professionals and they should both be treated as such.
The good thing for me is that JW and RS are two of the few people that know that I write so its not usually a problem.

Friends

I asked my very good friend JW what she thought I should do about the editorial service dilemma. I have known JW for 30 odd years and although she is more of an artist ( well a very successful one) than a writer in her job commissioning artwork she is pretty savvy about things.
Anyway, like me she was initially sceptical but she asked if she could see the 300 words that I sent as well as the whole email reply so that she can judge better. I'm waiting for the verdict. She also asked if I knew anyone personally that could do it and I said that I didn't. At least I don't think I do. Anyone an editor on the quiet?
Another friend RS who does write but just for fun not publication asked me if I had considered that the sample might actually be almost flawless grammatically and create the atmosphere that the editor described. After all, wasn't that what I was going for. Oddly enough no I hadn't but that might be because I know I'm not William Shakespeare. Lovely R said I should think about it.

A morning's work

I'm having a week off from the day job (well apart from tomorrow when I have to attend a meeting - okay so I don't have to but its Health and Safety and if you don't go you have to attend a mop up sometimes quite a distance away with people you don't know so I figured that I may as well get it over with) and the first good thing about that is waking up naturally. Okay so I know I only slept until 6.41 but when you're alarm normally wakes you at 6.15 that's a lie in.
Anyway at 10.30 I am going to see the lovely Stephen who (thanks to his magic fingers) will turn me into a new woman. I am at this moment like a sheep that needs shearing but after an hour or so in the chair with gunk on my head to perk up the colour (not to mention cover the grey) and half an hour's snipping away I will be a new me. I always say that I am going to go to the hairdressers more often because people say I look years younger after a visit (cheers - thanks for that) but its a logistical thing, namely that I almost always have a Thursday off work and so does Steve. Anyway that's what I'm doing this morning.

Jacqui Bennet

The above mentioned worked closely with the Writers Bureau which is a course that I did and is probably the reason that her name stuck with me. has anyone ever  used her critique service and if so can you recommend her? If you can't I'd be interested in hearing that too.

First 300 words

When I asked for suggestions for editorial services the other day, Frances came up with the name of one that I had heard of so I thought I'd look into them. However - and this is probably something to do with my age - by the time I got to looking them up I'd changed them to a completely different agency that I have also heard of. By that time it was too late though because I had already sent a 300 word sample to Jacqui Bennett, not Hilary Johnson as Frances had suggested. It's an easy mistake to make - not.
Anyway I am getting to the crux of the post. I have heard back from Doug who was the poor bloke unlucky enough to get my sample and after the explanation of what his marks and squiggles meant, and saying that it was almost "flawless" grammatically (should be considering I've only gone over it a million times) this is what he said:

"It’s not clear to me at this stage whether this is fiction or non-fiction, but whichever it is, you’ve set up the framework of your story extremely well, with a tremendous amount of mystery and panicky apprehension accompanying the narrator’s sudden blindness. Strangely, there’s almost a breathless excitement in the air as his or her anxiety creases. This sort of writing, early on, has the potential to involve your readers, and so they are more likely to keep turning the pages."

So I should be pleased, you think? No I am sceptical. I mean I know (as do you all because I've told you often enough) that I love BTL but here's someone else telling me that the first 300 words at least aren't bad and I can't help thinking - really?
So now I'm thinking is Doug telling the truth and maybe there is potential in my book (there is massive potential in my head but this is the real world) or is he just saying that because he wants me to buy the full service?
I will just clarify though that I in no way mean to impugn Doug's professional integrity, it is just me returning to type i.e. a cynic. 

Suggestions please

I will at some point be getting a professional to cast their eye (well both of them hopefully) over BTL. Can anyone recommend one?

A proper moody mare.

It's been an odd sort of day, one that has been thoroughly miserable for no particular reason. It's just the way that I have felt.
I have been known to have the odd "dark" time in the past but I usually shake it off after an hour or so - sometimes it just lasts a few minutes but today it has gone on all day. Hopefully I will wake up in a different mood tomorrow.
I was going to submit a short story to WN but then I remembered that there are at least 3 outstanding stories with Jill at the moment anyway one of them from months ago so I figure she has a backlog and so I decided to give it a miss. It probably wouldn't have stood a chance anyway because I'd be sending bad karma with it.
Then I realised that I had 4 anonymous comments from robots so I had to change my settings which isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things but just an annoyance that my mood blew out of all proportions.
Anyway here's to a better day tomorrow and thank you for listening (well reading).
BTW where does the full stop go in that last sentence? Is it inside or outside the brackets? I've always been a bit hazy on that one.