June – Week 1 – Teaser

I have been busy actually WRITING this week, hence my effort to stay offline, I have managed to produce and submit some new work and am currently writing as a result of the Workshop with Jean Atkin and the Tea Project with Tara Buckley. I have also spent some time researching websites and preparing to write more material for submission, now a week away from deadline.

I have also enjoyed some time off from performing Spoken Word, my first gig is next week that will be after nearly a fortnight away from the mic.

I have blog posts to write (which I hope to post tomorrow) – especially reviewing the Tea Project and meeting Carol Ann Duffy, last Thursday.

Mr G and I spent last night out watching Voodoo Rooms, Jimi Hendrix Experience/ Cream cover band. It was a good night out.

I have also recently organised to review Sarah Hymas and her latest Poetry Pamphlet which I have read several times, need time to format a proper review. WATCH THIS SPACE!

52 – A Project to Get Your Teeth Into!

52 – Write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going.

Jo Bell is planning a year of amazing projects both for herself and the community – she has kicked off 2014 with one for us all called 52.

52 is basically a project that will generate 52 poems, one a week for a year. That’s if you are able to join in every week and there is no penalty if you don’t. CHECK IT OUT HERE

She will post a prompt weekly on the 52 blog and there is also a closed Facebook group you can join to share and comment on work.

Give it a go, hone your talent, spend a week chiselling away to create the perfect poem (or as near as your ego will allow) and then do it again, week after week for the year! I am going to attempt it, even busy weeks can handle a poem, besides I have so many gigs lined up I need new material.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge – Let there Be Light

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/photo-challenge-lights/

Offline Writing

WOW! My spam folder rose to a whole new level – my first spam messages in a foreign language! I popped online to try and reply to comments and I hope I have not missed anybody out.

I have spent the afternoon trying to hatch poems for submission – to be fair I didn’t have much advance warning, I am not a journalist and don’t work that well when creativity is under pressure. I have managed 1 of 5 poems. I have a few hours left before the deadline and so my next job is to WRITE.

This weekend is busy and I haven’t managed to write for the challenges this week. I look forward to time to dip in & read next week.

Happy Writing

SOLC Slice of Life – The first Piece of July Pie!

I am delighted to have made it back online and there is so much going on these slices could be bigger than humble pie! I will try and limit myself to news from the past week!

Well the big news of course – which if you follow my blog you will know I moved house! Mr G and I are now happily living with bits of furniture in the wrong room and boxes and boxes of stuff. I am busy sorting the kitchen first – despite it being a good size the storage is a mini size and with the combination of all our things it is a bit of a nightmare. Plus the removal man couldn’t fit the washing machine so we need someone around to do that. And the laundry has piled up, I planned to do final washes at the apartment – I was worried about water everywhere though – and with good reason the floor needed quite a mopping when the machine was moved!

If it’s not fixed by the weekend then we will need launderette trips.

I have just under three weeks left at work. I need to sign up for some agencies and the like ready for some earning potential – particularly as I am still paying for the apartment, I did manage to arrange estate agent evaluations this week though! Finally – been wanting to have it on the market since May but there was so much stuff in it I could never have got it to a presentable standard. I need to do a deep clean and some DIY in the kitchen but they can at least come and tell me what I can hope to get for it.

My neighbours are selling too – 3 of us in the same part of the building – I am hoping the ‘no chain’ factor helps push mine and I have a feeling it may be going on for less than the others. (As there are basic and deluxe kitchens and I believe my side has the basic fittings.)

That’s my next mission sell my flat before Christmas!

The past fortnight has been a mission – offline – no TV – just work – sleep – and packing! Apart from my friends BBQ housewarming which was a lovely evening and the first time I have been out in months!

The weekend together at the new house was lovely though – the sun finally shining – summer FINALLY here! Lots of relaxing in the garden after weeks/months of high stress house move feelings! It took us a while to get here but here we are and it was worth waiting for – like all good things.

And in my writing life I have started Camp NaNoWriMo (my 2nd trip to the virtual writers retreat this year, I did 54000 words in April), my summer camp target is just 35000 I am dancing around the 8000 mark – but work will finish before camp does allowing me some catch up time!

Off to grab breakfast in the box city kitchen and read some of your slices before unpacking the house some more!

Friday Fictioneers

Copyright – Sarah Ann Hall

Sheila couldn’t believe how overgrown it was. She traced her hand over the white rail.

“It seems like only yesterday doesn’t it.” Bert whispered in her ear.

She remembered how glorious that special day had been. He had promised her the most spectacular wedding and it had been. Truth was she’d have been happy with a small Church and a few guests, it was marrying him that meant the world.

“You looked beautiful my Princess…you still do. ” Bert added grinning.

Sheila smiled and looked out over the hills below.

“I wish you were here.” she muttered.

“I am.” Bert replied.

Picture it & Write- One Hope

You Need More Than This by *tntrekabulator

 

 

“Anaka, I can’t hold it steady!”

“Here, try this.” struggled Anaka, twisting her free hand into the small of her back and pulling out a shiny Grappler. She threw it as best she could over to Moey, her right side was beginning to feel the tide of stiffness creeping over it too. The grappler skimmed across the floor and landed close enough to Moey’s feet for him to reach down and grab it without upsetting the canister of pills.

‘Attach it, quick!’ Anaka thought.

It wasn’t the easiest manoeuvre and Moey was struggling. Concentrating hard on not dropping the pills, he held the canister downward between his twisted fingers. The Grappler shone like a metallic sneer in his left hand, he tossed it gently into the air to twist it the right way round. It landed in the palm of his hand and like a master chef presenting a dish from the oven, he turned it upside down in one swift movement and let out an incredible cry of pain.

“Aaarrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh! AAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhh.”

Ananka panicked she didn’t want anyone to know they were here, Moey was making too much noise.

‘Wimp, you should try childbirth!’ she concentrated her mind on this thought, hoping the joke might take his mind off the pain and back to the situation in hand. It worked this time, Moey turned towards her,

“Shut up and open your mouth as wide as you can.”

Anaka’s face was already beginning to set, her cheeks felt stiff, the pain of opening her lips was almost unbearable, worst than childbirth, she thought. Not daring to make any more noise she tried to focus her mind.

Seeing the struggle behind her still human eyes, Moey leant in as closer.

“Come on! You can do this!” he whispered, “Do it for Lex and the others.” he had to resist all urges to reach out and grab her hand. “Come on!”

Slowly they both heard her face crack and crease as a small hole appeared between her lips. Moey moved his arm and tilted the pill canister until a stream of golden tablets were showering out, slipping quickly into Ananka’s mouth. Some of them were at least.

The canister was empty.

Moey held his breath and waited.

To join in this challenge or read what it is all about head over to the site, click the button.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Above

Find the Daily Post and Weekly Photo Challenge here

© N.A.Lewis 2013

 

 

© N.A Lewis 2013

Friday Fictioneers – 100 Word Story – The Children’s Tree.

 

I envied the children in Paxton Close they had the tree. It stood outside Mark and Richard’s. In the summer we would sit underneath it, when I ran away, it was my destination. I could still see my bedroom window.

Calming, gnarled old tree missed the field in which it used to stand, surrounded by wild grass instead of muddy children, yet it watched over us as we grew up.

Decades later, all the families have been replaced. I drive past sometimes and thank it for the memories. It stands firm ready to nurture the next generation of muddy children.

Blogging – PART 1 – My Journey – including tips & links

PART 1 My Journey

My Organic Approach

In late 2012 I became part-time and saw it as a perfect opportunity to restart my freelance writing career. It was the right time.

In January 2013 I decided to start my blog. https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/about/

I had already subscribed to writing magazines and WordPress was often mentioned in articles. I did some quick Google research and decided out of the 3 top blogging platforms WP was my choice too. I had no idea HOW TO use wordpress and my method was ‘trial and error’. The only webpages I could find to guide me through the HOW TO were walking me through things I had already worked out.

Since then I have found these Blogs which have been tremendously helpful.

(Links to follow)

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/

http://wordpress.com/#!/read/blog/id/3584907/

In the Beginning

In the beginning all I needed was to

• know how to set up your blog
• know the reason for blogging

Set up your Blog

This was easy, I fumbled through trial and error, creating awritersfountain, choosing my theme from many, changing it 3 times until I was happy with how it looks. (Technically I have since discovered that my chosen theme doesn’t allow for sidebar information and extra widgets, there may come a time that I decide this is more important for readers than looking pretty.)

Reason for Blogging

To document my freelance journey, to keep myself on track, to get involved in the writing community.

_________

I didn’t even consider the need for knowledge or my promotional marketing strategies, these were of no importance to me. They evolved naturally over time and went like this;

JANUARY

• Mail shot my writing friends and let them know I had a blog, encourage them to follow (3)
• Post, my background, reasons for the Blog (I knew this needed to be obvious)
• Gradually I learnt about categories and tags what they were and how to use them.
• I discovered freshly pressed and dreamed of appearing.
• I started to read and follow other blogs.
• I discovered some writing challenges and started to take part.
• Number of followers grew.
• I learnt the importance of making sure I had balance between the blog writes and my freelance schedule.
• I was concerned about Copyright – I was using my own photography.

FEBRUARY

• I blogged as often as I could – when I had something to say, I didn’t want to be writing a diary.
• I was no longer typing into a void and knew that people were reading and liking some of the posts.
• I decided to create my own Writing Challenge for AWF (my blog)
• I created a Contribute page.
• I changed the organisation and management of my freelance work.
• Followers grew, as did the list of blogs I follow.
• I learnt extra things about HOW TO wordpress.
• I started to save Copyright Free Stock Images to use on my Blog.

MARCH

• My freelance schedule was huge, the projects I undertook were much bigger than an article or one off submission.
• I had to do a lot of research for my writing and in doing so developed a curiosity to find out more about Blogging.
• I started to research creating and marketing successful blogs.
• I managed to balance the writing on and offline.
• My strategies for managing my freelance writing worked and I developed more effective ways of working.
• I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo in April.
• I signed up for a workshop in April.
• I read a lot of articles about Writing and Authors.
• I found even more writing challenges and blogs including some on Blogspot.
• AWF followers grew to nearly 100 (97)
• I realised it is quality over quantity – both in terms of my posts and followers. People started liking in February, by March we were involved in proper conversation. I had often seen posts with 1000’s of likes and thought WOW! Now I would rather have a few some comments that 1000’s of people not telling me what they think.
• No-one contributed to the AWF writing challenge and I decided to shelve it for now.

A Quarter of the Way

Here I am in beginning my 4th month of blogging with 130 posts and 97 followers, I am involved in many challenges (I promote later in Part 2) and have sent 14 submissions. I have had 2 rejections and 1 accepted for publication (print/book). My writing schedule increases month by month as does my LOVE for the time with my laptop. My creative spirit has been nagging me for years to get up and do this… and now I do. I wake up everyday and write!

In PART 2 I will share with you my findings from the research and include more useful tips and links.

Research

I would love to hear your thoughts, how do you find the World of WordPress Blogging?