Hello everyone, my audience, my wide readership...
I have started a new blog - no, not because I wish to make a clean break and start afresh but because I wish to try something new. I am reaching out to the world with a challenge, and the challenge is...
ASK ME ANYTHING
Yes, you too can rush to http://sensibleanswers.blogspot.com where you can post literally any question and it will be answered honestly, usefully and kindly. The first hundred questions will be answered free of charge so get in there quickly!
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Friday, 20 March 2009
three down, er, some more to go
Further to my previous post, which I'm sure you eagerly read as soon as I dangled it before you on this blog, I can proudly announce that I have now joyfully dispatched three protagonists in three short stories. They are gone - but I did throw each of them a good send-off (well, maybe not the middle one) as well as throwing enough baggage and general misery into their back stories so that their ending could be enjoyed with a sigh of relief, a knowing smile and a happy escape back into reality.
Speaking of reality, I have just had a short telephone conversation with a very pleasant person asking me market research questions about a recent car service. Not exactly exciting but what a joy it was to make his day by giving the dealer maximum scores on pretty much everything. And I wasn't lying. Giving positive feedback is a wonderful, life enhancing activity and may I suggest that the next time you feel like writing a letter of complaint, consider writing a letter of praise to someone else instead. (Of course, if the complaint really has to be made, try writing two letters of praise to keep the scales tipped the happy way.)
Speaking of reality, I have just had a short telephone conversation with a very pleasant person asking me market research questions about a recent car service. Not exactly exciting but what a joy it was to make his day by giving the dealer maximum scores on pretty much everything. And I wasn't lying. Giving positive feedback is a wonderful, life enhancing activity and may I suggest that the next time you feel like writing a letter of complaint, consider writing a letter of praise to someone else instead. (Of course, if the complaint really has to be made, try writing two letters of praise to keep the scales tipped the happy way.)
Now, how shall I deal with (fictitious) victim number four...?
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
it's a bloodbath
I have a reason. Really. There has been nothing new to read here for ages and ages and ages because any writing minutes have been spent putting together the first two short stories to go into an anthology.
With good luck and a following muse, I may muster ten of them and, at the moment, the anthology's working title is "They All Die At The End". You may gather that these are not stories for children and you can probably figure out how it's going to go for the protagonists.
I may alter the formula occasionally and kill someone off at the beginning before telling the tale in flashback. Technically that still counts as death at the end but everyone likes a bit of variety.
The working title, incidentally, comes from a habit I have thankfully now shaken of telling people about to see a film that the characters would all die at the end. I figured that if I consistently said this then people would realise that I was not spoiling the ending. Sadly, for films where no one made it out, I was sometimes accused of ruining the suspense and, granted, if I only said it to someone once and was, by chance, correct on that occasion, then the accusation would be justified. I don't do it any more.
Last week was half-term. N and I saw the changing of the guard, the National Gallery, Southend-On-Sea (which has the longest pier in the world - but does anyone else build them other than the crazy Brits?), Kew Gardens and some other places. Photos may follow - please come back repeatedly to see whether there are any as this will make it look like I've got more readers than I actually have.
With good luck and a following muse, I may muster ten of them and, at the moment, the anthology's working title is "They All Die At The End". You may gather that these are not stories for children and you can probably figure out how it's going to go for the protagonists.
I may alter the formula occasionally and kill someone off at the beginning before telling the tale in flashback. Technically that still counts as death at the end but everyone likes a bit of variety.
The working title, incidentally, comes from a habit I have thankfully now shaken of telling people about to see a film that the characters would all die at the end. I figured that if I consistently said this then people would realise that I was not spoiling the ending. Sadly, for films where no one made it out, I was sometimes accused of ruining the suspense and, granted, if I only said it to someone once and was, by chance, correct on that occasion, then the accusation would be justified. I don't do it any more.
Last week was half-term. N and I saw the changing of the guard, the National Gallery, Southend-On-Sea (which has the longest pier in the world - but does anyone else build them other than the crazy Brits?), Kew Gardens and some other places. Photos may follow - please come back repeatedly to see whether there are any as this will make it look like I've got more readers than I actually have.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
things to do
On Monday we went swimming. Round and around the pool floated arm-banded N with me supporting her and encouraging leg kicking and arm scooping. Then scootering down the road before the umpteenth tricycle trip around the car park - S or me pushing up the hill, N careering intermittently back down again.
Yesterday we backed gingerbread biscuits, mixing then rolling and cutting and rolling the remainder and cutting and... etc. N doesn't seem convinced that she likes the result but S and I will eat them even if she doesn't.
Today I have rearranged the furniture (slightly) while N is at nursery so that she will come home to a newly erected super-den (Ikea play tent) with a maze of displaced chairs, sofa and side tables to negotiate to get there. The amount of effort will almost certainly outweigh the excitement generated, especially as there's a large chair squatting in front of the television. That is not an accident.
Will this keep us going for the afternoon or will I need to resort to Postman Pat and/or Charlie & Lola? Perhaps I should hide some books around the sofa to prolong the experience.
Any suggestions for tomorrow? Keep 'em coming...
Yesterday we backed gingerbread biscuits, mixing then rolling and cutting and rolling the remainder and cutting and... etc. N doesn't seem convinced that she likes the result but S and I will eat them even if she doesn't.
Today I have rearranged the furniture (slightly) while N is at nursery so that she will come home to a newly erected super-den (Ikea play tent) with a maze of displaced chairs, sofa and side tables to negotiate to get there. The amount of effort will almost certainly outweigh the excitement generated, especially as there's a large chair squatting in front of the television. That is not an accident.
Will this keep us going for the afternoon or will I need to resort to Postman Pat and/or Charlie & Lola? Perhaps I should hide some books around the sofa to prolong the experience.
Any suggestions for tomorrow? Keep 'em coming...
Friday, 9 January 2009
the dreaded bloggers' block
Maybe I have just run out of things to say - will that do as an excuse for the empty days when you have arrived at my URL, thirsty for my words, only to be turned away with nothing but the dry gristle of last week's diatribe?
I'm still an unpublished author and yet, whenever I turn to literary agents' websites I find that they are extremely successful in reducing their workload by being so unwelcoming. They might as well write 'abandon hope all ye who submit your work here'. To be fair, that's not all of them - but most of the ones I can find who seem friendly have already turned me down.
The third Mr Grasshead is growing his hair.
N is back at nursery. Four mornings each week now and she stays for lunch one day too! I discover that, given that I need to have lunch too, this does not really give me any more time for 'getting things done'. That is not a complaint, merely an observation. I'm sure it will be good for her to get used to eating in a room of her peers, even though school dinners are still some years off. Given the work that dear old Jamie Oliver is up to, she will presumably be served a magnificent banquet each day by the time she gets there (and let's hope she eats some of it).
I have decided that, in the interests of motivation, inspiration and of providing a frisson of danger, a whiff of risk and a soupçon of chance, I would like YOU, dear reader, to request topics on which I can burble, meander and waffle. Anything at all - I throw this down as the first challenge of 2009. Don't let me down.
As an incentive, I shall write nothing more until someone gives me something back. (Unless, of course, I feel like writing something before then.)
I'm still an unpublished author and yet, whenever I turn to literary agents' websites I find that they are extremely successful in reducing their workload by being so unwelcoming. They might as well write 'abandon hope all ye who submit your work here'. To be fair, that's not all of them - but most of the ones I can find who seem friendly have already turned me down.
The third Mr Grasshead is growing his hair.
N is back at nursery. Four mornings each week now and she stays for lunch one day too! I discover that, given that I need to have lunch too, this does not really give me any more time for 'getting things done'. That is not a complaint, merely an observation. I'm sure it will be good for her to get used to eating in a room of her peers, even though school dinners are still some years off. Given the work that dear old Jamie Oliver is up to, she will presumably be served a magnificent banquet each day by the time she gets there (and let's hope she eats some of it).
I have decided that, in the interests of motivation, inspiration and of providing a frisson of danger, a whiff of risk and a soupçon of chance, I would like YOU, dear reader, to request topics on which I can burble, meander and waffle. Anything at all - I throw this down as the first challenge of 2009. Don't let me down.
As an incentive, I shall write nothing more until someone gives me something back. (Unless, of course, I feel like writing something before then.)
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