Yo-Yo Blogging For The Next Week

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’m going to have to interrupt my normal schedule for the next week guys, because, today
I’M OFF TO CAERLEON *grins like the Cheshire*

Excited is an understatement lol

Yesterday was spent packing all my stuff, shopping for last minute bits and constantly checking the weather forecast for the week to come (hoping the little rain clouds would disappear lol).

I will blog daily, I promise, but I might kind of be a day behind, if you get what I mean lol. My apologies now as I’m bound to get behind with all your posts.

So here’s a pic of my new “writer” bag 🙂

I am constantly on the look out for the ideal “writers” bag. So far, I’ve not found one, but this is pretty cool. Its big enough for a couple of A4 folders and has lots of zips and pockets. I’ll have more of an opinion about it by the end of the week, but, so far so good 🙂

Do you have a bag that you use specifically to cart your writing stuff about in?

Illuminating Blogger Award

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

The lovely Brigitte over at Brigitte Banter and the lovely Julie over at Anglers Rest have both nominated me for the Illuminating Blogger Award. Thank you soooo much ladies 🙂

Now, normally, I’m a rule breaker, but I’ll make an exception 😉

Here’s the rules…

Visit the Blog who awarded you and thank them.
Tell everyone who nominated you, thank the blogger and include a link back to their site on your blog.
Share a random thing about yourself.
Select five or more nominees — and notify them on their blogs.
Put the award on your blog somewhere.

Sooooo, my random fact: I once spent the whole night on the steps outside The Savoy Hotel in London 😉 Now you’re intrigued aren’t you? Lol

I’m nominating:

Diane at Tales From Baggins Bottom
Ms Nine at Nine Writes
Melanie at Feather Pens Tartan Dreams
Sam at Manty67
William Stadler
Wendy Steele

Please take a few minutes to visit these lovely Bloggers and their blogs 🙂

And if you want to know how comes I spent the whole night outside a posh London hotel, well, you’ll just have to take a guess. A gold star for the correct answer! 😉

Illuminating Blogger Award (floatingwiththebreeze.wordpress.com)

Too Many Choices

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Ok, so now that I’ve stopped working on But Not Forgotten and I’ve got over the shock lol, I’m ready to make a commitment to a shiny brand new WIP 🙂

I have 3 choices….help me mull them over and then give me your opinion.

Choice number 1 The Daisy Chain idea I had for my 26 characters (the ones I did for the Blogging A-Z Challenge). I love the idea of this, but, 26 characters? Is that too much? I’ve come up with an idea that links them all together, and I’ve kind of got an ending. But, in a time where agents are telling us that publishers are steering away from huge tomes, and this will definitely be a large book, is that sensible? It’s definitely got a concept, and it’s definitely different.

Choice number 2 The Jersey war story. Now, I love this idea too, but, it will take a lot of research. If I did decide to try to get it published I would immediately be labelling myself as a historical fiction writer (do I want that?). Are people not sick of war stories?

Choice number 3 My original Nano 2012 idea was for a story told from 2 different viewpoints, about someone who goes missing. I watched a TV show that had a section about missing persons and they talked about the families, what they go through. That piqued my interest. So yes, that one has concept, and is different too.

So can you see my dilemma? lol

I’m not quite at that stage where I’m hitting my head, but I will be soon if I don’t make a decision lol. Nano is looming 🙂

Advice and thoughts much needed 😉

Pitching The WIP (the-view-outside.com)

Musing About The Muse

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my “muse” 🙂

I even looked the word up in the Oxford English Dictionary lol

noun
1 MUSE (in Greek and Roman mythology) each of nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the arts and sciences.

2a woman, or a force personified as a woman, who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist:
Yeats’ muse, Maud Gonne

Ok, so she’s female is she? Lol….nope, sorry, I’m not buying that.

I was under the impression (don’t ask me why) that my muse was suppose to be a real person, but I’ve seen so many writers refer to their muse as part of themselves. Ok, interesting idea. So if my muse can be almost like an imaginary person, a part of me, that means I can have a male muse doesn’t it?

You can probably tell from my writing that I have a dark side. You might also have been able to tell that one of my favourite books is Wuthering Heights, and that I’ve got a bit of a thing for Heathcliff *sniggers*

Sooooo, I’m hoping that my muse kind of looks like this lol

Photo from Elyse Snow

Could my muse be the “male” dark and broody part of my character?

Ok, probably not, so I’m still confused lol

Tell me about your muse……

I’m still struggling about the idea that it’s not a real person lol 😉

What Motivates Authors To Write ? (nfaa.wordpress.com)

Feeling Loved

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’ve now got over 270 followers. Inside I’m jumping up and down like a small child who’s just been promised a chocolate bar. Thank you thank you thank you 🙂 I am still surprised that people actually want to read my ramblings lol *blush*

But….I’m the sort of person who suffers huge guilt over the tiniest things *frowns*. So what am I feeling guilty about? Following back 😦

Ok, I follow 245 WordPress blogs and about 50 Blogspot blogs. So if the blogger has updated their blog I get an e mail every day. So some days it’s not unusual for me to get 100+ emails. Blog updates I want to read and respond to. I so value the advice, support and comments I receive on my blog posts. I know how much it means to feel that someone has read your words.

My husband said to me last week “You need to decide, are you a writer or a blogger?” I pouted, I want both *stamps foot* But he’s right, I cant really have both can I?

I love chatting to my followers, visiting their blogs, learning, growing, but I just can’t physically follow back every single person who follows me, and that makes me sad 😦

Soooo, this post it just to say sorry. To the people who follow me, who I don’t follow back. I really do appreciate your support and comments, and will always reply to any comments you leave here 🙂 I will try to visit your blogs on a regular basis, I promise.

So tell me, How do you cope? How many blogs do you follow? Are you a writer or a blogger? 😉

From Cartoon Church

Would love some advice guys 🙂

Home Sweet Home

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Here’s what I came up with for Saturdays birdhouse picture 🙂

George lay down his chisel and admired his work. The small plain pine birdhouse lay in front of him on the kitchen table.

“What colour should we paint this one Sam?”

The black Labrador laying at his feet looked up when he heard his name. Then immediately put his head back down on his paws.

George eased his elderly frame out of the chair and bent, rummaging in the cupboard for his paints. He groaned as he tried to straighten.

“I think this one should be red don’t you? Mum liked red didn’t she.”

Sam scratched his ear and rolled over.

;

Several hours later George sat back and stretched. “This is a good one Sam, she’ll like this one. We’ll just have a cuppa, give it time to dry, then we’ll go for a nice walk.”

He filled the kettle and looked out onto the small green below the flats. Memories of his wife standing on the grass, throwing seed to the sparrows as she’d done every morning, played in his mind. She’d hated moving to this flat. They’d both missed their garden, the one they’d tended for over forty years. The one with the birdhouse George had lovingly made for Eileen, just after they’d moved in. Year after year they’d watched the sparrows raise their babies.

How long had he been alone now? Ten Months? Eleven? The tears welled in his tired grey eyes. He preferred remembering her like that. Not how she’d been in the final months of her life, when the cancer had taken hold.

;

Arriving at work that morning, Clare found her colleague Diane standing outside smoking a cigarette.

“Hi Clare…..look!”

Clare spun round and looked at the wall Diane was pointing to.

“Is that the bosses idea of brightening the place up?” Clare laughed.

“No, Jim doesn’t know anything about it. It wasn’t here before the weekend that’s for sure. My mate Sue told me about this, apparently they’re cropping up all over town, have been for about a year now.”

The two women stood, both deep in thought, looking at the small red box. They held their breath and watched as a tiny male sparrow alighted on the roof. It chirped and then was joined by a female.

Photo from Wikipedia taken by Fir0002

Well, I tried, ok, it was sort of happy, but sad at the same time lol 😉 It must be awful when your spouse dies, when you’ve been together that long 😦

Ok, I’m depressing myself, and probably you lot too lol. I actually got quite upset writing this 😦

Let’s pretend that if I continued this story, George’s son calls him, they’ve just moved into a huge house and it’s got a lovely garden. They want George and Sam to go and live with them and look after the garden. Oh, and he’ll have his own granny flat. Better? 😉

The To Do List 16th to 22nd

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’m really pleased with myself 🙂 I did well last week!

Critique subs for Mermaids (my writing group) I didn’t manage to get to the meeting because I had to pick my daughter up in Brighton. I did however read through the subs.

Do my Pocket Novel Homework Done, and earlier than usual to boot!

Do a synopsis for my Pocket Novel (which is homework for my Writing Class) Done and critiqued by my fellow students. Needs LOTS more work, but then, as I haven’t even got a real plot yet, the whole thing needs work lol.

Try to finish my current read Ah, no, not exactly. What can I say, I’m reading 50 Shades lol. But I’m nearly finished, and have read much more this week than I’ve done for ages lol

Critique story for a friend and look into comps for her Done 🙂 And if she’s reading this, it went in the post over the weekend 🙂

So a fairly productive week me thinks 🙂

Now….this week, may not go so well lol

On Tuesday I’m meeting up with some writers from my writing group, for a “write in” so that will be good. Wednesday at writing class we have a guy coming who’s a scriptwriter for a talk. Friday evening I’m up London, at London Zoo *chuckles* and then Saturday I’ll be helping hubby with a Chess Congress and trying to pack for my writing holiday, I’ll be going on Sunday morning…exciting!!!!! 🙂

I bought a diary a couple of days ago, so I’m going to start using that for my to do lists 🙂

Sooooo, the plans for the week are:

Do my Pocket Novel homework and upload.
Work on my Pocket Novel Synopsis and try to formulate a plan for the plot.
Read fellow bloggers short story & give feedback
Finish my current read and decide which book to take with me to Caerleon.
Buy stuff that I’ll need for Caerleon.
Get car serviced because, if I don’t, I won’t even make it there lol.

There, that’s not too bad, I can achieve all that right? Next weeks schedule will be a bit up and down as I’m intending to go live as it were lol. I’ll be blogging every day telling you all what I’ve been up to on the writing holiday 🙂

What are your plans for the week?

The To Do List 9th to 15th July (the-view-outside.com)
A Writers Holiday (the-view-outside.com)
20 Things I Learnt From An Agent (the-view-outside.com)
To Do List – 2nd to 8th July (the-view-outside.com)
Critiquing With Confidence (the-view-outside.com)

Six Sentence Sunday 15th July

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Today’s six sentences are from a prompt (using Judy Reeves book) I did earlier this week entitled “My real name is…..”

My real name is Jane, Jane Smith, but who remembers a Jane Smith? So for the past 5 years I’ve been Verity Delaney, which is far more interesting. In my previous life I was a housewife and mother. I spent my days cooking, doing the laundry and picking up my husbands underpants from whichever room he decided to de-robe in.

I bet you’re asking yourself what kind if woman walks out on her husband and two kids because she’s fed up with her life? A life she chose in the first place.

I’ve been trying to practice 1st person recently. I was very anti it, but the more I’m doing, the more I like it 🙂

I wrote about 300 words for this prompt, not too sure where it’s going….yet 😉

A Little Birdhouse In Your Soul

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Isn’t that the line from a song? I don’t know why I’ve got it stuck in my head lol.

Anyway, this is this weeks picture prompt…..

Taken in Jersey, in the courtyard of The Jersey Museum. Cute. I’m trying to go happier, can you tell? Lol 😉

I’ll post what it inspired me to write on Tuesday 🙂

Playing Tag

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’ve been tagged in a game of Blog Tag by Paula Acton and in Tag! You’re It by Robin Coyle

The rules for playing blog tag are….

You must post the rules
Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post
Create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged (or use the existing ones)
Tag (eleven) people with a link to your post
Let them know they’ve been tagged

My questions from Paula are….

1) If you could have any animal as a pet what would it be and why? I’m quite happy with the bog standard cats and dogs to be honest. I think keeping wild animals as pets is cruel, and I’m not even sure I’m that keen on keeping birds in cages 😦 Hmmmmm, no, I’m cool with what I have 🙂

2) You can have a star named after you what would you call it and why?
That’s easy….Angel Child, which is the name I use online a lot. It’s one of my favourite Oasis songs and I have it tattooed on my shoulder 🙂

3) What was your favourite childhood toy?
Dolls houses!!!! Oh my, I’ve had sooooo many over the years. I just love them, even now! Lol

The last dolls house I had 🙂

4) What was your nickname at school and how did you get it?
I never had one *sob* lol. My initials were V. G. when I was a kid and we had to have our initials displayed on our gym skirts. A few people pointed out/joked tht it stood for “very good” which was ironic, as I was so useless at sports lol.

5) You can go on a dinner date with anyone from past or present who do you take and why?
Tricky, I’m I assuming I’m single? Well you did say “date” 😉 Ok, my ideal dinner guest would be Stephen Fry, now, as a married woman. I think he would be fascinating 🙂 If I was single and we’re talking a proper “date”…..hmmmmm…..Hugh Grant or Pierce Brosnan, whichever one was single at the time 😉

6) What is the most embarrassing chat up line you have either used or had used on you? Ha ha ha, I don’t think I’ve ever used a chat up line… *thinks*…nope, sorry, well come on, I haven’t been single since I was 16 lol. As for one that’s been used on me? Sorry, I’m boring there too, I don’t get chatted up *pouts* lol.

7) Who would you want to play you in a film of your life story?
Probably Kate Winslet, not sure why exactly though. I guess because she’s very “English” lol

8) Someone wants to create a cocktail for you what do you call it and what are the three main ingredients? Ooooo, ummmmm, that’s really hard! I love sweet stuff, and it would definitely have to include Malibu (one of my favourite tipples). It would be named after my first novel *snigger*

9) What guilty pleasure tv show do you indulge in?
Ok, I admit it, I occasionally watch Jeremy Kyle lol. It’s where I got the idea for But Not Forgotten lol.

10) Would you have plastic surgery if so what would you change?
No, probably not. I’m scared of needles and all things to do with surgery *gulp*. I guess I would consider it if I’d had an accident or something.

11) Who was your teenage crush?
*blush* Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran lol.

I took this photo in 1982 outside the Kensington Royal Garden Hotel 🙂

So here are my questions that I’ll be tagging with.

1. Who is your favourite author?
2. If you could live in another time period, what period would that be?
3. You’ve been published, and you’ve just landed a movie deal. They ask you, which 2 actors/actresses do YOU want, to play the 2 main roles in the movie of your book?
4. What is your most treasured possession? (not people or animals)
5. If you could live anywhere in the world, money no object (just imagine you’re Stephen King lol) where would you live?
6. Who is your idol/hero?
7. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up, did you achieve it?
8. What’s your perfect day?
9. You get a HUGE advance for your first novel, let’s say 250 thousand dollars or pounds. What’s the first thing you’d buy?
10. How many times a day do you check your e mail?