Must Do’s 22nd to 27th July

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

Ok, well i for one am fed up with the hot weather lol. I’m not a sun lover for starters. pale and pasty that’s me 😉

So last week I felt a bit meh and I think that’s related in the To Do list. Last week I was supposed to:

1. Post Tangled. YAY, it’s gone!

2. Do Artists Way stuff. Yep!

3. Start decluttering cupboard under stairs. Couldn’t face it.

4. Finish packing kitchen & dining room. *shakes head*

5. Sort out drawing class and enrol. Well, I found one, but, bloody hell soooo expensive! 😦 I need to find out if I can pay in instalments before I commit.

This week is gunna be hectic (and another hot one) so the diary looks like this:

I’ll definitely need my Boxing Day come Sunday 😉

So what are your plans for the week?

Writing Blogger Challenge Day 2

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

The prompt for Day 2 is:

Make 10 writing related confessions.

1. I still get confused between nouns, verbs, adverbs & adjectives. it’s just not sinking in 😦

2. I’m comma happy. I use far too many lol

3. I have approximately 450 unfinished short stories. Whoops!

4. I have a huge problem with Tautology in my writing. A really bad habit that I must get under control.

5. I prefer to Handwrite than type. I’m actually considering doing the next novels first draft all by hand.

6. I feel that my vocabulary is lacking. And that goes back to my education levels.

7. In real life I swear like a trooper. But my characters don’t tend to lol.

8. I am the Queen of Cliche. See number 7 *giggles*

9. I hate writing in first person. They always sound like me lol

10. I still haven’t sent off my first Writers Bureau assignment! EEEK! (Should really do that lol).

Well, that was pretty cathartic lol…. Go on, give me a writing confession, so I don’t feel such a loser 😉

Writing Blogger Challenge – Day 1

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

I must admit, I’ve been thinking my blog is/was a little stale recently. So this morning when I was reading blogs and having a major catch up I noticed that one of my favourite bloggers, Hunter Emkay is hosting a Writing Blogger Challenge which will run for 10 days. Ok, well that sounds interesting.

So I’ve signed up 🙂 (you know me, I like to be stretched lol).

So today is Day 1 of the challenge and the prompt is…

Introduce your latest writing project with an elevator pitch or maximum 250 words.

Now you all know everything about two of my novels (Still & Tangled) but I have a 3rd one lol. During Nano last year I decided to write, or rather, try to write a Mills and Boon novel *sniggers* I managed it, but, in just under 22,000 words, which is well short of the 50,000 that is required. So it will need some major editing, I need to add more angst, and add two sex scenes *blush*

So here is my 250 word pitch for Sorrento Sunrise

Kate works for a travel magazine and when her boss asks her to visit a hotel in Sorrento to interview the owner, little does she know that the sexy, dark Italian will become more than just another assignment.

After a hellish journey and mistaking him for a bellboy, Damiano initially thinks that Kate is a typical arrogant journalist, but he soon changes his mind as they get to know each other intimately on the hotels private beach and over the course of her stay.

Damiano asks Kate to meet him in the bar on her last night where he is planning to ask her to stay on, but when Kate arrives she see’s him with another woman and flees back to England.

Damiano tries to contact Kate but she refuses to speak to him or respond to his e mails, having now researched him online and discovering the string of Italian models he’s been photographed with over the last few years. Already having arrangements to visit London Damiano goes to Kates house with a huge bouquet of roses but as he gets out of the taxi he see’s her hugging a man who is holding a toddler.

Angry, and thinking he has been lied to he continues with his business in London, the purchase of a new hotel and decides to get on with his life, trying to forget about Kate.

Several months pass and Kate is given an assignment to attend a new London hotel opening. She is shocked and embarrassed when the owner gets up on a podium to make a speech and it is Damiano. Their eyes meet and Damiano realises that he can’t get on with his life unless Kate explains herself. Having traditional family values he is shocked that she could have been the way she was in Sorrento knowing her husband and child were waiting at home.

After a small “scene” at the party Damiano finally manages to drag Kate to his office and demands an explanation. Kate is shocked and after explaining that the child is hers but she is a widow and that the man was her brother Damiano feels an idiot. But Kate doesn’t let him off the hook easily. She demands to know who the woman was that she saw him draped all over in the bar. Damiano explains that she was his cousin.

Ha ha ha….that’s 394 words and I haven’t even told you how it ends! But it is a Mills and Boon, so I’m sure you know lol

Oh well, I think I’m gunna need to work on that.

Any guesses as to how it ends? 😉

The Pro’s & Con’s of The Day Job

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

In my IWSG post this month I talked about being bored and the idea of getting a day job. Then I stumbled across a quote from T S Eliot. He was asked:

Do you think that the optimal career for a poet would involve no work at all but writing and reading?

He replied:

I think that for me it’s been very useful to exercise other activities, such as working in a bank, or publishing…the difficulty of not having as much time as I would like has given me greater pressure of concentration.

So I decided to do some research, and came across these great articles (don’t you just love Google!).

Don’t Give Up The Day Job Advised Oscar Wilde

Don’t Give Up The Day Job by Stephen Potts

Daily Rituals – Keep Your Day Job

10 Questions Writers Should Ask Before Quitting the Day Job

Ok, ok, enough! Lol….but what if you’ve already quit? What would be the benefits of going back to a ‘job’?

1. It could expand my sources of inspiration.

2. It might make me more eager to write.

3. It will broaden my range of skills and experiences.

4. Stop me procrastinating and use my time more wisely.

5. Give me my own money in my pocket, a sense of independence.

6. Get me out if the house and talking to people.

I don’t want a full time job, been there, done that, pissed me right off! Lol. Mainly because I don’t want to spend my weekends catching up with the laundry *shakes head adamantly* and what with “Albie” now, there is no way I’m going to do that. So I need to find something for a couple of hours a day, or something where it’s only a couple of mornings a week. Yeah, right, like 50,000 other people want *sighs*

I will keep looking though….maybe something will come up 🙂

Would you give up work if you could? Or do you see the benefits of keeping the day job while you write?

Tangled – The Synopsis

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

Well, its gone off in the post to The Romantic Novelists Association *bites finger nails* So i thought I’d share the synopsis.

It’s not exactly a synopsis, more like a blurb lol

Tangled is a novel about love, loyalty and the consequences of betrayal.

Anna Scott is a middle aged housewife who is bored with her life. Marriage and the pressures of bringing up children have left her overweight and tired. What happened to the fun loving girl she used to be?

Her husband Tim, several years older and recently retired, is content to potter around his garden and spend the rest of his days relaxing. Anna feels that life is slipping her by and whilst on a girls night out with her best friend she meets Harry, who she once knew as a twelve year old boy when she was involved in his case in her professional capacity, as a social worker.

Against her friends advice she agrees to meet him for a coffee, just to catch up with how his life has changed. But Harry makes it obvious that he wants more than just a mutual friendship. Flattered, Anna soon finds herself involved in a passionate affair with a man 12 years her junior.

Harry tries to persuade her to leave Tim and after she stalls he visits Tim and tells him of the affair. Unbeknown to Harry, Anna has recently aborted his child and Tim takes great pleasure in telling Harry so..

Anna decides to stay with Tim but Harry starts to stalk her. He becomes aggressive and even sets fire to Tim’s car. As Anna and Tim start to rebuild their marriage Tim is found dead on the living room floor, stabbed by a knife that is missing from Anna’s expensive knife block. But who are the suspects? Harry seems the obvious choice, but did Anna really want the boring housewife life after experiencing the excitement of Harry? Or could Tim’s first wife Fay (the one he left to be with Anna) hold the key to Tim’s final hours?

Yeah, ok, it’s definitely more like a blurb isn’t it lol 😉 But that might have something to do with the fact that I haven’t really decided who did kill Tim lol. I have a theory, I know who I’d like to see as the killer, and I know how I want the book to end. It’s completely finished, so at the moment the reader is kind of left wondering who the murderer is.

Photo courtesy of Master isolated images at Freedigitalphotos

What do you think? Who killed Tim? 😉

Must Do’s 15th to 21st July

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

Well here in the UK summer has finally arrived, and as we’re all sweating our nuts off, being typical Brits it won’t be long until we’re all moaning about it *snigger* 😉

Sticking to my To Do List this week has been difficult…who wants to follow a stupid old list of stuff to do when you can sit in the garden and read? Plus, Albie’s arrival has kinda turned my world upside down and I smell of “dog” 😉

So last week this is what I was supposed to do…

1. Finish reading/critiquing Faber work for meet. Did that and had a lovely evening catching up 🙂
2. Decluttering/sort out hallway. Done, I had to, for Albie.
3. Take Tangled to the post office. *sighs* It’s still sitting in its envelope at the bottom of my bed…but…I’m going TODAY!
4. Clear up desk and writing stuff. Nooooo, fraid not, it was too nice outside to sit at my desk in the corner of my stuffy bedroom 😉

I started doing The Artists Way at the weekend. Spent all day Saturday having a major catch up session so I can take part in the FaceBook group I’ve been invited to join. This will be my 3rd time of doing it now and I’ve gone back to Morning Pages. Just gotta make sure it’s not a 3 page rant every morning lol 😉

So this weeks list looks like this, but I also have some Artist Way stuff to do…

What are your writing plans for the week?

Meet The Newest Thompson

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

Some of you who have been following my blog for a while will remember that in May last year we lost our much loved Yorkie, Georgie. I still get tearful looking at that picture *breaks to compose herself*

Ok, where was I? Yes, we have been “dog less” for a year, having lost Bill, our Shih T Zu in 2010 and then Georgie in 2012. I said I would never get another dog. Why? Because the thought of going through that pain again (I’ve been through the loss of a pet pain 5 times now) was not something I thought i could cope with (although i do have my 2 cats still).

Why do we do it to ourselves? We know that at some stage they will die, or need us to make that painful decision for them 😦

But, the house feels so empty. I miss being greeted by a wagging tail when I come home from the shops. I may have only been gone an hour, but I’m sure most dogs think you’ve been gone a week! Lol. I miss the walks, I miss throwing a ball, I miss the love.

Soooo, after much family discussion (and my hints on here recently at exciting news – this is exciting news part 1 lol) we decided it was time to go back to being dog owners 🙂

I e mailed a couple of breeders who were advertising puppies. Most of them replied saying their puppies had all been sold, but one lady replied saying that although her new puppies were all sold she did have a 5month old boy who was looking for a home, and as I told her in my e mail that I’d previously owned a Shih T Zu and a Yorkie, she was confident that I knew what I was doing when it came to small dogs.

He was sold to a couple who said they only worked part time. Then, when they rang the breeder to complain that at 4 months he still wasn’t housetrained it transpired that the poor little thing was being left on his own from 8am to 6pm! The breeder was furious and told them to bring him back and she would give them their money back, which they did. Not a great start for the poor little fella.

He’s been in the breeders kennels for 4 weeks now. She doesn’t want to get attached to him, but he was with his sister. We went to meet him a couple of weeks ago and I’ve spent the last week dashing around buying doggy baby stuff and getting the house “puppy proof” lol.

So here he is…meet Albie 🙂

He’s such a happy little guy, we all fell in love with him and the breeder has given me strict instructions that if I don’t want him I’m to take him back because she doesn’t want him passed from pillar to post. I don’t think there’s any chance of that 🙂 The kids are already talking about getting him a friend 😉

I promise I won’t go all dog obsessed on you 😉

Wordsworths Summer House

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

During our trip to the Lake District we visited Rydal Mount which was the home of William Wordsworth from 1813 until his death in 1850. It was while living at Rydal that Wordsworth penned his most loved and well known poems. So I was rather excited to find that his summer house, where he would sit and compose his poetry (whilst staring out at the beautiful gardens) was still intact and available to view.

So after a tour of the house including his attic study (sorry, no pics, you’re not allowed to) I was desperate to get out into the garden and see where the great man did most of his writing. The summer house was well hidden up a steep bank (lots of tiny twisting paths) and when we finally stumbled across it I was shocked. I’m not too sure what I was expecting to be honest, but it wasn’t this:

Of course we sat in there and looked out at the view. You can just about see Lake Windermere in the distance, but in Wordsworths time the view probably would have been slightly better, due to less/smaller trees.

The Wordsworth’s daughter Dora loved her fathers Daffodil poem, so when she died Mr & Mrs Wordsworth (both in their late 70’s) personally planted a whole field adjacent to Rydal with hundreds and hundreds of Daffodil bulbs. It’s now known as Dora’s Field and must look incredible during Spring.

The Daffodils

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Published at Rydal Mount, 1815.

Did I feel inspired? No, not really. It’s definitely a gorgeous place, but I’m often shocked at the meagre surroundings of some of the great writers. The following day we went to Beatrix Potters house and saw her desk/bureau where she wrote and drew her characters. It was tiny and not what I expected at all. And then take Rudyard Kipling…I’ve been to his house several times and his office was pretty unimpressive too lol. Do well known/successful modern writers prefer their writing spaces to be simplistic do you think? I will need to Google this and see what James Pattersons office looks like, or Stephen Kings lol.

If money was no object would you have an impressive office (huge desk, opulent surroundings) or do you think there is a lot to be said for keeping it simple?

Wordsworth (theothersideofthebrain.wordpress.com)
Poetry Post – I : Daffodils (iitbwritersbloc.wordpress.com)

Must Do’s 8th to 14th July

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

Well, last week was a wash out 😦 I think I left the house, what, twice, between Monday morning and Friday afternoon lol….so annoying!

So nothing from last weeks list got done lol, although “Tangled” is now in it’s envelope lol.

It will be going off Wednesday morning (it’s the earliest I can fit in going to the post office) and I have spent the weekend decluttering. So the plans for this week are:

It’s gunna be a good week, a few nice “writerly” type events to look forward to, especially after such a poxy week of illness.

What are your writing plans for the week?

My Faber Reading

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Vikki Thompson

A HUGE thank you to everyone who commented on my IWSG post a couple of days ago. I will continue to write, but I’m not going to make it the entire focus of my life anymore. I need to step back, chill about it, and if I don’t write for a week not stress about it.

Ok, I’m gunna share with you the piece I read out at the Faber event. Be gentle with me, I know it’s not brilliant lol. In the anthology there is a synopsis and a 1500 extract from Laura’s journal, the one that arrives in this scene…

Ruby knew the handwriting, but didn’t recognise the post mark. As she tore open the large manilla envelope her hands shook. Inside were a black Moleskin notebook and a folded piece of pink paper, a similar shade to the fluffy slippers she was wearing. Her chest tightened as she unfolded the letter.

Dear Ruby,

I know this has probably come as a huge shock, did you secretly hope that you’d never hear from me again? I pray that’s not the case. We are so alike, you and I, stubborn to the bone and we have wasted so much time. Regardless of what you think of me, I love you, and not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about you, worried where you were.

You’ll be pleased to know I finally summoned the courage to do what you’d been telling me to do for years. I’ve left Daniel. I walked out with a small holdall, my passport and our joint savings. I managed to find a room in a house share, which is where I’ve been for the last ten months.

I know you said when you left that you felt I had chosen him over you. That is something I’ve had to live with these past years. At first I was angry with you for saying that, but now, I think you were probably right, and it breaks my heart to admit it. How could I have chosen my husband over my daughter? I’ve been an awful mother. I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but please accept this notebook. I’ve been writing in it these last few weeks. There is so much I want to tell you.

I don’t expect your sympathy, I’m not asking you to come and see me, pretend nothing’s happened and pick up where we left off. I know it’s too late for that. But always remember that regardless of what you think of me I have always loved you and I’m so sorry for all the hurt I’ve caused. It will haunt me for the rest of my life.

I hope you are happy and having the wonderful life that you deserve.

Love, always.

Mum x

Ruby closed her eyes and slid down the hallway wall to the cold ceramic tiles, her head spinning, her breathing erratic. And that was where Sam found her, twenty minutes later, clutching her knees to her chest, the notebook on the glossy floor at her feet.

I really don’t know how I managed to read it with all the crossing outs lol

The general consensus from my writing group was that it was a bit too “tell” which is fair enough. But how do you stop a letter being all tell, because that’s what a letter is isn’t it? Any ideas on another way I could have done it would be much appreciated 🙂