Sunshine on a Rainy Day

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’ve been nominated for the Sunshine Award by Cheryl at Creative Muse 365 and by Sabrina at Creativity or Crazy 🙂

By Mandy Eve Barnett for the Inspiring Blogger Award 🙂

And by Sabrina again at Creativity or Crazy for the One Lovely Blog Award 🙂

And by Whitney at A Serendipitous Happenstance for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award 🙂

Thank you thank you thank you! 🙂

I know you’re probably all getting bored to death with my award posts, and it’s becoming increasingly more and more difficult to find people to nominate who i haven’t already given one to.

Sooooo, what to do? *thinks*

Ok, breaking the rules, as ever lol, I’m just going to nominate and then you can pick the award you want, is that ok? 🙂

Please do check out these lovely bloggers who nominated me though, you won’t be disappointed 🙂

My nominees are…..

Sue Healy
Virginia at Poetaofficium
Michael at My Glass House
Paula Acton
Sara Flower
Jenny Keller Ford
Rebecca T Dickinson
Sydney Aaliyah
Joanne Phillips
Madalyn Morgan

Have fun people!

What is a Liebster Anyway?

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

No picture prompt today as next Tuesday I’m taking part in a blog hop 🙂 I’m so conscious of avoiding doing more than one post a day. I know how hard it is for most of us to keep up as it is lol 😉

I’ve been nominated by the lovely Sara Flower for The Liebster Award 🙂

Thank you soooo much honey!🙂 Please go and check out Sara’s blog, you won’t be dissapointed!

Now, I’ve seen this award floating about, can anyone actually tell me what it means? Lol

I think I’ve been nominated for it by someone else recently, so if that was you, shout so I can link back to your blog and do a thank you (I’ve been so lapse recently with keeping track of things) 😦

Anyway…..onto…

The Rules:

Answer the eleven questions your nominator posed to her/his nominees.
Pass the award on to eleven others.

Ok, ok, so I’m going to play by the rules this time 😉

photo courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti/freedigitalphotos.net

What keeps you writing when you have writer’s block?
Well, I don’t really suffer from writers block, I have the complete opposite, too many ideas floating around in my head. I can always find something to write about, always.

Most writers have a literary counterpart—a character from their stories who reflects themselves. Tell us about yours.
There is always an element of myself in all my female characters. Some, much more than others, but I don’t have a specific counterpart.

What are your passions?
Family, people (I find everyone interesting), learning, love and writing 🙂

You’ve had a fight with your significant other and you want to fix things.
Ha ha ha…..are you reading this dear? Lol….. A cuddle is a good place to start 😉

What’s one injustice you see in the world that you would fix in a story?
Wow, that’s a difficult one! I’m not sure to be honest. I tend to write about loneliness and depression a lot, so I guess it would be the injustice of life.

If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?
Only one? Wow, that’s hard lol. Ok, I’d love to have my own writing room 🙂

What’s important to you at this point in time?
Being the best writer that I can be.

Who is your hero/heroine?
From a writing point of view, or in general? In general it would have to be Princess Diana….now don’t laugh 😉 Seriously! I think she was a fantastic woman, she wasn’t scared of hugging people with AIDS, she shook our royal family up big time and she had a huge effect on the British people. When she died, things changed, it was like a lightbulb moment for the UK.

Do you make it a habit of telling others what you thought of their work, even if your experience wasn’t good?
I try to be gentle, I hate being too critical. So, I try to give a positive to every negative if I can.

What is good will?
Hmmmmm, don’t they say “Good will to all men” or something? I guess it’s about being nice to everyone, treating others how you would wish to be treated yourself.

What would it take for you to make friends with an old enemy?
I only have a couple of people I would actually consider enemies and there is no way in this world (or the next) that I would ever make friends with them again. There are certain things that are unforgivable in my opinion. Some hurts can never heal 😦

And now, here are my nominees. Looking forward to your answers 😉

Mandy Eve Barnett
Sandra Madeira
Kitty Hietala
Bridget Straub
CC at Honesty
Brigitte at Brigittes Banter
Zoe at Ozonenut
Dianne Gray
Ms Nine at 2bnine
Robin Coyle
Amber Dane

please take a moment to go visit these great bloggers 🙂

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

A HUGE thank you to Heidi at The Teenage Writer and Cheryl at Creative Muse 365 for both nominating me for the Sisterhood Of The World Blogger Award 🙂

I am honoured and soooo chuffed 🙂 I love getting awards, especially ones I’ve never received before. It’s nice to know people enjoy my posts 😉

Sooooo, now for the rules…..Like most of these awards it’s a case of passing it on and listing some stuff you don’t know about me. Is there anything you don’t know about me? Really? Are you not bored yet? Lol 😉

Seriously, as I’m a rule breaker, let’s mix this up a bit….. 7 questions….you guys tell me what you want to know. So I’ll answer the first 7 questions in the comments ok.

Now, for the nominee’s……..I’m going to pass this one on to my top commenters 🙂

LouAnnn at On The Homefront And Beyond
CC at Honesty
C B Wentworth
Robin Coyle
Kirsten at Write A Book With Me

And lastly Elliott at Brain Splats who is officially on my list, but, of course, he’s not a girly *snigger* Elliot, please feel free to consider yourself nominated for the “Sisterhood” award, but I won’t embarrass you by splashing it all over your blog, unless you’d like me to? 😉

Ok, over to you guys *bites finger nails nervously* 7 questions……???????

Blogger Beware!

Posted on August 25, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

No photo prompt today guys as I wanted to get this posted and next Tuesday I have another special post already scheduled 🙂

Jennifer M Eaton pointed her readers in the direction of a blog post by Roni Loren….. You Can Get Sued For Using Pics On Your Blog – My Story recently.

If you haven’t seen anything about this, please, do go and read it. It’s shocking, scary, and definitely something we should all be aware of.

I don’t often use photos on my blog that haven’t been taken by me, but after reading this, I don’t think I’ll ever be using anyone else’s stuff again! *gulp*

This begs the question, how far does copyright go? Do you have copyright over something you say? In a public place? In private? Who owns the copyright if you take a picture of say, a piece of art or a building that’s been designed by an architect? And what about all those pics and cartoons that get passed around on FaceBook?

Where do you get your photos from?

Bloggers Beware, You CAN Get SUED For Using Pics On Your Blog via Roni Loren (kaitnolan.com)
Bloggers Beware: You CAN Be Sued for Photos by Roni Loren (jennyhansenauthor.wordpress.com)
COPYRIGHT What you need to Know: Bloggers Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Pics on Your Blog – My Story – Blog – Roni Loren, Romance Author (harshmellowblue.wordpress.com)
Blogger Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Photos You Don’t Own on Your Blog (blogher.com)
Bloggers Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Pics on Your Blog (robincoyle.wordpress.com)
Blogging Authors Beware! You Can Get Sued. Roni Loren Guest Blogs (pubrants.blogspot.com)

I’m A Very Inspiring Blogger

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Firstly, before I go on to the award…. guess what? Go on, guess, I bet you can’t *snigger* You are now looking at (well, ok, perhaps not literally but you get my drift) an official Nano ML for the Kent UK region!!!! I got my e mail yesterday. So I’ll be Co-ML’ing with Elizabeth Haynes who did such a wonderful job last year. EXCITING OR WHAT!!!!!

According to Teresa at Floating With The Breeze and Paula Acton so it must be true, yeah? 😉

Seriously, thank you so much ladies, I am honoured to be thought of 🙂

We all know the rules for these things, nominate other bloggers and share random facts. Ok, so as I’m a rule breaker I’m going to do what I did last time….point you in the direction of some very “inspiring” blogs 🙂

Evan who blogs at The Better Man Project has embarked on a challenge, to be a “better man” 🙂 I think we could all learn something from this blog.

Ali who blogs at Heavenali can always be relied upon to post interesting book reviews 🙂

Debs Answers always has something fascinating to post. Very useful for us bloggers.

Stu at the Change Your Life Blog has recently just published the book to accompany the blog. So if you want to change your life, here’s where to start!

Liz at Libro Editing is a freelance proofreader, copyeditor and copy writer. It’s fascinating to read her blog 🙂

Please go and check out these links if you have time.

And if you’ve stumbled across an inspiring blog recently, post the link here so that I can go and have a look! 🙂

I’m It Again lol

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’ve been tagged in a game of Blog Tag by the lovely Sandra over at Another 12 Novels in 12 Months 🙂

The rules are:
I must post the rules
I must answer the questions the tagger listed for me
I must create (or reuse) 11 questions for those I tag
I must tag 11 people
I must let them know they’ve been tagged

Sandra’s questions are:

1. If you could re-live a moment in your life when would you choose and why?
Ooooo, ummmmm, there are lots….because I know that if I’d made different decisions about certain things I may have prevented some not so nice things happening, if you know what I mean 😉 if I could relive one moment, just for the pleasure of it (not to change it) it would be my wedding day….I was so happy….I’d love to feel like that again…so many hopes and dreams 🙂

2. What is your first happiest memory?
Bloody hell these questions are deep lol….probably the Christmas I got my first dolls house.

3. If you could have dinner with 3 dead historical figures who would you choose?
Oscar Wilde, Queen Victoria and Winston Churchill…. Now wouldn’t that be a party lol.

4. After a long, difficult day, what is your favourite way to unwind?
A cup of tea and a film 🙂

5. What is your favourite singer/band to listen to while writing?
I don’t listen to music when I’m writing, in fact, I only tend to listen to music in my car…my faves are Oasis, Lostprophets and Linkin Park, in that order.

6. If you sold your novel for 100,000 (dollar/Euro/Pound/etc.) what would you do with your advance? I would use half to pay off some of my mortgage and the rest I’d use to do the house up.

7. What did you want to be when you were little?
An architect LMAO!

8. What is one thing that you need with you when you write (on your desk, on your body, etc.)? a good selection of pens and my notebook beside me 🙂

9. Would you rather write using a computer, typewriter or pen and paper and why? Pen and paper definitely. Not sure why, there’s just something magical about having a pen in your hand 🙂

10. What are 3 things that invariably make you smile?
My pets, love letters/notes and a new notebook.

11. What does your favourite colour remind you of?
My fave colours are red and purple. Red reminds me of passion and love and purple kind of feels comforting 🙂

So as I’m a rule breaker I’m just gunna say that I tag EVERYONE who follows me! I love getting to know you guys, so if you haven’t already taken part, please do 🙂

Playing Tag (the-view-outside.com)

Inspiring? Moi?

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’ve been nominated for the Inspiring Blog Award by Amber Dane and by Wendy Steele so I’m feeling pretty smug this morning 🙂

Thank you soooo much Amber and Wendy 🙂 I don’t actually see myself as inspiring (lack of self confidence, self esteem issues lol) but its lovely to hear that someone actually does lol 🙂

As I’ve already received this award, I’m going to break the rules and just highlight a few blog posts I’ve read recently which I’ve found inspiring 🙂

Erica at Write by Waples has written a post entitled Writing Tip #3 which is something I wholeheartedly agree with. Sometimes, I just wish there was someone nagging me lol

Dory’s World is full of everyday observations. I would soooo LOVE to use that photo of the elderly couple on the bus as a prompt 🙂

Dan Bracewell is contemplating the fact that he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Oh yes, I think we all know that feeling. I’m already thinking that about my Louisa Gould story and I haven’t even started it *snigger*

Clearskies Bluewater is talking about the fears and concerns that I think we all have about our capabilities as a writer. It definitely resonated with me.

JeanNicole Rivers post about writing myths was/is interesting, because of point number two. Remember my post about what I’d learnt from the agent? Yes, concept concept concept!!!! And that’s exactly how you get it 🙂

Kimberly at Unnecessary Poetry posted a great post giving so many useful links that it just made me realise that I’m not the only one who spends hours online every day. Me thinks I’ll have to set aside a whole day to benefit from this post 🙂

Please do go and visit these blogs, yeah yeah, I know you’re busy and you already follow 389 blogs as it is, but, you never know, you might just find something inspiring 🙂

What’s inspired you recently?

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)

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 🙂

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?