Tag Archives: FaceBook

Who’s Afraid Of Copyright?

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Sorry, no Six Sentence Sunday again this week….I’ve just got so much I want to say! Lol

So where was i? oh yes…..I am, and probably more so after reading Debi Gilori’s story. I was alerted to it by Nicola Morgan on Facebook recently. If you have time, please go and read Debi’s story.

If not, I’ll try to give you the gist…..

Basically a publisher approached her asking her to do a children’s book about the Tobermory Cat. But, a guy who created a Facebook page for the cat, wasn’t happy about that, and she has subsequently become the victim of cyber bullying by what appears to be members of the Facebook group.

The cat is a stray, so not owned by anyone and a huge argument has ensued on who actually owns the copyright to The Tobermory Cat. The guy who set up the Facebook page is claiming that his “idea” has been stolen and is taking legal action (according to the Facebook page).

Nicola has recently blogged about this, Copyright, Words & Images so please do go and read it. It’s very important, that you, as a writer, or a blogger, know what you can and can’t do 🙂

I just had to ask Nicola a question that’s been bugging me for a while, regarding all the workshops and classes I attend. Her response was interesting and I will be printing it all off and sticking it on my wall that’s for sure!

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Do you worry about what you write on your blog sometimes?

ps – the photo above is not The Tobermory Cat, I wouldn’t dare! It’s my Treacle, who could quite easily be known as The Rochester Cat 😉

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Blogger Beware!

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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?

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Being Stewardly – Swanwick Day Three

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I decided yesterday morning, whilst eating breakfast, that I would skip some lessons that day. I really valued everything I learnt here last year, but, I found myself utterly exhausted and completely written out by the end if the week.

Soooooo, I had a fairly lazy morning. When I say lazy, I don’t mean laying on my bed knapping, I mean writing, real writing (fiction from my prompts) oh, and selling raffle tickets….no, that should be attempting to sell raffle tickets lol (one of my Stewardly duties).

Me and Jayne have managed to flog approx 280 tickets! 🙂

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The prize? A free place at the school next year!!!! 🙂

Other Stewardly duties today have been to point a delegate in the direction of the Lake, give another some change, help a lady who was locked out of her accommodation block, and direct people to various classrooms and halls lol

I did go to Linda’s class, and we got some homework *gulp* I’m still trying to come up with a short story based on this lot 😉 Any ideas guys?

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The last “class” of the day was Twitter vs Facebook with Della Galton and Peter Jones which was a lively debate on which social media network is best.

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The result at the end when the audience voted? 16-16 lol….a complete draw!!!!!

We then discussed which was better for authors, and then the vote went 12 to Facebook, 21 to Twitter. What would you vote for?

The evening was spent trying to sell more raffle tickets and attending the Buskers night, arranged by Mark 🙂 Here are our “Buskers”

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Falling into bed at 00.40….Zzzzzzzzzz

Why Do We Do It?

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There’s been an image floating around Facebook, have you seen it? This one……

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With a bit of investigation, I’ve discovered it’s come from The Weldon Owen Publishing blog and it seems to have inspired lots of debates.

One of my favourite bloggers, Roger Colby featured it on his blog a few days ago, and it made me ask my self the question….. If this writing and publishing malarkey is so goddam hard….why do we do it? Why do we put ourselves through it?

Have you ever asked yourself that question? Or is it just me?

I’ve been doing some Googling lol….from what I can tell (the figures vary) its less than 1% of all manuscripts that get submitted that actually find their way on to our shelves in book form. It’s a tiny amount when you consider the hundreds of thousands of MS’s that must land on agents and publishers desks every day.

So, here’s exactly why I put myself through it.

1. I LOVE writing and I love words

2. It’s escapism, a chance to get away from my own life and envelop myself in someone else’s lol.

3. To get down on paper the thoughts going round in my head.

4. It’s a chance to explore, learn and grow.

5. Because there’s still that tiny piece of me that hopes i might, just might, be in that 1% *snigger*

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So I’m determined to stay positive, determined to continue on my writing journey, and if I never get published, so be it….I’m doing something I really enjoy 🙂

So why do you do it?

In Print Again…..

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…..and with a photo this time! LMAO

Sorry, I don’t usually post twice in one day, but I just had to share.

It seems I’m in the May issue of Writers Magazine Writers News section, talking about a Facebook Group I’m part of called The Seriously Serious Scribes (The SSS for short lol).

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Bloody hell….this is getting serious!!!!!! Lol 😉

The Naming Game

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I’ve had this post in my draft folder for a couple of days, and yesterday morning, I sat, with my cup of tea (every morning I read other peoples blog posts while I drink my first tea of the day lol) and discovered that a fellow blogger was talking about exactly the same thing…. spooky!

Check out journeyofjordannaeast where she talks about the struggles of naming characters 🙂

Anyway, as most of my regular readers will know, I do a prompt a day, a short story or the start of one. So everyday I’m trying to come up with names for characters. Every couple of weeks I sit and dedicate a whole page in my notebook to ‘Name Ideas’ so I’m always on the look out for methods, tips and resources 🙂

So here are some ways/places I get my character names from:

1. The credits on a film I’ve just watched. (I’ve been known to play the end credits frame by frame before now lol).

2. Books on quotations. I’m currently using a battered old copy of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations that I picked up in a charity shop for a quid 🙂

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3. Wikipedia which is a great source. Say I needed the name for a male character of a certain age who comes from Brazil. Search for the Brazilian football team and bobs your uncle! (English version of hey presto lol) You have a list of all the players 🙂

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4. One of my absolute favourites…..any excuse obviously lol…..FaceBook! If you’re the member of any groups, check out the members list, you can usually see how old people are from their photo’s. Or if you have a friend (or family member) who has millions of friends (like my daughter who I think has about 800), check out their friends list.

5. Here in the UK a lot of our local papers have a Births, Deaths & Marriages section. Can be quite useful as you will know exact ages (as too can be the reporters names in the same paper).

6. Stuck for a surname? Google Maps 🙂 Pick a town, city, place…..road/street names are excellent for surnames. Or even a paper map (they do still exist you know lol)

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My favourites from this one: Green – Ridley – Addington – Hartley – Cliffe – Halling and of course Rochester (hasn’t that one already been used? Lol)

7. And finally, name generators online. I don’t often need to use these sites, but if I do, my favourite is Seventh Sanctum which has loads of links to creativity generators.

Obviously you can use baby name books, but I find the modern ones hard because a name that is listed may have only been in existence for a few years. No good if trying to name a 45 year old.

One final thing about using real peoples names>;;>;;>;;>;;>;;>;; When I use FaceBook for name ideas I’m very careful to mix up surnames with first names. I don’t ever use their first name and surname combined. That could get you in a lot of hot water. But, if you think about it, whatever name you choose there is bound to be someone out there who has that exact combination of first and second name.

One last tip…..make sure all your characters names all start with different letters and don’t sound the same. Your reader will be way confused. I recently read a story where a dog was called Taylor and the baby was Tyler. I had to re-read a whole section as I thought it was still talking about the dog, and wondered what it was doing in a cot 😉

So how do you come up with your characters names? I would love to hear yor ideas/tips and resources.

Yesterday’s prompt was write about fruit flesh. Yuk, that just sounds wrong! lol. I know it is flesh, but….. Lol. Anyway, I came up with a sweet little story about a girl on a bench eating a pear. An old man sits down and chats and it turns out he’s a retired market stall holder (his son has taken over the business) who use to sell fruit and vege. That’s as far as I got, but I’m thinking there’s a romance there, especially as the son is a hunky barrow boy *sniggers*
Today’s prompt is this is how lonesome feels which is already depressing me and I haven’t even started writing yet lol

Show, Don’t Tell

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*sighs deeply and raises hand* Ok, I admit it, I’m a teller, there, I said it 😦

There are lots of things I need to improve with my writing, but, unfortunately the Show Don’t Tell thingy is really taking a while to sink in. It’s especially annoying when you read successful authors work and you think, ‘ere, ‘ang on….. How comes Anne Tyler gets away with it? (sorry Anne, if you’re reading this, which i know you’re probably not, but you were the only example that sprung to mind as I recently read one of your books and annoyed the hell out of my husband for constantly complaining about your ‘telling’ lol).

I’m sure Ms Tyler wouldn’t really mind me using her for an example…..how many books has she had published now?

Anyway, I know what I should be doing, it’s just that when I write I completely forget. I get so carried away in the story that I end up tell tell tell tell tell 🙂

Was good to see a Show Don’t Tell article on the Writing Forward site a few days ago. I loved the examples. It’s easy enough isn’t it?

Before I started writing I didn’t even notice the difference between Showing and Telling when I read a book. A good story is a good story isn’t it?

Do you naturally ‘Show’ or do you battle with ‘Telling’ too?

Came across this photo on FaceBook….. exactly! 😉

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I’ve spent the last 2 days editing a 2500 word romance short story which will be my final assignment for my course. It will be going off tomorrow!!!!!!! I’ve submitted it to a competition , so that brings my ‘Out There’s’ up to 15 *grins stupidly* It’s so addictive! It’s like just after getting your first tattoo and then wanting another one lol 😉

Yesterday’s prompt, about the eve of a funeral….was upsetting 😦 I actually cried whilst I was writing it lol. The thought of people I love dying scares the hell out of me, it’s my Achilles heel if you know what I mean. I wrote a story about a woman’s husband dying of a heart attack and the fact that she placed his mobile phone in his coffin so that she could always hear his voice on his voice mail and be able to text him. God…even just writing that has set me off blabbing again *and breath* lol

*pulls herself together*

Tomorrows prompt is the world before you were born and I’m thinking of writing a piece that’s sort of memoir, well, I wasn’t actually there, but, you know what I mean, a true story, about my parents 🙂

Having a writing session with a friend today, to work on our Horoscope home work…should be good! 🙂

Procrastination

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I’ll do it next week…..well, next week might not be ideal because there’s a couple of events I’m attending, and, I really need to de-clutter my wardrobe, and, I’m out with a friend all day Wednesday.

Sound familiar? *deep sigh* 😦

Why can I always find an excuse?

So even when I do have my writing sessions scheduled I should be able to stick to them shouldn’t I? Lol…..ummmmm, nope, it seems not lol….there’s always a ‘but’ lol

I actually bought a book once, all about procrastination, but, I procrastinated about reading it lol (I’m deadly serious lol).

So I have to develop some good writing habits, set some acheivable goals……To get up Mr Procrastinations nose 😉

1. Write every day.
I already do this, well, I miss the odd day, perhaps I shouldn’t…..must try harder 😉

2. Complete short stories.
I have a tendency (esp with the prompts) to not complete some stories, mainly the ones I don’t feel are going anywhere. Will make more of an effort to finish them.

3. Have rewards.
I like goal setting, and goals with rewards are even better. Weekly goals? Monthly goals? An ideal goal would be to submit a short story a week….but can I realistically achieve that?

4. Stop feeling guilty when the house is a mess.
Hmmmmm…..with a family to look after the kids often put the guilt trip on me about dinner. So shopping and cooking is a major part of my day. I do have to do it, I just need to be a bit more organised about it.

5. Set a time for writing and stick to it.
I’ve tried setting myself up a timetable, but that didn’t work. I’ve tried a timer but there’s always something that happens and I end up resetting it lol…really don’t know how to stick to an actual time……help!

6. STOP FAFFING!
Ha ha ha…..easier said than done…..now, if someone could just arrange for the whole WWW to go down I’d be ok lol.

A lady on one of my FaceBook groups went away for 3/4 days, on her own, as a writing retreat. She said it was fantastic. All she did the whole time was walk in the countryside and write. Oh bliss, but we’re not all in a position where we can do that, let alone afford to *deep sigh* If I’m going to make it in the world of short stories I can’t take a writing retreat weekly, because that’s how often I’ll need a completed (edited, ready to send out) short story.

An interesting article on Fuel Your Writing tells me that I’m not alone 😉

So Saturday night hubby went to bed at 9.30 (can you believe it? Humph!!!!) and I had the opportunity to do whatever I wanted….. Did I start my assignment? Nope….. Did I finish one of my short stories? Nope lol….. Did I do some editing? Ummmm, nope lol….. So what did I do?

I ended up watching His Girl Friday on my iPad *snigger* Oh, well, come on…..it was Cary Grant *swoon* He was my first crush when I was a kid (along with Danny Kaye but we won’t go into that just now).

So yet again Mr Procrastination won, got the better of me lol….. I really must kick him into touch…. And quickly lol 😉

I spent most of yesterday afternoon, and the whole evening trying to be organised so that I know when all the competitions are. I’ve got a large folder now with all the info in….I’m really pleased with myself 🙂

Yesterday prompt about the closet saw me back to my old dark ways lol but todays one, write about a crosswind is going to be hard 😉

Examples of Bad Writing?

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Came across this list a couple of days ago…. The Bulwer Lytton Competition is a comp for bad writing. The winner is the person who comes up with the worst opening. I didn’t think some of them were too bad lol.

On my course at the moment I’m studying beginnings, middles and ends. I can’t make up my mind whether starting with dialogue is better than starting with a sense of place. Surely, the best opening sentence is one that makes your reader want to continue….full stop. It has to prick their interest….and even some of those bad ones I was intrigued about 😉

I was tagged again by Stacey through the Writers Platform-Building Campaign but I won’t be passing this one on….otherwise we’ll all end up being tagged about 20 times lol

Stacey asked me…..

1. Coffee or tea?
Tea mainly, but, I’m very partial to a Costa Latte 😉

2. Early bird or night owl?
Both lol….I tend to stay up late, and I tend to have a problem sleeping more than about 5 hours. My favourite part of the day is sunrise 🙂

3. If you could speak another language, what would it be?
Has to be Italian! I love the country, the food, the way they talk. My great grandparents were Italian and part of a Trapeze Troup lol.

4. What’s you favourite book and why?
My favourite all time book is Wuthering Heights. What can I say, I’m a romantic at heart.

5. Sweet or savoury?
My husband says my eyes light up when we go out or a meal and I’m given the dessert menu, so it has to be sweet lol.

6. Paper book or eBook?
Paper, definitely!!!!! I love real books, I have thousands lol.

7. Least favourite subject at school?
Anything physical, ie PE/games. I’ve never been sporty by any stretch of the imagination.

8. Do you have any strange habits?
Strange? Hmmmm…..what’s strange? Ok, I’m not OCD or anything like that, but, when I’m in the car and I have the stereo on I have to have the volume set at an even number *snigger* Please don’t ask me why, I haven’t a clue 😉

9. One place in the world you would love to visit?
There are loads…..too numerous to name lol…..I haven’t even see all the places I want to see in my own country yet lol

10. If you could choose a superpower what would it be?
To hear what people are thinking….dangerous I know, but at least you’d know where you stood 😉

11. Favourite smell?
Rose, creosote and paraffin….not necessarily in that order….my favourite perfume is CoCo by Chanel….I also really like the smell of coconut.

This tagging business reminds me of the Meme’s I use to do on LiveJournal lol

I managed to do some work on my course yesterday and before I knew it I think I found myself writing a romance lol. Read all about Diana and her key here. I don’t think I’ll ever run with it as a real story, if you know what I mean. It was just an exercise. Quite enjoyed it though. I’m kind if thinking along the lines that perhaps she never told Gino she was pregnant and perhaps she ends up back in Italy trying to find her son, who in turn is trying to find his father…..hmmmm….could work. My next Nano? Lol…..of course, I’d have to spend lots of time in Italy…..research darling, research 😉

It just goes to show you that by being given an item that you have to pair with a character, how a huge story can then grow out of that. Perhaps I could use it as the basis for my pocket novel when I do Sally Quilford’s workshop next week. I’m not so use to writing lighthearted stuff, but, if I want to submit any stories to the women’s magazines I really should make an effort not to be so dark lol

I’ve also posted some endings on my other blog…..hmmmm….I think they really sum up what I was saying about my writing being quite dark LMAO! 😦

Yesterday’s prompt wasn’t exactly inspiring anything lighthearted, so it ended up being about a woman in a graveyard, who meets a young boy, his eyes are the colour of a crows wing. Today’s prompt is write about picking fruit but I’m off up to London today, so who knows when it will get done lol

Am loving this cartoon I saw on FaceBook 🙂

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I’ve Been Tagged lol

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As part of the Writers Platform-Building Campaign I’ve been tagged by Sarah to answer 11 questions.

The 11 questions Sarah has given me are:

1. What is your weapon of choice?
Ha ha ha, it has to be a fountain pen…..very dangerous in the wrong hands 😉

2. What is the name of the first story you wrote voluntarily?
It was Nanowrimo 2010….. 65,000 words lol. A story about a family, murder, suicide, corruption, and an undercurrent love story. It’s still not finished. It’s WIP title is The Secret Keepers

3. What genre do you write?
Hmmmm…..I’m not sure lol. Everything I write has a dark undercurrent. I’m not sure it really fits into a specific genre, contemporary fiction? 😦

4. Besides reading and writing what are at least 2 of your favourite past times?
I like watching films and I’m an Internet junky…..can I say blogging? Lol 😉

5. What is the coolest/strangest thing you’ve ever done?
Coolest was probably front row at a small Oasis gig…..strangest, for me was probably flying to Toronto all on my own to stay 4 nights at a convention where I didn’t really know anyone. I was sooo brave 🙂

6. What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever heard?
Never, ever give up. If you want to write…..write!

7. What are your 5 most used websites?
Wordpress- FaceBook – Google – Amazon – Wikipedia (I visit every single one every day!)

8. What is your favourite book, author, movie?
My books change frequently….at the moment it’s Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes as for author? I couldn’t possibly pick one. It’s a toss up between Fay Weldon – Linda Gillard – Anita Shreve
Movies are My Fair Lady and Wuthering Heights, the one with Timothy Dalton in (swoon!)

9. If you could be invisible for 1 day what would you do?
Spend the day following a friend or family member around *evil snigger* 😉

10. What are your hopes for your writing future?
To have something published 😉

11. Is there anything else we should know about you?
No, not really, apart from the fact that I’m a huge cat and dog lover lol

So here are my 11 questions 🙂 I’ve tried to be, oh, what’s the word? I’ve tried to use questions that my tagee’s (is that actually a word?) could possibly use as writing prompts….in fact, hmmmm, I might use a couple of them myself lol

1. What thing have you written that you’re most proud of?
2. What are you working on at the moment?
3. Where would you like to see yourself in 5 years time?
4. You buy an old lamp, whilst cleaning it a genie appears…you know the rest lol. Your 3 wishes are?
5. List 2 of your bad habits? Come on, we all have some.
6. If you were a superhero, what special power would you have?
7. Tell us the name of one of your characters, one you really like?
8. What scares you?
9. Sum up your personality in 3 words?
10. Name 2 of your vices?
11. Do you have a pet peeve/hate? What is it?

I’m tagging:

Michael Haynes
Barbara McDowell
Yikici
Jamie Dement
Gwen
Jennifer McMurrain
Sorcha
Sherri Hutchins
RaeAnn

I managed to catch up with my animal dream prompt, which turned into a story of a woman waking up naked in the tigers cage at the zoo. Only she wasn’t actually in the cage, she was outside of it….work that out lol 😉 Yesterday’s Jewel prompt inspired a strange story of a housekeeper who puts on the ring of her employer, which she then can’t remove……today’s prompt is black as a crows wing which sounds rather interesting 😉

Really enjoyed my class Wednesday night, and got some great comments on my short story “Eating Out”…. Will now be submitting it to a comp and a magazine 🙂