Im a bit behind in relaying news en stuff. Probably due to tooing and froing to the hospital and MLing for Nano. There just aren’t enough hours in the day!
But, forget all that, i have more exciting stuff to talk about…
Tag Archives: Twitter
Social Media Burnout?
I’ve actually started to get back to normal. Over the weekend I checked FaceBook at least 6 times. I responded to Tweets, and caught up with some e mails. I read some blog posts, responded to blog comments and even managed a FaceBook status update lol. But this got me thinking…
Oh Scrivener…Where Have You Been All My Life?
Well, I am soooo excited! Now that I’ve just completed week 2 of the Scriveners course I feel confident enough to actually use it. So I’ve set up a “Blog” project and for the last few days I’ve been compiling posts using it 🙂
This week I discovered that…
How Do You Refer To Your Partner?
A recent post by the lovely Bridget Whelan got me thinking….
Bridget’s post, A Twitter Confession referred back to a post she made last year on how she didn’t follow people who referred to their husbands as “The Hubster”. This recent post was a retraction of her original comments, and honestly Bridget, I didn’t take offence 🙂
You see, those of you who have been following this blog for a while will know that I always refer to my husband as The Hubster. The reason being that when I started this blog I needed something to use in place of “The Husband” because that, to me, sounds too formal, and that’s not how I talk. I always say that I am the same on my Blog and Facebook as I am in real life, so why use a reference that I wouldn’t normally use in my real life, unless I was putting on my posh voice 😉
So what other words used to describe husbands (and equally wives) have I seen/heard? These are the ones that came to mind:
Hubby
Hubster
Significant Other
Him/Her Indoors (usually pronounced ‘im or ‘er)
Hero
DH (Darling/Dear Husband or Designated Hitler)
LOML (Love Of My Life)
My Man
Other Half
BF or GF (Boyfriend/Girlfriend)
The Moose (yes, seriously!)
Mr/The Mrs
And one of my favourites, used by Mills & Boon author Kate Walker The Babe Magnet *sniggers*
Don’t even get me started on the “pet names” I’ve heard people use in public for each other lol. In our house the closest thing to a pet name is “pickle” & “pumpkin” and both are used exclusively for the cats and dog 😉
I guess that I could just use his name, but, I don’t feel too comfortable with that, what with this blog being public. It’s not really my right to do that is it?
So Mr Thompson, if you’re reading this, how would you prefer to be referred to?
And how do you refer to your partner (male or female) online? Any good ones I’m likely to steal to use in my fiction 😉
The Long & The Short Of It – How Learning My Craft Has Changed My Life
Today, I’m guesting over at Sue Howe’s blog The Long and The Short Of It 🙂
Sue asked me if I could do an article about writing workshops, classes and residential schools. I’m trying to convince her to come along to Swanwick you see 😉
So here’s the start of the article…..to read more you’ll have to nip over to Sue’s gaff 🙂
A huge thank you to Sue for inviting me onto her Blog today….I don’t think she realised that when I’m enthusiastic about something, I can ramble for hours!
So Sue’s asked me to convince her of the merits of creative writing courses, classes and workshops. I’m hoping that by the time she reads this she’ll be enrolling on everything she comes across!
My first experience of “creative writing” was a baptism of fire. I decided (through madness or stupidity, I still don’t know which) to accompany a friend to a course at our local Adult Education centre. I hadn’t written any fiction since leaving school (many, ahem, years ago) although I had been journal writing for several years. That was exactly 2 years ago this month, and it was one of the best decisions of my life! I’ll be honest; the course itself was a little boring. I found myself nodding off in several sessions! But somehow, through all the yawning something clicked. Something happened to me during that short course, and it’s been driving me on ever since.
Please pop over to Sues blog to read the rest of the article, and leave a comment. Tell her Sue, you have to go to Swanwick next year! 😉 Actually, thinking about it, you all have to come! 😉
Home Again Home Again Jiggety-jig
Awwwww, it was sad this morning, leaving Swanwick 😦
I had a great week, lovely to see people, but this morning, I didn’t get chance to say goodbye to everyone I wanted to. I’m so sorry if i didn’t, but hey, perhaps I’ll see you on Twitter 🙂
The journey home wasn’t too bad, only 1 small hold up. The house was really quiet when I got in, although the cats were pleased to see me 🙂
Soooooo, now, I’m gunna need a few days for everything to sink in, go through my notes, and have a think about what direction I want to go in next. Make a decision on what kind of writer i really want to be. I feel like I’ve been bombarded with information (all of it good) and my head is swimming lol.
Sooooo, normal service will resume here on Sunday 🙂
In the mean time, i will be catching up with e mails, blogs, and comments….and perhaps, doing a few Tweets lol
Sex and The Writing School – Swanwick The Last Day
What a great start to the morning! At 9.30 we were talking about sex, well Erotica to be exact 😉 Della’s class was excellent, and I learnt so much! Now trying to get my head around whether I could actually try writing some *gulp* 😉
Was interested to hear that one of the top sellers in the Erotica market are books based on Gay men. Apparently, Gay erotica is read by heterosexual women. Well, I think I may have to do some research now lol
During the break I decided to go for a walk, and I made a new friend lol
After my chat with the cows it was on to my last short story session with Linda Lewis. Linda gave us a tip on a technique which involves not only writing the beginning of a short story, but the end. I’m afraid, even with that tip, I still didn’t manage to come up with an ending for the start of my story I’d written in an earlier class *deep sigh* Why am I so crap at endings?
In the afternoon we attended the AGM and then it was Dregs Party on the lawn. I didn’t have any dregs to bring, but I did manage to grab a glass of white wine and actually change into a dress 🙂
The evening speaker was Helen Lederer who’s talk was entertaining.
She read an extract from her book which was very funny 🙂
I spent the rest of the night in the bar with Jayne, Maddie and Kate putting the writing world to rights until they deserted me to go to the disco *all say awwwwww* No, it was fine really, I wanted to finish packing!
So that was the last day 🙂
I’m so sorry I’m behind with replying to comments and your blogs. It’s been lovely, but I do miss my little online community 🙂
Oh, and thank you to everyone who has followed me on Twitter @vikkithomp I’m still not sure exactly what I should be doing and I don’t even know what a hash tag is! Lol
So if anyone could direct me to a Twitter for dummies type thingy, It would be much appreciated????? 🙂
Going home this morning after breakfast….sad, but happy and inspired…..roll on next year! 🙂
I’m feeling SOOOO Inspired! – Swanwick Day Five
Yesterday was the third class with Linda Lewis on short story writing. I struggled with my homework so Linda scribbled my “words” on her flip chart and then the rest of the class bombarded me with ideas on a story lol. Thing is, I didn’t realise that I didn’t have to use all the words 😉
Then it was on to Sharon Kendricks course…..and at this present moment, all I seem capable of saying is wow! Lol *goes off to have a cappuccino and a cigarette to recover*
Ok, where do I start 😉
Sharon gave us a 12 chapter break down of a Mills & Boon book, so that we would know approximately where things are suppose to/should happen. It made it look easy, but, I know that’s not the case lol. We (as in, the class) came up with a hero, a heroine, back story and established that it was a “secret baby” story set in Rome and London. Brilliant. So interesting and informative, and Sharon is a great tutor. She had us laughing all the way through her classes 🙂
It’s probably been the highlight of my week, and now, I’m determined to try my hand 🙂
Late afternoon was spent in my room, trying to catch up with some writing, whilst outside it was torrential rain 😦
The speaker last night was the highly acclaimed David Nobbs who’s anecdotes and memories had most of the delegates roaring with laughter.
A quick drink in the bar and then it was time to hand my raffle tickets in….I sold 417 tickets at a quid each, so I’m pleased with that 🙂
And my final news of the day…… I’ve joined Twitter ha ha ha! I blame Della Galton & Peter Jones 😉
My Twitter name is @vikkithomp lol. I did want to use the blog name but decided against it. So if you want to follow me, lol, please 🙂
Are you on Twitter?
Being Stewardly – Swanwick Day Three
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! 🙂
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?
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.
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”
Falling into bed at 00.40….Zzzzzzzzzz
The View Outside 