Have you heard about this Blogfest?

    Check out Lisa's Flash Fiction blog for all the details. There's tons of prizes too.


I wonder if I can come up with 3 characters to present in this blogfest and then I must decide which of the 4 genres as a campaigner I should use.


I've just heard about the phenomenon of the Mary Sue from a fellow blogger Cynthia YA Writer. I hope my characters never unintentionally fall into this category.

Have you heard of this before?

And then there is also this giveaway hosted by Christine

One to Follow Award

I am delighted to receive this fabulous
One to Follow Award
created and awarded by
Kate of The Scribbling Serpent
THANK YOU so much!

 I would like to pass it on to 3 fellow bloggers:


Lisa Vooght of Flash Fiction, who I really think is worth following. Her writing is impressive.

Gary of klahanie who has such a dry, wry sense of humour.

Lisa Ricardo Claro of Writing in the Buff another talented writer who does great weekly blogfest challenges.

Third Writer's Platform Building Campaign

 I've signed up for Rachael Harrie's Third Writer's Platform Building Campaign again for this year. I look forward to meeting and sharing with you all, as usual.

This is me

Have you signed up yet?

For the full lists and to sign up visit Rach's site

My chosen genres & allocated groups are:  

Romance 1. Raquel Byrnes 2. Dora Hiers 3. Liz 4. The Bird 5. LAussie 6. Julie F 7. Melanie 8. Angie Cothran 9. Sheery 10. Romancer 11. Angelina Rain 12. Katie 13. Brittany 14. Joy Allen 15. Myne Whitman 16. Marcia 17. Raelyn Barclay 18. Maggie Fechner 19. Claire Robyns 20. WS - Trisha (A) 21. Vanessa Hancock 22. Scribbleandedit 23. Bri Clark 24. Meika 25. Gwendolyn Gage 26. ebarrettwrites 27. Brynne Betz 28. A well of words

Chick Lit 1. Joy 2. Christine 3. ZookBook 4. missi morris 5. Melanie 6. Ru 7. Astrid Paramita 8. Kelly McClymer 9. Brittany 10. Myne Whitman 11. Nicole Basaraba 12. Cheekyness 13. Vanessa Hancock 14. Meika 15. Jen Pickrell 16. Kristy 17. Christy Farmer 18. Scribbleandedit 19. poetry & fictio 20. A Well of words 21. Kimberly 22. TirzahLaughs

Literary Fiction 1. ZookBook 2. Katie Gates 3. BelfastWriting 4. LAussie 5. Damyanti 6. Sheri Doyle (C) 7. Melissa Sarno-C 8. Dawn Malone (C) 9. Jaye Viner 10. Myne Whitman 11. Gail (C) 12. Sophie Whitley 13. Mary Mary 14. Christy Farmer 15. poetry & fictio 16. Poetry& Fiction 17. Scribbleandedit 18. Anna Saikin (A) 19. Brynne Betz

MG/YA 1. Christine F 2. Sara Biren 3. Catherine Winn 4. They say Everyo 5. Scribbleandedit 6. A. G. Wright 7. Krista M 8. Cynthia Lee 9. Cherie 10. Eliza Tilton 11. Kaylie Austen 12. Jen Pickrell 13. ZapAdRem 14. YA Author 15. Michael Haynes 16. Cheree 17. Samuel D. Grey 18. ArtistAuthorMom 19. Sarah J Schmitt 20. Jenna Cooper 21. JM Cooper 22. Susankay Quinn 23. Tessa Conte

Favourite Summer Reads Blogfest

Hosted by Surrounded by Books. Cherie says. 'All you have to do is post on your blog between August 24-27 and tell us what is your favourite summer read. Please post a picture of a book's cover art, a description of the book and why it is your favourite summer read. Then we can hop around and find great books.'


When I think of summer I think of youthful summer holidays and I have recently started reading lots of MG/YA. These are my favs:

Cosmic by Frank Cotterill Boyce is an excellent MG read that's very funny.





Harry Potter by JKRowling has such a rich wealth of imagination and plot complexity and spans both MG and YA as the heros grow up.

The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness is an edge of the seat YA journey.

It is set on another planet and has romance and aliens and good and evil and endurance and tension and so much more besides.

Fabulous! I commend them all to you.

Oh and if you think adults shouldn't waste their time reading MG/YA, then ask yourselves:

Who writes them? Adults

Is imagination not the essence of good literature? YES

I rest my case.

  

Smooth Sailing ~ RFW

This week's theme: SMOOTH SAILING set and hosted by Francine and Denise of
Romantic Friday Writers 
This challenge has a watery feel : A romantic punt across a lake; a romantic moonlit ride in a Venetian gondola; a cruise liner docking in /departing for some far distant land.Then again, perhaps you're a yachting enthusiast. Huge scope here for a fun piece of romantic writing in no more than 400 words.

Plain Sailing by Madeleine Maddocks

‘It'll all be smooth sailing.’ Sam had said. Helen recalled the words now with a wry twist to her mouth, as her white knuckles clutched onto the sides of the boat. Rocking to and fro like baby bunting, she was determined not to heave. How unromantic would that be on this, their second date? She watched him standing as the proud owner of this one berth yacht. His mop of chestnut brown hair had been curled into waves by the damp spray from the sea. As he lashed a rope securely, she couldn’t help admiring how competent and masterful he seemed.  As though Sam sensed her watching, he glanced up, giving her a smile that sent her insides into a different kind of turmoil. She recalled their first kiss, warm and tender. Those same sweet lips would now be moist and salty. She allowed herself to imagine him lying on the beach beside her in the sunshine, divested of all those weatherproof clothes, his broad shoulders tanned and glistening. She wondered how Sam's ex, Jody, could have left him for odious Terry, but she was grateful nonetheless. Helen also hoped she would measure up to Jody’s glamorous standards.

Sam shouted above the lapping water gesturing his hands in a mime of drinking a cup of tea and she nodded, taking a deep breath. She let go of the side of the boat and began the precarious journey towards the steps to the galley kitchen below.

“It’s great it’s not too rough for you on your first crossing” he said excitedly.

“Yes” she said with forced enthusiasm.

“You’ll soon get used to it” 

Once again Helen’s insides did a flip, but this time the nagging doubt that she wouldn’t match up to Jody spoiled the moment. “I expect Jody was great at all this” she said.

 “Yes you’d expect so wouldn’t you, seeing as her dad owns the marina”. he laughed.

“I hope I can keep up”

“You’re nothing like Jody” he said sweeping her in his arms. They rocked gently together with the motion of the boat. “And I’m glad” he smiled, bending towards her his soft, moist lips were on hers. The kiss was salty and not so much sweet as deliciously saucy!  
(373 words) MPA

LIFE

Bless you all for leaving comments on my posts and for following.

Life has taken over this week again for a few days and blogging has been taking a back seat, though I did manage those 3 prescheduled posts for Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm now trying to frantically catch up, but I'm off out again soon for the rest of the day! There's always tomorrow...

Hugs to one and all my followers and commenters. AND I wrote a couple of pages this morning, which was great.

Weary Haiku

This Week's theme: Weary
 hosted by Jenn at You Know that Blog

It's really too much

The effort is exhausting
He just can't go on.

 

Flat-out, exhausted
He's had an eventful day.
Harry Worth Squirrel.

 

A disturbed night's sleep

For this pea-hating princess
Stuff those mattresses!

Beautiful flowers
No longer in their full prime
Drooping wearily

Spark Blogfest

Hosted by: ChristineTyler Writer Coaster

What book made you realize you were doomed to be a writer?What author set off that spark of inspiration for your current Work in Progress?Or, Is there a book or author that changed your world view?

Imagine a little girl who had few friends, who lived in a little dream-world all her own, where she drew pictures and made up stories and turned them into little books on every conceivable topic open to a five year old+ mind.

She developed an imaginary friend called John. She also liked to compose letters and poems. Despite being a slow reader and often making mistakes with punctutaion and spelling, this was her medium. This love of writing was not so much inspired specifically by another author or a particular story, though she enjoyed fairytales and nursery rhymes that her mother shared with her.

This love of writing was how she could express her thoughts and emotions; the way she could lose herself in other worlds and moments. This was how she could imagine a world that didn't include bullies; a world where she had a labrador as a companion and where she was happy and safe.

One of these early stories involved me owning a dog called Gladstone and ... ah well I might resurrect that idea so maybe I'll keep it under my hat for now...

How about you?

Star Trek As We Know It Blogfest

Leave your name and rank
(e.g. scienceofficergarratt) on the linky at Ellie's Blog

Naturally I chose the rank of
Captain Madeleine.S.Maddocks
of the Starship Blogger


Okay you must:
Post your top five Star Trek characters and episodes and/or films and tell us why you love them.

Warp your way over to as many of your Starfleet comrades as you can and comment on their choices.

Spread the word on all hailing frequencies, and feel free to post the image on your blog. Wear red at your peril! And remember, the needs of the many bloggers outweight the needs of the one.

Okay who do I adore:

Quark the loveable rogue with a heart of gold pressed latinum.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who always knows what to do.
Duty first with Earl Grey Tea Hot and that sexy voice.

Commander Data and his unspotty cat Spot

Commander Worf with his long suffering growly sigh.

 
Spock and his raised eyebrow

To say which episodes were my favs would mean watching them all over again. I've watched Original Star Trek, Star Trek the Next Generation, all the films, plus Deep Space Nine and Voyager and and I think of all those Star Trek NG wins through.

 
I loved the 2009 Star Trek film; First Contact gave me nightmares, but I think it's a great film as was Nemesis.

I'm afraid at the risk of alienating my fellow trekkies, I absolutely loathed the Enterprize series with Scott Bakula, who seemed to be always shouting at the floors and walls; rarely giving his colleagues eye contact. I must confess I thought it was dire.

The spoof Trek film Galaxy Quest is an absolute favourite though!

Now for some singing:

Come back tomorrow for my
Spark Blogfest entry.

Wise Words and Turning Points

While I've been on my week off I've been catching up on my novel films reads and I can now add:

The Adjustment Bureau by Philip K Dick

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

About a Boy by Nick Hornby

So impressed have I been by About A Boy, (which I feel demonstrates a rite of passage not only for the 12 yr old Marcus, but also the 36 yr old Will), I decided to check out Nick Hornby's website in which he talks about the turning point in his writing career.

The line that stood out for me was:

'I hadn't done enough reading, not of the things I wanted to emulate, so it took me a while, a long while...'

This is something I have been thinking about recently myself that I need to read much, much more to immerse myself in the genres I wish to emmulate.

Do you feel sufficiently well read to write your own best seller? Have you had a turning point?

D'oh for some reason I thought it was Saturday today!

This week has helped me make a decision to resurrect a short story that I wrote in 2010 and make it into a novella. I shall therefore be researching not only historical styles of writing, but also madness in order to flesh out the original 2,000 word story to 6, 000 - 8,000 word novella length.

If anyone knows of any MCs they have read who were characterised by madness, I would be interested to hear about them.