Blog Sabbatical Continues

So what have I been up to?
Well, life here has been disrupted by the fitting of a new downstairs WC. Told it would be a 2 day job it's now rolling into its 4th week...

Not much writing has been happening I'm afraid, as sharing a small study with hubby is not conducive to concentrating on blog posts and creative writing. Still no sign of my published piece in Writing magazine yet, unless I missed it. The thuthpenth!

Does anyone have an April 2012 issue of Writing magazine?

However, I read the sequel to Joanne Harris' Chocolat called The Lollipop Shoes, which I found immensely enjoyable (on the whole) though I couldn't get my head around the idea that while Chocolat seemed to be set in the late 1950's, the sequel was set in modern day with mobile phones and Internet.

Have you read it? What did you think?

As always, while reading about confectionery, I craved some decent chocolate, but the weather was gale force winds up to 70mph and hammering rain, so venturing out wasn't an option. In the end I ate one of hubby's toffees and broke a tooth! Then I recalled being warned not to eat toffees for that very reason. Now I need a crown...

I would like to thank all those who took part in my Giving Voice Blogfest.
I enjoyed reading the varied entries, with their imaginative and thought-provoking scenarios. Congratulations to one and all.

I have decided to extend my blog sabbatical for a couple of months
and hope that you, my lovely supporters, remain as followers, while I'm taking a break, though I'll be visiting you all when I get a spare moment here and there.
Thank you.

Giving Voice Blogfest TODAY!

The Giving Voice Blogfest is your chance to express what it means for those people in the form of a poem, excerpt, flash fiction piece. Maximum 400 words in length.

How does your character feel about his situation? How will they cope with the speech problem? Maybe your story will include a Speech & Language Therapist transforming their lives (as the above examples of well known films of real life demonstrate).

MY ENTRY:

Outside the Speech & Language Therapist’s room Katy sat twisting her handkerchief around and around her thumb. This seemed worse than waiting to take her Key stage 3 SATS exams. Her mother glanced at her with hooded brows that said ‘Stop that!’ though no words were spoken. Her mother hated making a scene in public. In just a few moments Katy knew she would have to talk to the stranger they had come to see and she always had to attend these sessions with her mother, which somehow made it ten times worse and better at the same time.

The door to the clinic room abruptly opened and she was bathed in a shaft of warm light that seemed to spread a calming glow over her frazzled nerves.

“Would you like to come in now” Rebecca Lees smiled at them.

Katy and her mother sat side by side on the padded chairs provided.

“So how can I help you?” Rebecca Lees smiled.

“We’ve seen lots of speech therapists” Katy’s mother began “And she seems to be getting worse rather than better”

“I see. Would you agree with that Katy?”

Katy could feel her eyes widen in horror and her mouth felt like a dried prune. She nodded, lowering her eyes.

“We agreed to see you, because we were told you are a specialist in stammering” Katy’s mother filled the silence. “She doesn’t stammer with us at home, only with strangers…”

“Yes that’s quite common. Some stammers will stammer in one language and not in another, some only on the telephone.”

Katy’s mother pursed her lips “So what can you do about her?”

“Well if you wouldn’t mind stepping outside then I could assess Katy and take it from there” Rebecca Lees smiled again. “Would that be okay with you Katy?”

“C-c-c-can I?” Katy replied in a gush of enthusiasm, while cringing at the way her words sounded as if she was hurling them up like a bad meal, those same words that others found so easy to utter. Yet this therapist seemed different from all the other she had met over the years.

“There’s lots we can do to help you Katy, if you are interested in having the therapy?”

“I wu-woo-would like that” Katy gushed, the glow of hope like a freshly lit pilot light burning inside her. “Yes, p-pl-please ”

Sign up to the linky below and post your entry TODAY 4th June 2012.

You will be raising much needed awareness for those who are speech and language impaired. The more people who Blog about this Blogfest and post up their stories the better it will be. Don't forget to visit the entries and leave a comment. Thank you.

1.	Karla	4.	L. G. Keltner	7.	Donna Hole
2.	Medeia Sharif	5.	Carrie- Anne	8.	Jeremy Bates
3.	Andrea	6.	Random Interruptions