Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
My day in pictures

found this great hair accessory for my wedding day for a pound in a charity shop

their window display was worrying though – lots of hats

my favourite serial killer – i can’t wait to watch the next season

typical welsh weather – slightly raining but bright hot sunshine

this is the hill i’m going to be living on in two weeks time. my legs hurt just thinking about it. if you look closely you can see that the bottom floor of the houses at the top of the hill are level with the second floor of the house at the bottom. it’s not as flat as it looks here. really.

workmen woke me up by doing this at 9am outside my bedroom window. the noise gave me a really bad headache

spotted some cute wedding teddies.
and finally

back home ready to do some work.
excellent writing resource
and it’s for charity.
Stolen Taken from Simon Whaley’s blog
Whilst at Caerleon this year, I met Katey Nixon, who has put together a resource that will be useful to the short story writers amongst you.
Naming a character can be difficult, but you can add more credibility to your story if the name you select is one that was popular at the time of the character’s birth. So, if you have a male character born around 1914, the most popular boy’s name at that time was John. The sixth most popular name was Arthur. Fast forward to 2004 and the most popular boy’s name was Jack, whereas the sixth most popular was Samuel.
Katey has placed all this information onto one Excel spreadsheet document, with one sheet dealing with boys names and another for girls. It lists the 100 most popular names (for boys and girls) for each DECADE of the 20th Century, and the same for each YEAR (up to and including 2008) of the 21st Century. It really is an amazing resource.
To obtain a copy of this spreadsheet, Katey is asking for a small £2 donation to a charity that she is keen to support. Her aim is to raise £400 for a charity called Hamlin Fistula UK, which aims to support women in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) who incur horrendous injuries during childbirth.
It’s easy to do, simply visit Katey’s page on the Just Giving website, which can be found at http://www.justgiving.com/ipreferhappyendings and click on the ‘Donate Now’ button. After donating, you’ll be sent an email confirming your donation, and this will contain a link, enabling you to download the Excel Spreadsheet.
It’s a worthwhile cause, and for the sake of a couple of pounds, you’ll never be stuck for a first name ever again!
My God, a video
The sound is quite low because i didn’t have my mic so turning it up might help.
Summer Reading Trail – JUNE
sorry this is late up guys.
Welcome to the Summer Reading Trail
Graphic compliments of Hailey Edwards
Follow the trails and discover great new writers this summer. The free reads include short stories, serial installments, deleted scenes and book excerpts from published and unpublished authors. The Summer Reading Trail will run from May 1 through the end of July. New links will be updated on the first of every month, so you can enjoy a summer of reading. You are encouraged to explore authors’ websites and blogs, to take a moment to leave them a comment and to bookmark sites and visit often.
The trail opens May 1, 2010. Bookmark this page and come back to enjoy reads on these trails.
* All links open in new browser windows.
June 2010
|
YA Trail |
Promise Trail |
Sweet Trail Liana Laverentz Linda Morris |
|
Fiction Trail Cynthia D’Alba |
Poetry Trail |
Sexy Trail Amanda Berry |
|
Adult Trail Stephanie Burkhart |
Erotic Trail |
Rainbow Trail |
Summer Reading Trail
Welcome to the Summer Reading Trail
Graphic compliments of Hailey Edwards
Follow the trails and discover great new writers this summer. The free reads include short stories, serial installments, deleted scenes and book excerpts from published and unpublished authors. The Summer Reading Trail will run from the May 1 through the end of July. New links will be updated on the first of every month, so you can enjoy a summer of reading. You are encouraged to explore authors’ websites and blogs, to take a moment to leave them a comment and to bookmark sites and visit often.
The trail opens May 1, 2010. Bookmark this page and come back to enjoy reads on the these trails.
* All links open in new browser windows.
Dare to Surrender – Lilli Feisty
HE MEETS HIS MATCH.
SHE MEETS HER MASTER. 
Art gallery curator Joy Montgomery has never liked her body’s generous curves. And she’s always been too shy to explore her wild side. But tonight, everything is going to change…Desperate to save her job, Joy approaches bad-boy artist Ash Hunter and asks him to exhibit his erotic work at her gallery. Ash agrees on one condition: Joy must pose as his model. But business soon turns to pleasure, as Joy experiences a passion beyond her wildest imaginings and Ash finds more than just inspiration in his voluptuous new muse.
“Coming” February 1, 2010 from Grand Central Publishing
Wanna see something awesome?
check this out
BROKEN by Shiloh Walker
This is an except from her upcoming novel and i CAN’T WAIT, i mean just check out this one line if you don’t want to read the entire except:
The last thing Quinn needed to be around was another lost soul, not when he still struggled to find his own.
Doesn’t that just make you want to *swoon*?
Lynn Viehl’s Shadowlight

I have been VERY lucky indeed to receive an ARC copy of Lynn Viehl’s latest book Shadowlight. I can’t wait to read it! I absolutely love her books and i’m very excited to see what this new series is like. For those who don’t know what i’m talking about, here’s the info:
With a single touch, Jessa Bellamy can see anyone’s darkest secrets. She’s tried to hide her psychic ability from everyone, but a biotech company called GenHance has discovered her talent, and intends to take her, kill her and harvest her priceless DNA to sell it to the highest bidder.
A mysterious photographer named Gaven Matthias is also interested in Jessa; he’s been trying to find her for months. When GenHance makes their move, Gaven has no choice but to kidnap Jessa himself so he can protect her and convince her to join him in helping protect others like her. Jessa discovers that she can’t see any of Gaven’s secrets, so she doesn’t know if he’s telling the truth, but as a monstrous assassin created by GenHance’s experiments closes in on them, she must decide if the strong attraction they share is proof enough that Gaven is her greatest ally — or is a smokescreen hiding a terrible secret.
You can find a pre-order link to the book on the following links. here and here
Excerpt Monday
Hello! this is my first time doing “Excerpt Monday,” a scheme that my good friends on the Divas came up with to show off some of your work every first monday of the month. So, without further ado, here is my contrabution.
Tea Break.
Poetry should be a musical
thing, like music should be
physical. A complicated
dance, a flair of perfection,
a concise blending of two
worlds. A triumph of wit
but with a songlike sound,
an imagining of epic
proportions with a haunted
melody, or a joyful burble
of noises joined together
through the nonsense of language.
It’s just a pity my orchestra is on a tea break.
~*~*~*~*~
This is one of my favourite poems (that i’ve written) because it is so unintentionally good. I wrote it in a Poetry class in University because i couldn’t think of a poem to write. I think it’s one of my best ones now
-
Primal Thrill
Graceful but deadly. Pacing back and forth, a fluid motion. Grunts and roars of frustration hang in the air. One thick sheet of glass between predator and possible prey. One looks mournful, the other fascinated. Endlessly marking the perimeter of his diminutive kingdom.
This is no great lion of the Serengeti, but a captured force, held in the frozen lands of a zoo far from home. Where people pay to act like paparazzi and look on meekly, denying his misery.
~*~*~*~*~
I wrote this poem after a trip to a zoo not far from where i live. It was quite the experience for me as i got to be up close and personal with these amazing lions, literally seperated by that thin sheet of glass mentioned in the poem. i was so deeply affected by it that i had to write a poem. This style is called a “prose poem” but you could equally call it flash fiction. the only difference is the poetic inflection (or so i was taught
)
-
The Museum
Marbled floor and vaulted ceilings,
brass handled doors too heavy to move.
The constant murmur of voices
surge and ebb like the sea. Flocks
of school children run and gawk,
as music swells while coffee cups clink.
There are many things to see here,
Like a Meteorite polished by the touch
of many small fingers,
and the bones of a mighty mammoth
- a spectre of the past.
And a gallery of priceless art,
staring into an empty room.
The bones of our ancestors,
the rough cut gems of the earth,
the icons of worship,
they all reside in this temple of antiquity.
The only flash of modern life resides
with the visitors themselves
as they wearily make their way out of the past
And into the modern light of day.
~*~*~*~*~
Anyone who knows me well knows that i spend a LOT of time in my local museum. It is one of my favourite places to go and think, and to go and research things. There are so many amazing things that people just don’t even think about in a museum. I wrote this poem to reflect that and hopefully i’ve done it right. Too many people my age have no iterest in the past, which is a shame because it is what shapes our futures.
Thank you for visiting and i hope you enjoyed my poetry! after the Jump is the links to the other participants of this amazing venture so do me a favour and go visit a few.