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
PG
     Children and Young Adult   

Bonnie Dee
After the End

Maryann Miller
Friends Forever

Promise Trail
PG
     Inspirational and Christian 

Eryn Grace
With God’s Blessing
   

Sweet Trail
PG – 13
     Adult Romance

Moriah Jovan – Oh My Heck

Liana Laverentz
Jake’s Return: Chapter One


Phoebe Matthews – Hollywood 1925

Charlotte McClain
Three Alarm Tenant

Linda Morris
Montana Belle: Deleted Scene

Annie Nicholas – The Alpha

Leigh Royals
The Rockets Red Glare

Paige Ryter – A Kiss for a Wish

Celia Yeary – Teresa’s Gift

Fiction Trail
PG-13
Non romantic fiction

Cynthia D’Alba
Jac Black Mysteries:
Death and Deception  Chapter One

Poetry Trail
All ratings

Sexy Trail
R
Adult Romance

Amanda Berry
Her Little Glass Slipper

Caroline Clemmons
How I Saved My Man

Louisa Edwards
Too Hot to Handle

Adult Trail
R to NC-17
Adult Fiction

Stephanie Burkhart
Red Paint, Crimson Blood

Ginny Glass
The Fix

Cate Masters
Depth Perception

P. M. Rousseau
Greasepaint

J. Hali Steele
Ace of Spades

Paige Tyler
Mr. Right-Now

Erotic Trail
NC-17
Erotica and Erotic Romance

Inez Kelley
Talk Dirty To Me

Mima
Just Like That

     Rainbow Trail    
All Ratings
LGBS Romance

G.G. Royale
Rebuilding Elsa

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.

YA Trail
PG
     Children and Young Adult    

Hart, Cate – Conjured

Promise Trail
PG
     Inspirational and Christian    

Sweet Trail
PG – 13
     Adult Romance

D’Alba, Cynthia – A Fortune of Love

Laverentz, Liana – Jake’s Return Prologue

McClain, Charlotte – Love to Declare

   

Fiction Trail
PG-13
Non romantic fiction

Aislinn, Joanna – No Matter What: Prologue
 
Bridger, David – No Turning Back

Poetry Trail
All ratings

 

Sexy Trail
R
Adult Romance

Berry, Amanda – Her Little Glass Slipper 

Edwards, Louisa – Spring Fever

Ford, Keri – The Heir’s Return

Hart, Gail – Confessions of the World’s
Oldest Shotgun Bride

Kelley, Inez – Salome at Sunrise

Nicholas, Annie – Reynold 

Nolan, Kait – Forsaken By Shadow

Adult Trail
R to NC-17
Adult Fiction

Jovan, Moriah – Freight Train

Knox, Kim- Shapes in the Blood

McClain, Belle – Rock Star’s Retreat  

O’Niall, Quinn – Greasepaint

Erotic Trail
NC-17
Erotica and Erotic Romance

Hepner, Elise – Keeper

Mima – Flame Within: A Clean Shave

Steele, J. Hali – Hot Tin Roof

Thomas, Kitty – Comfort Food

Tyler, Paige – JUST RIGHT,
  
the sexy tale of Goldie and the Three Werebears

     Rainbow Trail    
All Ratings
LGBS Romance

Cochrane, Charlie – My True Love Sent to Me

Ellis, Madelynne – Indiscretions

     

 

 

 

More Pimpage

Dare to Surrender – Lilli Feisty

HE MEETS HIS MATCH.
SHE MEETS HER MASTER. Dare to surrender

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 :D

-

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 :D )

-
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.

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