Happy Easter to you all. Tomorrow is April 1st, which brings with it this year’s A to Z Blog Challenge. A blog post every day (except Sundays), prompted by letters of the Alphabet, starting with A tomorrow, B the next day etc. I have already extolled the virtues of getting involved with the challenge in my previous post (you still…
So, a new year and a new challenge. NaNoWriMo was great last year (and I hope to have another go in November too) but a new challenge has been suggested to me by fellow writer Maria, who writes the excellent First Draft Cafe blog. This one will keep me busy for the whole of April, as the A to Z…
The challenge that faced the Phoenix Writers this week was to write a 200 word piece that included the following elements – a barge approaching a set of locks, a bullock and a rifle. Here’s what I came up with . . . ————————— Lock 17 “Don’t worry, Kid,” said Don, squeezing the shoulder of his eldest. “I ain’t scared,”…
For this week’s flash fiction challenge, we were asked to write a piece of 150 words, to be inspired by the following newspaper headline: “By-Election Could Herald New Chapter in Politics.” We had some really diverse and interesting pieces. Entitled, ‘The Big Cheese’, here’s what I came up with. —————————- Once again Keith had been caught reading a human newspaper,…
Last week I attended a writing critique group, which was great fun but also introduced me to a genre of writing I had yet to try – Flash Fiction. For the uninitiated, Flash Fiction is simply very short form fiction (often 200 words or less). For last week’s writing challenge, we were encouraged to write a piece of 100 words,…
This is the story of how I surprised myself by writing 50,000 words of a novel in less than 30 days, and why I think everyone with even a passing interest in creative writing should give it a try at least once. I fell in love with writing as a child and even though it’s always been an on-off relationship,…
Generation WHY? Everyone keeps talking about Generation Y. I think it’s time to think more in terms of Generation WHY? Concerned Parent: Megan, it’s time for bed. Megan: Why? CP: Er . . .because it just IS! Sound familiar? It’s definitely a regular occurrence in my house and I have to confess I am often too lazy to give a…
Exploding bags of frozen peas and squirted breast milk – an interesting tale of how I made a career in Video Production.
BAD TV. We’ve all been there . . . Ok, you’ve just watched the first segment of a TV programme about ‘Dave’ – a man with an irrational fear of pastry who has just returned to his job at the local cake factory after a 3 year break. He is traumatised, but takes his first real step to recovery when…
Musical Myth Number 1: Being able to play an instrument is a unique, innate skill. You either have it, or you don’t. I have to admit, this was a view I was forced to agree with during my formative years. This was partly due to the fact that many relatives would constantly remind me of this fact anytime I even…