This blog is now closed
On April 12 2016, DSB wrote her last post to this blog following farewells from Ileandra Young and Raven ShadowHawk.
This blog and the domain remains as tribute to five years of blog posts and all the madness that came with them. Rants, thanks, reviews, sadness, fury and humour. All here, all for you.
Use the links above to navigate through the blog or, if you’d like more up to date information, visit one or both of these sites.
October 10, 2010: Young, naive and clueless, I sat down at my desktop PC and wrote the daftest, most disjointed blog post ever. Not that it mattered much, because it was my first. I had no idea how to blog, what to talk about, or even if I had anything worth saying, but I knew I wanted to try it.
April 12, 2016:Â Less young, still a little naive, hopefully not as clueless, I sit at my second laptop and write a blog post probably as daft and disjointed as my first. But this is my last.
I, Leah Osbourne, Ileandra Young, Raven ShadowHawk am moving on and forward.
The last five and a half years have been an incredible experience, one I won’t forget any time soon. I’ve learned so much, but among the highlights are the following:
That last point, first and foremost, is something I want to thank you for. It’s all well and good ‘being a writer’ and publishing and ‘putting myself out there’ but there is little point in doing so (at least for me) if nobody is enjoying the stories I have to share. I don’t need to reach millions of readers. Not even thousands. Hell, hundreds might be nice, but not necessary to me (any more). The handful of people who have followed this blog from the start, those who have popped in as time progressed, you are the people I’ve been writing for all these years. And I love and treasure you all. Thank you for giving me someone to write to, someone to chat with, someone to be accountable to. Thank you for sharing your troubles, and triumphs with me. Thank you for your kind words. Thank you for your smilie emoticons, cheeky jokes, grammar nitpicking and quiet giggles.
Both Ileandra and Raven have rounded up where they will be going forward so I won’t do that again, but in terms of me as me?
I’m still blogging over on my fitness blog. It’s the base of a non-fiction idea I have, but mostly it’s a way for me to chat about some of things that get to me day by day. Exercise, weight management and mental health are super important to me and this is the little corner of the internet in which I talk about it.
The Joined Up Writing Podcast is still going strong (after a little break at the start of the year). Myself and Wayne are picking up with a new schedule of chatter and interviews and I hope you’ll join us over there.
The past five and a half years have been awesome. Here’s to another five and a half, when I’ll be even less young, naive and clueless. Maybe. 😉
x
Raven said it pretty well so I shan’t repeat it. I’ll simply add that support for me as a writer of fantasy has been phenomenal through this blog. I’ve met so many other talent writers with incredible imaginations that more than once I’ve felt quietly inadequate in what I do. But these writers didn’t let me feel that way for long, they lifted me, buoyed me up, supported me, taught me, mentored me and gave me something so wonderful that I don’t know how I’ll ever repay it. They gave me confidence to keep doing what I’m doing and that, personally, is the biggest take away from this blog.
Just like Raven, I’ll be hanging out in all the usual places:
Facebook |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon US  |  Amazon UK |  Smashwords
As well as my website:
And my newsletter:
Do keep in touch won’t you? ^_^
I believe this is my last ‘fun’ post (or any sort of post!) on this blog. It’s time to wrap it up and stick a bow on it.
Credit: jonata
I’ve had an incredible time talking to you all over the last couple of years. When DSB finally decided to set me free from Ileandra, I had no idea what to expect. Now I find chatter, engagement and conversations with you fine people that I otherwise would never have had.
I’ve been able to talk about subjects close to me, ideas that fascinate me and I’ve been able to meet smart, funny, kind, intelligent people who have always been willing to help.
I’ve learned a great deal through posting across this blog. I’ve found seeds of ideas for new stories, a whole heap that I just can’t wait to share. The future looks bright and rosy and a great deal of that is down to you.
So, basically, I want to thank you fine, smexxy people. I want you to know that I appreciate and value the time you’ve spent with me here, the conversations, the debates and discussions. I’m grateful for the support you’ve given me and the loud cheering from the sidelines in good and bad times. I want to thank you for sharing, tweeting, liking and commenting. I want you to know that even if I’ve been able to answer your comments in the past, I’ve read them all and been grateful for your input. It means a great deal to me.
This isn’t the end. While this blog will no longer be updated with new posts, there are still places you can find me.
I’ll still hang out in the usual places and you can find me over in any of them.
Facebook |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon US  |  Amazon UK |  Smashwords
There are also two other places I’ll be hanging out, places were updates are more frequent and fun.
First up, my website. Finally breaking away from this blog, I have my own little corner of the internet where all my news and chatter will be. You can find that here:
In addition, though you may know about this already, I also have a newsletter that I release quarterly to members of my readers group. There I talk about upcoming projects, new releases, freebies and competitions. If you’re interested in that, find it here:
And that’s it. Again, thank you so much for being with me over the past few years, I hope you’ll join me on the other side.
I’ve had a week off. I didn’t mean to exactly, but . . . I’ve not done any sort of writing related work over the past seven days. I’ve not even opened Scrivener. o.O I didn’t plan it but DSB showcased her obsessive personality by discovering a new project she had to finish before I could do anything else.
So she did. Wanna see?
Yeah. DSB made clothes. As in real clothes she can wear, crafted from huge pieces of cloth, thread, a sewing machine and her own two hands. She even made the patterns herself, modifying them from existing clothes and plans outlined on YouTube.
So instead of using the last week of The Sprogs being at school to work, DSB made LARP clothes. It needed to be done—new characters need new gear and the event is at the start of May, but it’s going to make this post on my week’s progress very boring.
~List Crossroads on Amazon and Smashwords
Nope.
~Come up with four basic ideas that will each carry a novel, featuring characters from the ‘Dead And Alive’ serial (Kailah Turner, Michael Garran and Diavian Hatara)
I’ve got one—I came up with it on one of my daily walks and just blurted it into a voice file on my phone. I need to shift it and write it up so I don’t forget it, but no, not four.
~DON’T TOUCH ‘ON A KNIFE POINT’ . . . DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!
Yeeeeah, no. What I actually did was read the entire Saar’s Legacy series start to finish across four days and make notes about what changes required in ‘On A Knife Point.’ Oops.
~Complete the short story I began for the students over at the local college
Well. Yes, actually. At 12pm this afternoon I thought there was 2-3k words left to go. A couple of minutes ago I finished an incredible marathon on it: two glorious hours in which I bashed out 7k+ words. So yeah . . . the first draft is now complete. Heh, I guess that means I was ready to get back to work. 😉
Hmm. I guess I should play catch up. This post is something like #996 and, if you recall, I’ll be closing this blog with post 1,000. I really don’t have much time. I think I’ll still list my intentions, but I’ve no idea how it will all pan out.
Credit: ryanlerch at OpenClipArt
I’ve listed these things because I find that I don’t function very well without goals. If I don’t know what I want to do, I end up drifting in a blank sea of ‘waaaaaaaaaaaaaah there’s too much of everything!’ and nothing gets done.
However, I do acknowledge that The Sprogs are around for two weeks and that work time for me will be very limited. Lots of family visits going on which means, for the most part, my work time will be confined to evenings.
I probably won’t get all of those things done. But it doesn’t matter. If I manage some of it, I’m doing pretty well and, frankly put, I reckon I’m ahead of the game anyway. So I’m feeling pretty chilled . . . though that may be the fact that I’m in bed right now and that I’m still swimming on a chocolate high.
Heh, ho hum! ^_^
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Writing: A Conversation Without Interruptions 