Bonus Blog: I’ve Lost My Way… :(

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Ileandra Young

openclipart - confusing signNow before you worry, its probably not as a dramatic as it sounds. I was just sitting in bed this morning, having turned over (and waited for the now traditional click of my hips realigning, or whatever the hell it is they’re doing) and picked up my laptop.

I looked at Twitter, Facebook, shared a couple of things, responded to a couple of mentions and then logged onto the WordPress dashboard to have a look around. Then I realised that my body is in too sore a state to do much today (particularly with Alt Fiction to get through tomorrow!!!), so I’d better stay in. That in mind I tried to decide what creative enterprise of mine to work on today….

…and got stuck!

When I say ‘I’ve lost my way’ I think I mean that I’ve started doing too many things at once. Or I have too much on the go. Or I’ve got too many projects at the midway stage. Its weird; not long ago I was talking about lists and planning getting organised, but its funny how quickly that can fall apart if you’re not on the ball with it.

These are my ‘projects’ as they are currently:

  • Short story edit: 50% complete
  • Short story first draft: 1% complete (only started the other day)
  • Researching publishers of short stories
  • Researching open anthologies
  • Organising schedule of blog posts for May-June (& July?)
  • Researching competitions

~and then of course I put all the other stuff on there that I should be doing…

  • Finishing my reading of various notes from antenatal classes
  • Completing the packing of my hospital bag
  • Calling various ‘grown up’ folk: bank, life insurance provider, pension provider, house insurance provider
  • Completing my birth plan
  • Checking when the next antenatal class is
  • Making quick lists of where everything is so Dave can grab it if there is a need to rush
  • Washing more tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny baby clothes!
  • Washing MY clothes -_-
  • Tidying the study
  • Planning furniture positions for the twin’s room (and where its current allotment of junk is going to go)

Of course, the second part of that list isn’t just for me, so I don’t know if I should include it here, but, when I write it all like that, it seems not so bad after all. o.O Maybe my ‘brain clearing’ list was working better than I thought.

Funny though; how at one moment, the world and everything in it can look horribly daunting and frightening. The next, when you stop, take a breath and a fresh look, its not so scary after all. 🙂

I’m such a drama queen! I think I’ll just get on with it and see where I end up at the end of the day. :p

Thanks for listening folks. *squeezes*

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80 Post Challenge – Post 58

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Ileandra Young

Name something you found; what was it and where did you find it?

I want to say something really silly like; ‘I found herpes!’ or ‘I found a puppeeeee!’ But I just can’t make myself do it. I guess that’s just a reflection of how silly I can be while writing posts at 11:30pm. Hmm… well considering its taken me so long to get started today, I should just be pleased that I’m writing anything at all!

So… something I found….

I remember while I was still living with Mum, I must have been about fifteen at the time. My friend and I were walking home from school, but the back way, because we’d just been to the park. We’d been on the swings, generally chatting (probably about boys and how gross they were) before taking the street that would lead to her house before mine.

We stepped off the pavement and onto the road and I remember catching sight of a piece of paper fluttering. I wouldn’t normally have paid attention to it, but this piece of paper had the Queen’s face on it. So did the one right behind it.

I’ve probably never moved so fast in my life!

openclip art - money, notes and coinsI ran after it, slamming my foot down as the notes threatened to flutter away and scooped them both up.

£10 and £20 notes.

And not a soul in sight.

My friend and I did a crazed sort of happy jig and immediately started figuring out how to spend it. Which we did. Quickly. Starting at the corner shop across the street, with a hefty handful of sweets. I think she bought cigarettes (ick).

Why can’t that happen to me these days?! Finding £30 just randomly on the floor would be lovely right about now! *grumble, grumble*

 

 

 

 

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.

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Lucky 7 Meme

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Ileandra Young

Lucky 7 meme bannerYey, another game! ^_^

I love blogging games and funnily enough I was just looking at this one on some other blogs and thinking; ‘I could do that!’

Then along comes the lovely Vanessa who, as if reading my thoughts, tags me to give it a go! Well don’t mind if I do! Thank you, Vanessa, for giving me the chance to play, and all you lot be sure to check out her blog! 🙂

Now… here’s how it all works:

  1. Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscript.
  2. Go to line 7.
  3. Copy down the next seven lines/sentences as they are – no cheating.
  4. Tag seven other authors.

Right, well my current WIP is a short story that doesn’t really have a name yet. The piece is about lies, backstabbing and jealousy, so nothing at all like what I normally write, but I’m enjoying getting the words down. I know right now that its never going to reach as far as 77 pages, so its just as well I can use page 7 to do this.

Now… let’s see:

The hand vanished. “My family never really did the religion thing. You’ll have to read it to me one day.”

Moments later Sam pulled the car to a stop, shutting off the engine and hopping out.

A cruel wind snatched at his hair, grabbing the heavy locs and tossing them around his face like thick, hairy snakes. Beside him, Dahlia tried to tame her own flying hair, without success.

Hand in hand, they ran to the house, ducking though the door and into the warm interior just as the first spots of rain began to fall from the heavens.

Sam shook himself, conscious of the heavy slap of hair against his back and shoulders.

Ha, that tells you nothing! :p I guess I’ll either have to talk a bit more about it or post an excerpt. Hmm… we’ll see.

For now, I’d like to tag these fine bloggers to take part:

Rosie @ Justifying Insanity

Tiffany @ Creations From a Woman’s Mind

Jonathan @ The Trials of the Amateur Writer

Deidra @ Deidra Alexander’s Blog

Em @ Fictional Impulse

Carrie @ Wildcat’s Wife

Naomi @ Writing Between The Lines

And by the way, please take the time to visit these fabulous blogs and enjoy what they have to say. 🙂

TTFN x

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Six Sentence Sunday 08/04 #9

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Ileandra Young

Its another Sunday and time for another six sentences!

I am a bit of a tease, so I am going to leave Vicky and Lara alone for now, though there will be more of ‘The Last Time‘ on this blog in later days. Probably in the form of an excerpt until I’ve decided what I want to do with the piece.

For now, however, I’ve found a piece that I was writing back in 2008. Its so old that I’m stunned it makes any sort of sense, but its a story that I never finished. I didn’t even name it. It was from a piece of fan fiction I was writing for a show called Gundam Wing and just pulling it out of my pile of ‘unfinished work’ has rekindled the love for me. Its probably going to be a while before I’m able to write it again, but I’m glad that I’ve found it.

In this six, Duo is on his way to meet the other Gundam pilots after years of peace. Hilde, who he has been living with for quite some time, is less than pleased to see him leave on an undoubtedly dangrous and ultimately life threatening mission. Particularly when he has already more than played his part in the war.

Hilde leapt up and turned her face against Duo’s hand, pressing in towards his face. Her lips brushed his in a soft, chaste touch, which she drew out with a lingering sigh.

Duo flushed scarlet and snapped his head back, fingertips dancing over his mouth where her warmth lingered on his skin. “Hilde… I can’t… you know I don’t… I just….”

“Good luck,” she siad. With that, she was gone; sliding out of the passenger seat to the ground far below.

I also feel the need to mention that this piece, when I started it, was yaoi fan fiction. My tastes have changed somewhat since then, though remembering where this story was heading in my mind makes me keen to restart it. We shall see!

Don’t forget to click the banner below to find the other authors taking part this week. There are sure to be some real sizzlers this time! And of course – since its become somthing of a habit! – I’ll be back next week with another six from a WIP or completed piece. TTFN!

Six Sentence Sunday

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Call For Guest Posts

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Ileandra Young

Following Thursday’s blog, I figure I’d better say something kinda, sorta official. ^_^

I have a time coming up in which I know that my writing ability will be severely squashed. The coming of twins into my life is such that all the preparation I do right now, still may not be enough.

So…! I want to know if any of you fine folk would be interested in writing a guest post for this blog; Writing: A Conversation Without Interruptions. Don’t be shy, enough of you are bloggers yourselves, you can consider this an opportunity to teach me (and others) a thing or two about what you do and why folk should be following you too!

I’ve never done this before, so I don’t know what the conventions/rules are. In light of that, I’m going to make up my own (I’m good at that!). I figure the following points are sensible places to start:

  • Try to write posts that follow the theme of this blog, eg:
    • Writing
    • WIPs
    • Reading
    • Publishing
    • Films/TV/Music that interests you (or makes you rant like a mad person)
    • Reviews
    • Pictures that brought a particular feeling or emotion to you
    • ‘Real life stuff’ like an anecdote, or future plans
    • ‘How to’ posts
    • ‘Did you know?’ posts
  • Try to keep them to a sensible word count
  • Don’t be derogatory, inflammatory or unnecessarily nasty
  • Feel free to link back to your own blogs or websites
  • On the flip side, don’t be spammy; pushy sales pitches and ‘YOU MUST LOOK AT MY BOOK NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!’ posts won’t make the cut
  • Tell your readership what you’re up to (I’ll give you the date when your post will go up)
  • Don’t forget to include a little intro about you and what you’re up to
  • Support other guest bloggers who take the plunge

Yeah… that all seems sensible enough. If you’d like to do a guest post in the time around late April, May and June (maybe even July as well!) then leave me a comment here so we can have a chat, or email me so we can talk about it there.

This idea is really growing on me and would I love to hear from you. Otherwise my posts at that time may be restricted to book reviews and silly notes on ‘my babies did THIS today!’ Though… if you like that sort of thing, I guess that’s fine.

🙂

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