Writing, Writing Everywhere!

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Ileandra Young

Yes, there seems to be a lot of it right now.

ribbon tied around finger, clip art, memory aideI posted yesterday’s blog and then got asked when I was going to continue with the blog about my driving lessons. Oops! I was supposed to be doing an entry per lesson and it just kinda, sorta dropped off as I got distracted by other things. Not ideal.

Oh and then I thought about The Ice Wolf Tavern and realised that I haven’t done any writing there for a long time either. Most definitely not good since its RP which is where it all started in the first place. Its a shame to let something like that slip. Especially since so many of my favourite characters were created there. Characters like Michael Garran, Diavian Hatara, Taithin Shatar and Keladora deserve to be free. Hell, that’s where Trya Fenwyn came from before I nicked her for LARPing with, so I need to get back into that.

THEN I spent a portion of this evening (the last three or so hours I believe) working on finishing up The First Time. A short piece (currently 5,099 words) about the meeting of two bodies who discover that they love each other dearly. But they happen to be women. Call it erotica if you like; I’ve been hinting about it for long enough that I figured I’d better just get on and finish it. I started the piece in September 2009 for goodness sake! I’m asking people if they want to do a read through of it for me, offer opinions and the like before I put it on the site in the Excerpts section. I’m quite pleased with it, though I’m worried that the tone and feel of the piece might have slipped slightly from where it began. I’ll have to see what people think when they read it. When I’m satisfied that I’ve done enough work on it, with feedback, it will go up here too; in full.

clipart, memory lane, widing road and hills>Yes… writing, writing everywhere! I’ve been reading through some of my old work too; not SORB or Clash, or anything I’ve talked about in blogs in much detail, but things that are really old. I’ve been using it as research to show me how much my writing style and choice of genre has changed over the years. I always tend to do it around the time of my birthday. o.O Go figure. Anyway that has brought back a lot of memories of stories that never quite made it off the ground and things that I really want to try again. Crickey and I want to write something for Shortfuse, though I have no idea what their next theme is yet. I have to try to stay open and free to that when I do know they type of thing they want, I can dive right on in.

As you can see… busy, busy, busy!
But don’t get me wrong… I LOVE IT!

Though tomorrow I will be taking something of a break to go to Birmingham so I can see a dear friend of mine for lunch. I’m very looking forward to that.

Oh yes, and I haven’t forgotten about the gallery either. I’ve got permission from all but one of the fabulous photographers who have snapped me over the years to use their images and, from it, its quite likely that there will be affiliate links going up to. I can’t pay these kind people – I’m not making any money from this site 😦 – but the least I can do is link back to them through here to show off more of their work. If that’s what they’d like.

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Dun du-dun-dun-duuuuuuhhhhn!

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Ileandra Young

hissing black cat, Yeah… Friday 13.
I probably shouldn’t say it until the day is over *bites nails* but to be honest, the day has been pretty good so far. After all, it was earlier on in the week that I managed to burn myself with flying cottage pie (I haz scab! ^_^) and a little later after that that I discovered something new on my body that I’m really hoping will go away soon. @_@ Don’t worry, its just a spot, but I don’t like it.

Anyway, in so far as ‘bad luck’ goes, the worst so far is that I got slightly wet when I came home from work. The rain caught me as I was coming out of the office. It seems pretty nice now – typically the sun is out again – but I’m none the worse for wear. For all that I tell people I’ll melt in the wet, as luck would have it, I don’t!

So keep you all in the loop yesterday I went to the ‘Fuck The Royal Wedding’ event run by Shortfuse. It was pretty good actually; a slightly late start, but entertaining enough to keep me interested. Cakes too! *nom nom nom nom*

Take a peep at the website for more detailed info, but the theme for this event was pretty much to provide a literary haven for those who were sick to death of the royal wedding hype. I am one of those – notice I haven’t mentioned it much on this blog – but listening to the selection of short stories and poetry about it was really nice. The first reader – Kimberly Redway – was by far my favourite though. Maybe because she seemed so similar to myself; new to the scene, unpublished, breaking out as it were. But her short story ripped seven shades of shit out of Kate (hehee) and was cleanly written to provide the tasteful humour in a suitably fun way. It wasn’t vicious, just light hearted poking at the ‘Prince Capturer.’ Another of the readers, Kathleen Bell, really touched me with her sad and though provoking piece, telling the tale of the funeral for a man alone and unloved on the day of Charles and Di’s wedding. *sniffle* Rob Gee was hilarious though; I’ve never come across him before, though his name seems to appear in lots of different places according to his blurb. He read all his poetry off the top of his head with an energy in his body that made me wonder if he was going to leap off the stage! The whole while with a fabulously cheeky grin and a knowing sort of tease in his voice that had me giggling from the second he started.

guitar So yes… all in all, very much fun! I had myself two very tasty anarchy cakes and then clapped along to The Nukes; a Ukulele orchestra (or should I call them band?) the likes of which I’ve never heard in my life (yes, I am aware the cute little picture is a guitar rather than a ukulele!).

I’m going to do my best to submit a piece of work for the next event – I did give my card over to one of the organisers as my handwriting when I added myself to the mailing list wasn’t the best – and then got to hear, in brief, about the next even planned for June. That event sounds much bigger and with a far broader spectrum, rather than just literature, branching out to include music and visual art too. ^_^ I’m really looking forward to that.

Oh and I haven’t forgotten! I know I said on Sunday that I would put together some photos of my LARP. Well, I am going to finish getting permission for them now – I didn’t take any of them myself – and once I have that, I’ll post them here. I won’t do it in a blog, instead I’ll do them in a Gallery page which I’m slowly constructing to show you the many faces of Ileandra Young. Believe me… there’s loads. :p

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Working On My Name

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Ileandra Young

Hello my name is stickerIts an odd thing and I know I’ve said something similar before, but since I wasn’t at work today (haha!) I took some time to write up blurbs for two of the sites I am becoming interested in.

The first is Mainstream Partnership. I mentioned a couple of weeks back that I spoke with Carol Leeming and now that I’m back from the LARP I’m trying to pick up where I left off. Not working on anything new just yet; I need to actually complete some projects before getting distracted like that.

But when I joined up to Mainstream, I got an email asking me for a short paragraph about what I do and a couple of photos to go in the directory. Well it was actually a little bit tricky to do. Not because – for once! – I didn’t have enough to say, but I had too much I wanted to get through. I wanted to talk about everything, but it seems to me, that actually, I need to narrow it down just a little bit. I need give my words, in a situation like that, a focus, so I can get right down to the core of what I actually want people to know about me. So I talked only about writing and radio.

It was the same for Inspired Quill. First of all, Sara asked if I would mind writing two articles a month (though a minimum of one is acceptable). I agreed happily since I can hardly think of a better way to start getting my name known. Besides that, I find myself wanting to help; Inspired Quill as an idea is long overdue and anything I can do to give the team a hand gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling too.

This time, however, rather than a paragraph, I had even more of a limit and had to say everything I wanted to say in 50 (ish) words.

Its really tricky! Funny that talking about oneself can be so, so hard. Especially when each and every one of us does that each and every day. Meh. I have managed to put together words for both organisations in a way that stays true to me as Ileandra Young and gives over all the information I need it to. And I feel that I have managed to do so in a manner befitting my chosen art form and my age and the current times. Yey me, lol.

By the way… I know I said I’d write more about the LARP, but I went crazy on it last night. I did a seven part radio show which equates to three and a half hours. The usual show is only two! So… if you can’t wait, listen to the show, or else give me a little more time to recover. I will talk about it a bit more. But not just yet. I want to take a look at ‘The First Time’ and do a little more work on it while I’m waiting for feedback on Clash.

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Its My Birthday And I’ll Write If I Want To

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Ileandra Young

birthday cake with candles - CC Open Clip Art GalleryYes, but only in brief. Its stupidly late now and I’ve only just finished my radio show for tonight. Its my own fault, I just couldn’t stop talking about my LARP but I wanted to speak to you guys too.

Today is my birthday. This being my actual birthday – the birthday linked to the name that I answer to, the one of my birth certificate. Ileandra Young as a person, as a character, as a persona also has a birthday (which I intend to celebrate just as hard) but that is not until June.

I will probably have more to say tomorrow after a little rest, but I wanted to say here (as well as in several other places) various thanks to various people for helping today (and the whole weekend be a fabulous treat!)

My thanks go out to:

Herofest LARP staff/crew/organisers

  • Mike you are still terrifying, but that is why I love roleplaying with you!
  • Corinna and Skye; your food keeps me sane, you rock!
  • Wayne your hair looks fabulous, just ignore me
  • Paul; I know you warned me, but I am a plot whore, so its okay

Herfoest LARP players

  • Faction by faction you are all amazing
  • Thank you for taking us back to the station, Barrie
  • My face will always be there, Face Lover!
  • Rich… it is my hat, right?
  • My minion… where were you when I got poisoned, huh?
  • Jack; you’re awesome (and funny). Nuff said.
  • Helen I don’t know how you put up with us, but I’m glad you did.
  • That last burp of yours, Simon, really was a 10!
  • Celine I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeed my sword!
  • Keepers… it is always Rum-O-Clock!
  • Andrew… how you still managed to smile this morning is beyond me!
  • All the Summer Stars; you sing beauuuuuuuuuuutifully (even if it was early :p)

And last, though certainly by no means least, wonderful family, partner and friends

That’s all I can manage now. Soooooooooooooo tired! Must head to bed.

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Writing For Other People

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Ileandra Young

clipart sheet of paperThis is a new experience for me. I think because I am so used to writing these blog entries and long, expansive prose, that I forget (skills I certainly had while at university) how to be concise and sharp with my writing. I am, however, happy that I will get better at this, the more writing I do for other people.

To explain, do you remember yesterday I talked about writing for Inspired Quill? Well today I finally got the hell around to doing it and put together the first drafts of two subjects that have been chewing at my brain cells for just about six weeks:
Swearing In Literature
and
Pornography vs Erotica

Now both of these were great fun to write and very difficult to keep below two thousands words. I might have happily kept going for reams and reams, with proper quotes, citations and input from research from all manner of other sources. But these articles are intended to be short and, for my first venture into the field of writing articles I wanted to keep it simple and tidy. Each piece is about 1,100 words and refers mainly to what I have experienced personally and what I feel to be true.

I’m not going to go into too much detail about the articles. I want IQ to be able to look at them, tell me what they want to edit and then publish them at their leisure without worrying that I have recreated the words elsewhere. However, before I do that, I’ll double check with them the in-house rules regarding my posting the articles here, or linking across to them. If I can do that, then I’ll happily post them here so you can all read them or else you can visit the IQ website along with everybody else. Haha.

I had particular fun writing the Pornography vs Erotica. That was the easiest to write and the hardest to keep short.

As you know (it says in my tagline) I do write ‘smut.’ However I do this under another name and haven’t done for quite some time. First of all, it was simply yaoi, mainly for the amusement and titillation of various friends with the same interests. In fact, back in 2007 I wrote a 36k word monster of a yaoi ‘short’ story. I wrote it especially for a friend as a birthday present and made sure that it featured characters from one of her favourite anime shows. I’m gratified to say she was absolutely thrilled with it (and still more with the original artwork I included in the bound copy I eventually presented to her) and that she keeps pestering me for another. I did start a second piece, in 2009, but I’m yet to finish it off because other projects have taken priority.

sexy, erotic red lips, with ring finger - Photo by VolaVale taken from Flickr.com under CreativeCommons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)When I did branch away from yaoi – i.e. more into erotica rather than just gratuitous porn – I looked at stories and ideas that were close to me. These shorts were often about the beginning of a new relationship or the gradual growth in understanding about one’s own sexuality. The reason I stopped doing these is because they were all written in the first person and I didn’t feel that such a style was quite strong enough to give over the emotions I wanted. Its restrictive and I wanted to be able to explore the thoughts and feelings of everyone involved, not just the primary character. One piece called ‘The First Time’ and another called ‘Truth Seeking’ are both, for the moment unfinished because of exactly that. Both of these were started in 2009.

Since these stories are for me, rather than other people, the motivation to work on them is slightly less. Its a shame, because I would dearly love to come to the ending of ‘The First Time’ particularly, because it has begun in such a sweet, gentle and shy sort of way that it reminds me very much of myself. Talking to Carol Leeming during the party has made me wonder if I can touch on work like that again. I suppose that once Clash is done I’ll be able to do exactly that before diving back into SORB. In fact, I probably shouldn’t rush going back to SORB because Martin at Talisman SavageMojo is currently doing another read for me and it would be silly to rush off and do more while while someone is still looking at it.

Hmm, maybe this really is the moment to start looking at smaller projects then? 🙂

I’ve talked myself out of it so far, over and over and over, but since I’ve talked about ‘Truth Seeking’ and ‘The First Time’ in this blog, I will put excerpts here when they are done. Then you can see the type of thing I’m talking about.

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