NOVEL MARKETING OPPORTUNITY

Usually it's my old friend The Muse who wakes me from slumber with a good idea, but this time my gratitude goes to Patsy. I've been tagged! So here I am at 5.00am drafting this post. It's a lucky 7 theme and the idea is to use your current piece of work ; but Patsy made a good point of saying 'rules are made to be broken', so I am going to use this as an opportunity to do some much needed promotion of my first novel, DREAM KEEPER, which was published this year. I have to turn to page 77, go to line 7 and copy out the next 7 lines, sentences or paragraphs and then tag 7 people.
Here goes:

Mac sat on the floor of The Dream Clinic. He couldn't stop staring at the colour portrait. The whole place had been trashed by vandals. There was paint on the walls, floors and ceilings. Shards of glass were everywhere. There was not a single thing left untouched, except the colour portrait of Dream Keeper on the stone wall. He was in his entire purple garb and clutched his sceptre in his hands. It was Dream Keeper's eyes that freaked Mac out. Dream Keeper was quite human in his appearance. He was extraordinary in his height and build, but still human. It was his eyes. The black glass in the human eye sockets glowed. The colour specks danced in the blackness, until they leapt from the portrait and collated in an oblong shape that became a bright purple door of light. Mac entered the purple light.

My turn to tag. I choose to tag Simon, Pat, Sally, Janice, Della, Liz and David.

Keep writing....

WISE WORDS

I received a much needed email from a writing friend. I wanted to use this post to share her wisdom with you, in the hope it may help you in times of doubt:

"This writing life is very much a roller-coaster. The ‘quiet times’ do lead to all sorts of questions and doubts unfortunately, but we all go through that no matter how many sales under the belt. At times like that all you can do is focus on the writing itself and the love of writing itself, enjoy that feeling of putting The End on a new story. Whatever you do, don’t doubt yourself please.

Regarding not knowing why stories don’t get selected, I’ve got stories with an editor that I think are just perfect for that particular mag and yet they don’t get snapped up and I’m not sure why either. And the ones that do sell I can’t work out why those, and not the other ones that I think are as good, or even better. At another mag it’s the same. I never ever have any idea what will sell. A sale this week to them I was totally shocked by (I didn’t think the story had a chance). So really, you can only go crazy trying to work out editors minds. Write, send, forget. Sales will come."

Keep writing....

SHORT STORIES - THE REVAMP

I found myself reading through short stories I'd written - wait for it - over a decade ago! Oh my gawd, I don't wonder now why they got rejected. After my first reaction, EMBARRASSMENT, that I sent them out in the first place and my second reaction, LAUGHTER, I read over them again with a fresh eye and with something I have now that I didn't have before; EXPERIENCE.

Some of my earlier stories lack satisfying conclusions, others have some good paragraphs in them that I could create a new story around and others, well let me just say, 'What was I thinking?'

I've decided to do a list, two in fact, one list of hopefuls that I've got loads of material to work with and another list which although needs a lot of creative work are possibilities.

Well, I'm off to revamp.

Keep writing....

SUNSHINE :-)

Patsy, who I consider a little ray of sunshine was kind enough to pass on to me the Sunshine Award.

To accept this award I have to tell you what makes me happy then pass on the award to other deserving bloggers. So, in no particular order these are some of the things that make me happy:

1. Sunshine and blue skies.
2. Spending the day at the beach walking, exploring the rock pools or mucking around on my body board.
3. WRITING - that really makes me happy, and top that off with a short story acceptance and I am over the moon.
4. Cadbury dairy milk chocolate.... yummy!
5. Strolling through the botanical gardens, especially in Spring.
6. When my kids say, 'I love you Mum.'
7.When people acknowledge me by commenting on my blog and I see my 'following' is growing.
8. Reading
9. When somebody says, 'You inspire me.'
10.Building friendships with writers from all over the world. Their support and encouragement really does make me happy!

Now I would like to pass this Sunshine Award onto Suzanne, Angie, Joanne, Deb, Valerie, and Rae. Please spread the sunshine around and go visit these blogs and say hello. :-)

Keep writing....

WRITING TIPS

I am always inspired by successful writers taking the time out to encourage. Here are a few tips I would like to share with you:

"Read a lot and write a lot." Reading and understanding different styles is integral to finding your own style. Stephen King

Keep your day job. John Grisham suggests finding your career outside of writing. Experience life, suffering, and love to be able to write effectively.

Don't be afraid of failure. "A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason." Margaret Atwood

Never stop trying. "A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit." Richard Bach

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." Roald Dahl

Keep writing...