Limericking

Some of you may remember that the other day I stated I would unofficially take part in the April A-Z Challenge. Some of you may also note that my blog now has the rather unmissable A-Z Challenge icon displayed on the right.


*shifty*

OK, so I gave into temptation and committed myself after all.

Anyway, I have decided that I needed a theme, and that the theme had to be amenable to short posts (this being not a rule as such, but a guideline, seeing as those taking part also have to read as many participating blogs as possible during the challenge). First I thought, 'Aha! Drabbles!', but that is something that I do pretty regularly for The Burrow, and I fancied a change. So I will be limericking (not a word, but I like the sound of it, so there *nods*) for the duration of the month of April.

And that's all I have to say today!

Image permission.

A Procrastinator's Plan

Tami is being very sneaksy with the suggestion for today's topic, because she just knows how terrible I am for not sticking to a plan and getting stuff done. I think she's definitely giving me a massive kick up the butt - which I direly need, no question - and forcing me to commit myself to a workable plan that will enable me to have my book ready to submit sometime in the next century or so. *shifty*

According to Tami ( who I usually listen to because she is a wise Watery Tart without a doubt), putting your plans out there publicly gives you accountability. Normally I would agree with this, but with me being the most lazy of writers, and with 'procrastination' as my middle name, it doesn't always work.

It definitely worked with last year's NaNoWriMo challenge. Announcing my desire to embrace the madness on my new(ish) blog page meant that I needed to keep going if I didn't want to look like a prune. I really shocked myself when I completed it, so heaven knows I probably shocked my nearest and dearest too.

However, announcing a plan of action on my Facebook page several months ago didn't work. My 'Five Month Plan' is way past its deadline, and I haven't completed all of the tasks by a long shot.

So sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't. Lets see what happens this time around....

Tara's Plan For Actually Sticking To The Plan That Will Get Her Book Published (otherwise known as Get Your Lazy Butt Into Action).

October 2010

Complete the October blogging challenge. Repeat after me: Writing daily will get you back into the right frame of mind. (Not really book related, but as a motivational tool, highly useful).

November 2010

Enter this year's NaNoWriMo. Okay, so this has nothing to do with editing and polishing my first novel either, but I'm hoping to finish the WriMo as before. With two books under my belt, it would be absolutely disgraceful if I didn't do anything with them, so hopefully this will shame me enough into doing something about it.

December 2010

Bad, bad month for doing anything remotely useful when it comes to writing and/or editing. Christmas sucks up all of my time, but in the unlikely event of finding a few spare hours, I will diligently read through both (*crosses fingers that there will be a second novel*) manuscripts and make some notes on what I like and don't like in readiness for...

January/February 2011

Yikes! 2011??? Anyway, New Year's resolutions will definitely be to work my butt off on editing and polishing Cardiffella primarily, and my goal is to spruce it up and have a readable book to send off to Burrowing buddies by mid February. In the interim, I'll work on my query and synopsis.

March/April 2011

Hopefully I will have gotten feedback from several people by mid March, and this is when I will undertake the final edits and what not in order to have a finished - ! - manuscript to send off to some select publishers that I have in mind.  First queries and sample chapters to be sent off by the end of April at the latest. *glares at self*

May 2011 will arrive at some point (obviously), and I really, really hope that I can get there with everything ticked off on my 'to do' list. Crossed fingers, toes, and anything else that might help would be appreciated, because I have a feeling that I'll need it.

*dies*

Drabbling

To coincide with the drabble challenge over on my writer's group blog (Burrowers, Books & Balderdash - *coughshamelessplugcough*), and also because I know I won't have time to blog tomorrow (er, today), I thought I'd schedule a post for you.

The Burrow (which you should know by now is my writer's group) has been drabbling to images for over two years now, and we've published our projects online at our showcase website www.the-burrow.org/ since December 2008.  Put simply, a drabble is a story told in exactly one hundred words. Technically they aren't really stories - telling a complete and cohesive story in a mere hundred words is nigh on impossible - but it is amazing what you can convey in such a short piece of text. It is also amazing how many different ideas spring forth from our imaginations when we have a word or an image as a prompt. The weekly challenge over on Burrowers, Books & Balderdash is very simple. We, The Burrow, will post an image every Sunday, and we'll invite each and every one of you to submit your very own drabble inspired from that image. Every Burrower will take a turn at 'judging' and picking the best of the weekly entries, and these will then be published on our blog the following Saturday. No prizes as such, except for the bragging opportunity of being published on the fantastically brilliant Burrower Blog (*coughs*).

And to get you in a drabbling mood, here's a drabble that I wrote for last year's Easter project.

That's right, go ahead. There's plenty of grass, there's no need to worry. Don't hang around waiting for me; I can get my fill right here. Off you go, don't you fret. I'll look for you every minute, and in my mind's eye I'll see you eating your fill. I'll try not to picture where you really are; I'll try not to imagine you being somebody else's grass.

Next year I'll say goodbye to another of my lambs, and I'll wish that I could have been taken the same way. When they slaughter, it's not only the lambs who suffer.

Image courtesy of Petr Kratochvil.

Burrowific!!!

Yes, some of you probably already know what I am about to ramble about, but although I am late (as usual) in doing this, I simply can't NOT blather on about the exciting new blog that my writer's group has just launched.

Burrowers, Books & Balderdash is now live! And, although I'd hate to tempt fate by saying this, I am knocking on wood and declaring that it is already a success. The blog was launched less than twelve hours ago and ALREADY has 19 new followers, and a thumping good list of complimentary comments too! Of course, it really helps that a certain Watery Tart wrote the virgin post. Our Naked Friend has a fabulous network of blogging buddies who dutifully followed their Misattributing Mistress over to her new dungeon, and in the process made the rest of us Burrowers feel very happy indeed.

I won't ramble too much about my writing group because I have mentioned it at least a thousand times in the past. Also, I'm pretty sure that several of you have already been bombarded with Burrowing Bits today, what with not only the Watery Tart, but the Digressionista Diva and the Coffee Goddess too (fellow Burrowers who already have fantastically popular blogs, and also have the dedication to blog about our new venture immediately after it was launched (unlike moi, who procrastinated up until the last moment *shifty*).

Okay, so it's not only that, I don't want to give too much information because I want you to visit the new blog too. *smiles winsomely*

Anyway, there are going to be seven regular contributors to the blog (seven being the most powerful magical number of all *winks*) as of now, and we hope to add a few more Burrowers in the future. In the meantime, expect some nakedness, nuttiness, digressions, food for thought, cleverness, musical knitting and, of course, insanity to be coming your way. I'll leave it to you to figure out just who will be dishing out each of the above. Yes, that means you have to VISIT the blog regularly!

I really hope you take a peek - in fact, I hope you take more than a peek and go back for more!

But before you do (because I just know that you will), I will leave you with a little something that my eight year old wrote in school today. I'm happy and proud to be able to say that my daughter appears to be just as obsessed with writing as her mum. This is not the first time she has brought something she has written home with her - in fact, she writes most days, whether she is in school or at home. Mostly she likes to write songs, but every now and then she'll venture into a little poetry or story writing. Today's contribution falls under the poetry heading, though she tried something new and decided to write something that didn't rhyme. Of course I am biased, but I happen to think she is awesome. *nods*

"Love" by Ellie Smith (8)

Love is pink and red

Love sounds like a heart pumping

Love tastes like strawberries

Love smells like a flower

Love feels like flower petals

Love looks like kissing in the park

A New Start

The start of a new month, the start of the second (and better) half of the year, the start of the summer proper, and the start of a new project. Not to mention that I'm writing an entry for Rowan Coleman's Short Story Competition, which, funnily enough, has the theme of - you guessed it - 'a new start'. That's a fair few new starts for the month of July, is it not?

I really like July. *sighs happily* It's my birth month, so while I hate getting older (which, by the way, seems to accelerate as the years go by), it's still nice because my birthday is the one day of the year where I get to be treated. This year it's even better because it will fall on a Saturday, and somehow birthdays are always nice if they coincide with the weekend, yes?

Anyway, I wanted to blog on the first of July mainly because my writer's group is currently in the final stages of setting up our blog. We go live on the 5th, and as one of the contributors I have the dubious honor of having THIS blog on the blogroll. Now, as we are aiming to be entertaining, helpful and professional, I figured I didn't want my most recent blog title 'advertising' me. Somehow I don't think *is a failure* quite gets across an image I'm happy with.

Anyway, the new blog is really exciting for me personally because I get to work on a permanent project with my writer's group (The Burrow, for those of you who aren't experiencing Deja Vu). We work on projects several times a year, but this time it will be something that will be ongoing, so I get to enjoy the whole 'group working' thing on a regular basis. It will also hopefully open up a wider network for The Burrow as a whole. We've been 'together' for several years now, and have gone from a small forum thread to bigger and better things. We have a fabulous website which showcases our work (those projects I mentioned before), and are well on the way to becoming the authors we all aspire to be. We've gone from writing fan fiction, to displaying drabbles to images in an art gallery, to debut novels, and although it's been a long road and we're mostly all still travelling, one of us has secured a publishing deal (the fabulous Tami, of Confessions of a Watery Tart). 2010 is looking to be our best year yet, obviously!

Another new start for me this month is that I am back in the land of employment again. I returned to my previous job last week, and although it's only three days a week mostly (except when there's overtime, which already I am doing *rolls eyes*), it's going to suck a whole lot of time up. All my shifts start at 6am, which means I have to be up at 4:30am. *dies*. One of those days is a Sunday, too, which is already my worst day of the week.  Of course, this means that I have to go to bed earlier the night before each shift (which cuts writing time). I also end up going to bed earlier on the actual day of the shift too, which means that five nights a week I am losing at least two hours of writing time. As I tend to write the best during the late evening, this is a major loss.

On the other hand, because I do NOT want to spend the next x amount of years counting newspapers and cashing up tills, it is incredible incentive for me to crack on with the serious job of editing Cardiffella. I remember thinking two years ago (which was when I resigned) that I couldn't wait to be unemployed so that I could concentrate on my writing. Of course, being the Princess of Procrastination meant that the actual writing didn't really happen. Sure, I have written over the last two years, but it's definitely been far from the daily habit that I initially hoped for. I have dithered away a good few months, procrastinated for a couple more, avoided almost completely for three months or so, and wasted time on Facebook and what-not for another few months. Less than half of the last two years (heck, probably only as little as three months or so, let's be brutally honest here) has been used for the writing that I was so intent on accomplishing.

Life gets in the way of course, so I'm not going to take responsibility for stuff that's been out of my control, but even if I ignore the last six months, that's still eighteen months that could have been used much better. The funny thing is, I'm actually a little bit glad to be working again, despite the sucky hours. For some strange reason I seem to work better when I don't have too much time on my hands. I think the thought of being 'free' from employment went to my head, and instead of doing what I should have done, I ended up doing anything and everything else, just because I could.

So....  that's a new month, a story about a new start, a new blog, a new life routine, and a new incentive to get my novel ready for submission. Lots of 'news'. Or lots of news, whichever way you want to look at it.

Keep an eye out for the new blog next week. I'm sure myself and my fellow Burrowers will all share the link not only on our blogs, but on our Facebook profiles too. We've all shared details of our writer's group on our individual blogs before, so it will be lovely to have you visit an off-shoot of The Burrow where several of us will contribute. Maybe you'll get to know us a little better, and hopefully we'll help and inspire as well as entertain.

Happy July 1st everyone!

Dear Writing Mojo

Dear Writing Mojo,

I realise that it has been quite some time since I required your services, but I am currently gearing up to participate in BuNoWriMo, which is, as I'm sure you know, a rip off borrowed concept of the more widely known NaNoWriMo. In just a few short days I shall find myself invisibly glued to my laptop in order to write around 1800 words a day for the duration of the month of June.

Now, as I'm sure you'll remember, you serviced me greatly last November when I took part in the previously mentioned NaNoWriMo. You weren't always obvious with your mentoring - indeed, some days I suspect you escaped to the local pub for a bevvy or two - but for the most part you did your job well. By the skin of my teeth, I finished my novel with a final word count of 50,091. Yay!

This time around, I wanted to make sure that you knew what your actual requirements were, for when you are employed as a Writing Mojo, there are certain things that you must be able to do. For instance, you must be able to be around as and when you are required, preferably during daylight hours, and most especially when I am without my children.

That means no more trips to the local pub.*glares*

Next, I would require you to maintain full cheerleader skills for the entire month. An aspiring author needs a little pom-pom waving and verbal encouragement on a daily basis if she wishes to achieve her goal. For that purpose, I am providing you with full outfit and accessories in order for you to fulfil your cheerleader requirements.

Now, seeing as 'Mojo' is part of your title, I am also demanding that you take the form of one of my mojos whenever you are in residence. I am not going to be overly picky here and demand a particular persona for you, but if you would be so good as to take the form of Jensen Ackles, Viggo Mortensen, Gerard Butler, Ian Somerhalder, or that bloke from Spartacus: Blood and Sand, I would be suitably grateful. And if you combine both mojo and cheer leading elements at the same time, I assure you that I would be most demonstrative with my gratitude.

Next up is something that is crucial to achieving my BuNoWriMo Winner status. You must - I repeat must - be sure to punish me when I am slacking. If you were to find me playing Bejeweled Blitz, for example, a thorough spanking would definitely be in order. Indeed, nothing else would do.

And if you catch me procrastinating in any way on Facebook or HPANA, then you have my full permission to put me in chains and punish me in which ever way you deem fit (I would suggest whips, and maybe a little ice cream, but the choice would be yours, of course).

When it comes to the actual writing of my BuNoWriMo novel, I have a couple of other demands requests. Obviously I will have to include several pussy jokes in the manuscript - one can't have a talking cat in a story and not have pussy jokes after all - but I would humbly ask that you keep an eye on me in case I go overboard. It's never a good idea to overuse a pussy, as I'm sure you'll agree.

Another thing is is innuendo. Once again, there has to be a certain amount of innuendo in this type of novel, but in order for me not to go crazy and include innuendo in every other sentence, I shall require you to nibble my earlobes at frequent intervals. The pleasure pain from these timely reminders should hopefully be enough to override any innuendo impulses that I may experience. *shifty*

Lastly, in order for me to truly succeed, my fingers will need to be in prime condition in order for me to type properly. As I'm sure you are aware, fingers that aren't in prime condition are liable to produce copious typos and spelling errors when one is writing a novel on one's laptop. After last year's NaNoWriMo effort - which I suspect had larger numbers of incorrectly spelled words than correctly spelled words - you really must make more of an effort this year. Suitable treatments for producing perfectly pliable fingers include massage and manicures, though my personal preference would be for you to suck on them occasionally. I really find that this type of treatment can work wonders on poor, overworked, and aching extremities.

If you could just confirm that the above suggestions are agreeable, I would be most grateful. I humbly ask that you reply as soon as you possibly could as I am anxious to get matters settled before the end of the month.

Sincerely,

Tara Smith

Writing Challenges

Hello all! A quick(ish) blog from me today, mostly because I have a ton of things that need doing, but also because I'm recovering from my trip to the dentist this morning (and the six injections I had to suffer through). *shudders*

The next few months look like they're going to be pretty busy ones. First off, there's the BuNoWriMo, which I briefly mentioned before. Like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), BuNoWriMo promises to be manic. My writer's group (The Burrow) are hosting their own mini version of NaNoWriMo (hence the 'Bu' rather than the 'Na' at the start), and it starts in less than a week. The month of June should hopefully see lots of lovely new novels written by everyone who participates. These novels will be written at top speed, whether by hand or by typing, and they all promise to have many typos and plot gaps, but that's part of the fun. *grins*

"Fun?" you say. Yes, fun! Because although I'm betting more than a few of us will be stressing like mad during the process, the beauty of the challenge is that the completed novel isn't meant to be perfect. You are supposed to write, write, write - and that's it. No reading over what you have done, no spellchecking, no going back to tweak something that bothers you. Just write. It's quite liberating, actually, because you don't really have time to doubt yourself.

So I'm asking anyone and everyone who reads this to think about taking part in BuNoWriMo. Yes, I'm talking about YOU! All you need is a slight leaning towards insanity, plenty of pens/pencils and notebooks (or a working computer), and the will power to let go of those annoying I Must Write This Perfectly habits. Oh, and a Facebook account, because that's where we're hosting the official group.

Moving on quickly, I wanted to let you all know about a short story competition that I'm also writing for. It's only open to UK residents unfortunately, but the prizes are fabulous, and include online help from a published author, book vouchers, signed books, and, most impressive of all, a meeting with an agent from a publishing house! How awesome is that? The host of the competition is the author Rowan Coleman, and you can find full details of the competition and the prizes right here. Incidentally, Rowan also hosts a fabulous mini competition on her Facebook page every Friday. You have to write a short story in 420 characters or less and post it as your status. It's fun to do, and it doesn't take long to write. I've participated for the last three weeks and had a ball writing for it. It's open to everyone, and I highly recommend having a go!

And while I write for BuNoWriMo and the above competition, I shall also be continuing with the editing of Cardiffella, and possibly working too, depending if any of my job applications are successful. I'm also going to try and teach myself how to build a website, because I have an idea that's been fermenting for some time now, and I'm about ready to give it a shot (I'm not saying anything more until I have it ready. Which could be never, seeing as I'm so technically challenged.*snort*). Summer's going to be crazy this year! *faints*

Anywho, that's it for today,  I'll catch you all soon!

Image is courtesy of our lovely honorary Burrow member, Joris, who produces beautiful images for both our writing group, and for individual projects. You can contact Joris at jorisammerlaan@gmail.com

I iz Taffin' again....

Whassup, peeps? I is 'aving a bangin' day today! First ov all, itz bluddy BOILing yer in the Kair of Diff, itz unfriggin'believable how 'ot itz got in the last two dayz like, innit? I mean, it was bluddy rain, rain, and MORE rain a coupla dayz ago, but now itz like, I dunno, a bluddy foreign country or sumfink.

At the moment I iz sat on the sowfa and typing this yer blog like, with sum moozic blastin' in the background. Me doorter is bopping around like the Mini Disco Diva that she iz, and I iz tappin' me foot along to Lady Gaga. Issallgood, innt?

P-P-P-Poker face, p-p-poker face....

Anywayz, while Lady Gaga (digitally) warbles in me lugholes, I thought I'd squeeze a blog in. I've bin busy all day today, spending lotsa time and 'avin' lotsa fun wiv me very amoozing pussy. Now, if you've bin paying attenshun - and I 'ope you 'ave -  you'll know that me amoozing pussy is not anyfink rood like, itz just me furry little friend. *reads last sentence* That's still a bit innuendo-y, ain't it? What I ment is me pussy is me furry little literary friend, cos my pussy is called Muse and she is like a characta in me novel. 'onestly, you is all filfy-minded peeps, ain't ya?

Anyways, coz I 'ave to add, like, anuvver ten fousand words to me novel if I wants to submit it fer publishin', I needs to like add quite a bit to it. There's a coupla new charactas to squeeze in, and some scenes need a bit of lengthenin' like, but a good free fousand words is gunna come from the prologue. And this is where I've bin having fun wiv me pussy. See, Muse is a fairy godmother, and she's like a recurrin' characta. Okay, she's not a recurrin' characta as of yet, coz me novel is the only book she's in like, but me novel is book one of a planned series, so eventually she'll be a recurrin' characta, see? *nods*

So, today I've bin puttin' me pussy threw her paces. She's been reminiscin' on her previous cases, see, and itz in order to flesh out her characta. You see, there's nothin' better than a fleshed out pussy.

And that's anuvver fing; today's bin bangin' becoz I've bin innuendo-in' all day long, coz innuendo is like the best fing since sliced bred, innit? You could be 'aving the worst day evah, but as long as you get a bit of innuendo in, everyfing just seems a little bit betta, don't it? Youknowzitmakezsense!

In ovver Itz Bin A Bangin' Day So Far news, I'm chuffed to beans becoz me networkin' is definitely paying off. I've now got almost two hundred more Facebook friendz than I 'ad three weeks ago - thatz like, more than double what I 'ad before! Sweet! And everyone is like, so nice! I 'ave to admit, this adding and accepting new friends fingy is so addictive, itz like, I dunno, choclut or sumfink. I loves it, I do, I loves it!

Lastly, there is one more reason I is 'aving a bangin' day, and that's BuNoWriMo. Now, I know that reading 'BuNoWriMo' might make you fink "what the 'ell is that?", and 'onestly, I wouldn't blame you becoz, well, unless you is psychic, you won't have a bluddy clue what I is talkin' about. See, BuNoWriMo is basically NaNoWriMo, only wivout the 'Na' bit at the start (and wiv 'Bu' there instead). Now, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, which is like a worldwide fing that 'appens in November, and 'as peeps from all ovah the planet attemptin' to write a 50,000 word novel in firty dayz. Itz bluddy manic, I can tell you, but lotsa fun too. The only reason I had a pussy to play with today is because of NaNoWriMo, so I loves it, I do, I loves it.

Anywayz, my writers group is doin' itz own version of NaNoWriMo, and coz we is called The Burrow, we like altered the name like, innit? We iz gonna attempt a 50,000 word novel in June. Now, this is where me recurrin' pussy comes into play, coz I is gonna write the sequel to my original NaNo novel for BuNoWriMo, and the provisional title is gunna be Beauty has the Beast (nuffink like an innuendo-y type title, is there?), and will once again be set in me home town, the Kair of Diff (that's 'Cardiff' to anyone who ain't familiar wiv Taff speak). I like, can't wait to get crackin' on it, so I iz like totally buzzin'!

If anyone would like to participate in BuNoWriMo, I'll be like posting details and stuff when I knowz more, and we will like advertise and stuff on our Burrow Facebook page. It's gunna be crazy, but fun, and the more peeps who take part, the betta!

I'll keep you posted on BuNoWriMo, but in the meantime I needz to go back and have sum more fun wiv me furry little friend, so I'll catch you all later! Byez fer now!

HPANA Rules!

Today's request comes from one of my newest online buddies, Leesh. It's sort of fitting too, because the topic she suggested was HPANA - the very first internet home that I adopted - and also the place where I originally 'met' today's requestee (that's not a real word, I know, but you know how I like to make up words).

Where do I begin? Well, I should probably start by mentioning that yesterday was the fifth anniversary of my joining one of the most popular Harry Potter fansites on the web. I don't know why I chose this particular site - it wasn't the first 'hit' from google when I originally decided to type in 'Harry Potter' in the search bar. I think I was attracted by the simple layout more than anything (me being one of the most computer inept people on the planet). I'd only been actively using the internet for around three months when I joined HPANA, so a simple format to navigate was a must.

I initially ventured into the canon discussion areas, where I dived straight in and posted a theory about one of the characters. I don't know how it happened,  but eventually the topic became so popular that it became one of the elite 'pinned' threads. Nobody was more surprised than me, let me tell you. Anyway, a few months after joining, I gained a bit of confidence and began to explore the site. Up until that point I hadn't ventured much further than a couple of topics, and I really only posted in one or two.

Then I clicked on the link for Fan Fun - and opened up a whole new world. For the first time in my life, I discovered fan fiction. I seriously had never heard of it before, and it wasn't long before I became addicted to several of the ongoing fictions. It was only a small leap between reading and writing fanfic, and that's how I started writing again.

I've always loved writing, but in the years filled with stressing over bills, working horrible shifts, and bringing up a family, I sort of forgot my dream of one day being a novelist. Now I freely admit that my first fanfic was truly atrocious. Honestly, I look back on it now and cringe at how badly written it is - the plot was mediocre, the structure was terrible, and as for spelling and typos.... well, you probably get the picture. Nevertheless it proved strangely popular, despite its failings. Buoyed by the fabulous comments that I received throughout the posting duration, my brain started connecting my serious HPANA self to my fanfic madness HPANA self. I decided to make my original theory - that was still going strong in the discussion forum - into a fanfic.

And so the dream truly became solidified in my head. My second fanfic was probably my most popular story on the boards, and nothing I have ever written since has ever surpassed it. I've written three complete longer length stories, am still procrastinating over another three, and have numerous short stories under my belt, not to mention my 15,000 word novella that doesn't fit in either the 'short' or the 'long' category. They've all been fun to write, and when you compare my initial work to my later stuff, I firmly believe that I have improved a hundredfold. It's definitely a brilliant way to hone those writing skills.

Now onto other stuff, because as much as I love HPANA for giving me back my writing mojo, I also love it because I have made a ton of friends on there over the years. Every member of my writer's group, The Burrow was originally a member on HPANA, and it is on that site that we first connected (The Burrow as a name loosely inspired from our Harry Potter roots). I don't think I'll ever be able to express just how grateful - and proud - I am to be a member of this group. These people are fantastic in every way possible. They encourage my writing, they are enthusiastic about everything, they give honest feedback, and most importantly for me personally, are just the best friends you could ask for. A few of us managed to meet up in 2008 - no mean feat when you consider we are all from different countries - and it was astounding how well we got on together, it was like we had known each other for years. Which, of course, we had, but only in an online way. That's pretty incredible. The picture, left to right, is Jess, Leanne, Tami (Confessions of a Watery Tart), me, and Mari (The Giraffability of Digressions)

Besides my writer's group, I also have a bunch of other fantastic friends on HPANA, mostly my readers, and also other authors from the site. Prior to The Burrow, I was a member of another group, also a writing group, but perhaps not as serious. The NCWC (or Non-Comedy Writer's Club in its full dress) was crazy fun, writing challenges, glomping, poking and all sorts of other things rolled into one. We eventually vacated HPANA and moved to our own closed forum, and although we aren't nearly as active as we used to be, we have all remained the firmest of friends and still have a fond laugh for Barnbledore (a cross between Albus Dumbledore and Barney the Dinosaur) and the Fart Button. Good times....

Of course, now that the Harry Potter books have long finished, and the movies are almost done too, the participation on HPANA has dwindled a fair bit, but we still have that lovely community that, for all its smaller size, is still as addictive and fun as it ever was. I'm still making friends on there, even after five years, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I'll always have a soft spot for Harry Potter, but I believe that it is HPANA that will inspire the fondest memories for me in the years to come.

Don't forget, first person to post gets to have control over me for my next blog post!

Rambling Update

Considering it's been three weeks since my last blog - you know, when I said I'd be blogging a bit more often *shifty* - and considering that I now have a few projects to work on and therefore have something to blog about, I thought I'd pop by and ramble a bit. Of course, I've had a few bevvies this afternoon (highly unusual for me, but there we are), so I'm nice and relaxed and am more amenable to typing. Another of course is that I should have blogged properly for the last three (er, four) months when I had virtually nothing to do, but (yet another) of course, I have chosen to blog when I have about a gazillion other things that I should be doing instead.

In any case....

I have finally started editing my novel from last November's NaNo madness - yay! I have decided that I want to be ready to send it to publishers (or, at least, a specific publisher) by the beginning of September. I originally planned to have it done by the end of July, but I am postponing (for a reason not yet to be divulged) for a wee while.

In other news, my lovely writer's group (http://www.the-burrow.org/) are keeping me busy (with spiffy things that are also not yet to be divulged) and this recent burst of activity is responsible for giving me back some of my Motivation Mojo. So far I have his lower body (which can be quite nice, if I'm honest), but I'm hopeful that I will soon have the use of his full working body (including his brain, which is the bit that feeds my ideas) sometime very soon.

Closely related to my 'other' news, I'm having a marvelous time reading and reviewing my fellow writers' stories from The Burrow. Well, I'm thoroughly enjoying the reading at any rate, but as my reviews tend to be cringe-worthy ('I liked that bit' is about as technical as I get),it's a bit of a mixed bag. I mean, I always feel that my review comments rarely (if at all) help, so I'm a bit squirmy about posting them. Still, I do my best, and that is all you can ask of anyone, right?

In other, other news, I'm now 3lbs shy of the three stone marker in my weight loss project. Okay, so losing weight is not really a project, but I am working at it, so as far as I'm concerned, it's a project. *nods firmly* I've dutifully ordered the Wii Dance game (to go with the Wii Sports) and will endeavor to get the console out for an hour every day in my bid to get to my target weight (as of now, I am 23lbs away from my goal).

In other, other, other news, I'm definitely feeling better lately, and having more good days than bad, so I'm hoping that May will be the month that I finally get back to what I love doing (er, I'm talking about writing, in case anyone wondered. Of course, there could be nobody reading this, so nobody would wonder, but.... what was I saying?). Ah yes, back to writing.

And editing.

And reviewing.

And blogging.

Well, as much as any procrastinator can, at any rate....

Thank God for the Weekend!!

Lordy! Lordy lordy lordy! What a week I've had! My aim since I started this blog has always been to blog each and every day. Last month, the NaNoWriMo madness threatened my plans, but I managed to blog almost every day, with only one day falling into the abyss. Great! Wonderful! If I can write a 50,000 word novel and continue to blog at the same time, normal months should be a piece of piss (as we Taffies like to say), right?

Wrong!!!

Let me recap on my week.

Monday

After said NaNo madness was finished (a day early too, did I mention that?), you can probably imagine the state of my house.  Consequently I spent a large portion of my day scrubbing, vacuuming, polishing, and washing laundry. On the plus side, I did manage to blog (even if it was only an excuse to post droolworthy pictures of the lovely, lovely Jensen Ackles). *shifty*

Tuesday

My mother could be called in at any time now for surgery, and as she helps out for a few old ladies, I promised I'd take over while she was in hospital and recuperating. The whole day was spent (once again) scrubbing, vacuuming, polishing and washing laundry. I just made it back in time to pick my daughter up from school, and then I had to stay for the Christmas fete (which was far too early in the month in my opinion). On the plus side, I managed to squeeze in a blog, and I am now also the proud owner of Christmas tree baubles made by my daughter (one of which has a picture of her inside). Nice!

Wednesday

This is where I dipped. Nightmare of a day, Wednesday. I spent all flipping morning at my bank trying to sort out the gigantic mess caused by a faulty cash machine which not only ate my card for no good reason, but insisted on saying that I had received the £200 that I had requested, when in fact I'd received sweet F.A. After several hours of stress, I was informed that I could have a temporary overdraft to cover my needs, as the missing £200 would take around three weeks to go back into my account. *mutters darkly* Of course, I now have to wait for the new card  (which arrived this morning) to become active, which is imperative as I still have a wad of pressies to order online before next Wednesday if I am to have any hope of them arriving in time for Christmas.

On the plus side, I had some nice news from my home site, HPANA. Voting was scarce this year, but regardless of the poor turn out, I was very pleased to discover that I won the Best Short Story of 2009, with my Pages from the Past  fanfic. Yay! A little cheer was nice, but the stress over the card situation sort of stole some of the joy. I was definitely in no mood to ramble, as I had no wish to unleash several paragraphs of venting on my poor, unsuspecting readers.

Thursday

It was quite a nice day, actually. I had two lovely emails from Burrowing buddies Tami and Leanne (and also from another online buddy, Kim), offering critique on my NaNo novel, along with some very encouraging words. *feels all warm and fuzzy*. My sister was visiting for the day, and my step-daughter also came to say hello (and stayed long enough to be Ellied by my daughter for several hours *lights candle for Amy*). My house is tiny, therefore we were jam-packed. By the time the kids were in bed and the visitors had left, it was late. Then hubby watched a film, which meant that by the time I got to the PC, it was way past 11pm and I was flagging. Hence, no blog for the second day in a row Erk.

                                                                   
                                                                       Today

Today I scrubbed, vacuumed, polished and washed laundry again. Only this time I was working very, very fast, and finding all sorts of extra jobs to do too. Why? Because on what was probably the coldest day of the year so far, my fire conked out. Yellow flames, soot residue, possible carbon monoxide etc, etc. I was running around like an idiot in an effort to keep warm. My house is so cold that I can safely say that I would have been warmer if I had stood in the street. Seriously. *shivers* Thankfully, the man from Swalec came and sorted everything out for me, and I now have heat (as well as expert knowledge on his cat, who is just recovering from a thyroid problem apparently).

Anywho, that's been my week. Many ups and downs, with little to no time on the computer. I'm just thankful that this didn't happen last week, or my NaNo would never have been completed. At least, that's what I'm telling myself; you have to find a silver lining somewhere, don't you?

P.S If you have a spare moment, please check out The Burrow. Our 2009 Advent Calender is now live! And it is fabulous, even if I say so myself. *nods*

*is cheating today*

Yeah, I'm kind of cheating today...*shifty* I had a request
to do a blog on 'family', which was brilliant because I had an idea right away and wasn't worried about it at all. I had a great big ramble in my head that just needed to be typed up today.

Unfortunately, it is now past 1pm, and if I want to write for my NaNo today (while the house is quiet, that is), I need to crack on. So instead of the ramble about alternative families that I had planned, I'm posting something that I wrote before. More than three years ago, to be exact, so the ages in this little piece are a little bit off. The other details are still relevant however, so I figure I can still use it...*is double shifty*

The following is something that I wrote to introduce myself to an online writing group. It was an informal group that resided in the adult forum of HPANA. I'd been lurking in there for months before I plucked up the courage to actually post something, and I've never looked back since I did. I've made some of the best friends in the world with members from this group, and to this day we continue to support each other in matters not only concerning our writing, but in our everyday life too.  Sadly, the cafe closed a little while ago, but all of the best people from there are now members of my writing group, The Burrow. I love you guys!

Family Pie.

How do I begin? I guess the first thing I should do is introduce myself; hello, my name is Tara. I'm a 29 year old mother from Wales. I should really say that I am 30, seeing as my birthday is not so far away, but I like being 29 and the idea of being 30 scares me. But I wont go into that. Now, where was I? Ah yes, introductions. Well, as I say, my name is Tara. I guess you would call me the average woman. I have average brown hair which is of average length, average brown eyes which look out of an average-looking face. I am of average height for a female (or so they say. I dont feel average when I see six foot Amazonian goddesses passing me by on the street). The only part of me that isnt average is sadly my weight, which I fear will never be average again after the birth of my children. But I won't go into that.

Ah, children. That leads me nicely to my son and daughter. Since we got together so many years ago, my husband and I have managed to accrue one son- slightly mad - and one daughter, who I'm sure was put on this Earth to test me. Frequently. More detail? Okay then. Said son, one Master Dale Reuben, is 44 inches, light and made of sterner-stuff-than-he-looks. He celebrates his tenth birthday in a few short weeks, but I suspect he is tricking me and may have switched places with a wizened old man. How else does one equate a nine year old questioning me about the complexities of life and death? Then again, he may just be a normal nine year old, who knows?

Then there is my daughter. Miss Ellie Marie. Now there's a girl who needs no added zest. Four years old and already 42 inches high, I swear someone added a growth gene to her when I wasn't looking. Miss Ellie brings new meaning to the word 'petulant'. I am convinced that she has muddled up the meanings of 'smile' and 'pout'. Indeed, pouting is what she does best. Most children go through what I like to call 'The Why? Phase'. Miss Ellie has her own spin on that. She started the 'Why Should I? Phase' when she was two, and is still showing no signs of abandoning it, sweet child that she is.

Hmmm, I believe I have yet to mention The Husband.

When I was young and naive, I had visions of being swept off my feet by a brave Knight charging on a white steed. I would, of course, be a beautiful debutante, and he would be a member of the landed Gentry. Don't laugh now, I'm sure I wasn't the only girl who had dreams like this. Well my Knight, Sir Darren, is not really a horsy kind of person; the last time he charged something was on the credit card. But we won't go there. Darren Reuben will be 38 in just a few short days. I'm sure he conspired to have his son born in the same month as him. He sure did something; Master Dale is the carbon copy of his father, both in looks and character. I'm just hoping he doesn't inherit the women-should-be-chained-to-the-cooker-whilst-being-barefoot-and-pregnant trait. I kid you not.

Hmmm, it may appear that I am not happy with my lot. Au contraire. The mind and heart are curious things. The stocker that contains my emotions is rather full. While there is plenty of sarcasm, wryness and perhaps even bitchiness taking up a lot of shelf-space, there is ample enough room for love, passion and contentment. I even have a spare shelf left, just in case I have need for it.

I like to think we are a well-made steak and onion pie. Why? Well, I could try to sound impressively philosophical and say that Sir Darren is the meat of the family (he would just love that analogy); Master Dale is the gravy, swirling around quite happily; Miss Ellie is obviously the onion, she adds a certain bite to the mix. And I am the pastry, holding everything together. Heck, I would even chuck a bay leaf on top of us to complete the picture of perfection. Actually, scrap that. I never did see the point of bay leaves, I much prefer parsley and thyme. But I won't go into that.

Where was I? Oh yes, I was explaining that I would say that if I were being philosophical. But I'm not philosophical,  I just love steak and onion pies. Oh, and my family too, of course.



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