A Published Writer

Four copies of the anthology Connections arrived the other day. On page 80 is my flash fiction 'Tat'. I'm been published once before in an e-anthology called Take a leap but I'm thrilled to see my words printed on paper in a traditional book :) My son and daughter will both be receiving a copy and my good friend Sal Page has already received her copy. Sal has won and been placed in writing competitions and has written a novel that at present is unpublished. Notice I write at present because I know one day she will be a published novelist.
Here is the link to Connections  http://t.co/iZBxAWwH
Hoping next year I'll continue to write and improve.

National Flash-Fiction Day

Today my little story WORDS was published on the National flash-fiction blogsite. Some really interesting stories to read. This is the link to mine:  http://t.co/FP7wQpkq
Hope you enjoy reading some of the others. 

1st of October

Can't believe how quick this year is going. I've sent off two flash-fictions to the Fish Competition. The results won't be till April 2013. I particularly like these two stories but then I've always got high hopes. I've sent another one to an American blogsite with the theme Trick or Treat but think half of it they won't understand like bums, wobbly blobs, vicars and tarts party.

I love the anticipation of thinking I might be short listed. This year one of my stories was long listed for the Fish competition and that gave me great encouragement. Maybe I can write one good story.

Just read a blog about a Goat Herder, a woman living in Spain with 50 goats that are hand milked daily and the milk sold for goat cheese. Sounds idyllic but I'm sure at times her life is as boring and stressful as everyone else's. She writes really well. I felt I was with her delivering baby goats!    http://www.experienceolvera.co.uk/         

330 words except mine are 199

Today I received an e-mail to say my story "Armageddon" was going to be published ttp://t.co/8wJ2L4bO   on 330words. I really enjoy reading the 330 words or less on that blog.

I also had an e-mail to say my story "Tat" has been accepted and will be published in an anthology. An amazing day. I have submitted a few other pieces of writing so I wait with bated breath :)

This week I have discovered Cadbury's Crunchie Biscuits. They are wonderful like eating Crunchies. I'm watching the TV drama A Mother's Son.... I'm still deciding whether I should continue or reach for the remote off button. I'm reading "Interview with a Jewish Vampire" by Erica Manfred. I'm half way through and enjoying it. I always think I know how a story will end and I'm hoping I'm not right. I'd like a twist in the tale of this one.

Tomorrow.......

Tomorrow my story 'The Last Corner' is going to be published on 1000words. I'm so excited to think it was considered good enough. I love it but then I love my stories even the really bad ones :) http://1000words.org.uk/

Morecambe

Just back from spending four days with Sal in Morecambe. Only rained a little when we went to the Midland Hotel for afternoon tea on Tuesday. Unfortunately it was fully booked so we waltzed out, not flounced out, that would have been rude and went to the jetty cafe and had scampi and chips, delicious.

Yesterday we walked 6 miles along the canal to Carnforth Station to eat at The Brief Encounter cafe. It was like stepping back in time to the 1945 David Lean's classic film set. I  felt like Celia Johnson except I was eating wonderful stuffed mushrooms, potato skins and salad followed by a scone with raspberry jam. Didn't see anyone that remotely looked like Trevor Howard. Bought a tea towel.

Managed to read Carol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie. It's an excellent story and very well written. Ate quiche made by Sal and Morecambe shrimps on toast. Sal is an excellent hostess. Thanks Sal.

Bathroom Blues

It's day 8 or working day 7, either way its been too long without a bathroom. Lucky for us we have an outside toilet else I'd have worn out the patience of a saint keep knocking on doors asking to use the neighbours lavey.
Day 1, the tiles came off the wall with the bathroom fitter tutting that the plaster was crumbling and it would need re-plastering. what a surprise the house was built in 1939....Survived the 2nd world war and wasn't coventrated.
Day 2, all the bathroom fittings and fixtures removed. Goodbye Darth Vader complete with Light Sabre and shower gel. Goodbye Mother Duck and two little ducks with the yellow paint peeling off that my mother bought us years ago.
Day 3, plaster boarded, shower tray fitted
Day 4, new ceiling with spotlights and extractor that looks like a spotlight only bigger.
Day 5, Day off .... no workmen.... no kettle on the boil.
Day 6, New window, one wall tiled. (love the tiles seeings I couldn't remember what we'd chosen and was dreading they would be dark and horrid)
Day 7,  the Sabbath
Day 8, walls nearly all tiled, floor tiles laid and instructions not to walk on them.

I had the first five days off work to man the kettle and have a love hate relationship with the bathroom fitter. Back to work now with husband in charge of the kettle. Perfect bliss.

Showering everyday is like a military operation. Packing towels, shampoo, soap, hair dryer lugging the bag around in case I spot a free shower. Where have the Victorian slipper baths gone? My parents happily let me run up their stairs cartwheeling into the bathroom.

I know one thing I'll never have another bathroom fitted in my lifetime unless we move house and that isn't likely. Few more days and I hope I'll have the bathroom of my dreams. Not that I've ever dreamt about a new bathroom. :)

Bored

 I get easily bored and tonight is no exception. European football on TV. No one on Twitter or Facebook. ( Must all be watching football!) I've been snacking on mixed nuts and raisins. Tried to write a flash fiction but it seems to be going to be a short story and my attention span isn't long enough to write more than 500 words. Maybe this is the one that will stretch me. Sent off several flash fictions. Three to a competition and one to a website. Fingers crossed the competition ones will get long listed. Think I'll be in my dotage before my writing gets recognised as amazing. Whoops my tongue is in my cheek :)
I'm trying to read more and more and edit my own scribbles more and more. I'd like to write more but I'm lazy. I admire authors who say they live to write. I've always wanted to write a bestseller but its easier to say than do. Think it might be a novel containing a thread through lots of flash fictions, now thats an idea ............

Back from Spain

Just returned from 7 days in hot, sunny Spain. I tried to get a suntan but I'm still a whiter shade of pale. I begin to get a speckly skin which I think means skin damage so I rush to sit in the shade. Saw an old lady wearing a T Shirt with OAP written on the front. On closer inspection I realised it was GAP. Think I need to go to Specsavers! It was all-inclusive and the food was plentiful and very well cooked so I'm now dreading standing on the bathroom scales. One guest was overheard to say "my jeans have shrunk whilst I've been here". Hope I can fit into my work trousers on Tuesday.

I sent a flash fiction story to a competition and the results were announced whilst I was away. I didn't get short listed and the judge said that many of the stories told more than showed. I think she was refering to mine. So I've edited it again and 'will sit on it' until I decide where to send it. It's all a matter of taste.She did say that she had received two rejections for her own stories from a woman's magazine. My story Josie was included for flashfiction Day May 16th on http://flashfloodjournal.blogspot.co.uk/

'Josie' by Stella Turner

It was the only photograph of me as a child. Standing on my parents’ side board for over forty years, its silver frame ritually polished every week. I was dressed like a girl but my mother said in those days children were always dressed alike! My parents were hidden behind a woman who was holding me like a cherished possession. She looked so impressed with me that I kept asking who she was. My mother would sigh and turn away with a shrug. My father saying only her name was Josie. He spoke the name as if it was magical and it hung in the air tantalising and distressing my mother.

The auctioneer turns the frame over and says “twenty pounds, maybe a bit more”. I feel a tinge of regret, slipping the photo into my jacket pocket, but I need the money. My mother wouldn’t notice it was missing. She now lives in a care home. My father, long gone, is living with some young girl in Bexhill. He says she is his carer but she speaks with an accent and looks like she knows a good opportunity when she sees one. I expect his will is in her favour. 

Not much left to sell. The photo is creased. I flatten it out on the kitchen table and stare at the woman. Maybe I could try and find her. She’s probably dead by now. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll visit my father and ask about Josie. If she’s still impressed with me maybe she’ll give me things to sell.

Bank Holiday

Watching House on TV. It's 2.39pm and its Saturday afternoon. Feeling good because its Bank Holiday Weekend, no work on Monday. I must sound as if I dislike work. It's ok most times but you can't beat a day off. I would love a three day weekend, maybe that would help lower the unemployment levels. Everyone takes a 20% cut in hours and salary. Prices would fall, people in jobs, inflation lowered. There you go I've solved the recession. If only it was that easy :)

May Day

This was published on http://t.co/0IQl2CLz  for May Day.

May Day

“May day, May day, “shouts my Granddad. 

My Nanna looks up from her knitting. Her forehead looks all crinkly, she’s frowning like she tells me not to. If the wind changes Charlie you’ll stay like it. 

“Yes Granddad” I nod knowingly in his direction. “It’s May day today “  I know this because each day in writing practise we have to write the date and today my teacher Miss Woods was telling us all about  the may pole and how years ago people danced around it on May Day and she’d show us pictures tomorrow. 

My Granddad starts taping one of his fingers on the arm of his chair in a pattern. He looks really upset and my Nanna puts her knitting down and goes over to him. She puts her hand over his tapping finger and says “its ok Seaman Brooks, the ships are on their way”.  Granddad stops tapping and Nanna smiles. 

Tomorrow I’ll ask Miss Woods what ships have to do with May Day.

William Shakespeare's birthday

“To be or not to be” thought Will. “What the hell did that mean?” His teacher had asked him to write 370 words about it. He didn’t know why she had chosen that number and why she had given him that option instead of being suspended. He wondered now why he hadn’t chosen three days to walk about the streets doing whatever he wanted instead of this boring essay. 

He googled it and learnt three new words, soliloquy, Shakespeare and Hamlet. It also said the most famous of all literary quotations but there is a deep disagreement on the meaning of both the phrase and the speech. “Great” mused Will, I’ll write those words and Miss Page wont be able to diss them. He hadn’t yet learnt the meaning of plagiarism.  

He downloaded the film Hamlet, it was ancient, made in 1996 but that blonde in Titanic was in it Kate Somebody and Kenneth Whatshisname. It went on for four hours but somehow the time went as quick as when he played on his X box. His mum yelled up the stairs “turn that rubbish off and get to sleep”.    

It felt strange, it wasn’t rubbish. The way they spoke was strange but Will was mesmerised. Here was this bloke agonising over death, suicide, murder, wandering about with a skull. He picked up his pen and wrote 370 words, no more no less.  

In later years when interviewed on television he would talk about Miss Page and why he called his first best seller 370 words. He’d forgotten by now the reason why suspension had been threatened. His genre was referred to as Street Shakespeare. He’d watched every film, saw plays at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford upon Avon but never read any of Shakespeare’s texts. That would be too boring.     

It was published on National Flash-Fiction Day Flashes.  http://t.co/CBcFWpTZ 

I'm beginning to think I could become a writer, although at the moment I feel like I'm dabbling at it. 

The Easter Bunny

"I’m resigning, I’ve had enough” announced the Easter Bunny. His cousin the jack rabbit raised his eyebrows, EB was always moaning. What he wouldn’t give to be famous, world wide. He’d spent his entire life trying to avoid being in a stew pot, having his paws turned into lucky charms and that illness with the unpronounceable name, that would make his eyes bulge. Surely giving out a few eggs once a year, was a doddle.

I love these 75 words I wrote for Easter. I'm getting a bit more confident with my writing. Took my kindle into work so my workmates could read 'The Daily Echo and Twenty Bensons published in the anthology Take a Leap.  http://t.co/qOYxBKI8
My friend Tessa said you've finally come out of the closet. She is an artist and I have several of her prints at home. She has just got turned down by the local group to join their association. I think she has had a lucky escape!

It's a C..... didn't make it...

The flash fiction I have been waiting to be marked has finally come in as a C.... didn't make it... The Gift of Wisdom has now been sent off to another competition and The Nurse which was longlisted has also gone to another competition. I have now decided to be patient and just wait for e-mails arriving telling me they have been successful. Ever the optimist haha.

Today my 75 words It happened in the early hours was chosen to appear on paragraphplanet http://t.co/xOcwzIkq . Each day a different 75 words appears and then goes into the month's archives. If you have time its a great quick read each day.
Here are my 75 words

It happened in the early hours of Sunday morning. Felt like a hundred hands were turning forward. I fell into a void, taken hostage. It was dark, silent and eerie. I knew what was happening but ever year I was powerless to stop it. Like six months later when suddenly I would be released ready for winter. I missed the light, the sunshine, the summer. There’s a rhyme about my predicament Spring forward, fall back. 

I'm trying to be patient...... its not working...

I keep going to the website, logging in to my account to see if my flash fiction has been marked yet. I'm hoping this delay is good news and its hovering around the bottom end of the shortlist and the judge is hedging his bets by waiting until the last moment before it becomes an A (short listed) or a B (long listed) and hopefully NOT a C (didn't make it). It can't be a C because the three stories I sent one was a C straight away and the other became a B which pleased me no end. Prize money is a 1000 euros but being short listed would be fantastic, wouldn't mind being in the top 10 :)

Long listed....

I've always wanted to be long listed in a competition and its happened today. I'm so hoping to be short listed. My writing seems to be on the up at the moment. I'd entered this flash fiction story last year to the same competition and it didn't make the cut. This time I edited it, sharpened it and this year's judge seems to like it. I like it a lot, not sure I'm supposed to say that. But as I've always said if you don't blow your own trumpet, no one else will blow it.... :) 

'The Daily Echo and 20 Bensons'

I'm so excited. I entered my flash fiction story 'The Daily Echo and 20 Bensons' in a competition and got placed. I'm now a published writer. Go see the anthology 'Take a Leap' http://t.co/qOYxBKI8

The flash fiction short course run by Nik Perring and my friend Sal Page who keeps telling me 'show don't tell' helped a great deal. I'm getting to grips now with editing and realising that each word is as important as the next one and to consider whether it should be in the story or not.

My confidence has really soared but I am still very much a novice, long way to go before I write that bestseller. Think I'm more suited to short, short stories.

London

Have just spent three days in London celebrating Mr T's 60th birthday. We stayed at The Grand in Trafalgar Square with Nelson looking down on us as we slept :) Didn't realise that the pigeons are no longer there, saw a man with a hawk so I presume that is how the pigeon population are disencouraged from venturing into the square. Had a champagne experience on the London Eye, last time I enjoyed a flight when it was owned by BA. Terminology may change but its still a great attraction. Had a cruise up and down the Thames. It was so windy and cold but determined not to leave the top deck and go below. Went to Madame Tussauds  and the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Walked the length of the Mall to see the Queen and back again. We didn't see her but I'm sure she was in :)

Friday the 13th....

Friday the 13th was a good day for me as paragraphplanet put my 75 words on their blog. I think its far better than 'The Christmas Cake' which appeared on their blog on December 27th 2011.  See what you think. I'd appreciate any comments even if you think its dire :)  http://t.co/xOcwzIkq

Can you remember the first time? I nodded and paused. He began to remind me trying not to look hurt. It came flooding back. I added a few reminiscences and he seemed relieved. We laughed together, recalling how nervous we were, the things I’d asked him to do. We weren’t kids we were drawing our pensions. He looked deep into my eyes and I’m sure he saw me packing for my next adventure, travelling solo.

I also had the afternoon off work and went shopping. Bought a top, shoes and underwear for me and a trendy snood scarf for my son that had been reduced from £6 to a crazy £1.80 and amazingly he liked it. He has spent most of his adult life saying 'Mum don't buy me clothes, I never like them and you always have to take them back'. Funny how history repeats itself I remember dreading looking at things my Mum used to buy me. Now my mum and I are practically the same generation, she is 85 and I'm nearly an OAP (58 nearly 59) her purchases for me are nearly always perfect. I really hope I'm like my mum when I reach her age, she has an amazing memory and is still so youthful in her outlook. I truely hope to live to be 100 as long as I'm enjoying life. :)

Resolutions

I'm trying to make as few resolutions as possible so I won't have too many to break. They are as follows

1) Knock my body into some sort of better shape physically and mentally
2) Talk only good about people, NO judgemental comments. (I'm hardly perfect myself, although sometimes I do think I am ..... :) 
3) Count three blessing every day
(Today's are: its not snowing, I'm not at work, a friend came to see me.)
4) Read more, write more.

I expect the best idea is never to make resolutions but a New Year brings a sense of new beginnings. Yesterday I sent off a flash fiction piece to be considered for WordGumbo sixth edition based on the theme 'Endings'. I'm sure it wont be successful but who knows. I loved the first paragraph, hope the editor likes the rest.

Happy New Year everyone.