The Hour

Next March I'm not giving the hour back without a fight. My body clock does not appreciate this hourly tweak every six months. We gain an hour then we lose an hour then we gain it back...its like yo- yo dieting except it's our body clock thats gaining or losing. It will take me at least a week before I feel normal again.

Driving home in the dark is depressing and later on when I go to work in the dark and return in the dark I will want to hibernate like a bear or a tortoise. I will want to go to bed at 8pm and refuse to believe it's time to get up at 6.45am when its pitch black. I work in an area which has no windows so some days, unless I go looking for natural daylight at lunchtime, all I will see is the artificial light or natural darkness.

Did I use the extra hour for good use? Yes I had an extra hour in bed, then felt guilty that maybe I should have done something creatively. Next March I won't have to worry about that aspect because the hour will be taken from us. I'll be wondering where it's gone and will it be back next October!

Tuesday could be the new Friday.....

Week 4 of the flash fiction course. This week's assignment is to write something that has happened to me in the first person then re-write it in the third person. Bit scary to think of something personal but I've decided to write about wanting to go to University at 16  but eventually getting a degree thirty years later!
Hope I can make it interesting and readable.

Just finished reading Caroline Smailes Like Bees to Honey on my kindle.  Really enjoyed it especially as I thought I knew where the story was heading and I was wrong. Love it when I'm proved wrong! Visit Amazon and read the reviews. Next story to read is the Man Booker winner Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending.  Hope that will be good too. Sometimes I find the prize winning novels are a bit too deep for me, dry tomes. Wonder if thats what they mean about dumbing down for the masses and I will like Barnes novella. I will tell you soon.

Just re read a few of my previous posts and realise I've said I'll tell you later and then I don't. I'm not sure how many of you are out there reading this blog but thank you if you are :)

Week Three

Great start this week. We had to think about our favourite first lines in novels and then write five of our own. Mine were 

 1) I think my baby is dying I tell the nurse, she shrugs too busy, too tired, to act on my words.

2) I know I’m barking up the wrong tree but that doesn’t stop me.

3) You’re dead I tell my friend I went to your funeral last week.

4) Ouch that hurt!

5) He laughed so much that I thought he would implode with mirth.

I wrote a story about the first one then decided to go with the last one.The story is in its first draft and I want to expand it but not sure how to. I'm hoping to get ideas from the others on the course.I'm enjoying this course so much.  

Walking to Work

Completed the assignments for week two. Written a very short story called Walking to Work. The idea came from Nik Perring asking us to think about What if? A simple exercise that has really got my imagination working overtime. I'm definitely thinking more about what and how I write.
This week I will have more time for the next assignment as I'm on holiday from work.
I have a long way to go before I'm even long listed in a competition but I'm determined to keep improving my writing by reading more and writing more.

To change the subject I'm watching the 1977 film Close Encounters of The Third Kind. It was so in front of its time, amazing, like George Orwell's 1984. Next saturday going to the Old Rep to see Tom Stoppard play Travesties. 

Week Two of the Writing Course

Managed to summarize the four stories into one sentence and got 3 out of 4 spot on :)  My story The Dowager was given a new title in the third draft and became All things Lost. It really needs several more drafts before it becomes a reasonable story. Nik gave me some valuable advice and encouraging comments. said it was a strong start, hope I'm going to finish well too :)

All in all I'm glad I'm doing this course, maybe one day I'll be placed in a writing competition, the Bridport Prize would be nice. Got to go, have work to do. Unfortunately its not course work but work work!

Week One: Nik Perring - Flash Fiction Course

Week One: I'm so excited. The e-mail arrived yesterday with a welcome to the course. I have to read four short stories and summarise each of them in no more than ONE sentence. This is going to be difficult for me as the first two I read, I had no idea what they are about. So I need to read them again and again and think carefully. It's going to be a real challenge. Then I have to write a short story suggested by prompts by Nik. This was the spooky bit as I'd written a piece a few weeks ago that fitted one of the promps. So once I've figured out the four short stories and taken on board the comments from the other people on the course and Nik on my story 'The Dowager' I will have enjoyed my first week.

Watching Golf is not what I want to do....

Golf is on the TV, I'm sure on a Thursday night we watch something, my husband Mr T assures me that we don't. So I'm on twitter and facebook trying to ignore the inane comments of the golf commentator. I'm also reading e-mails and trying to think of ideas for flash fiction. Heard some really great news today that my good friend Sal has won the Calderdale short story competition. She has been placed in competitions before but this is a FIRST... I would just like to be long listed or short listed but my writing is not good enough but one day with a lot of reading and writing it may be. Go to Sal's blog and read for yourself  http://sal-cobbledtogether.blogspot.com/ 

Tomorrow is my last day of a week's holiday from work and I'm keen to do something fun perhaps  I'll go to the art gallery or sit in the old cathedral and take photos with my new digital camera that Mr T bought me. Or maybe I'll just sit at home and watch TV, drink green tea and  wish I was being more active. In my next post I'll tell you what I did.

Oh nearly forgot to mention that Mr T and I went to see Bomber's Moon written by William Ivory and directed by Matt Aston. To quote 'Bomber's Moon is a critically acclaimed new play about hidden memories, dark secrets and the nature of faith. I enjoyed it greatly, the two actors Tim Dantay and Paul Greenwood were both excellent, if you get the chance to see it, go.....