Passing it on....

The lovely and talented LisaAnn gave me this award. Thank you!

The goal of this award is to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers. The rules of the award are:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have bloggity-blog fun!

I always have way too many people I want to give these things to. It's so hard to pick! But here goes...

1. Kelley Vittolo is a fabulous YA author and you should totally follow her. I was lucky enough to beta read one of her upcoming projects (written with a co-author, the equally wonderful Jolene Perry) and all I can say is 'Wow!'.

2. Laura Barnes is another up and coming writer with an amazing future ahead of her. Follow her to watch her success.

3.Callie Kingston is someone I've met through contests on this weird world wide web. She always has useful ideas to offer when critiquing.

4. Laura who is my critique partner and both my biggest champion and my harshest critic. She's also an incredible writer and has me on tenterhooks every week while I wait for her to write the next chapter...

5. And for being the most hilarious blog I read on a weekly basis, I have to give this award to my good friend Amie. If you like to laugh, check it out!

Losing Life

So, since this is supposed to be a writing blog, it's time for a little writing. Here's a very short story (148 words) for your enjoyment.... As a novelist, trying to be concise is a real challenge, so doing exercises like writing 500 word stories, 300 word stories or 150 word stories is good practice.

LOSING LIFE

The boy was knifed in the alleyway behind the video store. I’d gone out to smoke a cigarette while there were no customers and saw a dark shadow fleeing into the orange blush of the streetlights on Main. It was not until I moved around the dumpster to stub out my smoke that I saw the bleeding boy. He lay in the shadows, too-thin arms and legs at weird angles as oily blood pooled beneath him.

“Hey!” I said, kneeling gingerly beside him. “Are you okay?” I knew he wasn’t, but needed to say something, the silence of the alley having become oppressive. His eyes flickered open and he blinked, once, twice. He stared at me for an eternity, eyes cat-like in the neon glow from the Chinese restaurant across the way. The eyelids lowered slightly then widened, the eyes beneath glazing over, losing focus. Losing life.

Do let me know what you think. And if you like, share a super-short story of your own!

Treasures in ice

This week saw the coldest day on record in the city where I live. Yes, it was cold. Very cold. So of course, I chose a day just after that to defrost my freezer. It was time. Actually, well past time. Ice hung in delicate fringes from the roof and it was impossible to cram another thing in there.

So yesterday, I attacked this miniature Arctic.

Amazing the things you find.... My son was delighted with a strawberry popsicle I unearthed, and slurped it down while asking for a cup of tea to warm him up. I discovered plastic pots of risotto I made for my youngest son when he was in the early days of eating solids. I found a single freezer-burnt hamburger patty. There were 4 different kinds of pastry too, and I don't use pastry much. Plus a whole stack of burritos. I have to ask why the manufacturers of burritos always put either 6 or 10 in a package. 6 is too few for a family of 4, but 10 is too many. So I always end up buying the 10, using 8 of them, and shoving the other 2 in the freezer for next time. But do I remember they're in there? No, of course not. So there were about 15 packages of 2 burritos in there.

There were several almost-empty packets of frozen veggies too. I excavated these and used them in last night's dinner (don't tell the 4 year old...). Now the freezer is clean and there is a ton of space in there for new delights. Not more old burritos, although I'm sure a few will sneak their way in there again.

What treasures have you unearthed in the back of your refrigerator/freezer?

Gearing Up to Get an Agent blogfest

It's the final week of Deana's blogfest and for this round, we have to post the first 200 words of our manuscript. So, once again (so sorry folks... this must be getting SO dull) here are the first 200 words of my novel.

TITLE: Chasing the Taillights

GENRE: YA Contemporary

WORD COUNT: 87 000

The darkness is absolute. I’m not sure if my eyes are open or closed. I strain to push the lids up, but they’re already wide. Something covers my mouth and nose, making breathing difficult. My lungs burn for air, but I can only suck in tiny mouthfuls through whatever smothers my face.

I turn my head, crying out as a savage bolt of pain shoots through it. Wavy grey lines waft across the blank space before my eyes. I can’t think, can’t make sense of the darkness threatening to drown me. Certain now I won’t pass out, I gasp for breath. There’s nothing covering my face. It was the ground my nose and mouth were pressed into.

The ground? Wet. Greasy. Reeking of something that reminds me of… gas? Reaching out my left hand, I try to find something to hold onto. My fingers scrabble over small objects, pebbles perhaps, that skitter away beneath my touch. I reach further, wrapping my fist around them. Pain prickles my fingertips. Not pebbles. Glass. Small, sharp shards of glass.

Using my torn hand, I drag myself forward, an inch, maybe two.

Broken

I am a broken woman. I've had a week off work to take care of my 6 year-old because it's the two week break at school. And I'm exhausted. Actually looking forward to going back to work tomorrow because it's more relaxing than taking care of an energetic boy-child.

I was subjected to a 3.5 hour marathon of water slides today. Now, I'm a swimmer from way back. I swam competitively right through high-school and still enjoy swimming whenever I get a chance. I like water slides too, but not 3.5 hours of them. In Taillights one of my characters is a championship diver and complains about how much his legs hurt after marathon practices where he has to climb to the platform over and over. I understand his pain....

Apart from the climb up to the top of the slides (over and over, first the blue slide, then the black - I wonder if this kid might be a little OCD...) there was the noise. Pools are large, cavernous buildings. Fill them with shrieking kids and the decibel level becomes extreme. I'm sure permanent hearing loss is a distinct possibility for all employees. What is is about little girls in groups? They SQEAL!

I actually had fun, despite my complaints, and my son is still bouncing with excitement over how excellent it was. So it wasn't all bad. But I have to say, there were a few things I noticed while being crammed into queues with large numbers of soggy kids.

Firstly, there are a lot of fat kids around. Not just plump, but fat. Especially boys. When I was a kid (yes, back in the dark ages... well, the '70s and '80s) fat kids were rare. There was maybe one fat kid per year at school and they were teased mercilessly. Now there seem to be almost as many fat kids as thin.

Secondly, what is up with teeny bikinis on pre-pubescent girls? These things must be miracles of engineering because there isn't anything there to hold them up. I'm well endowed in this area, and I struggle to find bikinis that work for me. How the hell do they stay in place without any weight there to hold them?

And on that subject of bikinis on pre-teens, has anyone else wondered if all those doting parents and grandparents sitting on the sidelines, just watching the kids play with an indulgent smile are who they say they are? This could be a pedophile's paradise. Hmmm... Can't think that way or I'll be too scared to let the kids go swimming anymore...

Do you have any observations about swimming pools? Kids school holiday activities? A cure for aching calves?

Teasing you...

I got all excited last night about an idea I had for a blogfest. I've taken part in so many wonderful ones in the past year, and decided it was my turn. I even starting writing the post to tell you all about it. Then I remembered I've had this week off work, so next week is going to be hell. Not to mention I have a major 18 day event starting Friday. So running a blogfest would be a stupid thing to do. I won't have time to enjoy it or participate nearly as much as I want to.

That being said, I still think this is a cool idea, and I promise, post- Festival, I will run it. So keep an eye on the blog after August 15th or so.... I think it will be fun!

What have been your favorite blogfests? Why?

Baths

I love taking baths. Great big, steaming hot, bubbly, sweet-smelling baths. I love the way my muscles sigh and I sink into the water, the way the hair on the back of my neck rises. It's my one luxury, and one I'm unwilling to do without.

Especially at this time of year. I write in the evenings in an unheated room. I don't tend to notice how cold I've gotten until I stop and stand up, toes aching with cold, fingers stiff, shivers wracking my body. Then I plunge into the hot bath and re-discover circulation.

It makes climbing into the cold bed better too. Rather than curling into a ball and waiting for the sheets to warm around me for several minutes, I can just lie down and feel the heat radiating off me into the bedclothes. I'm sure I fall asleep much faster.

Baths also give me time to read. I lie there, cup of tea within easy reach, and read books. No e-reader for me, folks! I do occasionally fall asleep in there and baptize a library book, which is not so great, but I have a pretty good method of drying them out again without getting that terrible swollen book thing going on.

I often have my best writing ideas in the bath. I'll realize I've been staring at a page in my book for an aeon, not absorbing a word, while whole sequences of scenes and characters run riot in my head. The beginning of Taillights came to me in the bath. A huge number of short stories too. And my new WIP, The Boyfriend Plague.

Do you have an everyday activity which inspires your writing? And what kind of bath products do you like best?