I'm moving!

Sometime over the next few weeks, I will be moving this blog. I am not too sure how to do this.

I have another blog using my most recent e-mail address (I have changed my e-mail lots due to viruses!) and thought it would be a good idea to have my blogs in the same place.

This means that I will post more frequently on this blog, as well as my other blog. There may be a change in the URL though, as I am not sure what I am doing. But this will not take effect for a few weeks yet.

I will keep you updated, and in the meantime, head over to my other blog and have a nosey, if it is your thing.

It is what you make it

Not that long ago, I read in my local newspaper about council and health officials wishing to tackle sickness and social deprivation rates. Not long after, I read two articles, in different presses, and they contradicted each other. One was pro recession, saying that it makes us healthier and fitter. The other article was against the recession and the effects of it, saying unemployment and lack of money makes us unhealthier. Sitting on a bus, I overhear two old ladies complaining about health care.

It made me realise a few things. Firstly, we are all too used to being told what to do by people who don't know what they are talking about. I don't think the country needs a government, headed by one or two power hungry men, but we need Anthony Robbins. He would kick us all up the bum. He wouldn't tell us what to do. He would use motivational jargon, make us all think for ourselves and we would work harder for a better society. Or we would remain on our backsides, watching Jeremy Kyle, moaning about society and doing nothing about it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the government is doing that bad a job. You can't please all the people all the time. But, to me at least, it doesn't make sense cutting benefits AND making people unemployed. Unfortunately, it is a long road to recovery, but it appears the government wants it done yesterday.

So we all moan, feel sorry for ourselves, get our welfare cheque, continue to moan and do nothing to improve the situation.

Secondly, although the government is making cuts, it is not stopping free health care. Everyone on UK soil is entitled to free healthcare. Okay, some have to pay money to get a prescription, but in the grand scheme of things, it isn't all bad. Hop over the pond to America, you have to pay for everything.

In the UK you can pay for healthcare, if you wish and can afford to. I have heard that the food is better, and you get a private room. On the NHS, people grumble about the food and you have to share with at least 5 other inmates (I meant patients!). But as it is free, and for those who haven't done a days work in their lives, it is truly free, why complain? As long as you don't come out dead..............

Have you watched V for Vendetta? If not, I highly recommend it. I truly believe that if we don't pull together, start using our own grey matter, take responsibility for ourselves and our off-spring, that V for Vendetta is an accurate prediction of the future.

Printers for writers

Much has happened since I last came on here. I know I keep saying that I shall be more regular with my posts, but I think we all know that isn't going to happen now, don't we?

In my non-writer life, which is intimately entwined with my writer life, but is less obvious, I have joined the gym. I hoped that I would get sparks of inspiration as I pounded it out on the treadmill, but I have had no such luck as yet. I am still unemployed, and not earning a penny from any writing.

On the plus side, I completed my first assignment for the Writers Bureau, and I am hoping that my tutor suggests that I should send it in to the publication the article is aimed at. I have a second article for a similar market which I am working on. The novel has had it's first edit. So all is productive in this household.

When printing out my novel for the first edit, I had to buy new ink. Ink is extortionate in price, even with my student discount. So I contemplated buying a new printer. I talked this over with a non-writer friend of mine, who said that she had done the same, bought a new printer rather than new ink. But the ink for the new printer, although cheaper, runs out quicker. This would be no good for a novelist such as myself. So I put it to my writer friends, and there was a huge response. There has been no conclusion as to the best printer, though Hewlett Packard and Kodak seem to be high on the list. The problem is, there is very little information out there for writers, on the best printer, for quality, cost effectiveness and whatever else may be required of it.

So if you have happened on this post, and you are a writer of sorts, and you want an idea, why not write an article on printers for writers? I would be glad to read it.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Ok, nearly 1 month too late, but in respect of my last blog post, it is a very new year.

With a new year brings new year resolutions, of which I have none. I find it easier to stick to that way! I am trying to be more active, but that is not a resolution, it is something I had started way before the end of 2010.

But I have noticed that I have not been as productive on the writing front as I should have been. There is an article which has yet to be edited and submitted, and then I can get to work on the rest. The novel is festering on a memory stick. Short stories and fiction friday's are being sadly ignored.

So if I had to have any sort of resolution, it would be to write more. So that is what I shall do, starting with this blog post.

Happy new year, let 2011 be OURS!

The Ice Cream Aisle.

This weeks [fiction] Friday prompt is:

Use your response to this song (We Want Your Soul) as inspiration for this weeks flash.

This is not a personal account of a trip to a supermarket. I am sure that you can still buy Neapolitan Ice Cream. This is a fictional event, but the views are very truly mine.

I looked in the freezer at the supermarket. I was out buying food for a dinner party I was having with friends later, and was looking for a frozen desert. I had settled on Ice Cream. Everyone likes ice cream right? So I went to the freezers, and went down the aisle, only to be confronted with an entire aisle full of ice cream.

I walked the length and then back again. I thought I would have one more look. All I wanted was ice cream. A Neapolitan would have done. In fact, it would have been ideal. But could I find it? No. The freezer was stocked full of ice cream made by manufacturers of chocolate bars. There was that funny ice cream which I had never liked, there was a whole section dedicated to Haagen Dazs, but that was okay, very delicious ice cream. But Neapolitan? No. I couldn't even see any bog standard choc ices. You know, the ones made of vanilla ice cream, coated in milk (or dark -yuk!) chocolate. Simple.

So off I went to find a store member. They were bound to know where the Neapolitan was. But when I asked, the lady whom I had found asked me to describe what Neapolitan ice cream was.

So I went home and cancelled the dinner.

It made me realise why so many people are single into their forties, why divorce rates are as high as they are. You wouldn't have thought a trip down the ice cream aisle at the supermarket would give such an insight of life, but it did. For me at least.

The problem is, there is simply too much choice. And the simple pleasures are removed from the shelves. I would love to see some Neapolitan on the shelves, so I can eat it whilst cuddling up to my not-so-perfect (but perfect for me) husband. And our children can play with the not-so-expensive toys. Because life is about being happy.

It's Over

Apologies that I didn't update daily. But I thought it very important to come here and let you all know some very exciting news.

At approx. 7.30PM GMT on Saturday 27th November, I popped open the Champagne after completing the NaNoWriMo Challenge.

Honestly, it felt good, but not as good as I had expected. This is probably because I still have a way to go for the Novel to be classed as finished. I reckon there are another 50 thousand or so words left to be written. But it did feel good enough to celebrate.

I can get back to normal, you will hear of articles I am writing for the Writers Bureau Course. You will read a [fiction] Friday story, not based on the NaNovel. My house will not make people call out the police because they think somebody has died. Bills will be paid - on time. My son's homework won't be rushed the night before it is due, because I am not too busy trying to hit the target, after spending the time he was at school procrastinating.

So I am not so much celebrating a finished novel, but more a return to reality. During the first two weeks of NaNo I was thinking 'this is brill! I will write all future novels like this.'

Now I am thinking 'What? You want me to do it again next year? Seriously?'

We have a year to find out. Hopefully, by then I will be in heated debate with several agents and on my way to making my millions..............

As Martin Luther King said 'I Have A Dream'. It may be silly, probably impossible to achieve. But I am enjoying the journey of following it.

I x

Day 26

Oh I am completely fed up and tired now. Why did I agree to the NaNo challenge?

Will I make 50k?

Good luck me. And Good luck you!