Pasta Bake

I've a pasta bake in the oven right now, so this is going to be a short post. I'll write more on my Musing Page later, I've a good topic for today!

Anyway, I should be writing my first essay for my MA today. It's on the research methods that writers use when writing their novels etc. That is not as easy as it sounds actually. I've chosen to write about Ern Malley because he interested me more. Here's the story for the people who don't know. Malley is an Austrian poet, but actually he and his poetry were a hoax and they were invented by two Austrian poets during the Second World War. The idea behind it was to get back at the editor of a journal. Things didn't go to plan and the editor was put on trail for publishing what was seen as harmful material.

Peter Carey wrote his novel My Life As A Fake based on the hoax. So for my essay I must look at where Carey got his information form and how/why he made the choices during writing his novel about how much fiction and fact went into his writing. I must also look at why he choice the form of his novel, because he must have done some reseach into that as well. Some how I've to write all of this in just 2,000 words! I've no breathing room and it all must be spot on, so my task is even harder now.

That pasta smells good....I forget about the simple things like eating when I'm writing. I get too caught up. I think it might be a bit late to start my essay now, but I'm eager to do some writing. I can feel it in my fingers. I don't know about other writers, but when I need to get my writing fix, my fingers get twitchy and my brain becomes programed on plotlines and characters of whatever it is I've choicen to write. I feel the strange urge to pick up my postmodern novel again. Though I need to read a few chapters before hand to get back into it. I like trying different ways to write novels. This one uses the method of only thinking about it whilst I'm writing it. Thus I'm creating the distant that needs to surrond the novel.

Okay, need to see that pasta bake now!

It's Halloween!!!!!!

Hey everyone, It's Halloween! :) and this is my choice of pumpkin design this year. 'The Headless Horseman Rides Again!' :) pretty awesome, hey? I love Halloween its my fav day. I know there are many reasons behind this and it links to the traditions and history of the actually event and day. To go and look them up in books or the internet though gives mix results. So to link with my love for Halloween, I thought I'd write this post about what it means to me and include some of the stuff I know.
On Halloween night at Midnight it's believed that the veils between this world and the spirit world reach there thinnest. This means that lots of spirits can pass between the two different plains some good and bad. So ghost activity is said to be at its highest during this time. So the traditions of pumpkins? In Britain it use to be other squash vegetables and then pumpkins came over from the USA and they were easier to carve. The idea behind carving and making a scare face is actually to ward off the bad spirits from entering your house. You place the pumpkin outside or in a front window in order to do this. The pumpkin is then light up by a candle and it is this light that attracts family and friends who have passed on back to visit you. Of course now a days, people don't just carve scary faces, the idea of carving different things has taken off in a big way specially in the States, where they do go all out for Halloween, much more then we do in Britain! Though you still find that many pumpkins get carved with subjects that link to Halloween.

This is the second pumpkin I carved - Grim Fright Night It's a grim reaper in a graveyard. Oh, it's midnight! Let's see if anything creepy happens! So why is a carved pumpkin called a Jack O' Lantern? This cames from an Irish legend about a man called Jack, who couldn't get into Heaven or Hell, so instead he had to walk around with just a lantern till judgment day arrives.
Okay, next is the dressing up part, people started to believe that by wearing masks and dressing up they could pertained to be spirit whilst going about their business at night, thus no harm would come to them. The idea of Trick or Treating came about because of another event which was celebrate close to Halloween and that was Souling. Where people went around asking for soul cakes and in return they would pray for the departed relatives. This is also connected with Mischief Night, which has kinda merged with Halloween now. Boys would go out and cause Mischief, but they would also knock on door and ask for treats in order to behave, so that's where the whole Trick Or Treat thing has come from possibly.

Me and my 3 best friends dressed up.

One of the games that is traditional played is Apple Bobbing. Apples are placed into a large bowl filled with water and just using your teeth you have to grab an apple. It is said that this came about because of the Roman tradition of celebrating one of their Gods who was connected to apples about this time. In fact it seems lots of religions and countries celebrated simlaire events about the same time, most of these had to do with remembering the dead like the Roman Catholic All Saints' Day and All Souls day, (Which got the name of All Hallow's Eve which then become Hallow'een) Mexico and their Day Of The Dead. There has also been links to Celt and Pagan festivals. So yeah, Halloween has no clear beginnings.

So that's something of a history then. :) I always stay up past midnight on Halloween, just because its something I have always been drawn to do. It's like I'm waiting to see if any ghost come for a visit. Nothing has happened so far, though I got sticky stuff on my keyboard thanks to a midnight snack attack! Anyways that's all for tonight and I'll be back tomorrow.

Your Favourite Book Needs You! -World Book Night 2012

Hi readers,

My title and the theme shall be in both my blogs today, but afterwards I'm going to write some different things. so go to http://hayleyhardman.wordpress.com/ to check that out once your done here!

So yeah, what's going on then? Well, this year saw the launch of World Book Night 2011. I did write a blog post about it on my uni blog so here's what it said;

2011/03/05

At 9.30am, I was on a train heading for London and it took two hours to get there. Strangely, we part followed the canal which, last year I had a holiday on a narrow boat sailing up. When we arrived in London, we went on the Underground and to Piccadilly Circus. The Underground was scary and the train was fast moving and the doors shut quick, but I made it!

We went to Trafalgar square and wondered there and the streets near by. We then meet with other Book Givers and talked to them. Then we had to queue up to get back into Trafalgar square and we sit on the edge of the fountain and waited for things to kick off. It was really cold, but at least we weren't standing up for two hours.

The event started with the guy who came up with it and then Graham Norton was hoisting it! On the stage they had some people who were giving out books to charities and were founding members. They also had authors and other famous people reading form their books or different books. I saw Philip Pullman, Sarah Waters and the front man from MAD. It was really good to hear these people reading and I doubt I'll get another chance to do that again!

Afterwards people started giving out their books, but we had not brought ours and I still need to put in the special numbers. That's my next task for today now. We were really cold so we went for food and then to Waterstones- brought lots of books! Then after going to StarBucks for hot chocolate, we caught the Underground back to the train stations and from there had 2 hours and half on a train back home. It was about 1am, when we arrived back and I was so tried I went to bed straight away.

I had a good day though and London is pretty cool! Now I just have to give out my books.

*

That sound good? Well guess what? You can now apply to be a World Book Giver for 2012! Go to the website and choice your fav book from the list and maybe you could be in London next year supporting your book!

http://www.worldbooknight.org/index.php

I've already done mine, but I'm not going to say what I choice. I've so much more to write about, but I know people like reading short posts, so I'll save my musings for my other blog. :)

The Changing Word - hey, let's keep the bats though!

(Halloween pumpkin, 2008, made by my dad.)

For people who might be reading this for the first time;

 I am a horror writer. Mostly, I write vampire novels. I've yet to have any of my novels published, though I've had poetry published online and in magzines. Being a poet isn't me though! So I'm trying to make my dream of being a novelist come true.

I graduated from Edge Hill Uni, with a 2.1 BA Hons in Creative Writing joint English Lit course. I'm now back to my uni, taking a Masters in Creative Writing. I've been called foolish for deciding to do this so soon after spending 3 years getting  my degree. I don't think I am though! If you want something, then you should always go for it. Doing my Masters, just seemed the right move to me. I'm loving it right now! I get to read and write all the time and since that is something I love doing, its a perfect fit!

I know that I've not written a post for this blog in ages. I think this is because the one I wrote for my uni sort of took over and then I found that I was repeating myself acrosss the two of them. The idea of pasting and coping stuff on both blogs also didn't last long. So I think that's why this blog has fallen. I'm back now, because I can no longer write my uni blog and have had to find another source for my blog writing.

Instead of creating a whole new blog, I just thought of updating this one. Now my only problem is I can't seem to change my background. I know one of the key things about someone's blog is what they decided to display behind the words they write. I think though, if I did get rid of the bats, then I'd have gone for books or more halloween/dark things. So maybe, it's wise to just stick with them! I know some people might not like them or thing my page is too dark. I can prove that they do fit in though!

To contuine, my current jobs are a writer and a student guide for my uni. At the minute I'm looking for another job, having need of the money and I'm thinking of doing some online freelance work. I also work in my local RSPCA chairty shop. I voleenter there two mornings a week. It gets me out of bed, in a different envioment and meeting new people. I also get to buy a lot of books!

I found this book today- just with a different cover- stuffed in the back room. I couldn't believe it! I've fallen in love with Marakami's writing. I've read Norweigen Wood and Sputinik Sweetheart now. This book and Hard-Boiled Eggs, were on my list to buy. So I got lucky finding it when I did. It's actually a large book, so I'm thinking of making it a summer read, no doubt that won't happen though! I read the first two pages before and was hooked!

I've lost count of the number of people, I've told to go and read Marakami now. The style of his writing is like poetry, because it flows so well, but it is also very simple langauge and highly effective. You get drawn into this world of Japan that he creates and his characters are very real to life. Though his writing style is so simple, tht themes he deals with are not. They come across on many different levels and I'm always pondering over them. So, yeah, if you've not read Marakami go and do so now!

I've to be off now to walk my dogs.

At Home for the summer!

I’m back at home now! I had forgotten how difficult it can be to settle back into my old bedroom and family life. I’ve not been doing much since I moved out of my student room. Mostly it has been sorting out my stuff and deciding where to put it. I’ve to become more radical with my bedroom though! My room is a box and there’s no way all my stuff from my uni can fit back in. So I’m going to have to get rid of a lot of things!

I’ve also started playing Bioshock 1 again. I’m not one for 1 person shooter games normally. I’ve been known to be ‘another player’ when needed, but it’s not been since DOOM back in the ’90′s that I’ve been known to play shooter games by myself. There’s just something about Bioshock though and I think its got to do with the plot and the actually backgrounds to the game. My creative and imaginative sides seem to like the idea of a future that is actually set in the past under the sea. The world of Rapture was designed to give people freedom from the constraints of normal life. What happens though is it goes to every one’s heads and the Utopia is destroyed. So if you’ve not had a chance to play this game yet I’d recommended it! The 3rd one is coming out in Autumn and the movie next year.

Moving on again, I’m currently trying to apply for my Masters in creative writing at EHU. I’m having some trouble getting references right now. So annoying! But references are highly important because they show from another person that you are able to do tasks, you have the skills, right attitude and a good background also. So choosing who to ask is also important so that person can give you the best possible reference to get that place you’re applying for!

I so have the urge to bake cookies now…..think I’m getting all homely. It looks like its going to rain though. I don’t think it has been doing much else since I got home. I hope the weather changes soon though, I go on holiday in about 2 weeks. No where special really, just down the south of England. Looking forward to that, a nice break and a recharge is needed. I’ve not been working on my novels for a while now. I’ve forced myself to take a break, but now getting back into writing is proofing to be a little difficult! There’s lots of techniques to try out though and one of them is just writing whatever comes into your head and not thinking about. Or else, like I’m going to do, just pick up where you left off writing and just let it roll on.

I could do with starting to look at summer jobs too now. Gosh there’s so much to do!

Moving On

Hi readers,

Sorry I didn’t blog early this week! I’ve been busy with a few things and the days are just flying by. I now have only 3 weeks left in my uni house and then I’m moving out and back home! I can’t believe how fast this year has gone, nor the last 3 year. You just get so caught up in student life that for awhile it does feel like an endless streach of time. Like you could be a student for the rest of your life because time is moving far too slowly. Other times though, (like now!) you wonder where the time has gone too and maybe you lost a night partying or maybe redoing an essay? Or like now when uni is ending and it’s offically the last time.

I keep thinking back to all my memories I’ve of my time at uni. I’m still shocked I’ve made it this far really. I’m dysleix, but I’ve a degree in Creative Writing and English Lit now! I’ve not failed or had to redo anything and somehow it looks like I’ll get a 2.1 over all. It just goes to show though, if you love and want to do something so badly, you can over come all of those obsticals life decides to throw at you to get there in the end. Picking yourself up after a fall is often bad and I’ve had a few of them-espically this year- but I’ve pulled throw with the help of my amazing family and friends. There’s no way I’d be the person I’m today without those people! Plus the really good times equal out the bad ones and I’ve had a lot of good times- mostly nights out and trips to Liverpool. Random conversation in the LRC when we had work to do, but chatting was more important. My favourites though are all the times late at night and the small hours of the morning when I’d be up with my housemates just talking. I’m going to miss the 3/4 of us standing in the upstairs hallway outside our rooms just having a laugh. I’ll miss sitting down to watch movies with them and talking through most of it as well! Or singing along to some great songs and knowing that stuff just didn’t matter any more, because we were having a moment together. Yeah, I’m going to miss student life….not the essays though! Not going to miss them!

So, to catch up on what I’ve been up to then…..I’ve been out twice last week-first time random drinks with my housemate and the second time was the last time in the SU/The Venue and Alpine. That was lots of fun and I do have some pics, but since I put the ones of Chester Zoo my friends have rebelled against me. So, I’ll have to sneak them on soon! Also I’ve been reading this;



I’ve be come addicted and I’m gettting through Quinn’s story very fast. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t more of Lestat’s story, but he’s still making his presence felt. I do love the way Rice writes-she makes this whole world come to life and the characters are so rememberable. I hope my novels will one day capture people the way Rice’s does. I’ve been busy working on mine. Second drafting it and thinking about the way I’m writing. Though I was sadden to hear last week that my tutor who helped me start this work on my novel had passed way. So, I put her name in my dedication, because I’m not going to forget all the help she give me.

I had other things I wanted to write about today, but it loooks I’l have to come back. My housemate is offically leaving and I want to spend a few minutes with him saying goodbye. I hate that stuff has to come to an end. It bugs me! But hopefully a new chapter will be starting soon

Chester Zoo

Hi readers,

Yesterday I spent the day at Chester Zoo with my friends as this cool photo above shows! They take your photo when you enter and you can buy it afterwards. That's what we ended up doing when we saw this pic! It's good as well because you can access them online and there's two other backgrounds one with elephants and the other with rhinos. I like this one though.

We had an amazing day out and took a lot of photos! Some of my pics turned out pretty good and we had a close experience with many of the animals. The weather held out too and it was sunny, though slightly cold in the wind, but all the animals were out. Enough of us went as well, so we were able to catch up on things that had been happening since we were last together. So the zoo was a back drop for us getting together really, but it was still interesting. I've not been to a zoo in awhile, last time must have been Blackpool zoo with college for my animal care course. I think also a small part of me is against zoos, because I like animals to be in the wild as that's where they belong. I know that they are not safe in some areas and the conservation works most zoos do around the world is important to
make sure these wonderful animals are still around for future generations to see for real.




My favourite animals had to be the fruit bats, red pandas, meerkats, the elephants (pic above) and some of the tropical birds, because they were cool. I was most excited about seeing the bats and it's a shame you couldn't take pics inside their house. I don't think they would have turned out anyway, because the bats move so fast and it is really dark. I liked just standing there and watching them flying around. They come really close to you as well and you can feel the air moving around you. I could have spent more time in the bat house, but some of my friends were getting a little scared, so we left. I didn't get any pics of the red pandas either because they were hiding high up in the trees when we walked by. They are really cute though! The meerkats were cute too, because they had babies and I took a lot of photos of them. I'll put them up at the end with some of the other good ones.

In the tropic house there was some cool birds, and we were kept amused by one of these bird which took a liking to one of my housemates! There's video evidence of this as well, but I don't think anyone is going to forget it any time soon. My housemate spend a lot of time whisling and talking to this bird and then he trainned it to follow him. So he would run from one side to the other and the bird would copy him and jump from one branch to the next! We had a right laugh over that and it was hard to tear ourselves away, but more animals were waiting. This is bird below- a White-Crested Turaco.




I also really liked the butterfly house because there was so many large and pretty butterflies fluttering about and it was hard not to stop and stare at all the bright patterns on the wings. It was interesting too because my other housemate wrote her dissertation on butterflies-though it was just the one kind, but she still knew some interesting facts about some of the others. I liked the big black and white ones and watching them drinking up orange juice was really cool. I also really liked the glass wing butterfly because it has see through wings. It was hard to take a photo of, but I think I just about got it. The reason why it's wings are like that is for camaflage so it can survive longer in the wild.



We had a good day out over all and Chester Zoo is well worth the visit any time! They have some many cool animals there and the staff are really friendly and know the different animals well. I've some other cool pics too, so I'm going to put them up now.

Liverpool Night out

Hi readers,

I've been baking again! It's a birthday cake this time for my housemate last saturday. I had a problem with the oven though and there's still two peices of cake sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be eaten! It doesn't taste so bad, but the oven just didn't have the energy to cook the middle, so it was slightly uncooked.....still though it's better then no birthday cake! I think it'll be awhile before I cook cake again though....

On saturday night, I went out to celebrate my housemates birthday and that of my other friend who was turning 21. I spent an age getting ready, because I wanted to curl my hair and wear my dress too. It was worth it though and we set out for her house first with presents and drinks. We did get a little lost once we got off at her station though! But we made it to the party and had time to join in the fun and eat these amazing fairycakes....

Then we headed into Liverpool! Has we had caught the train ahead of everyone getting taxis, we got lost finding the nightclub we were going to meet in. We went to Walkabouts first, but left after one drink to try and find everyone. Luckily, I found the place thanks to a few text messages from another friend and we caught up with the group. After that we went to Krazy House. I'd not been before because it only opens a few nights a week and so far I'd not been on nights out on that night or else other plans had meant that we'd not go to that club. I still can't believe I've missed out on that place for 3 years though, because it was really good. There's like 3 different floors and they play didn't music on each. My favourite was the heavy metal one because that's my kind of music. (We're still at the house in the pic below)

I had a great time and I'm so looking foreward to doing it again soon on just a general night out. We got back at like 3am and had pizza- my idea to make sure we had something in to eat after drinking. So it was like 4am by the time we decided to go to sleep. I didn't take that many photos actually, think all that dancing must have got to me, it didn't help that we lost everyone in Krazy House and then because we had kept to the space we had first gethered in, met up with some of them again. My head was fine in the morning, surpirsingly, but I didn't do much on Sunday!

Not been doing much since really, been writing and reading. Going home tomorrow for a break and a catch up with family and next week I'm off to the zoo!

New Novel

Hi readers,

I thought I'd stop by my blog and see if anything was happening....yep 396 comments pending for me! So I'll be reading through them once I'm done here. Not a lot has been going on since last time, well with me anyway. As most of my friends are still doing uni work or have decided to move back home for summer. I've been keeping busy through, I've been writing a post-modern, futurist story about rebel groups and strange shadow voices.....I've been keeping my best friend on edge about it, because she's been reading it, but can't figure out what is actually happening. Good news for me, because she is normally the first person to figure out how a novel or movie is going to end. So I've to be really inventive with this novel to make sure that she doesn't see the ending coming! As of yet I've not seen it either. I think that's why I'm currently really into writing it, because I've no idea how things are going to go.

My characters have been leading the plot and there are like a number of different sets of characters now. They are linked by one person at the minute, though things might change....still though it's a challenge to write. When I first started with it, I had this idea of having it set around and on trains as much as possible, because there was just something about this transport that was important. I've still not figure out why, but I know that trains are a key theme! Then I decided that I wanted to have it written in a strange style. I wanted there to be a sheet of glass between the reader and the happenings within the novel. So the read could still get attached to the characters, but the characters would only show the reader so much. Meaning that most of the time the reader is left out of the world which the characters live in. So this distance was created and it's still going on. The reader doesn't know anything! Issue is though, this means I don't know anything either......

Difficult to explain, but hang on a minute. As the writer I should know my characters and the plot. I should be the one making the choices and deciding things, but for this novel to work out how I started it, I can't be in control. Therefore, I don't know myself what'll happen till I start writing and the characters wonder into my mind and show me things. The other restriction I've in place at the minute is not thinking about the novel when I'm not writing it! So not normal for me, because I like to wonder away from the computer, take a walk outside whilst listening to some loud heavy metal music and let my thoughts drift. This way new ideas enter my head and by the time I return I'm ready to note them down and carry on writing. With my new novel, that's not an option, so I've to relay on the characters to keep showing me things whilst I write, so that I can put them in. Luckily, they are still doing this! Here's hoping they carry on too, because I really want to know how things will work out for all the characters!

So, that's been my life lately. I'm having a night out tonight though! It's a friend's 21st, so I'm going to Liverpool with all my housemates, some of others and her friends for a good night of partying and drinking. Though I'm not going to get too drunk, because that's a bad thing. So there'll be photos of that coming tomorrow or Monday....depending on how things go and if we go to any good places I'll write about them too. :)

Uni Is Over!

Hi readers,

Yesterday, I handed in the final essay of my joint Creative Writing and English Lit BA Hons degree. I've a lot of mixed feelings about it. In one way it's a massive weight off my shoulders because all my work is now and I don't have to think about doing anything else. The one way is the fact that I officially won't have to do any more work for my degree and my student life is almost over, (for this part anyway). It feels sort of like a catch 22, good and bad sides and I don't think it's sunk in yet. Though I think this has more to do with the fact that my housemates and most of my friends are still hard at work, so good luck to all of them!

I baked chocolate chip muffins in a mini celebration yesterday too and I made a load, so if anyone fancies one just drop by. That and I'm still waiting for the pics of me reading out last week as I've not been out and about with my own camera lately. I'm sure that's about to change though, because my diary is full of outings at the minute and I know there's still about three that need to go in there. So, though my student life is drawing to an end there's still a lot happening.

After finishing all my work, I so wanted a break and to have some time to myself and to catch up with my friends. But the sudden idea of not doing anything after all the stress and work of doing my final essays, bugs me too much.....So I'm caving today, by first writing my blog and then sitting down to read through my novel. I've been having a lot of ideas about my novel and I really want to get back writing it and not even writing one of my others is helping to stop my urges. So I'm going to give in and try my hand at editing once more.

Writing and editing are two very different things. With writing, you get it all out on the page and just go with it. Yeah, you might spend the time planing plot lines and characters, but overall you just write what you want. Editing is different from this, you have to use a different part of your brain and start thinking more like a reader and questioning your work. Will the reader understand what you mean? Is your character real and your setting realistic enough to pull off that world? And how about the way it is written? Not just the spelling or grammar, but the structure of the sentences, the paragraphs, the chapters? Also its not about re-writitng the whole thing, its about adding and taking away. Having the strength to rip your own work part and re-do it, is in the talent of the writer. To be able to say 'okay that's not working and needs taking out,' or 'more needs to be put in here, 'cause my character's anger just isn't getting through right,' is all part of a writer's life. Editing is a long road, but it's worth it and will make your writing better.

So, that's my helpfully writing tip for today and now I'm off to follow my own advice!

Reading in Liverpool at WOW

Hi readers!
Last week I told you about going to read some of my first chapter of my novel out in a competition. Well, the big event was last night in Liverpool at this really great coffee shop called The Green Cauldron. I'll be dropping by for a visit there next time I'm in Liverpool, because they have an amazing carrot cake and though I don't like coffee the smell is just great. Anyway, so I had entered the first chapter of my novel into this competition for it to get published in a small book of first chapters and I didn't actually win. Still though, I sure felt like I had done last night! I was really worried about presenting my novel and not just because reading my own work to strangers is mega unnerving, but in case it wasn't very good.....
I had worked hard on getting my words right though and I didn't mess up. The judges asked some questions too and I answered them really well. The winning for me was the fact I was there and I did my reading. To me it just showed how far I'd come really, because I'd never even think about doing anything like that when I was at college! Still though I knew my novel would be okay and I know it still needs work, but that's way writing just goes. I got a chance to speak to one of the judges after too and she said my chapter had potential and was interesting, I just need to sort out the opening a bit more. So that was really encouraging and I wanted to run home and start writing again!
I had a great time and it was fantastic to be a part of something like this. I liked listening to everyone else reading their chapters too because there was some interesting openings there. I wasn't alone though and I should have said before that my fan club where their to witness this massive step in my life and also that of the novel. I don't know what I would have done if my friends couldn't have come. They were amazing as my support and somehow they managed to keep my nervousness down and make me laugh. I owe them so much and truly I can't describe my gratitude to them, because they are completely amazing brilliant people.
I think I'm still in shock and on a high. Silly really, but I just provide to myself that I can do things like this and I did really enjoy reading. Well, that's something I've always loved and I have been known to read aloud to friends and family before now. Strange thing to get a kick out of, but still....So now I'm recommending people get out there and share their stories with the world. It's important to do this because there's so many great tales out there and it's a shame most of them get lost. I know people are too busy and technology is currently ruling, but still go grab your fav novel and start reading it! Or start writing!!!
Here's the WOW website- http://www.writingonthewall.org.uk/index-page.html
Lastly for today, I only have one more essay to do. I've not started it, but I will be doing tomorrow! It's due in on monday, but I've been stuck with my other ones and doing my reading. I'm sure it'll be fine though and it's on Modernism which is very interesting in itself. Also I'll put the photos up of me reading when I get them off my friends soon!

Strawberry Fields

Hi readers!

I’ve inherited these 20 odd strawberry plants from my uncle. They were at the bottom of his garden and when I went to help my mum clean out his house, we found them and decided to bring them home. They needed lots of TLC and a lot of water, but now they are happily sitting at the top of my garden and flowering in the sunlight. I’ve never been that much into gardening, but I have to admit that The Secret Garden is one of my favourite films and has been for an age now! So I’ve rescued these strawberries in the spirit of that film really. It’s amazing how much they have grown in the last few days as well and I’ve been out checking on them and chatting to them…well they have proven that talking to plants does make them grown! But these guys are not my first strawberry plant and I’m hoping that most readers will remember Hairy Von Baron Strawberry.



He was given to me last year by my best friend and now he’s grown abit more and spreed out. So there’s more of him in the garden now! My new plants are out shining him though, because they have flowers already, but he’s showing any signs of bursting into bloom just yet…..Anyway I’ve got my hands full with guarding my strawbs against slugs and other bugs, luckily I’ve some help!





Gargoylesto keep away evil and Patch to keep me company. She looks so cute! So it looks like there’ll be a lot of homegrown strawberries for me this year. I’ve developed a taste for gardening now and I was thinking that if my writing falls through I’d take up being a gardener! Though at the minute it looks like things are taking off for me. I entered a competition with the first chapter of my novel and they accepted it for the first heat! So now, next Wednesday I’ve to go to Liverpool to read it out in front of the judges! I’m scared and excited and really not sure what to do with myself. I’m going to go for it though and try my best. I know my novel is still a mess, but someone might be interested in it and you don’t know what will happen till you give it a shot. So I’ll let you know how that goes next week!

I’ve been busy trying to do my project today, my Victorian English Lit essay, which is about the characters of Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester and how the Bronte sister as women writers created this powerful male characters. I’ve done about 300 words today, so it’s just over 1,000 out of the 3,000 it needs to be by Tuesday. It doesn’t help that I left the novels with all my notes in at my uni house, or the fact I’ve been distracted by a million other things! So tomorrow I must try harder, though I guess this is sort of like writing a story, it can’t be forced, though my deadline is nearly here. I know once I get back to uni and have my books I’ll be able to do it like that! But till then I’ve to chip away at it and try a different approach each time. I’ve to redraft my other essays too and make a plan for my last one. Still can’t believe that I’ll be starting my final essay soon. It’s a very scare thought.



And this is me sporting my new jacket! My mum finished knitting it for me the other day and I love it. Been wearing it every since really. It’s the perfect spring/summer cover up and it’s so nice. I’d love to knit something myself, but I just can never seem to get it right. I can knit, but I twist my wool up and I’m forever adding and losing stitches. Here’s a baby blanket I started the other day and well most of it is mum’s work, because the wool rebels against me too much. I’m getting back into the swing of it though, just takes awhile to get straight in my head….



That’s mostly it for today, though I’ve got a few more pics to put up….

Me and Patchy

Duck family!

Writing Stories

Hi,  I thought today I’d write a slightly different blog. Which should be good for me because I’m having a writer’s block with writing my essays. Truthfully, I’m not sure why, but I’ve some different theories; 1. the fact I’ve a loan laptop and the keyboard is strange and I don’t have any of my stuff on here, (Also just found out that nothing could be saved on my hard drive, so I’ve lost everything on that. Have new hard drive and getting laptop back tomorrow though.) 2. I’ve lots of other thoughts in my head right now and I can’t rid of them. 3. the idea of leaving Uni is scary! 4. I want my final essays to be really good. 5. I’m stressing about other things too now. So, yeah that’s about it, so I’m hoping to snap out of it soon!

So I might have writer’s block on my essays, but I’ve not on my novels. I’ve been writing one I started last yearish and the idea was that the reader was on the outside looking in, so they were always at a distance from the world and characters. Thus means that I and the characters are in the same boat, on the outside, not sure what’s going on or who to trust. It’s working out really well tho in a strange way and it’s not really about vampires!

Doing a creative writing course has taught me all about the craft of writing, but not really ‘how to write’ that comes from practice, experience and your own talent and imagination. Reading and writing every day is an important part of it too! Plus you have to love doing it and writing for yourself. That’s how I got into it really, writing as a hobby and often in reply to books I had just finished reading. I strongly believe as well that having a really good or over active imagination helps too. I’ve always had one, mostly because I was a bit of loner for most of my childhood and thus creating worlds and make believe friends was a great comfit for me. I also believe if you want it badly enough you should go after it and for me being a novelist would be my dream come true. I already know, from my course, that getting something published and making it popular in the world is hard to do and seriously not as easy as most people believe it to be. This is due to the fact that publishing is like any other business and they always want to make money.

Moving on and focusing on me for a min, I started writing stories when I was 6, but because I was dyslexic (I didn’t know officially till I was 16) no one knew what I was going on about, but I got a taste for writing, though it was so tough for me! But I loved reading and books, thanks to my parents. Then when I was 12 I found inspiration from R .L. Steins’ Goosebumps stories and  wrote my first novel part in high school, part at home. The only evidence I have of that novel is a single paper copy. From there though and without any guidance or anything, I took that novel and redraft it. From there was born the first in a series of novels about a group of teenagers who went to a summer camp every year and I wrote like 10 novels. Then I got writer’s block and wrote nothing for a year.

Sorry, I’m so going off on something here, but it’ll explain things in a minute. Sometime whilst I was in college during my second year a character suddenly popped into my head and so was born my first official vampire. I then spent the next two years of my college life writing 3 novels about this vampire and his friends.

So, and I only discovered this by reading J .R. Ward’s The Black Dagger Brotherhood; The Insider’s guide, which is a great great book! That my characters would come into my head and start mapping out their own stories. Thus all my novels are driven by the character not the plot. Like Ward, I also see the images of my characters, their actions and their worlds in my head and that really helps when you’re writing a story. Being able to see images so that the words become more like pictures in your mind is a great skill to have.

I’d tell anyone to give writing in any form a shot and see how you feel about. I’m still surprised when my friends talk about something I’ve wrote and tell me that they couldn’t have written something like that or where did my idea come from. Just because for awhile I believed that I didn’t have a talent for writing, but now of course I do. So I think that giving some thing new a try and seeing if you have a knack for it is really good.

So, where do you now begin if you want to write a story? Well, the blank page bugs me, so I always try and fill it really fast. Often I’ll start with the weather- either outside or a make it up. Like ‘it was a bright sunny morning’ and then make the setting or add a character, ‘the street was quiet and the gentle breeze was blowing through the cherry blossom trees.’ then it’s character/setting, ‘Laura walked down the street, glancing up at each house as she past. What was the number again? she thought.’ so I’ve got my character’s thoughts now, but you can have speech too and now to hook the reader into the story (This is highly important to grab the reader so they’ll read on for sure!) ‘she paused before garden gate and bit her lip, how am I going to tell him? she thought and dropped a hand to her stomach, that I’m pregnant?’

See? you’re drawn into that now ’cause you want to know more about both characters and what they are going to do about the situation. I made that up on the spot too, as an example but also to do away with the white space on the page! And of course there are lots of different ways to get started and lots of guide books on writing out there. So give it a try!

PS. I might think about making my idea into a short story and posting it on here if I get enough people commenting with their interest, so get in touch, cause I do read them all- even tho right now I’ve over 5,000 to read! So bear with me but thanks for the support everyone!

More coming soon!

All In The Name Of Poetry!

Hi! I’m hoping to have some new readers today, because I’ve been giving out my business cards to people about my blog. Today was an applicant visit day for people doing media courses and I’m hoping most of them will now be reading my post!I had a good day helping people and showing off the uni, though it is tiring being on your feet, talking and smiling all day, but I don’t mind. I love being a student guide it’s just get fun and easy money! I like writing my blog too. I’ve had lots of tasks to do throughout the day, though my fav has to be the campus tour, only because I get to chat to lots of people and talk about the different buildings on campus and the useful facilities. I’m working this Saturday too, so no doubt I’ll get to find more people to read my blog.


Of course that and my title have nothing to do with my first photo! It’s of the pie I made last night. I’ve been teaching my housemate how to cook and this pie, plus the pasta bake I made on Sunday, have now been added to his cooking list. The pie was tasty and there’s still lots left. That’s the issue with my cooking-when I make a meal for people, there’s always enough for twice as many people that I’m cooking for! So no one goes hungry for long around me.

So, I guess I should explain my title now. With it being so close to the end of my 3rd and last year at Edge Hill Uni, I’ve many essays on the go right now and one of them is poetry. I’ve my last four poems to submit after Easter, but I’ve been trying to come up with a creative way of displaying my poems. The tutors often encourage this- special with poetry-as its one of those subjects that needs a little more creativity behind it. So over the past 2 years I’ve displayed my poetry in a handmade book, scrapbooks and just normally. This year I wanted to do something different and I’ve had a lot of ideas- orgami and writing with chalk on the street-where just two of the crazy thoughts I had. My housemate and fellow creative writing student has had the best idea though. He wants to take sections of his poem and write them everywhere possible, so these photos below show his first practising;

He’s not a hoodie, by the way! It was raining and he’s writing on our house wall and slates that fell of our roof. He also washed the chalk off once we were done.

Don’t panic about this either! It was ketchup on the bathroom tiles. We washed it off soon after, but the bathroom does still smell a bit ketchupy.

So with him planning that, I decided that I’d like to do something with photographs. So I came up the idea of making a photo collage and placing my poem on top of it. Also because of the poems have to be connected either theme or style, I choice to do emotion and one of the current things that is effecting so many people right now is the earthquake in Japan. So I choice to write a poem about that.

It still need some work but it is only a first draft!


That’s it for this post now, but since I’m working on Saturday and then off to a gig in Liverpool on the Sunday night, I’ll posting another blog soonish.

When is Poetry not Poetry?

Hi, I've a question title today and that's because I'm writing about stuff I learned in class today, stuff which I'm against, but feel it's important to share with everyone. So, I've been doing some intense work in poetry these last few Fridays and we've been looking at poets who's poems are out of the circle of 'normal poetry.' Poets like; Lyn Hejinian and her prose poem My Life, Ron Silliman, Tom Raworth and today Tom Phillips, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Amiri Baraka and Kenneth Goldsmith. (I've posted some links below for these poets, which you can go and visit. I didn't want to post up any of their poems in case I get in trouble, so please go and check them out, 'cause then you'll see what I'm trying to show you.)

So, most of these poets sort of fall under the area of poetry for the ear, eye and mind, which means they make great use of sound and often the poets perform them so that the full benefit can be reached. The eye or visual poem often involves a sort of collage, mashed up style of words, letters and images, sometimes the poets may use other people's writers and make something out of them. There is also the idea of conceptual poetry- take Goldsmith and his poem which is in fact a newspaper typed up and turned into 900 pages worth of words. Lastly there is the experiment writing and the very Modernist view of producing something that is so fresh it has never been seen before by anyone else.

That sort of gives you a rough idea of the stuff I looked at today and the links will give you even more. It sort of is like the extreme side of poetry really or like mixing music or art with poetry, unfortunately I disagree with it, for me this is not poetry, its something caught in-between these areas and in a strange place of it's own that sort of is like marmite- you either love it or hate. Though, hate is a strong word and I don't hate the poems or poets, I just don't agree with them over this. I guess to achieve these things you must see the world and language in a different light and I guess- though I hate to use this, (irony there!) being dyslexic might be the issue here! I'm not setting it all down to that, but more of my own idea about what poetry should be and should not be!

I wanted to add another image to show you some visual poety, but scared of copyright iusses, I thought I'd try one of my own, so here's one like really quick, no editing poem, that I did about trains;

I think everyone should be able to make their mind up though, so please let me know what you think.

http://www.tomraworth.com/
http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/
http://www.geoffreyyoung.com/thefigures/day.html
http://www.ianhamiltonfinlay.com/
http://www.amiribaraka.com/
http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/
http://mylifebylynhejinian.blogspot.com/

Here's someone who's put up their Modernism Visual poems on flicker. I think they are good.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/virtue_fern/3112597938/

Lastly, my friend asked me to post a link to his blog. He's a comic book writer in the making:
http://voicesofa-distantstar.blogspot.com/

here's one of his drawings that I like!

Oh and here's my personal twitter, in case you want to follow me there;
http://twitter.com/#!/ironmaidenfan9

Rainny days

Hi, this is my 80th blog post! Well so it says on the dashboard and I think that's been the most interesting thing of my day. I've not been doing a lot because of this;

Rain. It's been like this all day and for most of the last two days as well, though we've not had gale force winds today yet. I did brave the weather and go to Ormskirk for pop tarts and cake, but then I've spent the rest of the day in bed. I've been making notes in Wuthering Heights- getting it ready for my Vic Lit projected in March and watching TV movies; first the Corpse Bride and now Jane Eyre a black and white version, but as I'm soon about to be studying the novel- I read it over summer- I thought having it on in the background couldn't help. I still have Brent Weeks' The Way of Shadows to finish- 6 chapters left now. I've been busy doing other things though.
My uncle died on the 26th Jan and it was really sudden, so I've not had the will or the mind to be doing much. Luckily, I've had little work to do though, its about to change. I've an essay to write for Lit Modernism- 2,000 words on Kathrine Mansfield's short stories and her Modernism symbolism.

Guess watching the Corpse Bride has made me lit these. I like candles though, but the only tea light candle holders I have are Halloween ones. Still it doesn't matter, I like Halloween too much. Anyway, the candles are for my uncle tonight.
I've been baking cakes too. This is my latest design; a full moon with bats, misty clouds and stars. I don't think it was cooked in the middle but my housemates still ate it!

So I've not been doing anything else lately, though I've been thinking about giving Bob the cactus his own twitter account, though I've two of my own on the go right now, but it would be easier then his blog! He's doing okay, growing fast, though he still hurts when he gets you, but it seems he likes watching the world go by and everyone hurrying to and throw and missing the simple things as they pass.

So lastly for today, I've been trying to get my TV sorted, by upgrading the channels. It took me awhile to find the channel scanner button though, because this TV is a bit funny. So I found the button and scanned and then the TV lost all the BBC channels. It really loves doing that, so I had to watch the start of Star Wars 4, till I could rescan it again-not that I didn't mind, it's an okay one-and then it did it again! So had to go for the 3rd time luckily step and now I've all the right channels and I'm still watching Jane Eyre!