Let me know if you like the new look in the comments below. I am worried that it is too bright, but I wanted the post titles to be visible and I think this is a lovely new look. But you are the readers and I don’t want to hurt your eyes!
Tag Archives: blog
Half term bland content
Writing towards my blog when Henry is home from school because of half term and other holidays etc, is a big task for me because Henry is such an attention seeker, he can’t be without constant attention from me, even if I were to write for less than 20 minutes, he will endeavour to stop me. I can only usually write when Henry is on holidays when Paul takes him out for me, so my content during this half-term, for the next few days, I am sorry to say that my blog may come across as a little blander than usual.
Though saying that, I am trying to get used to the different fingerings of a laptop, so I can type on my laptop in bed at night, but I am struggling with the finger differences and the brightness of the screen, but I am trying!
Filed under About my work
What I am trying to do as from now…
I am more than a little irked at the concept that my followers could have been scammed or duped by a poser; I had not planned to start writing on my blog or become active on social media for another couple of months, because I am taking a long time to heal from a current chest and ear infection. I am very ill at the moment to the extent of being permanently exhausted.
However, I think that I should start again right now, when I am at my worst physically because it seems likely I am having more bad days than not and I am sick and tired of being sick and tired and not doing what I want to do in life, even the most sedentary of things.
I often struggle with the idea that I must always produce a poem or a short story for my blog, because this blog was created with creativity in mind. I was meant to use this as a portfolio of sorts; for my creative writing, photography and art, instead it has become more of a journal.
I think therefore, that this blog is likely to be 50/50 journal and creative outlet. Because I am going on a big journey spiritually, physically, mentally and hopefully career wise too.
My blog will show you more of me, my personal life, my art, my thoughts and feelings and I will try not to be too bias when I do so.
A lot of my day to day stuff will probably be talks about how I am trying to manage my mental health and disability whilst trying to be a productive creative and housewife/mother.
I will also talk about my medical journey, because it still is not entirely clear what it is I have, other than it seems to the doctors that I have around 4 different types of auto-immune disease, deafness, PTSD and potentially a serious neurological disorder too, which they are leaning more towards MS on, but irritatingly it has not been thoroughly confirmed yet. Sometimes they say yes, sometimes it’s again, no, it’s all presumption by my GP because I haven’t been tested yet.
I will talk about my past, if I feel it would be therapeutic at the time to do so.
I will discuss life with my pets and gardening, what little I can do there.
I will discuss most aspects of my life, whilst throwing in my poetry, songs, compositions, short stories, art, snippets and advice.
I am working on far too many stories at once, most of the time. I am also practising art, because I have an idea for a children’s picture book and I have also two ideas for comics. I don’t buy the fact that the comic industry is dead, sorry!
I have also learned recently that there are many people who like reading my reviews; I have had so many requests for reviews recently that I have considered to be more proactive in that. But I tend to review old stuff, because I am pretty slow to reaching out for current social trends. To me, something is a current social trend if it has been published or bought out within the last decade. Oh dear, well you see what I mean – non-fiction science aside that is.
I am one of these lame people who love the 50s & 80s and are waiting for a huge retro bash that will last a decade or more in fashion, movies and music. So you won’t find me any time soon, sporting the latest trend of anything that is currently major, if it is not retro based.
Personally I feel the best decades for fantasy were 1860s, 1870s, 1890s, 1950s, 1980s and 2000s, 2010s; I am a huge Lewis Carroll, George MacDonald, Frank L Baum, J.R.R Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Susan Hill, Stan Lee, Tim Burton, Stephen Spielberg, The Frouds, Colleen Doran and Neal Shusterman and oh so many more I better stop listing them= fan. This was just fantasy; don’t get me started on horror, Sci-fi and dystopia and lets not be picky between artists, writers and directors either!
There is a lot of people I have missed on the above list that deserves to be here! This is how I know; I really can’t sit back and say I have no idea what I post for my blog. I was just being too picky about what I should put. I didn’t think I should really put reviews and personal feelings towards other people’s work on my blog, but you know, if it keeps the blog active, then maybe I should start? At least it will give you an idea of how I became who I become; the kind of things that I devour for my hungry creative soul that made me produce, what I produced.
Until next time, happy reading!
Filed under About my work
WIP 1
My week of writing, Sunday to Sunday words in progress report.
Words towards blog posts 6414
Words towards novels 9390
Words towards plans 1837
Words towards poetry or songs 0
Words towards essays 0
Words towards other unspecified 1087
Pretty quiet for me, because I have been getting incredibly tired lately. I have also been very busy with cataloguing my books around the house and trying my best to do other things. So therefore, this is not a glimpse at my average week, this week is not very productive at all for me.
I have only done one piece of art too; I have only done 1 scrapbooking background picture, which is hardly anything really.
Terrible when you consider how I usually aim for 3k words per day for a novel and at least 3 poems per week.
Filed under About my work
Reasons behind lack of posts
Why is this blog not updated regularly?
I am always writing something; researching, taking notes, adding to my worlds and even drawing and painting things that I imagine – it is not that I am not doing the work, because I honestly never really stop doing it. But I do not constantly concentrate on writing novels or even short stories. I am more focused on the world building and planning. Although that in itself may come across as I am not being very serious in my craft, I beg to differ – I believe that perhaps I take my craft way too seriously!
I make map after map, draw landscape after landscape and scene after scene. It is sometimes difficult to determine where I will place a scene, because I often do not know, so I store it. I believe I am more of a hoarder of ideas, a great big vending machine of millions of ideas and I hoard them away in boxes and books all over my house, but I am painfully indecisive.
There are times I sit back and wonder which character in which novel should I get to do such things? I can never really make up my mind and when I am desperate, I tend to do the most insane things to help me decide. I go onto random.org sometimes, I arrange each character or novel to a number and I put it on the random generator and it tells me, sometimes, in fact most times, I ignore the generator as I just can’t imagine it being them! Then, years down the line, a completely new character in a completely new story comes along and that tiny snippet I did on the 5th August 2006, belongs there, with them. It is weird.
I also sit back and say to myself that surely my readers are not interested in what I get up to day to day? Surely they are not interested in where I get my inspiration from or who has influenced me? Surely they do not want to hear me rant about the latest time wasting book I read or the one I just fell in love with and it turns out, you do actually!
So discovering this, I have learned I have more to say on my blog than I actually realised. I always felt my blog had to have some deep creative meaning behind it. I had to always be original and concentrate on short stories or poetry to keep it alive and really I don’t.
That’s very liberating because I am a chatterbox by nature and I love talking about what keeps me alive inside.
So therefore, with any luck, this tardy creative will start posting a little more than normal, once a week is something I am aiming for, but there may be more, who knows?
Filed under About my work
New Categories to be added and old deleted
Along with my updated blog, there will also be new categories to peruse in a few days and they are as follows;
Poetry & Song – This will no longer be placed in an A-Z category.
Short stories – I plan to write a new short story specifically for the blog once every season on average.
Writing life – what I do in order to write, my tips and guides to writing and my writing development.
Art I love – sharing links to art of people I am inspired by and what their work has invoked in me.
Defining myself – my journey to self-improvement in all areas of my life along with in depth insights to my goals!
Family Life – Updates about my family life, my household in general.
My mental health journey – talking about my mental health barriers and the lengths I have gone to try and conquer them and how they might help you!
Art by me – my own personal art I have done and how it was born and why!
Fan art & fan fiction – my version of my favourite works or alternate sequels I would have done if I were the artist and author, it is just my take on what goes on in my mind as a whole, nothing to do with trying to steal someone else’s limelight or putting them down, because if I made the effort of making a fan fic of your work, then that means you have inspired a large part of my creative brain to thinking about your work and how your characters and story has a part in my creative journey! Basically, it’s an excellent form of flattery.
Photography – photographs I have taken.
Garden & Self-sufficiency – my garden and self-sufficiency updates, if all goes well this year, I hope to do as much gardening as I used to, but I am having problems with a particular neighbour who is rather sexually harassing and so for the past 2yrs in particular being in my own garden is very uncomfortable as he will stand staring at me with a huge grin on his face and his hands in his pockets for hours on end! It’s really weird and scary! Especially as he makes an effort to actually stand and look over his fence as near as possible and then dives down to sit on a chair as soon as Paul comes out into the garden. Paul hates gardening and I usually do it alone, but since this idiot moved in next door, I can’t garden without Paul being there to make the guy go into hiding, as he seems to get shy around male company! The front garden is worse because he will stand blocking the shared pathway to watch me and there is noway of hiding from him there! I have some new privets I hope would grow to block his view soon – but it will take 3yrs to get to a good enough height. Paul thinks he is sick enough to observe from his bedroom window, if that is the case, then I will place a cherry or rowan tree as a canopy to block him.
Myths, Legends & Folklore – all the myths, legends and folklore around the world that I am interested in and have learned!
Reviews – reviews of books and movies I have experienced.
Cosmic Ordering – I am on a cosmic ordering journey too, trying to build the life I want in a very serious sense and writing about how that is going for me and how you can do it too!
Art Journal & Mixed Media works – I have got into art journaling and mixed media art recently, I am excited to start sharing this soon.
About me – this page is going to be expanded into a new category and updated regularly because as I am trying to define myself, some old aspects of me die off and new ideas etc take its place!
Pet updates – Pets are a huge part of my life, if Paul wasn’t so assertive with me, I would have a mini zoo in this house!
Home Projects – I like to have a project around the house on the go, either painting a wall or stencilling it again, or reupholstering stuff, upcycling furniture etc., there is always something going on!
Diet & Health – I have new dietary needs since I have found out a lot of my health problems are due to food allergies, so I will be updating semi-paleo recipes, recipes are vegan dairy, gluten free, lactose free, etc., I say semi paleo because I love beans and will still indulge in those and candies from time to time, but being I do have a non-diabetic problem with metabolising sugar, I rarely have refined sugary candies anyway nowadays! Also general health updates and fitness etc. A huge part of my weight was because my mother is a feeder, she got me up to a huge size, I have lost a lot of weight since moving away from her, but for the last 4yrs my weight has stopped budging, it’s like my body has got comfortable being that size and has refused to lose more weight despite a calorie reducing diet. You can’t live on 900 to 1300 calories for 4yrs without it starting to make serious issues occur, especially if you discover you’re no longer losing the weight! I have lost 71 pounds since leaving my mother, which is amazing as I was pregnant during that time too! But I still need to lose 85 pounds, to be regarded aesthetically OK – 114 pounds to be doctor’s recommendation. But I remember being my goal weight before and to me, any less than that and I was too bony as I have what doctors regard an unusually petit bone frame, they are convinced I am going to have severe skeletal health problems in the future due to the weight I’ve lived with.
Brain drain – just brain dumps, I need somewhere to put them and here it is!
My inspirations – who inspires me and why?
Filed under About my work
Confessions and rants
I have a couple of horrible confessions to make!
The reasons why I have not been producing new blog posts, especially during lock-down is because I find it hard to write at all when my son is home from school, because he is very demanding and unforgiving regarding my work.
Another reason is because I moved my computer again, because my old desk broke and I have a new one that is very uncomfortable and it took me ages to get used to typing again at different angles.
My health has never fully recovered from the ‘supposed’ bronchitis I had at Christmas, which Paul and I suspects was probably one of the UK’s first ever Covid19 cases, because it was particularly bad and is still partly with me.
But ultimately, people have gone crazy during lock-down and I am finding it hard to be active on social media recently – the drama llamas, the ‘I am so much more special than everyone else and suffering more than anyone else in this lock-down fiasco’ attitude, I have virtually lived in lock-down all my life, so I find it very grating! I am also very frustrated because of lock-down, because most of my life I have been forced into isolation and it has been only for the last five years I have been truly free to do whatever I want, only for fate to take over and decide that I am going into isolation again – the story of my fucking life!
Whoever created me is determined to make sure I don’t have a full and happy social life.
I keep getting the feeling it wants me to reside myself to that and I don’t want to.
Because I knew my posts would be mostly ranting about how hard done by I am regarding the fates, I haven’t posted until now.
Poor excuses I know and I have had writer friends email me on Facebook telling me that this is a prime opportunity for me to post on my blog as there is a wider community ready to read my stuff because of sheer lock-down boredom, I didn’t take the bait, but since lock-down is loosening in the UK and various British social media posts are becoming (if at all possible) a little saner I feel I can go back onto social media without losing my mind too.
But I have to say it – lock-down has been fantastic really, especially in the creative community. The entertainment community has vastly improved in my opinion, the innovation that lock-down has caused has been amazing. Also, people of my generation and younger are actually starting to care more about other people and are actually getting off their arses to learn how to fucking cook and sew, which is great and a skill everyone should have, not just because they’re bored! I mean come on, for thousands of years women have cooked from scratch and made their families clothing, why is it that in the past fifty years it’s been different? Laziness that’s why! Don’t you dare attack me for these statement feminists, it’s great to be a feminist and all of that, but you got to know how to bake a fucking cake for Christ’s sake!
You have got to know how to feed and clothe your family if the system falls down – take a leaf from the scout’s book – ‘BE PREPARED’! What good is it that your nails are nicely manicured and painted and you slag off men – if in the crux of a societal meltdown you’re burning your house down to feed your family and you’re dying of the nuclear winter because your sewing and/or creative skills are non-existent?
Take a moment to think on that please. I hope lock-down due to Covid-19 has shown people that nothing is permanent and everything can falter, hugely at any given moment, I think this is a valuable lesson to show people to not divert away from too much traditional housekeeping. Remember, as a woman you should be proud of your heritage more than men, because ultimately you keep men going by feeding them, clothing them and keeping their families together! That’s powerful and the feminists I know don’t see the power that women REALLY do have with the traditional aspects of our cultures. It’s a shame many traditional skills are being lost because of this illusion that to know how to cook and sew means you’re not being valued as an equal member of society, it’s a stupid illusion and needs to fucking change!
Filed under About Me
Confused with technology
WordPress has a new system for updating posts now. I am not au fait with technology at the best of times, I have never learned to use social media to its fullest advantage and I am not a very social creature – so the idea of getting help with new systems is non-existent. If I am quiet for a few weeks or even months, best to know now, the reason is because I am a Luddite and learning new technology and technological terms is not my strong point at all and I am easily muddled, not to mention a part of my mental illness means that I get extremely stressed out and even angry when I undergo massive changes without my personal permission.
If my posts seem muddled and messy from this point on, it is because I simply don’t know what I am doing anymore!
I also don’t like how it is not easy to add pictures anymore, I don’t know how to do that right now. I can’t find the buttons to help me make this font colourful or a bigger or smaller size. I can only find the bold and alignment buttons. It’s not simple anymore. I may not pay for my domain name anymore if this is happening here and I may lose the blog soon and all the work that is on it, because I do not do well with massive changes like this, especially with a subject I loathe (technology).
I don’t want every paragraph to be a fucking block!
I don’t want my font to be always white either!
Filed under About my work
