BIG NEWS

So....I've finished my novel!

Back in the island

Hello! Here I am, back in Guernsey and getting...hmm...an ok-ish amount done! I didn't start my Haiku 100 precisely when I said I would...but been going strong for 8 days now and really like one or two of the poems I've done so far. It's really good, getting in the habit of having to write every day like that. I wake up, see my little haiku book and think 'ah, must look out for something to write a haiku about' and somewhere along my travels, I find something springs to mind and I write about it. Today I visited the Little Chapel (beautiful!) and wrote about that.
Today I wrote another chapter of the heart transplant novel - really must think of a title for that soon! All the ones I've thought of so far are cheesy and predictable. So only two more chapters and...I'm done! Hurrah. Well, done with the FIRST draft, anyway :)
What else? Wrote a few short stories last week, just waiting for some crit on those and I'll be editing away. I've recently been reading...umm, a book of flash fiction called (can you believe it...) 'Flash'. I also just red a book about life in China a few hundred years ago, which was interesting but somewhat poorly written I'm afraid. Now I'm re-reading 'American Gods' by the fantastic Neil Gaiman, he's SO good. I'd forgotten how ace the book is, will soon have to get into 'Neverwhere' I think it is, which is another of his books I haven't red yet.
Keeping busy with my Easter assignments for uni, but the ones I've done so far have been nice and straightforward....saving the hardest ones for last, but I'll have to face them sometime!!

And before we know it, Easter will be upon us.

Hello! Feeling a little more human today so actually got some work done, though I daresay this cold will be lingering on painfully for much time to come! So...work, hurrah! I have a few deadlines coming up which I've been cracking the whip on. My sudden prose author study (for which I have written about the lovely Raymond Carver) I've had written for a while, but of course there is never an upper limit on editing, is there? So editing away I shall be, hopefully even get some of that done today (hopefully I haven't cursed my productivity by saying so...)

Also due in on the same week is my creative folder for my Writing for Children course - which I adore :D It's been difficult selecting what to pick. It's 2500 words, which most people groan at, but to be honest I can't stand low word counts - it's so much easier to add than it is to take away. So for my folder I so far have three pieces - the text for a picture book aimed at really young children, the entire text of my awesome nonfiction book about penguins, and an extract from a piece aimed at the 'read alone's, so 8-12 years. Hopefully this will be demonstrating a good range of my talents. I have a few hundred words left so might knock up another piece at the eldest of the children's categories, the sort of teenagey section. I could always chuck in something from my novel but really I want to save that for my general folder, and one can't be too careful about plagiarising one's self, so I'd better not risk it!

Still haven't heard back from Mslexia about the flash fiction piece I submitted, but still keeping my fingers crossed. I should really post some more stuff out soon, I like to post something every month, keep myself in circulation, but I haven't got round to it yet for March. I guess I could try again with the rejected pieces but at different venues.

I keep meaning to rewrite my travel writing about Wales but haven't had the time. I hope to do a longer piece about Guernsey when I go home for Easter, so fingers crossed that one is more successful.

Tomorrow night is my literary favorite of the month - storytelling at the Raven. God bless Bath and it's amazing hippies. Tomorrow night is going to be a special one - it's getting filmed for the songs of praise or something, so I can't wait to see who'll be performing (aside, of course, from the fabulous Bard of Bath).

Inspired by an article I red in the Independent, as of tomorrow (hopefully. we all know how you have an 'awesome' idea that, the next day, seems far less appealing) I will be starting my haiku hundred. I will try to write a haiku every day for a hundred days, and hopefully by the end, I will have at least a few that are worth publishing! This will be difficult, mainly, because I don't really know what a haiku is. I don't really do technical knowledge for poetry - I wouldn't know a sestina or a villanelle if it bit me on the bottom. But hey ho... off to wikipidea for some explainations :) So... look out, haiku's about :)

Isn't this year just soaring by?

Well, into March already and I can't say I'm glad...though of course I am really because the weather is FINALLY brightening up in drizzly old Bath. But where does all that time go? Not on writing my novel I can tell you!
So what has been going on recently? Right now it's the Bath Literary Festival, and I'm sorry to say that I haven't actually been to anything to do with it yet (apart from the poetry pub crawl, which was indeed a groovy night out). Nothing has caught me eye really, not compared with seeing Wendy Cope last year. But perhaps I shall force myself to go see something unusual, I might even have fun! My main news involving the Lit Fest is that they are publishing a daily poem, as a way of exhibiting the work of local people, and on Tuesday this week, I was their daily poem with my piece 'The BBC Stole My Crocodile Clip'. So I was very please with that indeed!
Other poetry news, I just received my latest rejection slip, this time from 'Magma' magazine, one of the most prolific poetry magazines in the country. So that is disappointing, but at the same time I wasn't really expecting to get in anyway, them being so good and all, so chin up and carry on. Every time someone says 'No' I am one 'No' closers to someone saying 'Yes'. :)
There are a few other magazines I have lined up to look into, so maybe I'll try them out next, see if I fare any better.
Bath Spa is indeed keeping me busy with assignments at the moment, they've all sort of crept up on me! But I'm not too worried about any of them, despite being surprised that they are finally here I have been, on the whole, keeping up with things and so it's all manageable. I'm very much looking forward to Easter, obviously so I can relax and spend some lovely time with my family, but also to get a lot of work done when I don't have to timetable it around lessons and jobs, etc.
But Easter is still a long way away when I think of all the assignments I need to hand in first, not to mention another bout of car journalism, woe is me!
Who'd want to be a writer? Tish.

A Dirty Weekend with Shakespeare, Blake and Elizabeth Browning

Just a quick one for you - been doing a little cut-up poetry for my experimental poetry homework. Cut-up poetry is when take a poem or several, of your own or by other people, and literally just cut them up and paste it back together to make something new. You can even splice in things that aren't poetry, like lyrics, newspaper cutting, anything. So I took three of the most famous love sonnets ever written, and on a bit of a gigglish school girl whim, I put it back together trying to find as many inappropriate innuendos as possible. Childish, I know, but terrible fun! Hope you enjoy :)


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Happy Valentines Day!

Hello all, hope you are having a lovely valentines day!
So what is my writerly news? I wrote half a chapter of the novel this week gone, and am planning on finishing it off this afternoon. Only a few more chapters to go and that's the first draft done and dusted, so really excited about that.
I sent off some poetry recently to some magazines, got a rejection slip from Smiths Knoll this week. I wasn't expecting them so accept me, the standards are very high there, but all the same...sad face. Fingers crossed I get a better response from Magma and Mslexia. If not there is another magazine I've got lined up to apply to with things that get turned down.
Been attending a fair few writerly events in Bath, lots of poetry readings and performances. It's the Bath literary festival coming up. Haven't got any tickets yet but hopefully I will managed to catch a few decent things. Last year I saw 'Shakespeare on Toast' which was great, and the guy that did it is back this year so, fingers crossed I can see him! I also saw Wendy Cope, one of my favorite poets, and she was brilliant. I was very chuffed, as I went on my own and I normally get very embarrassed in front of crowds, but I stood up and asked her a question and everything. Aren't I awesome :D
Nearly finished reading Dawkins, like...80 pages to go. It's been SUCH a struggle, but I hate giving up on books, they haunt me for years if I don't finish! SO... time for a valentines pamper session in a nice warm bath with a...umm...not so nice book, lol!
Toodles for now x

INSERT WITTY COMMENT HERE

Hi everyone!
So as January draws to a close I thought I'd update ya'll on how things are going in my writerly world. This week has been jam packed with editing and rewriting of prose poems, mainly. Really getting into them, it's true what they say about having to be a good reader before you are a good writer. Before I started reading 'No Boundaries' I had very little idea about prose poetry, but now the stuff just rolls out of the pen and onto the page, which is awesome! In our sudden prose module we are starting starting short stories, so look out for some of those soon!
Other writing news - i have started writing the first in a series of childrens books, inspired by the David Attenborough 'Planet Earth' series. The one I've been writing today is about Pip the Penguin, ahhh. So I'm glad I've finally got stuck into that, the idea has been rolling around for quite a while so I am very ready to start writing it now!
Novel..umm...yeh not so much. Maybe I'll do a bit more this weekend. What with assignments, etc, it's taking a bit of a back seat right now, but hopefully I'll get back into it soon.
Anything else I've done with my day? I submitted some stuff to Magma poetry magazine, so fingers crossed I get a prompt and positive response! What else? Cake baking...Mmm :) Also been setting up a website and facebook group for my fund raising attempts. I'm going on a mission trip to Uganda this July and so have started raising some money. If you're interested, check out the website: www.justgiving.com/Celia-Jenkins