Everything Is Better With Dragons
Book blogger, Autistic, Probably a Dragon
I’ve just had a phone call from the library; they’ve got (finally!) the latest Science of Discworld. I’m going to collect it this afternoon. When I get back, and before I start reading it, I’m going to review a couple of e-books I downloaded yesterday.
The first ‘Georgiana Darcy’s Diary’ by Anna Elliott is a continuation of the Jane Austen classic ‘Pride and Prejudice’, and the second is a celebratory edition of the ‘For Dummies…’ series marking their 20th anniversary.
Bye for one,
Rose
I found my way to a website called http://www.everythingbooksandauthors.com/ this morning, and on their ‘Special Offers & Freebies’ page there were a few books that I thought looked interesting. I’m going to read them all and review them.
I love having the Kindle for PC app. I have so many books on it, most of them free.
Bye
Rose
I just thought I’d show you all something.
Look at the screen shot below. This month I have had twice as many views as I had all last year. I’m in shock
Thank you all for taking the time to read my scribbles and thank you to those who comment, like and reblog. You’re doing wonders for my confidence. I appreciate it immensely and I’ll do my best to be worthy of your time and effort.
I quite like SciFi/Fantasy books, I’ve read a lot of them, so when I found out about ‘Worlds Without End’ I decided to go and have a look at their website:
https://www.worldswithoutend.com/
One of their ‘challenges’ is the Women of Genre Fiction challenge in which participants have to read and review twelve books from their list of women authors. The books have to be by women authors you’ve never read before. I’m going to give it a go. The first I am reading will reading is ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ by Ann Radcliffe.
For more information on the challenge please go to:
https://www.worldswithoutend.com/authors_wogf.asp
Bye
Rose
Good evening,
I should be sleeping as I have to be up for work at quarter to four tomorrow morning, but I’m not tired so I thought I’d say hello to everyone, especially to people who have only recently started following this blog.
Hello.
I’ve been organising a few things lately. I had two wordpress blogs, twitter and a tumblr; after a bit of thought I now have 1 wordpress blog (this one), twitter and three tumblr accounts.
I decided that as I’m not shooting much at the minute (no money/damaged lower back/working weekends) there was no point in having the archery blog (travelswithmylongbow.wordpress.com) because I’m not using it. I also decided that my tumblr needed organising. My personal tumblr is a random mix of all my interests, and my dashboard is usually full of fandom stuff, which makes it difficult to find writing/music related posts. I now have two new Tumblrs
• rosemariecawkwell.tumblr.com is my writing blog. It’s where I follow writing blogs, book and literature blogs and sometimes post short stories.
• hornskeepthehaloinplace.tumblr.com is my music blog. I follow various band/fan blogs; they’re useful for news and finding out what fans are talking about.
Most of the posts I make here go to my Tumblrs. Feel free to have a look at them.
In other news, I am now working part time (weekends) so I will have a bit of money coming in while I work on my writing. It’s not perfect but these things have to be done. I have managed to get a couple of short stories written this week though, which I’m pleased with. Next week will be spent typing them up. I would like to get another one of my short stories finished next week. After that I’ll have three left to write for the collection. Now I’m working part-time I’ll have plenty of time to concentrate on writing, and not worrying about money or being too tired to actually write.
I will also be listening to a few new bands who have followed my Twitter account and giving my musically uneducated but passionate opinion on them.
Right, I’m going to try to sleep again now.
Bye,
Rose
Hello one and all,
My phone is finally working again, so I’m going to celebrate with a quick update on my short story collection.
I have five completed and typed up, one complete but not typed up, and three partially completed.
This morning I plan to finish one of them before I leave for work at half one, I’ll finish another on my breaks at work. And then depending how late I finish work this evening I’ll start typing them up. I’m busy for the next few days, but I have most of next week free so I will probably spend it typing up everything I’ve completed so far.
I’m fairly pleased with my progress so far. It’s been an interesting exercise so far, and some of the stories that I’ve come up with have been unexpected.
Bye for now,
Rose
[Edit: one more finished! It’s fairly long and I’m probably going to write another part for it at some point, but not for this collection. It might make a novella at some time in the future.]
I’ve started work again, but only part time. Still, it’s already biting in to my writing time. I was in the middle of writing a story for my anthology last night, right in the narrative flow, when I realised it was gone eleven and I had to be up for work at six. Most irritating.
At work I tried to find some time to work on another short story for the collection. Luckily, the technical department tend to be very much ‘go with the flow’ and since there wasn’t much QA-ing for me to do I did a bit of admin for the manager instead. Mindless and easy, my mind wondered off to other worlds. Break time came and I started to write. Twenty five minutes concentrated writing and then back to the day job. Then later another twenty minutes scribbling away. It might not be any good but when I’ve finished it and typed it up I’ll play around with it and improve it.
I find work is a good place to let my creative side have free rein on the subconscious level, so that when I do write it’s all there waiting for the short spurts of writing I can manage.
Maybe, if you’re having a bit of writer block, that might be a way to break it. Set aside ten, fifteen minutes to just write anything. Go away for a few hours and then have another short session. The intervening time will allow your brain to mull over ideas started in the first session.
Work, for most of us, is a dull grind done so that we can afford to do the things we want to, so using the time effectively, to allow writing during the work day, is a must.
Going to nap now,
Bye,
Rose
I can’t sleep again so to entertain myself I checked my emails (that can be entertaining and passes a couple of minutes) and then had a play around with the wordpress app I have on my phone. I’ve been looking at the stats for the blog. I’m shocked; in April this year it’s had more than three times as many views as the previous best month, December 2012. I can only assume it’s because of increased awareness. I should have connected my blog up to social media sooner. I pretty certain it has nothing to do with the quality of writing.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read my scribbles and/or followed this blog. I shall do my best to keep you all entertained and informed in the future.
Bye
Rose
I’m currently reading a book I’m reviewing for Book Hub Inc, and it’s sending me batty. I’ve never reviewed books for other people before; I generally read something because it’s taken my interest and then write about it. But I thought I’d give it a go.
I chose a non-fiction book that the title and blurb suggested was scientific in nature. I’m about a third of the way through it, and I want to slap the author. No, really I do. My question is, when I write my review how blunt am I allowed to be? Is, say, a variation on ‘the author is ignorant and talking out of their arse’ too much? My ‘I don’t like misinformation’ sense is screaming, thus the itchy palms.
I might be forced to write two reviews, the polite version for the company I’m reviewing for, and the blunt version for here. They’ll both say the same thing, just with different words.
Right, back to it.
Rose
http://www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk/news/the-bfs-short-story-competition-is-back-2/
I saw this on Twitter about a minute ago and I’m already cursing the fact that I don’t have internet at home. The website is too big to open on my BlackBerry. I’m actually considering entering the competition, but I want to read more of the details.
Going now, I still haven’t had breakfast and I have more music to listen too and write about.
Rose
Everything Is Better With Dragons 