-
The Final Waiting
The moonlight shattered around the darkness of her shadow on the ground. In the still air, the silence—peace, or simply violence without a voice?—felt as fragile as a frozen pane of glass, and she breathed softly, lest it fracture. A bird whistled to itself far above, then stopped abruptly, as though it too knew what lay at stake. A whisper of a breeze caught at her clothing, the raking of icy claws across her skin making the tiny hairs stand on end. She fought against the shiver that threatened to rattle its way up her spine: she needed to be still, still and silent. She was waiting again, below the…
-
Aussie Expats Update – Archery Adventures, Food Bank & Fantastic Beasts
Everybody, How, on earth, is it Friday again?? Don’t get me wrong, Fridays are awesome (although, one might argue, somewhat less so if you’re not actually working and therefore you don’t deserve to celebrate Fridays as much—and thus you also probably should be continuing to write/study over the weekend anyway), but right now it feels like the year is disappearing. Days and weeks and even months are vanishing like delicious, multicoloured gobstopper rings, and soon it’ll be Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then NYE… and then 2016 will end. I’m looking forward to doing a ‘2016 Recap’ post prior to that point, because this one has been a bit of a doozy…
-
Q&A with Victoria Griffin, Creator of Flooded: A Creative Anthology of Brain Injuries
Goooooooooooood morning world!! I’d like to congratulate you all first: you’ve been so well-behaved that I decided to post a special Tuesday event rather than Monday and Wednesday’s standard fare. Hurray! On a second note, buckle yourselves in, grab some popcorn and get excited about what you’re about to read. For those of you who may have missed me going on (and on, and on) about it, I connected with an amazing writer and editor, Victoria Griffin, on Twitter earlier this year and have had the privilege of getting involved with her project: Flooded (the kickstarter link can be found here). Since becoming a Flooded ambassador, I’ve seen the painstaking developmental process that Victoria…
-
NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge #2 – The Evacuees’ Circus
This is my second entry for the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge, where my prompts were historical fiction, a circus tent and a doll’s head (creepy, right?). When Operation Pied Piper sends forty little girls from their school in Manchester to Lyme Park in Cheshire, Lord and Lady Newton find themselves having to make some adjustments for their new wards. “Clara!” Lord Newton exclaimed as he walked into the room, two favourite dogs in tow. “What on Earth is this?” Lady Newton spun around. “Oh, dear,” she laughed, a long-fingered hand flying to her chest. “You startled me.” She turned to survey her handiwork. “Wonderful, isn’t it?” Lord Newton looked around…
-
Aussie Expats Update – Uni Break Fridays!!
Helllloooooo beautiful people! I know, I know… I didn’t put up a blog post last Friday. Oops. I’m sorry, but it’s a complex iss—ok, to be honest, it’s not that complex. Having (officially) finished Trimester 2 of uni on Thursday with my political ideologies exam done and dusted, I wasn’t overly keen to do very much. Plus, I made the mistake (or brilliant decision) to pick up a new book after my exam and I powered through it… Then the sequel over the weekend. If you haven’t read Erika Johansen’s The Queen of the Tearling, I highly recommend it: it was an awesome read that (obviously!) I struggled to put…
-
An Introduction to my Novel
Happy Hump Day everyone! The middle of the week is always a time for partying and celebration… Okay, that’s not true. But it does mean you can all get a little bit excited because it’s that much closer to the weekend (and sleep-ins! Also maybe waffles – James?). Before we get to the promised post though, I wanted to remind you about the Flooded Anthology! The Kickstarter went live yesterday and we’re trying to drum up support for this project: please, spare a few minutes and go over to have a look at this. Perhaps you know someone with a brain injury, perhaps you have suffered one; maybe you’d like to know…
-
Figuring Out Your Setting
Hellloooooooo everyone! For those of you who don’t know, I’m currently writing a YA fantasy novel (it took me a really long time to accept that it was YA, so we can all celebrate my publicly announcing it as a lovely little mid-week accomplishment), which is what got me thinking about this particular blog post. But first, a seemingly unrelated paragraph (it ties back in, promise). If you know anything at all about me, you know that I think brains are pretty cool things. For instance, for a woman who is occasionally bad at map reading [Disclaimer: I firmly believe that repeatedly missing turn-offs while James is driving isn’t really…
-
Inspiration
Happy Monday everyone! I’m prepping for my politics exam at the moment, which consumed a relatively large portion of the weekend (it also meant getting this up and ready was a challenge). It’s fascinating stuff, if pretty complex; I can foresee this area of my study spawning some politically-oriented posts in the future (hopefully I can keep it theoretical and avoid having to actually understand contemporary Western politics), but for now, I’ve generously decided to keep this post apolitical. You’re all welcome. So, inspiration. I can’t help but feel that, in terms of creative endeavour, inspiration is often held up to be this wondrous, mythical beast we’re all in wild…
-
Aussie Expats Update – Be Alert for Aliens
Happy Friday everyone! So, yet again, I’ve left the house every day this week: tonight we’re going out with James’ class to the Fort Sill Oktoberfest. In light of this recent troubling turn of events, I really think we need to implement an emergency protocol. If I get up a running tally of continually leaving the house every day, someone please step up to the plate, shoulder the mantle of responsibility and call the FBI: aliens have definitely taken over my body. James has a secret way of making toast (I can’t tell you what it is, in case the aliens are reading this), but I have no such defence…
-
Aussie Expats Update – Lesson of the Week
It’s Friday everyone. FRIDAY. No, I don’t feel like I’m exaggerating when I say I’ve been waiting all week for this. Yeah, yeah, I know – I don’t have a job and I need to study over the weekend for my psychology exam next Tuesday. But don’t bring me down. I have left the house every damn day this week and I’m exhausted. Don’t get me wrong: most of it was good. I mean had an awesome brunch out at Jimmy’s Egg on Thursday (the farmer’s skillet is the business people: go and try it if you don’t believe me) even though I didn’t have room for a cinnamon roll. Anyway,…
