Made it to the weekend;-)

Hi peeps

Enjoy your weekend and remember to relax, your brain works hard and it needs a break…give it a treat, make it smile.

I am forcing myself “Little Miss Workalot,” to take the rest of the weekend off, no popping on to the laptop for a “quick” write or plotting for the children’s book I’ll be working on next week, my brain is telling me it wants a short time out from work. In fact, I think it’ll probably ask for a lie in tomorrow morning!

The rugby world cup started last night so the TV and news is full of that and the Davis Cup tie of GB vs Australia is also happening as well as a gazillion football matches so if you’re a sporty bod you’ll be blissfully happy in Blighty…I’m not that sporty, don’t get me wrong, I respect the talent and appreciate the dedication of all concerned but I’d rather read a good book. (Or write one!)

Or should that be read two? Yet again, I am reading more than one at a time…a chapter of a history book followed by a chapter of a novel in rotation. That is unless a really page turning, “I can’t put this down unless you chop my hands off” good bit compels me to keep reading. Ahhh happy days! This is an embarrassment of riches I love.

I’ve finished editing my book due for release 1st October and have done some freelance work this week and learned stuff while researching that I didn’t even know that I didn’t know that I would ever want to know.

Oh yes, and to the client who asked me to write an article about football betting strategies I had to respond that “a newborn baby has a better concept”of all that…see, told you I wasn’t sporty (and I have the coordination of a cross eyed bat. No, really!) I hope that he found someone that knew what the heck they’d be talking about.

Take care

Joanne

 

Time for a poem!

Hiya

I wrote this a while ago and reread it today, I thought that you might like to take a look….

Madeleine

Just minutes before she hit the merciless land

She glided majestically towards the sound

Her sails played in the off shore breeze, broadly fanned

Alas, too late the crew felt seawater turn to ground

I watched as the traumatised Madeleine went down

She stumbled as mocking cliffs towered over her

All Madeleine could do was acquiesce and drown

Surrender her soul to the sea bed below, cast aside despair

The crew tried all they could to save their sweetheart

But it counted for nought; she was incomplete, unable to compete

As saltwater suffocated, her deck woefully split, torn apart

Her timbers crack to the echo of nature’s heartbeat

There have been many Madeleine’s over the years

There will be many more in the centuries to follow

The cliffs respected the captain’s heroic lack of fear

Pragmatic, in sorrow our captain dared not wallow

Ashore, later we found a silver tankard belonging to Joe

He cared, this captain of the good ship Madeleine

From bow to stern she was his one true love

Together in the sea their wreckage remains

The mourning crew held the tankard aloft and offered a prayer

For Joe and his dear Madeleine lost to life on this coast

The orange sunset lent a golden glint to the lapping waves there

But the cliffs whispered of menace; spectres to their sea ghosts.

And a bonus senyru titled sculpting…I have under a thousand words to go until the “Ta dah! my book is finished moment…please see my last post if that meant nothing to you!;-)

Chapter edit day

My first draft infused with play

Sculpting words like clay.

Have a fab day

Joanne

Wish I’d thought of it sooner:-)

Hiya

 

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday a.k.a. Funday!

I’ve been editing like a ninja this week, less than 4500 words to go so take a guess what I’ll be doing Monday and Tuesday this week?! After this it’s back to childrens fiction. (Thanks to the lovely man that said yes to my pitch!)

And now for something completely different…you know how on the news we keep seeing images, mainly tragic, of refugees fleeing from Syria and that area? Well, I, like most people I know, was whinging that the government needed to do more, that these people needed help. It was a couple of days before I realised that it’s fine to SAY that but 100% better to DO so I did something that I should have already done – I donated to a charity that is working on the ground with the refugees…so now I have helped in a tiny way instead of just decrying the powers that be from my nice warm and thankfully safe home.

While I know that my donation won’t make a miracle, if it gets added to another someone’s donation and then someone elses…and so on…just think what the human race could do for those that are suffering! Moreover, people find spare cash for a treat so why the heck shouldn’t they find cash to help repair a catastrophe?!

Life eh? It throws up some interesting questions.

Take care and remember to tickle your tum to make yourself laugh;-)

Joanne

 

Freedom

Hi,

 

Nelson Mandela: “Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.”

I know I’ve taken the quote out of context for this poem but he was right!

 

Freedom is not always a matter of physical locks

Imprisonment is a question of the mind too

When my brain housed invisible locks and rocked

I was told a fact my belief system once refused

I laughed gently, scared, not truly meaning to mock

“The psychological response to emotional abuse

Is roughly the same as a prisoner of war’s.” That left me shocked

But I conceded defeat and accepted this news

I was, am, the untrained, expertise was not mine to knock

I had believed that I had no right to my fear and blues

I now believe that Post Traumatic is indeed a shock

But I’m happy to say I’ve been paying my dues

And memory by memory, my mind’s key is nearing the lock

Freedom is on its way and freedom is the path I choose.

 

I hope that everyone, all 6.5 billion plus of us on Planet Earth finds, loves and enjoys freedom mentally, spiritually and physically. Fingers crossed, toes crossed, eyes crossed…

 

Whilst reading and editing my next book and pootling about in desktop files (as you do) I’ve found this poem that I wrote about PTSD and freedom and I decided to share it.

Oh yeah, and please make it a mission to make someone smile, go on, you know you want to!

Joanne

 

Err…you can’t say that!

Hi

It’s a bank holiday weekend here and surprise surprise it’s raining (again) so I am taking refuge on my comfy sofa later with a book about Catherine the Great so here’s hoping that as I’m editing my book about Charles II at the moment I won’t get confused and start rewriting history, you know, just for fun!

 

 

Anyway, here’s what happened early last night, it made me smile…

OK, the British are legends on the subject of weather, we can’t go thirty seconds without discussing it and we probably dream about it too…so, I was a bit surprised when Mr. Weatherman pointed to his sexy graphics of rainfall over Blighty after the news last night and authoritatively uttered the immortal line “but don’t take too much notice of that.” 

You can’t give a Brit the weather forecast and then tell them that it might be totally rubbish and containing inaccurate pictures and warblings, the nation will go in to mass bemusement and seek therapy! There just aren’t enough therapists in the land to cope with the crisis – I know that the TV company are changing info providers soon but really, are the old lot just yanking our chains?! Heaven forbid that we actually look out of the window and decide what the weather is up to, the very thought is nonsense!!

Just to confirm that the country seems to be OK, people are going out unsuitably dressed for the weather and moaning about it being the end of summer before it’s started as usual so we’ll be fine. No, we will, if we all huddle under an umbrella in sandals and bobblehats and blame the weatherbod for the forecast being almost right.

Have a fab rest of the weekend and remember to relax and to dress weather appropriate, sixteen layers should do it!

Joanne

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard day?

Hi,

 

If you’ve had a nightmare/not great/don’t even go there! kind of a day I hope this relaxes you a bit…and if you’ve had a fab day then it’s high fives all round!;-)

A Fresh Brew

After raindrops pitter-pattered

The aroma of freshly brewed

Rejuvenation on parched land

 

Mother Nature douses liberally

Watering for life’s longevity

Listless earth is stirred, made sprightly

 

Its cooling drink of invigorating rain

Supped, sodden land shifts, settles again

Beneath hot rays moisture will drain

 

But her sense of survival is imbued

Mother Nature will pour another enlivening brew

The scent of life will permeate as nature renews.

 

I’ve had one of those poddlingly productive sort of days, I know that I’ve got a lot of little tasks ticked off the list (imaginary!) but it feels like I’ve been sat here all day not doing much – crazy huh?!

 

Remember to smile and to make someone else smile, Joanne.

 

Saturday Night

Hi, it might be the heat (or insanity!) but I’m thinking seagull-sea lion-Saturday night!

 

Saturday Night On The Sea Front

Cyril the seagull was feeling henpecked

But that’s what happens when you fly in to a chicken coop

He would have put his glasses on when he got out of bed

So that he could see where he was going loop the loop

But he’d gone out last night on the seafront with Fred

Fred was a fellow chip eating gull, a gent and scholar

He’d drunk him under the table, and through a crisp packet

And Cyril lost his specs to the sea, “Come back!” he did holler

Looking for them Cyril and Fred made such a racket

Alas, specs are not obedient so it became time for valour

Cyril crept home to the missus, she wasn’t pleased

At the half blind gull fluttering around her tidy nest

Squawking away, his woes she did not want to ease

He assured her that he’d tried to find them, he’d done his best

Hampered by his bleary eyes. She sent him out to sleep with the bees

The morning came and there was work to do

He saw Fred on his way to the ocean, laughing hysterically

This was after he’d shocked the chickens and made them poo

Walloped his wings and bumped his head on twenty odd trees

Fred screeched “Look out to sea, mate, I’ve good news for you!”

He saw what his friend was doubled over about

A sea lion was lumbering merrily towards the shore

Wearing the glasses, unable to see through them no doubt

“You must be Cyril.” the sea lion honked, Cyril was in awe

“Your missus said to look out for you, you hungover beaky lout.”

 

Have a fab rest of the weekend and treat yourself to a lie in!

Joanne

 

Daylight!

Hiya

I been so busy in the last week working on various writing projects that today was going to be a day off BUT I woke up wanting to write something so, here I am. This might give me my writing fix so that I can relax for the rest of the day! Or, knowing me, I’ll keep writing!

Apparently there was daylight during my week in writing hibernation, I think I saw the sun once or twice but I’ve been absorbed in writing and editing a childrens book, doing a couple of freelance jobs and researching for my new history book.

The childrens book, The Amazing Treasure Hunt, is sitting with a publisher now so fingers and toes crossed that all is well…I might cross my eyes as well – Feel free to join in!!

The history book is part written and I’ve been building up the data so that I can write like a ninja from tomorrow onwards!

Meanwhile, I think I’ve sourced an artist for my “coming soon” children’s story website and I’m waiting on news for another couple of freelance jobs.

I’m so grateful and I guess relieved too when the client says that they like what I’ve produced, it really energises me to tap away on my laptop and let my imagination run wild.

Have a fab day,

 

Joanne

 

 

 

 

Laptop, words, YAY!

Hi peeps

Hope you’re having a fab day.

I have had the most fabtasticexcellentmarvellous time writing full on – do not disturb – style the last few days. I love it when the inspiration and pinkies work in unison with my laptop and produce (fingers crossed) a fab piece of work.

I nearly always get a bit nervous when I start a new piece, will it soar or bellyflop in to nowhere plot land??? Yesterday and today, smooth flights. (Phew!) Tomorrow…more fingers crossed. But right now my writing brain cells are pooped. Officially. They refuse to work any more. They’re on strike.

And yes, yours look like this at the end of a work day, it’s not just me! 

Good job that my reading brain cells are limbering up for a work out. I’m reading about Grace Kelly at the moment. Interesting lady. As with all people, very little is absolute, humans are a mass of contradictions. Keeps us busy working ourselves out, I suppose!

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Joanne

 

Working!

Hiya

 

I have to admit that I love the feeling when you start writing and it flows as if there’s an electrical inspirational charge from brain to fingertips as you type away.

I wrote a short story out of nowhere after I finished another project, there was still an hour or so until I wanted to finish work and so I thought OK, let’s see what happens…

What happened was an 1800 word short story and it looked like a miracle when it arrived on the page! I get amazed when it happens.

It’s easy to take things for granted, the “I’m writing this today and tomorrow and the day after it’s…” but I don’t think that the magic involved in a creative piece arriving from the ether will ever diminish for me…and I don’t want it to. EVER.

I am very lucky to be able to write each day and some of it may be cringeworthy when I look back at it pre-edit but just to be able to have the freedom and the brainpower to do what I love is totally fab.

Hope you’re doing what you love to do, have a great day.

 

Joanne X

PS please keep your fingers crossed that the freelance job I bid for earlier gets a big fat YES from the client! THANKS!