Brain drain

Hi

It’s been a while, time flies! I hope you missed me…what? you didn’t notice I’d been away…Charming!!

Anyhow, I’ve been a busy bod freelance writing a lot of diet, fitness, superfood, exercise blogs and lifestyle articles…it’s amazing how you think you know a subject fairly well but there’s always more to learn! I’ve switched white bread for wholemeal and increased almond eating…apparently they are very good for you. I live, I learn.

It’s lovely when you get good feedback too, thank you to anyone who gives me a fab review, I appreciate the compliment and I know that you don’t have to comment. It’s great for the soul though.

What’s not good is that I’ve been naughty…slapped wrists time…I worked without taking a day off for almost two weeks and guess what? My brain and body kicked my butt! As much as I love a searing headache, feeling overtired and wrung out like an old dish cloth (NOT) I have to remember that my OCD, anxiety brain needs a rest or I’m playing double jeopardy with my recovery which thankfully has been very good these last few weeks. I’m fine now and lesson learned – the hard way. Hmmm.

I’ve also been working on a new book for my series Royal Rifts, this one is on Mary Queen of Scots and her marriages. Stormy! It will be out in the spring. Publication date to follow.

Well, that’s me, and my brain and writing life for the last few weeks so take care and remember to rest your brain cells. They’ll be glad you did!

 

Joanne

Mrs Santa – Fun Christmas Poem

Hiya

Tis the season to be jolly so here’s a fun Xmas poem…enjoy!

Mrs Claus

The keen little elf said “Err, hello.”

In a tiny voice, not an elfin bellow

“Have you seen Mr. Santa Claus?

Is he in his office behind those doors?”

 

Mrs. Claus smiled her kindest smile

Newbie elves were sweet, just like a new child

For she and the toy making crew knew

That her husband was turning the air blue

 

Not in the office, paperwork amassing

But outside in the chill enduring a gassing

The poor beardy guy was again falling prey

To back drafts caused not by his sleigh

 

The reindeers were enjoying giggling fits

The mayhem was courtesy of Mrs. S’s titbits

She would insist on giving the reindeer molasses curry

Before their MOT’s she’d get cooking, all of a flurry

 

It’s a strange coincidence Santa thought

As some fresh air and his breath he caught

That it’s always somehow a curry dinner the night

I say the next day it’s MOT’s and practice flights

Dishing up for all, Mrs. S would sweetly smile at him

And say that she’d cooked up curry on a whim

Poor Rudolph’s nose never lost its glow

After the 1924 vindaloo went down below

“Daydreaming, Mrs. S?” Her sleeve was tugged by elf, Ed

“You’d better give it five minutes,” she knowingly said

“Or it won’t only be your clothes that are green.”

Ed frowned, “Whatever, lovely lady, do you mean?”

 

“Well, Santa’s doing reindeer MOT’s in the snow

With last night’s dinner he’s meeting ho ho ho!”

“Surely you’ve not indulged in foul play, Mrs. Claus?”

She folded her arms, grinned through the pause

 

“Ask the elder elves, they’ll tell you Santa won’t let me take flight

Or steer the lovely reindeers on any Christmas night

Always it’s a no ho ho when I ask but he’ll get the hint one day I’m sure

In the meantime for his Christmas roses there’ll be spicy manure

And for us an annual work day bonus of entertainment galore!”

 

Have a fab rest of the day and holiday season, Joanne :-)X

Quick Plug!

Hi

I hope everyone is enjoying December, so far it’s been writing busy, fulfilling and with lovely surprises for me so that’s all good. Great start to the day, a Christmas story of mine will be used on Bedtime FM soon – thanks and Yay!

And this lovely tome went on sale on Amazon in paperback and Kindle this morning too. Another Yay and a Thank God! Some people have already bought it!!! It can be borrowed too – shameless plug moment!!

Here’s a little present from me to you…a senryu poem! I wrote this last Christmas time but it’s just as, if not more so, needed this year…

“Wrote to Santa Claus

Asked for wars and hate to cease

A gift of world peace.”

Have a great, safe and full of love and peace week,  Joanne

Bonus flippant Yay…I’m a Celebrity is OVER!!!! not a lover of it, as you can tell.

 

 

Busy bee, that’s me

Hiya

Just so you know I’m a really really really really wonderfully fantabuously busy bee writing at the mo…thank you brilliant clients!! Yippee and double yippee!

I just have to remember that brain overload/stress/spontaneous combustion is sooooo last season. Thankfully, I have helpful (indispensible) anxiety disorder busting techniques in place so if you see a firework going off soon it won’t be a U.K based writer exploding into a gazillion sparkly pieces!!

Here’s a tanka poem that I hope you enjoy…

 

Nature’s Hand

Sprinkled rain diamonds

On a web’s silvery base 

Adorn nature’s hand

So in glory she displays

Majesty of which she’s fond.

 

Happy rest of the weekend and remember there’s always time for a smile and to count your blessings.

Joanne :-)X

 

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

 

Monday poem

Hi

I wrote this poem – a tanka, hope you enjoy it:

 

Pesky Hound

Bedraggled, laughs, shakes

Showers humans, home and self

Mud,rain splattered flanks

Padding around in rude health

Dripping loving gleeful thanks.

 

 

It’s still raining but I’m a happy writing-editing-reading bod…YAY! Oh yeah and there’s a big sticky gooey and let’s not discuss calories chocolately creamy nutty  dessert tonight, not that I’m looking forward to it, obviously!!LOL.

 

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