Archive for January, 2012

Poetry 1: I was down that road before

 [I don’t usually write poems, because I’m not really sure how to and I don’t think I’m good at it, but we had a group exercise set a couple of weeks ago to expand on the opening words “I was down that road before” and for some reason, a poem is what came to me so I decided to give it a shot. It might need some more work in future but we’ll see if I ever get the courage to return to it.]

 

I  was down that road before

In another lifetime

When dreams seemed attainable

And hope was more than a feeling

Now all I gleam are passing shadows

Of a life that could have been

So when I’m glum

I pause and remember

That dreams that haven’t come true

Were probably never meant to be.

.

 
2012
01/30
CATEGORY
Poetry
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3 comments

The Waiting Game

For an impatient human like me, there is nothing worse than waiting. It is the most brutal torture of them all. Waiting at a line at the post office or bank, waiting for that phone call from an agent to confirm you’ve got a job you’ve been dying to have, waiting for your computer to finish installing a programme so that you can get to bed at 2am in the morning. I’ve tried different things over the years to help increase my patience but not many have worked. Breathing deeply and counting to ten helps sometimes but only for annoying things like waiting for a lift which seems to be stuck on the 15th floor. I’m pretty sure I’d pass out if I tried it at a supermarket queue or as I wait for the long overdue bus (how many times have we waited 20mins at a bus stop for a journey that would have taken us 15mins to walk?).

Another technique I have tried is convincing myself that if what I want had arrived earlier (document, job, cab, whatever) there would have been something wrong with it. For example, perhaps the late bus has saved me from being mugged about an hour later because I’ve had to change my plans to suit my delay. Continue reading →

2012
01/24
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Versatile Blogger Award nominations

I received a Versatile Blogger Award nomination yesterday! Thanks http://gjscobie.wordpress.com/

Now I have to follow the rules for the Award which are :

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers.

2. Inform the bloggers of their nomination.

3. Share 7 random things about yourself.

4. Thank the blogger who nominated you.

5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award pic on your blog post.

So here we go.

Seven random things about me:

– I sing in a choir

– I do not like chocolate (I eat it if I have to but really don’t like it most of the time)

– I once had my hair dyed green (it did start off as midnight blue)

– I used to aggressively bite my nails and the surrounding skin (disgusting habit which I stopped at 16 but my nails have never recovered)

– as a child, I wanted to become an English teacher (dreams, eh?)

– I was in a musical group called Mickey Band until our nanny stole all our money and we broke up

– I play the guitar (really badly but it still counts)

My nominees are:

http://thediaryofalostone.blogspot.com/

http://madamchiso.blogspot.com/

http://suehealy.org/

http://1storyaweek.com/

http://writerslondon.typepad.com/

http://www.johnnyawrites.co.uk/

http://neekswrite.wordpress.com/

http://randomwordsmeaneverything.wordpress.com/

http://ethanarc.wordpress.com/

http://sofarfromheaven.com/

http://sorealtonight.wordpress.com/

http://plantainperiodicals.wordpress.com/

http://www.mynewhitmanwrites.com/

(Sorry it’s only 13 but I’m out of nominees)

2012
01/21
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4 comments

Snap!

I know it’s the middle of January and most sensible people would say we should stop whining about the cold and accept that it’s still winter but, my goodness, it is cold! Strangely, it’s not as cold as last winter when airports had to be closed and schools were shut for days (if only offices shut too…). So why does it feel so much worse this year? Maybe it’s because the temperature  fluctuates from unseasonal highs of 12 degrees to expected highs of 3 degrees over the course of one week, that we’re so grumpy about it . Or it’s the 60mph winds we’ve been getting despite the mild weather.  Continue reading →

2012
01/17
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Going Potty

Fourteen years and six months after the first book in the series was published (yes, I checked), I picked up my copy of  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s  Stone and immersed myself in the all too popular world of witches and wizards. As an avid reader of epic fantasy, most of my friends find it strange that it has taken me so long to get onboard the Hogwarts Express but I’m finally there and I have to admit that I’m not sure why I didn’t read the books before. The copies I have at the moment were sent to me from across the Atlantic because my older sister read the series and knew that I would like them, and yet I left them collecting dust on my book shelf for over a year. I didn’t have any serious objection to the series and I have seen all the movies (except for the last two) but for some reason, I resisted and resisted till my younger sister beat me to it and started to read the first book. She is a lot more selective about what she reads than I am so when I saw that she was enjoying the book, I knew there was hope. Three weeks on and I’m halfway through the third book  (it helps when you have all seven books and don’t have to wait a couple of years for each one to be released).

I’m not sure why but I was shocked to find that the stories are simply written and easy to follow. Then someone pointed out to me that they were written for children. Duh! That explains why it feels like I am reading an Enid Blyton series, but not in a bad way.  So my impression so far, I find Harry very annoying with his famous scar, adventurous streak and indifference to saying the name Voldermort when clearly he should be petrified of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. I really liked Ron because he’s funny and pretty much a normal kid and I’m sure my 10-year-old self would have had a crush on his character – sadly we all know what Rupert Grint looks like so that’s off the table (sorry Rupert). Continue reading →

2012
01/12
CATEGORY
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6 comments

It Starts With One…

Back in November, I blogged about giving “The Other Slipper” some company in the wonderful world of ebooks in the form of another novel I’ve written called “The Altercation of Vira” (see Two Is Company). The more observant readers might have noticed that the My Books…So Far tab on my sidebar has been updated within the last few months but not with said novel (feel free to check out the novella listed there, if you’re interested in YA fiction). 

What I’ve decided to do is post the prologue and first 3 chapters of Vira on this blog so that readers can sample the book before it hits retail stores. Retailers usually allow readers download between 10 and 20% of the book content before purchase so I figured, why not start early?  Continue reading →

2012
01/05
CATEGORY
The Altercation of Vira
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2 comments

Short Story 14: Sins of the Father

[Happy New Year readers! This is my take on a competition from Wimbledon Bookfest last year, which we decided to try out at my writing group. The competition called for an interpretation of any one or more of the “Seven Deadly Sins” and it had to be no longer than 200 words. Can you guess my sin/sins.]

Twenty years of the best part of her life and he had left her for that tramp. She had given him everything and it meant nothing. She hadn’t seen him in six months but when they had to identify his body, they came to her. She was still legally his wife; for this, the tramp didn’t count. She stared at his face, a bluish-grey shade now that there was no life in it. They said it was an accident; the pipe had flown off the back of a lorry and gone through his windscreen ripping a hole the size of a 5p coin through his heart. Continue reading →

2012
01/03
CATEGORY
Short stories
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4 comments

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Kenechi Udogu