Errrmmm.....................

I signed up to a book review service recently.  I loved the idea of getting free books to review and I thought why not? Trouble is when I did, my brain was still in 20th century mode and I was thinking of physical copies dropping through the letter box like literature confetti. Wrong!! Naturally virtually all the review requests I got were for electronic copy. Which made me think.

Some time ago, I decided I wanted an iPad. But the more I thought about it, the more bamboozled I became.  Look - I'm fifty seven in less than a fortnight! I'm allowed to be bamboozled by electronic gadgetry, okay!  And being bamboozled by electronic gadgetry is nothing new to me.  I think I have mastered this laptop now.  And I think I am half way there with my camera and my android phone.  But if I got an iPad what would I actually use it for?  What do they actually do?

And once I realised I was going to need something to read whatever books I choose to review, maybe what I needed was a Kindle?  I could not make up my mind one way or the other.  I spoke to a few people who had iPads and they said they didn't know how they managed without it.  Then I spoke to some Kindle readers.  Their argument was that a Kindle would be better because it is designed to hold books, and, since that was mainly what I wanted it for, that made the most sense.

With my birthday creeping ever closer, hubby Steve urged me today to make up my mind.  And I plumped for the Kindle Fire HD.  It can be used for other stuff as well - emails, Twitter, internet, movies etc.  I wouldn't ever use it for movies I know that but I will definitely use it for Books.  So we got it and brought it home and an hour or so ago, I got it all out.  The guy at Currys had set up the account and everything for me - and I have linked it to my email and Twitter accounts.  But after playing with it for an hour, I am still completely in the dark about how to use it.  I have no idea if I am connected to wi-fi or not.  On one screen it said I was.  On another it said I wasn't.  On one screen it advised me  to use free wi-fi - on another I was told I'd need to buy it - £4 for an hour or £35.00 for a month.  I am sure that can only be one option.  I can't believe it is going to cost £35 a month.  My almost-nine year old grand-daughter has one and I am pretty positive her mum doesn't pay £35 a month for that.  Or for her own one either.

In the end, I noticed it was only 40% charged so I have plugged it into fully charge and I will have another play with it tomorrow.   I am quite positive I will eventually get the hang of it because I eventually got the hang of the laptop, digital camera and android phone.  But that doesn't stop me wondering how.  Watch this space.  This could be a new saga.

Coming away from the electronic highway for a minute, the Young Writers had an excellent session yesterday morning.  I had seven regulars and one new member turn up and afterwards had two separate enquiries for potential new members.  One man has five children aged between five and ten that he is thinking of enrolling.  This means our numbers could double by Christmas which would take us back to where we were first time round when I regularly had sixteen youngsters turn up to a session.  When that happens I might need to find another local writer to help me run it.  But we shall see.

So with all this going on I am still managing to find some time to write what I can, when I can.  I am just about keeping on top of everything, although I often wish - as do most of us girls - that there were more hours in a day sometimes.  Because there's still running the house, visiting my old mum and maintaining a full-time job to consider.  And of course I have to save precious time to spend with Steve whom I love more than the entire universe!  So a lady of many facets I have become.

If anyone reading this can give me any advice on how to get the best out of my lovely new Kindle Fire HD please get in touch.  Nobody ever does but I promise I don't bite.  I think we'd get on just fine!  And between me and you I sure could use some advice...

Where Did That Month Go?

Weird thing today.  Woke up and realised we are almost at the end of June.  How did that happen?  I have had two weekend breaks, a holiday, a funeral - and news of a forthcoming new baby - in that time, had My Writer rejected (again), cranked up my online presence, had at least one  Young Writer session, published three pieces on Wattpad (take a look) and still managed to fit in a full time job, several visits to family and keep on top of the washing.  But I have not really had five minutes to sit down and do another blog post which is appalling!!! 

Anyway, all that is changing as of now.  Here I am at the Day Job, using my lunch break  (not to go shopping for a change) to say hello to you.    Yes - I have been very busy.  Have not yet started my new book  but a dozen or so poems have been born - and rediscovered - over the past few weeks and I have all kinds of irons in all kinds of fires.  I flatly refuse to let the latest rejection deter me from envisioning a successful future for My Writer.  Or the Yucketypoo books come to think of it.  But I know I also need to move on and get stuck into something completely new - including making myself known to more editors.  So I am open to commissions of all kinds - articles, features, special occasion stories or poems, ghost-writing, you name it, pretty much.  So if you need a speaker for your writing group (as long as I can get there; I don't drive remember), a competition judge for the latest story/poetry writing competition (yes I have even done that), would like me to come and speak to your class about Creative Writing... just let me know.  I won't let you down.

So that is about it for now.  Lunch break is almost over.  I have eaten my healthy lunch and, in about eight minutes, will be back to the grind.

Don't ever forget that if you do not believe in yourself, how can you expect other people to?  Go out there.  Make it happen.

Good writing!

Along Came A Tweet ...

I tell you I am really starting to get this e-thing!  I have posted two pieces of work on Wattpad and other people have actually read them!  I am getting tweets and follows from writers, editors, publishers ... now I can see what all the fuss is about!  The Electronic Gateway has been opened and stuff is pouring through it. But even though I am getting a great kick out of connecting with so many like minded people, I am seriously going to have to remember that, first and foremost, I am a writer!  And that means writing and not spending hours trawling the internet.  So here I am.

Did anyone see the latest Young Writer blog post? If you did you'll see that the group is coming together really well.  There is finally going to be an exhibition of the children's work in October.  I am going to tell them at the next session so they can start thinking about what they'd like included.  And the sessions themselves are such an improvement on what they used to be.  I have learned so much since the group started two years ago and that knowledge is giving me more structure and more options.  And I am still getting enquiries about it, which is really encouraging.  Scanning the internet a couple of weeks back, I found another Young Writer group on there - the Chelsea Young Writers.  So I have contacted them and am hoping to meet up with the organiser in the near future so we can exchange ideas.  Hers is done on a much bigger scale than mine though.  I think they have sessions most afternoons whereas I can only hold two a month.  But it is great to find someone else out there who can see potential at every turn.  I cannot wait to meet up!

Oh yes - and in case you are wondering, The Book is currently with another publisher - a traditional one this time - so fingers crossed.   It has been there just over a week so it is early days yet but I am still hoping this will be THE one.  All the best books take ages to get recognised and mine is no different.  In the meantime its is good to know there are other options out there.

Off to Devon this weekend - hope the weather stays good.  Must remember to take my Holiday Journal.

And that is about it for now me thinks!  Look forward to seeing you when I get back - or not seeing you!
Good Writing!

Getting To Grips With The Technological Highway...

I am still trying to find my way round the electronic version of Spaghetti Junction!  I think I am getting better at Twitter now, I update the two blogs fairly regularly and I have just joined LinkedIn.  I know I still need an actual website but to be truthful I don't think I am quite ready yet.  I have had several attempts at setting them up.  They all say it's free, it's simple, it can be set up in just minutes.  Well maybe that's the case with my sixteen year old nephew but it isn't with me.  I struggle every time.  Even LinkedIn took me best part of ten minutes despite the fact it tells you it can be done in just a couple.  And now I am thinking of getting a kobo.  That's the really scary bit!  I signed up with a book review service recently.  I have been swamped with requests for reviews but most of them are only available as e-books.  I am trying to reply to each writer but I will have to stick to shorter stuff.  Not only do I have a full time job and a home to run, I also have a writing career to maintain.  I love to read but I am only human.  I am running out of hours in a day already! And I am still seeking an agent or publisher for My Writer AND I need to find a new home for Yucketypoo - as well as all my as-yet-unpublished-poems.  I'd need to be at least three of me in order to fit it all in!  And one is quite enough thank you! Ask anyone who knows me!  Ah well I shall just have to win the lottery.  At least that should buy me a few more hours as an active writer ...

WOW ....

Have just found another possible opening on Twitter.  I also saw a poetry competition plugged on there today, which I WILL be entering.  I keep reading that we writers and poets should utilise social media and the internet and lately I have found myself drawn into it more than ever.  I am even thinking of getting a Kobo or Kindle for crying out loud!  And I said I would NEVER do that because I love real live, page-turning, beautiful books far too much.  But where the trends go - as a writer - I willingly follow (but I still draw the line at Facebook) because I am keen to keep up with the evolution of the written word, wherever that may take me!  And if anyone had told me a year ago I'd be saying that today, I'd never have believed them.

Still hunting for an agent or publisher for My Writer.  I cannot believe it is taking me so long when I know without a modicum of doubt, that there is nothing like it on the market place.  I am always reading how finding a gap in the market place is tantamount to getting published yet I have found one and nobody wants to know.  What's more with the Young Writer group working out so well and heading towards its third year, plus the discovery of a similar group for children somewhere in London, I also happen to know that there are more children out there interested in Creative Writing than anyone could guess.  Ah well - another thing drummed into all us writers and poets is how long it took other writers and poets to get their work published - Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach was rejected over two dozen times before anyone took that seriously.  Even Harry Potter took a while to find a home with Bloomsbury.  And Hugh Montgomery had to self-publish The Voyage of The Arctic Tern before a mainstream publisher expressed an interest, so I will just keep plugging away.  I know My Writer is right for someone.  I just don't know who yet.

By the way - more great news - but on a family level this time - I have just become Great Aunt to baby Harry, born last Friday.  And youngest daughter is getting married again in October to the nicest guy! Need one more great event to make it the magical Three (as in things always happening in threes) - which reminds me - I MUST check our lottery tickets tomorrow.  Maybe we'll win enough for me to Write Full Time!  Well you never know ...

The St George's Day Squib

Was thrilled to bits on the way to Wales last weekend to see a quaint little English town somewhere en-route, which had pulled out all the stops for the forthcoming day of our country's patron saint.  There was bunting up, St George flags hanging from every shop and notices everywhere for a parade to take place on the day.  I felt a surge of pride.  I have felt for many years that we do not do enough to celebrate St George's Day - especially when you see all the preparation that goes into St Patrick's Day every year wherever you happen to be - not that there's anything wrong with that.  I often feel like joining them and I really admire the way they make such an event of it.

So imagine my disappointment this morning when I was on my way to the day job with not a modicum of English Pride on show anywhere.  Even the paper I read on the train did not mention it.  I was quite gutted at the indifference and felt one of my "angry" poems building up.  This is the result; let me know what you think:-

HOW THE DRAGON BEATS ST GEORGE
(C) J P Henderson-Long 2014

On April 23rd you'd think
we people would observe
that fact it is St George's Day
on April 23rd.
You'd think there'd be a rich display
of patriotism on this day
and yet for reasons unexplained,
the dragon has emerged again,
not breathing fire you understand,
just quietly gaining the upper hand
on April 23rd.

Is it wrong to recognise
this country has come far?
Is it dreadful, may I ask,
to be proud of who we are?
Multi-culturism, I believe
is something great we have achieved,
we live and work and play together,
and just accept our adverse weather,
yet that dragon lifts its head,
perhaps old England's really dead
on April 23rd.

Not a flag about the town
nor any celebration,
even the media plays it down
much to my vexation.
Perhaps at length it is a sign
that to indifference we must resign
and let our patron saint just fade.
Perhaps we never made the grade
or maybe we should estimate
that dragon-slayers aren't that great
on April 23rd.

I think it's time we all joined hands
whatever race or creed,
and show the dragon that we are
an awesome group indeed.
Let's be proud of what we are,
each and every one a star,
stand together strong and bold
whether we are young or old.
We must not let that dragon win.
We never ever should give in.
Then maybe there could still be hope

on April 23rd.

Done & Dusted ...

Got the other article done over the weekend and by Sunday evening, both had been emailed to the editor.  By 8.30 Monday morning, both had been accepted - so not a bad start to the week!  The first one will go live in a couple of weeks and the second will follow about a month after that.  Hoping to be able to come up with some more now - I have been bitten by the being-published bug!  As soon as they are up, I will provide a link so you can take a look.  So pleased!

Guess everyone has by now heard that we lost Sue Townsend last Thursday?  I was absolutely gutted and felt as if I'd lost a personal friend.  I loved the Adrian Mole books from Day One and I still read them, in sequence, at least once a year.  Reading her work as regularly as that, I came to regard her as something of a Creative Writing guru.  I loved The Queen and I as well, but had to abandon The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year after it made me cry - although I may give it another go one day.  I never had the pleasure of meeting Sue but I will always have a bit of a soft spot for her and I think she will be sorely missed. RIP Sue Townsend.


Lots going on in my great big beautiful Writing World.  The Young Writer group is going well and I am bursting with new ideas, new poems, new opportunities.  I am seeing new possibilities at every turn and just wish I had the time to really get my teeth into it all (even as I write this I am sitting at my desk, overlooking the darkened garden, yawning my head off) instead of having to content myself with the odd little nibble whenever I get the chance.   Never mind.  I will always sacrifice time for Writing because it is the only thing that really keeps me sane!

Good writing, all!