When I revamped this blog a few weeks ago, little did I know where it was going to take me!
Yes one of my passions is the relationships each and everyone one of us hold but it does not just need to be with people but objects, cars, each other, our online relationships. In our technological world, we are tweeting, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, blogs, forums, I could go on, many people that I came across everyday, yet I have never met personally. Do you need to meet to have a relationship? Well I gave the topic some thought and this is what I came up with:
1/ Very obvious, my personal relationships, my husband gives me strength everyday, no matter what I am attempting to do, he has that faith in me that I can do whatever I want. He encourages me to write, to blog and recently have been drafting blogs for his website and new business First with Iain. We try to support each other. Do you have someone who gives you that faith and support to you on a daily basis?
2/ My children and my extended family support my writing and always want me to be happy and not in pain, not always easy since Fibromyalgia came into my life. It is something we work on together. Slowly my extended family are realising the impact of Fibro can have on my daily life.
3/ My dogs, Boris and Flora always there following me from room to room, sitting at my feet as I write. Always there giving affection as they receive it, never turning away. I never thought I would develop such strong bonds and relationships with our dogs but now as I am housebound most days they are the company to keep me sane.
4/ My writer mentors and friends, people I have never met but who give their advice and support freely. I always thank Nick Daws at this point as without him as his courses, guidance and support I would never have started writing in the first place. Who inspires you to write? What started you on the path of writing? Finally what sustains you to continue to write? If ever I am stuck for words or inspiration, I load one of his courses and soon the inspiration is flowing.
5/ In Jan 2009 I joined Rosemary Conley's online group to try to lose weight whilst my husband was away for six months on foreign soil. Here on the forum I met some lovely ladies, who although we no longer use the forum, we support each other on Facebook. I have never met these wonderful ladies and one in particular always reads my blogs, will comment and support. If I am down she never fails to make me laugh or smile and when she reads this will know who I am referring to.
6/ Fellow writers who blog, whether they are editors, publishers or simply writers sharing their knowledge. Joanna at The Creative Penn, Joe Konrath at A Newbie's guide to Publishing. Lately I have been wanting to write short stories as a break from the non fiction or my novel staring at me unfinished and crying for attention. Rebecca Emin is fabulous at Flash fiction and has many stories published by Ether books for Ipad or Itouch family. It even inspired me to purchase my own Itouch, which I am still learning but found I can carry many books in my handbag with very little weight and my diary all rolled into one. I am becoming quite passionate about this useful little tool in my handbag.
7/ my relationship with my author's platform and the tools I use to build it. My Twitter account, My Facebook followers, You my blog readers and the tools I use to achieve this. The love hate relationship we have with our PC, the frustrations we can have when your Internet is down, so you cannot blog or a virus holding you up whilst you clean your PC
This last week I was a little pleased with myself as managed to blog 3 times a week for past few weeks. They say pride comes before a fall, well mine did. PC did not want to work, a huge virus scan later discovered nothing but some adware cookies but enough for PC to go on strike. Then when I gently encouraged it to work, the Internet was done, with all the stormy weather we had and lastly to top the the lot, we had numerous power cuts. So a word of warning as we develop new relationships daily, sometimes the simplest things will trip you up!
Monday, 11 July 2011
Monday, 4 July 2011
10 things you may not know about Lesley's Passions updated.
1/ I love the outdoors, the Countryside and the sea. Whether it is walking along a beach with our dogs Boris and Flora or scrambling through the wild heather of Scotland and the wild scenery of Dartmoor but my dream location is a beach, walk far enough and you are generally alone.
2/ We have a Caravan we named Ernie, a Caravelle for me to be comfortable at the beach when husband is off surfing in his Kayak and we call her Carrie.
3/ I had the confidence to get into a wetsuit, may not seem much to some but I had the fear being branded a beached whale so would not do it. It felt great and I was told no whales in sight!
4/ I love being creative, whether it is outlining my next article, my book, a story, baking or sewing.
5/ Sometimes I can write with noise and distractions and other times I feel I have to be as Stephen Fry admitted to on his blog, completely cutoff, no distractions such as the freshly baked bread just alarming for my attention right now!
6/ I love taking recipes and seeing how I can make it healthier or my version of it to suit our tastes. I even wrote an article on this and may even do a book if there is any interest.
7/ Fallen in love with Scotland not to live but to visit, and my husband encourage me to walk up my first mountain 2 years ago up, Glenmore, opposite Aviemore. Although it was not a Munro but a Graham it was still a mountain to me.
8/ Love the thrill of learning something new and how I can make a success out of it, obviously currently that is writing.
9/ I used to imagine as a child that I was floating, often in the playground, until the school bell rang when of course I would float back down again often with a bump!!
10/ Note to self check and check before publishing. So here is number 10: I simply love healthy debate not arguments but debating a subject with friends and if it can be washed down with a glass of red I am in heaven.
What 10 things do I not know about you, are you willing to share or even blog about it, if so leave me your link would love to read them.
2/ We have a Caravan we named Ernie, a Caravelle for me to be comfortable at the beach when husband is off surfing in his Kayak and we call her Carrie.
3/ I had the confidence to get into a wetsuit, may not seem much to some but I had the fear being branded a beached whale so would not do it. It felt great and I was told no whales in sight!
4/ I love being creative, whether it is outlining my next article, my book, a story, baking or sewing.
5/ Sometimes I can write with noise and distractions and other times I feel I have to be as Stephen Fry admitted to on his blog, completely cutoff, no distractions such as the freshly baked bread just alarming for my attention right now!
6/ I love taking recipes and seeing how I can make it healthier or my version of it to suit our tastes. I even wrote an article on this and may even do a book if there is any interest.
7/ Fallen in love with Scotland not to live but to visit, and my husband encourage me to walk up my first mountain 2 years ago up, Glenmore, opposite Aviemore. Although it was not a Munro but a Graham it was still a mountain to me.
8/ Love the thrill of learning something new and how I can make a success out of it, obviously currently that is writing.
9/ I used to imagine as a child that I was floating, often in the playground, until the school bell rang when of course I would float back down again often with a bump!!
10/ Note to self check and check before publishing. So here is number 10: I simply love healthy debate not arguments but debating a subject with friends and if it can be washed down with a glass of red I am in heaven.
What 10 things do I not know about you, are you willing to share or even blog about it, if so leave me your link would love to read them.
Friday, 1 July 2011
Our shared passion of reading and writing.
As Writers we all started out as readers. When that change happen to us, when we decided to write as well as read is different in us all.
When at school we learnt how to read and write but most of time our writing consisted of writing what we were told, or to answer the question. Now as writers and Authors as many of hope to be, we have free reign to create and write a good story. I ask myself this question frequently, how it is then we are so disappointed with the books that have actually been published.
I am aware we all have different tastes but as a writer and reader you will have come across many I am sure of stories that lost the plot in the middle or seemed rushed at the end. Sometimes it even happens in films, you get to the end and it feels as someone has really lost the plot!
Whether you are an established author, or a struggling newbie, trying to put together and polish your first works, we all want to strive to write our best or is it just me? You want to create a page turner, something your readers do not want to put down, you hold that suspense, drama to the end where if you have been successful, you have your readers begging for more.
So how come in a world where traditional publishing houses are apparently struggling, has so many badly written books end up on our shelves leaving us with a bad taste in our mouths. I recently read a book where it was split into four sections but each sectioned to be linked to each other, the first three had me there turning page after page and then the final section was as if either the editor had told them to shorten it, or the author ran out of steam. I felt it was rushed, you had this big build up only for the ending to be rushed and incomplete and yet it was published by one of the big houses.
I ask myself, is it me? Have my standards of writing and reading risen so high I can no longer find satisfaction in published works by the traditional houses. For all the critics of JK Rowling and Dan Brown (and I am not one of them). Many of jealous of their success.All I know is that they created page turners. Stories you wanted to stay up all night to finish. The likes of Barbra Taylor Bradford and Nora Roberts I enjoy their works, but not all. I would not say I am so avid a fan I would buy all their books as I have not enjoyed all but that is down to taste not because of poor writing. Another bestseller I used to enjoy, now just seems to churn out the same, almost predictable scenes for his character. Has he gone stale or just trying to rely on his fans to buy his new repeats.
Whatever my future skills may fall, I hope no one has to write such a blog over me, publishing poor works with the big houses depending the fan base.
I wish you all a happy weekend and hope whatever your reading delivers your expectations.
What books have you read that have not come up to the mark ?
Did you feel it was down to your taste or had the author somehow let you down?
Let me know would love to hear from you!
When at school we learnt how to read and write but most of time our writing consisted of writing what we were told, or to answer the question. Now as writers and Authors as many of hope to be, we have free reign to create and write a good story. I ask myself this question frequently, how it is then we are so disappointed with the books that have actually been published.
I am aware we all have different tastes but as a writer and reader you will have come across many I am sure of stories that lost the plot in the middle or seemed rushed at the end. Sometimes it even happens in films, you get to the end and it feels as someone has really lost the plot!
Whether you are an established author, or a struggling newbie, trying to put together and polish your first works, we all want to strive to write our best or is it just me? You want to create a page turner, something your readers do not want to put down, you hold that suspense, drama to the end where if you have been successful, you have your readers begging for more.
So how come in a world where traditional publishing houses are apparently struggling, has so many badly written books end up on our shelves leaving us with a bad taste in our mouths. I recently read a book where it was split into four sections but each sectioned to be linked to each other, the first three had me there turning page after page and then the final section was as if either the editor had told them to shorten it, or the author ran out of steam. I felt it was rushed, you had this big build up only for the ending to be rushed and incomplete and yet it was published by one of the big houses.
I ask myself, is it me? Have my standards of writing and reading risen so high I can no longer find satisfaction in published works by the traditional houses. For all the critics of JK Rowling and Dan Brown (and I am not one of them). Many of jealous of their success.All I know is that they created page turners. Stories you wanted to stay up all night to finish. The likes of Barbra Taylor Bradford and Nora Roberts I enjoy their works, but not all. I would not say I am so avid a fan I would buy all their books as I have not enjoyed all but that is down to taste not because of poor writing. Another bestseller I used to enjoy, now just seems to churn out the same, almost predictable scenes for his character. Has he gone stale or just trying to rely on his fans to buy his new repeats.
Whatever my future skills may fall, I hope no one has to write such a blog over me, publishing poor works with the big houses depending the fan base.
I wish you all a happy weekend and hope whatever your reading delivers your expectations.
What books have you read that have not come up to the mark ?
Did you feel it was down to your taste or had the author somehow let you down?
Let me know would love to hear from you!
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