Just Reading and Writing!

Hi

I've just added a new short story - well, I say 'new' but actually it's quite an old story but I thought it was worth an airing so it's new to the site.  It's called 'Ed's Big Night Out' - I hope you enjoy it!

Happy New Year - belatedly!

Well, everything went onto hold whilst I had a couple of operations in October 2009.  Recuperation was slow and I had a couple of quite scary moments which, thinking about them now, shouldn't have worried me, but they did.  If only foresight was as clear as hindsight!  However, I am now able to go back to work but because of the snow, I've only managed two days.  The spirit is willing and all that... 

What I found difficult to come to terms with was the fact that I wasn't able to write whilst I was off.  My inspiration was missing or, as I heard someone say on the tv the other day, "my mojo was gone"!   But I've got some some short stories in the pipeline at the moment, the sort that might be suitable for People's Friend or other women's magazines.  It's all good practice in writing to the market and that is what I find very difficult.  The answer is to just keep writing.  It doesn't matter if I'm not a Tolstoy, Binchy or JK Rowling.  No-one else has to read my work until I'm ready and even if it's no good now, there might be a gem there that could stand being re-written at a later date.

Happy writing!

Hello again.

My blog is falling behind a bit, I'm afraid.  The summer was spent in landscaping the back garden and I'm as pleased as punch with it: I'll post a photo when it is all planted up.  I am still writing when I get time.  At the moment, I'm doing a re-write on my novel 'Hannah's House' (working title); I've started a play about Leslie and Ischi and I had quite a positive critique back about the Leslie and Ischi letters which means that the manuscript will need to be updated as soon as I can.  Oh, and I had an idea for another novel which I've just roughed out so that I don't forget it but that will have to join the queue behind the other two novels that are awaiting attention.  I must finish the things I've started first!

Have a fun Halloween and a happy and safe bonfire night!

Hello again

It's been a long time since I posted anything on here, but this going to work lark really gets in the way of writing!  Anyway, I haven't given up - in fact, I've been very brave and sent off the Leslie and Ischi letters to a literary agency who are going to give me a critique.  The Agency seemed quite enthusiastic about the whole idea of these letters, but then I've had publishers express an interest and then lose heart.  However, I wonder if the problems I've been having have been because I haven't presented them correctly.  I've put them together into a book complete with appropriate fonts and illustrations but something that one publisher said has made me wonder if this has put them off.   I'm hoping the Agency will be able to put me right on this score!  Whilst, I'm waiting for their reply to come through, I'll carry on doing bits of writing and posting pieces to share with you.

As you will see, I've posted a paragraph about some letters that were written just after WW2 and I will eventually post some extracts for you to get a flavour.  If you want to know more, however, you'll have to contact me!

Well, I've added a couple more pages to my site - this time it's all about a day trip we made from Cyprus to Cairo several years ago.  Considering that I'm still talking about it, it must have made a very big impression on me.  See what you think.

I would really like to hear from you - tell me whether you like my stories or articles or not and why.  That way I will improve and you'll get more things that you like to read!

I must admit that I'm not a very regular blogger - I only 'blog' when I think I have something interesting to say.  I'm sure you don't really want to hear what I did in work today and as that takes up quite a bit of time, I don't have quite as much time to write as I should like.  So, little and occasionally will be my mantra!  On the other hand you might like to know that today I added a selection of photos taken during our trip on the Rocky Mountaineer so you can see at first-hand how accurate (or not!) my writing is.

Well, today I finally took the plunge and purchased my own domain name!  You'll have to bear with me, this website lark is a bit new to me and if things don't work right straight away, you can be sure that I'm trying to get it sorted. 

If you want to leave messages for me, you can do so on ali_23_reed@yahoo.co.uk.