Celebrate the Small Things - 31 May

I never knew you could add a caption
before

The week went by fast didn't it? Here we are Celebrating The Small Things again on this last day of May. Y'all know the drill: Sign up on the linky, post Celebrations for the week, and hop around and celebrate with others. These Celebrations can be as small as you like and related to whatever you like!

My Celebrations for this week are:

• It is nearly the weekend. After a busy week, I need it!
• Said weekend involves a fun hen do for my friend :)
• I had a nice time at my writing group last night.
• I discovered captions for pictures you upload on blogger.

What are YOU celebrating this week?

Here's the linky list - do hop and do a visit. After next Friday's I'll do a trim. I won't set a cut off date specifically, but I'll remove blogs which don't look like they've joined in for a month or two.

Celebrations of Small Things -24 May

Hey all, it's another Celebrate the Small Things!

You know the drill: sign up on the linky, post celebrations for the week, and hop around the list and comment!

My celebrations for the week are simple:

I had a few days off with my boyfriend by the sea and we had a very lovely time. My Dad (who died some quite a few years ago now) always used to make us stop and breathe the fresh sea air the MINUTE we saw the sea at all, and I made my boyfriend stop the car when we got to the seaside to do the same. It is funny how small moments like that bring my Dad right back!

I am working this weekend and part of me kind of wants to still be on holiday, but am choosing to celebrate the overtime instead!

I have had a few LOVELY blog nominations, and I really really appreciate them. Thank you so much. I am slow re. responding with a post myself here but know that I appreciate it and welcome them and I thank you. I celebrate anybody taking the time to nominate me.

I am working this weekend so afraid I won't hop around until Monday most likely but I WILL visit. In a week or two I'll go through the list and if there are any not joining in, I will prune it to make it easier for us all to hop! :)

Space going on London workshop with author/agent

Any London or UK based writers out there who fancy a space on a workshop with published YA author Sara Grant and her agent, Jenny Savill?  I booked a slot and can't go anymore, so my space is up for grabs. It is Sat June 15th and was £65. Would be great to get all / some of the cost back but also I'd hate for the space to go to waste.

All the details are here but basically it involves a day in blackheath, an in depth workshop on critique from Sara and ten minutes with her agent looking over your cover letter, pitch and synopsis. It's a great opportunity. There's a Nov date too and I could probably ask to transfer it to that if that was better.

If anybody is interested please let me know asap and certainly let me know you are considering it by the end of the week. Feel free to drop me an email (viklitblog@gmail.com) or comment here.

Celebrate the Small Things - 17 May

Welcome to another weekly edition of 'Celebrate the Small Things'. Please welcome your host...oh hang on. This is the weekly celebration of the small things in life. The welcome cup of tea. The flower blooming in your garden.

The instructions are simple: Sign up on the list, post a celebration, hop around and congratulate others and say YAY and be gleeful.

I have had a crazy busy week (hence no reminder email - sorry!) so my celebrations are:

• My colleague bringing me a cup of tea when I was too busy to make my own
• The fact I now have a few days off with my boyfriend
• Looking forward to a lie-in tomorrow
• My tomato plants growing well- not long to tomatoes!

How about you?

Remember to hop around the list!

Cover Reveal: Tara Tyler, Pop Travel

Today is an exciting day folks, for I am taking part in the cover reveal for my awesome CP, Tara Tyler!

I have had the fortune of reading Pop Travel and can tell you all that is an exciting sci fi noir featuring a cat and mouse game between a hard-boiled detective and the government investigators who are trying to catch him. It's about TELEPORTATION for crying out loud, you can't get more exciting than that.

It is out July 7, 2013 by Curiosity Quills

This is what is exciting about being involved in the writing community. You get to be joyful when your critique partners books come out, and let me tell you, I am popping with excitement. (Though not like in the book!) Tara is a supportive, fun friend I am very happy to have met online and super happy her great book has come out.

For those of you wondering how to meet critique partners, there are lots of ways. The lovely girls at Falling for Fiction regularly do a CP match up, and CP Seek is another place you can meet people. In my case though, I simply offered to read it. I saw Tara talking about it on her blog, thought it sounded awesome, and offered. And she offered to read something of mine back. So there you go.

Okay onto the cover and then I'll tell you more about the book, and Tara!

Isn't that fab? It just shouts Sci Fi to me and really fits the book! Here's more about it:

Private Investigator J. L. Cooper always knew pop travel laser teleportation was too good to be true. Finding video proof of a disintegrating traveler is the stomach turning “I told you so.”

Cooper can’t broadcast the video on the nosy, government monitored Qnet, so he digs around, revealing more suspicious traveler disappearances, the death of his client, and threats to his political little brother, who is in jeopardy of turning to dust anyway for disregarding Cooper’s warnings not to pop. Cooper has to do everything himself.

To stop the disappearances and save his brother he must shut down the ruthless mega corp Pop Travel International (PTI). And that means convincing Hasan Rakhi, the celebrity Creator of pop travel, to publicly admit the deadly flaw. No problem. Under constant surveillance, Cooper will have to be unpredictable, facing his fear of popping to crash a party at Hasan’s well-fortified plantation compound. Yes, the laser fences are real. As long as he survives his next pop, Cooper won’t let anything distract him from getting the job done. Not the android security guards, who aren’t as bright as they look, or even Southern Comfort in a purple dress, Geri Harper (an undercover Agent). Nothing Coop can’t handle.

& Here's Tara:

Bio:

Math teacher by day, sports mom by night,

When does she have time to write?

Good question, but the Lazy Housewife makes time! Tara Tyler writes sci fi, thriller, and fantasy, with dabs of romance and humor and tips for efficient living. Something for everyone.

She's also a general, all round awesome human being and if you don't follow her already at Tara Tyler you should!

Put July 7 in your diaries and plan on buying it ;)

Celebrate the Small Things: 10 May

Greetings friends and once again we are Celebrating The Small Things of the week!

Celebrate the pipe being fixed, the sun coming out, the cup of tea just when you needed it, the chapter falling into place and anything else you fancy. The rules are so simple I barely need to explain:

Sign up on Da List Below
Post Celebrations
Hop round other people and say YAY THAT'S FAB. This is quite a crucial bit actually. Because other people's small things make me smile. That sounded weird but you know what I mean. I love reading everybody's small things.

Celebrations:
There's an animal web cam with brand new puppies on.SEE HERE
I had a nice glass of rose wine with a friend and fun chat hearing all about her new lovely sounding boyfriend It's Friday. 'nuff said.

 Here's the list! Go visit people!

A to Z Challenge: Reflections

This year was my first time taking part in the A to Z Challenge. My theme was 'what I learned about writing from watching TV'. I'd like to say a big thank you to anyone who read any of my posts, or commented, or encouraged me in any way.

The Positive:

I enjoyed chatting about TV and expanding my usual writing posts out somewhere different. It was very nice to learn which TV shows people were fans of, and which people had never heard of (poor old Young Americans. I am the only person who watched it.) It was very cool to learn how connected I was with some people in terms of our TV Viewing. (Allison of Geek Banter, you spring to mind!)

I watch or have watched a lot of TV, I learned.

When I had posts scheduled, life was easier. I had time to read comments and reply. Planning them too far ahead got hard, as I muddled up the days and nearly ended up posting them all wrong.

The Negative:

I don't have enough time in the day to read all the posts I'd like and comment everywhere I'd like. That's just a hard fact I have to accept. I am just not that good at multi-tasking, so great swathes of my day pass where I can't be blogging or online. This means, try as I might, I am never going to be able to visit 700/500 however many blogs. I wish I could. I did what I could, but definitely felt like part of the fun of the challenge would have been able to visit lots of new blogs and people rather than the few I managed. It took me time managing comments to my own and trying to visit back people who visited me (and I'm sure I didn't manage that.)

That's taught me a lesson though. I have limited time. I have to accept it, and do what I can with it. I'll never follow 1000 blogs or have 1000 people follow me here. But I can connect with those I have, and hope to do so meaningfully. I could blog on topics other than writing, and enjoy myself.

General A-Z Thoughts:
Well organised challenge.
Posts were easier to follow when they were on a general topic (travel, writing, etc) than something very specific. I find it hard to know what to comment or say to a very specific post about a writer or book I haven't read or say, a hobby I know nothing about.
It was easier to pick out people who'd labelled themselves on the list as writing etc - division into categories would be nice so I could focus the little time I have.
Captcha (?sp?) is the devil.

Overall I enjoyed it, despite feeling like I didn't give back or visit back as much as I'd have liked.

Celebrate the Small Things - 3 May

Welcome to another Celebrate the Small Things!

How are we all? Is everyone who did the A-Z recovered yet?

I am hoping to be back in the swing of things next week - I might go down to posting twice a week Monday and Friday while I get back into things.
I'll start sending 'Celebrate' reminders out if those are useful for people.

And onto 'Celebrate the Small Things'. The rules are simple:
Sign up on the linky list. Post 'Small Things' you'd like to celebrate (anything you like). Comment on other people's posts. Feel joyful!

 My Celebrations for the week:
I had nice nights out involving Mexican and Thai food. Yum!
I had a very busy work/life week (I haven't had a chance to respond to the comments on my IWSG post it's been so mad) but it is a three day weekend here so I am celebrating the extra day off!

A nice cup of tea of a tired today when you are struggling through the week. How about you? Hop around and see what people are celebrating!

IWSG: 1 May

It is time for Insecure Writers Support Group, as brought to you by your fine host Alex J Cavanaugh. Check out the post here to learn all about it and to see the list of all blogs joining in.

Next week, I suspect, I'll have a post about the A-Z Challenge, and how I found that - including any insecurities re my ability to blog it showed up or didn't!!

In the meantime, it is the time of year here when Talent Shows are on TV Again. You know the type. They feature people singing or dancing or doing impressions. Some of those people are brilliant. Some are awful. Some are average.

And I think, when I am submitting and getting notes on my work, how do you know if you are one of the people who are clearly deluded and cannot sing, and how do you know if you are one of the people who can sing? Is it all a matter of faith? Of learning your craft?

Are we all simultaneously better than we think, and most likely worse than we think, at different moments?

I am not sure I have an answer. Interested to hear your thoughts.

Hugs