Thank You, Russia!

Do you remember back in January I wrote a post about a young Russian girl called Katya?

Well, she did me proud. I took her story, fleshed it out a bit, learned about Lake Baikal (20% of the Earth’s surface freshwater all in one lake in Russia – who knew?) and a little about the people that live there and created a 3, 500 word story called Ripples.

I then entered Ripples into a competition I had seen through Twitter – converted it into a .pdf attached it to an email and sent it off. And forgot all about it.

Well, guess what? Katya came in second place! Thanks to her randomly wandering into my mind I am £15 richer on my Amazon account and have had a much appreciated confidence boost.

It’s not easy, carrying on writing when most of the time you are so tired from chasing around a three and a half year old and an almost-two year old that you just want to curl up in a corner and sleep for a week. You start to doubt everything you do, even more than usual. I have been fairly convinced that most of what I have produced over the last year or so has been sleep-deprived nonsense but this has given me a bit of a slap and told me I’m just being an idiot.

I can write when I put my mind to it, I enjoy it when I don’t make it a chore and other people enjoy what I have written if I get brave enough to share it.

Ripples will be featuring on the Written Words Of Madmen blog some time in the next few months – and after that I will publish it on here too for you to read. Until then, here’s a bit of a Teaser Trailer for it to whet your appetite:

Ripples

Katya is a young member of a Buryat tribe living on the shores of Lake Baikal in Russia, the last large source of unpolluted natural surface water on Earth. The Buryat tribes pride themselves on being guardians of the Lake, living traditionally and rejecting all modern technology.

Katya hates it all. She wants to be part of the ‘real’ world with cameras and lights and technology she’s probably never even dreamed of – she wants to change the world, not farm goats and look at a lake.

Then news comes that King William IV is coming on a State Visit to the Lake, and Katya’s village is chosen to host. Surely this is her chance to find a way out of the village and into the fast lane of life.

Surely this is Katya’s moment to change the world…

Cuticura Love Your Hands Outdoors Competition

Cuticura, the UK No. 1 Hand Sanitiser prides itself on being the ultimate weapon against harmful bacteria by being practical and perfect for use on the go wherever you are. Killing 99.9% of bacteria it is perfect for when you can’t get to soap and water but need to clean your hands. It is available in a variety of formats to allow you to have one in your car glove compartment, one in your pocket and one in your handbag or changing bag – Just what you need when you are out and about on a family adventure.

We’re all struggling to save pennies this year so why not save and, instead of going on an expensive day trip, go for a bike ride together or explore some of our country’s beautiful countryside?

This May, Cuticura are launching their Love Your Hands Outdoors Campaign and to celebrate they are running a big competition to give families the opportunity to win all sorts of things to let them get outside together and have some fun!

All you have to do is go to the Cuticura Outdoors Competition page and take part in their poll to find out the nation’s favourite outdoor activity and enter your details. There’s different prizes to be won every single day for the whole of May – What are you waiting for? Off you go!

Don’t forget to Like them on Facebook too!

From Lake District hikes to Secret Seven bike rides in Devon, camping in Cornwall to barbeques in the Brecons, Cuticura is the perfect outdoor companion that helps keep the families’ hands clean and Mum & Dad sane!

Michelle Zuther, Cuticura Marketing Manager at Keyline Brands

****

I have not received any form of payment from Cuticura for this post

I’ll Give You My Heart – A Not-So-Sweet Valentine

Yesterday, Liberty pointed me in the direction of David Gatward’s Horror-themed Valentine’s Day Short Story competition, so I got thinking and did some writing. Taking heart from the good response I got the other day when I got all brave and shared my first ever attempt at horror writing, Something Precious, I thought it was worth a shot.

One slightly freaky dream later (I was clearly thinking about it all too hard) and I came up with this:

I’ll Give You My Heart by Carole Holland

“I can’t believe he isn’t here, he’s always lurking around watching you.” Tasha said, searching the room from behind her menu.

“Bet it doesn’t last,” Michelle muttered. “He always turns up eventually. Creepy sod.”

Delilah waved at the waiter and flashed him her flirtiest grin. “I think it’s kind of sweet. He’s been totally in love with you since we were fifteen and he gave you that bunch of half-dead carnations in the middle of Physics.” She winked as the waiter turned in their direction. “It’s like your 6 year anniversary this year.”

Delilah was saved from Michelle’s venomous glare by the waiter’s arrival. He handed each of the girls a plastic wrapped rose before taking their order, not once taking his eyes off Delilah and her ample cleavage.

“Oh yeah.” He looked a bit embarrassed as he prepared to leave the table. “Don’t suppose one of you is ‘Michelle Hollinswood’ by any chance?”

Michelle couldn’t have denied it if she’d wanted to, Delilah and Tasha’s stares said it all. “Um, yeah. Why?”

The waiter relaxed and beamed widely. “Finally! Been asking every single girl without a boyfriend all night. We had a parcel delivered for you this afternoon. Note on it saying you’d be in and requesting it be given to you with your meal. Boyfriend not able to make it? Or a secret admirer?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” Michelle sank into her seat.

“Well, someone clearly likes you!” He wrote something on the order slip and called across to the other two waiters on the floor, “Found Michelle – can stop asking now!”

With that he vanished off to pour their drinks and send their order to the kitchen. Michelle hid herself behind the desert menu whilst the other two sniggered openly.

“Wonder what he’s sent you? How romantic.” Delilah dodged Michelle’s attempt at a punch and dissolved into giggles.

“The entire Pizza Hut population is going to watch you open it,” Tasha sniggered. “It had better be something good. Like a diamond necklace..”

“Or a ring,” added Delilah, “or twenty-five red roses.”

Michelle growled under her breath. “It had better involve chocolate and not have a note saying anything like ‘I love you more than life itself, what do I have to do to prove it?’ attached.”

It wasn’t long before the parcel was delivered to the table and, with the entire restaurant at least half-watching, Michelle pulled off the red wrapping to reveal a beautiful silver box and a tiny heart-shaped card.

“What does it say?” asked Tasha.

Michelle opened the card. “I told you it was yours.” She scowled. “That doesn’t even make any sense. He’s such a freak.”

“Open the box then.” Delilah was bouncing in her seat.

Michelle fiddled with the clasp, opened the lid and screamed. She shoved the box away, knocking it on its side.

The others leapt from their seats as red blossomed across the tabletop, silently framing the silver box and the human heart that had been inside.

*****

If you fancy winning some goodies and having a go at writing your own short story why not nip over to David Gatward’s website and send in your own entry. The rules are simple: Keep it under 500 words, keep it creepy and not-so-sweet but make sure Valentine’s Day is at its heart… The competition closes on February 14th 2011. Good Luck!!

Books & Gum – Woo!!

I love paranormal books and, I have to be honest, I love any book that’s free! I’m also not one to turn down chewing gum so hey, The Undercover Book Lover‘s give away is a match made in heaven

So yes, if I win it will increase my Summer reading list, but hey – I love to read so it’s not too much of a big deal. Plus it’s my birthday on Sunday so I’m feeling lucky…you never know!

~~~~

On other subjects – I finished my first Summer Break book today – YAY!!  One down, fifteen to go…more if I get inspired to read something else!

Wordcounts – The art of editing…

Wordcount. One of those words that causes any self-respecting student to shudder and even ‘grown-up’ writers to utter a slight groan.

Most of my university life was spent figuring out what was 10% above/below the set word count list, depending on the task at hand (admittedly it was more often the lower than the higher number).  It didn’t seem to matter though, I was always either left ‘embellishing’ the same point repeatedly to add an extra 236 words or, like recently, desperately trying to cut words out without utterly destroying the atmosphere of the writing.

Easier said than done in most cases. Especially yesterday. I have been working on a short-short story to enter into the Leaf Books Micro-Fiction Competition, the word count for which is 300 words. My piece was 387.

Oh, I hear you say, but that’s only 87 words.

Yes, but 87 words is a lot when you consider the fact that it is effectively 25% of the entire piece. So, with an air of resignation I sat down and began to cut out the most obvious words and phrases and then went through it again.

348. Sigh.

Then I got an email from my mother, who had very kindly had a look through too. Combining our efforts the piece eventually made it to just 327. Close – but no cigar.

Next I enlisted my good friend and fellow writer-in-practice, Liberty Gilmore, to see if her fresh eyes could pick out a few more removable words.

325.

323.

322.

319…and then Liberty got stuck too.

Nineteen words. Just nineteen more. I could practically taste success. Aside from the fact that I couldn’t see nine words to take out, never mind nineteen.

Slowly, feeling like I was performing some kind of delicate surgery, I began to see what more I could pick away. A few cases of swapping two words for one and one character undergoing an unexpected sex-change and I finally arrived at 306.

Those last six words were the hardest of all. Trying to pull away six words without pulling away the emotions I wanted to convey and the pictures I wanted to create was like trying to pull a single hair off an angry gerbil. (If you’ve never met an angry gerbil, count yourself lucky – they tend not to let go once their teeth are sunk in…)

Finally, after much deliberation and double checking every tiny detail with Liberty, I reached the magical 300.

I sent off the new, 300 word version, to my mother to review (and spot the almost inevitable mistake that Liberty and I had missed due to staring at it too much for too long) and went off to bed. And failed to sleep wondering if I’d ruined my work with those final six words, or if the character suddenly being a man and not a woman changed the feel of the piece too much.

The deadline for the competition isn’t until September. I have time yet. Never enough. But time all the same. For a start I need to think of a title, but that’s a problem for another day.

For now I will bask in the simple pleasure of having conquered another wordcount and hope that Mum doesn’t spot anything too terrible…