Dragons, Interview and Music

Just a very quick blog today. Work is really busy and my sister (the Buddhist nun sister, have I mentioned her?) is flying over from England for a week's visit. So I don't have a lot a time. I am also participating in a Dragon Blog Hop - more details soon, but should be fun. It won't be your usual dragon story, of that you can be certain!

As part of Rachael Harrie's 4th Writer's Platform-Building Campaign, I have been interviewed by Christ Kelworth of The Kelworth Files. Please pop over and pay him a visit, and if you feel like leaving a comment that would be wonderful.

First Challenge, Fourth Campaign - The Gas Chamber

The Gas Chamber

Photo credit

Shadows crept across the wall of the boarding school dormitory. There was utter silence.  It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Which was unusual with eight boisterous, hormonal teenagers forced into one room, with too much energy to sleep at a ridiculously early hour. We were playing Colditz, a WWII prisoner of war series on the telly. Six of us ‘prisoners’ would hide at various points in the dormitory, while the two remaining ‘guards’ would take a flashlight and try and find us. Now, of course, there were very few places you could hide in a sparse dormitory, so most of us were under the beds trying to stifle our excited giggles.

Origins - Why I Started Writing

I am writing this as part of the ORIGINS blogfest.

On February 13th, DL Hammond of Cruising Altitude 2.0, Katie Mills of Creepy Query Girl, Alex J. Cavanaugh and Matthew MacNish of Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment, are co-hosting  the ORIGINS blogfest.  The idea is that we post our origin story to tell you where our writing dreams began.  OK - here goes, but now you'll know why I call myself  'Crazy California Claire'. 

Fourth Writer's Platform-Building Campaign



Rachael Harrie from Rach Writes has launched her Fourth Writer's Platform Building Campaign. This is a fantastic blogging opportunity for all writers and I enthusiastically encourage anyone to sign up.  Whether you have just started a blog (like me last time) or are a seasoned blogger, whether you write for fun or have a stream of best-selling titles to your name, it is a great opportunity to connect with other writers/bloggers, make friends and raise your profile at the same time.

All the details are over on Rachael's blog but the important dates are:

• The Fourth Campaign will be a mini-Campaign, and will run from Monday 6 February until Saturday 17 March.
• The List of Campaigners will close on Wednesday 15 February.
• The First Campaigner Challenge will begin on Monday 20 February end on Saturday 25 February.
• The Second Challenge will begin on Monday 5 March and end on Saturday 10 March.

My only advice (based on my experience from last time) is don't get over-excited and put your name onto too many of the Campaigner Groups. I drove myself crazy trying to get round to everyone's blogs on all the groups that I stupidly signed up for in a fit of writerly madness.

Otherwise, it's a blast! I learnt such a lot and met so many great bloggers. Drop me a note and let me know if you are going to join up and what your favourite bit was if you were on the last Campaign. I think what I liked best was the first flash fiction Challenge.

Awards, Factoids and Music!

I was very kindly given this Award by TB McKenzie at Magickless. Please pop over to his blog and say hello. The rules of this particular Award are to list 10 things about myself and then pass it on to 6 other bloggers. As usual, I am going about it arse-about-face and have decided to start with the bloggers I want to pass this on to.

My son, Tom

I am still adjusting to my new life as Working Mum/Wife/Famous-Author-To-Be/Blogger Extraordinaire and so my apologies for not writing a new blog in over a week. I'm finding there are not enough hours in the day (this from someone who used to stay up all night and party *sigh*).

My son turned 15 last week and, as I drove to work, I was reflecting on the massive change in him since we moved to live in California. He always had the potential to be a sweetheart, but would successfully camoflage this delightful personality trait under screaming tantrums and extremely stubborn behaviour. He detested school and would sometimes show his displeasure by refusing to get dressed. Once I drove him to school in his PJs (and let me tell you, the UK is very strict about its school uniform). Since then, with a lot of alternative therapy work, growing older, and a strong male role model in my new hubby, he has transformed into the sweetest, kindest, hard-working, respectful, polite, most responsible, if slightly nerdy, boy you could ever wish to meet. He even mentioned in the car to me the other day how much he was enjoying school. I nearly drove off the road into one of those stupid stop signs.

2012 Goals

1. Set up proper daily writing schedule (not namby-pamby, good-excuse-to-do-the-laundry, half-hearted plan).

Looking back at 2011

As 2011 draws to a close, I thought I would jot down some of my more notable writing achievements that happened over the year.

Firstly, after two years of procrastinating, I started this blog! I am still finding my way in the new parallel universe that is the blogging world, and have yet to firmly establish what the hell I'm doing here, but I am enjoying it nonetheless. I am going to work on all the points Laura Barnes mentioned in her critique and hopefully have a new and improved blog in 2012. I've changed my background already.

Cheesy Christmas Cheer!

Source

Blog Critique

Today I am having my blog critiqued by Laura Barnes from Laura B Writer. She does this on a regular basis - so go and check out her blog. I think she said some very nice things about my blog (phew, worried there for a moment) but, of course, also things that need improving. I shall consider and try and implement them. (I have cut out 'negative space' already. And stopped the exclamation points - boy, that feels like I am speaking in a monotone. Ooooh wanted to put one there.)

What do you think? Do you agree with Laura? Anything you would rather see or not see? Any blogging tips or secrets that I am missing?

One of the things she mentioned was not having a regular blog schedule. Now this is a tricky one for me. I can be fairly undisciplined and like to be spontaneous. Plus my everyday life (and now work) make it quite hard to find the time to write a blog on a set timescale. How do you guys do it?

Also, a tagline for myself? Yikes, not sure what that would be (well, anything that could go on a public blog, anyway). Suggestions anyone??