On my reading list right now

Hi,

I often feel that time is my enemy and with all the things I want to do finding even a few moments to read other people's work is always hard! And yet it is also so often incredibly rewarding!

So on my current reading list is

  The Witch's Way (work in progress by Nora P)

  The WynderMyre Memoirs by Ce Dany

  To the End by Laura Seeber

Hope to (eventually) get back with comments!

Summary of the week W/E 12 June 2016

Okay,

Here are a few highlights from the week.

Firstly The Writer's Thread Showcase published my story The Confession. I am still buzzing about that and I hope at least some people have given it a read.

That sort of inspired me to write another short story and since I had the idea I got cracking on Pink and Blue, I love you. I was doing quite well until the halfway point when I suddenly realized that I needed a plot. You know what? I couldn't find one. Not for days. When one eventually turned up it wasn't what I expected. Probably exactly what other people expect of me though -LOL!. I need to sort out where I want to publish this but in the meantime I am going to let it lie for a while and read it from cold next week.

During the week I also put my poem Sunrise in Valencia up on my website. I wrote this a few years back and then lost it. Finally in desperation I searched through my old emails and found a copy that I had used to send to my own kindle. I have now put this on my website together with an actual reading (Yes, by me!) so you can listen to it too.

Having finished all of that I have just moved back to The Last Titan. Not so long ago this story was almost writing itself but taking time out to review and complete Queen of Demons and then getting going with a few other projects has meant that I struggled to put this particular glove back on my writing hand. Still, I am pleased that I have finally started to made some progress again: a new chapter drafted today and this should feed an interesting sub-plot within the main story.

'The Confession' just published on The Writers Thread Showcase

Read it on The Writer's Thread Showcase: The Confession

Author's reading of 'Sunrise in Valencia'

Just put a reading of my poem "Sunrise in Valencia" on my website. First time I've ever recorded anything. (Wish my voice sounded better!) It's taken me a lot of courage to put this on the net. Probably a big mistake.

Listen / Read at http://www.madden-brooker.com/Articles/Valencia/valencia.html

Beautiful Wings

I came across this lovely creature and her handler in Canary Wharf today.  Apparently it is a good way to keep the local bird population under control by basically giving the pigeons a reason to be somewhere else.

Hardly a great summer's day but this certainly cheered me up.

The headache of naming your characters

I always find naming my character to be quite difficult and so very, very important to get right.

Naming a character is the author’s act of creation, of giving a soul to a concept born from the ‘DNA’ made of a chain of her words.

Find out more of my thoughts here in The headache of naming your characters.