Sally Murphy's Blog, page 62

Lego Christmas

It isn't Christmas at my house without Lego.

Snow Globes - Coca-Cola 2010 Christmas Commercial (long version)

Another video I've not seen before - and yes, I do realise this is a  Coke ad, but it features Train, a band I happen to like. I went so far as to buy their CD this time last year and my kids said "that song sounds just like the Coke ad." Funny that.

New Friends, New Roles, New Books - and the National Year of Reading

Last night I had dinner with the members of my new bookgroup. To clarify, the group isn't new – but I am new to the group, having been invited to join because a member is leaving. I've wanted to be part of a bookgroup for ever, but never managed to find one with an opening for a new member. Then this one kind of fell in my lap, when I met up with a lovely lady I knew when I lived in Donnybrook 12

John Denver & The Muppets - 12 Days of Christmas

More Christmas fun. I've not seen this clip before but I have the John Denver/Muppet Christmas album, which I only purchased a few years ago in a moment of nostalgia.

Enjoy!

Hallelujah!

More Christmas goodness. The Hallelujah Chorus was a big part of my growing up. I spent two years of my life trapped in boarding school, and part of our annual speech night was the whole school massed choir. Not sure the Hallelujah Chorus was done every year, but it was pretty regular - and although I was only there for two years, I'd been attending speech nights there for 10 years or so, because

Wham!

It's been a month since my last post, and with much to do here over the next little while, I'm not sure when I'll write another decent post.




So rather than leave this space empty, thought I'd share some of my favourite Christmas bits and bobs.


This is the song that's been in my Head the past few days - and the clip just made me giggle with all its glorious 80s- ishness (hey, I coined a new

5 Reasons to Write

This post doesn't really need an introduction so let's get straight to it – five reasons you (or I) should write.
1.      1.  You love words. The  sound of them, the shape of them, the way they fit together. A perfectly written sentence sends frissons of joy down your spine. 2.       2.   You love stories – other people's as well as your own – and you see them wherever you go. 3.     3.  

Mistakes I've Made

Since my last couple of posts have run towards being a little bit preachy (thou shalt not submit prematurely etc  etc), I  thought  it might be a good change of pace to share  a few secrets. Instead of saying what YOU should or shouldn't be doing, today I'm going to share a quick list of things I have done wrong over the years as I've tried to get published.
1.      1.  Submitting too soon.

5 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Getting Published

Yesterday I talked about some realities of publishers existing to make money, rather than existing just to publish your book/s.  But if you're a writer, what you want is for a publisher to want to make that money from publishing your book. So I thought it might be useful to share some simple ways you can increase your chances of getting published.  So, here goes:1.   1. Write. A lot. If you have

5 Quick Truths About Publishers

<!--[if gte mso 9]>