Sylvia A. Winters's Blog, page 5

Lifing

I’ve been writing a lot this week. I won’t saywhat I’m writing, because doing that always kills the idea. It’s been almost a year since I wasgetting into the swing of writing Bat’s Children, and it’s nice to be at it again. I always write with a big grin on my face, because it makes me sohappy, like this is what I’m meant to be doing, even if I can’t actually bear to read back over it for a while, because the first draft is always fairly horrible (and in this case it’s especially bad, with ch...

General Complaints

We have a bunny staying with us for a while. He’s a sweetheart but he’s not happy with me at the moment as I’m ill and I’ve been sleeping pretty much all weekend so he’s just been stuck in his cage. I’d leave him out but he poops on the bed constantly, something to do with scent marking which he doesn’t do anywhere else. He’s a pretty tidy bun otherwise. It’s just my bed. Which, you know, I kind of like my bed not covered in rabbit poo. I’m getting him a bigger cage soon though and I might en...

Reflections

It’s the first of December, and time to get to putting up that Christmas tree*! Unless you’re a Christmas purist and only keep it up for 12 days, but tobe honest that’s a lot of work for so short a time. 12 days is about how long I leave the washing up (yes, our kitchen does currently resemble that scene from Withnail and I), and a glowing tree is a lot nicer to look at, so long as it didn’t come from some radioactive wasteland.

With December comes a glance back at the year we’ve had, before...

So Many Protests

What have I been doing lately?

Well…

I’ve certainly been writing more. I’ve been playing around with a few different ideas, some old, some new, since finishing my Welsh highwaymen story. I’ve also been catching up with family and friends, doing the whole social thing that I guess I neglected a little in the last few weeks of writing that story.

Mostly I’ve been protesting. I’ve been on three marchesin the last two months, protesting the new government’s horrendously anti-social policies. A co...

Well…

So, election day and the country has gone primarily to the Tories. I’m not bitter… Nope, not a bit. I am incredibly proud however to be part of one of the few red constituencies in the south of England, and a constituency where Greens came in a good solid second and UKIP failed miserably. I’m still incredibly disappointed with the overall outcome though, and frankly I’m feeling a little sick. I imagine a lot of people across the country are feeling the same way right now. Unfortunately just n...

Back on Track

Well, it’s been a while. Sorry about that. Not that sorry, mind, just sorry enough that I can look at the entry date of my last post and tut slightly.

I started this year on a bit a down note, after rescuing some rats and having one of them die on me like five days in. Since then, however, things have picked up a lot. The remaining rat from the pair has come on in bounds, and after starting out as the most timid, bitey thing I’ve ever looked after, is now always first to demand to come out an...

Things I Have Learnt From Working in a Cinema

I regularly read list articles based on customer service experience, so today I thought I would experiment and write my own. In other words I found an old list I’d made and thought I’d try to fob it off as a proper blog post.

So this is my completely not comprehensive list of things I have leant.

1. Metamorphing into half-animal, half-human creatures often seems entirely plausible. Especially on a slow morning shift when you’ve not slept beforehand because you’ve been working nights up until no...

Goth Christmas

This post is brought to you by a variety of energy drinks and coffee. I’ve slept just 6 hours out of the last 55, thanks to a delightful switch from night working to day working. But at least I learnt something: I actually can fall asleep standing up.

Jay and I have been in our flat for a year this month. We’ve tidied a handful of times, had two successful house parties, and witnessed many fights and falling-down-drunk people in the street outside. This is still my main source of entertainment...

Prompt Me: Hallowe’en (or Writer’s Block)

For some time now I’ve been suffering from the sinister Writer’s Block. At first I was just too busy to write. I moved several times in just a couple of short months, started a new job, had a whole new city to explore, a city I hoped would bring me greater creative inspiration (I blame false advertising).

Now it’s been over a year since I last wrote anything. Well, since I actually finished anything. I’ve written. Half formed ideas that go nowhere. I get bored after a few thousand words. They...

Birthday Giveaway!!

As today is my birthday, I thought I would do something nice (: So in celebration I’m holding a giveaway.

This time you get a choice of all my books, and all you have to do is reply to this post saying which book you would like andyour e-mail address. Then I will make a random selection and email the winners whichever format they’d like. There will be one winner for each book. If they don’t respond within 48 hours I will reselect.

Below are the books you can choose from–literally everything I h...