Ally Aldridge's Blog, page 55

Day 19 – Heatwave

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The weathers changed

It is so hot

I wasn’t prepared

Now need to shop

I need sun cream

And sun glasses

I need a sun hat

And sun dresses

Out my window

The sun is beaming

Everyone’s happy

People are smiling

*****

Day 19’s challenge

For Day 19 the prompt is “Today we challenge you to write a paragraph that briefly recounts a story, describes the scene outside your window, or even gives directions from your house to the grocery store. Now try erasing words from this paragraph to create a poem or, alternatively, use the words of your paragraph to build a new poem.”

Wow, it has been so hot today. Not sure how I’m going to cope as I get more pregnant but I plan to make the most of this heat wave whilst it’s here because you never know in England what the weather will be tomorrow.

Day 18 – Sunshine

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I wished for you

When there was snow

Black ice on the roads

When you came

I was at work

A prisoner doing my time

Please stay bright

Sunshine for me

Please still be here

When I am free

*****

Day 18’s challenge

For Day 18 the promt… Makes no sense to me, so I’m ignoring it.

Today has felt long with nothing going quite to plan at work, rushing around at lunch to make the childcare arrangements and the gorgeous sunshine teasing me that I’m stuck indoors.

Did you get to enjoy the sunshine today? I’m hoping it’ll still be here at the weekend so I can make the most of it.

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How to handle rejection

The scary thing about querying agents is that they’ll either accept you and promise to make your dream of being an author a reality or reject you. Sadly, agents get so many queries you are most likely to receive the later. Here is how to handle it:

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1. Don’t takes it personally

“It’s not you, it’s them.” This is the main reason they’ll say no. Fiction is an art and subjective. Your agent needs to love it to get behind it. They also need time to promote your books and can’t take it if it competes with another they are already pushing or can’t invest the time it deserves.

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2. Deal with your feelings

It’s okay to be disappointed. All fiction writers have wild imaginations and you likely had a little day dream about getting signed by them. It’s okay and it’s not personal. Publishing is a business. So, allow yourself time to process their reply and don’t respond about what a big mistake they’ve made in passing on you. Just accept their position and move on.

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3. Be in it, to win it

If you didn’t query, you’d never find an agent. Give yourself a pat on the back for all you have achieved. Writing a novel is no easy feat. It takes time, persistence and editing not to mention the accompanying documents. You’ve achieved so much. Be proud of yourself for being brave enough to put yourself out there.

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4. Don’t give up

What sets apart ‘real writers’ from ‘wannabe writers’ is that we don’t give up. It’s time to think about the next project. You know, once you are lost in a new plot you’ll forget all about the agent(s) that said no. Perhaps this new novel will be the next best seller.

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5. Reflect

Reflect on the process, review your submission(s), relook at the market and agents out there. Every experience is a chance to learn. If you allow yourself to gain from this, you will become a stronger writer. You can make changes, improve, and query again. Next round, they might say yes!

***

Please share with me your experience and tips for querying and how you handle rejection?

If you’ve not queried yet, I hope this post gives you the courage to go for it. Please let me know how you get on.

Day 17 – Anecdote

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Playing tricks on our little sister

Take this two pence, it is bigger

Give me the pound, it is smaller

Look it says one as it’s number

Clearly worth less than two

See how generous I am to you

*****

Day 17’s challenge

For Day 17 the challenge was to write a poem “re-telling a family anecdote that has stuck with you over time. It could be the story of the time your Uncle Louis caught a home run ball, the time your Cousin May accidentally brought home a coyote and gave it a bath, thinking it was a stray dog, or something darker (or even sillier).”

There are plenty of tales of growing up. I have a younger brother and sister and we often played tricks on each other.

My sister, being the youngest, often got manipulated. She’s even take the blame for something we’d done if we encouraged her that our parents were undermining her capabilities to do it by being younger and she’d adamantly declare her responsibility and that she is big enough, I.e to reach the switch and turn off the hot water whilst mum was in the shower.

Sadly, our childhood was before social media and digital camera so I don’t have a picture of the three of us together. Tucked up in the attic we each have a photo album but it’s not easily accessible.

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Day 16 – Play

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Give a child a box

There’s no greater toy

Let a child create

Their imagination brings joy

Never are they alone

With a made up friend

They can bring anything alive

With their bright inquisitive minds

Go and save your money

And let your child play

Let them get messy

Let them explore

There’s no need for plastic

Expensive and noisy

To make their own games

Your child has the resources

Give them a broom

They’ll happy for hours

*****

Day 16’s challenge

For Day 16 the challenge was to write a poem “that prominently features the idea of play. It could be a poem about a sport or game, a poem about people who play (or are playing a game), or even a poem in the form of the rules for a sport or game that you’ve just made up (sort of like Calvinball).”

When I first approached this task I thought of Peculiar Pets by Victoria Roberts. It’s a picture book about a little girl that wants a pet but her mum says “We’ll see” whenever she asks. The little girl creates pets out of bits and pieces around the home. It is a delightful read about a child’s imagination and creative play.

I thought about how parents spend a lot on toys, only for their child to be more fascinated by the box. For example, my son loves his cars. We’ve tried to engage him in other toys but he always returns to his Hot Wheels. The only toy that’s competed is his Kindle and balance bike. And in the summer I got a cheap broom from pound land to sweep the gravel back and my son found it and spent hours playing with it. It cost me £1!

I’m sure there are other parents that can relate to this poem. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Making your blog legal (The lazy way)

“From online research there are two basic things your blog needs to be “legal”. A disclosure policy if you are earning anything from your blog and a privacy policy if you collect any of the user’s data (such as email). Simple enough right? Well no!”

Head over to see the full article on how to make your blog legal on JustNaya.com

http://justnaya.com/2018/03/22/making-your-blog-legal-the-lazy-way/

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Day 15 – Grim Reaper

He dragged his scythe

Across war torn lands

Tired of souls to collect

Blisters covering his hands

His pale flesh clung to bones

Head bowed in his cape

Armies for the thrones

The torn up landscape

Blackened smoke

Destruction

Tears of loss

Anger and frustration

Innocent blood spilt

A life cut too short

He slices through the ties

Freed soul from its body

Reaper sheds a tear

An innocent child’s body

Twisted, void and empty

*****

Day 14’s challenge

For Day 14, the challenge was to write “a poem in which a villain faces an unfortunate situation, and is revealed to be human (but still evil). Perhaps this could mean the witch from Hansel & Gretel has lost her beloved cat, and is going about the neighborhood sticking up heart-wrenching “Lost Cat” signs, but still finds human children delicious. Maybe Blackbeard the Pirate is lost at sea in an open boat, remembering how much he loved his grandmother (although he will still kill the first person dumb enough to scoop him from the waves).”

I’ve made it half way through, learnt more than I expected and feel motivated that I can make it to the end of 30 days.

In character development, I often spend as much time thinking about what motivates my villain (antagonist) as well as my MC. I think a well written Villain is as crucial as a well written MC.

My spin off novel from Drift, is Glide. It follows Kiara’s story and her heart break getting dumped and her struggle to accept she is enough. In Drift, she’s the rival love interest and the MC views her as being beautiful and perfect – I enjoyed exposing how insecure Kiara is despite how others perceive her.

For this, I feel I need to choose a Villain that is identifiable by most people. However, my favourite villains are well developed characters like Cat Woman or Poison Ivy who is a criminal but also has some good morales. I feel I need to think of one that is well known but only for their dark side… Grim Reaper.

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Day 14 – Dream Analysis

Here is what it means

If you dream of a tea cup

This symbol represents your soul

First identify the state of the cup

*****

If the cup is clean and looks pristine

You are not taking enough risks

If the cup is dirty and stained

You are living life to its fullest

*****

If the cup is full of tea

Your playing safe being traditional

If the cup has another drink

You are a unique kind of special

****

If the cup is empty

Oh dear, this is not good

You need to throw a party

Be the mad hatter of your neighbourhood

*****

If the cup has an abstract pattern

You need to eat some cake

If the cup has pretty flowers

You will soon be late

*****

If none of these descriptions

Is a good fit for you and your tea cup

Then back to bed you must go

Too early you woke up

*****

Day 14’s challenge

For Day 14, the challenge was “And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Dream dictionaries have been around as long as people have had dreams. Interestingly, if you consult a few of them, they nearly always tend to have totally different things to say about specific objects or symbols. Dreams, unlike words themselves, don’t seem to be nicely definable! At any rate, today’s prompt is to write entries for an imaginary dream dictionary. Pick one (or more) of the following words, and write about what it means to dream of these things:

Teacup

Hammer

Seagull

Ballet slipper

Shark

Wobbly table

Dentist

Rowboat”

How can you write a definition as a poem? This idea seemed ludicrous and then… I was inspired by the tea cup.

I’ve always wanted an Alice in Wonderland tea party and almost had one as the theme for the baby’s ‘Gender Reveal’ party. I wanted that party to be about Noah getting a brother or sister (not about me). A blog post is coming next week on the party.

You may see as the poem gets more and more crazy a few wonderland themes sneak in.

The new bathroom

My husband and I decided that after several years as homeowners, it was time to dare to take on a big improvement project.  We’ve always been a little frightened to do something like this and it costs a lot of money so it was really big deal for us.  We decided to get a new bathroom.

Old Bathroom

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Our old bathroom has served us well.  It has a massive cupboard that has been a really useful storage space and everything works.  I don’t like the mirror above the toilet as things fall out the cabinet and into the bowel and I can’t see myself brushing my teeth… and I like to see myself brushing my teeth.

Re-fit

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When we remortgaged we borrowed a little extra to do up the bathroom.  We then spent months decided who to go with and what to have done.  We chose a local firm (Opal Bathrooms) as we knew people that had used them with good results – one of our fears was a cowboy leaving us with an unusable bathroom.

Jimmy (from Opal Bathrooms) talked us through the pros and cons of different options like tiles or panels, heated floors, towel rails, etc. He drew up diagrams of how the bathroom would look and let us take catalogs so we could change items if we wished.  We spent many Saturdays in the showroom comparing floor and wall tiles together to decide on colours we liked.  Jimmy was never pushy and was always on hand to answer our questions.

The main guy, Andy, who was contracted to carry out the task, always took care to leave our bathroom is a tidy state.  He put dust sheets throughout the house so he wouldn’t make a mess of our carpets.  He worked around the toilet so there was only one day we were without.  Another guy, Chris, came a few times to do the electrics.  The job took just over two weeks to complete and they arrived on time everyday even when there was bad snow.

New bathroom

We’ve been enjoying the new bathroom for just over a month.

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The new bathroom is everything we could wish for.

On one side we have a walk in shower with panels (no grout to clean).  We have a large overhead shower and a little handheld shower on the wall.

In the middle we have a sink with two drawers underneath.  Above the sink, we have a cabinet that lights up (I can see myself brushing my teeth – yay).  The edge of the sink is wide enough that I can place my make up or face products there whilst I am using them – a feature I didn’t know I needed but love.

Then on the other side we have a large bath with mixer taps and a pull out shower hose.  The toilet looks so much better with the pipes hidden.  We have a heated towel rail and underfloor heating!

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It was stressful having no bathroom for a few days and having to visit friends and family for a shower, etc.  The end result is so worth it.  The drawers and cabinet hold everything we need in the bathroom.  We also bought a new King Size bed with under bed storage to be the new home for bed linen.

I think we will be more confident in future to do another big home improvement project as we are so happy with the end result.

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Day 13 – Idiom

Beat around the bush

Her steps were grace

Her movements like fluid 

She circled the bush

Like a hypnotic druid

*****

He held her gaze

Causing her heart to race

His stick in hand

As he gave chase

*****

Her laugh a song

As she smacked the bush

Her heart’s true desire

Kept a silent hush

*****

He followed her cues

Pride kept him steady

Protecting his heart

Unsure she was ready

*****

Their hearts called

To one another

Dared not admit

Never to be together

*****

Day 13’s challenge

 

For Day 13, the challenge was to write ” a poem in which the words or meaning of a familiar phrase get up-ended. For example, if you chose the phrase “A stitch in time saves nine,” you might reverse that into something like: “a broken thread; I’m late, so many lost.” Or “It’s raining cats and dogs” might prompt the phrase “Snakes and lizards evaporate into the sky.” Those are both rather haunting, strange images, and exploring them could provide you with an equally haunting, strange poem (or a funny one!)”

Today, you get two poems because I wrote “Bear in mind” on Opus a few years ago and I think it is perfect for this prompt.  Opus was an iPhone app but is now a website called Opusia available for all to use.  It is very popular with poets, although they welcome all types of writing.

However, I feel it cheating NaPoWriMo to use an already written poem.  The challenge is to write a poem every day.  So, ‘Beat around the bush’ is the poem for today’s prompt.

These phrases are called idioms.  To discover more idioms, please visit www.smart-word.org.

Bear in mind

Bear in mind

That’s what she said

And in that moment

He climbed into my head

His fur was brown

The colour dull

With not much space

Pressed against my skull

He was not happy

The grizzly chappie 

He could not get comfy

For it was not roomy

How it got in there

I’ll never know

Through my ears

Or up my nose

But once he was in

He could not move

So squashed in

He couldn’t groove

Squished up he was

Against my brain

He began

To complain

He moaned

He groaned

He infected me

Soon I too was grumpy

I had to get him out

Making me scream and shout

As the sound left my mouth

A little bear managed to get out

So bear in mind

When you hear the phrase

A grumpy bear 

Might get inside

But now he’s escaped

And he is free

Looking for more brains

To be displeased