Apostrophes or is that Apostrophie's & Grrrrammar

I hate, loath the world of the Apostrophe. They drive me insane. The Dog's Dinner lesson from the 1960's always comes back and bite me on the ...end of my pencil. No matter how hard I study and take in (for a short period of time, Madam BrainCell cannot cope with too much nowadays), I still find my flow of writing when I reach an apostrophe point in my novel.

I came across this image that made me smile when I stumbled across Bob the Angry Flower's Blog

click to enlarge

I often find it a good idea to go back to basics and simplify things for myself. This way I do not fret while writing too much. Places like THIS help me out when I draw a blank.

Then there comes the formatting of dialogue *holds head in hands while banging it slowly on the table* 

BubbleCow helps me out.

I am waiting eagerly to improve my grammar with MISSED PERIODS, one of The Important Ones of this blog. She has a book coming out that will help me in times of need.


Oh, and if you feel like clicking please do.

Online Colleges

Miscellaneous Links of Interest

It appears Amazon is making changes within their KDP Select programme and it is creating a buzz around the writing world. Derek over at The Vandal expresses the situation better than I can. He is carrying out an experiment with three of his books. It will be interesting to read the results.

I came across an interesting website with various writing related articles. Writing Forward has fiction writing exercises and other resources.

Should you want to find out unusual facts or looking for something to inspire you, I encourage you to read Hilary's work over at Positive Letters...Inspirational Stories. Hilary shares some fascinating facts and stories. Ideal for clearing writer's block.

The Celery Tree is a brilliant community book site for authors to share their work and for readers to find great reads. It is the baby of Karen Jones Gowen.

My other blog New Book Blogger is gaining followers and has a great variety of books on show. I am so pleased I kept it going after Jan passed away. By adapting it to make it easier for me to cope with was a good move. I am now laying out pages to suit the different genres on offer. The site is not just for new books, but for any you might wish to showcase free of charge. I do not review the books, just share them on the blog for extra exposure.

Fancy being a Ghost Writer? There is a company seeking writers for clients.
I could never be a Ghost Writer, I would want to keep saying, 'I wrote that'. It must be hard to bite your tongue and stay quiet about a novel you have written.

Book Launch: New Beginnings by Rebecca Emin

Today is the official publication date of New Beginnings by Rebecca Emin.

Join us over on Rebecca’s blog Ramblings of a Rusty Writer to find all of the details of how she is planning to celebrate today, or you can read some reviews of the book itself on Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

You may like to visit some of the other blogs helping Rebecca to celebrate today too.

About New Beginnings

Sam Hendry is not looking forward to starting at her new school. Things go from bad to worse as the day of truth arrives and all of her fears come true... and then some.

When Sam meets a different group of people who immediately accept her as a friend, she begins to feel more positive.

With her new friends and interests, will Sam finally feel able to face the bully who taunts her, and to summon up the courage to perform on stage?

(Read my review over at Amazon.)

Colours from Elle's World

The colour naming will be an ongoing project because Elle will come across new shades during her life. However, I thought I would share with you a few 'we' thought up this week.

• Spring sky blue (pale with a hint of white)
• Kale Green Dark (Elle lives by the sea and the sea Kale inspired this)
• Nettle Mid-Green (The farm land close by is full of nettles, and Elle picks them for her health)
• New grass green (light)
• Piglet Pink (again inspired from the farm)
• Fish-smack Maroon (inspired from the sails)
• Wet sand gold
• Dry sand gold
• Corn gold (pale)
• Charlies boat blue (pale with a smear of new grass green)
• Sunset red (deep red mixed with Fish-smack Maroon)
• Sunrise red (pinker red)
• Farmhouse brick red
• Campion Red
• Strawberry Red
• Cockerel Red
• Wet wood brown
• Stanley boot brown (mid-brown with rusty shade)
• Dry wood brown (light)
• Crab shell pink
• Whelk shell brown/cream
• Morning mist pink/grey
• Gorse yellow
• Rapeseed yellow (slightly paler)
• Dandelion yellow
• Dead Nettle White 
• Milk cream
• Butter cream (Dead nettle and rapeseed mixed)
• Hollyhock pink
• China plate blue (pale)
• China plate blue (dark) (inspired from Mrs Orris's blue plates)
• Angus gold/orange (the colour of Angus's hair)

Whether they will all be used in the novel I am not sure, however some certainly will. I think her mentor Angus Argyle will have a chuckle over her palette list.

The plot and rough outline of an ending came to me this week. I now know where Elle is heading. I cannot believe there will be a sad scene-a very sad scene. Why when everything was ticking along nicely would there be a sad scene?

I have noticed a pattern with my MC/POV's in my novels. They are female. Independent women whether by choice or not. They have sadness enter their lives. Two were beaten to within an inch of their lives (not sure about Elle yet, although I do not feel that is going to happen), two were duped by lovers (I have a sneak feeling about this fact connecting with Elle) and two have a satisfactory ending...what will Elle bring to the table I wonder?

Colourful Paint Names...Inspiration from the garbage bin!

Writing The Man In Room Eighteen (TMIR18), has made me stop and think about colours and their names. Gaily writing the sea was blue/grey is not an option. I have an artist as a POV, she is going to see colours far more deeply than I am. Elle is most certainly going to feel the colour of the sea inside her, she is going to smell the colour of the salty waves, and most of all she is going to have a different name for all shades of blue/grey.

Where on earth am I going to get inspiration for colourful names, was the first thought that popped into my head. Before I contacted an artist friend, in the hope he might have some Victorian paint names, I glanced at my 2011 calendar about to be binned (it was sitting in a bag waiting to be put out, thank goodness DH was a little behind with his chores!). Each page had a scene from the UK. I remembered it had a few pictures I really liked, and two were from the town where my book is based.
If you click on the pics they should enlarge.

 Elle will walk this pier when she is in her twenties...why her twenties? It hadn't been constructed before then, that is why.

She will walk past this place many times. The lighthouse will not be there, it is is constructed many years later. However the shoreline will be, and maybe one of those sunsets.

There are so many shades and colour variants here, that I cannot help but want to get a little creative. So I decided as my novel is fiction, and Elle is a young girl, her imagination would run wild and she could make up her own names for the colours before her. She would mix paints and keep track of them by naming them in her own way.
Now I am asking my friends for their old scenic calendar pictures in order to gain further colourful inspiration.

So if you feel so inspired as to add to Elle's catalogue just by viewing the pics above, please add them in the comment box. No prizes, just grateful thanks from me.

My Writing Life Gets Better and Better!

Remember in 2010 this happened to my poetry blog? My blog awarded this and became number 11 in the top 100 poetry blogs by Accredited Online Colleges.


 Well I received an email from another group regarding this blog. Now some say this is a scam and there are issues. However, I am not entirely convinced. If I can help another aspiring writer, then so be it!

 Congratulations Glynis, You’ve been selected as a nominee for our Top Writing Blogs Award! 


 The Top Writing Blogs Award was created to provide students with a collection of helpful and encouraging blogs from authors, publishers, book reviewers, writing experts, and talented bloggers. We have included nominees that will inspire and teach our student readers to find their writing style and improve their skills, whether the students are writing an essay for Composition 101 or starting their first novel. eCollegeFinder, an established online education resource representing over 120 accredited online institutions, began hosting a series of Top Blogger Awards in early 2010. Our goal in hosting the awards is to enrich students while giving high-quality blogs the recognition they deserve. 


Award winners are listed on their site; you can view the awards they've given in the past at https://www.ecollegefinder.org/award-series.aspx.

What with yesterday's achievement and now this, I am smiling quite happily as I write my third novel. Next I would like to hear some good news regarding the publication of Ripper, My Love. That would make the three good things boost the ego in my writing life...am I being greedy?

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The thought that students might read my blog for writing advice is quite daunting. What can I offer them in the way of advice?

• Believe in yourself. Have faith that you can do - whatever you aim to do. However, you have to take it seriously. Never walk away and think you are a failure. The fact you have started to consider the writing path is a step in the right direction. Get it into your head...I am a writer. Positive thinking is a good thing!

• Set writing hours and break times. Get a routine if you can.

• People watch. Take notes for characters.

• Eat brain foods, keep the spark going. Trying to write with an unfed mind is not going to bring forth the words.

• Use a thesaurus. Spell check. Grammar check. Check. Check. Check. (There are a lot of sites on the Internet that offer these free of charge).

• Relax and enjoy what you do. Should it become a chore, put it away and write something else. Go back to the previous work with a clearer mind.

• Read. Read. Read. Read outside of your comfort zone. Find a boring book cover and discover the delights of the contents. Persevere to the end and make notes of how you would change it...heck...rewrite it in your own voice. Design a new cover if it takes your fancy. This is a great practice project. 

• Don't try and copy another writer's style. Find your own flow and feeling for words.

• Write, read and re-read. Don't be a lazy editor.

• Give to at least two people to read through. It is amazing how many errors are picked up by beta readers!

• Accept critiquing advice, but if you still feel your writing is okay, stick with it. Do not change your writing style to suit somebody else. 

• Never let a piece of advice get you down. Use it. Explore it. See how you can adapt and change.
• Never let a critic pull you down either. Remember we all have different reading tastes. 

• Ask other writers. They are friendly and supportive. Join writing groups or on-line classes.

• Find writers on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Join in with the social networking.

• Build a platform. Create a blog, follow blogs and get yourself known amongst other writers. The support out there is incredible. And be supportive of others. But remember...the writing is what you are supposed to be doing. These sites are your support not your playground all day long!
• If you self publish...take your time. Ensure you have put your best out there. A bad piece of work could ruin your writing career. Readers will forgive a few errors, but a badly edited piece will put them off.

Good luck in your writing adventure. It will be a roller-coaster of emotions, but it will be fun...if you let it!