The Lie?

It was number 4.  I once shared a lift with Jilly Cooper!!

10 Facts (and one lie) about me

Ok, Ok, so I know I said I would reduce my Facebook usage, but sometimes there is something that drags you in.......(another reason why I should limit its usage).  This time it was 10 Facts about Me.  Below are 10 facts about me and 1 lie.  Can you spot it?

• I used to be called ‘Boots’ because I lived in a pair of Monkey Boots (do they still make them?).
• I am also musically stuck in the 1980s but did go to a number of Raves in the early 90s.
• I spent 18 months of my life in a Category A prison.
• I once shared a lift with Jackie Collins.      
• I wish I had realised the real potential of having a University Education (and drunk less, so I  might remember which subject of I got the BA (Hons) in!)
• One of my best friends from the early 90s still refuses to speak to me.  In fact, there is another friend from the late 80s who also pretends I don’t exist (I told you I drank too much).
• I love Art Deco and still refuse to admit to hubby how much I actually paid for the lamp in the front room and the lampshade in the dining room.
• I have part of my body missing; which leads some to interpret I was made out of a test-tube (mum assures me I wasn’t).
• I recently fulfilled an ambition to be paid for my writing when I had an article published in a magazine.  Just working on number two.
• One of my most memorable trips was also a scout camp – me and 13 boys (unfortunately one of them was my brother who regularly rang home).
• Qualifications include my cycling proficiency badge and my 1500 metre swimming badge.  I have also got Grade 4 CSE Electronics and my teacher (whose name escapes me at the moment) was so proud.

Can you spot the lie?

Non-Fiction Course: One Year On (24th Nov)

Yes, it is a whole year since I attended the wonderful non fiction writing course with Caroline High, See: http://theonlyconsequence.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/non-fiction-workshop.html

What have I achieved in that year in terms of non-fiction?
Well, I did have my article published in Writing Magazine http://theonlyconsequence.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/my-name-in-print.html

I also made a number of pitches to various magazines, but so far I have not had another success.

I have however, been busy with my 'Ideas' list and remain focused on what I want to concentrate on. I have bought a number of magazines to study over Christmas (I think I said this last year) and once the new year comes I intend to be focused on pitching and writing in 2014.

I did send an email to the original attendees and Caroline who led the course asking how they have got on in the last year, but no responses as yet.  Is this because they are too busy being published or too embarrassed at not being?

Did I mention the medium?

Last week I decided to go and see someone for a channelled reading.  I have had the website in my Favourites for a long time and for some reason felt that now was the right time to go.

http://celestialhealing.co.uk/                                                                                                     
Claire has worked as a professional Medium for over a decade. Claire works closely with angelic energy channelling information and guiding people through difficult times. Private sittings consist of reading the aura, passing on spiritual messages and information and taking an in-depth look at how the person is feeling at that moment. What is happening within their life and through the guidance of angelic energy, looking at ways to work through any difficulties.

Free will is very important and Claire’s readings are channelled by the highest pure angelic energy and will give guidance, support, comfort and peace of mind. If there are difficult issues within your life at the moment you will be guided into a quick and peaceful solution.

So, what did she say?   It was all positive.   (If I wear my Psychology hat, I would say they all are, aren't they, or you wouldn't go back, recommend a friend etc.)

I specifically asked her about where I should concentrate my energies over the coming months.  She said I didn't need further education / training, but that all I needed I already have.  She also highlighted that everything I have done / experienced has been leading up to this moment and NOW is the time!

Photography?   No money in that, she said (I could have told her that) but she did say that writing articles was the way forward as a medium to help people.  I also mentioned writing for children and again, she said that would be positive route for helping children.

Whether you believe any of this or not (and I have been sitting on the fence for a long time), I don't care, but it has helped me re-focus myself and, with a little help and guidance, I can see the future.....

Rule Number One: Don't Add To Your To Do List

So, the week started off brilliant.  Having split all the tasks that needed doing into the weeks leading up to Christmas, I started on the first set.

However, starting tasks that have been put off (and ignored) for a while, often means that other tasks appear.  (I suspect they breed when I am not looking).

But, what you need to do is to try and ignore the new tasks. 

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of adding to the original list and found myself swamped by Sunday.  Too many tasks and no idea (again) where to start......

However, the actual process of monitoring my tasks does seem to help me focus on what needs to be done.

Competition Entry - 200 words

Well, I have been working through the 'To Do' list (have finally sorted out all those old writing magazines), but I have also found time to enter a competition in Writing Magazine.  The main reason for entering this particular competition, was the prize - a copy of The Lifestyle Writer by Sarah Beth Watkins.  Just what I need if I am to commit seriously to writing for magazines next year:

www.amazon.co.uk/The-Lifestyle-Writer-Family-Market/dp/1780999844/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386075083&sr=8-1&keywords=lifestyle+writer

The competition?  200 words on Healthy Eating for a Womans magazine.

It was difficult to stick to the 200 words, but I did it and was quite proud of what I wrote. 

We shall have to see if the competition judges agree with me, or if I will be buying my own copy!!

A To Do List for my To Do Lists.....

Inspired by a friends recent posting on Facebook, I have started to plan the next month or so.

I have had the same items on my 'To Do' list for weeks (possibly months) so I have broken them down into the weeks leading up to Christmas.  Spreading them out like this will hopefully give me the space I need to complete them one at a time. 

Looking at a long list of thing to do can be overwhelming, so I am hoping that by Christmas I have accomplished all that I have set out to do.

This weekend I need to sort out my old writing magazines from 2010 / 2011 and file all my collected articles in their correct place within my writing files (I have a number of files for different genres where I keep any articles that I have found interesting, useful or just sparked an idea).

Better get on with it then......

The Woman Who Thought Too Much

No, it wasn't me.  Although I have often been told I think too much, it was Joanne Limburg, who has written her memoir and given it this title.

The book is about her life as a poet with OCD and she describes her journey with the 'disease'.    On the last page of the book, she writes; but then, as I've said, no one expects normality from a poet. 

As someone who is "a little bit OCD" as comic Jon Richardson famously described himself, (see: www.channel4.com/programmes/jon-richardson-a-little-bit-ocd)  I found the memoir very interesting and, I thank God (or whoever), that I have been spared its full trauma.

As part of Joanne's research for the book, she spoke to a leading psychiatrist who suggested that what underlies such crippling perfectionism is the need for that 'just right' feeling that drives all kinds of compulsions from hand washing and oven checking through to counting and word repetition, in which sufferers may use emotional criteria that you don't finish something until it feels right, rather than taking the objective view.

Towards the end of the book she writes; the trouble with writing.....is that you fear in advance - or rather, you know in advance - that whatever comes out on the page is bound to fall short of the fuzzily luminous piece of perfection that you plan to write beforehand.

She goes onto say; one of the necessary conditions of creativity is the ability to bear the disillusionment which an encounter with one's realworld, unidealized products inevitably brings.

However, as she notes, the making of poems can be an ingenious attempt at self-cure, a kind of symbolic healing.  She says the formal working-through of the poem on the page brings about a corresponding working-through of a problem in the psyche.  Difficulties with emotion and experience are transformed on the page into difficulties with form, and as you find a solution to these, an acceptable compromise between the experience or thought you are trying to express and the means available to express it, there is a sense of real physical and emotional release.

In the book she includes the poem The Return about the death of her father.  As one who has also lost her father, I thought it was wonderful and very moving.   Also see Inner Bloke on her webpage.

I have ordered a copy of her book of poems; Femenismo.

See: www.joannelimburg.net/