21 Aug 2017 23 Comments
in #ronovansweeklyhaikuchallenge, Poems, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #ronovansweeklyhaikuchallenge, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Challenge, Haiku, Ronovan Hester, Shell & Coast
Lovely Ron’s prompt this week:
Image from Pixabay
Feet sink into sand
Walking along the coastline
Shells litter my wayRitu 2017
Image from Pixabay
Just coasting along
Where’s that Shell petrol station?
I’m flat outta gas!Ritu 2017
From Coast Website – £199!
Saw a coat in Coast
Can I shell out all that cash
On just a jacket?Ritu 2017
21 Aug 2017 56 Comments
in RiNoWRiMo, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Author, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, First Draft Problems, Life Of A Writer, RiNoWRiMo
Instead of boring you each day, and I really have had to stop myself, I thought I would do a weekly post to let you know whether I have managed to accomplish what I wanted during this creative month of August that I have named, #RiNoWriMo! (Ritu’s Novel Writing Month).
Back home and hoping to get back to 2,000/2,500 words a day, if I can manage it! Still got to keep the kids occupied though, I don’t have the luxury of sending them to the grandparents for days at a time this week, and we have a wedding to attend, so a couple of days may have to be written off!
I was relieved when Hubby Dearest decided against working from home today. Him getting up and going signals time for me to write!
I still had shopping to do, the cupboards were bare when we arrived back home yesterday, and there was cleaning and laundry to do too!
But first things first, writing time! Split it into two sittings, but I managed!
He did it again. Threw me first thing by announcing he was working from home! But I left him to it and settled myself on a table in the living room.
I had a throbbing foot, where I managed to lose a toenail the day before (thanks, Lil Princess for stepping on my foot – hard!)
The plan is to write and maybe visit the nail place, today or tomorrow, to get a refresh done before the wedding on Saturday.
It was hard today, the words weren’t flowing in the same way as they had previously. Possibly because I was writing about a place and situation that I hadn’t experienced myself.
I find it so much easier to draw on past experiences when writing. It’s not an autobiography by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel that the realism shows clearly when I can relate to what I am writing about!
Still, I had my determined hat on and I managed!
Great start to today! Hubby at work, kids still asleep, and it’s early.
I’m hoping to be productive again today!
And boy was I!
I wasn’t sure I’d be up to writing today, to be honest. Been caught with a dodgy tummy the night before, I was shattered, and didn’t think I had it in me.
But I waved Hubby Dearest off to work, settled the kids down for the morning, with activities they wanted, and had a go. Smashed it!
I woke up feeling dog tired, literally!
But determined to get something done, I set myself up. The kids interrupted, as usual, and then I had housework to get done too.
And even though it took a little longer than previous days, I managed,
We’re going to a wedding reception today, and staying out. Will I get anything done? I have shopping to do before we go, as well as packing, since we are staying out for the night….
Ok, so I cheated a little. Well, actually, it’s not cheating, but rather forward planning. I knew I wouldn’t get time today, so the day before, I kept on finding time to go and write. And I added this much to it, to count towards today’s word count!
Today I felt like curling up into a little ball and hibernating, but I couldn’t! I was so tired from the wedding, late night, and then even though we stayed close by, we still needed to get up and drive home.
I totted up my numbers and decided I deserved a writing free day (apart from my post, obviously 😉 ) Took advice from my friend Spidey, who was extremely wise yesterday. If you didn’t get a chance, read his wisdom here!
Taking everything into account this means I wrote 15,671 words this week, and the #RiNoWriMo word count stands at
And not only that, I have managed to push my WIP to over 50,000 words! Eeek! How did that happen!?!
One and a half weeks to go!
Enjoy your creativity Peeps, and I’ll be back with another update next week!
20 Aug 2017 21 Comments
in #tjshouseholdhaikuchallenge, Poems, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #TJ's Household Haiku Challenge, Ali G, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Challenge, Haiku Challenge
Dear TJ is back with his words and/or photo prompt for his Household Haiku Challenge!
and
TJ’s prompt image
So we’ll start with one that is inspired by the photo, using the words, although I have taken some creative liberties!
Canoes, boards et al
Awaiting the ocean’s swell
And sweet waves to ride!Ritu 2017
Now for one slightly more sensible one…
Image from Pixabay
Wishing well beckons
Drop a penny, make a wish
Will my sweetheart come?Ritu 2017
And a funny one to end with!
Lustily he said
“You look well sweet, mi Julie,”
Ali G romancedRitu 2017
Proud member of the Haiku Hub!
18 Aug 2017 79 Comments
in Humour, RiNoWRiMo, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Humour, RiNoWRiMo, Writer Memes
It’s one of those days.
I’ve been writing, and my mind came to a halt.
Then I thought what better than to browse the internet whilst munching on my rather late breakfast.
And I found some funny writer memes on Google that I just had to share!
I think I have been doing that to myself, to be honest, enforcing word count targets on myself every day. My furry muse, however cute, just wants me to stroke him!
Not pale either…. and I think I eat more as I create… Substitute the coffee for tea, and that may just be me!
Though I have been pretty good, there have been mornings that I have felt have gone just like that!
I found a gif maker… trying really hard to keep myself away from it whilst I am meant to be writing!
This just made me giggle!
I’d like to think I’m going to be the ‘Ray of Sunshine’, probably more likely that I’m a Space Cadet though!
And with that, I must get back to writing, need to try and tap out another 1,000 today, lr I’ll be shooting myself, like that first meme…!
So for any of you Peeps in my position, writing your first draft, good luck, and if you needed a giggle, I hope you got one!
I’ll be back on Monday with my week 3 update!
17 Aug 2017 99 Comments
in #WritePhoto, Fiction, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #WritePhoto, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Independence, India, Pakistan, Partition, sadness, Sue Vincent, Together, Wisp
Sitting cramped in the corner of the train carriage, Meena glimpsed a flash of the blue sky, wisps of cloud dancing across without any cares in the world.
Why?
Why, when the sky was the same, here, and there?
Why, when the clouds moved with such freedom?
People were squashed in the carriage, fear etched on their faces. some were crying. The only laughter came from small children who were unaware of what was happening.
Meena and her family had fled their ancestral home, in the city of Lahore.
It was February, 1947.
Partition.
One of millions of families, displaced when the border was announced, they had hurriedly collected basic belongings, and disappeared in the middle of the night, to catch a train, hoping to reach the other side of the border in one piece.
The stories that had reached them had told of endless bloodshed.
Fights, murder, rape.
The Muslims in the area, once friends, were gathering Hindu and Sikh families and slaughtering them brutally.
And across that shiny new border, the same was happening, but in the opposite way.
There, Muslim families, not unlike hers, were battling a journey in the opposite direction, leaving their homes and lives, trying to reach the apparent safety of Pakistan.
She thought of Amira, her best friend.
They had clung together, in tears at the thought of being separated, having grown up together.
But there was no choice. If she stayed, she would be killed, just like all the other non-Muslims.
The train was moving. They were safe. Stories of gangs boarding trains, and killing whole trainloads of passengers haunted the minds of everyone.
As long as it kept moving, they would be fine.
After a short while, the train slowed, coming to a halt.
Fear spread among the passengers, but there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.
Cries of battle were called, and the train was soon a blood bath. Passengers pulled out by their hair, throats cut. Woman mauled and raped before being left for dead. Small children witnessing atrocities being committed on their families, before being cruelly killed.
Meena’s eyes glazed over for the last time, staring up at the sky.***
Above her, the clouds still danced, untouched by the events below, so it seemed, but if you looked closely, the pink tinges seemed to reflect the rivers of red flowing beneath…
Sorry for the slightly sombre entry this week.
I am sitting here, watching a series of programmes that aired on BBC1 last night, My Family, Partition and Me: India 1047.
August 15th and 16th, saw Pakistan and India respectively, celebrating 70 years of Independence from British Rule.
But the horrors that the partition which preceded this independence will never be forgotten by those who experienced it.
I have been lucky to have been brought up in an atmosphere of equality, where regardless of race or religion, friendships look at the people first, rather than their background.
My best friend, and soul sister is a Muslim. I am Sikh.
I cannot imagine a life without her, or her family.
I thank God that we are living now, rather than 70 years ago.
Though, with the happenings around the world in recent years, it scares me.
Like the Holocaust and Jewish ethnic cleansing, the Partition tore families and friends apart.
Please, let’s not let this happen again.
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