Lovely Ron with his Haiku Challenge prompt words this week:
Strike & Hunger

Pixabay Image
Cold strikes blades of grass
They hunger for rays of sun
To warm their chilled coreRitu 2018

29 Oct 2018 31 Comments
in #ronovansweeklyhaikuchallenge, Blogging 101, Poems, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #MicroPoetry, #ronovansweeklyhaikuchallenge, Art & Compass, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Challenge, Haiku, Senryu
Lovely Ron with his Haiku Challenge prompt words this week:

Pixabay Image
Cold strikes blades of grass
They hunger for rays of sun
To warm their chilled coreRitu 2018

29 Oct 2018 45 Comments
in Thoughts Opinions & Memories

Google Image
Just the other day I read a post by one of my favourite blonde writers, Lucy of Blonde Write More fame. Have you read any of her work? She is a brilliantly funny blogger, who writes great pieces on the ups and downs of writing. She has a hugely popular fictional serial going into its third series about Roxy Collins, a hapless single mum who is just desperate for love. You know you wanna check her blog out… here!

Gorgeous, isn’t she? And extremely talented too!
Anyway, she wrote a post likening writing a book to baking a cake, and it struck a chord.
She made me think of my own WIP, highly anticipated by a few of you who have been following my writing journey, and actually, Lucy has read the whole of my first draft and given me some fantastic feedback, along with His Geoffleship, pictured with us two below at the 2018 Annual Bloggers Bash!

Lucy, Me and His Geoffleship – Two trusted opinions…
Anywho, her post about writing and cakes made me wonder about the words I had been baking writing over the last few years.
I think there have been many shorts, rather like literary cupcakes, small morsels that satisfy that little reading hunger. Of course, there have been a few that sunk, relegated to the writing file, never to be published (but not thrown away – never throw your words away, you don’t know when that strange idea of yours could be woven into another piece!)
My poetry book was like a tray of cupcakes. A variety of flavours, hopefully, something for all in the selection, and for those poetry gluttons, well, they just devoured the whole box book.
Oh, you haven’t read it yet? Well, if you fancy a little five star read… you can click on the link below to peruse and perhaps, purchase it?
mybook.to/poeticrituals
Shameless plug, I know, sorry… but that’s what us indies have to do!
And my WIP? My first draft, slowly being reread and rewritten? What kind of cake is that one?
Considering its age, I decided it was more of a fruitcake. It’s taken a long time to get this far. It’s not teenaged any more, it is a fully fledged adult, waiting to be released into the public, to gain its own independence!
But, like any good fruitcake, it’s needed the time for all the ingredients elements to mature. Every time I have revisited it, it is like adding another soaking of alcohol to the bake, and hopefully, all the waiting will produce something moist juicy to read, packing a punch with its storyline and characters!
Image from BBC Food
The submitting it to a competition didn’t work, but that doesn’t worry me. I need to do this set of tweaks, then I am contacting agents. I have faith in myself. If they don’t nibble the crumbs I toss them, I’ll 100% go indie.
So, for those of you who are interested, here is the first version of the possible blurb, for my baby, tentatively named Wedded StressΒ Marriage Unarranged!
Aashiβs life was all set.
Or so she thought.
After finding out her fiancΓ© was not the man she thought, she vows to put him, and her innocence behind her.
Accompanied by her brothers and best friend, she embarks upon an enlightening journey, where memories created and new relationships forged, have far-reaching effects.
So⦠are you intrigued?
Itβs set in 2000, in the Indian suburbs of Birmingham, UK β Yes Indian, because every city here seems to have a mini India where the Indians seem to congregate!
Spread between Birmingham and India too actually.
Itβs a story of a British born Indian girl, Aashi, and her family, as they come to terms with her broken engagement.
Thereβs love, lust, humour, and a little bit of seriousness tooβ¦
One way or another, this cake will get eaten!!! (Or this book will get read… you know what I mean!) Just need the last bit of soaking editing, then we can begin the icing cover and blurb!

29 Oct 2018 21 Comments
in Chai and a Chat, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Chai and a Chat
Well hello there!
Another week, another hot drink and time for a catch-up!

And for the week ahead?
So, what’s your week been like, and what are you looking forward to?
If you want, drop a line in the comments, or even link back to this with a Chai and a Chat post of your own!

28 Oct 2018 37 Comments
in #bloggers bash, Audio, Family, Spidey's Serene Sundays, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Great, Quote, Serene, Spidey

“If I cannot do great things, I can always do small things in a great way.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Thank you, Spidey for another thought-provoking quote.
We aren’t all destined for greatΒ things, well, not in the way of all the celebrities and famous intellectuals out there.
But we all have great inside us.
We can all be ‘great‘ children/ / spouses/ parents/ friends/ (insert profession here) if we want to be.
Our little gestures may not set the world alight but that special dinner the kids asked for might make them feel, and say “You’re great mum!”. That drink you pour for your partner after a stressful day makes them appreciate you in a different way, because you ‘know’.
Those kinds of things.
They are all within our control. We can choose to make that little difference, that can be viewed as something huge by others.
And sure, if you end up doing something GREAT great, that is just wonderful.
But remember, if you are making a positive difference to those around you, you’re already doing great!
So… tell me about someone who made you feel great recently?Β π
Have a peaceful Sunday Peeps β€ And enjoy your week!

27 Oct 2018 33 Comments
in #SoCS, Poems, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #StreamofConsciousnessSaturday, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Bone, Instruments, Music, Socs
Linda’s prompt for SoCS this week…
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is βbone.β Use it any way you like. Have fun!
Have you ever played the trombone?
Or have you ever really wanted to learn to play an instrument growing up?
Β 
When I was younger, there was always that musical inclination. I was blessed to have been sent to a wonderful private school where tuition for pretty much any instrument you wanted could be arranged.
My parents enquired about me learning the piano when I was a mere 4-year-old tot, but at that time they were told my fingers were too small to be able to play (funny, when you see the teeny musical prodigies on the internet nowadays, some are barely out of nappies!)
Having been told that was not possible, I tried a couple of others. I took recorder lessons, and even though I never took any exams, I enjoyed it, and I still have my original recorder with me, over thirty years later! I can still play a mean Polly Wolly Doodle too!
Then I attempted the guitar. Acoustic, it was, and though I wish I had been able to stick it out – quite fancied being the one at uni who could pull out her instrument (guitar, I mean – naughty!) and strum a tune, singing along melodically… but it wasn’t to be. The teacher, Mr Mason – I’ll never forget him – was rather strict, and I recall him sitting there with a pack of fruit Polos ever lesson. He would listen to me playing my practised tunes, all the while sticking the end of a pencil into the hole of the Polos and hooking one and popping it into his mouth. Then, if you had missed a note, or played incorrectly he’d use the end of that same pencil to rap your knuckles!
I told Pops and Mum that I couldn’t go on, and so the note was sent – my term’s notice had been given. My friend was in the same situation too. We dreaded our lessons, but knowing there were just a few weeks left made them more bearable. Then one day we went in and found a different Mr Mason sat there. A rather dapper young man who coincidentally had the same name as his predecessor. He was rather dishy, in our 10-year-old eyes, but the lessons weren’t meant to be.
My guitar sat there, gathering dust. And it also followed me to my marital home, along with the recorder.
At sixth form, I was firm in my decision to become a teacher and it was suggested that I try and learn a little piano as musical skills were always sought after in a teacher. The lady who was my tutor was astounded that I had been put off at a young age, and she tried to teach the 16-year-old Ritu, who was less sponge-like than the 4-year-old Ritu would have been like. I picked up a few things, but a few months of lessons weren’t going to make me a maestro.
This instrument also followed me to my now home, but not a full-sized piano. I had a large keyboard.
The kids love that there are so many instruments in our house. Lil Man is a dab hand at playing the Dhol drum, being self-taught to a degree, then taking lessons. Lil Princess is great at picking tunes out on the keyboard, and she is actually quite good at the ukelele!
And me? Well, I can sing, at least, and dream of a version of me that may have been one of those amazing pianists, tinkling the ebony and ivory keys for the listening pleasure of others!
Ivory – now, is that tooth or bone?

And two Haiku penned a couple of years ago, dedicated to my musical journey!
Loved my recorder
Even though I couldnβt play
Very well at all!***
Stood in Β a corner
My guitar gently weeps
Not played anymoreRitu 2016

Catch ya later Peeps! Happy Saturday!
https://lindaghill.com/2018/10/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-27-18/