Author Spotlight; Ritu Bhathal and Poetry Rituals. | Fiction is Food

The wonderful Gary of Fiction Is Food has featured me with regards to my poetry book, Poetic RITUals. Please head on over and check the post out!

 

Poetry is a mysterious thing to me. Epics I have warmed to, how the minutia works is for better minds than mine. Enter Ritu, an enthusiastic poetess and successful blogger.

Source: Author Spotlight; Ritu Bhathal and Poetry Rituals. | Fiction is Food

That TBR Pile/List! #AmReading

So, while I wait for my feedback from my Alpha readers, I need to do something to keep me from gnawing my nails to a set of stubs… (need good nails for the Bash!) … so that means reading!

#AmReading

And I have plenty to keep me busy.

There are at least fifty books sitting on my Kindle waiting for me to read them, and a couple of real books on my shelf too.

I wish I had the space to actually buy more physical books.

Before we had to give up the study so the kids could have their own bedrooms, I had two bookshelves heaving with my favourite books, and there was a third filled with children’s books.

I had to really force myself to sort through the existing books I had, working out which ones to keep, and which ones to give away… a painful task.

But I ended up with a bookshelf in both of the kids’ rooms, with their favourite children’s books on them, and one shelf left downstairs in our now dining room cum study.

This has to house my work books as well as any others I finally decided I couldn’t part with.

But it leaves no space at all for new books… boo hoo!

This is where I thank God, and Amazon, for my Kindle Paperwhite! It goes with me almost everywhere, and I love that I can have a whole library with me at any time.

Yes, I hear you diehard bookworms. A real book feels different in the hand, and you’re right. There is no better feeling than holding that book, and being able to see the pages lessen as you read towards the end. But at least I have my Kindle progress percentage to kinda get the feel!

And what do I have to keep me busy?

Quite an eclectic mix of books actually, from Shelley Wilson’s self-help book to Shame Travels, by Jasvinder Sanghera. There are books by Judith Barrow, and Mary Smith, Helen Jones and Barb Taub. I have Lucy Brazier and Christoph Fischer too.

Comedy, YA fiction, memoirs, information books, anthologies and poetry books too. And a heck of a lot more Indie Authors there!

I have downloaded recommendations made by many bloggers including my favourite Blonde, Lucy!

If you’ve had a promotion on your book, and it tickled my fancy, it’s on my Kindle too!

Soooo many books to keep me going!

So, which first?

Well, I tend to go to the bottom of my pile, to find the oldest book on there, and read that, unless something has appeared on there that I simply can’t wait to read.

This time it is Sathnam Sanghera’s Marriage Material…

Marriage Material by [Sanghera, Sathnam]

I read his book, The Boy With A Topknot with fascination, as it was about a young Sikh boy born and brought up in Wolverhampton, and it dealt with the subject of mental health within the Sikh Community, and how issues were always swept under the carpet.

Can I be honest? It was… okay. There had been such excitement about the book, and it was even made into a BBC Drama, but I think it ended up a bit self-involved… It would have got a Ritu-rated ⭐⭐⭐.

Still, as I was reading it, I downloaded this other one of his… hope it is a better read!

And I am solidly working on my GoodReads challenge too!

screenshot_20180507-215204545784239.jpg

What do you do to keep yourself busy when you are waiting for something?

 

RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #200 Ire & Fire

Lovely Ron with his Haiku Challenge prompt words this week:

Ire & Fire

 

Lava Magma Volcanic Eruption Glow Hot Rock

Image from Pixabay

 

 

Spewing molten fire
The ire of a volcano
Presents itself so

Ritu 2018

Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge Image 2016

Rewrite ~ #poetry #dragon

How sweet! Dorinda was inspired by my WIP journey to write this awesome poem!

Dorinda Duclos's avatarNight Owl Poetry - Dorinda Duclos

Inspired by Ritu, of But I Smile Anyway, who is currently in the editing stages of her book!


Mischievous little dragon
Made his way onto the chair

On the desk, the author’s writings
Spread out, without a care

He wondered if she’d notice
If he added a line or two

But dragons don’t know how to write
He pondered, what he should do

Deciding he should try his hand
At a sentence, here or there

With a mighty breath, he blew
Now there’s fire, everywhere!

Whatever shall he tell her
When Mistress sees the mess

“I tried to fix your manuscript
I really must confess!

These scribbles made no sense to me
All I saw were smudges, nothing greater

So I decided to help rewrite the whole thing
I’m sure you’ll thank me for it later!”

©2018 Dorinda Duclos All Rights Reserved
Photo via Pixabay CC0

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Letting Your Baby Go #AmWriting

You’ll be proud of me, I hope.

#AmWriting new

My 18-year-old baby, my WIP which was granted adult status this year, had it’s first read through by me. I sat there in the sunshine yesterday, completing it, post -t marking chapters, and scrawling on the pages where I could see corrections that needed to be made.

Then I opened the document up on my screen and proceeded to correct. Some were grammatical errors, some, were where the words made no sense. There were a couple of names mixed up and some capitalizations that needed to be added.

It was hard rereading my own words. I felt the first few chapters really showed my naivete as a writer, but, considering I was much younger at the time, it wasn’t too bad!

I cut a couple of waffley chunks and identified a few others, but was loathe to lose them yet.

Saved, on my hard drive, two pen drives, the Cloud and emailed to myself, I shut the screen down, and had a well-earned sleep.

But that isn’t all I need to do, is it?

Really, I need to be that parent who is ready to let their child spread their wings!

We had a few ‘play-dates’ earlier on, so to speak, when I posted the first few chapters on the blog, eager for your feedback, but I still hadn’t let go fully. (Mind you, I hadn’t written it all at that stage either!

But, I knew I needed another opinion. From people I trusted. Those who I know would be honest, and/or read work in this genre regularly.

Charli Mills, head rancher at the Carrot Ranch, suggested I go for some Alpha readers.

Now, I’d heard of Beta readers, but Alpha?

These were the ones who would look at my unadulterated manuscript, and give me feedback on the characters, and plot, spot gapping holes in the story, etc…

It was time to let my WIP out on its first residential…

And I waved goodbye to it, twice, this morning.

Now I’m like that nervous mother, pacing, wondering whether it’s behaving, leaving a good impression, did it get there in one piece?

And I shall be eagerly awaiting that email to say how it’s doing too…

Unlike a true residential, I don’t know when it’ll be back with me, to peruse the comments… so, until then, I’ll have to wait, impatiently…

Oh, God!

Will they like it? Will it be ripped to shreds? Have I wasted eighteen years of my creative life? Should I just give up hope now?

I needed to keep myself busy, so I did the obvious thing on this glorious Bank Holiday – I got my nails done!

And I wrote this post… And I’ll be off to visit the in-laws soon too.

Then school will keep me busy.

And the run up to the Bash…

But, will it stop me from constantly checking my emails and messages? I don’t think so!

Oh man, then I’ll rewrite, and have to send it to an Editor or Beta readers, and do it all over again!!!!!!!

This is going to be some wait…

Have a wonderful Monday Peeps!

 

 

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