Tag Archives: writing

Jan30

Midweek hello

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Blackbird in blue

I’ve been so busy writing Before I was born, I haven’t done any ‘normal’ blogposts lately so here we are, here is one.

I’m very glad I got nagged into rewriting ‘Fish’ as I call it for short.  The decision to post two chapters a week to discipline my writing time and editing is working very well so far.  It is much more manageable doing it this way than to get carried away writing reams without being forced to go back and edit on a regular basis.  It’s not often I say this but the naggers were right to persist and thankfully they aren’t too smug about it either.

Our snowy fortnight helped too.  Pretty much housebound apart from a walk every day and the odd visit to the local pub, at last I could settle and concentrate with very little distraction.  Actually there did happen to be some distraction in the form of my hobby photography.  If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you will have seen pictures of my feathered pal Billy Blackbird who now features on my photo blog Chillout pics plus a gallery of snowy scenes.  Who can resist the white stuff?

As soon as we could see tarmac again and travel down the hill without sliding into abandoned cars, I worried a little about my enforced isolation coming to an end and how it would affect my writing time.  Luckily it hasn’t so far.  While I cursed the snow for affecting my business, the upside proved very helpful and my writing mojo has well and truly been kicked into action.

Come the next ice age (if we are not already in one); who knows what I might achieve?

When Before I was born eventually comes to an end on the blog, I hope to publish it as an eBook so keep an eye here for further details.  I know some people would rather read it in that form, and it will happen eventually.

As soon as Before I was born is ready for publishing, it won’t be long before another eBook is on the way as I have almost completed the first draft.  My challenge is to ePublish three eBooks this year so watch this space!

Dec23

This week left me feeling weak..

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Mermaid

I didn’t really need to stay awake this week to be entertained, but for all of the hours around the clock I found myself riveted by one thing or another.  Every night I have had vivid dreams, last night culminated with the weirdest when I dreamt that the bald telephone operator on the TV program ‘Inside Claridges’ had become Prime Minister.  I actually had a conversation with someone during which I said, “at least he’s better at it than Tony Hadley was” and went on to complain that celebrities like Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger shouldn’t enter politics.

All in a week when during my waking hours I found myself busy fighting the Christmas rush, contemplating the possibility or impossibility of the end of the world and fitting in the occasional splurge of writing and other business.  I watched The Mayan Apocalypse documentary and the thought of a bunker in Colorado seemed quite enticing to me.  I could even put up with the freeze-dried food and survival training just to escape the madness of shopping.  More writing could be done and I could wear ear plugs to block out the cries of ‘here comes the meteorite’ or ‘look there’s Nibiru, just left of the sun!’

But of course it never came true – the madness of the world continues and the craziness of Christmas is almost over.

I don’t usually watch much television but the last episode of The Hour and the final of Strictly Come Dancing truly finished off any energy I had left – the former because it ended so emotionally and violently and the latter because it turned into a marathon of sofa agitation waiting for results, who knew TV could be so exhausting?  And this was supposed to be my relaxation!

To be perfectly honest I cannot wait for this year to be over as it’s not just a week that has left me feeling weak but 2012 has been, well, let’s just call it challenging.  Not just for me but as I understand it, for many.

I am hoping that 2013 will bring calm, more creativity and happier times for all.

 Just remember, the last thing left in Pandora’s box was hope..

 I wish you all a wonderful Christmas time x

If you need a riveting read over the festive season check out Petra Kidd’s ebooks:   The Eight of Swords and The Putsi

available via Amazon Kindle and Smashwords.

Dec12

“Before I was born onto land… I was a fish”

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Early in the New Year I will be publishing my first blog novel of the above title.  For some reason I find this time of year kicks me into action.  This could be down to a sense of time running out (as in the year disappearing) and the promise of a new beginning, who knows but I love it when I start feeling this way.

I wrote the first draft of Before I was Born in the year 2000.  Then I just ignored it for a long time but it niggles away and those who have read it keep on nagging for me to publish it.  I sent a few chapters off to agents at the time but got the usual rejection letters.  I didn’t take it badly, I was enjoying writing too much and so instead of pursuing publication of Before I was Born I went on to write another novel Clean Living.

In those days I loved writing but really hated editing.  I’m the kind of person who can’t read a book or watch a film more than once.  That has changed.  Now, in some ways I enjoy the editing just as much.  I can thank this in part to the Market Scene columns I wrote for the Eastern Daily Press.  I had to write a specific number of words every week and it trained me well.

Twelve years ago I went to London and ended up temping for just under a year.  Before I was Born is pretty much a product of that period, I drew a little on my experiences but it is not autobiographical.  A visit to the London Aquarium piqued my interest, as I watched the fish glide around their various tanks the gem of an idea began to squirm within.  People talk about the after life but what about the before life?  Many believe in reincarnation so why couldn’t a human become another being like an animal or a fish in the next life or visa versa?  And what problems would this pose if they could remember snippets of the life that went before?

It occurred to me that this could be quite a comedy as well as a philosophical exploration.

I didn’t plan the novel, I just wrote it as a stream of consciousness.  What it says about my subconscious mind is best not dwelt on!

The intention is to publish one or two chapters a week to my blog.

If Before I was Born receives a positive response from readers I will go on to produce it as an eBook.

All I hope is that you enjoy it as much as those who have already read it.

Keep an eye on @PetraKidd on Twitter or ‘like’ my Facebook page http:/www.Facebook.com/PetraKiddWrites to see when the first chapter will appear.

Dec6

Stranger than fiction..

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Inspired by an exercise from a creative writing course, I started to write what was only meant to be a page about the road I grew up in.  The first paragraph briefly describes the style of houses and the two extremes of weather most poignant in my childhood memory; then I begin to describe the neighbours.  Well before I knew it I found myself up half the night writing.

The road itself provided an unremarkable description, but as soon as I started on the characters living there I became totally absorbed.  If I tried to invent such characters from scratch I cannot imagine achieving anything like those who actually inhabited the houses stretching as far as the eye could see.  They were indeed stranger than fiction.

Describing our neighbours’ personalities, activities and snippets from their life stories made me feel that I might have dreamt it all up somehow, a subconscious stroke of genius but no, when I read what I had written to my mother and sister they laughed and agreed that any writer would find a wealth of stories from the humble road where we lived.

As an adult, it all seems so surreal as I recount it on paper.  The memories are a strange mixture of actuality and my young mind trying to make sense of it all.  For example, I remember one of the children next door had a glass eye.  I knew at some point she had walked into a pane of glass and in my youthful innocence and strange sense of logic came to think that loose chips from the pane had formed the glass eye, bizarre but true.  I would stare at her trying to work out how it happened.

My childhood memories are not formed in any chronological order but enter my head in the same way dreams do, randomly.  I needed to seek reassurance from family members that they are real memories and have not been formed by my over active imagination.

Snapshots of a bygone age when we played happily in fields for hours, no mobile phones, colourful characters who we trusted and loved, other characters who we feared, strange happenings, entertaining anecdotes.  I’m sure that anyone who started to write down childhood memories might find the same.

I’m not a great one for reminiscing but having started this exercise I’m not sure I will want to stop – while readers might enjoy my fiction, I have a feeling they might enjoy some of the factual evidence of a colourful childhood even more…

Nov21

Mindfulness

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Mindfulness According to a friend of mine ‘mindfulness’ is the latest thing – the latest thing?  Well not really, it’s been around a long time, it’s just that it seems to only in more recent years have been cottoned on to by the Western world.  Thus taking over or adding to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

My friend pointed me in the direction of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s lecture to Google employees circa 2007, so I watched it and to be perfectly honest I had already heard it all before from reading Osho.  It’s Buddhism, pure and simple, something I have always been interested in following to some loose degree.

I say to ‘some loose degree’ because while I endeavour not to kill any living creature, recently we had a wasp’s nest attached to the house, they kept getting into the house and yes I am guilty of killing a few (huge guilt attached.)  One of them stung me something rotten and had to go.  Sorry Buddha.

I digress.

It occurred to me while listening to Mr Kabat-Zinn (what a fabulous name by the way) how much mindfulness is caught up in writing.  When I sit down to write I am totally caught up in the moment with my characters and their situations so it is a kind of meditation already, how great is that?

Many, many years ago I tried meditating – twice.  I don’t remember how I learnt about the first kind of meditation but I do remember sitting on the bed, counting my breaths in and out, in and out until indeed I did reach an ultra calm state.  Well right up until the phone rang and I fell off the bed in shock.

The second time was as part of an adult learning course I took part in to teach adult literacy.  The idea was that we all had to teach something.  Typically for me, I taught how to make a cocktail (Brandy Alexander in case you are wondering.)  Another student taught meditation.

Aha I thought; this would be good, a nice relaxing little nap for 20 minutes or so.  No such luck.  The thing I learnt that day was that meditation could be energising as well as relaxing.  Thus followed a sleepless night (far too much energy to sleep.)

My two meditations are writing and exercise.  Funnily enough I rarely think about characters or plot issues until I actually sit down to write, possibly this could be my downfall at times.  Only if I’m really worried about how something is going to turn out do I mull it over when doing my ‘day’ job.

The beauty of writing is that I really can’t be worrying about other stuff when I’m doing it.  It’s the same with exercise because when doing that I just keep concentrating on breathing) or not breathing as the case may be.  So I guess that has to be mindful?

 

 

 

 

 

Nov19

Neurotic multi-tasker..

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During my blogging absence I have not been idle!  In between writing my latest story, a novella that keeps on growing, running my business and other pursuits I won’t bore you with, I have been combining exercise with learning.

Who’d have thought it possible?  Well apparently it is.  Every morning I hop on my static bike and watch lectures by eminent writers. Not only are the lectures inspirational, I get to work off some of the pounds gained while sitting static at my laptop.  A double win situation!

Multi-tasking is deeply attractive to me.  Each task I do in a day usually comes with some kind of guilt attached.  When I am working at my business I have a vague nagging feeling that I’m wasting valuable writing time.  Of course I’m not, I’m just trying to earn that annoying necessity known as money.

Then when I sit down to write, things I should be doing for my business start intruding on my creative consciousness.

Each second of the day needs to be spent productively or the eternal guilt of not keeping up interferes with my dreams.  There’s no escape from my neurosis!

Now here I am blogging when really I should be getting back to work on that novella… I’m off!

Oct8

Bad blogger – and how life gets in the way.

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Oh dear, I’ve been a very bad blogger not updating my blog for ages.  I hope I can be forgiven.  As usual life/business has taken over and writing unfortunately always has to come last.  Well actually, blogging has to come last because I have been fitting in some writing.

It’s all very frustrating because like everyone else I have to earn a living.  As much as I love my business, sometimes I scowl at it because it takes away the time I need to finish my work in progress.  Rest assured I will finish it and with a good following wind, quite soon.

In sheer frustration I visited a Psychic last week, pathetically hoping that she would tell me to give up everything and just write.  That money would fall out of the sky, into my lap enabling me to pursue my heart’s desire, giving me the freedom of time.  Well who doesn’t hope for that?  Surely the fee warranted telling me what I wanted to hear?

I came away more positive but in truth even more frustrated because typically she told me what I already knew – without business there will be no money and we all need money, the ability to write will never go away so there’s no great rush to pursue that right now.  Er hem, well I beg to disagree because I get new ideas all the time and truthfully I think I should be chasing them while they are here.

And so the balancing act of writing, life and business goes on.  I do wish I could train myself into a more regimented lifestyle but while it works with business it doesn’t seem to work with writing.

I’m sure that most writers have exactly the same problem; so writers everywhere, you have my deepest sympathy!

I promise I will try to be a better blogger..

Jul19

Quiet but still around..

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Hello

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog post.  I’ve been busy with my other business but now I am finding a little more time to progress with my novella.

Well I’ve been calling it a novella but at the rate it’s growing it could end up a novel.

Hopefully it will be complete around the end of August and then of course the big edit begins.  The aim is to have it out as an eBook by the end of September and if there is enough interest I will consider print on demand as an option.

I guess you might be wondering ‘why the picture of the Red Arrows?’

Well they have to focus and apply huge concentration to what they do and I am trying to do the same.  It is a reminder that nothing comes without effort and believe me, I’m making a lot of effort!  Plus I really like photographing them..

If you haven’t read my short story eBooks available at Amazon and Smashwords yet, please do.

You can download the Kindle app free to your pc or mobile device, you don’t actually have to buy a Kindle to read eBooks.  I believe there are other apps available too so check them out.

Let me know what you think..

The Eight of Swords

The Putsi

 

May29

Writing and eating..

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Who’d have thought the two would be linked?  Well having just spent the afternoon continuing work on my novella, I came to the conclusion they are inextricably linked.  It seems I cannot write for longer than an hour without seeking out sustenance. 

 In between characters arguing, plot planning and sentence structure, my thoughts turn to food.  There are crumbs in my keyboard. 

 An empty box, once full of Jaffa cakes is poking out of the recycle bin, beneath it lays tangerine peel and an empty crisp packet.  Hmm, seems writing is not synonymous with healthy eating.  Endless cups of varying teas (I am a great one for variety), one cup of coffee and more recently half a glass of red wine, yes that’s right, I am cutting down.  It seems writing encourages the need to consume.

 So does this mean food is directly linked to brainpower?  Well I did have salmon for lunch so maybe a few of the words I have written won’t be junk like the crisps and cakes.  

 I can’t think of any other activity that leads to such a need for greed.  It is greed because tapping on a keyboard and occasionally visiting the loo in no way burn the calories regularly consumed. 

 It would be an interesting study to compare what is written with no food eaten to that with regular munching and a further study in what junk food intellectually produces compared with health foods.  I am sure nutritionists would be horrified if they knew some of my best work is produced on red wine and crisps!  Oh er and the odd Jaffa cake…

Disclaimer: other types of cake are available and Jaffa cakes aren’t junk, they are wonderful and don’t have many calories or fat at all..

 

May21

People watching..

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 I have the perfect occupation for people watching.  When out on my stall at markets, I get to indulge in my favourite pastime all day long.  It is something that you just cannot tire of. 

 My maternal grandmother once remarked ‘with so many people in the world, it’s amazing how different each human being is.’ Or something to that effect, and how true it is.

 Of course, on occasion I get to marvel at families who are like peas in a pod with their features.  There is no doubt they all belong to the same gene pool, but even then of course they have their differences, subtle though they may be.

 Then of course, there is the infinite variety of dress.  Summer tends to be more awe inspiring than winter, probably because of more flesh being revealed.  The human form gets shown off in all its splendour and can horrify or please in equal measure.  Well to tell the truth, there is more horror on the whole.  Having said that, don’t we love to be shocked?  Don’t we love to think we have seen it all, only for the very next form of attire to grab us out of our complacency?

 What people wear is one of my obsessive fascinations.  Rich, poor or somewhere in the vast array entitled ‘in between,’ you can make a set of assumptions via how anyone dresses.  Ah, but never assume!  There are many shabby millionaires who lurk about, and many smart types who are deep in credit card doo doo.  Never judge a book by the cover, and never judge a human by what keeps their form decent. 

 The scariest looking people are often the sweetest and the preening types are occasionally the meanest.  You just cannot always tell by looking at someone what his or her true character may be.  They may have deep frown lines and a grumpy appearance but a quick smile in their direction can be rewarded with the most incredible transformation. 

Play the guessing game; try to imagine what people do, or what their histories might be based on their physiognomy.  Whatever you do, don’t let people pass by without enjoying the miracle of what we all are, unique beings made up of all those weird little cells.  Some weirder than others, but then who’s to say what’s normal?

 This is what I love about the human race and why so many millions of books get written.  We can keep writing on into infinity and always have a new kind of person to write about. 

 If you don’t already take the time to observe the human race, try it out, it’s the most entertaining thing on earth!