A Poem

A Witch's Death by Silver DawnHawk

The forked tongues lick at my flesh
They lick me, teasing, hungry
I shiver despite the heat
I pull against the bonds that hold me
Freedom is beyond the choking grey cloud
My eyes water with unshed tears
Through moments of clarity I see the faces
And then they are swallowed by fog again
The tongues are hungrier
Licking with intensity
Playing with my clothes and hair
MOTHER, my mind screams
But I voice no words
The fog closes in
No more moments of clarity
The tongues finally enjoy their feast.

Silver DawnHawk's Website



Sorry I haven't posted for a while, I've been sewing my fingers off!!
Not a good month to NaNo, I've hardly written anything at all.
So here's a poem by someone else :-)

Mary Sue

I started writing the main section of my novel for NaNo and I found that the main character talks to herself a lot. Some of you may remember me saying here that I do this as well. She's just come out that way, I've not done it on purpose, but now I'm conscious that I mustn't write her like me...or more to the point how I'd like to be!! *lol* She musn't be a 'Mary Sue'!

I've heard of the name a few times before, often in connection with fan-fiction, but I thought I'd look into it a bit more.

'Mary Sue' - A female character who is so perfect that she is annoying. The name originated in a very short Star Trek story that mocked the sort of female characters who showed up in fanfiction. It usually refers to original female characters put into fanfiction, but can refer to any character.

Mary-Sues are characters who are usually extraordinarily gorgeous, amazingly talented, unusually powerful, and exceedingly attractive to whoever the author has a crush on. They often possess ridiculously fancy and pretentious first names -- Angel, Raven, Jewel, Lorelei Bianca Julia Marizza Snape -- and are very, very annoying.

This is a test I found to check if your character is a 'Mary Sue'.

And if you decide you do want to have a Mary Sue in your book then this could be quite useful ;-)

I'm Starr Devereaux, with Silver Topaz eyes, hair the colour of Tousled Mahogany and my signature scent is Ivory Night-Blossom. My paranormal power is Time Travel and my specialised skill is Expert Pilot. My distinguishing marks are Pointed Ears and my newly revealed relationship to a major character is that I'm Tyr Anasazi's Watcher.

So now you know! :-D

Next Test...

I promise I am going to write a post today about my book, but this is just a quick one first!

I've booked my next driving test for 21st December at 11.41 a.m. *crosses fingers* I hope my parallel park works better this time!

Popcorn

Meet Popcorn the Bear! This is the throw I'm sewing for my friend for Christmas. I've cross-stitched bigger pictures but the material I'm sewing on is huge! My hoop is about 2 ft across so it's not the most managable item to hold. I'm going to make the heart pink, I think it needs more colour.

I'm going down to London on 1st December so I need to get it finished by then. I'll carry on blogging but my NaNoCoMo will probably have to go on hold for a while...I'm running a bit behind with the sewing.

50,000 Words in One Month

Well...I'm not going to achieve it this month. I've only managed 2014 words so far! I'm working hard on my sewing to try and get done by the end of the month. I'll have to carry on trying in December (and probably January!) I'm using a free programme I downloaded to write in and it adds up all the words as I go along so I'm going to continue using that.

It's called yWriter and I'm finding it really good. It took me a while to figure out how it works (what can I say - I'm dozy!) but I think I've got it sorted it now :-)

Features:
Organise your novel using a 'project'.
Add files to the project, each containing a chapter.
Add a summary to each file, showing the scenes in each chapter.
Print out summary cards, showing the structure of your novel.
Display the word count for every file in the project, along with a total.
Saves a log file every day, showing words per file and the total. (Tracks your progress)
Saves automatic backups at user-specified intervals.
Allows multiple scenes within chapters
Viewpoint character, goal, conflict and outcome fields for each scene.
Storyboard view, a visual layout of your work.
Re-order scenes within chapters.
Move scenes from one chapter to another.
Automatic chapter renumbering.

Tagged

My first ever Tag has come from rand!!

"Name five foods, dishes or otherwise, that were a part of your childhood, and that you sometimes miss when nostalgia gets to you..."

These are all memories from my childhood before I was nine years old, which was when we moved house. I don't really remember foods in that nostalgic way after that.

Fishfingers, mashed potato and peas
I always came home for lunch when I was at primary school because I lived next door (no excuse for being late!). I'm sure my Mum did make other meals for me, but this is the only one I remember. I watched Mr Benn, Fingerbobs and Rupert Bear while I was eating it, and made castle walls with the mashed potato. Then back off to school again.

Pink Sugar Mice with white string tails
Used to buy these on the way to school - very bad for me, and therefore delicious!

Hotdogs made by my Dad, overfilled with oily onions
We used to go to an old 1860s fort by the sea on summer Sundays and we always took the same thing for lunch. I used to search for crabs with a net in the rock pools. Happy times.

Tomato soup in a white polystyrene cup
This one is very seasonal (if you're English at least). Bonfire night celebrations at my primary school. I don't remember the bonfire or the fireworks, just the hot baked potatoes wrapped in tin foil and thick florescent orange soup.

Thick pea soup with real peas in it
This is nostalgic in a bad way I guess. I don't remember much about it, but my Dad and I were knocked down by a car when we were crossing the road. He broke his ankle, I got dragged along for a while on my face. When it happened people took us into a nearby petrol station until the ambulance came. I was crying a lot so they gave me a bright orange plastic beaker to take my mind of it. No lasting damage *smile* but I couldn't eat properly for days. I used to have pea soup in my beaker that I drank through a straw, and the peas kept getting stuck in the straw! I wouldn't use a bowl or a mug - it had to be that beaker! I only threw it out a couple of years ago, after nearly 30 years.

I think this is my longest post so far. Thanks for the tag rand :-)

NaNoCoMo

Someone suggested this name on the official forum; apparently December is NaNoFiMo for all the novels written this month.

To make the target I need to write an average of 1660 words a day...think I might need to do a bit of a catch-up at the weekend. I've only done about 650 so far! My boss is out tomorrow so I'm hoping I can do some now and again over the day *bad girl...hehe*

I've also got a needlework project on the go. My friend's birthday is at the beginning of December and I'm trying to embroider a throw in time. Fingers crossed I can do both, if not the throw will have priority, and I'll carry on my novel in December.

I know I wouldn't finish the book this month anyway, even if I was writing every waking minute...I’m just happy to be getting some words down on paper. It's definitely been an incentive to write.