Acrostic Poetry - Thanks Zoe Ball that was a new one to me!

Acrostic Poetry?

Poetry, not something which comes naturally to me as a writer or something that appeals to me, I am ashamed to say.  A member of Ottery Writers, Grenville Gilbert, has a book of excellent poems entitled ‘Honest to God’ and regularly pens a topical poem for our meetings. In fact, we have a few poets in Ottery Writers. There is a link to the Ottery Blog from this one, please have a look, there are some interesting writers posting on there.

On the way to work on Friday morning, I was listening to Zoe Ball on the radio as usual. I was a little earlier than normal and she had an item called ‘Show and Tell’ and is where a young listener comes on and sings, plays an instrument or does something they are proud of to show off to the audience. On this morning a young girl came on to read her acrostic poem.

 “A cross what?” I asked myself, to which Zoe came back with the answer.

An acrostic poem is a poem where certain letters in each line spell out a word or phrase. Typically, the first letters of each line are used to spell the message, but they can appear anywhere.

So here it is my first attempt at acrostic poetry;

C             Christmas comes but once a year

H             Homes decorated inside and out

R             Remembering Christmases of past

I               imagining no doubt of happy times

S              Shopping becomes a Christmas life essential

T              To many it just seems mental

M            Maybe we just need

A             a time to enjoy

S              seasons of Christmas with families connected.

I’m not sure if I will get into writing poetry too soon, but you never know what will happen!

Using Apps

I think as writers we all try to increase our vocabulary and word power whenever we can. We all have our ways of doing it, but I found a source that was blatantly hitting me in the face each month without realising it!
I subscribe to the very handy Readily app. I use it regularly to power my research into possible rich avenues of work worldwide. One of the magazines that are in my favourites list is the old faithful Readers Digest.
Towards the back on page 133 is the ever-present Word Power. Consisting of two pages of words and explanations; what a tool to kick off and inspire a piece of fiction as well?
Who’d have thought it?

It's been a busy month - for Rugby that is!

Well, it has certainly been a roller coaster of a ride for the England Rugby Team over the last month or so. From securing a place in the quarter-finals after having their last game cancelled due to Typhoon Hagibis. After an impressive performance in beating the Australians, there was probably the best game of the tournament when they hammered the reigning champions in the semi-finals. Sadly it all came to nought in the Final when they were overcome by a mightly impressive South African side who deservedly became the 2019 World Champions.

What has this to do with my writing? Nothing really, but it did mean that I hardly put pen to paper sadly.

However today, I have been working on my short story for the Fish Publications (https://www.fishpublishing.com) short story competition at the end of the month. This is a 5000word short story of which currently I have about 3000 words. I have tried out the opening at Ottery Writers which went down rather well. I have another section for them tomorrow night and hopefully, now I have got a decent twist for the ending.

So for my little offering this week, I have chosen the letter I had published in Writers Magazine a couple of months ago. I have also had one published in Writers Forum. I feel quite chuffed to have been published in two prodigious writing publications.

My journey to work on a Friday morning invariably took me to a nearby superstore to purchase a bag of freshly made doughnuts as a treat for the office and with time spare I had a wander around and regularly ended up in the magazine aisle. This is where I spied my first copy of the Writing Magazine. Since then I have gone from expectantly waiting for the latest edition to turn up on the shelves to becoming an avid subscriber waiting for it to drop through the letterbox. Now, much to the ire of my wife’s tidiness genes, I have a pile of numerous back copies.

I now find that I am once again reading through the pages of the Writers Magazine, this time with more purpose and tenacity.

 It has been a dream of mine to be a writer and I have now been able to start a writing course which I hope will give me a professional edge to my fledgeling experiences of having a few letters published in national newspapers and my contributions to the local cricket scene in the local paper.

The hints, lessons and experiences are innumerable and alongside my course are proving so inspiring for me at the start of a fledgeling writing career.

 My journey has a lot more to it than a bag of doughnuts however you may well see them referred to in a

future article, short stories or even that book that is rattling around in my head one day.

Short Story - Writers Magazine Competition

This weeks piece is a short story that I submitted for a competition in Writers Magazine. Unfortunately re-reading it today, I didn't employ my wife, Kathy, as a proofreader. That's more than likely why it didn't get anywhere, lesson learned I think. Please enjoy, the subject was a ghost story in daylight and all in 500 words. 

The Sun was shining brightly on Lion-sur-Mer.  The late spring sunshine on the Normandy coast was a stark contrast to the weather 75 years ago on the morning of 6^th June 1944. On the beach code-named Sword, a large crowd gathered for a service to honour those who had bravely stormed ashore on that morning.  Today returning heroes and families were joined by a number of re-enactment volunteers. Dressed in the uniforms of the times, they conveyed the scenes and feelings of the battles.

The early morning temperature rose. It was going to be a hot day and in deference to the ageing returning heroes and the heat, the service was quickly completed.

After a refreshing drink, the assembled crowd boarded an air-conditioned coach for the journey to the cemetery at Ranville. Today I had decided to yomp towards Ranville just as the allied troops had in 1944.

The coach passed me. The boys didn’t have the luxury of transport on this road that fateful day. The purring engine of the passing coach was very different from the loud explosions, gunshots and the rattle of tanks rumbling along this road 75 years ago.

Brigadier Lord Lovat had marched his 1^st Special Service Brigade down this road with his Bag Piper leading in 1944. This had caused much laughter from the passing tankers and Bren gun carriers as they waved their support to the lines of troops marching. Their task was to relieve the paratroopers at Pegasus Bridge

I yomped ahead in the rising heat of the day and was getting close to the bridge where once again I could mingle with the re-enactment volunteers to pay my respects. After another little break, I picked up my kit and made my way towards the cemetery at Ranville.

There was a loud bang. It nearly had me diving into the roadside ditch to take cover but I quickly realised it was the re-enactors, jeep backfiring.  There was a sudden roar of engine noise as a couple of Douglas DC3 Dakotas flew overhead. They were dropping their parachute passengers off over Pegasus Bridge.  Although today was a hot sunlit day, you could almost smell the fear and death that pervaded over the area on that day, 75 years ago.

I neared Ranville; the coaches were off-loading the families to pay their respects. I was puffing a bit when I finally arrived at the cemetery.

I went straight to the row where the lads that we had lost that day were laid. A family followed and joined me alongside the resting place of my colleagues.

“Here’s Grandpa’s grave; hasn’t it gone cold all of a sudden?” one of the women remarked.

I tried to answer but knew I couldn’t. Looking down at the headstone, the woman placed a small

wreath and it was then I realised it was my headstone; it was me who was being remembered. They were my family;

Ford, Frederick Henry

PLY/X204848

No. 48 Commando

Royal Marines

Died Tuesday 6^th June 1944

Short Story - The Start

  Photo by Roberto Nickson from Pexels

This is the first 350 or so words of a short story that I am working on. As I probably will entering the story in a competition in the next few months, with or with this beginning, I need to be a bit careful what is out in the public domain.

This is the start of a story that I have had in mind for nearly 30 years! I think that there are parts of it on 5.25inch floppy discs somewhere!

It will be nice to work it up into about a 4000-word story to see how it works. I would like to think that I could then plan a book out of it.

I read a raw version of this at Ottery writers earlier in the week and received some nice reviews.

What do you think it is? Where's it set?  And what's going to happen next?

Please feel free to comment below. - Many thanks

Perfectly camouflaged against the cloudy dark skies above, the big black shape took care in moving over the top of the slope. Below, its target was oblivious to any movement. Inch by inch it placed its feet without sound, instinctively knowing where twigs and leaves were laying on the ground. Head and body low, it stalked effortlessly towards the unsuspecting target. Patiently edging towards the innocent prey, its senses were hyperactive. Its eyes wide and the large pupils dragging all available light in; its nose was twitching, searching all around for any unanticipated presences. All was silent. Each deliberate step, each placement of the foot; feeling for anything that would give its presence away. The thundering silence could not be broken. Its quarry, even as alert as it was, had no clue to what was happening. One more step brought it to a halt. Its eyes were transfixed by the prize. With thoughtless precision, it instinctively transferred weight and power to its back legs. They slowly and gently slumped into a compressed position, the front legs almost becoming weightless, before the decisive pounce, the final hammer blow of the stalk. The hunter was aware of all that was around it, but its eyes were only fixed on the final goal. The time was now.

Suddenly, from the cloudy sky above, there was the whining noise of aircraft engines. Out of the gloomy sky, lights started to appear and breaking through the night sky loomed a huge airliner. The noise startled the prey and it looked towards the heavens to see what it was, the hunter could see its chance and pounced. The prey didn’t know what hit it. Within seconds its throat was clamped in a vice-like grip. It couldn’t breathe and it panicked violently. The clamp only tightened, squeezing the life away from its victim. Its eyes were wide open in the throes of death whereas the hunters narrowed in pleasure.

Bits and Bobs...oh and a pledge!

These weeks little gem:

Ceraunophilia (n). Loving thunder and lightning and finding them intensely beautiful. The term is derived from the Greek "keraunos" meaning " lightning" or " thunderbolt."

I have posted this as I am keen to work this one into a short story I am writing for a competition.

There will be more about that later.

I have been a bit quiet on the writing front for the last few weeks; after all, you can’t call yourself a writer if you don’t write!

To this end, I have made a pledge to write at least 500 words a day. For me, this is about 30 minutes of work. Today, Sunday 6^th October, I have written over 700 words in about 40 minutes. I have a file where I just write for however long I want to write, just whatever comes to mind. I call it my Free Writing or Consciousness Writings file.

I’ve also made the decision that I will update the blog weekly, probably on a Sunday, so please keep following the blog.

In further news, my article to a dog’s magazine was read by the editor. She found it very interesting and very suitable for their audience. However, unfortunately, they don’t have the budget for ‘out of house work’.  I did ask her to bear me in mind for any future work to which the reply was will do! I felt that there were more positives than negatives. Really happy that I’m starting to be seen as writing in a professional way.

Yesterday I went to a signing event at the bookshop in Ottery St Mary to support two of the Ottery Writers at the launch of their books. Grenville Gilberts ‘More Honest to God’ is a collection of poems following Grenville’s journey through his faith. I have only just started to read it but already I feel inspired by his writings. Also inspiring me is Cynthia Ash’s ‘Little Slice of Paradise’ set in the Caribbean and based upon Cynthia's winter visits. I arrived after the end of the England v Argentina Rugby World Cup game and it was pleasing to hear that it had been well supported. Good luck to you both. I know all of us at Ottery Writer are extremely proud of you both and we have a little gem of a bookshop in Ottery that we all need to support.

Ok, so more on my short story.

I am looking at a couple of short story competitions; one is the Writers Bureau’s short story competition and the other is the Fish Short Story Competition. Both are required by 30^th November. I really need to read the entry rules as I am not too sure that I could enter the same story in both competitions.

I am going to present the first few paragraphs of the story at Ottery Writers on Monday (tomorrow night) to gauge the responses. I had a quick edit of it this morning but I still feel that there is a sentence that might need to come out and I will be interested to hear what people think about the pacing. Both competitions are looking for 4000 words and I’ve got 350 so far. Well, I have more but they are not settled yet. The ending hangs on the beginning, which I need to nail down and I will be able to crack on with the rest of it.

In amongst all of this, I have Assignment N4 to complete for my course. This requires me to study two different magazines and come up with an article for each. I also have to write a query letter for the editor of each of the magazines with the full aim of getting published.

I already have an idea for either the Devon or Exeter Life magazines. Over the last few days I have come up with another idea, but I need to do a bit of research on which magazine I will be pitching it too.

I will be looking for another publication for my Dog article, so a busy week ahead.

Finally, a bit of news on the job front; it looks like I will be staying with Health and Social Care Coordination Team a bit longer and there will be other opportunities as well.

Have a great week everybody!

Gerund? What is a Gerund?

This one’s a new one on me!

A GERUND is a word that is derived from a verb, ends in -ING, and acts like a noun. For example, "running," which is usually thought of as a verb, is a gerund in the following sentence, "Running is great exercise." See how running here is a thing, a noun?

A GERUND can do any job a noun can do. It can be a subject, direct object, predicate nominative, indirect object, or object of the preposition. 

NOTE: Not every word ending in -ING is a gerund. Present participles also end in -ING.

TIP: If you aren't sure if a word is a gerund or a participle, substitute another noun for the word. If the sentence still makes sense, then you know you have a GERUND.

Being a Writer

Being a Writer

I am a writer.

There, I’ve said it and it was a bit scary, but yes, I am a writer.

Therefore, what makes me a writer?

I am 57 years old; I have been writing for probably for 55 of those years. In my later years at school, I was fortunate, and it is with grateful thanks to my mother and two school teachers, who were also unsung World War Two heroes and published authors, that I managed to leave school with  GCE ‘O‘ Levels in English language and literature.

To be honest 2019 hasn’t been the best and I’m on my third job of the year (don’t ask); my wife’s father passed away after a brief illness and to top it all she has been made redundant as well.  However, five months ago I embarked on a comprehensive creative writing course. A long-held dream is starting to come to fruition.

I have been published several times over the years; letters in national daily papers, cricket reports in local papers and articles for in-house journals. Earlier this year The Rugby Paper published one of my letters and I had very pleasing personal triumph when Writing Magazine, this country’s biggest selling monthly writing publication, published a letter from one of my assignments.

The Comprehensive Creative Writing Course which I have embarked on covers all aspects of writing. It has been divided into Fiction and Non-Fiction. I have chosen to start with Non-Fiction. As recommended by the bureau and also because my interest is in writing articles for magazines. The early modules are aimed at getting into that market. Writing letters is the first and possibly the easiest way to see yourself in print, with the added bonus that there are lots of publications which offer prizes to the star letter. Getting into the habit of writing a letter to a publication 3 or 4 times a week can prove quite profitable. Filler articles are another way to get into print and they are exactly what they sound like. They are small pieces that an editor uses to fill any gaps they may have after the articles and advertisements are added to the page. Identifying those opportunities is an important first lesson to be learnt and as the modules continue, this early lesson is further evolved into a detailed analysis of magazines. I now have a spreadsheet with which I can input information gleaned from magazines to compare it with others, easily identifying freelance opportunities, size and types of articles, apparent readership and more importantly the correct editor to send the pitch to. On another, I have set up a formula to calculate word counts of articles without having to laboriously count each word. Alongside this is my submissions and financial workbook where I track my submissions by date sent, to which editor and whether I have had an answer back or not.

My smartphone has proved a useful tool for me as a writer as well. I have a very useful app from which I can view and research magazines from markets all across the globe and I can access the writing folder on my laptop through cloud services. I have a couple of apps where I can collate notes, another where I can ‘mind map’ any ideas and one that will capture any clip from any websites I visit. There are not many articles that don’t contain photographs and with nearly every phone having a powerful camera fitted, high-resolution photographs can be easily edited and uploaded to cloud services for use later.  Cloud services are essential for any writer. Who knows when you may drop your cup of tea or pot noodle all over your laptop and it breathes its last. Using the cloud you can log on from anywhere and from any computer and then be able to see all your files to work on.

My latest piece of work is an article entitled ‘Dog Toys and Why They Play’ aimed at the leading dog magazine in this country. After consideration by my tutor and on her recommendation, I have sent this off to the contributing editor. Time will tell if the Editor will use my work.

It cannot be stressed enough that all writers will receive rejections throughout their writing careers.  A rejection doesn’t always mean that your work is not good enough; it may be that your work just doesn’t fit the editors’ requirements at that time. If an editor has any suggestions to improve your work they may well give you those in the rejection letter and this can be a piece of valuable advice for future articles or pitches.

My next assignment is to write two pitches and articles for two different publications. Realistically with lead times etc., I am now looking at articles that will be published in the New Year, the research goes on.

In and around this course work I have also found time to write short stories, one of which I even entered into a competition in The Writers Forum magazine. This was the first time I had written a story since my school exams in 1978!

Being a writer has really energised me as a person and joining Ottery Writers has given me so much inspiration. Never in a million years did I think that I would be reading out my writings to a group.  This inspiration had led me to write more short stories; I have ideas for a couple of books in my notes now and even an idea for a possible comedy play.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading a bit about my life as a writer. Living in East Devon and Hardy’s Wessex, you cannot help but be inspired by the works of Thomas Hardy and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Indeed Coleridge’s famous poem Kubla Khan is carved into the entrance of the park in Ottery St Mary, his birthplace.   At Ottery Writers we have members with varying interests in the writing world; poets, novelists, fantasy writings and children’s stories are just a few. The field of opportunities for writers is vast. These talented people continue to inspire me every week to challenge myself further.  I do have several ideas for stories and who knows one day and hopefully not too far in the future, I too can proudly present my newly published novel.

Referring back to the beginning; yes I am a writer. I wouldn’t call myself a professional just yet but that is certainly going to change soon.

I’m on a wonderful journey and loving every minute of it! I hope you can join me for the ride.