Dodging boomerangs, celebrating and passing 6,000!!!!

Strange how life throws boomerangs at you periodically.

You get something really great that happens to you and then you get a bunch of obstacles and unforeseen difficulties that get in the way.

How did Dickens describe it? It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

It’s just life, eh?

Recently I’ve had one of the best days of my life, my wonderful book launch at Octavia’s Bookshop www.octaviasbookshop.co.uk a little over a week ago, which to my utter delight was a complete sell out! Yes, we sold out of every book in just over an hour!!

Then, despite wanting desperately to publicise and promote my novel and all the wonderful things that have happened, I’ve been struck down this week by severe migraines and sickness! Ughhh…I found myself saying “I don’t have time to be ill!” But of course, your body has a way of saying, “STOP!”

I hate being ill as we all do and I never, never take time off work…but have spent the last few days curled up in bed with the curtains drawn, like some oversized dormouse. Ughhh.

Juggling life, work and stress is tricky at the best of times but throw in illness and it’s a kicker.

So, it is with total unbridled joy that with a bag of frozen peas on my head, I popped onto the computer and saw that my beloved little blog has passed the 6,000 visitors mark!!!

I am SOOOOOOO thrilled and delighted and genuinely touched by all the amazing support I’ve received from friends and strangers a like!

Thank you to everyone who has dropped by this little blog to say hello, to hang out for a while, or just to whizz by. Whether you are frequent visitors or one-time passers-by, thank you, thank you, thank you!

I won’t share my migraines, but I’ll happily share the LOVE!!!!!

Thank you guys! 😀 xx

Passing 5,000!

Wow! I’ve passed 5,000 views!

That’s 5,000 wondrously curious, literary minded people popping in to read some poetry, short stories, travelogues, diary pieces, to read about my upcoming debut novel, White Mountain, and the creative journey it has taken me on…or to simply to check in and say ‘Hi’!

Whatever your reason for visiting, pull up a chair, relax and stay a while! 😛

It’s funny – I’m sure such things may be ‘run of the mill’ to others, but I am continually surprised and very humbled that my little unassuming blog has attracted such numbers. I can’t believe it, especially given my shamefully sporadic postings.

So I really must take the opportunity to say a MASSIVE and genuine thank you to every single visitor!

Whatever this little blog may be or may become, any success it has is entirely down to YOU!!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

😀 xxx

Manically juggling and Hitting 3,000!

Like so many of us, I find myself constantly juggling and always trying to squeeze yet more precious time out of each day. It’s a common malaise nowadays, when we are all working longer hours with heavier workloads and we find the work/life balance completely out of kilter.

For me, between a VERY full-time job, a hectic career with all the usual and unusual stresses and workloads that that entails, writing my second novel, writing other projects and short stories, promoting and marketing my first novel (White Mountain, published 30th September this year), doing my artwork and a busy home life…I find that manic juggling game increasingly more difficult.

With so many balls flying through the air, how do we keep going without dropping the odd one?

For some, it becomes a daily routine of list writing. Charting out each event that needs attending to and prioritising the most important. I must admit, that despite my fierce loathing of anything too organised and too routine, as I’ve always loved ‘flying by the seat of my pants’ so to speak (for me spontaneity IS life), even I have had to grudgingly adopt this formalised structure. I’m sure for those fortunate few to be ‘ladies or gents of leisure’, the choices in life are perhaps easier, but for the rest of us workers, you HAVE to list and prioritise your life to some extent, if you are to prevent those balls from crashing all over the place!

My advice? If writing IS your life…give yourself time to do it! MAKE time to do it…even if that’s at 2 in the morning!

KEEP WRITING!

To that point, I work during the day but am a night owl and DO ensure that I write everyday, whether it’s a section of narrative, some scribbled plot ideas or some poetry.

So, amidst all my frantic juggling, despite my considerable absence of late and the very sporadic blogging from my initial, ‘Daily Hello’ intentions, my little blog has now passed the 3,000 hits mark!

Wow and wow!

I am genuinely amazed and very touched. A HUGE shout out to all my friends, supporters and family who have been utterly amazing in their kindness and support, and who have kept me laughing and inspired in equal measure! I owe you all a great debt.

THANK YOU!

😀

 

When the Griffin met the Dragon – My second interview!

My second in-depth interview! Woo-and Hoo!

(Yes, it is strange that this and Tricia’s blog came out on the same day, but you know…life IS strange and wonderful and bizarre!)

A few weeks ago I was thrilled and VERY humbled to be approached by the multi-talented, Ryan Holmes – a fellow fantasy writer, a skilled ‘Quiz Master General’, blogger extraordinaire and all round lovely guy.

Oh…did I mention that he also has my dream job?

He works for…(drum roll please)…NASA!

Ryan Holmes is also the creator of Griffin’s Quill, a fantastic website “created by authors for authors and their readership.”

Not only does it feature Ryan’s own writing, ‘Dawn of Resurgence’, but it is also dedicated to encouraging and nurturing new writing talent.

A great place and a real haven for writing and writers in general – highly recommended!

Well, over the course of the last few weeks I’ve had an absolute blast, as Ryan has well and truly quizzed me over my reasons for writing and my debut novel, ‘White Mountain’, Book 1 of ‘The Darkling Chronicles’ – published by Safkhet Publishing 30th September 2012.

Massive thanks to Ryan Holmes for all his incredible hard work and for making the interview so much fun! Check out the results here:

http://griffinsquill.com/2012/03/21/sophie-e-tallis/

Griffin’s Quill: http://griffinsquill.com/

😀

P.S. I still want to join NASA!

When the writing flow is inter…upted!

Have been having somewhat of a creative flourish the last few days. Great for me, terrible for everyone else, as I’ve been wandering around in a daze, muttering to myself and not listening to anyone – just a lot of nodding, saying yes and monosyllabic grunting! Amazingly…I still have friends and family who put up with me.

Anyway, while I’ve been in my bubble. One fundamental truth hit me – that so much of what we attribute to writer’s block is caused by our having to go to the toilet! Our bladders are to blame for everything!

So I’m writing away furiously, often having to switch from the narrative to scribbling shorthand passages or key lines down so I don’t forget, before jumping back in. Inevitably, the lavatory beckons (don’t worry folks, no details here, it’s not that kind of blog!). So, you put it off and put it off, until you absolutely cannot go on. You are naturally reluctant because you are ‘in the zone’. The magic is flowing and so are the words, just tumbling onto the page in a frenetic even frenzied way.

You return, try to focus, to recapture that ‘thing’, that magic…but can you? No. You can force it of course, write a load of rubbish you only have to go back and delete later. You try again and again to get back to where you were, when your fingers couldn’t write quick enough and you stumbled over passages in your haste to get to the next scene. But no. The scene has stopped in your head. Your writing is now self-conscious, your word choices too deliberate.

The magic has gone.

Arghhhhh! Damn you bladder!

19 pages this morning, on a real roll and then…the toliet reared its ugly head! Oh dear! 😦