A fistful of stories!

I've just put links up on the right to a couple of stories I've written as part of the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Creative Writing unit we've been doing for the last 8-or-so weeks. They're pretty short, so take a peek! Please do let me know what you think, feedback is always appreciated.

More on the way...

p.s. I seem to have broken all the images in the previous posts. Will try to fix that soon. :)

And so it begins...

After neglecting our little website for many a month, I've finally got round to rejiggling it a bit. The first step being to remove just about everything except this blog. Now that I've finally detached myself from 90s-style websites, hopefully this should prove much easier to update on a more regular basis.

We've been up to lots of exciting things lately, so we should have some short stories, artwork and photos to link to soon. In the meantime, enjoy this work in progress journal thing. :)

Hahaha I forgot this existed

I forgot we had this, and now I remembered I figure I may as well post on it! First things first, I am now officially thirty two years old. How old is that? How grey am I? And how have things been these past thirty two years I know you are asking yourself and even if not, I shall reply. Well, so far my early thirties are a million times better than my twenties. For a start, I know myself better and am therefore less likely to make a complete idiot of myself in public, and when I do I don't actually care any more. It is very liberating.
My working life is a bit rubbish, poorly paid and bored in a nutshell but I am going to do a masters so all is well, other than working my socks off in the next two years. I'd never have been able to do it without Simon so I am counting my blessings. Urgh, how cheesemongery is this?! Sorry, but the truth is never pretty.
What else? Oh yes, creative writing is scary, difficult and stilted for me. I didn't realise I was quite as long winded as all that, but ponderous is a good way to describe my progress. However words trip lightly off of Simon's tongue, like honey from a bee so I am insanely jealous and downhearted. I think it is only right that I make a melodramatic statement of intent soon along the lines of 'I will never write again as long as I live!' or just edit and critique as usual and leave the writing to the more dedicated and confident out there. Or do poetry instead which I generally always preferred to write.
Hm...Things I have noted in the past few weeks:
I feel old
I miss my friends
I have a new 'perfect sister' badge which I fully intend to wear at the weekend
Simon is the best (but don't anyone tell him that).
Sitting outside in the sun all day is a fantastically indulgent and enjoyable thing to do
Sitting outside in the sun for too long gives me a headache
Fireworks are ok if you are really really far away
Old people have no shame
I've felt under the weather for nearly two months now....
Girly chick flicks rule
Heroes and BSG won't be around forever :(

So anyway, I'm going to stop now.

I wonder when Simon will notice?

That I've been blogging on here? If that is the correct term. I've been ruminating on whether to go down to London to get a book signed on the 17th March, as I have the 16th off work anyway, and it would be great to meet some people from the forum. But then can I really be bothered to spend £30 odd for a chat and a couple of signatures? And sit on a train? As I'm going down in April anyway, I doubt I'll go but I never get to go to signings and they all seem to happen at Forbidden Planet. I wish there was cause for great writers to come up to Norfolk, but unless they already live here there never is :(

I've had a good day today, though I still don't feel well having contracted the lurgy over a week ago and still shaking it off, and I made the mistake of eating fresh pineapple, mango and papaya at the weekend in one of those little packs where they prep it for you. Never has such a great food sin been committed by me. Or at least, not in so long. I was still feeling quite ill today...I think I am actually allergic to fresh fruit - and apparently it isn't all that uncommon to be intolerant of it at least...So I'm not weird.

Anyway, the day has been good because: I drove around a lot and am determined to KEEP IT UP; it is my mantra. Having never ridden a bike, or a horse, I haven't always believed people saying that getting behind the wheel after a short absence is ' just like riding a bike, once you learn it you never forget how to do it,' 'once you get on you always fall off' is more likely. I hate idioms and similes like that, I never remember them right. It is clearly because I am foreign, which is a card I occasionally allow myself to wave around maniacally. Certain sayings come to you from your family so all of mine are Eritrean.

It was also a good day because I went to two meetings which took all day and were strategic and in someways visionary. But that is going to bore everyone so I'll stop there.

things to note:

My life is not that interesting
Fruit is sometimes bad, but heavenly
I don't know how to post pictures

I forgot to talk about hypnotherapy and the dirty dancing wedding first dance. So, next time I shall.

Just watched University Challenge:

Nadia 110
Simon 35. Not his finest hour.

Long time no type

I thought I'd update the journal seeing as I am home, sick and bored. I've been off work for days now with a bad head cold - Simon's man flu seems to have affected me more:( and am going stir crazy.

Topics of interest lately have been: Slavery, as it is the 200 year anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the UK, but slavery still exists in the form of domestic labourers being bought and sold as well as sex trafficking in theUK, let alone what happens worldwide. I did a bit of reading on the activists in the US as I know very little about American history, and know know something of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas and Ulysses Grant (not an activist but someone who certainly had the power to make a difference). Sojourner Truth especially had a strong impact on me as a black woman who had been through such turmoil; her 'Ain't I a woman?' speech still resonates.

I also learned a bit more about marriage, the Baha'i faith, the mythical land of Punt which may be the land of my heritage, Eritrea, what else? Also, I learned a little bit about Aiken Drum the Scottish tale, and Solomon the wise of biblical times as well as Suleiman the Magnificent or Law Maker, who ruled the Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia is great for browsing but I'm inclined to further any studies with real books, or at least learned texts. Some of the submissions on it were misspelled and I swear at one point someone wrote 'awesome'.

So, snobs are us. I just got a parcel from Amazon so I must now spend the next week trying not to start any of the books I've bought. It will be particularly difficult with Guy Gavriel Kay's Ysabel, which I know will be great and is his first book in ages. I didn't realise the dearth of his books til recently. Good writers should learn to type really, really, extra specially fast. The other two books I may start nowish, I have Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley (which kind of looks a bit traditional) and a book of short stories with an offering from Sharon Shinn whose latest series I really enjoyed....But I must resist as my to read pile is so enormous, I shouldn't have bought the books in the first place.

What else? I'm looking forward to going to Oxford for a few days, our first proper holiday together (gulp!). I should imagine that navigating, not getting lost, driving, and all things associated will be a nightmare. I hate that we are so conventional in our disagreements. Woman: Bad Navigator. Man: Bad instruction taker. It is so predictable. Still, it'll be worth it I'm sure. Blenheim Palace looks so good. I'm fairly certain that as I am looking forward to it in particular, the day will be too cold, raining or something which will dampen our enthusiasm. Fingers crossed it won't.
Next time: Hypnotherapy and what it means to me.

Posted not by Nadia and Simon, but by Nadia all on her own and who is an independent being. As Dave once said, there are at times too many ands and not enough commas.

Bond

James Bond, to be exact. Not a man I either like or am interested in except to have an apoplectic fit whenever he is mentioned. But Casino Royale was actually ok. Just the right mix of action, irony, poker and lithe male and female bodies to appeal to a wider range of audience. Hurrah! And the Chris Cornell song went really well with it - threading its way through the film blending in marvellously with the traditional dum dum dee dum dom dee dum tune. I don't have a picture I'm afraid, but if I did, it would be of a random village by the med, with hot sun blazing down at people in sun glasses on powerful boats. Why are all the criminals [girlfriends/wives] in the world lazing on a sun lounger by the Mediterranean? Surely some of them like a bit of a change every once in a while?

Getting there...

Now that all the festivities are done, I've finally had time to update the website properly. I've rejiggled most of the pages so that they can cope with more content. The Artwork section now works via the rather nifty Picasa web albums service - nice and free!

With a bit of luck we'll have some pseudo-science articles going up in the next couple of weeks, which will hopefully prove to be fun reads. They may even be collated into a book one day!

Simon