My Dogs on Thursday! | Pictures

I know you can see them in the sidebar, but I am hoping to change the look of the blog, so for prosperity here are the pictures again, before I meddle with them!

Holly

Pointer/Labrador Cross

Born 1st December 2001

 

Avosetta Violet (Tia for short!)

Labrador (Retriever) 

Born 19th June 2006

 

Holly and Tia

Thursday 13 | Bloggy things

Since 13 is my lucky number I decided to play along with this meme!
13 Things I must do to improve my blog before next Thursday!

1. Find or create a better banner that is more suited to my dark/horror stories
   
2. Decide on a new colour theme (black, red, gold?)
3. Scour the web to get ideas from other writers in the same genre
   
4. Decide whether to stay with a dark, or light background.
5. Put my pictures of the girls into nice frames that match the theme
6. Add direct links to my published stories
7. A small pictures that fit the theme | meme pictures, too.
   
8. Add navigation links
9. Add pages: About me | Contact page | My published Stories | perhaps?
10. Perhaps find a whole new blog template?
11. Work out a by-line (to add to the header pic)
12. Work out a post footer template
    
13. Back up everything before I attempt to mess around with the template!

What's on your Thursday 13 list?

Ella
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Unconscious Mutterings Week 350

I've just found this fun meme from Unconscious Mutterings and since it excited me so much I am joining in this week! Here are the rules:

Free association is described as a "psychonanalytic procedure in which a person is encouraged to give free rein to his or her thoughts and feelings, verbalizing whatever comes into the mind without monitoring its content." Over time, this technique is supposed to help bring forth repressed thoughts and feelings that the person can then work through to gain a better sense of self.

That's an admirable goal, but for the purposes of this excercise, we're just hoping to have a little fun with the technique. Each week I'll post ten words to which you can respond to with the first thing that comes to mind.

"Rules are, there are no rules." There are no right or wrong answers. Don't limit yourself to one word responses; just say everything that pops into your head. AND you don't have to have your words up on Sunday. Take all week if you want!

Below are the words and the first thing that comes into my scary mind (placed after ::) --

1. My treat :: Halloween, of course.
   


2. Bell :: Quasimodo and The Festival of Fools
   


3. Five :: The Power of Five - a series of books by Anthony Horowitz
   


4. You’re crazy :: as a bicycle ( A favourite saying of mine, believe it, or not!)
   


5. Disgust :: Definitely reminds me of the Stinky Meat Project! So funny!
   


6. Tempest :: Shakespeare
   


7. Bummer :: Summer


8. Brim :: stone and Treacle Brimstone And Treacle [DVD] [1982]
   
   
9. Hose :: Garden


10. Lollipop :: Girl

What fun! What words did you come up with?

Ella
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What have you been reading lately?

I'm on GoodReads now. I love that site. It has some nifty programmes for uploading lots of books all at once.

I also adore this montage! Wonder if they will work if I post them here...only one way to find out...Here goes nothing!

Ella's to-read book montage

Ella Blackhart's favorite books »

Then there is this: My favourite Random Quotes.

Ella's favorite quotes

Goodreads Quotes

Find me here:
http://www.goodreads.com/ellablackhart
Check out what I am really reading!

I've just won a book!

I have recently started reading author, Linda LaRoque's blog. I'm very excited because I discovered this morning that my name had been pulled out of a hat as the winner of the drawing for one eBook of my choice!

What did I have to do for a chance of winning? Just visit Linda's blog and comment. You really should go and have a look, and maybe you'll be one of next month's lucky winners. Plus, she has written several books and short stories you may like to look at.

In addition, if you become a follower of her blog, you will automatically qualify for a free eBook copy of her Recipe for Romance; Volume 1, booklet containing excerpts and recipes. So, what are you waiting for?

Thanks, Linda! I can't wait to read My Heart Will Find Yours!

WRITE EVERY DAY: 500 a day Challenge Update

How am I doing?

Um, not very well.

Why not?

I'm easily distracted, and by the time I finished all my other jobs, I just don 't feel like writing. Is that normal?

I asked an author, Gary Williams, what the secret to his successful productivity was ( I know that's desperate) and his tip was "sit and write" - easy when you know how, huh? :)

I'm going to get up early from now on (yes, I can hear some of you laughing) and start writing before anything else. It's got to be worth a try. Although I will soon be on holiday and won't have any internet access, which will put a spanner in the works of my creativity for sure. All my writing is actually online so I can access it from any computer.

So bearing in mind the age old adage "write every day", how do writers / online addicts cope when on holiday with no computer or internet? Do you make sure you don't go anywhere unless there is internet access or it's a laptop friendly area? What if, like me, you don't have a laptop and all your work is sitting on the computer in your office? Perhaps you take lots of notebooks and write by hand? Or is there another way that I don't know of, which would really make me happy as Larry? Whoever he is.

Pray do tell.

The 500 Words a Day Challenge!

It's been way too long since I have updated this blog, so in an effort to change that and write more every day, I am entering the "500 Words A Day Challenge". This may not sound much, but I hope that this will lead to more words once I get started each day.

I have also added two writing progress meters in the sidebar, which I will update once a week, if not sooner. Here they are:

Novel

34276 / 80000

Novella

6290 / 15000

Hopefully, this will encourage me to write more regularly! Fingers crossed.

At the moment I have not got anything in the pipeline, other than the two books mentioned above. Usually I have at least a couple of short stories or flash fiction pieces in the hands of online magazine editors waiting for their yay or nay responses. Lately, however, there has been a lot going on in my life and when I do sit down and write it's to work on the novel or novella with sporadic bursts of productivity. And then nothing for days. This is going to change! Watch this space.

I've also updated my MySpace profile, which was more than overdue.

Until next time, which shouldn't be as long as the gap between my last post and this new one, have fun!

Ella
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I'm in Bewildering Stories Issue 340

Well, I'm here again, pleased to announce that my story SIRENUM SCOPULI in Bewildering Stories is now up.

I have to say, as a point of interest, that I am pleasantly surprised at how the managing editor, Don Webb, introduces the new contributors -- this time me. It's a very thoughtful thing to do, and by a way of thanks it makes me want to submit more stories to him. :) Seriously though, I do think it's a very nice touch.

In addition, I have also found that at the bottom of my story is a link to Issue 340 challenges; ideas formulated as they passed through the editor's mind while he read and formatted the text for publication. These can be used in many ways to inspire the readers to send in their ideas, and comments. Some challenges even resemble an exercise from a writers workshop, others can be seen as a prompt or an expression of the editor's concept of a Bewildering Story. Another great idea, I say! And my story is mentioned there, too!

OK, enough of the shameless self-promotion - I'm just a little bit excited, as I am sure you will understand.