Welcome to my blog party!
I haven’t hosted a blog party in a very long time, and there are a few things that I would like to take the opportunity to celebrate:
I haven’t hosted a blog party in a very long time, and there are a few things that I would like to take the opportunity to celebrate:
**Trigger Warning – Domestic Violence and Abuse**
The allegations surrounding the predatory culture within Hollywood has once again highlighted the frequency and acceptance of sexual harassment and abuse, with a whole host of celebrities (both female and male) sharing their own personal and horrific experiences. Unfortunately, while the majority of the focus was initially directed towards a single person, it is not an uncommon nor new story and it’s something that takes place daily in every walk of life, prompting thousands to share their own stories, or simply respond with ‘Me too.’
Today’s post is an extremely personal one from Em Linthorpe. I have the upmost admiration for her courage to discuss such an experience, and I will leave the comments open below for you to respond with the courtesy and respect she deserves…
First I want to mention two bloggers who after reading their posts this week, inspired me to write about my experience with domestic violence.
Just Another Blog From a Woman
Thank you for giving me the strength to write this, friends. Continue reading
Originally posted on Gin & Lemonade:
‘Isla, do you like America?’ ‘I love it.’ ‘Mumma used to live here.’ ‘Where? In the toilet?’ We were in the bathroom. Although, she can be sarcastic, too. Not her fault. And I should…
Meet Lorna! She’s the creator of Gin & Lemonade…
Lorna lives in Skye, writes, reads and lives quite happily with her husband, their daughter, lots of books, a few fish, and computers called Hemingway, Truman, and Frank. She’s 36, and happens to be a wheelchair-user. She explains more in her rather epic ‘About’ page:
Back then I had just moved in with my boyfriend (Sarge), and I wanted to write from the perspective of a youngish person with CP in a relationship and living in not the most accessible city in the world. And for added interestingness, I was an American living in Scotland for a really long time, with an accent that betrayed all my years here. Continue reading
Meet Matthew! He’s the creator of Love, Laughter and Truth, an open and sometimes brutally honest blog about life… I started writing about the different topics that he covers, but his About page explains his content far more succinctly than I ever could…
Sometimes, sh*t happens.
Depression, divorce, having to take the kids to an Olly Murs concert… we’ve all been there. Well, maybe not; the specifics might change but one thing’s for sure, if you’re reading this you’ve dealt with some sh*t along the way. That’s life folks!
The thing about sh*t though, it’s a great fertiliser. In dealing with the sh*t in our lives we learn, we grow, we become better people. Sometimes, we even start a blog. Continue reading
Helen has featured Sacha Black’s new workbook on her blog – No. 1 Bestselling Author for Writers – definitely worth checking out! Please don’t like or comment on my reblog, hop on over to Helen (and then to Sacha) and say hi!
My lovely author-and bloggy-friend Sacha recently released her excellent writing craft book, 13 Steps To Evil – How To Craft A Superbad Villain, which I would recommend as essential to any writer. Today, she’s released the accompanying workbook. Here, in her own words, she tells us what we’ll find inside:
How do you become the best writer you can?
Is a question I constantly ask myself in my quest to write full-time.
One of the most obvious answers I’ve discovered is by continuing to learn lessons and develop your craft.
But lessons only take you so far, right?
Why?
Because you have to put them into practice.
***
At the tail end of May, I released 13 Steps To Evil – How To Craft A Superbad Villain which was jam-packed with resources and tips to improve your villains and help you take them to the next level.
But what…
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Right from the beginning of my wedding planning eighteen months ago, I was determined that I would do my absolute best to keep the costs as low as possible. Of course, I wanted the day to be beautiful, but our budget was small and I didn’t want us to still be paying it off for years after it was over.
Essentially, I wanted it to be as cheap as possible, but I didn’t want it to LOOK cheap.
The problem is, the minute the word ‘wedding’ is mentioned, the prices of everything are automatically increased and there are numerous places that aren’t always upfront about their total prices – we discovered that there were lots of hidden costs in all sorts of different areas.
The key to saving money lies in forward planning, lots of research, asking for help, being patient and shopping around. It also helped that we had a long engagement, giving us sufficient time to work out what we wanted and how much we were prepared to budget for it. Continue reading
Last night I was in a bit of a mess. We had been subjected to excessive noise from our new neighbours, and because of the awful experience we have had in the past I ended up having a full blown anxiety attack.
I decided to bite the bullet and spoke to one of the lads this morning. I timed it so I caught up with him when he was leaving the house for work and asked him (in my most disgustingly nice and polite voice) if he had a few minutes. I explained about what had happened at the previous house and why this still has such an impact on us now. Continue reading
Three years ago, The Bloke and I were renting a really nice terraced house. It was smaller than the one we’re in now, but it was cosy, with neutral decor and a nice landlord. Unfortunately, the walls were so thin that it was possible to hear someone sneeze next door. The first neighbour we had was a nasty woman, who spent her time screaming at her toddler, who cried all the time. After one particularly bad afternoon during the summer holidays, when I had spent the majority of the day listening to her constant yelling, I screamed at her to shut up through the wall. The shouting stopped immediately, and within the next week she moved out without telling the landlord – she just packed up and left. I don’t think my yelling at her would have been enough to cause that reaction, but I was torn by worry for the child and relief that I didn’t have to hear her voice any more. That was the first time I had ever experienced anything like that – I’d always been lucky to have nice neighbours and while there was occasionally some noise it certainly never bothered me before. Continue reading
