Are You Campaigning?

Rachael Harrie over at Rach Writes is running her Platform Building Writer's Campaign, starting this month. I took part in the prvious incarnations of this (as the Crusdade) and I'm considering joining again this time round.

Getting round the 200-odd blogs that were participating last time was just too much for me, and I did neglect my fellow Crusader in my group as well. I'm wondering if it's a bit cheeky of me to sign up to this while I'm on a schedule hiatus from the blog, and working on the chapter. I'm also on an officicial holiday, the kind where I get to fly away from the UK, for two weeks in September and will be cutting it fine for participation in the all important challenges that month.

All of that said, I read more blogs and wrote more, blog-wise and novel-wise, while taking part in the Campign and it should be a good warm up for NaNoWriMo* in November. A lot of you out there got to the blog through the first two Campiagns and mny of the blog I follow were discovered the same way. So will you be Campaigning this autumn? How did you choose your Campainger group, and how do you plan on staying in touch with everyone? Do you think that this is an unashamed scramble for for followers(on my part, not yours)**?

*Disclaimer: still not 100% decied that I'm taking part in that either. You can though. Sign up for NaNoWriMo here and the Campaign here.

** It isn't that. Well, it mostly isn't anyway. 

A blog post all about me (Crusader Challenge)

So, I've to tell you all about me in 300 words or less. In case you haven't noticed yet I'm not so good with concise so this really will be a challenge. I do have the habit of going on a bit, its one of the things that people find most annoying bout me. When I get onto a topic I feel passionately bout, one way or another, it’s hard to get me to stop and I do tend to bloviate a bit when it comes to academic-style debate. I think its something to do with having studied philosophy. Maybe.

One of my favourite things in the world when I was little was dressing up and my Grandma's fur coat was the best. Imagine how I felt when I found out that it was real rabbit.

I was bullied in high school, like most kids are but my story has a happy ending (kind of). I was bullied in first year for being flat chested; I was twelve. By the time I was thirteen I was on my way to a D-cup. Hmm, perhaps not the best secret to tell you, should I have gone for 'I’m a closet philatelist' instead?

I love toast and nutella for breakfast, and I always make sure I've got extra chocolate spread on the knife so that I can lick it off the blade.

I'm very determined and its a character trait I get from my family. We are fuliguline is many ways, belonging to quite a big flock but not your average birds of a feather: a bit quirky and not found in your usual pond.

Of all these things about me, one of them isn't quite true. Can you guess which one?



P.S. I don't share much about myslef on the blog, mainly because I like to keep sections of my life seperate and blogging is where I am the 'writer' me, rather than the girlfriend, daughter, friend, colleague, sister or student me. So, this was a bit diffucult and really challenged my writing skills. A huge big THANK YOU to Rach for hosting this awesome challenge. Keep crusading!

P. P. S. The moral of the story is not that you need big boobs to be happy, but that bullies are usually clueless individuals and you should never take what they say on board. And check what that vintage fur coat is really made of first, it might freak you out. And comparing your family to a flock of sea ducks is hard.

Holy Potatoes, Batman! (or Crusade Mark II)

Ok, so I'm running out of quirky titles for the blog posts, but in my defence I need to get this post up so that I can sign up for the Second Writers Platform Building Crusade with Rach over at Rach Writes... and get on with my amazing, fantabulous Blogoversary COMPETITION! Besides,
Crusdade-->Holy-->Batman...not too much of a leap, is it?

I was late to the party for the first Crusade and I missed the first challenge, but I'm definitley hopping on board from the start for Rach's second crusde, and you should too. Its a great wy to meet new bloggers and this time round Rach is sorting us all into groups so that it's  bit easier to keep on top of the Crusading and, more importantly, we get intouch with other writers with a similar style or genre.

I can unequivocally say that my writing has improved in volume and regularity since joing the first Crusdae and being introduced to some wonderful fellow bloggers who write engaging posts and aske me questions about my writing, either directly or indirectly, which have really motivted me.

So sign up here and come Crusading!

New Writing Dundee 6 - Call for Submissions

A while ago I posted up information on the short fiction writing anthology New Writing Dundee 5 which my friends Rachel and Amy edited and put together. I know I promised to review the peices in it, but haven't managed a review in a while. I've got two lined up for the New Year, but I'll pick a random story/poem from NWD5 after those are up on the blog.

Second Crusader Challenge

You may not know this about me but I've never spent more than two weeks in a country other than Scotland and I'm a bit of a Nationalist. I can hear my reader in the US spluttering 'kartoffelpuffer!?!' in disbelief, what with the connotations this has.