The Kindness of Strangers

Woke up this morning a teensy bit grumpy. Didn't sleep too well and I have to return to school tomorrow.
It's only an Inset day (or insect day as I prefer to call it), but it signals the end of having my my full-time writer's head on.

I told myself 'carpe diem', (see last post to make full sense of this), and switched on my trusty laptop.

My day got a whole lot brighter when I saw two really nice comments from strangers about two of my stories on the Shortbread Stories website.

It continued to shine, when later on Nina from Prima Magazine put my link about a short story on their Twitter page. Prima has over 1,000 followers and hopefully some of them will read it. Just in case you would like to vote for it here it is. http://authortrek.com/short-stories/2010/08/31/against-all-odds-by-mandy-k-james/
Thanks to anyone reading this who did vote too.

This kindness just reaffirmed my belief that most people are goodies, and that they will try to give you a leg up when they can, rather than kick you in the shins.

Hope this little ray of sunshine will continue tomorrow morning when I hear the banshee wail of the alarm clock!

Bye for now :)

Who Knows Where The Time Goes?

I watched a few old home videos over the weekend. Brian my husband has been trying to put them onto DVD, but it takes up so much time.

On the question of time, who knows where it goes?

On the holiday videos we all look so young, yes I know that's because we were.

Though you forget don't you until you see a youthful face looking out at you from a long ago scene.

The wedding video was the most telling. Some of the people on it are now departed, and my daughter now twenty eight and expecting a baby was a child herself back then. Her cousin has a one year old now, but then aged nine was concerned with showing the camera a crooked tooth.

The thing is, it's all a bit scary. It was 17 years ago but it seems like yesterday, well OK perhaps a bit longer but you get my drift.

Bettte Davis once said 'Old age ain't no place for sissies' and I think she was right. I'm not old yet but at the rate the time is galloping past I soon will be.
Whoever said the carpe diem thing was right too. We need to make the most of every day and go for it. Each day is precious and should be seized and shaken 'til every last second has been scattered productively across life's fertile fields...hey, that's a bit poetic isn't it?

I may be getting older but I have lots to look forward to, especially the arrival of my first grandchild early next year.

Any road up, today I did a rewrite on one of my stories and bunged it into another competition at the last minute. I wasn't going to bother but, you have to be in it to win it I guess. It's up to me what I make of each day.

I wonder how I'll be feeling in another 17 years time? I guess that will be up to me too.

Yours philosophically

M x

Of Mice and Cats

Morning everyone.

I am especially qualified to say this today as I have been up for most of it. I'm still in my dressing gown as we speak, can you believe it? What do you mean yes?

Anyhow, I went to the loo at 5.30 as you do, and our cat Sebastian was crouched over the bathroom scales. Now I know he's overweight, but I'm not sure he's that concerned about it.

His tail was twitching and he looked at me for help. That look told me there was some poor unfortunate creature hiding under the scales. Now me, I hide from the bathroom scales.
When I looked sure enough there was a little mouse looking up obviously scared sh...well you know how much. If not I'll tell you in a minute.

I went back to the bedroom and got my empty drinking glass (yes water glass in case you are wondering), found a bit of card, and returned armed to rescue the thing.

Luckily Sebastian by now had decided to go outside as he was bored with the whole process.It was relatively easy to catch it for once. On past mouse hunts I have had to tip all the sofas over to retrieve them. This time I just caught it in the glass and put the card on top.It was a weird little creature. It had a pale face and brown body. Any ideas what type it could be?

Out I went in my dressing gown, (yes the same one as I'm wearing now)), to the top of the garden and tipped the poor thing under the shed. When I looked in the glass on the way back down the path it had sent me a message about how scared it actually was!

I wonder why we share our lives with these predators? They are such a nuisance.But then have a look at the photos of my babies (cats) on the blog and you'll see why we do.

At least the mouse was only under the scales not in my boot as it was last winter.
Not a good start to the day rushing to work and then finding something wriggling under your foot is it?

Well I'd better get dressed as it is nearly noon after all.

TTFN x

Who am I?

I have often ask myself this question!

I am a writer first and foremost but teach part-time to pay the mortgage.

Well at last I have decided to start a blog. My husband Brian has been on at me for ages to do it but I thought it was a bit pretentious. I mean yes I've had a short story published as you can see from my photo, but I'm hardly J K Rowling.
Recently though other friends of mine have blogs for lots of different reasons. Some use them as a place to voice their opinions and to chat to other like minded people. I like to do both those things so here I am.

I was and still am immensely proud of my first success in print though (you can't tell that from the photo can you?), and I have quite a few short stories online. I had a story in Prima in June too.

Hopefully when I have got the hang of this blogging thing I'll put my stories on here . I have written two novels and have nearly finished a third. I of course would love to see them published, so I live in hope of that.

I have recently discovered the wonderful world of Twitter too.
Hang on, does that sound like an owl? Anyway, if any of my new Twitter friends or indeed any of my old friends would like to follow this blog then please feel free!

Back soon x