S is for Show, not Tell

   The shadows lengthen, creating eerie shapes that stretch and stretch and finally melt together as the sun vanishes behind the buildings. I lift my shoulders against the chill breeze as I step off the main road and into the alley; the shortcut will get me home sooner. I think of Ma’s cooking and my stomach answers with an uncomfortable twist.

   Something falls behind me and I glance over my shoulder. Is that the figure of a person? I stop and turn fully. There is no one there. After a moment I continue on my way, my legs carrying me faster this time.

   But I’m certain now that there’s a second pair of footsteps, an answering echo to my own hurried gait. When I stop they stop. I feel the heavy weight of watching eyes on me. This time I don’t bother to look behind; I just run.

   My feet pound the cobbled pavement and breath fills my lungs in gasps. I round a corner and grab hold of the side of a dumpster, pulling myself behind it. My boots slip on some sticky substance and I hit the ground, but I’m behind the dumpster now, out of sight.

   The stink of rotting rubbish fills my nose and mouth, but I ignore it. I peer into the near darkness, my heart hammering against my ribcage, my eyes roving with saccadic movements.

   Waiting.

   Waiting.

   And then I hear it: the quiet crunch of footsteps. He moves without hesitation around the side of the dumpster, blocking out the dim light as he looms above me. His image shimmers before my eyes as tears swell, balance, and then tumble down my cheeks. I taste salt on my lips.

   “Please,” I whisper.

   He stretches a hand towards me.

In this 293 words excerpt you're supposed to be able to figure out (without me telling you) that:

• it's dusk
• I'm scared and hungry
• I think someone is following me

I also had to use the random words shimmer, saccadic, substance and salt and try to incorporate all five senses. Oh yeah, and there are 27 S words in there (which doesn't come close to Rach Harrie's 41, but hey, I tried!).

You can check out the other Show, not Tell entries here.

Greetings, Crusader Groups 7 and 32!

Now that the groups have been finalised (okay, well, a few days ago...), I wanted to officially say hi to my fellow crusader group members:

Group 7: (okay, I know there is an A and a B, but I've put you all on my sidebar and I'll try and keep up with all of you!)  Wanita, CherrylAnne, Shari, Constance, Lynda, Elena, WritingNut, El, Sari, Alexis, Ciara, Bess, Michael, Brooke, Theresa, Misha and Meredith.

Group 32: Rebecca, Kristal, Cally, Lola, Alexis, Gina and Charity.

*waves frantically*

Welcome! Come and join me for a virtual tea party :-)

Image source

First Crusader Challenge - Vote For What YOU Think!

If you're not a crusader and you want to know more about this craziness... click here.

1. I wear some form of shoe approximately 99% of the time because I really don't like my feet to feel dirty! And of course there's the danger of being cut by broken glass or some dodgy person's accidentally-dropped blade, of course.




2. I have a friend who bloviates ALL the time, and quite honestly I'm embarrassed sometimes to be around him... I mean, no one needs to speak as though they're in the presence of some eighteenth century queen of England!




3. I correct people's pronunciation. I know it drives them nuts, but the correct pronunciation just demands to be spoken every time someone says it the wrong way! Sometimes I have to bite my tongue and just not say it (like if it were my boss or someone I just met!), but my poor boyfriend may just strangle me when I tell him once again how to pronounce schnitzel (come ON! It's not snitchel!!).




4. I can usually see things from someone else's point of view as well as my own. This must have made me quite an easy child to raise because when my mother said things like, No, you may not sleep over at your boyfriend's house when his parents are out, I kinda had to agree with her!




5. I've been going on holiday to this mountain resort since I was about six. We go on long hikes, row boats across the lake, and there's even this little animal park where children can play with and feed the rabbits, guinea pigs, pigeons and other fuliguline creatures.




6. I can't go a day without writing something, even if it's short. I carry a notebook around with me in my handbag/school bag so that I don't miss a single idea!




I may have revealed something about myself that isn't strictly true... I hope you managed to guess what it is ;-)

#amcrusading

FINISHED!

source

I have finally finished following the 216 blogs on the list for Rachael Harrie's Second Writers' Platform-Building Crusade! Wow, what a marathon of following and commenting! If you think that I somehow missed you (maybe I commented but then forgot to click the Follow button (!) or my subscribing via Google Reader for those who don't have the Follow button didn't seem to work) please let me know in the comments :-)

*updated tips

Tips for Newbie Bloggers

• Display your email address. You may have specific reasons for not wanting to share your email address (like the fact that it has your real name!) but it is very helpful to have your email address displayed. It means that when I (or anyone else's blog you comment on) receive an email notification of the comment you've left on my blog, I can reply to you directly by email. On your Blogger dashboard click Edit Profile, then tick Show my email address and then at the bottom of the page click Save Profile.
• *Set up a new email address. If you don't want to share your original email address because it has your real name (for example) it is WORTH IT TO SET UP A NEW ONE WITH YOUR PEN NAME! Yes, it is a mission. I know this because a few months into blogging I set up a new gmail account, I then transferred ownership of my blog to the new gmail/blogger account, and I then re-followed every single blog I was already following! Exhausting. But so worth it in the long run. And if you've only just started blogging it is better to do this NOW than in the future when you're following even more people. [If you don't want to constantly be logging in and out of two email accounts you can set it up so that the one forwards emails to the other. Then you only need to check one account all the time.]
• Display your blog link. Now this one you definitely do want to do! You know all the little profile pictures you see in someone's Followers list? If I click on your picture, I want to be able to see the link to your blog. If it's not there, then I can't follow you back! On your Blogger dashboard click View Profile. If, underneath My Blogs, you see the name of your blog, then you're ok :-) If not, click Edit Profile. Next to Show my blogs click on Select blogs to display. Then put a tick in the box next to your blog name and click Save Settings.
• *Another way to display your blog link (like if you've done the above and it doens't seem to be working!) Go to a blog you're already following and go to the Followers gadget. If you don't see your pic with your name just above everyone else's pics then beneath the gadget click Sign In (because, of course, you are already a follower). Once you are signed in, beneath your name click on Options and then Site Settings. A new window opens up. Inside the box with your name, click on Add Links. Type in the url and the name of your blog and click Add. Then at the bottom of the window click Done. This should change your settings for all the blogs you follow (and will follow in the future!).
• *If a blog doesn't have a "Subscribe to my RSS feed" button, and you want to subscribe to their blog through Google Reader, simply go to the home page of that person's blog (ie. before you have clicked on any of their individual posts or comments), copy the url from the address bar, go to Google Reader, a the top left click Add a Subscription, paste the url and click Add. Then give it a little bit of time to load the new subscription!

And a big THANK YOU to everyone from the crusade who has followed me!!

PS. If you have any questions about the above tips, write it in the comments

or email rachelmorganwrites[at]gmail[dot]com

:-)

Join the Fun - Come Crusading!

Ok, so I sort of, ahem, missed my usual Thursday post and my usual Friday post...
*guilty*
School has been getting in the way of my blogging (and writing!). But considering that it's my day job and it's kind of the only thing I get paid to do... I do sorta have to make it a priority!

ANYHOO....

Rachael Harrie's Second Writers' Platform-Building Crusade kicked off yesterday!

We had so much fun with the first crusade last year. We all met a load of other writers just like ourselves, we learned a lot from each other, we entered a challenge (which I won! Whoopeee!) and then another challenge, and we all got more followers for our blogs!

So click the link above to Rach's blog and join in the fun this year :-)

Crusader Challenge #2

You may not know this about me, but

I jumped off a cliff once! Well, technically it was called gorge swinging. And it. was. TERRIFYING!

That's it over there --------->

The Zambezi Swing. The exact one I did! Backwards like that! (That's not me though. That's a guy. I'm not a guy.)

You may not know this about me, but I have a tongue piercing. Yup. This sensible, introverted girl decided it was a good idea to get a piece of metal shoved through her tongue. And when I became a teacher and opened my mouth to shout at my naughty class for the first time, all I got in response was looks of wonder and, "Ooh, you have a tongue ring? You're so kewl!"

You may not know this about me, but I have a tattoo. Mmm hmm. Another sensible move on my part. Sensible because it's NOT a skull/skeleton/umbrella/some other gross or random picture. Sensible because it's NOT somewhere on my stomch where it will swell up one day when I have a baby. (Um... seriously hope I don't wind up with fat ankles one day!)

You may not know this about me, but I love Wikipedia-ing things. For example, once I figured out that kartoffelpuffer was NOT a completely ridiculous and imaginary word made up by the fabulous Rachael Harrie, Wikipedia informed me that kartoffelpuffer = a shallow-fried pancake of grated potato, flour and egg.
Thanks, Wikipedia!

~

This post was written as part of Rachael Harrie's Writers' Platform-Building Crusade (so you can blame her for the words skeleton, umbrella and kartoffelpuffer!). Go check it out if you want to know more about why we write awesomely random things!

Yippee! Semi-Finalists for Never-Ending Blogfest

I'm a semi-finalist!
(Can you sense my excitement?)

Over the past two days Brenda hosted the Never-Ending Scene (Cliffhanger) Blogfest at her blog, Brenda Drake Writes... And the list of semi-finalists is up! There were 57 entries and 10 finalists have been chosen. You can click here to see who the other semi-finalists are and to cast your vote. Click here to read my entry, if you haven't done so already.
Voting is only open for 24 hours!

Oh yeah, and anyone who's part of the Writers' Platform-Building Crusade, you'll see that we have THREE crusaders on the semi-finalist list! Rachael, Marieke and myself. Woo hoo! Go crusaders!

Crusader Challenge Prize - My First Interview!

Remember the nonsense poem that ended with a Bang!? The one I wrote as part of the first Crusader Challenge for Rachael Harrie's Writers' Platform-Building Crusade?

Well... I won that challenge!! And the prize was an Aspiring Author interview.

You should really go see it! Then when I'm super cool and famous one day you can say YOU were there for the first interview!

(Come on, stop laughing, a girl can dream, right?!)

Crusader Challenge #1

I sat down to write the other day (tonight, in fact) and the electricity went out. Seriously. I am blogging by candlelight! To top it off, the internet has been down all day... I thought I was going to miss posting this crusade entry, however...

cell phone + data bundle + blue tooth + laptop with battery

+ tech-minded boyfriend = temporary internet access!

So. I sat down to write—right now—and nonsense spewed forth from my normally sane fingertips...

Sweets and Mars

and spun glass jars,

quidditch games

and glitter stars.

Jelly beans

and kings and queens,

rubber ducks

and silver dreams.

Elephant tails

and ghostly wails,

fairy dust

and tasty snails.

Candy canes

And bright blue flames,

little men

with golden manes.

Bang!

I wasn’t sure how to end it. Bang! seemed like a good option :-)

This post of nonsense was inspired by Rachael Harrie’s first Crusader Challenge. Click on over to this post to find out more about the Writers’ Online Platform-Building Crusade. You too could be a part of it!

So let’s just review...

1. Wrote a post beginning with “I sat down to write the other day and...” – check!

2. Included the random words, Mars, quidditch and elephant – check!

3. Link back to the original post – check!

4. Following ALL my fellow crusaders – check!

5. Put a blogroll of the crusaders’ blogs on my blog – check!

Looks like I’m all done! So, from the (literally) darkest tip of Africa, I bid you good night :-)

Writers' Platform Building Crusade

Over at Rach Writes there's a CRUSADE taking place to help unite all aspiring writers, beginner bloggers, industry peeps (and possibly even already-published authors) - anyone starting out their online journey and wanting to build their online platform.

The idea is that we help build other people's online platforms by following them, and they in turn help our online platforms by following us. YAY! Let's all follow each other! Let's all be, in Rach's words, people who want to pay it forward in the spirit of writerly writerness and blogging beautificity.

How to become a crusader

1. Head over to Rach Writes.
2. Follow her (and me please!).
3. Leave a comment at the bottom of her post with your blog details so people can follow you.
4. Spread the word on your blog, Facebook, Twitter etc.
5. Smile and be happy :-)