Showing posts with label charity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charity. Show all posts

Sunday 30 September 2018

Autumn Again...

Goodness where has September gone?

No, I haven't been wasting my time since my last post. I've been working on an entry for one of the annual competitions at the writers' club and putting into practise some of the skills I learnt over the summer.

As home life has been a bit disruptive with various family members at home during the day, I've been trying out writing in the evening. Until daytime's settle down again I'm going to concentrate on rewriting in the evenings, while I can use the time during the day for research, admin, and catching up on interesting programmes and Twitter.

It's not ideal but I will be able to get quiet and work intensively.

Yesterday (Saturday) I was at a half-day workshop on dialogue, so I have been writing a bit.

On my travels around the city centre this month I've been taking photos of the various Hoodwinked robins that have been placed across the city. They've been part of an art trail along with a number of book benches.

The robins have been sponsored by local businesses, and each Robin has been decorated by a local or national artist.

Best of all the robins will be auctioned off in October to raise money for the Nottinghamshire Hospice.

They've been popular with children and adults during the school summer holidays and at weekends. After today (30th September) they will be gathered up and taken to Fernleigh House and Garden to join two more special edition robins.

The robins will be getting a tidy up first as I'm sure they've had a few sticky finger prints on them, as well as whatever the weather could inflict on them.

I didn't get to photograph them all, but I did get eight of them. In fact one of them is on the back cover of the autumn issue of Scribe- the club magazine of Nottingham Writers' Club.

Goose Fair, Goose Fowl...
This one was just off the Market Square. It's very appropriate as this week is the annual Goose Fair and in the past it was held in the Market Square.

Nowadays it's a funfair held out at the Forest Recreation Ground and the car park- of the tram stop next door!

Like any tradition it has its roots in history; at this time of year Geese would have been driven into the city to be sold for the Michaelmas dinner. The Geese came from Lincolnshire and would have been walked all that way.

You can find out more about the origins of the Goose Fair over on the Nottingham Hidden History Team site. They're a fantastic resource for Nottinghamshire history.

Do look at the picture of the huge Goose sitting on the roundabout. Every year this heavy duty statue comes out of storage and appears at the roundabout just by the Forest, on a bus route so it can't be missed; and if you forget it's Goose Fair time its appearance soon reminds you...




Monday 5 June 2017

Back to the Rewrites - and a Submission Call for a Charity Anthology...

Half way through the year already!

What have I achieved so far?

To date I have already exceeded my 2013 word count total; that was 23,032, and I'm almost up to 26, 469 which will pass my 2014 total... But there's still a lot to do yet.

My ghost story went live two weeks ago- I know, I've mentioned this before. :D

My 1920's story is progressing slowly. At the moment I'm developing the plot as I write, which is unusual for me as I'm more a semi-planner.

I've had a reading spell- a couple of my favourite authors have new books out, so I bought them for my Kindle. Read one in a day, and then the next one the following day.

The Lowdham Book Festival starts this month- 16th-24th June. So I'll be promoting my published work along with other Nottingham Writers' Club members on the 24th. Fingers crossed for sunshine all day this year.

Now back to draft 2 of my 1802 novel this week- again.

SUBMISSION CALL:

As everyone around the world knows the UK has experienced a few terror attacks this year, but it doesn't stop us carrying on with our lives and work, so here's a call for submissions for a charity anthology- from Lucy Felthouse.

All proceeds from this anthology will go to the British Red Cross' newly launched  UK Solidarity Fund. This fund will help victims of terror attacks in the UK, both now, and if needed, in future incidents.

2017 Calendar dates...
There's a short deadline for this anthology-14th July. So you can find the full details by following this link for all the information you need...













Thursday 30 April 2015

Authors for Nepal - Auction Coming Up...

I doubt many will have missed the news reports of the devastation left by the 7.8 magnitude  earthquake that hit Nepal last Saturday, resulting in the death and homelessness of huge numbers of  citizens.

As with previous natural disasters authors are rallying together to raise funds by donating to a charity auction; items donated range from signed books, to critiques, and an author visit, plus many more.

There's still time for other donations to be added with a deadline of 6 pm this Sunday, May 3rd.

For details of where and how, pop over to the Authors for Nepal Facebook page.

At the moment the auction is scheduled to begin Tuesday 5th May at midnight on ebay. The organiser, writer Julia Williams, has said that although they may not have loaded all the items by the start time, they will carry on until they're complete.

So even if the earlier ones have finished there will still be later ones running.

The money raised by the auction will go to Earthquake Relief for Nepal set-up by a New Zealand based charity, First Steps Himalaya, who are involved with providing early years education for rural Nepali children, and are already based within one of the villages.

You can find out more from this item in the Bookseller.

The charity's page.


The Facebook page for Authors for Nepal.


So keep an eye on the Facebook page for more updates over the weekend.

AUCTION RUNNING so pop over to ebay and take a look at their all listings- there are a few still to be added, so keep checking.