At long long last I have a blog! Here it is, halleluja praise the Lord! Not, of course, that I'm under the impression that the world or anybody in it has been waiting with bated breath for this first post but anybody who knows me, even remotely, will tell you how technologically unadvanced I am so this really is quite an achievement!
Now, having googled first blog post protocol, it tells me I'm supposed to tell you all about myself but I'm not so sure that's right because isn't all that kind of stuff already in my profile bit? Well, I know it is so I won't bore you all immediately by repeating it but I will introduce myself and say hi! My name's Dorothy-Louise Hardie, a name I really despised when I was younger - nobody under the age of 91 was called Dorothy and when I told people that was my name they just refused to believe me. I'd try to convince them for something like twenty minutes before giving up and saying something like, yeah, you're right, my name's Claire. It was either that or continual references to The Wizard of Oz! A film I would have loved under other circumstances!
Anyway, enough about my name, which incidentally, I don't mind so much anymore and on to why I wanted to start this blog. I've written a book. Well, I say that but it sort of implies that it's completely finished and ready to go but to be honest that isn't quite the case. I'm currently going over and over and over it and I fear I'm never going to know when enough is enough. I'm sure other writers out there know what I mean. If I carry on this way I'll either loose my mind entirely or, whichever comes first, all interest in writing forever. Seriously, it's headed that way, which is why I had to do something. This. My world is very small and I don't personally know any other writers to chat about all this kind of stuff with, to moan with and, on the rare occasions, when I actually quite like what I've written, to celebrate with. I know if I read this back before posting it I'll think it cheesy and delete it so I'm just not going to. Whatever I say now will be out there for whoever wants to read it, without editing the life out of it, as I'm no doubt doing to my poor manuscript!
Basically, this blog will be mostly, I think anyway, about writing and everything that goes along with it. Books, reading, life in general. What I think I'd also like to do is perhaps post some of my writing, a chapter here and there, a couple of passages, anything! The thing is I have no experience whatsoever of writing and therefore I haven't the faintest if what I'm writing is complete and utter rubbish. I know it's impossible to appeal to everybody's tastes, and thank goodness for that because if that were the case nobody out there would have a chance in hell of being published but I suppose what I would like, if anybody out there has the time or inclination to read some of my stuff, is opinions, good and bad, criticism and I mean that, I would love somebody to give me something to think about and work on. To sum up, a fresh pair of eyes because I don't think I even see what I'm writing anymore! Do you know what I mean or do I sound bonkers, there's every chance? And please, if you're in the same situation please feel free to bend my ear, borrow my eyes, whatever, anything I can do to help I would love to, even if you don't want to read my stuff, I don't care!
OK, I guess I should probably leave it there, before this post turns into a novel itself. Actually, I suppose it would be sensible at this point to tell you what kind of novel I'm having a go at. And when I say have a go I mean that because what I write doesn't fit neatly into one genre, at least I don't think it does. When I started I set out to write the sort of book I wanted to read myself, which has ended up something along the lines of romantic fiction with a historical thread, but it isn't quite historical fiction, it simply has flash backs to just before WW1 and I guess there's a little bit of mystery thrown in there as well. It centres around a big old run down country manor house surrounded by a forgotten overgrown garden, in habited by a reclusive old woman with secrets. The title so far is A Violet Spring.
Right, I really am going to say goodbye for now, I hope I've not gone on too much, something I have a tendency to do! Could I just say a quick thank you - not that I think they only deserve a quick thank you but i don't want to turn it into an Oscar type speech - to everybody I've met on twitter. You've all been so friendly and encouraging and I know for a fact if that, my first tentative foray into this technological world, hadn't gone as well as it did I wouldn't have made this blog, so I really appreciate it, thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm off now to try and work out how to put a link to this on my twitter page, you should be reading this sometime next month!
Dorothy xxx
Dorothy - here's your first comment.
ReplyDeleteNice post!
Colin (Marley)