Closing this blog

Hello all, if you are in fact reading this blog. I've decided to close this part of the project down as it was becoming too onerous a task to write as well as support this blog site as well. I am continuing with my 'short story a day' project at The Imaginary Scrapbook (http://imaginaryscrapbook.blogspot.com/)so check it out and come follow me. Meanwhile ta ta and happy writing.

Kirsty

Day 78 - Dream and Nightmare

I was thinking about dreams today and wondering where really they came from. It's a fascinating phenomenon that we know very little about. But it got me wondering about dreams and nightmares and how we decide in our minds which we are going to have. I confess I haven't had a nightmare for some time now. I don't know why given all the demons that are lurking in my life ready to trip me up or give me the proverbial 'willies'. So from there I thought about a nightly battle between dream and nightmare and thus was born my two protagonists, or antagonists, depending on which way you look at it.

Anyhoo I wrote this one through a raging headache which I had since about lunchtime. I hate trying to write when I'm not feeling 100% as I'm never really happy with what I've written. It's as though I feel like because my body is under par that automatically means my mind is too and therefore unable to produce anything of quality. Well judge for yourself. I'm off to bed.

Enjoy

http://imaginaryscrapbook.blogspot.com/2009/11/dream-and-nightmare.html

Day 76 - Love's labour lost

I struggled all day today to come up with an idea. I don't why. I just couldn't seem to engage my brain. I know I've still not completely gotten over my bronchitis and this week at work has been particularly hectic as I've supervised the restocking of our new Physics library at the University, so I wonder whether it's simply exhaustion. Not that I want to make excuses here. So I was sat up in bed at midnight dragging this story, kicking and screaming, out of my head. It's days like this when I wonder what the hell I'm doing as is it worth it when the ideas feel so desperate. Am I compromising my talents, my imagination?

Anyway I don't know where it came from but the title of the Shakespeare play Love's Labour's Lost popped into my head just as I was looking at the Fisher Price Treehouse sitting on the floor at the foot of my bed (I spent the night at my parents house and was sleeping the room usually used by my nephew, Cameron). That was when the idea of a girl that builds (or doesn't) a treehouse that is so poorly constructed it comes down in a storm. Given that I always seem to write characters that readers can empathise with I decided to write a character that you wanted to loathe, and in turn fail in her quest. I think I finished it at about 2am in the morning.

Enjoy

The Imaginary Scrapbook

Day 75 - Sersi's cookies

I was in the kitchen this evening, making dinner and wondering what I could write about when my eyeline fell upon a box of cookie recipe cards an American friend of mine had given me before she returned to the States (Yes, Elissa, they were yours, if your reading this). I instantly thought of a girl that wants to get people to like her by making enchanted cookies only they do more than make people like her.

I suppose this is in some way a story about compromising your morals, beliefs, customs in order to achieve a goal and the realisation that you really don't need to, its all about angles. Subconsciously I've realised that this is very much related to my crazy project in that I feel, or am feeling that I'm compromising a very large part of my life to go down this path. But do I need to compromise it all or is it just about angles, or in my case structure. I'm lacking structure to my life at the moment, upset by my recent illness getting back on track is proving frustrating and I think its wearing me down. Oh, god enough of my soporific ranting.

Enjoy

The Imaginary Scrapbook

Day 74 - The Moon in Star's room

I'm rather hoping my sister isn't reading this blog as I'm about to reveal something that I'd like her not to know, at least not until after Christmas. Anyhoo the idea for this story came from a present I intend on buying my 4 year old nephew. It's called 'The Moon in my Room' and it's basically a light you can fix to the wall that's of the moon and shines through the various lunar phases. I liked the rhyme so much I couldn't get it out of my head 'moon in my room'. Don't ask where the explosion came in to it. I guess I just wanted to blow it up and see what would happen. As my research turned up some quite significant things can happen if we don't have the moon: disastrous things. No I haven't written the next 'Day after Tomorrow' or what's the other one that's due out, '2012' the next odyssey or something. No but there is an element of environmental awareness in the story that I hadn't anticipated appearing, which was kind of unexpected but which I think makes the story a more cosily heartwarming.

Enjoy

The Imaginary Scrapbook

Day 73 - The Countess's teacups

My grandmother had a teaset, 'Ascot Princess 22ct', that I've loved ever since I was a child. My mum has it at the moment but will bequeath it to me one day owing to my love of it. It's a beautiful bone china set that's a delicate pink with 22ct gold trimming and floral detailing. I just adore this set, but sadly one or two of the pieces are missing (I think a cake plate and a cup). I've tried looking online to see if I can find replacements without success. I thought about it again tonight and that was what got me onto the idea of a demanding princess or some sort of stately person that has ten of everything and when her precious tea set is broken a quest to complete the set begins.

This story came right out of my head and onto the page when I began writing it, and in a formal tone, which is what I seem to be more comfortable with. However getting the twist at the end was a little harder to come by. I wanted it to be a smart resolution to the problem not simply making two new cups. So for about an hour and a half I puzzled over different scenarios and it was only when I temporarily gave up trying, so I could go and dry my hair, that I came up with the answer. I won't spoil it for those that haven't read it but I think it works quite neatly.

Enjoy

The Imaginary Scrapbook

Day 72 - The four lives of Jammy

I listened to a news piece today about a kitten that had fallen into a storm drain beside a freeway somewhere in the US. It was a really heart warming tale about the efforts humankind go to to save the life of an animal. The UK is a nation of animal lovers. I myself have a geriatric nutcase of a dog that has a phobia of pigeons and an appetite for anything remotely edible. The story got me thinking about the lengths we go to to help animals. The more my warped mind started to think about animals and death I came across a kind of 'final destination' idea, but instead of humans its an animal that cheats death. Don't ask me how I came to the idea to use a hamster, it just popped in there. I suppose I always thought they were both cute and stupid at the same time and therefore likely to be brazen in the face of risk.

I particularly wanted to make the brushes with death comical, given that I'm dealing with the prospect of death and the many ways it can come upon you. Black comedy is something I love. If you can't laugh about death you just worry about it and life's too short to do that (movie must: The Trouble with Harry. Watch this Hitchcock movie. It's so incredibly british. We do black comedy so damn well). Similarly I didn't want it to end with Jammy 'biting the dust', so left it with an open ended scene, where the reader can fill in the blank. They can decide, if they're so inclined, to have Jammy meet a grisly death, or they can once again have him reprieved at the eleventh hour. The choice is up to the reader.

Enjoy!

The Imaginary Scrapbook