Showing posts with label writers cafe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writers cafe. Show all posts

Saturday, 26 March 2011

picture prompt

At my writers cafe, Jumpin' Jitter's on secondlife, we have a weekly picture promp, go up every saturday, this saturday I found this awesome picture.
Having only been up a few hours it has already recieved a lot of attention, and inspired a lot of writing. So I thought I would share it with you along with a short it inspired me to write. Bare in mind it's a first edit lol, as my editor has yet to turn his eye to it.

It doesn't have to be this way.
By Jossie Marie Solheim

She stand’s silently by, a finger pressed lightly to her pure unblemished lips, eyes such a vivid blue that they eat into my soul. She can only be about seven years old, this tiny little girl, with smooth blonde locks, protruding from the hood of her white cloak.

She signals for me to move closer, her eyes wide then turns and gazes through the small hole in the wall, barely bigger than a small marble. I ease forward, crouched low, unlike the little girl, I am too tall to stand here. She steps a side as I near, her tiny finger pointing to the hole, as I press my eye to it.

“That’s you isn’t it?” she whispers, as I gaze through at my lifeless body, laid upon the ground, my own cold lifeless eyes gazing back at me. “It was the poison,” she say’s the words a gentle hiss that send shivers down my spine.

“You took too much.” she say’s, her small hand resting on my shoulder.

“Am I dead?” I ask, the words catching in my throat.

“You could be,” she replies, “someday, like that, but your not yet, that’s what may be, not what will be.” I turn and look at her perplexed.

“I don’t understand,” I say, sitting back on my heels, trying to think, trying to fathom just what is happening.

“Nothing is set in stone, you have free will, can make your own mistakes, but you do not have to stand by those mistakes, you can change your path. It could just as easily be like this instead.” She says, cupping her hands lightly over the hole in the wall, and breathing air between them, as if trying to warm them a little.

I watch as she leans forward, check’s the hole, smiles and nods, and then indicates for me to take a look.

I move forward, somewhat afraid, and press my eye to the hole once more, I an old woman, laid in a hospital bed, people gathered around her, some young, some old, all of them solemn, the woman seems simply to be in a deep peaceful sleep.

“That’s a better isn’t it?” she asks.

“Is that me?” I question.

“Oh yes.” She replies calmly.

I press my eye to the hole again, but I do not recognise any of the people there, they are all strangers to me.

“Who are they? Why don’t I recognise any of them?”

“Because you haven’t met them yet.” She says.

“Where are all the friends I have now?” I ask.

“Do you think their real friends?” she replies, then sadly shakes her head.

“Who are you?” I ask, sitting back on my heels once more.

“You used to know me,” She say’s simply. “We ran through the waves, the spray flying around us, cooling our sun kissed skin and danced over the cliffs, singing into the wind. We were both free then, both innocent and unblemished, but that changed, you changed.”

“Not by choice,” I cried, my emotions bubbling to the surface painfully, then realisation dawning I added, “But those things, I did them all alone, you were not there.”

“Was I not?” she asks seeming perplexed, “perhaps we just remember it differently.” She says.

“I was alone, always alone, I liked it that way, you were not there, I’d have remembered something like that.” I snapped.

Once more she presses a finger to her lips, and then bends towards the hole once more, cupping her hands around the hole, and breathing deeply into it.

“Look,” she say’s.

I lean forward once more and press my eye to the hole, I see the cliff’s my childhood hide away, and I sit on the edge, gazing out across the ocean a small girl beside me, all dressed in white.

“Out across the ocean, out across the sea, on another island, there’s a place I long to be.” She says, reciting the words, I used to chant, all those years ago. “Out across the ocean, out across the sea, there is a home that’s perfect, designed with love for me.”

“Out across the ocean, out across the sea, there’s a place that free from heartache, the place I long to be. “ I said, finishing for her.

“I was there,” she said bluntly. “I heard your dreams, your wishes, your hopes, and I held them close, kept them safe, ready for when you’d need them again.”

“What good are hopes and dreams?” I hissed.

She did not respond however, simply leaned forward once more, hands cupped over the small hole as once more she filled it with her breath.

“Look,” she said.

I leaned forward once more, and through the hole I saw myself, cowering in the corner, as an all to familiar man rose above me like a demon, arm raised up, ready to swing, a belt clutched in his hand.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“Just watch.” She replied.

Returning my gaze back to the images through the hole, I now saw myself bloody and beaten gazing down at my blood drenched hands, and then the words came to me again, that same rhyme spoken from my own lips, barely a whisper.

“Out across the ocean, out across the sea, on another island, there’s a place I long to be. Out across the ocean, out across the sea, there is a home that’s perfect, designed with love for me. Out across the ocean, out across the sea, there’s a place that free from heartache, the place I long to be.”

“Hope got you through, dreams of a better place made you strong, what good are they you say, yet they saved you.”

“I am not saved.” I snapped.

“But you can be, your free from him, free from the abuse, you just have to free yourself from the poison now.”

“I can’t,” I cried, “I need it.”

“You didn’t before, your hopes were enough once, they can be again,” She says simply. “Only you can change your destiny. Only you can end this now. It’s up to you if you end it alone, in a dirty room, with no one to hold you, or you end it surrounded by those that love you. Only you can do it. Only you,”

I sit back, my breaths shallow, thoughts running through my head, it seems such an impossible task, can I really shake this drug, really find that normal life, the life I always longed for.

“You can,” She say’s, as if reading my thoughts, “you can, you can, you can...” her words echo through my head, as she and her world begins to fade.

And I know that she is right, know that only I can change my life, only I can make my dreams come true, because if I don’t fight for myself, no one ever will.

© jossie Tyrellium
26, march, 2011

I'd love to know what you think and also to know if this picture prompt enspires you to write anything.

love and hugs Joss xx



Friday, 4 March 2011

Playing around



I was playing around yesterday trying to come up with a cover for Insane Reno, it probably won't be the official cover, but I wanted to put up a the first chapter for people to read in my online writers cafe Jumpin' jitter's writing cafe on secondlife.



So in order to do that I had to come up with a cover for display purposes.



this is what I came up with ....




I was quite please with my handy work as I lost a lot of my pictures of bodmin moor when my old laptop died on me, and so didnt have many left which i had taken myself so picking were pretty slim and the best I had really wasn't great.


So here is what I started with....

Not great really but by playing around with colour, contrast and brightness, I think I achieved quite a nice effect, what do you think?



Tuesday, 1 March 2011

Journalling

I have become a huge fan of Journalling, something that until the end of last year, was an ability I had been unable to grasp.
I love writing, have since I was quite young, and refused to let anything hold me back, even being told I was dislexic didn't stop me.
WOW!!!! I wish I still had that kind of motivation now.
See the thing is I have taken a lot of knocks and blows in my life, and been left feeling less than perfect.
So much so, that I had started to believe that it was better not to try, and thus never fail, than it was to give things everything I had.
You see I had the idea that as people already seemd to be of the oppinion that what ever I tried I would fail at, it was easier, to just not try, at least that way I couldn't hear I told you so.
Ok so reality check, they were proberly still saying that anyway.
Recently my confidence was boosted when I won the Mibit compatition, and got two short stories published in magazines.
Oh my god, I never cried so hard, and I don't think I have ever experieced shock like that, I truely believed that my Mibit would simply be cast to the trash can, so when I saw the email that said, I Jossie Marie Solheim had won, my heart nearly stopped.
And the tears were unleashed, and for the first time in a long time, I wanted to call my family members, I wanted to tell them what I had achieved.
I think, that was when I realised just how badly my family had distroyed my faith in myself.
How other people had destroyed my faith in myself.
I needed that win more than I had ever needed anything in my life, and it really boasted my confidence, so much so that I went on to send out two short stories, both of which were accepted straight away.
I hadn't sent much out in my life in an attempt to get accepted and certainly not for a long time, and so to have a win in the Mibit and then both of my short storys accepted, was a real boost, and encouraged me to dive into my Novel once more, and so Insane Reno grew and grew, it all just seemed to be moving so fast, and then the panic set in.
I had started to doubt myself again, I could see Insane Reno nearing compleation and I was getting scared of failure again, and so I stopped dead in my tracts.
refused to touch it, refused to look at it, certain that it was terrible.
I'm picking it up again now, slowly, the break helped in a sense, because having a break from it, and coming back to it again, made me realise that actually it really wasn't that bad at all, and dare I say it, pretty good.
Ok, honesty time, I'm really not a fan of tooting my own horn to strangers lol, but I was reading and I was thinking, wow, I wrote this.
It's so silly because I know I can write, I have been told that time and time again, by my tutors from the Writers (oh blah, and can not spell that word, lol. I'll just guess at it and hope you figure it out) buero, from people in writers groups, and so on and so fourth.
And I have sent out five things, (I know thats bad) and only had 1 rejection, (not so bad) lol.
That has to say something right.
So I've started working on the final draft of Insane Reno, and it really doesn't need much work, but I really do have to push through that fear of failure, after all, if I fail because I gave up, and didn't try, I'm only hurting myself.
So, tomorrow I will be working on cleaning up chapter 11.
I'm gonna set myself an easy target, aim for tiding up, just the one chapter, and anything else is a bonus.
Oh, I should probably add, that I will be trying other methords to keep me going, and if anyone who reads this plays secondlife, then I would be greatfull for your help with this part.
I have opened in world a small writers Cafe called, Jumpin' Jitters writers cafe, I don't know if you'd be able to find it easily in world, as I only finished setting it up today.
But if you search for my avatar jossie Tyrellium, in search and look at my profile picks there is a link to it there.
Ok, I should probably tell you how you can help, Well, quite simply come along, and write with me, I don't mean Insane Reno, but work on your own novels, your own creative pieces, or poems, I've tried to put stuff out to help inspire.
And even if your not a writer, there is an area set up for chatting and sipping virtual coffee and a reading area, where you can click for a selection of classic story's.
We also have a picture prompt each day for poetry, so there's lots to see and do.
And I love to see you :)
Plus, I've found it really does help get me in the writing mood when I see other people hard at it.
So come along, share some ideas, and meet me in world.
thanks for reading
love and hugs
Joss xxx