Hugh from Hugh’s Views and News is sponsoring his Charity Christmas Tree Topper Challenge again this year. Last year’s challenge was a great success!
Do you want to join in with Hugh’s Photo Tree Topper Challenge? Here is all you have to do:
From Hugh’s blog: “Here’s how you can all join in and help Angela, Macy, Toby, and I raise £250 for The Dogs Trust.”
1. Take a photo of what sits on top of your Christmas tree. 2. Create a new post on your blog entitled “Hugh’s Photo Challenge: Week 8 – Charity Christmas Tree Topper Challenge.” 3. Add the photo(s) you have taken to the post and tell us a little about what you are showing. 4. Create a pingback to Hugh’s post or leave a link to your post in the comments section of Hugh’s post so that other participants can view your post.
The challenge is open until Tuesday 5th January 2016 and more details can be found on Hugh’s and Colleen’s blog:
Please click on the link The Dogs Trust if you would like to make any donations directly to The Dogs Trust, in UK. Or alternatively in America, you could consider making a donation to the Humane Society of the United States or a local Humane Society in your own hometown.This is not compulsory to enter in the challenge, but if you would like to do so that would no doubt be more than welcome!
Sadly I don’t have a dog myself nowadays but I did as a child, Topsy, a cute little black and white cheeky rascal who used to like eating all sorts of things that weren’t particularly good for a dog! Look at that tiny frame it disguises a hearty appetite for inedible things! I remember one year she ate a balloon at my birthday party. Thank goodness she was okay no harm done. Also one year she ran off and had a love affair with a local dog, we were really worried that she had been lost for good but she reappeared with her guilty tail between her legs…
So to get into the spirit of celebrating man’s best furry friend here are a couple of photos of Topsy:
First this photo is of mum and I on our balcony in Hong Kong, I used to live there when I was little. Actually this kind of captures cheeky me and rascal Topsy pretty well I reckon! My mum is smiling but in a hesitant way as if she knows that she has a handful there…
This photograph below is of Topsy, my brother Donald and my dad Ronald looking all smiley, but Topsy is a bit sad, she is thinking of her wild escapade with her lost love….
As well as participating in the Tree Top Challenge and chatting about dogs I am also joining in Colleen at Silver Threading’s lovely idea to share Christmas Trees from Around The World, so if you’d like to join in with this particular challenge don’t forget to say where you are! My tree is situated at my home in Cambridge, England.
Here’s the link to join in Colleen’s Trees Around The World:
At the weekend I went out with my husband and my youngest daughter to find a lovely tree at our nearby garden centre. At that point in time my eldest was still at University so unfortunately she missed this trip but she’s back home today, it’s so lovely to see her, and now she has seen the tree too.
I just love a real tree, don’t you?
Especially when it is lit up.
I knew it was the one as soon as my husband pulled it out from amongst an array of other trees it had such lovely symmetry and a fullness that caught my eye. So I said, “That’s the one.” Of course my husband still pulled out a few other likely contenders but I got my way in the end! I can be quite stubborn at times….
I decorated our beautiful Christmas tree with my youngest daughter but to my dismay we couldn’t find the angel to top the tree, so I asked my husband if he could get me another one, but he didn’t manage to find one, he was too busy buying the groceries! Just as well, as I found her hiding in amongst a large bag of Christmas gift tags and wrapping paper. For some reason she wasn’t in the bubble wrap with the other Christmas baubles. Perhaps she felt a bit too grand to be stuck there amongst the bawdy riff raff!
Now she may look like she’s sleeping on top of my tree but don’t let that fool you, she knows what’s what! She’s keeping a look out for any sneaky opening presents before Christmas, that is not allowed.
Thanks for popping by to see my tree and my childhood dog and for joining in the Christmas festivities Kyrosmagica style, and don’t forget to pop over to Colleen and Hugh’s blog to join in the challenges.
Just recently I started working in retail as a Christmas temporary. My plan is to earn some pennies to get together a book fund to pay for artwork for a front cover, my promotional, and other expenses that I will incur when I self publish my novel Krystallos in 2016.
I’m not working in Ted Baker as this photo above might suggest, I like to confuse you!
The Abominable Snowman is sticking his rather long tongue out at passers by. A new ploy perhaps to gather customers? Anyway I digress, I’m waffling, back to my experience working as a Christmas temp. This has been a huge departure from my usual daily routine of writing, taking photographs, updating my social media accounts, and of course blogging here on WordPress. What a retail baptism of fire it has been!! Particularly as I am working in a large, prestigious store in a very busy department which happens to be right next door to children’s toys and clothes. The experience has been illuminating in a multitude of ways that I did not expect.
First off you have to walk miles to get anywhere, the shop floor, and stock rooms are vast, and it is a long journey to the staff canteen too, so by the end of the day you feel as if you have had a mega session workout! There is no need to spend money on a gym membership! If you’re like me your water, bubble bath, and heating bills will sky rocket because you’ll soak your weary limbs in a hot tub of bubbly loveliness every night.
The very nature of retail means that you are standing on your feet all day, and if you’re not standing, or walking, you’re climbing up step ladders, (particularly if you’re short like me, and unable to reach the top shelf in the stock room,) or if you aren’t doing any of these aforementioned things you are lifting…. With all of this physical work there is the temptation to sneak into the stock room and take a short sit down for a few seconds on a stool there. The stock room itself is a vast Alladin’s cave of just about everything you can think of, there is even a wall of hangers dedicated to just about every brand you can think of, so the first room of thumb is to befriend the stock room manager as he is a guy you most definitely want on your side.
Thirst, that’s another aspect of working in retail that I didn’t consider. Working in retail is thirsty work, so rule no. 1 is to drink loads of water before you begin, and avoid alcohol at all costs, this I learnt the hard way. Last Saturday I had a very nice Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, Christmas pudding, minced pies, chocolates and a couple of glasses of wine, courtesy of my employer but going on the tills immediately after this gourmet delight wasn’t a good idea, no, I needed a sleep after all that food and alcohol… ZZZZZZ…..
Now this is where I’m going to get a bit silly, but that’s allowed as this is Kyrosmagica blog after all. There is a whole new language in retail that just sounds like gobbledegook to me. I haven’t worked in retail since I was a teenager, I do wish this was just yesterday but in truth my teenage years were a long time ago! Of course this is the case, I have two teenage daughters for goodness sake! Obviously back then things were very different, we didn’t have internet returns, fancy collection services, in fact my memory of retail work is pretty hazy, I seem to remember selling china, lots of it and wrapping it carefully in bubble wrap, and dusting, but did I do much more than this? I worked for a department store called Goldbergs in Edinburgh which doesn’t exist anymore, a bit like my foggy retail experience, so it’s no surprise that when a manager asked me to do recovery…… I looked confused and a bit stumped. Recovery, what in heavens is that? My writer’s mind did a merry dance and came up with all kinds of exciting possibilities but ….. Recovery isn’t giving mouth to mouth resuscitation to an old granny who has collapsed in the store, grabbing a stolen package from a thief, or catching a Christmas mug before it splats on the floor, no recovery, is simply making the store ready for customers, in other words tidying up! That I can do, I think….. Then, there is the Kimble gun, no this isn’t a deadly weapon, well not unless it gets into my hands, that sharp needle has to be kept well away from my fingers and from passing customers, that plastic safety cover is a must. What is the lethal Kimble? It’s just an over sized stapler type device for putting tags on, once you get the hang of it, it’s quite easy! As well as this there are other terms which escape me…. There are a plethora of abbreviations on the rota of work to confuse you, so MT is Menswear till, FR is fitting room, if you happen to be a bit dyslexic and think FR reads FP you’d be in real trouble. Funnily enough that’s just what I did the other day, FP, what’s that, Fred Perry? No read the initials properly Marje…. and I’m not even dyslexic so I have no excuse!
Somehow working in retail has been an unexpected fund of inspiration for me, Yippee!!!! Nowadays I can’t go anywhere without thinking of ideas for stories. The stock room has given me an idea for a short story about an evil stock room guy, that’s no reflection on anyone who works in the stockroom you all seem lovely I hasten to add… Those terms that I mentioned might just feature in my writing too, who knows….
Oh, before I forget to mention it one day we had a customer in the store screaming which was frightening, given the prevalence of terrorist attacks recently. The managers cautiously went off to investigate. I’m not sure exactly what happened and why she was so distressed but thankfully nobody was hurt. Perhaps there’s a story there too..
My highlights up until now have been many but here are my favourites:
1. A handsome young man came and asked for a different size in a garment and asked if he could come to the stock room with me to find it!!! Cheeky….
2. Santa’s arrival, and of course all the excited kids in the toy department which happens to be right next to Menswear, they bring back memories of my two daughters when they were little!
3. Music playing, one day we had a band playing right next to my particular section in Menswear. This was great fun, and put a spring in my step but by the end of the day, I was kind of glad it wasn’t a daily occurrence! No offence it was lovely for a while…..
4. Minor accidents. Yes I managed to stab myself, drawing blood with the Kimble gun that shoots plastic hanging hooks on to caps, and gloves. I nearly became a selling item! Also at the till one of the staff managed to staple her finger with a bog standard stapler, who knows how she managed that? !!!
One day after work I had to walk some more to pick up a canvas for my daughter for her GCSE Textiles mock exam. I ended up walking to the other end of town to find one in my price range. A mother’s love knows no bounds! My poor wee legs…. There was a wizened old lady serving on the till in that particular shop who looked as if she should be well beyond retiral age, poor soul she looked exhausted, it was just before closing. Sympathy.
As I waited for my bus home, I noticed that across the road from where I was standing there was a large yellow skip with two men standing in it, shouting orders to a young man bringing huge slabs of polystyrene packing towards it. The younger man arrived at the skip carrying these potential missiles above his head, and tried to lob the packing at his mates but his weapon was too big and unwieldy to be a useful missile. Watching this kept me entertained and amused on my long, long, wait for the bus….
Well it’s been an eye opener, it really has. Respect to all those shop workers, and the plethora of employees who work standing on your feet all day, you do a sterling job. It’s not easy.
Have a very Merry Christmas, and put your feet up and have a long soak in the tub whenever you can…
My retail work has really put me in the mood for Christmas this year. What about you? Are you in the mood for Christmas too? Have you started your Christmas shopping? Or are you really behind like me? Do tell….
Bye for now,
Chillin’ in my Crystal hangout, before I step out to do my Christmas shopping!!
Characters are the bread and butter of a writer’s tool kit. Heena thinks so and I do too, so of course I had to reblog this wonderful source of links about character profile sheets for future reference from Heena Rathore.
Characterization is the most important aspect of writing a book. Whether it’s a short story or a long one, you need characters, and that too strong ones. They are the building blocks of your story as they provide substance and an extra dimension to it.
Many people believe that in certain genres, such as mystery-thriller, romance and horror, the story is the main hero and not the characters, and therefore it’s okay to have even half-decent characters to play along when it comes to writing in these genres. But being a thriller writer myself, I think that it is totally wrong.
Whether it’s thriller, mystery, horror or even romance, you need strong characters to add depth to your story. And if you want to write a memorable book then characters are indeed as important to your story as the plot itself, irrespective of the genre.
Ah, Ronovan you have me well and truly stumped this week. Whatever can I write about using the prompt words cake and wolf? A difficult combination, this calls for a bit of wolfish humour and gluttony methinks……
Somehow I can see a wolf turning up at a fancy dress party in a cake costume…. Could be a shocker.. A party with a creamy strawberry, mousse, santa bite! Look at those eyes, it’s a dead giveaway. Okay, that’s totally daft, a cake wolf a la mousse, but that’s alright because it’s cute and cute works for me… especially combined with contrasting nasty Mr. Wolf.
‘I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.‘
Child star actress Shirley Temple.
How sad, poor Shirley, six seems very young to stop believing in Santa Claus, but perhaps this is the price of fame?
The magic of Christmas is what I love the most, the twinkling lights, the promise of what is to come,
the smell of a real tree, the aroma of a roasting turkey, and of course the colourful presents under the tree, what more could you ask for? Well perhaps a touch of good will, and even tempers would go down a treat at Christmas. But often tempers get frayed, and words are spoken that are regretted shortly after, that is the nature of Christmas, the excitement and anticipation, the quest for the perfect Christmas sometimes leads to arguments and strife so today on the 2nd day of December, for Colleen’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday and Ronovan’s BeWow, Be Wonderful Wednesday
I’d like to focus on the simple magic of Christmas. This magic is often lost, consumed by enormous presents, oversized turkeys, and shows of extreme extravagance so instead let’s consider what is in our hearts this December and share a bit of laughter, and hope that everyone will have a peaceful and harmonious Christmas.
So my #BeWow quote is this gem from Roy. L. Smith.
“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”
― Roy L. Smith
So with the joyful heart of Christmas in mind, let me leave you with a few amusing, cheeky Christmas quotes, which hopefully will get Santa to loudly proclaim Ho, Ho, HO!!!!
‘The one thing women don’t want to find in their stockings on Christmas morning is their husband.’ The late American comic Joan Rivers
‘I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.’
Comedian Bernard Manning (1930-2007)
‘The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.’
George Carlin (1937-2008), American stand-up comedian.
What I don’t like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.
– Phyllis Diller
There is a remarkable breakdown of taste and intelligence at Christmastime. Mature, responsible grown men wear neckties made of holly leaves and drink alcoholic beverages with raw egg yolks and cottage cheese in them.
– P.J. O’Rourke
Christmas, here again. Let us raise a loving cup: Peace on earth, goodwill to men, and make them do the washing up.
– Wendy Cope
If you’d like to join in Writer’s Quote Wednesday, and #BeWow here’s the link:
Last year, Annabel was “the girl who has everything” — at least that’s the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf’s Department Store.
This year, she’s the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong.
Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen’s help, maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.
My review:
Just Listen is enjoyable, a fairly light read given its underlying subject matter. The main character is Annabel, the youngest sister of three girls who are all encouraged by their mother to model. Annabel’s best friend Sophie is popular, and being around her seems to have elevated Annabel’s status, but Annabel feels uncomfortable around Will, Sophie’s boyfriend. In time we learn why this is. Just Listen roused my emotions but in my opinion it could have been a more thought provoking read if it explored the personal emotions, and trauma of Annabel being attacked, and her immediate response to that more realistically but instead Annabel chose to remain silent and I found this quite frustrating. Okay, the reader is meant to take from this that she couldn’t bear to tell anyone and I understand that but nevertheless it just seemed a little unrealistic given the circumstances. There are a wide variety of themes that are explored in this novel: anorexia, sibling relationships, families, secrets, boy/girl relationships, sexual assault, and friendship difficulties. The writing is marked by a fair amount of telling which at times slows down and overburdens the narrative.
Overall, I would rate this 4 stars, due to the points mentioned below:
Just Listen’s strengths lie in its:
Portrayal of family life, particularly sibling relationships, the dynamics of the three sisters is where the real emotion of the novel lies. I found myself really moved by certain chapters in the book which explored the relationships between the sisters.
Owen’s character is another high point of the novel he really brought the story to life for me, in fact I would say that he is perhaps a more engaging character than Annabel. Annabel by the very act of withholding her emotions, comes across as quite frustrating. I felt great sympathy when I discovered what had happened to her but I desperately wanted her to confide in Owen but instead, to begin with, she ran away. I do get why she did this but nevertheless I wanted her to do the right thing and tell him and stand up so that other girls wouldn’t go through the same thing.
I liked how Sarah Dessen explored this very human tendency to judge people by their looks, and by other peoples’ reactions to them, rather than looking deeper and discovering for ourselves that everyone can be different and more complex than we expect. Owen, is a perfect example, he sits apart from everyone, is immersed in his music, needs anger management to handle his emotions, but there is so much more to him than those simple facts alone. Even family members can have an unexpected side to them, a case in point is Annabel’s mother, who turns out to be tougher than we might imagine.
The multitude of secrets and hurts that lay buried waiting to be discovered, are fascinating, particularly set amongst the pressures to be the perfect skinny, flawless beauty in the much desired world of modelling.
Music really felt like a character in this novel, and played a pivotal point in the storyline which was such a nice unexpected touch.
This is the first Sarah Dessen novel that I have read, on the whole I enjoyed Just Listen, especially the detail regarding the sibling relationships in the latter part of the novel.
I’d recommend Just Listen to readers of YA, Contemporary, Romance, Chick lit.
Have you read any Sarah Dessen books, do let me know if you have.
A chance to have a fairytale written about you, your family and your garden, what a lovely idea from Sally at smorgasbordinviation. So proud gardeners this post reblog is just for you.
This week Ron’s words are Life and Give. I was struggling with these two words but this morning I had a eureka moment, which was quite strange considering I had a few too many glasses of wine last night and I didn’t expect to wake up full of ideas! Amazingly I didn’t have a hangover, in fact I felt quite clear headed, strange indeed. I made myself a cup of tea and then I looked at my birthday cards sitting by the windowsill, and my friend Christine’s card caught my eye, with these cheeky words:
Typical Christine she likes to have a giggle! Well I’m grateful for her funny card reminding me that I’m getting on a bit, as it has given me an idea for this week’s haiku words, Give And Life. Her card is very appropriate too as I happen to love bananas, but having said that there is nothing quite as unappealing as an overripe banana. This squirrel knows he’s munching away at a very tasting looking banana, but could it be his last banana? Do any of us know when our time will come? So enjoy every mouthful of life that’s what I say, don’t just nibble half hearteningly go at it with a big bite!
Banana Love
Give me one big bite
Before your jaws clench honey
Adios sweet life
Poor squirrel I hope I didn’t knock him off his happy munching spot, he looks pretty healthy so I’m sure he will munch his way through many more tasty bananas.
The next haiku is not cheery in nature perhaps its the result of my reading The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King, my current read.
If you’re interested in writing a short story here’s a link to the Stephen King Guardian Short Story Competition, closing date is 18th December, 2015.
My mind really does work in mysterious ways! All this from a birthday card, it’s amazing where inspiration can take you to, so keep an eye out for those unexpected sources lingering everywhere.
Here’s the links to Ronovan’s blog to join in the haiku fun:
Here in the UK we don’t celebrate this which seems a bit of a shame to me as I love any excuse to celebrate and to eat a hearty dinner! Enjoy your turkey, save me some pumpkin pie, have a wonderful time, and thereafter the very next day don’t forget that it’s Black Friday, shopping day, for those on the look out for bargains.
My two main things to be thankful for at the moment are my new job working at John Lewis (this means I won’t be out shopping on Black Friday as I’ll be working,) so I’ll have some spare cash for Christmas, and for book marketing/book cover design in the New Year. Also I have heard back from Hilary Johnson Author Advisory service, they have made some wonderful suggestions regarding my manuscript so now I can take some of these ideas, and get editing…. At last, I feel that I have some direction, and know what to do next. That’s definitely something to feel thankful for.
So a tip, if you need some advice about your manuscript do try Hilary Johnson, don’t procrastinate for ever like I did. Here’s the link to find out more: http://www.hilaryjohnson.com/
So I am going to be a very busy bee, or should I say partner, that’s what John Lewis call their employees!
Have a fun packed Thanksgiving.
Bye for now, I’m off to put my feet up and read a book.
My current read is Stephen King’s The Bazaar of Bad Dreams!! I shall be telling you all about that soon, I just hope it doesn’t give me bad dreams tonight, there is a particularly vicious car in the short story collection which I don’t like the sound of one little bit! That car is hungry…. just make sure you aren’t its next dinner!!
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M J Mallon YA Author and Poet 