Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 65: AMBITION & CHANGE (#SynonymsOnly)
This week’s prompt words from Colleen – ambition and change really attracted me. My youngest is going through quite a lot of impending changes at the moment. She plans to go to University in September to study Fashion Management, and I am so excited for her. Also my husband and I are considering plans in the not too distant future to move abroad, not definite yet, but we are talking about it! Change is exciting but it is also scary too. But, you’ll never know how new challenges will develop unless you give them a try. So that is going to be my motto for 2018. Try new things, be adventurous!
To join in with Colleen’s poetry challenge follow the link:
So here is my Tanka using the synonyms, aspiration for ambition, and transform for change.
I am including the following short extract from The Curse of Time – Bloodstone – Book 1 in which the main character Amelina considers how someone you’ve just met – Ryder – can seem to change at an alarming rate. And yet, that person captivates you into wanting more of that dark, dangerous charisma!
Every nerve ending in my body flooded with a multitude of emotions until I felt like a quivering mound of nervous, trembling jelly. Taking deep soothing breaths, I reached for my headphones to shut out this horrible, senseless world. I craved ear-piercing rock, a vault of high adrenalin noise. That would be sure to do the trick.
I turned up the sound and relaxed, lying in my bed. My thoughts returned to Ryder. What did I know about him? He had appeared as a stranger and then surprised me by coming to my rescue. He had scared those creepy boys off. I had to admit that I didn’t understand him or them either. His personality had switched. One moment he’d been all smiles and then boom, he’d changed, a scary intensity erupting out of those incredible eyes. I imagined his face staring at me again. He had a mysterious power in him that much I could see, so much so, that even the ground beneath his feet responded to him.
I remembered that Ryder had introduced himself to me but hadn’t bothered to ask my name. I scratched my head in puzzlement. Yet he knew who I was. Somehow, he knew those boys’ names too. It struck me as strange and unsettling. But one thing I knew for sure I experienced a trickle of life flowing in my veins. This sensation had long been missing from my life. It heralded an awakening, and I shivered in delight. I felt excited, confused, and more than a little scared. But I felt alive.
I experienced this magnetic pull of some hidden power that drew me towards him. With little difficulty, I realised he was a secret I would be wise to keep to myself. Mum and Dad would go mad if I mentioned that I’d met him down the river pathway. Hero or Prince, they wouldn’t understand. Besides, the possibility of keeping dark and mysterious secrets appealed to me. They were the best, most wicked kind.
Hope you enjoyed the extract. Feel free to comment below I love receiving feedback from you all.
Hope your 2018 started off better than mine did! I’ve been a bit poorly so apologies for the late message to wish you a very Happy, and Healthy New Year! xx
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Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge # 39 – MIRROR & HARBOR
Today for Colleen’s Weekly #poetry challenge I’m focusing on a short excerpt from my debut novel The Curse of Time – Book 1 – The Bloodstone which I will be releasing this summer, (all the relevant details have been emailed to my book cover designer!) plus a new Tanka I’ve written.
Excerpt: The Curse of Time – Book 1 – the Bloodstone
I felt the need to unravel the mystery of my father’s disappearance. Somehow, I knew it all began with Esme, a captured victim of a curse who lived in the mirrors of our house and kept out a watchful eye. I could see her but Mum couldn’t. As far as I could tell, neither could Dad. That suited me because Esme was my secret.
I remembered seeing Esme shortly after she had vanished from school, when Dad disappeared, two years ago. The memories of that day flooded into me so much that I’d thought I had been hallucinating. Poor Esme. When I saw her reflection staring at me in the mirror, the first thing I did to acknowledge her presence was to grab a flannel and try to wipe her away. Some welcoming! Except, she wasn’t a reflection she existed. When she spoke, I almost fell over in shock.
‘Hey, stop that,’ she scolded, ‘I don’t need a shower, you’re making me all smeary.’ I stepped back and stumbled in surprise. This was crazy. Bizarre. Extraordinary, how could this be happening? At that moment, I felt like I had tumbled into a Dr Who mystery. Who else had such a dysfunctional family – a disappearing Dad, an accomplished vanishing cat, a cranky Mum, and now, a girl who lived in mirrors for a best friend? No one!
© M J Mallon 2017. All Rights Reserved.
Hope you enjoyed the Tanka and that the excerpt piqued your interest.
Here’s an infographic to see the type of themes I’ve explored in my YA debut novel – The Curse of Time. Come, enter the maze….
To join Colleen’s fun challenge follow the link: https://colleenchesebro.com/2017/06/27/colleens-weekly-poetry-challenge-39-mirror-harbor/
Bye for now,
My social media links:
Facebook: Authors/Bloggers Rainbow Support Club
Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon
Twitter: @curseof_time
Fellow Administrators of our Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club #ABRSC on Facebook, myself, my good friends Colleen Chesebro and Debby Gies. Click on Colleen’s and Debby’s photos to be directed to their awesome blogs. These ladies rock!
Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge # 38 – FAIRY & MAGIC
Today, my husband and I had a grisly conversation about death… not exactly a cheery morning chit chat but I thought if I have to go one day and no doubt I will…. this is how I’d like to imagine it… Not some black, bleak, meaningless end. No, I’d like a supernatural being to visit me. No vampires please unless you are so handsome and your final bite is worth it! Perhaps a magnificent unicorn to carry me far away on some incredible adventure, or a mermaid to take me swimming in some exotic land… Wait a minute…. What about many supernatural beings, (except zombies – they don’t rock my boat!) plus the delicate kindness of the fairies to see me off?…. Now, that sounds perfect!
Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge # 37 – SMOKE & VEIL #Tanka #micropoetry
The prompt words this week are smoke and veil. They fit in beautifully with a particular character in my book : Book 1 – The Curse of Time – The Bloodstone which I am currently formatting with a planned release date to be confirmed this August…
The particular character I have in mind looks a bit like the young man in the photo below…. I shall be doing a character interview post soon.
Photo courtesy of my keen photographer daughter Georgina. Thank you to J. English, (media studies, drama student,) for agreeing to be our model!
To enter Colleen’s weekly challenge follow the link:
https://colleenchesebro.com/2017/06/13/colleens-weekly-poetry-challenge-37-smoke-veil/
#Tanka, #micropoetry, #poetry, #5lines,
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Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge # 36 – HAPPY & SAD
This week’s prompt words are Happy and Sad, very appropriate given the situation in the world at the moment. It seems that humanity is doomed to live in a state of happiness one minute and sadness the next. So, to try to lift our spirits I’d like to share with you some happy photos from Strawberry Fair.
Our friends Richard and Catherine…
and my husband David and I….
There are also some videos on my Instagram:
My husband, and our friends were probably the oldest dudes in the music tent joining in the fun! But, the youngsters didn’t seem to mind, everyone was just having fun, forgetting their troubles.
To join in with Colleen’s poetry challenge follow the link: https://colleenchesebro.com/2017/06/06/colleens-weekly-poetry-challenge-36-happy-sad/
Bye for now, much love…
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Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge # 33 – CLEAN & SHARP
For this week’s poetry challenge Colleen has given us a tricky prompt – clean and sharp. Clean isn’t exactly my favourite word and neither is sharp! I suppose both of them coupled together conjure up moments in our household where my hubby gets a bit cross with me for spending so much time blogging and writing and so little time cleaning the house! Lol… I’ve never been terribly domesticated… Well, he knew that before he married me so surely he can’t complain…
So perhaps a little humour is the way to go…
Ha ha! Better hide this blog post from my poor hubby… or I’ll be in trouble…
To join in with Colleen’s poetry challenge follow the link:
https://colleenchesebro.com/2017/05/09/colleens-weekly-poetry-challenge-33-clean-sharp/
Bye for now,
My social media hang outs:
Twitter: @marjorie_mallon
My New Author Support Club: Authors/Bloggers Rainbow Support Club
Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge # 31 – PEACE & TEAR
My entry to Colleen’s weekly poetry challenge this week is inspired by a piece I am editing for Dan Alatorre’s Word Weaving Competition.
It is taken from a part completed memoir I’ve written of my dad’s early childhood before the Second World War, including his travelling adventures to the Far East, Middle East, Pacific region, Caribbean and Africa. This is a short nostalgic paragraph about him lamenting the loss of the forests that he used to play in plus a poem about the same subject using the words peace and tear.
Before the Second World war children used to play in extensive woodland. This treasured land is now an estate of houses, which encroach upon the sloping fields leading further and further into the now diminishing wood. Yes, land is at a premium, and builders build property upon every spare inch of space – forget about the Thousand Acre Wood, it’s more like postage stamp wood.
I think Eeyore would have this to say: ‘Here today and gone tomorrow.’
The once wooded area has now become a permanent car park for the nearby primary school, built well after the war.
Today, there is just one sorry playground, a tiny place for local children to play in among the houses. It sits like a sad apology to the past.
In my childhood, I remember a veritable playground of fields, marshy land, and hedgerows, where children dawdled for hours playing cowboys and Indians and Doctors and Nurses. One of my favourite childhood pastimes was to construct a pretend shelter with my pals. A local woman would inspect the shelter and play along with our game with a serious air.
Nowadays, children play with manufactured games, watch TV, engage in computer activities, and twiddle with their mobile phones, oh how the world has changed!
This freedom meant that during the war years we would play in strange places, some of which weren’t at all safe. The concept of health and safety didn’t exist! Nowadays children can’t even get a work experience placement without going through a minefield of paperwork, which is a sorry state of affairs if you ask me.
Children enjoyed the simple pleasures of life, such as collecting cigarette and royal navy cards. Though, some weren’t so innocent, one lad with the same name as me took great pleasure in bullying his parents and the poor unfortunate cat. He would set the cat’s tail alight. His parents appeared terrified of him. He behaved like a vandal before vandalism become popular. This bully never bothered me, on the contrary, he encouraged me to stay around. I concluded that he enjoyed an audience for his daily wickedness! I would play with many boys, but none so infamous as Gavin Vernon who stole the stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey on Christmas day 1950!
© Marjorie Mallon 2017 – aka, Kyrosmagica. All Rights Reserved.
If you’d like to join in the challenge:
https://colleenchesebro.com/2017/04/25/colleens-weekly-poetry-challenge-31-peace-tear/
Bye for now,
Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge # 30 – Wish & Magic
Colleen Chesebro’s Poetry Challenge
Colleen Chesebro and I share quite a few interests in common, as a matter of fact we do find that when we do those quizzes on Facebook we sometimes get the same results! This morning we both ended up being like the moon… with a dark and a light side!
It’s my good friend Colleen’s birthday today so what better way to celebrate than to write her a Happy Birthday Tanka.
There will be no moons, dark, or light aspects to the birthday wishes as Colleen’s prompt words: wish and magic are much more suitable for a birthday poem. Colleen is a big fan of fairies, and I’m sure she’s partial to cake, and no doubt appreciates the wonder of rainbows so I thought this might be just right.
A very happy birthday to Colleen, and all the best for a fairy special day!
I wish I could spend your special day with you and your winged fairy guests. Enjoy!
Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka #Poetry Challenge # 24 – “FIRE & RAIN”
Colleen’s prompt words this week Fire and Rain are quite tricky… wonder how to approach this. I might as well confess what my new job is… I was a lingerie stylist at Rigby and Peller but unfortunately my maternity leave contract came to an end and that left me with no job. Sigh. Initially, it seemed the obvious choice to apply to other lingerie shops, as I had experience. I did get some interviews but no offers. So I decided to apply to Ann Summers… and got the job! I can tell you it’s the most unusual job I’ve ever had. I reckon it will give me a lot of writing material! Enough said. 🙂
So a bit of Tanka humour this week…
#Tanka Tuesday, #micropoetry, #poetry, #5lines
Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday
Bye for now, hope that amused you!
Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka #Poetry Challenge # 23 – HELP & SMILE
When I read Colleen’s prompt words this week I knew the perfect Tanka would be about an experience I had some time ago. I’d been out in my local supermarket buying the groceries when I saw this elderly lady sitting in the cafe. She wore a birthday badge, and was out celebrating, having a treat. I couldn’t help but admire her wacky, vibrant hair. We shared a smile, and that lovely moment, and her brilliant smile stayed with me.
#Tanka Tuesday, #micropoetry, #poetry, #5lines
Hope you liked this week’s Tanka.
To join in the fun visit Colleen’s blog: Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Challenge
Bye for now,
I hope you agree life’s for celebrating. Enjoy…
