Share the Birthday Love

This weekend is my birthday weekend* which I’m enjoying a lot.

Yesterday I went shopping with book vouchers and came back with 12 more and a bruised shoulder. We have this discount shop which sells books for £2-3, the stock can be hit and miss but this time it was a hit – just that most of the books were hardbacks so they weigh a lot.

I joined Sari‘s Blogfest because the timing was just so perfect and I couldn’t resist:

The idea is to ask other participants for advice on a particular aspect of your writing you feel you need help with. Originally I was going to use something from whatshouldbe my current WIP but it’s been pushed into a corner by another idea or rather an MC that just will not leave me alone.

The excerpt below is form the first few chapters and while the explanation is in there I don’t think it flows the way I want. So any tips to make this work better should be greatly appreciated.

My real name isn’t Breeyanna, I have no idea what my real name is. I remember at some point my second foster family enrolling me in Kindergarten under the name Annabelle, or was it Annalee?
For whatever reason family no two called me Anna. At least for the first few months, like I said it was a step up from You. Now mother number two had a serious brie addiction, which sounds harmless until you realise that there was basically nothing but that stinking cheese in the house and me being the newest servant girl meant I got the joy and dealing with most of the stuff.
“Get me the brie Anna.” shrank to “Brie, Anna” and soon I was pretty much answering to just Brie. By the time I’d been at the house for nearly a year the entire family, including all the other kids called me Brie
It should have stayed there, it would have ended there when I got moved onto family number three – if they hadn’t moved Melanie with me. She introduced me as Brie before I even got both feet in the house and it stuck. So much so that at some point a caseworker changed the name on my file to Breeyanna.

The winner of Some Girls Are will be announced tomorrow

 

*our family always turns the nearest weekend into a birthday weekend, because you know 1 day just isn’t enough

Christmas Spirits

I came back from Edinburgh yesterday.

We were only there for 2 days but I loved it. Marieke* and I went to see The Secret Garden which was wonderful. Apart from that there were writing conferences and of course book shopping. We found a road which was basically just charity shops and by the time we reached the end we were packhorse’s. We also visited Mary King’s Close, which is truly fascinating and scary. The mulled wine at the end was greatly appreciated.

As it’s really and truly Christmas season and I’m going to be doing a bit of a giveaway so please come back this Thursday to learn all about it!

I want to say thank you for my lovely comments on the blogfest entry, I really appreciate it and I promise to post more from Quarantined in 2011!

* yep that one

Midwinter Blogfest

My entry for Marieke’s Musings blogfest. It’s from my current WIP Quarantined, hope you enjoy.

Thomas taught me Christmas.

This morning when I woke up there was fresh snow outside. A white Christmas. But snow means we are trapped. There haven’t been many patrols around our area these past couple of days, but it wasn’t worth the risk. No matter how big the reward.

When I found the snow, Thomas was still asleep so I sneaked downstairs as quietly as possible but it wasn’t long before I heard him.

“Hell no,” he shouted. The shutter slammed shut. There’s another bang followed by a myriad of words I imagine my mother would faint at.

Thomas has never been a morning person.

I’d finished making coffee when he finally limped into the kitchen. I’m going to have to move the bedside table again. There isn’t a lot of light with the shutters and I don’t think his eyes have recovered enough yet; he keeps walking into things.

“There goes that idea then,” he said, nodding towards the curtains in front of the kitchen window. “There isn’t supposed to be any snow around here you know,” he complained.

“There isn’t supposed to be any life around here either.” I answered.

I could see him swallow his words, as I handed him the coffee. Real coffee. I don’t indulge using the Coffee-Create often, because it eats the batteries, but for the he look on his face it was worth it. I couldn’t stop laughing.

One to me.

I left him there and started to clean the house. When I came back he was in the kitchen cooking.

It was so strange, because Thomas has never cooked since I’ve found him. And the food was so good. He spoon-fed me some of the soup while he directed me on how to set the table. I never knew that it could be so complicated.

Just before everything was ready he handed me a bag and sent me upstairs to one of the bedrooms.

Inside was a dress, a new dress. It still had tracker tags. For a moment I panicked until I realised that he’s burnt the chip.

The dress itself was beautiful. Dark blue with a light blue ribbon below the bust. I couldn’t remove the tracker without damaging the dress so I tried to ignore it instead. I found the full-length mirror in the wardrobe and stared. It’s the first time I’d really seen myself in years. At times I’d risk a quick glance but my reflection still scares me. Today I look almost normal. Pretty.

When I come downstairs Thomas stops midstride to look. Sometimes he looks at me like I’m a child, other times he doesn’t. This is one of them and it’s those times I like best.

One to him.

~

After dinner we danced.

I had no present for him. No way to explain what he gave me today and every day since I found him, so instead I gave him what’s most precious to me: my name.

Wall of Books

I’ve been talking about the wall of books for ages, I built it back in September but every time it comes to blogging about it something gets in the way.

There is still room for more!

Isn’t it pretty?!

I’m very proud of my wall (there is only just enough room for the doors to open ) especially since it defies gravity*. Half the bookcases involved in the structure I already had, the rest I built in one afternoon and managed to stack without the whole thing collapsing on top of me.

There is a second bookcase on another wall which I haven’t yet added to… the narrow bookcase bottom left contains all my TBR’s – should keep me busy over Christmas right?

Anyway –

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Stuff is happening this December, yep good stuff. Check back here because there will be prizes.

Speaking off, you really need to check out this great interview and competition for a pre-order copy of Across the Universe by Beth Revis… actually don’t, because I really want to win it – I promise I’m kidding. Check it out now, it’s great. Honest… go go go!

Have you checked it out? Yes. Good. So I’ll carry on, I am joining Marieke’s Musings Midwinter Blogfest during December which should be fun. I’m both excited and terrified about my entry.

I’m also going to Edinburgh which will involve snow** and shows and writer conferences in the Hard Rock.

And finally I will be doing a  couple of blogs on my top 10 reads of 2010 and plan on giving some away!

Along with of all of that, there will be the usual procurement of presents, wrapping, getting tangled in sparkling ribbons… What about you?

*cue bad singing
**cue mad skipping by my travel-buddy