Happy International Book Day!

Today is the Day of the Book. Should be a holiday everywhere ;)

If you google "International World Book and Copyright Day" you'll get a lot of sites with interesting information and local events (there are a lot of free readings in my area today).

The official UNESCO site is here

And it's a good thing it's also Copyright Day, because I think people are still not aware enough of copyright infringement.

Beedle the Bard contest

Amazon.com hosts a Beedle the Bard Ballad Writing Contest.

I sooo wanted to participate, but I cannot think of anything. My mind seems to be sweapt clean of any creativity as of late...
I still hope I can think of something during today, because how cool would it be to win? ;)

If you're interested, find the contest here. Submissions will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. PDT April 22, 2008

The readability test

Not too bad...

I've been tagged

Carol tagged me. (Big surprise ;) )


The rules:

a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.


Are there any secrets left that those who read this blog don't know already? Hm... Lemme see:

1. I don't read words, I read patterns (that probably needs more than one sentence to explain/understand)

2. I have glasses (hey, it says random)

3. I quit school four month short of starting exams for my A-levels (or the equivalent), and it has proved a very good thing thus far.

4. I have a younger sister whom everyone believes to be the older one.

5. I'd like to live in Ireland one day.

6. I love Fantasy and Science Fiction and become a nerd about anything to do with it


I have a bit of a problem here, because everyone I would have tagged, Carol already did. So, if you're reading this and are not Jen, Claire, Jenny, Precie or Deniz please feel tagged. (I know this is against the rules, but what shall I do?)

Oh! I tag Sarah!

Being a writer

I remember one discussion over at the forum, where the topic was the usual question by non-writers "How do you get your ideas?"

And Diana's reply was something to the effect that a writer's problem mostly is not getting ideas, but stopping them from popping up all over the place.

My thoughts back then were "You'll never be a writer then. How could you be? You came up with this story idea with enough difficulty, and it's not even fully formed."

And tell you what? About a year later story ideas do come when least expected. Constantly. Sometimes they are only fleeting thoughts, and I forget them quickly. But sometimes the ideas stick and flesh out a bit, and won't leave me in peace, until I write at least the idea down.

I guess I'm a writer now. In spirit at any rate. :)

“Freedom” badge

See the article of the Paris-based organization "Reporters without Borders" here:

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=26384

Thanks to Barbara for mentioning it.

My father's daughter

I am.

Not only have I inherited the love for books from him (and the preference for Fantasy/Science Fiction; the History preference comes from my grandma) he just told me a few days ago that he has had an idea for a story in his mind for years.

Go figure that I write stories since the age of seven and he never told me! I asked him to take notes if he would, so that if he will never write the story I could. He said yes, but knowing my father, he'll only do it if I persist.

Mayor resolution

I've been ill on Tuesday (the weather here is not very migraine friendly at the moment), and after sleeping for hours, I was finally able to sit up and do some thinking (dangerous thing that is *g*).

So I got out my notebook (the one with paper in it) and did a quasi outline. I noted down the things I knew already and tried to put them in some kind of order. OK. I generally know what's going on where, and have some places that still need to be worked out. Fine.

But then, then I came to a realisation. I am sooo stuck and so dissatisfied with my story at the moment. Why is that you ask? I have no idea. I still like my characters and the story, but it's lacking something mayor.

So I came to a resolution: I will write this story completely anew. I will save all that I have written so far in a seperate folder and the scenes and pieces I really, really like into yet another one, but I'll not use it. I'll try to pretend that I haven't already written one thing or another and then when I'm finished (hopefully in the not too far away future) I'll have a look at my favourite scenes and compare which is better, the old or the new one. But not earlier.

So much for finishing the SFD by July...

Pillars of the Earth

Production firm Tandem Communications, located in Munich, has bought the tv-rights for "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett.

They want to make an eight hour series out of it.

I'm crossing my fingers here, as the book is one of my all time favourites (I re-read it about once a year) and hope that they will be able to adapt it well.
As is always the case with books made in to film, they will not meet the expectations of some and will meet the expectations of others.

I just hope for the best...