This is a bit of a goodbye and hello post.
It's been a while since I've blogged but now the new writelink blog site is up and running, I'm hoping to get back into blogging there.
So I'm saying goodbye to this blog and a big thank you to all those of you have subscribed. If you wish to subscribe to my new blog (please do), then you can find me on writelink at: http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/blogs/posts/sarah_james or on wordpress at: http://sarahjameswrites.wordpress.com/
Hope to catch up with you there soon.

Well amongst my busy librarian work I have been busy in several creative ways.

I have just completed updating my new blog at wordpress.com

www.valkyrie1008.wordpress.com

Which has already receieved just under 100 page views and I have a record breaking 19 views on Monday which beated the 10 views I had on 2 days last week! So I'm becoming a little bit popular over there.

I have also written my draft ghost story with a Viking twist for a competition I am planning on entering. You can find, read it and give feedback in the Fiction Arena on the Writelink/community site. Please do look it up as I need all the help I can get as I'm not good at making people scared so its more of a paranormal mystery than a scary ghost story.

I have also had one of my Jorvik Festival photographs on Flickr,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/valkyrie1008

Asked to be featured in ... Read Full Post

Well judging from the long gap between this update and the last journal entry you can only presume I've been very busy and in that presumption you will be correct.

I've lost count of the amount of Library Induction talks I've given and to be honest I think I got worse with each one I gave as I always came away from it realising only later I forgot to mention some small thing. Stumbling over my own words didn't help but it's hard to talk to a bunch of teenagers when they're all bigger than me, look my own age and clearly wonder what the hell I'm doing talking down to them.

But that's what happens when you're born 5 weeks prem and don't have a growth spurt and loose too much weight when you're 17 from having Glandula Fever and Tonsalitas at the same time. Well their my excuses anyway for ... Read Full Post

The Dismorphia Viking Chronicle Newsletter has finally been released!

I did have a small problem getting into my inbox (mystery) but as I am on good terms with the Creative Director Michael Crampton he kindly sent to me the newsletter tester link so it's all the same just is addressed to 'insert name' hehehehe.

It not only features snippets of my little bit famous short story which has won the description of 'great' from Joanne Harris but it also displays some pictures of me and of the Vikings I photographed at this years Jorvik Festival in York.

Please follow this link and take a gander and may perhaps your heart be won over by the great tales of interest and wonder of our northern ancestors in what used to be the Danelaw.

http://www.dismorphia.com/Newsletters/20090901-9623/index.html

This past weekend I have been out in the wind and sunshine rambling around blackberry bushes and wild plum trees - all thanks to my partner and his parents. We managed to have a bag full of plums and a sandwhich box full of blackberries. Although both mine and my future mother-in-law's fingers were died purple as some berries were a bit too ripe and exploded in colour at the slightest tug or squeeze. Upon arriving back at their place we de-seeded the plums (or do they have nuts - it was a matter of debate in the household) and put them all into a large pot to boil away with sugar and water to make a very tasty jam. From fruit to jam in a matter of hours! And all for free! Really did make me notice the price of jam in my local Co-op shop. One was a ... Read Full Post

Well I can certainly say that my family holiday of the year has been the most creative yet!
Not only have I taken so many fantastic pictures of wildlife from birds to butterflies (see my Deviantart Gallery for pics - found at bottom of the page) but also I managed to finish a great Terry Pratchette book titled Mort in a day and a half! Then I reach my peak when my creative spark as I like to think of my imagination which has been dormant for the past few months with the weight of finishing University, looking for work then finding and moving into a new home, came back to life big time!

I have finally started writing the sequel to my little bit famous valkyrie short story and got up to 1,800 words by the end of the week. It is still majorly in it's infant stages ... Read Full Post

. . . in which I have two poems, as previously mentioned. I received details of the book launch yesterday. Unfortunately I won't be able to go as I'll just have nicely arrived in the UK on 10th September. A flying visit (literally!) to see my mother during the two-week school holiday break here. Actually, I squeezed another week out of school, which I'm able to do because my colleague is able to work fulltime for that week, God bless her cotton socks, but given travelling time the time at home will be little more than a fortnight. Hopefully summer will still be lingering though and the weather will not be too autumnul. Signs of spring are on the rise here. The swallows are back already (at least a month earlier than usual), and the chooks are already laying, (also about a month earlier than normal). Not quite time to ... Read Full Post

I have been extremely busy over the past few months:
1) finishing off course work and project material
2) trying to find a job
3) nervously waiting for results from Uni and from a writing Competition
4) Getting excited over good results in both the above cases (21. pass mark and an honourable mention by my all time favourite author on her own website!)
5) Getting even more excited over an interview offer for a job I applied so long ago I forgot all about it
6) Getting incredibly excited when I was offered the job which I swiftly accepted (began work straight after my Uni results day)
7) Working hard trying to find a new place to call home for me and my partner
8) Starting my new job, learning so much and most of all LOVING IT!
9) Struggling to collar a house viewing
10) First and final ... Read Full Post

. . . has resulted in using the mill fight for publishing success. Tassie's premier small press magazine, Island, is publishing my essay 'Writing for my life' in the December/January issue, and two pulp mill poems have been accepted for an anthology being published by Fellowship of Australian Writers (Tas) later this year. Success with Island really took me by surprise. I was persuaded to submit this piece by a friend, after I read it at one of our informal writing workshop afternoons, but having sent submissions to Island before, without success, I didn't really hold out much hope. I'm pretty chuffed actually, just quietly.

. . . since I've had time to write anything in this blog that I began with with such enthusiasm, fully intending to keep up regular posts, and record the mill saga, as well as some of life's daily trivia. But life got in the way, as life so often does, and the intro to my last piece is as relevant today as it was back in March. I'm having trouble keeping up with it.

=> Read more!