Oops - watch this space

I just posted a post that isn't due until tomorrow. At least this time it wasn't a scheduling accident, but just my own silliness! I've put the post back to draft form now, but I'll put this up in case anyone has me on their blogroll and gets confused by what's supposedly the latest update. :)

Stay tuned for that post in about 24 hours.

Hello from my new blog spot!

I did sort of expect to give a bit more warning than this before changing my blog's URL, but it seemed like a good time to make the change. My flash fiction from Nick Wilford's Overcoming Adversity blog hop will be included in the anthology he's creating, so I figured I should give him a new blog URL instead of one I was planning on changing soon anyway. My old blog address is still there, but from now on I'll be posting here.

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to change to, but this URL features my initials (though my actual name is Patricia, not Trisha), and also the name of my blog. I have a fondness for my initials mostly because my dad makes use of them a fair bit. As a photographer, he's got folders full of slides of me throughout my life, and each of these folders are labelled simply "TWF". He's also sent me postcards from overseas addressed simply to "TWF". My brother is "JWF" (we each have our mum's surname as our middle name), and he gets labelled as such too. Even our email names display as TWF and JWF.

So there you go. That's the reasoning. Now I just hope you can all find me. :)

I have noticed some broken things and have fixed them as I've stumbled across them (blog rolls had to be done from scratch, and one page wasn't working), so if you notice anything else broken, please let me know! Hopefully this will be the last change in...a long time. Maybe ever. ;)

A quick public service announcement

If your blog has word verification, I can't leave you comments today. I get the same word for every single post I try to leave, and though I enter the letters in correct sequence, I keep getting told that I've done it wrong. Problem is, it never refreshes to a new word for me to try. So, if you've got word verification enabled, people, you're missing out on comments from me!

To my way of thinking, this is just another good reason to remove word verification from your blogs (the other reason being that it's incredibly annoying!).

I'll be back later today with a piece of flash fiction for the I'm Hearing Voices blogfest - a piece I have yet to write.

So, I'm 31 now

Yesterday was my birthday, and now I'm 31. Technically I turned 31 at 1:30 am on the 26th, since that was the Western Australian equivalent of 6:30pm on the 25th of July in north-eastern England. I was born sometime between 6:00 and 6:30, can't remember quite when! Mum would be able to tell me if I could be bothered asking her right now!

Anyway, everytime a birthday comes around I get to thinking about what I've achieved in life so far, and what I have yet to achieve. Mostly I dwell on the good stuff I've done, and then I think about the fun stuff yet to come. Same thing this year. I'm pretty proud of what I've achieved in my time, even if there are some things I lament: I don't have a house, I don't have a nest egg of any kind, I don't have many savings. Still, I guess I've spent my money on great things - travel, a car, and lots of books.

This year started out full of inspiration, and it's still that way. I've achieved many of my year's goals so far, but still have some big ones to work on. I met an amazing man this year and am having the most brilliant (if at times challenging; oh yeah, he likes to challenge me like no other ever has) time with him. Basically, the future is bright, and I can't wait to experience it.

Happy birthday to me!

Congratulations to Natalie Whipple!!

I really just have to say this... I've been following Natalie Whipple's blog (and all of her ups and her downs) for a fair while now, and have been hoping and hoping that this day would come sooner rather than later. I've seen Natalie be a supportive friend and fellow writer to many others who have had their publishing dreams come true. I've watched her cheer for others' successes. But finally it's her turn!!

Congratulations Natalie! I'm so happy to see this day! You've earned this moment, for sure!!

Click here for the announcement!

Some upcoming blogfests & a contest

Hi all, quick entry today just to advertise some upcoming Blogfests:

June 15th - Qurious Quirks Blogfest

1. On June 15th, post questions or a small writing prompt relating to quirks on your blog and challenge others to answer in the comments. You must accept your own challenge. You can answer using one of your characters, someone you know in real life, or yourself.
2. Go to at least two other blogs and accept their challenges. I will repost the Linky at the end of my own blogfest entry on June 15th.

- Brooke R. Busse

June 20-22nd - Favourite Book Challenge Blogfest

1. Pick your top five favorite books
2. Between Jun 20 and 22, write one line of what each book is about and then write one line of why you liked it. Think of it like a twitter pitch for other people’s work. Semi-colons are cheating, but you can use them anyway.
3. Go to other blogs and discuss the books.
4. If you do not keep a blog, put your challenge in the comments on the day of the event.

- Teralyn Rose Pilgrim

June 27th - Lovin' the Language Blogfest

1. Pick any five lines (yes, it can be a few short lines that roll together. That's okay, and is probably what I'll do) from one of your WIPs. If you're feeling shy, and don't want to share from your own work, share from something you LOVE.

- Jolene Perry

So there you go, some fun blogfests in works!!

In other news, my fellow writer/blogger Jenni Merritt is having a Race to 100 contest, wherein as soon as she hits 100 followers somebody gon' get a prize! I follow Jenni's blog already of course, but I do highly recommend that the rest of you follow it too! Jenni's a great chick!

And that's all I have to say! No really, I'm serious!!

Newsflash: my internet kinda suxxxx

So yeah, just letting everyone know that I'll be scarce the next couple of days until I get back to...ahem, places that have better internet than I do (namely work :P). The only reason I'm here now is that I'm at my mum's place, scunging off her internet! ;)

It's a long weekend (HELL yes!!) and I'm enjoying it. Bought a new film scanner and so I'm scanning all my negatives. It's so awesome!! I've done about 95 photos so far...got countless more to go.

I'm also doing decently on BuNoWriMo. I've averaged about 2k per day so far in June. I'm enjoying my story, which is not the one I thought I'd be writing. Basically it's a...hmm, how to describe it? Contemporary I guess. With a dash of romance, and a dash of serial murder. Dash of humour too, or so I hope. ;) I won't say too much more about it for now, except to say it feels really good not to be worrying about revisions, and to just be writing. I think it's what I needed! Breath of fresh air kind of deal.

Hope everyone's June is starting out really nicely. :) Thanks to everyone for the comments lately, I know I haven't returned most of them but I WILL. I swear it!! Just as soon as I am able.

OH! I just realised I now have 300 followers. :) I will do something proper like about this at some point, but just want to say THANKS to everyone who likes me and my blog. :D I like you too!!! So very much! Muchas gracias and all that. Because my mum's internet is weird, I can't see my followers, so I can't see who the 300th follower is. But I will get to that later too. ;)

Boooo to lost comments!

Whatever happened with Blogger yesterday, I lost a bunch of comments. NOT impressed! Oh well, at least I didn't lose any posts (that I know of...).

It better be over now, anyway!

If you left a comment on any of my recent posts, I would have responded if your comment still existed ;)

Just editing to add that I am sticking another Blogfest on my list, the What's the Score? Blogfest. Check it out, looks like fun. :)

Crappy internet

I just wanted to mention (and yes, once again here I am, posting on Sunday!!) that my internet is being extremely crappy today, and it's pretty well impossible to go around visiting other blogs and reciprocating visits from those who have left comments here. I will get back to you all eventually, I swear! And I don't even want to THINK about what's happened in Google Reader. Last I checked I had about 250 unread blog entries. And that was yesterday. Sadly, I'm thinking another "mark all as read" click is looming in my future.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Here we are in late April, and it's still way too damn warm for my liking. This global warming shit makes me want to cry in misery.

The Chrysalis Experiment

Without further ado...*drumroll*

We're pretty much ready to go!

The Chrysalis Experiment, a year-long foray into the art and/or science of story writing - short stories of up to 10,000 words are admissible. And anyone who feels like participating is more than welcome to!

The first prompt should be up on Jan 3rd, and after that we'll be scribbling away. Well, typing more like it.

In short, I'm excited!!

New year: book club? critiquing circle?

These things are meant to happen in the new year! The book club should be interesting, as it will involve an extremely varied reading list. The critiquing circle will be the same, I guess. The only thing we'll have in common is that we live in similar time zones and all are members of Absolute Write!

Meanwhile, I have to finish reading the Wheel of Time series (currently near the end of book 11), at least up to book 13, in anticipation of book 14's release. Then I have craploads of other books I have yet to read, which are piled up on my bookshelves - books in front of books in front of books! Well, okay, just books in front of books. Hehe. But seriously, I should stop buying more books until I've read all the ones I already own!

But isn't it nice, going into a book store and buying a shiny, sparkly new book? Or two...or three. The problem is, here in Aus books are not cheap. If you could get a book for $15.00, that would be a bargain. Especially if it was new. You can expect to pay $15.00 for second-hand books, and I mean just paperbacks, not even hard covers or large format books or anything. When I was in the U.S., I positively drooled over how cheap books were there in comparison. Aussies get ripped off, and it's not right!!

Anyway...mooooving on, 'cause I'm not bitter. No really, I'm not!

Hope everybody had a fabulous Christmas. Mine involved trying not to die of heat stroke (managed, just!); drinking champagne, and a delicious drink known as a Snow Ball (got to get me some Advocaat!); and eating food. Oh, and swimming in the ocean. That was probably the best part, aside from the Snow Balls.