Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles A to Z Challenge Posts

So, first day of the Blogging from A to Z challenge takes a deep breath, pauses, dives in feet first. SO FIRST THINGS FIRST - TO THE ORGANISER OF THE A TO Z CHALLENGE, ARLEE BIRD - THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, THANK YOU!

Some of you must be thinking with a title like that that I'm going to start talking about deserts, or reproduction, but today, I'm focusing on a specific kind of barren, that is, something very personal to me, the mental wasteland that can be writer's block .

Okay, so the last couple of days, I've been talking about writerly things, so today, I thought I'd digress and just talk about something that I personally love, cartoons, from Bugs Bunny to Toy Story.

Hands up who is afraid of the dark? I am. There's something very unnerving about not being able to see a foot in front of you, and yes, I do believe in ghosts ;). That said, there are many types of darkness.

Today I'm going to be talking about erotica, specifically of the male/male variety. This post is, however, suitable for a general audience. Anyone familiar with my work will know that I write a wide range of genres from YA fantasy all the way to explicit male/male erotic romance.

Getting it wrong, cocking it up, losing - we have many different words for failure and I've chosen to write a blog post on it, because I'm one of those people who doesn't like to get it wrong. I know, I know, you're going to say that no-one likes to get it wrong.

I like grammar - no, don't groan - let me tell you why. Grammar is the structure of our language, without it, words stand alone, separate and without full meaning, but put them together with the glue we call grammar and our language can be a vibrant tool and express everything from the everyday how to bake a cake to extraordinary works of literary genius.

and they're right. I've lived in various places around the south of England and I've both rented and owned houses in them, but I have found that bricks and mortar do not a home make and I am definitely a home body. I enjoy business trips and holidays, but it's when I'm at home that I'm really happy.

I'm borrowing the adult warning label from Fantasy Boys XXX, because today, I promised some folks that I'd write the next few scenes to a drabble from the FB3X Drabblerotic series and they're going to be distinctly adult in nature.

Until June 2012, writing was, for me, a hobby that I was trying to make a little money at. My full time job was as a project manager. However, then redundancy loomed and, for me, it was a time to take stock and decide if I wanted to change direction in my career: it was.

Today on the A to Z Blogging Challenge, my offering is a short piece of fiction. Author's Note I've been mulling over this Young Adult universe, The Hidden War, since I first adapted a Harry/Draco fanfic story premise for use in The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games.

So, what does it take to launch your imagination? For me, it can be absolutely anything, but then I am a bit of a Dilly Daydream ;).

I don't know about you, but when I write, I sometimes like a bit of a soundtrack to go with it. However, it has to be the right soundtrack ;).

So today I'm going to write about niggles. I'm not talking huge great injustices here, but the illogical things that irritate me, that nobody else cares about, but that drive me insane :). They don't make sense, they are often unfair, but I just can't help it, they irritate me!

Sometimes I think readers of my blog get bored with just my opinions and thoughts on stuff, so I open my blog to guest posts :). Today, I am pleased to be opening the doors to Kia Zi Shiru, a talented writer of Young Adult (YA) fiction, who is on a blog tour to promote the third book in her Black Sheep Trilogy, Fighting for a Future.

I declare my allegiance, I'm a cat person - no, I don't have whiskers and a tail, but I do have a fondness for the ol' domestic moggie. I freely admit, I am probably owned by my cat, Ythran, rather than the other way around.

Today on the A to Z Blogging Challenge, this is the second part of The Hidden War #3, A Fork In The Road. Part one can be found here. Author's Note I've been mulling over this Young Adult universe, The Hidden War, since I first adapted a Harry/Draco fanfic story premise for use in The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games.

I mentioned earlier in the month that I have been mulling over expanding on a short story/novella universe, The Hidden War, which I created when writing a couple of stories for The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games in July 2012.

To serialise or not to serialise: there are many considerations when thinking about producing a publication in parts, some artistic, some practical, and I've been musing on these things as of late, because I have begun writing a part work for Fantasy Boys XXX, The Vampire's Concubine and am planning on writing more, since I am finding I am liking the format.

Personally, I'm rather fond of the number 2. I'm a twin, y'see, so it's a concept close to my heart. Pairs, duos, other halves, this post is about the many and varied combinations of 1 and 1 in our world. Not unexpectedly, let's start with the twosome closest to my heart, that of twins.

There are lots of things that happen in this world that are unbelievable, sequences of events that no-one would believe unless they had actually happened, like two people with exactly the same name checking into a hotel at the same time and being given the same room.

A vocation, often also called ' a calling', is defined as: A person's employment or main occupation, esp. regarded as particularly worthy and requiring great dedication. There are many different types of vocation from those who believe they are called by their god, monks, nuns, clergy, imams, high priest/esses to professions like nursing and teaching, where the best can truly be said to have a calling to their trade.

When someone say 'whimsy' to me, I think of old England, lazy afternoons where Pooh Bear and Piglet wander in the Hundred Acre wood and the humour is gently jesting on the misunderstandings of a bear of very little brain.

A xenolith is a rock fragment which becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development (thank you wikipedia). I'm not a geologist, so I'm not going to spend the rest of this post talking about igneous rocks and magma encasement.

They say, 'You are only as young as you feel.' I happen to agree with them, because I have known people who have thought they were old and needed to 'settle down' at 21, and others who are young-at-heart at 90. Being young is a state of mind.