As the title suggests, I have decided to hang up my blogging hat.

I don’t want to rattle off a whole plethora of negative reasons why, even though there are some, instead I’d like to thank each and every person who has ever clicked on my blog. I really appreciate the fact that you stopped by to read.

Some of the things I’ve loved about blogging have been Charity Tuesday, Silent Sunday and The Writing Workshop – three things that all made blogging a pleasure for me. The Writing Workshop in fact being the reason why I started in the first place.

In a lot of ways, although I never realised it at the time, my blog was all about this one post which began life as a Writing Workshop prompt and ending up changing my life.

I also really enjoy the book reviews and will continue doing those over on good reads.

I don’t know for sure that it’s forever, but it feels like it right now certainly for this blog. Maybe I’ll be back with a different one in the future, maybe not. When I started blogging it was a warm and welcome community and there was an overall feeling of inclusion and acceptance. Sometimes these days it feels more like shark infested waters

I am very happy in life right now and don’t have as much time to devote to blogging and I’m not one to do half a job so I’d rather bow out than blog for the sake of it. Without wishing to jinx my life, I have a wonderful partner, a great job and two happy and healthy children – all of whom deserve more of my time.

Ironically, my blog has the most followers it’s ever had and is getting more hits via search engines than ever so it feels wrong in a way to stop now but it also feels right to stop while it’s doing well rather than let it run down.

Thank you all, for your support.

x

I am really quite humbled and proud to run this incredibly moving #charitytuesday guest post. Please read and then RT and spread the word that amazing items are needed for the auction at the 2012 ball.

Let me introduce you to an incredibly brave lady called Nicola…

Hi I’m Nicola 31 and a busy wife married to Ian and manic mother to 5 wonderful boys Thomas, Jack, Harrison, Alexander and Joseph.  Our lives were turned upside down and inside out when on the 9^thFebruary 2007 the unthinkable happened and our fourth born Alexander Robert was the victim of Cot Death……read more….]

Now I’d like to appeal to anyone in PR or any clothing company who thinks they might be able to provide Nicola with a stunning outfit for the 2012 ball which is being held in February.

As well as the knowledge that you are helping to support a wonderful cause, your dress will be seen by all the guests at the ball and also feature in any news stories surrounding it.

Alternatively, if you have any prizes that you could donate to the raffle then I’m sure Nicola would be very glad to hear from you too – please see original post for full story and contact details.

Can you help or pass this on to someone who can?

The Reader

by Bernhard Schlink

The synopsis: For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair which leaves Michael both euphoric and confused. For Hanna is not all she seems. Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael is shocked to realize that the person in the dock is Hanna. The woman he had loved is a criminal. Much about her behaviour during the trial does not make sense. But then suddenly, and terribly, it does – Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret.

I read this for a book group and I have to say first off that the fact this book begins with a child being groomed by and adult and they referring to it as an erotic love affair made it incredibly hard for me to read the rest of the book.

He was fifteen she was in her thirties. All obvious and disappointing jokes to one side, if this were a fifteen year old girl and a man in his mid thirties would it be ok?

How about if it were a fourteen year old boy and woman in her early thirties or a thirteen year old boy and woman in her late twenties.

Or a fifteen year old boy and a man in his mid thirties – not so funny or erotic now huh.

However.

I did read the rest of the book as was required and with the exception of the above noted scenes it was a good, though provoking book.

It left a lot of things unanswered and, for me, it had some pretty huge plot holes which I’m told are conveyed better in the film.

I don’t feel as though I can offer any more of a review than that; for me the book was tainted by its opening scenes.

What we will be forced to drive quite soon. 

Butlook at all of the ‘great newchoices’we will have evolving from ‘The SMARTCar’…. 

The Smorvette!

The Smaudi A3 AWD! 

The Smamborghini! 

The Smorsche! 

The Smerrari! 

And last, but not least, 

The Smustang 

Today, however, this is actually the first time I have sat at my keyboard. Not a good start to the 10,000 words bearing in mind that it is already 11:43.

I haven’t done anything of great import with my morning, I’ve read a book, The Reader, I’ve had tea and toast and played with Tilly, I’ve had a shower and I am now sitting here with wet hair.

In the shower the thoughts behind this post came to me and it is purely to write this post (and not the 10,000 words which I will, of course, somehow find time for…later) that I am sitting here. It was during these thoughts that I acknowledged the following:

* I have no idea if I will be able to finish #NaNoWriMo

* I am determined to finish it because I am too stubborn for my own good, sometimes

* What I have written so far is mostly amateurish tripe

* I huge new-found huge and deep respect for anyone who writes an entire book, not just ones I deem to be good but anyone, anywhere who can devote the time and motivation to writing an entire book – you are awesome

* When I cannot access my keyboard, my brain floods with flowing and articulate prose; paragraph after paragraph of plot twists, witty lines, exciting new angles and beautifully constructed sentences

* When I can access my keyboard it is as though those thoughts and words have to take such a convoluted path to reach the page that by the time they come out they have lost half of themselves along the way and mostly end up as jumbled, meaningless, uninspiring and excruciatingly  amateurish tripe

Now, I will no doubt find some un-urgent chores to attend to thus increasing the pressure upon myself to complete the word count. In the meantime, I hope you have hit your stride and are writing the new bestseller.

Best of luck all.

The Casual Vacancy

by J K Rowling

Have to confess I actually had no idea what this book was about before I started reading it. The only press I’d seen regarding it was negative comments owing to it not being a children’s book. Which I personally thought was a bit odd – what gives anyone the right to dictate to an author which genre they ‘must’ write in?

So, I was actually under the impression that this was to be a shag-fest, swear-fest of a book, possibly about temporary office workers, (insert suitable reference not judging a book by its cover here ) and was therefore a little surprised to find myself reading a book about a vacancy at a Parish Council.

Not at all what I expected but a charming little (massive) book which leads you an a journey through the lives of the villagers of Pagford. This is a gentle read with lots of characters and intricately woven story threads which all pull together as you read on.

Overall it lacks the punch of the Harry Potter novels but as a standalone book it is a good, if bitter-sweet, read.