Often accepted, but never first choice
Always ignored for someone's louder voice
I finally realise, this is my lot:
Regarded as warm, I will never be 'hot'.
I had some dreams a long time ago.
Where did they vanish to? I'd like to know.
I've tried to help and I've done it for free
But where are the people who'll do it for me?

My talent's not great, I know that, at last
And the dreams that I cherished have faded so fast.
So when I am dead - you'll forget in a trice,
On my headstone, the legend " Here's Lil, she was 'nice',
But she couldn't be special or brilliant or cool
So she died, as she lived, a romantic old fool.
Not cut out for winning when put to the test
Accepting her fate was to be second-best."
 
Today I looked up the term 'flash' fiction and now I know less about it than I did to begin with. By some definitions, my short stories would be in the flash category because they rarely exceed 2 pages. On the other hand, some definitions say 200-500 words. So who's right? Who cares?

From now on I shall categorise my shorts by my own definitions :

BERMUDA Shorts - A story that is long-enough to last for day out.
FOOTBALL Shorts - Fairly speedy - but with some room to spread out and relax.
RUNNING Shorts - Let's get a move on, folks, this story's in a hurry to reach the finish line.

I shall also add a special international category for stories that don't appeal to me for long :
AMERICAN shorts : one yank and they're off. 

Have a nice day, and do call back. My shorts can be viewed  http://verse-artiste.weebly.com/short-and-shorter.html

 
 
Today a book was 'made private' by the moderators on Authonomy because the content of one of the chapters was considered unsuitable.

I had read and backed the book in question and while I agree that the contents of said chapter were very strong indeed, the book was clearly labelled as ADULT.

So what makes it unsuitable? Well it's political if you ask me. The book deals with child abuse and pornography, and with that nasty case going on at the moment, it could be seen as too close for comfort. Well, it certainly wasn't a comfortable read, but it was expertly written and clearly reflects what goes on in some dark corners of our society. Art mirroring life.

Hope they reconsider. We can censor ourselves. If you don't appreciate it, don't read it.
 
I have decided to self-publish my novel because I'm in a hurry and may have to wait forever to follow the traditional route via agents etc.

Why am I in a hurry? Well, if I'm honest, the health scares I had in the Spring let me know that I'm not immortal and I want to see my book, my dream, in print before the Almighty decides to send me any more surprises.

That being the case, and me having no money 'n all, I took advice from from an Authonomy friend and submitted to New Generation for POD publication. (They're part of Legend Press).   I'll give a more detailed account when I can give you the full picture. The book should be out in a few weeks.

In the meantime, another friend, Marc Nash (formerly Sulci on Authonomy) has been going for self-pub with Legend Press on one of the more 'upmarket' deals- ie he's paying for it. He's writing a blog about the experience which is really helpful. Here's the link: http://self-publishinguser.blogspot.com/