Bad Agent Sydney T. Cat

I haven't done much writing in April. However, I have had Mr Husband's family visiting, an epic road trip down to the beautiful Smokey Mountains in Tennessee with said in-laws, a friend's wedding, an unexpected glut of visitors stranded for days thanks to the Eyjafjallajokull volcano (there's a name I didn't know before last week) and a vomiting bug.

Somewhere in there I fostered 4 teensy kittens with impressive editing skills (I only take on the most talented kitties). Thanks to shameless self-promotion they wheedled their way onto Bad Agent Sydney T. Cat's blog. Kittens, eh? Take a look and see what they've been up to.

Added - Warning: blog link contains photo of me looking a bit rubbish and about 20 years older than normal. Please send Oil of Olay.

Beautiful Blogger Award

And on a much cheerier note than the last post I have been nominated for a Beautiful Blogger Award by the lovely writer, Jen Bee. She is called Jen, writes and likes tea. What's not to like?

The idea of the Beautiful Blogger Awards is that (and please correct me if I'm wrong) you reveal 7 interesting things about yourself and nominate 15 other people for the award. This is a great way of discovering blogs by other people you might want to hang out with in PiskieWebLand.

Here goes.

Seven interesting things about me:

1) I worked in Australia doing conservation work and travelling for 9 months. I have also volunteered with BTCV in the UK and am the proud holder of a Grade 1 tree felling and Grade 1 hedge laying certificate. We were filmed by the Oz version of the Really Wild Show planting trees with school children, my TV debut.

2) I like pretty much all food except for gherkins, which are the devil's food. I think that's fair enough.

3) I can say many pointless things in Latin, such as agricola taurum fugat ('the farmer chases the bull') and juvenes adeste ('come, young men', interestingly enough also the first line of my school's song, despite it's ethos of teaching only young ladies)

4) At one time I was a project manager for local government.

5) I have also worked as a pancake chef, a mortgage underwriter, Lipton Ice Tea promotion girl (handing out free samples whilst wearing a silly costume), farm worker, and have run my own business as a Small Business Consultant.

6) I think degenerate Piskies run the internet from a cave in Cornwall. These are not to be confused with Pixies, who run everything else.

7) My father-in-law is a puppeteer and my step-sister is a trapeeze artist.

And 15 beautiful bloggers are:
Nik Perring - Nik's Blog
Tania Hershman - Tania Writes
Oonah V. Joslin - Oonahverse
Sarah Hilary - Crawl Space
Sydney T. Cat - Bad Agent Sydney T. Cat
Miss Elliott - Miss Elliott's Fascinating English Blog
Avis Hickman-Gibbs - This Bird's Eyeview

... I'm not going to do 15 I've decided because 15 squared, cubed etc soon becomes exponential and there won't be anyone else left! So look at my links on the side for other informative blogs.

For Sale: Every Day Poets

My Poem 'For Sale' about a couple splitting up and selling their house is now up at Every Day Poets. Be warned: it is thoroughly depressing.




Image courtesy of CompareNow.com

Ink, Sweat & Tears: Living Shadows

My flash fiction story 'Living Shadows' is up on the rather wonderful Ink, Sweat & Tears today.






It is based on the shadow puppetry I saw on travels in Malaysia and it is a spooky little tale...

The photo is courtesy of Puppet Craft; check out their site if you love beautiful puppetry.

My Very Own Forgotten Bookmark!

First, allow me to introduce you to Forgotten Bookmarks. This is the blog of a rare and 2nd hand books shop in New York who post up pictures of the many and various things they find within the books they buy. It is utterly fascinating.

Forgotten Bookmarks did a giveaway recently (they are generous like that) and I won! I received my rather beautiful Collected Works of Leo Tolstoi today and nestled within the pages was a snug little forgotten bookmark listing the major prophets.
















































FluffyCat, an avid reader, has already settled down to read 'Two Hussars'.

'Watching the Pool' at EDP and my WIP

Having left the world of government with a vow never to use another acronym as long as I live, here I am doing it again. *Sigh*

For non-writer folk (that is, people who don't have dialogue-testing conversations with plants, have more blood in their system than tea and who don't check ICanHasCheezburger every fifteen minutes) EDP is the webzine (web-based magazine) Every Day Poets and WIP is my Work In Progress.





Today EDP have put up my poem 'Summer Holiday: Watching the Pool' on their site. EDP is fun because people can rate your poem and leave feedback and it is always good to hear what other people think, especially people who don't know you. Even if it isn't always 100% positive it is always a good lesson for the future.

Now, on to my WIP, the dystopian novel 'Maynard Hill'. I put up a post last summer about the feedback I had had from my novel. While it wasn't all bad (they liked my writing style and opening) they felt 'disappointed' with the story. Everything they said I could see where they were coming from but I just didn't have the energy to start all over again.

However, when I was researching my article about dystopian films, since published in MediaMagazine, I got excited about the genre again. I can do this! I said to the plant.

So I opened that file I hadn't touched in months and went to work. The WIP is now down from just over 100,000 words to 50,000 words. Talk about killing your darlings. I have basically pruned out the dull bits and I'm going to plot out a whole new subplot which will weave into the story and then take it onwards to an more explosive ending set later in the future. Ka-pow!

I have learned such a lot writing flash fiction and short stories and I hope these lessons will translate across. I have thought so much recently about what makes a story; flash fiction can be likened to one of those sketches that only comprises a few well-placed pencil marks but shows character, movement and theme within that.

Wish me luck.

Stuff In My Study

Nik Perring has started a trend. What is in your study that makes you happy?


These are some of mine:


1) My Leonardo da Vinci action figure (a birthday present years ago), complete with interchangeable pictures. We have Vitruvian Man at the moment. There is also a green cat from Russia and a frog prince.


























2) Me with my sister when I graduated from Bristol University with my Masters in Medieval History on a very hot summer's day. If I sound proud of this, I am; I am now so wonderfully over-stuffed with useless trivia my only hope is to become a writer.


























3) My 60's Vietnamese Propaganda Lady. The translation reads: The national empires and reaction should not unwise touch this country. I thought about hanging it on the door but I thought it might put Husband off bringing me tea.






















4) My collection of fat Buddhas, along with Death, Luggage and a copy of Mslexia Magazine. Someday I will be published in there... someday.





















5) My favourite pink Monkey Mug for all that tea.





















6) A Canned Kangaroo (a souvenir from my friend) with an American flag, and a fabulous pottery pen holder with a little bird on it. The bookmark is Castles of Wales and I must have got it when I was on holiday there aged 8.

100 Stories for Haiti: It's here!

100 Stories for Haiti: click here to go to their Buy It page

It's here! It's great! Buy it!

Their blurb:

100 Stories for Haiti is a unique collection of stories bound together by paper and glue and massive amounts of hope. This is no ordinary book. One morning a writer woke up and decided, "I must do something." Hundreds of talented authors worldwide sent him their stories and the result is an anthology that anyone can enjoy.

Proceeds go to helping the victims of the Haiti earthquake. So open this book and pick a page. There's nowhere to start and nowhere to finish. If you find one story, one page, one line entertaining: buy it.

What's not to like?

Cats and Snow Parts 1&2

You may remember Part 1 from my post in December. Well, Part 2 of Simon's Cat 'Snow Business' is here!

Our own snow is that grumpy-grey old-age snow that is clinging on, not wanting us to have Spring.

Static Movement: Fourth Breeding

Oonah V Joslin just pointed out I'm in Static Movement this month along with her, Jennifer Walmsley and many other lovely people.

My story, Fourth Breeding, is a cat-themed horror story.

Enjoy!