Wednesday 29 August 2012

Look!! And a short story announcement

The lovely Kyra Lennon tagged me in this meme, so I thought I'd give it a go. To take part, you need to search your WIP for the first usage of the word Look and post the surrounding paragraph. Firstly, working out which WIP to use was difficult - I have several projects on the go, one of which isn't on my computer yet (so I discounted that one). I've decided to use the MS that I found out will be my next-to-be-published-book... but sorry, no details yet, I don't want to jinx it by announcing too early. 

In this excerpt, the MC is three, or maybe four...

I cry out by accident, then hold my hands over my mouth and wait for the monster to crawl out. Almost straight away Mummy and Daddy are standing over me; the light from the landing pours in and makes my bedroom look almost normal again, like it does in the day time.

As usual, I'm being lazy and not tagging people - consider yourself tagged, if you want to take part. And if anyone knows why the word look was used, I'd love to know. I occurred to me that any word could work... although maybe not the or antidisestablishmentarianism!


In other news:
I'm hugely excited by the following blogfests. Have you heard of these? Have you signed up? I've got the chocolate one sorted, but - boy! - am I finding my favourite genres difficult... I like everything! 

Click here to sign up!

Click here to sign up!

And finally:
My short story Jacob's Wife is now available at Alfie Dog Fiction!

Sally is trapped in her marriage after marrying too young and for the wrong reasons. She's let her true love slip through her fingers once - but when Tom arrives back in her life stirring up old memories, will she let him leave again?



So, what's your news on this lovely Wednesday?

58 comments:

  1. All good, Annalisa! Great about the new book and the Alfie Dog story - I'll have to check it out now I've read the blurb and got intrigued!
    I think I'll consider myself tagged - I haven't done much on my blog lately due to being busy writing (and procrastinating, naturally). I reckon 'look' was chosen because it's a word that can appear frequently in different contexts but it's one that can also be improved on, perhaps - like 'nice'!

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  2. Congratulations on the short story!
    And thanks for mentioning my blogfest.

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  3. Nice use of the word "look" :D

    And congrats on the short story publication - I will check it out soon!

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  4. Congratulations on the story!

    I overuse "look" especially in my first drafts. It makes me cringe when I go back and see it over and over, then I remind myself it's only the first draft, no worries! :)

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    1. Thanks Madeline.

      I'd never considered the word 'look' at all. I must use it without realising :-)

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  5. Oh congratulations on the short story publication. Plan to sign up for a couple of blogfests but just haven't got round to it yet!

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    1. Thanks Suzanne. I hope you've signed up for these blogfests!!

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  6. i think i'll post from mine. thanks.

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  7. Congrats on 'Jacob's Wife,' my dear! Lifting my mug o' java to you this morning. You'd love it, it's all Halloweeny with bats and ghosts. (I always get ahead of myself with this time of year ...)

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    1. Thanks Suze. I'm trying hard not to think of things that are coming up - I'm trying to pretend it's not September on Saturday :-)

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  8. Congrats on the story you are working on! Interesting excerpt and does leave a feeling of wanting to know more about the story.

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  9. forgot to say congrats on the short story. and here's a link to my post on the meme.

    http://michellegregory.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-look-meme-just-for-fun.html

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    1. Thanks Michelle. I've just been over and had a look... lol!

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  10. Congrats on the story! I wish I could participate in the chocolate blogfest, but I haven't eaten it for 10 years now.

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    1. Maybe you could write about your last chocolate bar?

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  11. Congrats on Jacob's Wife. I don't know why the word is look but it seems to be throwing up some interesting and diverse extracts from bloggers. I guess antidisestablishmentarianism isn't going to have the same effect is it!

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    1. Thanks Rosalind. Yes, I've been following this meme around the blogs, and there are lots of variety.

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  12. congrats on your short story - very cool. Also, I liked your excerpt and the whole variety of this post. Lots of stuff going on - you are revving up for fall.

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    1. Thanks Joanne - sorry about late reply, your comment ended up in Spam, and it's never done that before - very strange!

      I always get a new oomph in September - crisp mornings and sunshine (hopefully) will get me moving and achieving. I hope your September is just as great :-)

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  13. The excerpt is adorable, and anything with the word "monster" in it has my immediate interest! Good luck getting this WIP pubbed. :-)

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  14. Congratulations with the publication. No news from my side, sorry. I live a rather boring life. I am very happy for you. Enjoy the success.

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    1. I'm sure it's not boring at all! And thanks :-)

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  15. I love the excerpt! What a great idea for a meme. :) And congrats on the publication!

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    1. Thanks Peggy. It was fun. I wasn't sure I'd have many mentions of 'look' and that paragraph is on the first page!

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  16. Great excerpt. Now I must go check out the short story!!

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    1. Aw thanks Elizabeth - if you do read it, I'd love to know what you think :-)

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  17. That's a fun meme.

    And congratulations on your publication news. That's really great!

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  18. Good luck with the short story Annalisa, may you sell millions of copies :). The story sounds very intriguing ...

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    1. Ooh, thank you... I like the sound of a million :-)

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  19. how cute! and i totally overuse "look" it's closely followed by turn, glance and see or notice!

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    1. My characters glance at everything! I'm going to write a novel set in the pitch black one day, so no one can see, look or glance at anything lol

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  20. Ooh that reminds of a story they used to read us in school about a monster that lives under beds who grabs children when they get up at night - I'm now an expert at holding it in during the night! :)

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    1. Argh, don't tell me that... I'm staying under the covers all night now!

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  21. you've got a child's fear just right, Annalisa

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  22. Ooo! Skeery, Annalisa. Thanks for mentioning chocofest. :) Hope you have a great weekend.

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    1. You're welcome Mary - I've got my story almost done too. I got very excited at the mention of chocolate :-)

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  23. I was going to post something sensible but then you mentioned something chocolatey and I got all distracted.

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  24. Yes, I'm signed up for the blogfests. Very excited! I'm patiently awaiting for the print proof of my novella and crossing my fingers everything looks good because I did the formatting myself! Yikes!

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    1. Congratulations on figuring out the formatting!! :-) I'm looking forward to reading it - you've single-handedly got me reading YA fantasy!

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  25. Hi Annalisa .. creepy crawlies from my mouth - no thank you ... I'm looking forward to the choccy blogfest ... excellent news re the short story - interesting take on life ..

    Cheers Hilary

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    1. Haha I hadn't read it that way - perhaps I should have included the previous paragraph which explains that the monster is under her bed! I wonder if everyone else is imagining things emerging from a little girl's mouth????

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  26. Oh, but how to pick just one favourite chocolate??

    Allison (Geek Banter)

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    1. I know, it's hard isn't it? Maybe just write a really, really long post?

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  27. I do like a good monster story! That was really cute and creepy.

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    1. I have to let you into a secret... it's not a monster story... sssh...

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  28. Great excerpt... Would love to read more. Congrats on the short story:)

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  29. Your excerpt sounds extremely familiar to many I'm sure. How many of us were grateful of some light to protect us from the monsters?!

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    1. When I was young, I had the loft hatch in my bedroom... right over MY bed. I spent a lot of time with the light on!

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  30. Congrats on Jacob's Wife! Sounds like a good read.

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