Feeling decidedly creative again, now the pressure is off. The summer fete is over, the need to endless paint jam jars and bead their handles is over. The 40 flags that I painted were used as decorative bunting at the fair, along with loads of others. Looked really good though, I have to say.

I learnt a valuable lesson at the fete. Never volunteer to run the Hoop the Bottle stall. 2 hours of bending down to pick up hoops, whilst baking in the late afternoon sun because I stupidly forgot...

Have you ever noticed that when you tell someone about a story or book you're writing that they almost always automatically ask, "So, what's it about?" This is a natural question, of course, but it's the answer to that question that piques my interest.
If what I'm talking about is not of my own creation, I can easily decribe it, but whenever I try to tell what my own book is about, I always have to go back in order to explain something. For example:
My friend today asked me...

As an aspiring novelist and a bit of a perfectionist, I have been working on my novel, Tal'mokor Chronicles, for over three years. I have literally forced my friends to read it over and over again, begged my literature teachers to do the same, and they all give me good feedback. But I want something more, a stronger assurance that I am on the right track.
Here, on this forum, I hope to hear criticism that is unbiased by any relationship to me. Here, I hope to meet others like myself and perfect...

About this time last year, my sister asked me to make the centrepiece for her wedding cake. She wanted the little bride and groom figures, in full wedding garb, sitting on my now-brother in law's motorbike. That was a challenge!

After some sketches and a lot of time studying photos of the bike, I was able to make a little model out of air-drying clay, complete with figures (and "just married" on the number plate), painted it, and it went down really well. Looking back,...

They always do, in summer. For a few days I got a decent boost from AltFiction (authorised geekiness! I was almost literally bouncing off the walls! And excellent to meet some Chronites at last!) and I veered back to the Curse, hoping to make some serious headway on that for the first time this year. But, two weeks and barely two thousand words later, I'm remembering why it was such hard work in the first place.

It's the Voice. Not quite as flowery as Janny Wurts, but still waxing...