Writer’s Blog Tour

Writers Blog Tour

Well Chantelle, thanks for the batton. I could give you some medication for those voices that you hear in your head that inspire your characters, but “Vive le difference!”, who wants normal? May your exceptional talent continue to inspire us.

Inspiration

I suppose we all have voices speaking to us, to some extent.
Mine often come at night when I’m half asleep and I have to get up and jot these revelations down. If I don’t, I won’t get to sleep !
So it’s more practical than altruistic or seeking creativity.

Genre

I’ve only been writing since August last year , so I’m an newcomer
And poetry seems to be an ideal genre because , like a short story
you can almost see the ending from where you start.
I would feel totally inadequate at compiling a novel for this very reason. I think it must require a lot of self confidence and a joy in the process..
I would think the next step that I would be interested in would be to write plays. They have a certain immediacy and involvement with the audience, like my poetry reading does when I present at a Pub or Café. You get that immediate feedback that can be very rewarding
As far as writing a novel goes, I think that would be an evolving thing, that you could only do after progressing through the craft of writing and building up more confidence and also wanting? maybe not wanting, no! needing to do it; feeling compelled to do it; like the baby bird when it first leaves the nest.

Content

I tend to like the ballad style of poems, because of my interest in music but can on occasion write free-form.
I try to not make it too rhyming ; preferring to be subtle with the rhymes and also sometimes with the message I’m trying to convey. Sometimes I try to get my poems make you think and there may be no obvious answer; So I guess I try to make them entertaining and usually with a message , but sometimes a question, to leave you wondering.

Lessons Learned

I called my first book of poems “Vignettes “ with the pen-name “Nompie” (aboriginal for whale); Big marketing mistake!; how many of you are familiar with the word “Vignette” and who or what is Nompie?; so chastened and with more awareness of my potential readers, I have called the second book of poems “Love from Dad” Poems of Love and War and used my real name, not an obscure pen-name.
It’s good to get involved with other writers and with the internet,it is easy to do. John Needham in Wales has been a good friend and sounding-board and helped me with publishing and I am very indebted to him for that.
A book of poems is probably more likely to be purchased as a gift and for this reason e-books is not the ideal medium, so I am investigating the possibility of producing hard copies .
Now this can be an expensive exercise unless you can find someone who does hard copies on demand, so I am investigating this possibility.
I believe there is an “On-Demand” publisher in the arcades near De-Greaves St. Melbourne and also that Amazon can do On-Demand hard copy publishing.
So you have to be a jack-of –all trades to be a writer; it’s more than just the writing , it’s the marketing, presenting and publishing.
There lies the dilemma! ; while you’re doing all this administrative stuff, your creative effort suffers; sometimes I wish there were two of me! I don’t know how Chantelle does it with four young kids!

So I will hand the baton to Nicolle Nally, who I haven’t met on-line yet, but will be interested to gain her perspective.

Nicole blogs at http://nicolenally.blogspot.co.uk/
Chantelle Atkins blogs at http://chantelleatkins.wordpress.com/2014/08/18/writers-blog-tour/
John Needham blogs at http://wordsfromjohn.wordpress.com

look them up and gain their in sights and leave a message to let them know you’ve been there; same goes for me.

The Boy With The Thorn In His Side. Part 1 by Chantelle Atkins- A Review

Chantelle has written a first rate story of teenage angst under the trying circumstances of a disconnected, exasperated mother and her new boyfriend who proceeds to make the boy’s life hell.The story develops well and steadily increases the tension. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read especially for teenagers or young adults, even for parents who might learn a thing or two about teenage/parental interaction. The characters are well developed and Chantelle leaves the reader hanging at the end wondering what will happen next. Well that’s why you need to read her sequel ; The Boy With The Thorn In His Side Part 2. I’m wondering when it will be made into a film;it has the potential. There is one confusing area around Chapters 12 and 14 when the boyfriend is introduced , thinking in the first person (i.e. I did/observed etc). These two chapters would have been better left until after the boy has met him and would then be less confusing ; but a small matter and overall an engrossing read!

Rating: *****

One Hundred Years Since World War 1

Time to remember the war that was to end all wars. A different time with strong ties of loyalty and affection for the Mother Country, England . Many of us would have had much closer family connections to England back then.
I know my grandfather had just emigrated from England after serving first in the Army and then after discharge, joining the Police Force at Bootle before emigrating when he joined the Police Force in New South Wales , Australia.
At the outbreak of war, he re-enlisted and fought at the battle of the Somme where he was wounded and repatriated back to Australia to rejoin the Police Force; a time of strong feelings and white feathers for those who did not enlist; not a very nice thing to do, but one could perhaps understand how strong feelings & loss of a loved-one could lead to such actions.
Then the Second World War arrived and we acted in exactly the same way but when Churchill considered pulling out of the Pacific theatre and leaving Australia to fend for itself against the Japanese, out feelings of loyalty were tempered , marking the beginning of the end of our strong ties to the Mother Country; instead it was The United States of America that came to our aid and we have had strong bonds with The United States ever since.
In many small towns throughout Australia , you can still see the epitaphs honouring those who were slain in “The Great War”; it is a sobering reflection on how our freedom was won and never to forget or take our freedom for granted. For such a young country with such a small population, the loss of our young men was quite significant and affected everybody.
I am just finishing a book of poems and several of them relate to the topic of War; how it has affected those who served and those who have waited back home for them ; what they must have felt and gone through.
I will be calling it “Reflections, Poems of Love and War” and it seems an apposite time for it to be published. It will not be under my pen-name “Nompie” but under my name , Michael Hawke

What’s Happening?

I am just in process of indie-publishing with Autharium another book of poems Called “Reflections, Poems of Love and War ” which are the two main topics of the book , however it is still a bit eclectic with some other topics thrown in, family , nostalgia etc. All up , I hope there will will be about forty poems; some of them (about eight) I hope to include from my first book of Poetry “Vignettes as they relate to the subjects, Love & War and seem apposite. I hope I have learned something from my first book of poems Vignettes. What’s a Vignette you may ask? exactly!, so that’s one thing I have learned ; and who or what is Nompie? Okay , Nompie’s departed the scene & this lot of poems is by his Creator, just plain old Michael Hawke. You will notice the inclusion of “Love” in the title for the majority audience of poetry readers who happen to be women and would use this word perhaps in searching for poems that might interest them on an indie-publisher’s browser or search site. So I am considering my potential market/audience and what I think their interests are, without hopefully selling my soul or removing anything worthwhile that I might be trying to say.
Somebody once said a story or a poem , picture etc doesn’t exist until somebody reads it /views it.
Not totally true, it certainly has existed for me & I have enjoyed the process, but I take their point.