Joly merry and bright on blogger since 2006

 

About Me

Name: Victoria Wild

Location: Brittany, France

I am retired and I live in France with my cat. My daily priorities are writing, painting and gardening. This blog is supposed to keep me on task! Wild Women don't get the Blues, so I intend to use this blog to sound off so that I do not repress my anger. I can get wildly enthusiastic about life too!

Love/hate/computers

I finally had to change to the new format which I resisted 'til today. I have to use google why?
I sent a story/first chapter of my novel to an 'Authors' Advisory service. I received no advice but a complete hatchet job. The story is called 'The Crimplene Dress' and the 'reader' seemed to react violently to the word crimplene and wrote a paragraph of ferocious invective about crimplene nothing about the suitability of the title to the story. Well, I didn't slit my throat and I shall continue to write even though reading between the lines of my so-called advice I should never do again.
I have fallen behind somewhat in the plant a tree a day front. I hope to catch up by planting two a day.
I really must risk connecting to the net at home as I find it too difficult timewise to use internet cafés etc.

I have been writing so much lately, short stories and poems and my novel that I rarely have time to write this blog which proves it works!! Reading at the moment also stimulating 'Orlando' by Virginia Woolf very inspiring. I saw a performance of this some years ago and I didn't understand a word of it; so, I never wanted to read the book. I found the book amazing. I am surprised that anyone would want to perform something which works so well in words and is mostly experiencing someone's internal thoughts. I found an old copy of Charles Dickens ' Le Grillon du Foyer' in French. It must be one of his early books. I have never heard of it before.

computer success

At last I have found out how to write longer email messages without the page expiring. I had learned how to do it before on my laptop but didn't realise how to do it in the internet café.
I have written a short story and dug out two that I had written years ago. I typed them up and now I am going to send them of to competion. Wish me luck. I normally say nothing when I send stuff away, but it seems not to influence my success or failure

Monday, January 29, 2007

Wild about life again at last

I feel as though I have recovered finally from all the bereavements, I suffered in the first year after moving here. I know we never stop grieving but we can continue to live happily whilst never forgetting those we have lost. And the pain never completely goes away.
I am wild about writing and gardening just now. I have started a writing group which had its first meeting last Friday and gave me a real boost. I haven't stopped writing since.
Also, a writer friend in England has been really supportive. We ring frequently for mutual support. Thirdly I have had another letter printed in Writers' Forum. Yeh! I know it's not much, but it keeps me buoyant.
In the garden I have constructed a raised garden. I made the sides from woven hazel branches cut from my own tree. I never knew that gardening could be so much pleasure. The daffodils are beginning to show, and a friend here has two in flower. My mimosa tree has survived the frost so far but shows no sign of flowering as yet as all the other mimosa trees I have seen.

Reading Matter

I have recently bought a book which was recommended on someone else's blog. The 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man'. It is really terrifying. I know these terrible things go on but when one reads it in print written by someone with first-hand experience it brings the message home. But what to do about it. He begins by working in Indonesia. an area of the world we hear little about. In the Eighties I campaigned for the Islands southeast of their in the Pacific. I gave talks for an organisation called women Working for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific. I am not sure how effective we were. I have no idea what is happening their today.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

blanks

Why when I am nowhere near the computer do I have brilliant ideas which disappear the second I sit down at the keyboard? I have I think/ hope finished the first chapter of my novel. However, I then pick up a couple of books that I am reading which make my writing seem so bland and lifeless. When I try to insert some colour or action it to me artificially. C'est la vie. Must keep trying. Must make meaning for myself.