News

05/02/2014

THE RICKMANSWORTH WRITER’S GROUP

Hello Readers,

This week, I attended the Rickmansworth Writer’s Group at Costa Coffee – in Rickmansworth. I had always wanted to attend a writing group, so when I saw this group advertised locally, I seized the opportunity. It was wonderful to meet other writers – to share, read and discuss written works.

13/01/2014

MY WRITER’S 2014 DIARY

Today I bought my 2014 Writer’s Diary! I’m a little late in purchasing it, but it’s never too late for us writer’s to get organised! In here I will be plotting out my planned flash fictions, competition entries and assignment deadlines. I plan to set myself writing goals a week in advance (small goals, which step-by-step will lead to those bigger goals – hopefully!)

The diary design is by Bookish Design UK, and a portion of the profits from the diary go to The National Literacy Trust.

The blurb… A book lover’s dream diary, this carefully curated collection of groundbreaking graphic design spans the spectrum of classic covers from antiquarian first edition dust-jackets to pulp fiction paperbacks and everything in between.

Do you have a diary to help you plan your goals?

Alittlebirdtweets is on Facebook! Here I post quotes, news and photo’s!

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06/01/2014

WHAT MADE ME BECOME A WRITER?

The writing seed was planted inside me one rainy Sunday in 2004, while I was relaxing and reading in my ridiculously-small-rented-room in South-East London. I had been browsing the book section of a Croydon charity shop the day before, and had been instantly grabbed by a beautifully dreary front cover, and a sinister title. The book was called ‘Beneath the Skin’ by Nicci French. I had read the premise, test-read a random page (as I always do after plucking a book from the shelf), and had carried it straight to the till.

That Sunday afternoon I had downed numerous cups of tea – the heat of the liquid had fused with the irresistible chill that the pages were breathing into me. I turned page, after page, after page, until I reached the end. My instant thought upon closing the cover was ‘I wish I had written this book.’ Actually, I might have even whispered it aloud into those four walls.

I had fallen asleep that night with the book, the characters whirling around in my mind. The fear, darkness, reality, and loneliness that the book had aroused in me, had had even more effect in the darkness of the night, under the glow of the moon. I knew I would never forget this book. It had created an itch in my heart.

The following day I had been at work. I had clicked Google in my lunch hour. And in the search bar I clicked ‘How to write a novel’.

My obsession had begun.

– – – –

An excerpt from Goodreads;

“When she laughs, she makes a pealing sound, like a doorbell. If I told her I loved her, she would laugh at me like that. She would think I was not serious. That is what women do. They turn what is serious and big into a small thing, a joke. Love is not a joke. It is a matter of life and death. One day, soon, she will understand that.”

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05/01/2014

MY 2014 READING LIST

Hello Readers!

Here is a list of books that I plan to read in 2014.

There is a mix of Inspirational, educational, non-fiction and fiction books in the list, as I like to mix it up!

What do you plan to read this year?

The Power of Now – A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment – by Eckhart Tolle

The God Species – How the planet can survive the age of humans – by Mark Lynas

The Marshall Plan for Getting Your Novel Published – by Evan Marshall

The Writer’s Digest Handbook of Novel Writing – by Tom Clark

Beautiful – by Katie Piper

Trafficked – by Sophie Hayes

The Wild Life – by John Lewis-Stempel

Innocence – by Dean Koontz

The Tiger in the Smoke – by Margery Allingham

Die for You – by Lisa Unger

Black Out – by Lisa Unger

Man and Boy – by Tony Parsons

Death on the Nile – by Agatha Christie

The People Next Door – by Christopher Ransom

Everything’s Eventual – by Stephen King

Never Knowing – by Chevy Stevens

The Double Bind – by Chris Bohjalian

Revolutionary Road – by Richard Yates

Never Tell – by Claire Seeber

Blueeyedboy – by Joanne Harris

The Scold’s Bride – by Minette Walters

The Fifth Victim – by Beverly Barton

The Book of Tomorrow – by Cecelia Ahern

Songbird – by Josephine Cox

A Streetcar Named Desire – by Tennessee Williams

The Cloning of Joanna May – by Fay Weldon

The Year of Magical Thinking – by Joan Didion

Utterly Monkey – by Nick Laird

A Kind of Intimacy – by Jenn Ashworth

All Fur Coat – by Andrew Homes

The Host – by Stephanie Meyer

West End Girls – by Barbara Tate

Call The Midwife – by Jennifer Worth

Northanger Abbey – by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey Study Notes and Exercises on the novel – Rare Pamphlet published 1968

Jo Nesbo The Harry Hole Collection;

The Bat (The First Harry Hole Case)

Cockroaches 1998 (An Early Harry Hole Case)

The Redbreast (Oslo Sequence 1)

Nemesis (Oslo Sequence 2)

The Devil’s Star (Oslo Sequence 3)

The Redeemer (Oslo Sequence 4)

The Snowman (Oslo Sequence 5)

The Leopard (Oslo Sequence 6)

Phantom (Oslo Sequence 7)

Police (Oslo Sequence 8)

Headhunters – Other

Vintage Collection of stories by Robert Louis Stevenson, including;

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Body Snatcher

A Lodging for the Night

Markheim

Thrawn Janet

The Misadventures of John Nicholson

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22/10/2013

CREATIVE WRITING

Hello Readers,

I have set myself a new mini-writing-goal.

From yesterday, and every day hereafter, I will be creating a ‘Creative Writing’ piece; to keep my mind warmed up and my fingers typing! I have created two pieces of writing to date. These have been inspired by photographs (one example shown below) that I snapped over the Summer in my local woodlands – and, which I modified to suit the genres that I write in.

My ‘Creative Writing’ pieces are only available on my ‘Alittlebirdtweets’ Facebook Page.So please come on over and support me The reason for only including my ‘Creative Writing’ on Facebook is so that I can offer my Facebook fans something to read every day, whilst keeping my WordPress blog tidy (for my Flash Fiction).

Thanks for your follows and support!

Have a most excellent day.

Donna x

Example of an image used for a creative writing piece – The Meadows – 2013

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06/10/2013

PHOTO FLASHES

Dear Readers,

Today I have given my ‘Alittlebirdtweets’ Facebook page some much needed love and attention! Up until now, it only received updates via ‘automatic links from posts’ that I made on my blog. But, now I intend to visit this page once a week, with something new to sit alongside these links; whether it be a rambling of my days events, or a newly-discovered inspiration.

I have created a new photo album on my Facebook page titled ‘Photo Flashes’; which will serve as an inspirational gallery for my writings, and also provide readers with a visual insight into the type of things that I ‘see’ when I write. I will likely add a comment of reference to each photo to help explain the reason for its inspiration.

If you would like to follow my ‘Photo Flashes’ album, or any other updates made on my page then please use the following link to ‘like’ my page.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alittlebirdtweets/119259031513618?id=119259031513618&sk=photos_stream

I am always on the lookout for new visual material to spark-off a new story in me. If you have any images that you think I’d like, then please get in touch. Or, if you’d like me to attempt a flash fiction based on a photo then let me know and I’ll see what I can come up with!

Wishing you all a wonderful and inspirational weekend!

Donna x

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01/06/2013

A LITTLE BIRD TWEETS’ FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Well it is a year today since my flash fiction blog ‘a little bird tweets’ began! Where has the time gone?! It seems like only yesterday I was busy experimenting with template designs, customizing; and trying to get that final website design that I thought would visualize and sum up the genre and theme of my future flash-fictions.

The last year has been a wonderfully inspiring journey. I have met some truly gifted people here in the WordPress community; gifted writers, poets and bloggers with so many different styles and ‘ways with words’. It really is a pleasure to be surrounded by a community that not only enlightens me with their reads, but also inspires me to push forward with my own writing. Without WordPress and its community, my writing would feel very empty. So I truly thank you all for having taken the time to visit, read and provide feedback on my work.

This week I have been reading the latest issue of ‘Writers Forum’; and inside was an article on ‘how to publish your own e-book’. My eyes lit up like candles when I first glimpsed the header, as I had never even given this a thought before. Thoughts such as ‘produce a collection of flash-fiction, a short story, a cover design’ started whirling around my head; and they have now found a comfortable dwelling in my mind; and I doubt they are going to be re-possessed anytime soon! So now I am pondering over the idea of creating a collection of flashes; or may be even developing one of my already published WordPress flashes and turning it into a longer ‘short story’. What do you think?

Shall I create an e-book collection of flash fiction. or one short story?
If I were to develop one of my flash fictions into a short story, then which one would you like to know more about? Are there any characters that grabbed or intrigued you that you’d like to see ‘come back to life’?
Shall I create an entirely new story?

I look forward to being inspired by you. With Thanks!

A link to 23 flash fictions that I have created in the past year.

https://alittlebirdtweets.com/flash-fiction-4/

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01/06/2012

HELLO AND WELCOME!

Today (well yesterday now, as its 00:16am!) is a rather special day for two reasons;

1) 100 RPM – an ebook is published and available to buy on Amazon.

2) A Little Bird Tweets blog is launched to the world!

Over the last week, I have been glued to this blog; working on the website design and the static pages content; about me, contact me, published fiction and shop. The numerous design themes that WordPress offer is amazing and I spent a good couple of days playing around with themes, images, headers and backgrounds – it was so much fun! I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised with the overall result, what do you think?

Now that the initial design and page set-up is complete, the next step is to get writing. As you can see, I am yet to post Flash Fiction and Creative Writing posts…BUT I have a few ideas in mind and tomorrow you shall see the first couple of pieces. I am so excited about meeting the WordPress community and sharing thoughts and ideas with like-minded people.

For now, I bid you goodnight!