Happy Easter

I hope you are enjoying a full and glorious morning as I am. Once again, apologies for being a blog slacker. Blogs happen in my head, but don't always fly as far as the computer. And in the week ahead I'm not promising anything as I gear up for a very important and thrilling event: the celebratory launch for my book 'Cape Town'.

Celebrations, whether they be of such vitally-significant festivals as that of Easter, or simply of the smaller joys and milestones in our lives, are really important. Over the years I kind of let that awareness slip but have now come to a new appreciation and try to mark them more consciously.

Like the majority of writers and others who pursue an artistic career, my path has been strewn with rejections letter.  On Saturday, it'll be strewn with roses. Figuratively speaking, anyhow.

Can similes and adverbs survive?

I know, I know... I've been a blog slacker. But that wasn't my intention. It was all (or partly) due to living off the grid for five weeks. Now I'm back in the land of easy electricity, and here I am, on your screen again.

A while back, when Nathan Bransford was still agenting and blogging regularly about writing matters, he proclaimed that one simile per book was all he 'allowed'. Confession: my pre-order-on-Amazon-and Barnes and Noble etc. new book 'Cape Town' contains many similes.

Now, when my husband and I arrived at Auckland airport we picked up a magazine entitled, appropriately, Arrival. Yes, there were special offers, discounts, and ads, but we also found the pages a useful source of inspiration. What struck me immediately was an ad for a mobile phone network (I believe) that proclaimed 'Sweet As'. And that was it. This truncated figure of speech was confirmed by my daughter as being current in New Zealand. So you don't even need to think of a simile or a cliche but can say 'Hot As', 'Cold As' or whatever you like.

Hmmm.

Driving those bendy but picturesque roads, we passed many signs admonishing us to 'Drive Safe'. Well, that takes care of those writing 'rules' that proclaim you should only use words ending in 'ly very, very sparingly.

Then we passed a new sign that said 'Drive Safely'. Truth to tell, I felt like raising a cheer.

Waiting for the hip hop...er, make that 'op'

'Tis a not-so-well-known fact that many hours of intensive ballet will mean bad hips in later life. So far, fortunately, I only have one. Which is strange and I haven't quite accounted for that.

Next month it will be a year of mobility deterioration for me. Fortunately, I have no problem sitting at the computer, and so, much writing has been done. Nevertheless, the 17 year old heroine of my upcoming novel 'Cape Town' is a dance student. If you haven't taken a look at my website yet, go there tonight because I'll be putting up a new post. http://www.brendahammond.ca

And, if you really want, you can 'like' my author page on facebook.

Very very soon I'll have my cover image to share.

Enough already!

My main thought around all this preamble is that I'm having to learn to switch hands. When I go downstairs, cups, mugs and glasses have to be held in the right instead of the left so that I can clutch onto the bannister. Now, I know from Dr. Rudolf Steiner and Dr. Maoshing Ni that changing a habit such as this is strengthening for the life forces.

Yes folks, there's always a way to make lemonade.