Sunday, February 28, 2010

Fiona Robyn's "Thaw"! FREE Online Novel!


My name is Ruth. This is my story.‏


From: Fiona Robyn (fiona@fionarobyn.ccsend.com) on behalf of Fiona Robyn (fiona@fionarobyn.com) http://www.plantingwords.com/ http://twitter.com/readthaw
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thaw
 Monday the 1st of March, 2010





Greetings!



Meet Ruth. She doesn't know if she wants to carry on living or not, and she gives herself three months to decide. Her diary is my novel, Thaw, and you can read it for FREE, beginning today.

Why am I giving a novel away for free? Because I am a writer, and I want to share my characters and their stories with as many people as possible. And maybe, if you enjoy it, you might want to read more of my books.

Become a follower of the blog page now. Follow on Twitter. Join the Facebook page. Forward this email to your novel-reading friends. Thank you.



Over to Ruth.

These hands are ninety-three years old. They belong to Charlotte Marie Bradley Miller. She was so frail that her grand-daughter had to carry her onto the set to take this photo. It's a close-up. Her emaciated arms emerge from the top corners of the photo and the background is black, maybe velvet, as if we're being protected from seeing the strings. One wrist rests on the other, and her fingers hang loose, close together, a pair of folded wings. And you can see her insides.

The bones of her knuckles bulge out of the skin, which sags like plastic that has melted in the sun and is dripping off her, wrinkling and folding. Her veins look as though they're stuck to the outside of her hands. They're a colour that's difficult to describe: blue, but also silver, green; her blood runs through them, close to the surface. The book says she died shortly after they took this picture. Did she even get to see it? Maybe it was the last beautiful thing she left in the world.

I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to carry on living. I'm giving myself three months of this journal to decide. You might think that sounds melodramatic, but I don't think I'm alone in wondering whether it's all worth it. I've seen the look in people's eyes. Stiff suits travelling to work, morning after morning, on the cramped and humid tube. Tarted-up girls and gangs of boys reeking of aftershave, reeling on the pavements on a Friday night, trying to mop up the dreariness of their week with one desperate, fake-happy night. I've heard the weary grief in my dad's voice.

So where do I start with all this? What do you want to know about me? I'm Ruth White, thirty-two years old, going on a hundred. I live alone with no boyfriend and no cat in a tiny flat in central London. In fact, I had a non-relationship with a man at work, Dan, for seven years. I'm sitting in my bedroom-cum-living room right now, looking up every so often at the thin rain slanting across a flat grey sky. I work in a city hospital lab as a microbiologist. My dad is an accountant and lives with his sensible second wife Julie, in a sensible second home. Mother finished dying when I was fourteen, three years after her first diagnosis. What else? What else is there?

Charlotte Marie Bradley Miller. I looked at her hands for twelve minutes. It was odd describing what I was seeing in words. Usually the picture just sits inside my head and I swish it around like tasting wine. I have huge books all over my flat - books you have to take in both hands to lift. I've had the photo habit for years. Mother bought me my first book, black and white landscapes by Ansel Adams. When she got really ill, I used to take it to bed with me and look at it for hours, concentrating on the huge trees, the still water, the never-ending skies. I suppose it helped me think about something other than what was happening. I learned to focus on one photo at a time rather than flicking from scene to scene in search of something to hold me. If I concentrate, then everything stands still. Although I use them to escape the world, I also think they bring me closer to it. I've still got that book. When I take it out, I handle the pages as though they might flake into dust.

Mother used to write a journal. When I was small, I sat by her bed in the early mornings on a hard chair and looked at her face as her pen spat out sentences in short bursts. I imagined what she might have been writing about - princesses dressed in star-patterned silk, talking horses, adventures with pirates. More likely she was writing about what she was going to cook for dinner and how irritating Dad's snoring was.

I've always wanted to write my own journal, and this is my chance. Maybe my last chance. The idea is that every night for three months, I'll take one of these heavy sheets of pure white paper, rough under my fingertips, and fill it up on both sides. If my suicide note is nearly a hundred pages long, then no-one can accuse me of not thinking it through. No-one can say, 'It makes no sense; she was a polite, cheerful girl, had everything to live for,' before adding that I did keep myself to myself. It'll all be here. I'm using a silver fountain pen with purple ink. A bit flamboyant for me, I know. I need these idiosyncratic rituals; they hold things in place. Like the way I make tea, squeezing the tea-bag three times, the exact amount of milk, seven stirs. My writing is small and neat; I'm striping the paper. I'm near the bottom of the page now. Only ninety-one more days to go before I'm allowed to make my decision. That's it for today. It's begun.

Continue reading here. Follow on Twitter. Join the Facebook page. Help me spread the word and forward this email to your friends! Thank you!


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Warmest wishes,

Fiona Robyn

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www.fionarobyn.com

Musical Monday-What Moves You?

Trace Adkins Moves Me!

True Blue Monday




TRUE BLUE MONDAY



Gather round, gang! I've decided to start a Monday meme!


Rules for "True Blue Monday" meme:


1. Post a photo representing the theme. You can put your own interpretative spin on the theme. For example:You believe that a dog is your true blue friend. Post a picture of your dog. Or you have a beautiful blue porch swing that you love to rock on. Post a photo of your swing. It's up to you!

2. This can be one single photo or a series of photos; one's you've taken yourself or those from a media site such as Photobucket.com.

3. If you would like to participate please email me at ladyhightower@live.com to be added to my posted list.


Here's My Photo

True Blue Friends

Macro Monday


Mellow Yellow Monday

MellowYellowBadge

Friday, February 26, 2010

Color Carnival

The Greens...Saturday Meme

Green is the color of renewal, of beginning, of making a fresh start. I have always loved the color green and I've been searching for a meme using this wonderful hue. I really couldn't find one so I'll try it myself.

Here are the rules.



1. Post a photo representing the theme. You can put your own interpretative spin on the theme. After all-green is green. But with a myriad of shades and variations.


2. This can be one single photo or a series of photos; one's you've taken yourself or those from a media site such as Photobucket.com.


3. Grab the URL to your "The Greens..." post and come back here to enter it into my MckLinky. Please take a minute to leave a comment!





Here's my photo!

Then Sings My Soul Saturday-I Cross My Heart

My husband, Ron, sang this song as an anniversary gift for his parents several years before he died. On Ron's first birthday after his death, I renewed my vows to him and his parents gifted me with this song. I hope it touches your heart as much as it touches mine.


Pink Saturday

Stop and Smell the Chocolate Friday-Chocolate Ice Cream & Oreos

Chocolate Ice Cream Pictures, Images and Photos

Find Me Friday

Friday Follow!

Friday Follow





Welcome to the Seventh Friday Follow celebration hosted by One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families and Midday Escapades! We invite you to join us every Friday to get more blog followers and to follow other interesting blogs. It is all about sharing and having fun.





Here's how YOU can join the celebration:

•* Link up your blog name and URL using the MckLinky below. Only need to add on one blog to be seen on all the blog hops.

•* Follow the Friday Follow hostesses listed in the first 3 slots.

•* Follow as many blogs as you like

•* Comment on the blogs telling them you're from Friday Follow

•* Follow back when you get a new follower through Friday Follow

The Blog Hop is the same at each of our three hosts blogs so you do not have to add your blog at each site. Just one - but you can follow each blog. Follow a few or follow them all.



The list is new each week. The links do not carry over. Please link up each week for new participants to find your blogs. The list is only open to add your blog links on Fridays. It will be visible all week to visit the blogs listedFriday Follow Blog Hop #7


Hosted by Rita @ One 2 Try Tami @ Hearts Make Families and Lynn @ Midday Escapades . Join us every Friday as we celebrate followers! Link up your blog name and URL below to follow and be followed!


MckLinky Blog Hop

Thursday, February 25, 2010

A Gaggle of...A Pride of...A Cloud of...A Swarm of...Friday Meme

Welcome to My Meme! Welcome to My Meme! Welcome to My Meme!






This one is a little different and I challenge you to participate! Each Friday I will announce a different theme for the following week. So, you may ask, what are the themes about? Look closely at the picture in my above badge. Do you see a school of goldfish? This week's theme is:


A Pride of...


There are several things that may fit here. I'm sure you'll catch on. We're working on names of groups of people, animals, things, insects, etc. Technically known as a COLLECTIVE NOUN. Check out my photo below if you need a hint!

Now all you have to do is post a photo on your blog, grab my badge so I know you're participating and come back here and place your POST URL into MckLinky!

Photos can be your own or from an image site like FLICKR or PHOTOBUCKET. Please identify those that aren't your own 'cause I'm going to have some contests periodically!

Now let's see what you can do!


My Photo!  A Pride of...

Sunday, February 21, 2010



ladyhightower@live.com




TRUE BLUE MONDAY


Gather round, gang! I've decided to start a Monday meme!



Rules for "True Blue Monday" meme:



1. Post a photo representing the theme. You can put your own interpretative spin on the theme. For example:You believe that a dog is your true blue friend. Post a picture of your dog. Or you have a beautiful blue porch swing that you love to rock on. Post a photo of your swing. It's up to you!


2. This can be one single photo or a series of photos; one's you've taken yourself or those from a media site such as Photobucket.com.


3. If you would like to participate please email me at ladyhightower@live.com to be added to my posted list.


My Photo

Mosaic Monday-Balloons

The home of Mosaic Monday is the Little Red House. Click here to sign the Mr. Linky! http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/

Mellow Yellow Monday

MellowYellowBadge

The Memes I've Loved Before

Welcome to Ladyhightower's Meme Castle!
Ladyhightower's Castle for Memes is a safe haven where memes are invited to stay in order to rest but they rarely decide to leave. Life here in Ladyhightower's Great Hall is good for a meme, with peace and quiet and friends to play checkers with...