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Jo’s Journal

Writing Tool Box March 2020

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I wish I had found a vaccine for my toolbox this month. On day 16… or is it 17 of lockdown here in Italy and I’ve found it very difficult to concentrate. In fact, I’ve fallen off my writing stool completely. And this morning we woke to snow. I know it’s Spring but it seems that Mother Nature has a plan.

  • Learn a Language – Easy Italian News: I’m always trying to improve my Italian, which is difficult when we’re on lockdown. Listening is one of the elements I struggle with. This does what it says on the tin, is broadcast four times a week and is relatively short and topical.
  • Writing Competitions – Patsy Collins regularly posts about competitions, usually related to words – which is the theme of her blog. A very useful site. Remember to comment and let her know that you are there!
  • Feedback on Writing – Critique Circle – is a large community of writers of all genres. Amongst other resources and forums you can give and receive feedback on writing – it’s credit based so a very fair system.

Ciao for now…

JoAnna Lamb

My Favourite: Recipe

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JoAnna Lamb

Just because I’m a writer doesn’t mean I don’t love to cook. And food treats can be a big motivation when you’re trying to get things done. Since moving to Italy in 2007, I discovered some of the things I missed about my home country, often involved food. Don’t get me wrong, Italy has some of the greatest cuisine, it’s just those comfort type foods or more international dishes, that I took for granted before.

I’ve also been more adventurous with cooking Italian style and now often make my own pasta rather than buy it pre cooked or dried. The Italians like to take their time with their food. There is no ‘fast’… though pizza is often thought of in that way.

Today I give you… the good old English Crumpet! I love it hot from the grill and slathered with butter. Sometimes with a lick of Marmite or a poached egg… but mainly butter. As I’m not a make it up myself kind of cook, I use the internet a lot to find good recipes and keep them in an app called, The Recipe Keeper funnily enough!

The link to the best recipe I’ve found for crumpets which are light and fluffy is at The Spruce Eats. You have to be brave with adding the liquid and add as much as you can without it getting too thin. It’s a matter of practice. I’ve just about perfected mine as you can see in the picture. And they are so much better than shop bought! Give them a go… you’ll be surprised.

English Crumpets

 

Snippets From. . .My Work In Progress

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I’m spending a lot of my social media time over at Instagram. It’s been my favourite platform for more than a year now and I’ve built up some friendships there. I take part in regular monthly author challenges and this week one of the prompts was #manuscript monday where you share snippets from  your WiP. So though I might share it here and make a regular ‘snippets slot’…

I’ve used a very small section from my NaNo 2019 project which I’ve loosely entitled, The Rainbow Chronicles. I’m planning a series of stories, probably seven in total and the reasons for that I can’t share at the moment! Mostly because I’m still not sure of my approach. I’m very excited about this project. The main character has been haunting my dreams for a long time now and it’s getting time to weave her story. Her name, at the moment, is Rainbow. As you can see, this is all a work in progress.

So enough of my babblings, here is the excerpt…

 

 

Wolf Moon: Out Now!

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Wolf Moon

My first fantasy novella, Wolf Moon is released today in e-book format. It’s also the birthday of my most beautiful granddaughter, Caitlin, to whom I’ve dedicated this book.

I’ve been working for the past year on making a space for my new writing persona, and this will be the first of many fantasy based stories. I have so many ideas, it’s wonderful to escape into a world of my own making and create characters that I both love and hate at the same time! I’m already working on the second ‘Moon’ based book which I plan to publish towards the end of the year.

Three Moons
Two Worlds
One Legacy

Xanthe has no idea what a Moon Princess is never mind The Book of Words.
All Xanthe has ever wanted is to meet the mother who abandoned her at the Wishing Well Centre. On the fifteenth anniversary of that date she finds herself up a tree talking to a white peacock and receives her first ever present. A map of portals.
Aided by her best and only friend, Kit, she arrives on the Kingdom of Selene. The Season of the Three Moons is nigh and as the Moon Princess, Ayla she must free the Moon People from the evil grasps of the dryad, Toovah.
Will Xanthe be able to complete the challenges set for her and defeat the evil Toovah? Does she want to? And will she finally meet the mother she dreams of?

Wolf Moon

 

Hello March

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JoAnna Lamb

If you read my last post you know I’ve been re-thinking my blog. I’ve kind of missed it to be honest and I had a great response to the post so it’s renewed my confidence. I’ve had a bit of a website spring clean and updated things a little and am planning more posts.

In the mean time, here is a potted history of last month @JoAnna Lamb…

Where I’ve Been @…

@ The Desk as I said I’ve been busy editing and proofing Wolf Moon and it’s finally finished. Publication date is the 8th March (yes, Mimosa day but also the birthday of my granddaughter to whom the book I’ve dedicated the book). Check out my Library for more information and a link to buy. I’ll be concentrating my marketing efforts on Amazon ads.

@The Reading Table For a large part of last year, I struggled with reading books. I’m not sure why, but I’m back on form now. I’ve signed up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge (you can follow me here and I’ll return the favour). Just finished Book 1 of The Witcher series, I know it’s on TV but I wanted to read the book first before seeing it. I’ve just begun Blackbirch, by K.M.Allen an author I met on Instagram.

@The Goggle Box We always watch more TV in the winter months, but this year  has been different, with the Spring-like temperatures and sunny days. I’m still in hibernation! However, Sundays we dedicate to a film (when the Rugby Six Nations or F1 isn’t on). Last month we watched The Rocket Man. Loved it and I was singing along to all the songs. In fact it’s the second time I’ve watched it!

@Home Our menagerie continues to keep us entertained. Our latest arrivals Bubble and Squeak are very cheeky with their feline elders but tend to get away with it! We have seven cats, three dogs and three chickens at the last count. Wouldn’t be without them…

@Other Places I continue to frequent Instagram, my favourite platform and have met some wonderful writers and readers. If you have an account, do let me know so I can follow you. I post weekly quotes and writing prompts, amongst other images, mainly cats and dogs! Here is a favourite, featuring, Pootie our earthquake kittie, who could just be the one snoozing in the chair in this posts graphic above!

JoAnna Lamb

 

To Blog or Not to Blog?

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JoAnna Lamb

As it’s the start of a New Year, I’ve been reviewing the things I’ve done in the last year. And one of those things has been my blog – or journal as I prefer to call it. Since I created my website in January 2019 I’ve written 54 posts and managed to keep on top of it with the help of Later, a scheduling programme.  I’ve deliberately not written any ‘How To’ blogs as I feel the market is saturated with advice. I have written about things that have worked for me, things I struggle with, my process for writing and editing and shared my plans, reading and progress. However, I’ve had 8 comments in that time, three of which were mine and a shed load of spam comments which have been caught by the site inbuilt filter. Not a great return in my book. But I don’t know that many writers blog very successfully. Maybe it’s just not for everyone.

“Blogs are whatever we make them. Defining ‘Blog’ is a fool’s errand.” Michael Conniff

On the other hand, I’ve been working on my Instagram profile and putting a lot of effort into building up my connections with readers and writers alike, as well as attracting some of the more unsuitable followers who are quickly removed from my list. I started off with 30 followers last January, most of them family and friends and as of today I have 1114 followers, some of whom I communicate with on a regular basis. I’ve posted on an average of three times a week, sometimes more but never less, and had many engagements with writers and readers. Again, I’ve managed to maintain this commitment with the help of Later, but I also post random photo’s as I see fit.

 

If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?

 

So this year, I’ve decided to reduce my blog/journal posts to one a month, a kind of summary and post the kind of stuff I used to blog about on Instagram. It seems to me that the time of the blog may well be taking second place to other social media platforms, like Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter where the posts are snappier and therefore more accessible. I may be wrong of course but I know myself, that I’m unsubscribing from a lot of newsletters and blogs because I prefer the medium of visual and written information and Instagram and Pinterest provide that for me.

So what about you? If you’ve even read to the end of this relatively short piece, do you blog and if so what kind of results have you seen? Do you see it as a chore or as just one of the tasks that is essential for a writer? I’d be interested to hear your views.