Ok, just a quick update to apologise for my silence as I have been away for two weeks!
When I say away, what I really mean is camping in rural scotland in the middle of a field of sheep, walking a ridiculously long way ( 10 miles a day) building a campfire ( watching some-one else do it) riding a quad bike ( again some-one else drove) and cooking ostrich burgers!
I then touched base at Newcastle for a day, during which time I signed to a free lance writing website ( and have been accepted) as well as getting my self a job as a waitress.
Then drove to France with the family - which was like hell on legs. Honestly keeping sane was like trying to hitch hike a lift off Father Christmas in summer and quite frankly 5 of us in the same car is a torture method that should be used in guantanamo bay.
I didn't get to see much of France during the day time as I was working on some articles - pets, adventure holidays and DIY pampering all to follow over the coming weeks - but I did manage to find the time to sample the local cuisine of crepes and escargots ( snails.)
Yum - but not to be eaten at the same time.
My latest articles on colouring and eye creams is currently online at www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk.
Am also planning on harrassing some more publications to get stuff printed so ...
Stay tuned and keep reading
Lucinda - A
xxx
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
The First Failure
I shall keep it brief for I am suffering a great sadness which threatens to submerge me in the dark waters of my own self pity and soon I fear I shall drown in the halo of my own misery - for I have hit my first stumbling block and it feels like a knife cutting my heart in two. Yes my dear readers - I have had my first rejection.
Of course I am being somewhat dramatic, of this I am fully aware and - no - before you ask I am not planning on topping myself, but as they say rejection is a very bitter pill to swallow.
Yes that's right the ideastap columnist contest has been judged an I, unfortunately, did not win.
I didn't expect to either, but seeing it there in black or white ( or not seeing it as the case may be) is always somewhat of a dissappointment. Still... no resentment (well a tiny bit) ... and I am sure that the best man/woman won.
Next time this competition arises perhaps I should submit something a little more readership orientated than a rant against weight.
Still, from this there is only one lesson that can be learnt ( unless the person currently reading this is the winner in which case congrats and good luck) and that is that the old saying 'if at first you don't suceed try and try again' definitely applies in the creative world. Despite this setback being somewhat disheartening, it has only further encouraged me in my endevours to prove my worth.
Yes I know, big words from some-one so small.
With this in mind I have applied for work experience within the BBC Holby City script department. The form has been filled out - tomorrow is the grammar check and then it gets sent away.
Perhaps I should also get a head start on ideas for the next columnist competition
Who knows?
Stay tuned and keep reading
Lucinda-A
xxx
Of course I am being somewhat dramatic, of this I am fully aware and - no - before you ask I am not planning on topping myself, but as they say rejection is a very bitter pill to swallow.
Yes that's right the ideastap columnist contest has been judged an I, unfortunately, did not win.
I didn't expect to either, but seeing it there in black or white ( or not seeing it as the case may be) is always somewhat of a dissappointment. Still... no resentment (well a tiny bit) ... and I am sure that the best man/woman won.
Next time this competition arises perhaps I should submit something a little more readership orientated than a rant against weight.
Still, from this there is only one lesson that can be learnt ( unless the person currently reading this is the winner in which case congrats and good luck) and that is that the old saying 'if at first you don't suceed try and try again' definitely applies in the creative world. Despite this setback being somewhat disheartening, it has only further encouraged me in my endevours to prove my worth.
Yes I know, big words from some-one so small.
With this in mind I have applied for work experience within the BBC Holby City script department. The form has been filled out - tomorrow is the grammar check and then it gets sent away.
Perhaps I should also get a head start on ideas for the next columnist competition
Who knows?
Stay tuned and keep reading
Lucinda-A
xxx
UFO's - :S
Yes, dear readers...or reader as appears to be the case... I have indeed been writing about the presence of UFO's. Unfortunately for all the trekkies out there, these were not of the extra-terrestrial kind.
It appears that some kind of unidntified floating object has been found lurking amongst the murky waters of the Thames and I had to write it up as part of my contribution to http://www.easyhotelbreaks.com/leisuredaily . It is suspected that this object is either a piece of Old London Bridge, or a present lovingly given to our nation by the luftwaffe during the second world war. I highly doubt it is a Dalek space craft or anything.
Other contributions to this website include the resignation of flight attendant Steven Slater ( if you don't know what I mean, then where have you been?) and why you should never pour an Argentinian's wine backwards.
Have also been beavvering away with my www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk articles since I am soon to go on holiday. All my deadlines appear to be while I am away, so everything needs to be done and dusted with images and formatting before I head off!
I have also tried emailing editors of magazines to see whether any-one would be interested in publishing my Feminism: the modern day myth article. I've told them I don't need to be paid, but they haven't got back to me yet - but I will persevere.
I have plenty online magazine experience with my contributions to Leisure Daily and internship at Daisy Green, but feel in order to get into journalism as a career I will need more experience in printed publications.
Of course I will submit articles to the University newspaper The Courier and have another week scheduled in at The Chronicle, but I need a wider range of experience to get ahead in the game.
As well as all of this, I am trying to get a head start on my university work. This is me being efficient - something I'm going to need to do if I am to do both the final year of my degree and an internship as well as other pieces of writing in the sam year. I have finally decided upon a title for my research essay :
'Discuss the portrayal of gender within children's literature pre-1939. What impact does this have on the way in which characters interact with both one another, and the world around them'
So as you can see, I have been a busy bee, which is why you have been deprived of my wit, my charms and my good grace!
Still once I return, you shall have my undivided attention
Stay tuned and keep reading
Lucinda - A
xxx
It appears that some kind of unidntified floating object has been found lurking amongst the murky waters of the Thames and I had to write it up as part of my contribution to http://www.easyhotelbreaks.com/leisuredaily . It is suspected that this object is either a piece of Old London Bridge, or a present lovingly given to our nation by the luftwaffe during the second world war. I highly doubt it is a Dalek space craft or anything.
Other contributions to this website include the resignation of flight attendant Steven Slater ( if you don't know what I mean, then where have you been?) and why you should never pour an Argentinian's wine backwards.
Have also been beavvering away with my www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk articles since I am soon to go on holiday. All my deadlines appear to be while I am away, so everything needs to be done and dusted with images and formatting before I head off!
I have also tried emailing editors of magazines to see whether any-one would be interested in publishing my Feminism: the modern day myth article. I've told them I don't need to be paid, but they haven't got back to me yet - but I will persevere.
I have plenty online magazine experience with my contributions to Leisure Daily and internship at Daisy Green, but feel in order to get into journalism as a career I will need more experience in printed publications.
Of course I will submit articles to the University newspaper The Courier and have another week scheduled in at The Chronicle, but I need a wider range of experience to get ahead in the game.
As well as all of this, I am trying to get a head start on my university work. This is me being efficient - something I'm going to need to do if I am to do both the final year of my degree and an internship as well as other pieces of writing in the sam year. I have finally decided upon a title for my research essay :
'Discuss the portrayal of gender within children's literature pre-1939. What impact does this have on the way in which characters interact with both one another, and the world around them'
So as you can see, I have been a busy bee, which is why you have been deprived of my wit, my charms and my good grace!
Still once I return, you shall have my undivided attention
Stay tuned and keep reading
Lucinda - A
xxx
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
The War Against Weight ( or lack of it)
Sitting in Costa Coffee one tuesday afternoon drinking a latte ( full fat, none of this skinny stuff) I found myself drifting in and out of a conversation taking place between my friends sitting beside me who were, as we women tend to do, moaning about various things.
"I'm too skinny" my first friend complained
"You are, but you should count your self lucky" replied the second brandishing a low-carb, sugar free and probably very tasteless snack in the air "I would kill to have that problem"
With that all talk of weight gain ceased and the horrors of dieting dominated the conversation.
To me, there is something inherently disturbing about this. Had my first friend been moaning that she were too fat, our natural instinct would have been to shower her in platitudes such as "you look great," "guys love curves" and "you look amazing." Yet here she was expressing a genuine concern she had with her own body and neither of us were taking her very seriously. In my mind this raised a question - why is it more socially acceptable to reproach people for being too skinny than for being too fat?
I myself have been beaten with both ends of the stick. At 18, I left school 5 foot tall weighing only 7 stone 7, but by the time two years had passed, having grown only half an inch, I was 10 stone 7. In my teenage years, people had constantly been moaning that I was too skinny, and yet in my early 20's if I one mentioned the weight I had so clearly gained, people would automatically start telling me how great I looked!
The problem is, that in a world like ours we often under appreciate the plight of the poor skinny girl. It is often assumed that since male and female models on the catwalk, many of whom have not had a deccent meal since they hit 12, are seen as the pinnacle of beauty by the fashion industry, that as a consequence any-one who is thin is beautiful.
In today's world, too much emphasis is placed upon these warped and restrained ideals of what men and women should and shouldn't look like. Nowadays thanks to our consumerist and materialistic life style, beauty is inexplicibly linked with happiness in our minds. As the models on the catwalk hurtle further and further towards size 0, the consequences have devestating pshycological effects on the way we view skinny people - beautiful and happy. This is rarely the case.
Of course those who are overweight do not suffer from this!
This attitude is then perhaps somewhat ironic. Many of the girls who suffer from low self-esteem due to their lack of weight can do very little about fixing their problem. Often those who suffer from a little excess baggage can.
Diets are very hard work, I know this from personal experience and it is true, that some girls pile on the pounds more easily than others - but ultimately there is a simple formula to losing weight. Cut the calories and increase the exercise.
More often than not, girls such as my previously referred to skinny friend ( who has tried eating like a horse, but hasn't gained a pound) have been skinny children, skinny teenagers and will most probably be skinny adults, despite having an overwhelming desire not to be - and they hate it!
As a society surely we should not be fuelling these insecurities by blurting them out in public? Surely we should not be criticising these people who are just victims of circumstance? It does not matter whether skinny or fat, telling a girl, boy, man or woman that they are "too" anything suggests you think them inadequate or even worse, abnormal.
Is this what we really believe?
(article entered for ideastap columnist competition)
"I'm too skinny" my first friend complained
"You are, but you should count your self lucky" replied the second brandishing a low-carb, sugar free and probably very tasteless snack in the air "I would kill to have that problem"
With that all talk of weight gain ceased and the horrors of dieting dominated the conversation.
To me, there is something inherently disturbing about this. Had my first friend been moaning that she were too fat, our natural instinct would have been to shower her in platitudes such as "you look great," "guys love curves" and "you look amazing." Yet here she was expressing a genuine concern she had with her own body and neither of us were taking her very seriously. In my mind this raised a question - why is it more socially acceptable to reproach people for being too skinny than for being too fat?
I myself have been beaten with both ends of the stick. At 18, I left school 5 foot tall weighing only 7 stone 7, but by the time two years had passed, having grown only half an inch, I was 10 stone 7. In my teenage years, people had constantly been moaning that I was too skinny, and yet in my early 20's if I one mentioned the weight I had so clearly gained, people would automatically start telling me how great I looked!
The problem is, that in a world like ours we often under appreciate the plight of the poor skinny girl. It is often assumed that since male and female models on the catwalk, many of whom have not had a deccent meal since they hit 12, are seen as the pinnacle of beauty by the fashion industry, that as a consequence any-one who is thin is beautiful.
In today's world, too much emphasis is placed upon these warped and restrained ideals of what men and women should and shouldn't look like. Nowadays thanks to our consumerist and materialistic life style, beauty is inexplicibly linked with happiness in our minds. As the models on the catwalk hurtle further and further towards size 0, the consequences have devestating pshycological effects on the way we view skinny people - beautiful and happy. This is rarely the case.
Of course those who are overweight do not suffer from this!
This attitude is then perhaps somewhat ironic. Many of the girls who suffer from low self-esteem due to their lack of weight can do very little about fixing their problem. Often those who suffer from a little excess baggage can.
Diets are very hard work, I know this from personal experience and it is true, that some girls pile on the pounds more easily than others - but ultimately there is a simple formula to losing weight. Cut the calories and increase the exercise.
More often than not, girls such as my previously referred to skinny friend ( who has tried eating like a horse, but hasn't gained a pound) have been skinny children, skinny teenagers and will most probably be skinny adults, despite having an overwhelming desire not to be - and they hate it!
As a society surely we should not be fuelling these insecurities by blurting them out in public? Surely we should not be criticising these people who are just victims of circumstance? It does not matter whether skinny or fat, telling a girl, boy, man or woman that they are "too" anything suggests you think them inadequate or even worse, abnormal.
Is this what we really believe?
(article entered for ideastap columnist competition)
Nose to the Grind stone
I can safely say that I have successfully managed to forget what it is like to feel the sun's rays dancing across my face. This is because, over the past three days I have not left the house. My skin, once a whiter shade of pale appears to have changed colour to a paler shade of death and after years of wishing they would do so - my freckles have all but dissappeared. Before to long I know I shall find myself pagued with rickets or scurvy ( whichever illness it is that is derivitive from a lack of vitamin D).
Of course, the silver lining is this : I will not at any time soon be dying of skin cancer.
So what have I been doing? I hear you ask. I have been writing an article for my internship, which will be online some time next week discussing colouring for various complexions and have also been researching my next article on organic pet supplies. I know it does not sound like ground breaking stuff, but it is actually quite interesting and anyway its a start.
I also entered the ideastap columnist competition with my article which is to follow soon, and have been working on a story for the ideastap editors brief. I won't put it on here though, but once my online portfolio is up and running, you should be able to see a copy there.
I'm also looking for freelance journalism work on various websites which will pay me - as I have no money what so ever and an overdraft that seems to get bigger and bigger by the second.
If I don't get something soon, I shall have to revert to the evils of ebay.
So all in all, my day will have not been of very much interest to you, but I still thought I should comment upon it as hopefully, todays work, may result in something good.
Stay tuned and keep reading
Lucinda-A
xxx
Of course, the silver lining is this : I will not at any time soon be dying of skin cancer.
So what have I been doing? I hear you ask. I have been writing an article for my internship, which will be online some time next week discussing colouring for various complexions and have also been researching my next article on organic pet supplies. I know it does not sound like ground breaking stuff, but it is actually quite interesting and anyway its a start.
I also entered the ideastap columnist competition with my article which is to follow soon, and have been working on a story for the ideastap editors brief. I won't put it on here though, but once my online portfolio is up and running, you should be able to see a copy there.
I'm also looking for freelance journalism work on various websites which will pay me - as I have no money what so ever and an overdraft that seems to get bigger and bigger by the second.
If I don't get something soon, I shall have to revert to the evils of ebay.
So all in all, my day will have not been of very much interest to you, but I still thought I should comment upon it as hopefully, todays work, may result in something good.
Stay tuned and keep reading
Lucinda-A
xxx
Monday, 9 August 2010
The First Steps
When I was six years old I had my first poem published in a magazine. When I say magazine, I mean my primary school magazine which consisted of 8 pieces of A4 paper stapled together with the school's logo stamped on the front and forcibly handed out to every parent that set foot through the school gates. To my six year old self, this was a monumental occassion and I can remember the moment as if it were yesterday. The poem, believe it or not, started thus:
"All kind of pets
visit the vets
These pets are ill
Some need a pill..."
You get the picture? Still, of everything I have written, these words still remain the closest to my heart. To me they are more important than the words of Wilde, Shakespeare, Shelley, Ruskin,Tennyson or Atwood, for it was these words, typed in pt. 10 times new roman on crisp white paper that started my love affair with writing.
Over the many years (16 now in total since the first poem) my grandmother has collected my scribbles. Whereas my mother kept the paintings of our hands, our locks of hair, first teeth and repulsive Christmas decorations made out of empty toilet roll tubes, my grandmother has horded my words and locked them away somewhere in a drawer upstairs. Occassionally she will remind me of this, declaring that they are her pension, that one day they might actually be worth something, which is codswollop. I have read these poems and they range from being the juvenile words of a child who knows very little about life, to the narcissistic rantings of a teenager who thought the world was against her.
Still when all is said and done - it is nice that she has a little faith!
It was poetry at first, and poetry it remained for a very long time untill I hit 16, when I dipped my toe into the waters of the short story. After reams and reams of short fiction had been written ( and I realised that this was not where the money lay) I progressed to trying to write a novel, and more reccently have found that my talents actually lie in theatre and Tv scripts. In 2008, my short play The Constant Companion was performed by the University Drama Society at the prestigious Northern Stage. It was then that I realised that whether it were poetry, prose, shorts or scripts - I had fallen in love with writing.
However I am not stupid. I do not have romantic ideals about what a writers life is like. I know it will not all be sitting around in isolated cafes pondering the meaning of life in order to write a great masterpiece. Far from it. Writing is hard work with little financial reward and I am very much aware that in order to sustain myself financially ( for I can't continue to sponge off my parents forever) that I would need to find what is commonly referred to as a 'proper job.'
So, I flitted with the ideas of many different careers, speech therapy, lawyer, pshycology, teacher, lawyer again ( my mother was really keen on the lawyer idea) but none of these ever evoked in me the same passion as writing did, until some-one suggested journalism.
I had thought about journalism before, but had dismissed the idea because I did not have the required experience, and there seemed to be a distinct lack of oppurtunities. My sixth form newspaper came out twice a year, but was more of a Christian newsletter than something which contained anything of real substance. I had contributed articles to the university magazine, but this was never going to be enough to compete with the thousands of students graduating with journalism degrees ( mine is only in english) who had been editors and sub editors of their student publications and probably had contacts already in the industry!
More reccently though, my luck seems to have changed! Last March, I secured week long placement with Trinity Mirror and have another one coming up in November. Likewise one of my fantastic friends came to me with the details of an online fashion magazine www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk set up by two womem who were passionate about being both fashionable and ethical at the same time. After emailing and meeting with the editor Sallyanne I was offered a years placement (albeit unpaid) with the magazine.
With this placement (which I LOVE), my contributions to The Sun, The Chronicle and The Newcastle Courier, a short play and a song which reached the semi finals of the UK songwriting contest all securely tucked away in my back pocket, I am taking my first steps to making writing, of any sort, my main source of income!
Personally for me, these oppurtunities are a dream come true. Of course I do not expect things to be easy - far from it. The work will be hard, and I will need much more experience before I get anywhere, which is one of the reasons for setting up this blog. I also know that I will need to find a way of standing out from all the other writers and journalist wannabe's and so have cajoled my lovely friend into hooking me up with an online portfolio to promote my work.
This is all in the process of being set up and pretty soon I hope to have the portfolio linked to my blog and face book account ( and vice versa) - so stay tuned and keep reading
Lucinda-A
xxx
"All kind of pets
visit the vets
These pets are ill
Some need a pill..."
You get the picture? Still, of everything I have written, these words still remain the closest to my heart. To me they are more important than the words of Wilde, Shakespeare, Shelley, Ruskin,Tennyson or Atwood, for it was these words, typed in pt. 10 times new roman on crisp white paper that started my love affair with writing.
Over the many years (16 now in total since the first poem) my grandmother has collected my scribbles. Whereas my mother kept the paintings of our hands, our locks of hair, first teeth and repulsive Christmas decorations made out of empty toilet roll tubes, my grandmother has horded my words and locked them away somewhere in a drawer upstairs. Occassionally she will remind me of this, declaring that they are her pension, that one day they might actually be worth something, which is codswollop. I have read these poems and they range from being the juvenile words of a child who knows very little about life, to the narcissistic rantings of a teenager who thought the world was against her.
Still when all is said and done - it is nice that she has a little faith!
It was poetry at first, and poetry it remained for a very long time untill I hit 16, when I dipped my toe into the waters of the short story. After reams and reams of short fiction had been written ( and I realised that this was not where the money lay) I progressed to trying to write a novel, and more reccently have found that my talents actually lie in theatre and Tv scripts. In 2008, my short play The Constant Companion was performed by the University Drama Society at the prestigious Northern Stage. It was then that I realised that whether it were poetry, prose, shorts or scripts - I had fallen in love with writing.
However I am not stupid. I do not have romantic ideals about what a writers life is like. I know it will not all be sitting around in isolated cafes pondering the meaning of life in order to write a great masterpiece. Far from it. Writing is hard work with little financial reward and I am very much aware that in order to sustain myself financially ( for I can't continue to sponge off my parents forever) that I would need to find what is commonly referred to as a 'proper job.'
So, I flitted with the ideas of many different careers, speech therapy, lawyer, pshycology, teacher, lawyer again ( my mother was really keen on the lawyer idea) but none of these ever evoked in me the same passion as writing did, until some-one suggested journalism.
I had thought about journalism before, but had dismissed the idea because I did not have the required experience, and there seemed to be a distinct lack of oppurtunities. My sixth form newspaper came out twice a year, but was more of a Christian newsletter than something which contained anything of real substance. I had contributed articles to the university magazine, but this was never going to be enough to compete with the thousands of students graduating with journalism degrees ( mine is only in english) who had been editors and sub editors of their student publications and probably had contacts already in the industry!
More reccently though, my luck seems to have changed! Last March, I secured week long placement with Trinity Mirror and have another one coming up in November. Likewise one of my fantastic friends came to me with the details of an online fashion magazine www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk set up by two womem who were passionate about being both fashionable and ethical at the same time. After emailing and meeting with the editor Sallyanne I was offered a years placement (albeit unpaid) with the magazine.
With this placement (which I LOVE), my contributions to The Sun, The Chronicle and The Newcastle Courier, a short play and a song which reached the semi finals of the UK songwriting contest all securely tucked away in my back pocket, I am taking my first steps to making writing, of any sort, my main source of income!
Personally for me, these oppurtunities are a dream come true. Of course I do not expect things to be easy - far from it. The work will be hard, and I will need much more experience before I get anywhere, which is one of the reasons for setting up this blog. I also know that I will need to find a way of standing out from all the other writers and journalist wannabe's and so have cajoled my lovely friend into hooking me up with an online portfolio to promote my work.
This is all in the process of being set up and pretty soon I hope to have the portfolio linked to my blog and face book account ( and vice versa) - so stay tuned and keep reading
Lucinda-A
xxx
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