I'm a Black Sheep

My first few days at work were no more than a chillout! This is just my kinda place. Sitting on a beanbag, chatting and having three-hour lunch breaks! Heehaw!

But I've really been down lately. My writing has almost come to a standstill. No more work done on the novel. Although oddly enough I found myself starting a new short story yesterday. I discovered an old piece I had written and suddenly realized that I wanted to write it as a story. It's about a teenage boy's "relationship" with God and it's called Nancy's Wine.

I also have come up with a nice little idea of a short bedtime tale that I began telling my sweetheart on the phone. All I'm going to say about it is that involves a Star. But in honesty that the last thing I need, is to start more new stories! I need to END them! I've got several stories around awiting completion.

For those interested in Elham, the new program is being finalized and will be announced by the middle of this month. We are still looking for people to showcase their work in our monthly meetings, so if you're keen, give us a shout at elhambahrain@yahoo.com

It's a Story to Tell

Ladies and gentlemen, buckle your seatbelts, adjust your seats to the upright position and secure the trays. We are 5000 words away from reaching the final destination and completing our journey.

Can I do it? 5000 more words before July 31st? Hell yeah!

It's been quite a while since I heard a piece of music so moving, so gorgeous, so stunningly emotional, that I felt my eyes well up, and a swelling pinch in my heart. This band is so good Im aching to get my hands on their new record. (click on the link and listen to the first song that comes on, you'll see what I mean).

I've also just seen what must be the best music video of the year, a splendid piece of film that tells a wondrous story.

Cake

You're bored. You're lonely. You're fed up. You cut the slice of banana walnut cake in half and you leave it. You sip. You look. You think. You sip. You breathe. You think to yourself, what on earth are you doing in this place? In this island of lost identities and repressed souls? You dip your stick in your coffee. You lick the foam. You play with your cake. You're lost in the thickness of it. How it formulates itself to the heat. You wear your ring but you can't even feel it on your skin anymore. You whisk. You stir. Are you enjoying this? Is it what you wanted to do today? Or is it just happenstance? Perhaps fiddling with your shopping bags would help. A book. Pulled out of a small sack, which you then slip into a bigger one. You finally take a bite of the cake. It's been seven minutes since you've sat. Five since you've cut it. You rest your arm on the hardback book next to your mug. And you eat. Bit after bit. You dip and you chew and you look and you chew and you're lost in a world you don't recognize.

Six Sentenses

I've been asked to talk at the upcoming TARA (The Arabian Reading Association) Conference here in Bahrain on February 24th. The conference is targeted more towards educators and teachers and aims at promoting reading and writing at schools.

I shall also be having a book signing session during the two-day program. I will post more details as soon as they are confirmed but in the meantime you can learn more about the conference and how to attend it by visiting the TARA website.

There's not been a lot of writing news to report lately, but I have actually been working on a new short story over the past week or so. It's basically completed now, but I still need to lock in a solid ending to it.

It's strangely been one of the easiest, smoothest stories I've written yet and at no point did I struggle with where and how it was going. It's just the wording of the ending I'm not happy with. Also, the current title sucks. (I'm not saying because it's self-explanatory!)

By the way, can you tell a story in SIX sentences? Well, check this website out. It's cool and some of the stories there are excellent. You can read my contribution here.