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Welcome to my blog. The home page will always display the most recent blog post so please use the tabs to navigate your way around. Keep up to date by visiting the 'News' area. The 'Short Stories' area and the ‘Flash Fiction’ area contain everything produced thus far, and comments would be much appreciated! There are 'Book Reviews' for you to peruse as part of my project to diversify my reading list, in which I'd encourage you to leave your own recommendations, with authors welcome to suggest their own works! There's also my 'Blog' (in the truer sense). Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Blog - 15/05/13

Did you see it? Did you? A new piece of writing made its way on to the blog this month! It’s a piece of flash fiction called ‘Comeback Kid’ which was originally written for a competition revolving around the central theme ‘start’. Looking back it’s the first new piece of new material I’ve had available for over a year so hopefully you’ll enjoy it, even if it is short!

Looking at the stats though not too many people have seen it yet which is a tad worrying. I know it’s only been out for a couple of weeks but I’m comparing it to previous works in the same initial phase. Obviously much can be attributed to that aforementioned absence, but you could also counteract that with things like not having as much media platforms to announce the arrival of the earlier pieces. How much should one really worry about these things at such an early stage in their career technically? People write for different reasons, but I’m pretty sure having a captive audience is something that everybody wants, even if they won’t admit it openly. It’s that reassurance that what you’re doing is worth it and the encouragement you get from it is invaluable. Forgive me if I seem a little desperate; writers have active imaginations and paranoia forms a large part of that! For me at least!

In terms of writing I can tell you that this month I’ve officially started work on my epic fantasy series! I’ve been gathering ideas and thinking about it heavily for a long time, but I’ve finally had that breakthrough moment of inspiration, that one ‘big idea’ that allows me to start! You see, I’m not sure if that’s how it works for other people, but for me I’ve been waiting for one key idea that hopefully ‘qualifies’ as good enough to make the series worth writing. It’s all very well having a multitude of plot points and good ideas, but I was waiting for the show stopper, the absolute jaw dropper that would act as a green light! Of course it’s only my opinion. There’s a good chance many of you won’t think it as big as I do, many people might not even like it! But a good deal of writing comes from within and seeking your own approval, and I finally think I’ve found it! (I tell my brother everything about my writing, and he was as excited about it as I am!) So I’ve officially started! It’s a daunting prospect though, at the moment it’s roughly thirty books long! I’m not expecting it to stay that way, it’s mainly grouped that way to isolate particular points. As I work more and more on it things will be changing all the time, things will be dropped, merged... In the future it’s going to be a constant back burner project that runs parallel to other things, but right now it’s front of the queue as I ride this euphoric wave!

In non writing news I managed to finish the Bracknell Half Marathon in 1:51:29! One second within my target time! For a while I was pretty down, thinking I’d missed out by 53 seconds because I was going by the race time. After thinking about it though the chip time is probably the important thing because everybody was bunched up at the beginning and queuing to run over the blue strip that activates it. The race time was probably calculated from the start time, and there were a lot of people in that queue! On my way round I saw one of the chips on the floor, so gutted for that person, they could have run a personal best but there’d be no proof of it! My mate showed me the link to the official photos taken by the photographer and it was pretty interesting to see the results. One photo is of me about three miles in; good body posture, leaning forward into the run, a determined (if puggish) look on my face. The second is about eleven miles in... I have the face of a one-thousand year old man. My posture is properly sunken and you can see I’m probably a little dehydrated with a desperate ‘kill me now’ plea to my eyes. In truth it’s a pretty fair reflection on my race! I started off well for the first six miles, but I’ve had a few problems with injury in training and, as anticipated, my leg gave way a bit. From the eight mile point my entire being wanted to stop, but I found the will power from somewhere to keep going (albeit slowly) and I didn’t stop once! And I still managed to finish within my target time! Just imagine if I wasn’t injured! I’d show you the difference between the two photos but I just can’t afford luxuries like that at the moment and I didn’t want to post the stolen print screen versions I’ve kept because I didn’t want to risk any infringements! I shall leave you instead with a picture of me with my medal afterwards! Until next time, buh-bye!


Don’t forget to check out ‘Comeback Kid’ if you haven’t already! – http://bit.ly/13LKo3U
 
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Wednesday 1 May 2013

Comeback Kid

Flash Fiction
Length - 497 words

Originally written for a competition that was using the central theme 'Start'.

Coming back from injury can be the hardest part of a young athlete's career, and it's something Jamie has had to put up with more than most. Now it's the start of the new track season and he's donned his spikes once more. Will things finally go according to plan?

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Comeback Kid
 
Spend a day walking the streets of London and you’ll sneeze the city’s ink for a week, but the running track forms a clearing in the concrete jungle and the air is thick instead with sweat and anticipation.
                Today is the first round of the regional qualifiers for a place in the national meet to be held in Birmingham in a few months time. The start of a new season means the crowd is swollen with first timers, chattering away and applauding nonsensically at anything their babe minds pick out as a cue. I can feel their vacuous encouragement clamouring for attention on the back of my neck as I warm up, carried on a strong tailwind that’s already thrown up some pretty quick results today and given wings to the lucky losers.
 
They call me the Comeback Kid. I’ve already had numerous career defining injuries during my short time in spikes. As a junior I’d break records every time they cracked the pistol, until one nasty fall took me out of the game for four months. I count it as one of my greatest comebacks even though it was more challenging mentally than physically. A lot of the best potential athletes are lost at this tender age of educational uncertainty, the time out makes them concentrate on different areas of study and new career paths open up inside their distracted minds.
 I, however, remained committed. The setbacks never cease but I keep coming back faster and stronger than before.
 
‘...one to watch is Jamie Underwood in lane five, coming off the back of another serious injury, but I hear he’s been posting personal bests in training. What are your thoughts, Edward? A talented runner if he can keep his body in check.’
                ‘Oh undoubtedly John. His record as a flat runner is prestigious for one who has spent so little time actually competing. He will insist on hurdling though, claiming it’s his favoured discipline.’
                ‘And there he goes, bursting out of the blocks at some speed! He couldn’t have asked for a better start.’
                ‘You’re right John, and you can see he’s just added an extra stride to his pattern as he approaches the bend and leaves the favour of this stiff wind that’s been-‘ 
                ‘Oh no! It’s happened again! Terrible scenes here as the leader’s foot catches on the barrier and sends him crashing to the ground.’
                ‘A familiar story for this young talent I’m afraid, and by the looks of it, this could be another bad injury for him...’
 
They’ll say that it’s unfortunate it happened on the first race of the season - but I operate in reverse, and am instead celebrating a spectacular climax. ‘DNF’ might mean ‘did not finish’ to you, but to me it reads victory. I get to start over from zero, fighting my body’s quit calls against this state of perpetual rehabilitation I set it. And this time, as always, it will be harder. My season starts here.
 
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