Sunday, December 4, 2011

Meet Our Writers Week 22: Jamie

  Tell us about yourself

My name is Jamie. I live in England, in a county called Kent which borders the English Channel in the south and London in the north. I'm in my 50s, male,  and run a tourist website, write content for various websites, do a bit of teaching and other odds and ends.

Tell me about your blog(s), name(s), what does it mean to you? 

MyLittleWords is my latest blog. The name just came to me when I was faced with that Wordpress sign-up page. I think I tried other names but this was the first available - and I quite like the name now. It's just a place to put up some fun writing. In fact I only started it because I came across one of Bluebell Books' challenges and wanted to respond. That was only a few weeks ago, and now I have a go at things like Flash Fiction 55 and Sunday 160, etc. 

I also have a blog at  http://muusak.wordpress.com/ called A Musical Journey which I started a couple of years ago. I just put up music videos I like and add info about the bands or link the song to moments in my life. It started on WLS and I just update whenever.
I've also run a few other blogs over the last 2 years under various names. And, no, I'm not telling you which ones they were!

When have you started blogging?

A couple of years ago on WLS.

What's the theme(s) of your blog(s)? What do you write most? poetry, fiction or novel, or  short stories?

MyLittleWords is poems and short stories, some very short! I prefer writing stories but often write poems just to keep blogging regularly. There's no theme, just whatever I feel like writing, but it won't be commentaries on my life or anything like that. I can't stand those type of blogs!

What are the inspirations of your writing?

I've enjoyed using the prompts recently at Bluebell Books and other sites. I'm quite busy and really prefer reacting to the prompts. Often I get ideas from other peoples' comments, books I've read, TV progs, and just weird ideas that come into my head. 

Does music impact your writing?

I would 'yes' in relation to some darker poetry I wrote last year. I find darker/gothic music quite inspirational, in a depressive kind of way! Otherwise no, I just enjoy listening to music and relaxing.

You are involved with Bluebell Books Short Story Slam writing challenge? How do you feel about it so far? What's the benefits of it?

I think it's excellent. I like the prompts and the fairly relaxed nature of the challenge. With the challenges lasting a week or more I feel there's plenty of time to read others' work. I find poetry challenges seem more frantic - been there, done it, got the annoying awards...
I like being able to view other writers work, I hope to find more who write stories rather than just poems. I've enjoyed writing co-operatively with a few other bloggers over the last two years, by email, and am alsways open to joint writing ideas - time permitting.

Do you have a favorite book or author?

So many. But 'Lord Of The Rings' is probably the top. It's one of the few books I've reread several times.
Dickens and Shakespeare are obvious choices but why not? It's hard to beat them.

Any tips for those who started blogging and wish to become successful in it.

Just have a go. Join sites like Bluebell Books and have fun. Don't go into it thinking you'll be discovered next week as the next JK Rowling though...

What's your writing plans in the near future?

To continue dabbling with Bluebell Books' challenges and some of the shorter writing challenges around. I've also started to develop one of the short stories I entered for Bluebell Books -'Baby' - and will continue to write more on the storyline and see how it goes. I don't intend blogging any of it yet though.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

you have unbeatable talent on short fiction, Jamie,

keep it up.

Indie said...

Good to get to know you better Jamie!

Indie