A Beginning

I am the type of person who starts stories time and time again. I rarely know where they are heading and I don't think I have ever completed a story. Yet today I bring you the start of a new story which I hope you actually finish. Although I am not sure what will happen (oops).

The lights were slowly plucked, one by one, from the room and darkness drifted in, like a shroud buoyed up by the breeze as it sank to the ground. But one light remained and promised never to go out. Here I could be a thousand versions of me. If I could but reach through the screen and clasp in my hands this world I had made. Then I could be her; then I would be her.

Sometimes I sit back and wonder at what life has stored up for me. I seem to wonder a lot about everything and, perhaps, I am letting life slip past because I am too pre-occupied with observing it. But surely the man who sits beside the river sees more of it than the fish, which are dragged to and fro by its currents, ever see. Besides, life has a tendency to be overwhelming and maybe it is safest just to stand back and let it flow past.

That is what I tell myself, anyway. But if I really didn’t care, I am not sure I would dedicate so much time trying to pursue normality. It is difficult for the staunchly abnormal to try to pursue normality. Normality is inanimate and thus cannot fully be obtained. But then when it is so close and everyone around you seems to embody it, you just want to feel it.  

I hope you enjoyed it and I would love to hear any advice. 

Book Related Facebook Finds

Firstly, I am sorry I haven't posted in a long time; secondly, I think we can all agree that Facebook provides and inexhaustible wealth of literary related memes. One of my favourite pages are Literary Memes from where I have gathered most of these pictures.
I hope you enjoy and I would love to hear which picture is your favourite.

Introducing: Her Grace In Disgrace

Being the ultimate bad person, I am being totally honest here - please don't hate me (I was young and foolish), I have kept the lovely Claudia Harbaugh waiting some time for a review of her book 'Her Grace in Disgrace'. So, I have only just got round to starting this book as I have been crazily busy and have only been reading for college as it is my final year and I need to focus in order to get good grades.
Nonetheless, I have decided to introduce this book to you as I think it is worth a read and I will be doing a full on review later on once exams are over and I can focus, once again, on reading for fun.

So, this is the story of the widowed Duchess of Warwick who finds out her late husband had another family who inherited everything from him. She is now tainted by scandal and must start anew without any wealth or connections. The book follows her endeavours to integrate back into society and perhaps even learn to love again.

This is what Amazon introduces the book as...

Reginald Aiken, Duke of Warwick is dead and his young widow is not grieving…until the will is read. Isobel Kennilworth Aiken, Duchess of Warwick spent 6 years of her young life in a loveless marriage. Now, at the age of 24, Isobel is a widow. As Isobel awaits the reading of her late husband’s last will and testament, she feels no grief, but in fact is quite hopeful. She is eager to start her life anew. But, as the droning of the solicitor’s voice washes over her detailing the bequests to various servants and family members, a shock awaits her. The "other woman" was not his mistress, but his lawfully wedded wife and together they had a son. Six year old Reggie was now the Duke of Warwick, displacing Reginald’s brother Charles. There is a collective gasp as the revelation is made that instantly displaces Isobel and Charles and dashes their hopes for the future. Isobel must indeed start anew, but not as a titled, influential and wealthy widow, but as plain Miss Kennilworth, tainted by scandal. Can she get past the disgrace and humiliation she has endured and fight her way back into society? Will she find love again with her childhood sweetheart, Andrew Stafford, former vicar, now Lord Saybrooke? Or perhaps she will rekindle the flame with Jeremy Ingles, Lord Westcott, who had caught her fancy at her come out six years earlier, but had not been ready to be leg shackled. But before Isobel can find true love, she must come to grips with her past mistakes and the people she has hurt along the way. She must discover who she is without the title of duchess to her name.

This wonderful story is set in the Regency period and, from what I have read, it very nicely written and draws you in. More of this later in my full review.

I hope you will go and check out Claudia Harbaugh's Twitter page and blog and say a big hello to her and learn more about the book on Amazon.

The Grammar Of Us

When I receive a text,

From you,

Reading and rereading your pretty words.

Grinning at your spelling mistakes

And the random, irregular punctuation

You are irregular

And I hope our life will flow together

Without a misplaced comma

Or a premature full stop.

But I am not sure.

I do not have the same capacity

To throw in a shower of punctuation

And just go with what I feel to be

The right way to spell a word.

Maybe I am over thinking it all.

It is just that I have never met your likeness

And I worry that,

If I leave here a line without decisive punctuation,

Will it just trail on?

Or will it end,

By the hand of another,

Penciling in a few dashes and dots?

Dancing at Dusk

I just wrote this poem which I wanted to share with you all as I do enjoy sharing them with you. I hope you enjoy it and I would love to hear your opinions.

Stars skip and skim
Leaving trails of sparkling delight
Ingrained upon the night sky
Such is the thought of you
You flutter behind my eyes
And dance upon my lips

Like fairies seen at dusk
I close my eyes and there you are
Treading silently forward
And dancing in a spiral
Of our own making
I am your bride,
Wedded to an image of you

Looking Through The Rain

Once again I have a poem to share with you and I hope you enjoy it.

Waiting in the rain, I think of you
The chill nips at my heels like thieves
Chasing me endlessly through the night
Thoughts shape my mind
Like an artist, forming me in clay

The rain continues to fall
My hair drapes over my shoulders
My seaweed veil
Droplets hanging to my eyelashes
Forming winding paths down my cheeks

I stand and wait 
Straining forwards into the darkness
For a glimpse of you

The houses light the street
A warm orange glow fizzling against the rolling blackness

I would love hear what you think and I just want to also say thanks to all my lovely followings as I have just hit 100.

Writes of Passage

I saw this on Sensitivity And Flair's blog and she scored 18/50 on how many of these she had read. I decided to also give it a go.

Books that will...Scare You
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
The Rats by James Herbert
The Shining by Stephen King
1984 by George Orwell
Lord Loss by Darren Shan
Score: 1/5 - I've only read 1984 out of these as I am not big on scary books and, I must admit, 1984 kept me in a state of terrified paranoia for a while.

Books that will...Teach You About Love
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Forever by Judy Blume
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
3/6 I have read Pride and Prej, Jane Eyre and Anne Frank's Diary and wholeheartedly recommend all three of them.

Books that will...Make You Laugh 
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
Geek Girl by Holly Smale
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
1/6 - have only read Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging but that was a while ago. It's a great teen series though - it's so funny!

Books that will... Transport You
The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
Percy Jackson (series) by Rick Riordan
Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
1/6 - I have, of course, read Gatsby. I've read bits of Harry Potter and The Life of Pi too but not the whole thing.

Books that will... Change The Way You Think
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
A Streetcat Named Bob by James Bowen
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-Time by Mark Haddon
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusack
0/7 - oops! I have intended to read these but I do tend to read more classic stuff so a lot of the contemporary books I haven't read.

Books that will... Make You Cry
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
My Sister's Keeper by Jodie Picoult
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
2/7 - I've read The Kite Runner and Of Mice and Men. I've got a few of the others on my shelf too.

Books that will... Help You Understand You  
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
0/5 - oops again! Many of these are on my TBR list that I haven't got round to.

Books that will... Thrill You
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Gone by Michael Grant
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
Divergent by Veronica Roth
0/7 - double oops! This is embarrassing...

Overall I got a measly 8/50. Oh dear! Better get reading..