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Challenge Issued: Paper Canvas Tapestries Collaborations (A Recap)
15th March 2012 was the one year anniversary of my blog. *dances a merry jig* Due to all that was going on as I mentioned in my earlier post (click here to read); I’ve not been able to do a midway check-in or anything fancy to celebrate. Never fear, I’m here today so we can do a quick recap to see where we are in the challenge and to celebrate the missed anniversary; I plan to write something up for this challenge too (just a separate Flash Fiction piece for fun; I’ll post it within the week or so).
So far, CMBrown, Lara Schiffbauer and Deniz Bevan have taken up the challenge (if you haven’t read what they have written, please click on the links above -in the order above- to catch up); who will be the next story-teller, you, me or them? Join us and find out.
The Challenge to you…
I want us to write a story together. How? Just like any other Flash Fiction Challenge; but with a slight twist (I can’t help myself); we will each write a paragraph (no more than 250 words per entry) to the on-going story (which will start below and continue in the comment section/linky list, I will create a page to collate all the entries.). Once we finish this rather exciting online project, I hope to publish our collected works in an eBook -either market it for free or put it on sale for a worthy cause, I usually choose children charities; but we can decide the final outcome all together once the project is completed.
What do you say? Are you in? Alrighty. 
Here’s the 3 (+1, just because an anniversary is coming up) images I have chosen for this challenge; I hope it gets your creative juices going; be inspired by one or more -the choice is yours.
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Challenge Issued: Paper Canvas Tapestries Collaborations
Happy Valentines’ Week!
I thought I’d kick of today’s post with a love-themed video; Sand Art by the talented Ilana Yahav – this is part of the SandFantasy series titled “Love 2008″. Take a deserved break and enjoy.
Wasn’t that just amazing? I am always mesmerised with what she creates; hard work certainly pays eventually. 
Speaking of hard work, I have some exciting news to share; yikici turns one years on 15th March 2012 (yes I know -how cool is that?); I did not realise how quickly the past year went by -it’s been super speedy. So I have been thinking what I could do to celebrate it -then it hit me, since I LOVE collaborating (no pun intended), I thought it would be fitting to celebrate yikici’ paper anniversary with a collaborated challenge (you all game? I hope so).
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Challenge Taken: Fated to Love a Recycled War-Hero
I wanted a challenge and a challenge I did get; Sonia G. Medeiros has come up with another blinder of a challenge (click here for the full details); essentially the challengees have to pick five words from the list on her post (the words I chose to use are in bold below) and add a word to the list (‘quintessential‘ is my submission) with a love and/or leap-year theme -oh and the word count must be 250. I combined this with the challenge I set (see here) and et voila; I give you:
Fated to Love a Recycled War-Hero
Clara squeezed her eyes shut and stopped breathing as she let herself silently tumble underwater toting Cornelius’ ring. It had become an unwanted, disorderly ritual she craved; every leap year she re-enacted what she considered became her idiosyncratic fate; despite her repulsion for her new form when in the sea, she always always welcomed the cool salty water; the silvery fins gasped through her already scaling skin. Her thoughts raced…
Challenge Taken: Sarahann’s Warning
Saturday’s Showcase Sketches:
Since I turned my attention to my family these past couple of weeks, I have not been able to write as effectively as I would have liked to. Today; however, I have had some ‘me time’ and a little story unwrapped itself –courtesy goes to the fabulous prompts of Ken Broad (AKA ‘The Magician’). To check out his rules (and also an interesting history on who Sarahann is) click here; Ken, you wanted an Octo”boo”er story fit for Halloween, I am hoping this meets the mark.
Sarahann’s Warning:
Something happened; it happened just before I reached here…
I can’t remember quite, what.
Something happened; a cold irksome feeling took a-hold of me; memories-a-haze, it failed me…
Glass, ice, stone?
My hands moulded, shaped-in quicksand-like; that’s what engulfed me.
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ROW80 is getting (me) Organised!
Thursday’s (Belated) Topical Tête-à-Tête:
Firstly, I want to say I am saddened by what I have seen in the news and what ordeals you have had to face on the East Coast. I have just seen reports of another bout of storms; hurricane Katia and a tropical cyclone on the Gulf 
I do hope these do not come inland and cause any destructions; you are all in my thoughts and prayers, I do wish you all to stay safe and out of harm’s way. 
I’m sending you all a little something -I hope it brings you good luck; the Irish swear by it. Secondly, I want to apologise for the lateness of this post (I seem to have lost my synch with my daily routine -hope to get back on form soon(ish) -I have been working on my schedule at least, so that is something positive, for more details see below). Today’s topical discussion is rotating about how things stand with me in relation to the writing world -I thought it is rather apt considering my recent sign-up to the Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign.
(As always, there is a pdf document at the bottom of the post for those who may find this a difficult read.)
ROW80 is Getting (me) Organised!
I have had an odd few weeks and I am certain you all are aware of how erratic I have been (maybe erratic is the wrong word choice, but I’m tired and that’s the closest word I can find, so I’m sticking to it) -the word erratic is more geared at my working pattern rather than my own person… There has not been much stability on that front and I worked out why thanks to my new ROW80 page and progress bars over on the right of this page -now why did I not do that sooner! It seems I have been allocating a lot of my time to writing blog posts as opposed to my actual Novel (no wonder that’s been a wee bit stagnant *shakes head in bewilderment*); therefore, I have had a rethink and made slight amendments to the schedule -just so I can breathe a bit better; I was beginning to suffocate -Eak! So, that’s sorted and taken off my ‘to do list’ (geez, there’s so many things to do -I think I’m going to see stars) *faints* -ok, okaaaaaaaaaaay I was pulling your leg. 
Now let’s get back to some serious stuff…
Flash -A-aaaaaaaaaaaaa
Don’t ask me why, but that song (yes the one from the rather cheesy film Flash Gordon) is playing in my head over and over again -I just had to use it as a title because, I want to talk about -yep, you guessed it, FLASH Fictions. (I know, I know -very bad sense of humour; but I’m tired -that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it!) As you know, I have become addicted to writing flash fictions and now the collection of stories has amalgamated to a total of 10+(ish) since I started back in April 2011 (word count being 6125 in total). From your responses, there has been a few stories which cried out to be expanded further and the other stories were appreciated as they were. As time progressed I began to think about these, and one of my main thoughts were (and still is) is to collate them in a book as a collection of short stories; some I’d work on (e.g. Moon of Change being a firm favourite amongst you all) and those that work well without any developments will just be edited to perfection. Therefore, the question on everyone’s lips (including mine); which of the following stories would you like to see being collated in this book project of mine I am about to embark upon:
The Quest for the Hidden Dagger
Moon of Change & Moon of Change – The Prologue & Epilogue
I’d appreciate it if you could select your top 5 and list them in preference order and let me know which one’s you’d like me to developed further. Please note them in the comment box below or email me directly at ozlem@yikici.co.uk -I aim to ensure the forthcoming collection’s word count is near 10,000 words; which means there will be a couple of surprise stories/snippets added to make the count. To make this interesting and give you some incentive to participate, I believe a contest is in order (my very first one); I will select 5 people’s name from the list of commenter’s’ below and they will receive a copy of my book once it is published. Exciting huh? Well, what are you waiting for… get-a-voting-and-a-compiling…
and Finally…
Before, I head off to the land of Zzzzzzz’s (which I need to get going to very soon(ish)); this is for those who missed my very first interview over at meanderfit.com -aptly titled ‘Ozlem Yikici – The London Novelist‘. If you want to find out how the interview went please pop over to Mindi’ blog and have a read -as well as a wander… Well, that’s me done and dusted -so to speak, wishing you all a good night and I will no doubt have words on Saturday, until then, stay safe, be happy, keep smiling and don’t forget it’s a beautiful world out there in the vast universe we call Earth!
Copyright © Ozlem Yikici 2011 & Copyright © doodllz™ 2011. All Rights Reserved.
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As you already know, thoughts and comments are encouraged as always -even if it is just a word -as ‘all good discussions start with just one word‘.
Pdf document: ROW80 is getting (me) Organised!
If there is a topic you would like me to look into and explore in my own yikici-kind-of-way then please feel free to leave a suggestion in the comment box below or for those of you who are a wee bit shy drop me a line via my contact page or email me at ozlem@yikici.co.uk