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He Said She Said
I’m coming, he said
But he never did.
I promise, he said
But his promise fibbed.
I’ll hold you, he said
But his arms didn’t reach.
I’ll protect you, he said
But his strength breached.
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Silent Battles
Can you hear that?
That silence which pierces through your gut.
Can you feel how it curls into your heart with a callous tap?
Do you tread on that tightrope?
The one which stretches from within
-a space between yourself and my soul, thin.
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News Just In: Wattpad and Opuss Joys
It feels like another eternity has flown past since I last wrote a blog post. The passing times have been difficult, the road to recovery, testing, challenging and perplexing at times. A constant battle in my mind between self-doubt and belief that I can beat this, I believe I will, it will just take time and patience -something, you, my lovely readers have in abundance.
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The First Time
It’s daunting, sitting here typing away the first piece of writing I’ve done in -what feels like ages. It’s been like months since I last wrote to you…so much has happened since then; my life warped in-front of my eyes as different lifestyles were thrown at me. All of which I loved, yet was not enough for me to stay… I have become my own martyr -my own hurdle. Where stepping-stones tried to lead me home, I veered off the path, distracted by the many facets of what could be. A Red Riding Hood losing track of time. A child in a candy store. A flightless bird left at sea. A void in a bottomless pit. A nothingness in the sea of digital living. Life’s mysterious endeavours tried to overthrow me. Life did not succeed.
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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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‘What if’ Risks Led to your Success?
I’m Guest Posting over at Kait Nolan’s ROW80 Blog
Come and join me as I discuss:
‘What if’ Risks Led to your Success?
There’s something about taking risks that instantly makes us apprehensive, it’s like the wave of nausea that hits you before you decide to take the plunge and jump off a plane on a crazy whim of bravado or you drop everything and go to explore the world –well that may be an ostentatious example; but you get the point.
To read the full article click here.
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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…
Different Styles, Indifferent Ways
I’ve been thinking a lot this past few weeks, trying to understand why I am unable to write the words I want to on my novel, why I have not started to work on my short story properly and why my painting is still untouched. Then it occurred to me -I must be suffering from Gauguin’s syndrome, confused? Let me explain…
Sometime last year (with a good mate of mine) I visited an exhibition by Paul Gauguin which was hosted at the Tate Modern. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience -yes, it was overcrowded and at some point it was quite stuffy but I digress. Whilst viewing the paintings it surprised me to see Gauguin had struggled to find his own style until quite late in his years. I was bemused to note that he attempted to work by adopting styles of the various impressionists (composition being the area he deliberately challenged) and he also tried very hard to incorporate lots of colours in his paintings which I found did not work for him but eventually he came to his own and his paintings in his later years shows that he learnt from his peers and became the artist we appreciate today.
Here’s an example where his style mimics Paul Cezanne‘s very closely (the first painting is the work of Cezanne and the painting below is Gauguin’s -see the resemblance in style?):
My ROW80 progress-to-date. . . so far so good?
This week and a half has been meshed with me being productive as well as, well, not so much… I will analyse the whys and why not’s in Wednesdays check-in (a creative insight from Paul Gaugain will be shared). In the meantime please have a peep at my progress-to-date-page and let me know how I’m fairing.
For those who like competitions check this out: Cold Open Comp & Turner’s Triptych Tapestries (that’s for the flash fiction lovers within you; hope you take part). I’ll now get back to some writing… See you all on Wednesday.
Copyright © Ozlem Yikici 1996-2012 . All Rights Reserved. Click here to view the Creative Commons License.
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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’.
Please click on the to read more button if you would like to leave a comment for this post; otherwise click on the launch link button below to read my ROW80 progress-to-date.
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Guest Posting over at Rance Denton’ The Action Prose
Heya to all you lovely readers and wanderers of the blogosphere; today I’m guest blogging at The Action Prose as Rance Denton’ guest. What a fabulous honour it is and a great opportunity to have a rant on a subject that I have been thinking about for some time now. Please follow the link below by clicking on the title to read the article and say a quick ‘hello’ to Rance too (who is an awesome person, writer and blogger).
Opinions and Assholes: “Trust me, I’m a Doctor.”
A Story… Looking Good on the ROW80 Front
After my odd week last week -and my realisation of what was going on on Monday (if you haven’t read Monday’s post, do so as I had an epiphany on how powerful our mind can be and how it can affect our daily lives) the past two day has been relatively productive. This change in the breeze is a welcome relief.
I’ve visited and commented on all my allocated team for Sunday’ check-in (a promise is a promise). *yay* I’ve written two blog posts (including this one), a guest blog post for Rance Denton over at The Action Prose and added 240 words to Our Story Begins; here’s a snippet:
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ROWed Under -it’s been Difficult…
I should have updated my ROW80 page yesterday and posted it as a fabulous update on the ROW80 linky list; but I couldn’t, my heart was not in it -nor is it today; but I owe you guys some form of noise, so I will babble about what’s been going on (well, I’ll try)…
I was trying to find a balance between my inner and outer world -AKA as my writing and my world outside of writing; the two parts of me are not gelling as well as I hoped it would. When one goes well, the other is neglected for a while; then when one goes from bad to worse the other becomes non-existent as the guilt for messing up riddles me with many holes which I find difficult to heal.
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Challenge Issued: Turner’ Triptych Tapestries
It’s been months since I issued a challenge -or even took part; and now my patience is wearing thin (who said patience is a virtue 
). So, hence forth I have taken on a challenge set by Sonia G. Medeiros (she’ll be my next fab guest blogger on Sunday, so keep an eye out for that); my entry to her challenge is below (a fifty word story which has to contain one of the words on her prompt list) -following that I have last month’ participant(s) and a new challenge for you to take on…
En Route
A shiver went down my spine; strands of hair moved with force; it tickled in an uncomfortable way. Casually, I tilted my head to free the strands; it wasn’t enough, my hand gingerly swept over the annoying section; it pierced my finger, it throbbed; a wasp tumbled onto my bag.
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Life ROWed a Wobbly at me…
…and it’s all looking Super!
Hasn’t this week flown past? I cannot believe that we are in week two and my goals are starting waiver just a wee bit -why you ask? Well, I gave the life around me more of my focus and this naturally impacted on my goals; but I will not quibble because I know I’ve still met a good part of my goals and slowly but surely I will get it all in perspective and will be flying through! Shall we do a quick-fire ticking off? *nods* I do too.
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‘Alo-ween to y’all NaNoWriMo’s with a Blah-Blogging and an Ominous MIA Attempt…
Monday’s (Muwahahahahaaaaaa) Meandering Muse:
An ‘appy ‘Alooo-weeeen to you-aaaaaaaaaallllllllllll… Muwahahahahaaaaaa. Halloween’s been and nearly gone in the UK (it’s not that huge over in my part of the woods, so there are no interesting ghoulish stories to tell); besides I’m not a huge Halloween follower (my stories say otherwise I know!). However; this year, to mark the occasion, I managed to write one spooky story Sarahann’s Warning; this I have decided to enter into a competition. Haley Whitehall devised a Horror Flash Fiction Contest -seeing Haley introduced me to Flash Fictions, it’s only fitting that I should enter this competition -so I did. Please pop over to Haley’s blog and check out the other entries too.
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Just Because I Care…
…I Listened to What you Say…
(Let’s celebrate the new look with a cake.) This is a very quick blog post as I am very tired and also very excited to share this bit of joyous news! I know the previous blog theme has caused viewing difficulties for some of you and I have been looking into this for a long while; today I want to do the grand unveiling of the new theme. There are still some kinks to iron out; but I’ll get there eventually (maybe a few more scheduled maintenance works are in order; let’s wait and see). In the meantime, I have added some new imagery (artwork from a while ago) and also some photography. I will no doubt edit these as time passes by; but I just wanted to share a little something with you as I absolutely ADORE my new theme! If you share the same enthusiasm too then please give a shout out in the comments box below.
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Challenge Issued: Triptych Turkish Delights
Triptych Tapestry Tuesday:
The next few weeks’ Challenge is set -and it comes with a prize (see at the end), so if you are interested and feel inspired please take the challenge, I dare you!
Challenge Issued: Triptych Turkish Delights
Last month we had one challengee (see below). To view last month’s rules click here: Challenge (Re-)Issued: Turner’s Tapestries.
A fellow campaigner took part in the challenge, he did not post the said entry on his blog but in the comment section of the initial challenge; therefore, I will copy and paste it here and link him back to his blog.
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Male Power isn’t All it’s Cracked up to be
Savvy Sunday Salutations:
Today we kick start off the new Savvy Sunday Salutations format with non-other-than our resident guest blogger Patrick Tulley; I thought it was appropriate to take the plunge with someone we already know. As previously mentioned Savvy Sunday Salutations (with guest bloggers) will now roll out on a fortnightly (two-weekly) basis. Guest bloggers will write/create an article of their own choosing -my only condition is that it must be something they enjoy writing/creating. In addition to this, I will be interrogating carrying out a semi-interview-type question and answers session with my victims guests. So, dare I say, you are all in for a treat. Happy reading!
Male Power isn’t All it’s Cracked up to be
I wanted to share an interview I listened to recently with Warren Farrell, the author of the book, ‘The Myth of Male Power’, that’s available on Youtube. I found it fascinating and seemingly connected many of the dots for me, when it came to contemporary gender issues. I have been toying with writing about this subject for some time now. I will admit to a fair amount of anxiety in doing so, since men are often attacked for taking a position on issues that affect women, even though I believe this issue affects both genders equally. This probably goes some way to explaining the almost resounding silence on this issue from men, which is why I step into this subject with gingerly steps of course. I apologise for the rather lengthy video interview (19 parts) -which is why I am going to break this subject up into parts over the coming weeks, so as to get a more overall picture including some of my own criticisms of Warrens views.
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Sandy’s Weighted Game
A Special Triptych Tapestry Tuesday:
I have been toying with the idea of writing a blog post about the difficulty I have in being able to differentiate between showing and telling then Rachael Harrie comes up with this ‘Third Campaigner Challenge: Show Not Tell‘ -so it was only natural to take part and see how I fair with this challenge.
Third Campaigner Challenge – Show Not Tell
Here are the rules for the challenge -in Rachael Harrie’ words:
“Write a blog post in 300 words or less, excluding the title. The post can be in any format, whether flash fiction, non-fiction, humorous blog musings, poem, etc. The blog post should show:
- that it’s morning,
- that a man or a woman (or both) is at the beach
- that the MC (main character) is bored
- that something stinks behind where he/she is sitting
- that something surprising happens.
Just for fun, see if you can involve all five senses AND include these random words: “synbatec,” “wastopaneer,” and “tacise.” (NB. these words are completely made up and are not intended to have any meaning other than the one you give them).”
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