.png)
New Schedule
Dearest readers, the schedule is tweaked for my convenience (timewise) and is in keeping with daily/monthly prompts/challenges I have started up on Opuss. If you fancy taking part in the Opuss challenges, or just want to be inspired, join me there or write your pieces and link your posts back to me me so I can pop by and have a read.
I will try to keep to the daily schedule; however, I will not restrict myself to it and will post as and when I can, again another element of yikici surprise playing afoot here. 
Daily Muse/Prompt:
Similar to the previous Tuesday’s Triptych Tapestry, the daily prompts will differ slightly, I will keep the concept simpler. I will share imagery every day which I hope will inspire to write anything and everything or just help you start the day with a smile.
In Addition to the Daily Prompt the Following Schedule will Continue:
read more
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.
read more
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.
read more
Savvy Sunday Salutations’ to Pamela V. Mason
After a HUGE break (apologies to all my lovely subscribers) I wanted to say what a glorious day it is to welcome Pamela V. Mason to the Savvy Salutations’ guest post slot. Pamela is a wonderful person, so full of life and joy; every time I get a chance to speak with her I am met with full enthusiasm; therefore, I had to convince her to pop by and be a superb guest here on yikici and being the angel she is, she gracefully accepted. I just know her zest for life will rub off on you all… -Okay, okaaaay I’ll shush and let you enjoy Pamela’s inspirational post. 
Jackpot
by Pamela V. Mason
Image linked to source
We all hit the jackpot. But do we recognize it when we do, and do we use it, enjoy it? Or fritter it away via fear and regrets?
No…not talking about money or those fifteen minutes of fame….
I’m talking about that happy place in life where you arrive and everything falls into place and works for you.
You’re no longer uncertain of yourself, afraid to take risks. It’s that comfort you feel living in your own skin, warts and all. You can quit sucking in your gut, covering up the acne scars, and smiling with your mouth closed so nobody sees your missing tooth.
It’s security in yourself and knowing who you are and where and how you fit in. What you can do well, and what you can’t. What you’re meant to do with the rest of the morning suns you have left in your life.
read more
Tagged Lucky 7 Style
Heya lovely readers I’ve been tagged by Sally to take part in: Lucky 7 -which is blog (or facebook) fun for authors (Sally is a good friend of mine from university and is also the author of ‘Through Mortal Eyes‘ -her superb new novel -keep an eye out for her; I will be featuring Sally as a guest blogger soon as part of Savvy Salutations too). I think this is a good way to introduce you to my current manuscript BMR; I hope you like the snippet I am about to share with you. Before we read the passage, here’s the instructions I had to follow:
-Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscript
-Go to line 7
-Post on your blog the next 7 lines, or sentences, as they are – no cheating
Tag 7 other authors to do the same. Seven sentences…
My manuscipt (BMR) is still in draft mode; so it’s still rough around the edges. This is from page 7, 7 lines from the 7th line.
read more
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.
read more
Making Sense of Scheduling
Image linked to its' original source.
As you all know I have been struggling with keeping to my blog schedule –I’ve changed it a few times; but it’s not turned out quite to how I’ve envisioned it to be. External factors (laptop problems & internet connection issues) and internal factors (my anxiety & bouts of low moods) have stepped in and hindered me somewhat –it’s been pretty depleting and has made me feel like quite a failure (which I know I am not) –therefore, I REALLY hate it. For this reason I’ve come up with a cunning plan which will hopefully allow me to breathe and have fun with creating fun, thought-provoking and creative articles again –all with an element of surprise. I’m DITCHING the pace of the schedule, what this essentially means is I will post articles when they are ready and not to a predefined schedule. I am hoping this will help with lessening the anxiety I put on myself as I normally focus on trying to finish an article on time and then post it when I feel it’s not ready and needs more work. By taking out the time-constraints I hope to not feel pressurised and in turn be more forthcoming with my article. The only aspect of the schedule I will be keeping to is the themes. This means when an article is ready for posting I will schedule it to be published on the relevant themed day. –so when you see a post on a Monday you will know is a Meandering Muse, Tuesdays will be challenge orientated and Flash Fictions, etc…I’m sure you get the idea.
read more
InMon-ster: Deathly Living Scrolls
I wasn’t planning to post anything today; but Billie Jo tempted me with her entry for BeKindWrite’s celebratory Birthday Inspirational Monday post InMon-ster: Deadly Papers.
The prompts I had to work with are:
Deadly paper / The city that never wakes / Deafening / Last place you look / They took it away
BeKindWrite was not mean with the rules; therefore we had free reign on how to work the pieces; the only condition was to use the prompts (all or a few) in any way we may interpret it.
I could not wait to sink my teeth into this. I hope you enjoy what my muse became.
read more
doodllz -heck it’s national doodle day!
If you don’t know by now; I’m a doodler, I doodle -gee weeeee I even have created my own pseudonym -you must of spied it around my blog and ‘out there’ in the internetverse. doodllz. Yep, as simple as that -my friends and family can’t understand my fascination with doodles; so I ignore them *cheeky grin* (love you all really). Well, saying that, my sister seems to have understood my appreciation of the form and sent me a link about National doodle day -say what? That was my initial reaction; then, I got a tad excited and jumped onto the link (literally would have been difficult; but you get my drift). National doodle day is a fundraising event day (which carries on through to mid-April) for Epilepsy Action; click here to find out more about the event and here to find out how you can participate. I love the sentiments behind it and I’m especially ecstatic about the idea -why? I thought I made it clear as mud…doodles, doodllzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
read more
Savvy Sunday Salutations’ to Rance Denton
What a glorious day to welcome Rance Denton to the Savvy Salutations’ guest post slot. I met Rance through Rachael Harrie’ Third Writer’ Platform-Building Campaign and I am sooo glad to have had the pleasure in knowing him -his unique and witty take on all things around us always makes me smile and the stories he conjures up are delights to read. I’ve also been fortunate to write a guest post on his blog; which is why it’s extra special to be able to feature him here on yikici. When you have a moment, please pop by to his blog and have a nosey around -you’ll see what I mean; in the meantime, I’ll leave the spotlight to Rance and his humorous rant on family relations:
Warning: This article contains some strong language.
The Cliché: Like Father Like Son
by Rance Denton
Image sourced from: http://www.cartoonstock.com
Savvy Salutations’ to…ermm…the Tagged Person
I’ve been tagged -where have you heard that before -the school playground? Well, sure -that was like ages ago. What I meant was that I have been tagged twice (yep you heard correctly, TWICE) in the blogging community, by two fellow writers (Vikki & Jennifer Baker) who are part of the Fourth Writer’ Platform-Building Campaign. What does this entail? Apparently a Q & A session with yours truly (how lucky you are 
). There’s 2 x 11 set of questions by the above interrogateors -I mean interviewers; I thought (as much as I love answering questions) I’d whittle it down to the usual 11 questions we have here as part of Savvy Salutations. I hear that sigh of relief! *darts a look full of disbelief* Anyhoo, before we go on to the questions, I wanted to share an inspirational song by Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (above); this is for the fab ROW80 & WPBC posse as well as anyone else who wants to be inspired.
I am unwritten, can’t read my mind, I’m undefined
I’m just beginning, the pen’s in my hand, ending unplannedStaring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not findReaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin…
Natasha Bedingfield sings (full lyrics can be found here); I think these words are perfect for what we are striving to achieve, capturing the images and senses in our stories and transferring it into words which someone would hopefully take pleasure in reading one day. To catch up on my ROW80 progress click here, to continue with the questions I have been tagged into please read on.
read more
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).
read more
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…
Savvy Sunday Salutations’ to Sean Keefer
Hellooooo there! Isn’t it just a glorious day today? You are in for a treat today, there’s a book review of The Trust written by yours truly and following this I get to interview the fab Sean Keefer (author) too!
Book Review: The Trust
Being my very first book review I thought I’d honour it by reviewing a novel which I happened to stumble across through Twitter* (another first for me at the time; so I thought I’d combine the two first experiences here and share it with you). The book in question is The Trust; a pleasant surprise and the author is Sean Keefer; a rather friendly, engaging author-type-lawyer person.
read more
A Fun Game – In Your Head (The Theory & Second Analyses)
Now that we have viewed the three sets of character(s) profiles (read post here) we can now move onto analysing Cynthia‘s characters in conjunction with the way she visioned the dialogue and how CM Stewart interpreted Cynthia’s characters in her version of the story -excited yet? You should be.
Here’s Cynthia’s two characters:
Ted: Grounds keeper 75 year old and hates kids. He has a limp and very good eye sight.
Katie: A twelve year old girl hiding in the barn.
Katie knows more about why she was left at the festival than she is saying.
Yes, they are brief profiles; but the real question should be do they speak volumes, will their voices shine through?
Festival of Colour
by Cynthia
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 Comments may have been Spammed…
This is no laughing matter; I have been doing my ROW80′s sponsor duties; however, the comments I write seems to disappear into thin-air! I think a conspiracy of some sorts have been collaborated by the spambots -for all the time I delete their comments (a grand total of 1,238 spam comments since I’ve gone self-hosted -that’s no more than 4 months). I will not let them win; therefore, I’ve come up with a cunning plan. I will write the aforementioned comments below and link them to the respected ROW80′ers who has been appointed to them.
read more
Not There…Strangers…
Image sourced from: http://alone-alone-alone.blogspot.com/
Do you ever feel left out,
standing in a room, all alone.
-Even if many people are around;
could be your friends or family.
Do you ever feel not part of anything,
not there, as if you don’t exist…
Somewhere in another world,
far far away from this pointless world;
a stranger on a strange planet.
Not knowing who you really are…
When the question is asked,
not knowing the answer.
What’s the point of living
if you’re not acknowledged.
What’s the point of being here
when there’s no one around.
Do you ever feel left out,
standing in a room, all alone;
do you ever feel not part of anything,
not there, as if you don’t exist…
Öζιξμ
Written 21/02/1996
read more
Grooming of Another Kind: Kill Me if You Can
Thursday’s Topical Tête-à-Tête: Exploitation through the internet and internet ‘grooming’ is something we are all becoming aware of as the days/weeks/months/years pass by; it is frightening to acknowledge such atrocities are taking place; especially when it involves an innocent child/adolescent. This topic disturbs me to no end therefore, I will not delve too much into it as the direction I want to take is slightly different from the normal discussions surrounding this; however, similarities are likely to be observed.
I watched a documentary a while back, oddly titled Kill Me If You Can (please click on the link (it has a blurb and discussion feed) and take a quiet moment to watch it (or watch it below) -it’s 49 minutes long but it is a must see; I promise you it would be worth your time); why did I watch it? Other than the blurb and the title, the way in which the documentary was filmed piqued my interest (sometimes creativity rules over everything else!); so I watched it till the end and then it got me thinking… (If you still haven’t watched it, now would be the perfect time -unless you are happy about possible spoilers!)
To this day I still wonder if this was a work of fiction rather than an actual criminal case!
read more
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.”
Savvy Sunday Salutations’ to Sonia G. Medeiros
Hellooooo there! This is super blogger number three. Please welcome Sonia G. Medeiros to the spotlight *cheers* I am particular honored to have Sonia along -as she, like Billie Jo Woods, is one of my ‘flash fiction buddies’ and she also likes tormenting herself by combining millions of challenges together! Anyhooo, this is not ‘me-time’ for me (of course I’m not taking away Sonia’ limelight!); so, without further ado, please give a warm welcome to Sonia!
—
I’d like you to meet my inner critic, Agent 36. I wrote this the third month I’d been blogging after a particularly long, bloody struggle with Agent 36. I like to reread it often because it reminds me that, although the inner critic can look so very official, he’s really just a sneaky demon.
Agent 36, Inner Critic Extraordinaire
by Sonia G. Medeiros
Image sourced from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emiliano-iko/6194821506/
The inner critic.
read more
A Fun Game – In Your Head (The Theory & First Analyses)
(Whoopsie -I apparently hit save draft instead of schedule *embarrassed smile* -I wondered why I could not see it here on the blog. Here’s yesterdays’ post; apologies for the delay.)
When I set out devising this game, I had no idea how things would pan out and how life would prolong the inevitable end. Here we are -the part of which where I reveal my theory and if my findings are as I thought it would be. I realise this will likely to end up as a rather long(ish) post; therefore, depending on it’s length I will spilt this up into two or three posts (for the sake of easy reading). Before I start I would like to thank Cynthia, Stephanie, Billie Jo Woods and CM Stewart -you guys have been great sports for taking part and extremely super for being sooo patient!
Now let’s get back to my theory. My theory is a simple one; it was spurred on after I took part in Voice Week hosted by Stephanie. We were required to use different voices to re-act the same scene. Whilst taking part a thought popped in my head (a common known flaw at the best of times ); would a perfect character sketch allow for any writer to write in the same voice (or close enough) as another writer? Hmmm was my response and then this game unwrapped itself.
I can’t believe how ironic it was that the character sketches provided by Billie Jo, Cynthia & CM Stewart was sooo different.
read more