AtoZ Challenge: I is for INTERVIEW

Interviews of my fellow writers are coming up in May and June as part of our launch of the STORM anthology. They are Carmen Botman, Richard T Wheeler, Charmain Lines, Natalie Rivener, and Vanessa Wright.

If you like to ask a question I will ask each of them to answer in return - add it to the comments please. Hint: you can be as creative as you like, we are an out-of-the-box kind of group ☻

AtoZ Blog Challenge: H is for HOBBIES

Most creative people, at least the ones I know, do more than one creative activity. Writers paint or knit or take photographs. I am the same. I like to paint abstracts in acrylics, and

Cleo's Collar by Linze Brandon

have recently discovered the pleasures of oil painting. My latest canvas is 60" by 20" and was inspired by a book I bought with the lead glass window designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.

I also dabble in counted cross-stitch, where I prefer patterns of 20,000 stitches or more. Even designed my own pattern or two upon occasion.

The weirdest thing I do is to decorate my writer's journal. I keep personal journals online (with serious encryption for privacy) but let out my need to "sticker" and draw in my writing journal. I have also seemed to inspire at least two of my writers' group members to start doing the same.

My non-creative hobbies include fly-fishing. I mastered the technique in minutes, and have been known to catch a trout or two. It is not something that I get to do very often, but there was a promise made that Hubby will book us a weekend break in trout season, and then I can go indulge this need of mine to cast a line. He prefers to take photographs, but the scenery is so beautiful that I don't blame him if he spends most of his time with his camera instead of his fishing pole.

I also like archery. I don't do it competitively, only socially, if there is such a thing. I like the discipline and enjoy spending hours shooting arrows in our back yard with my compound bow. Yes, it is a weapon and the arrows I use can inflict fatal wounds, but safety is always of primary concern. So much so that I have trained my dogs to always remain within my line of sight, but not in the direction in which I am shooting the arrows.

I have shot arrows at water-filled balloons and big red apples for my husband and the resulting photographs were rather spectacular.

I am also a Manchester United football fan, but have not had much time to watch any games this season. As captain of a Superbru group of fans, The Broomstick Gang, I like to think I know my game, but so far this season, my team has not been playing up to expectation. Maybe next season?

Do you like sports? Do you have any non-creative hobbies? I like these activities for relaxation only, but have had a moment or two of inspiration for a story. Does this happen to you?

AtoZ Blog Challenge: G is for GUEST Post

All the guru's tell you that guest posting on other people's blogs is a good idea to grow your exposure - build your audience (if I may use the buzz words). While I like for other people to have a good word or two on my blog, I am rather hesitant to spread my words all over other people's blogs.

Am I shy? No, quite the opposite. The reason has to do with the masses upon masses of information in cyberspace. Why keep on repeating the same stuff over and over, and many times it is not even re-packaged to be better?

But when I am offered such an opportunity, I would rather share a lesson learned. Some lessons come at a high price. Where I as an indie author can save another or aspiring author, time, money or prevent a mistake due to ignorance, it is time and words well spent.

See my latest lesson learned and backup plans for STORM, a project of the Pretoria Writers' Group coming in June.

If you would like to be a guest on my blog, I have a theme of TIME MANAGEMENT this year. Please contact my by leaving a comment here, on a message on Twitter (please use #LinzeB in the tweet) or Facebook.

I would love to have your perception, tips and tales on this very important topic in any person's life.

AtoZ Blog Challenge: F is for FAVOURITES

When I made a list of my A to Z Blog Challenge posts, I promised to add a more personal flavour to my blog. So here is a list of some of my favourites:

• Coffee: We all like coffee (it is as essential as oxygen to a writer) but my favourite is
  
  what we call an Americano here. It is known as a Tall Black in other countries. Yip, espresso topped with hot water. I drink it at home too - simply can't live without the stuff! 

• Vegetable: Ha, you didn't expect this one, did you? As a child I was a fussy eater, to my Mother's biggest frustration. No amount of bribing could convince me to eat veggies I didn't like...ever. But as a child and to this day, my favourite veggie is lettuce. All of the varieties, sweet to bitter - love 'em all! And am I still so fussy? Not at all. As a student I realised that I had nothing against the vegetables at all, I just hated them because of the ways they were cooked back then. When my Mother changed that (and she is a great cook, by the way) I converted with a smile.

• Colours: My favourite colour is black. I wear black, sometimes with a splash of something else, more than 90% of the time. The only time when I divert from that, is for a practical reason: my job requires spending time in one of the hottest parts of South Africa, and then my black clothing stays home.
  My second favourite colour is purple. I get ribbed about that one quite often, since I had my hair coloured purple and blue. Which reminds me, it is time for another touch up.

What are you favourites? Favourite food, your all time number one spice to cook with, and kick-back to relax alcoholic beverage?

Voice Recognition Software and I: Part 3

As promised here is Part 3 of my experiences using voice recognition software (Links to Part 1 and Part 2). At first I thought it was going to be easy, I write therefore I can dictate, right? Wrong. I might be the exception, but making the transition from typing to dictating took longer than I thought.

For one I am not a talker, meaning that I am not overly fond of hearing my own voice the whole time. It took some getting used to, and it was easier when I was alone at home. Once I got more comfortable with that stage, I could continue doing it when my husband was home. Weird I know, especially since I have been married to him for twenty years. But then again human behaviour in unusual situations can be unpredictable.

Contrary to how it might sound, it took me only about three days to overcome that hurdle, so the writing flowed much easier by then.

Then came the scenes with intimacy, and that is not just sex writing. Extreme intimacy can be emotional and I have found that I get so involved with my characters that I cannot dictate these words fluently.

Since I also write erotica and the kind of language that can be associated with that, can be difficult too. It slows down the flow of words where I had to spell words not in the software's dictionary. So I decided to type the words for those kind of scenes. Fortunately, in erotic romance stories there are fewer sex scenes than people think.

The last and most difficult thing that I had to learn was “writing” while talking. I can think and plot and visualise my words while I type. It had been a big hurdle to overcome to do the same while dictating. It is still not an easy thing to do, and the software makes mistakes because of the way that I dictate as a result.

It takes a lot of practice to use voice recognition software and I will need to get back into it from the start, since my preferred writing computer has been out of commission for several weeks now. I have an old notebook that I have been using, and it is perfect for type writing, if you will excuse the pun, but it is not sufficient for the software.

If you decide to try out voice recognition software, Dragon Naturally Speaking or any other, do allow yourself the time to learn to use it properly. Find your groove with dictation by being patient with the computer, it is truly only a dumb machine. Also be patient with yourself and you will not be sorry when the words start flowing by at least double your normal word count targets for the day.

I can type about a thousand words per hour, but with DNS I upped that to 2500 without any additional effort, after I did the training of course :)

I am happy with using Dragon Naturally Speaking and will recommend it to anyone who wishes to write by means of dictation.

AtoZ Blog Challenge: E is for EMAIL Subscription

If you are like most of us these days, you are very selective when subscribing to any email

Image: Pinterest

list. And if you do there is either something you get for free, or you like what the host is telling you. I can already hear you thinking, what kind of freebie will be offered, or epiphany am I going to tell to you about to get your attention, and get you to subscribe--the answer is...neither.
There are many people out there offering all kinds of advice, or something like a free e-book to get your subscription, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you are happy with your subscriptions and you have the time to read the ones popping into your inbox, then keep them and read them, otherwise why waste your time?
As you might know April is also the time for Camp NaNoWriMo and I am working to finish the first draft of my third novel, Michael's Mystery. While it is still an incomplete first draft, ie full of plot gaps and grammatical errors, I will let you in on sneak previews of what is to come, hopefully later this year.
You can read such a scene here and if you want to feast your eyes on more to come, now would be a good time to subscribe to my mailing list. And no, there won't be daily emails, neither weekly or even monthly. I have other projects going on as well, and respect that your time is as valuable to you as mine is to me.

What is the mystery that has Michael so intrigued that he remains on Kryane even after the court case?

AtoZ Blog Challenge: D is for DREAMS

My post today is not for the kind of dreams that we have in repose, but for those we have

awake. Daydreams, dreams of the future, dreams of what we wish to become. Even animals dream, but what distinguishes us from our furry or aquatic friends, is the ability to dream of what we want to be.
Of course, we cannot become birds flying about in the sky, but dreaming about it, made flight possible. We became...more.
In dreams we overcome our limitations, it is then up to our desire to make it happen. To be the more that we dream about. Whether it is to be a painter, a sculptor, a writer, a pilot or a teacher.
Our successes in achieving these dreams come with our commitment to make it happen. Our sacrifices, some big, some small, to do the time will determine our level of achievement.
How do you define success? Fame? Money? Recognition?
Do I see myself as a Nobel laureate? Hey, that would be nice, but that is not what I need to be happy as a writer.
I write, therefor I am a writer; therefor I am happy.
I do not write full-time, reality dictates that I have financial obligations that needs to be attended to, but I make the time for my dream. What I sacrifice to make it happen, is what makes it worthwhile. That is how I define success.

You can read more about my dream - Chasing the Dream

Do you still chase your dreams?