Monthly Archives: October 2015

October 20, 2015 · 3:47 PM

My latest ABC Open 500 Word stories – June to October 2015

My blog has been quiet lately, but my writing has managed to continue in the background.

Here are the last 5 months of my ABC Open 500 Word stories for you to enjoy.

June 2015 – Lost and found

My story, Avoiding distractions, talks about my utter despair when I realised I’d lost my engagement ring… on my wedding day.

July 2015 – Car stories

The longest word I know is about our first family car – the Brougham – and how it didn’t always get us from A to B.

August 2015 – For better for worse

The story Avoiding the inevitable explores how being from broken homes changed the way I view the relationship with my husband.

September 2015 – A test of courage

This month I wrote Zero to 172 km per hour in 1.8 seconds, which is about my ride on the fastest roller coaster in the world.

October 2015 – My big secret

What lurks beneath talks about a trip to the beach with my toilet-training toddler that didn’t happen to go so well…

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October 20, 2015 · 12:19 PM

15. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens (100 book challenge)

I really want to say it, so as cheesy as it is, let me have my moment: I really didn’t have great expectations for this book.

OK, now that’s out of the way I can tell you what I really thought of it.

This was my first ever Dickens that I’ve read cover to cover and I was incredibly impressed. It’s a long book (I know you probably get sick of hearing that from me) but Dickens made me realise that (in the case of novels that span a significant amount of time) length really does matter.

My very first Dickens

My very first Dickens

It took me a long time to get through the 484 pages – sixty-five days in fact – and I found myself in the habit of setting small goals and rewarding myself for chapters finished. I have to read 5 more pages before falling asleep (never worked), or if I get to the end of this chapter I can have a bowl of icecream (all the icecream was eaten well before the end of the book).

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