Tag Archives: writing

Fifty shades of Envy – the stories we tell ourselves

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So yesterday was Super Bowl fever and 13 Movie Trailers made their debut during the ad slots – one of them being the infamous “Fifty Shades“. The book sold over 100 million copies and has been translated into 51 languages worldwide and  although the trailer aired just yesterday it already has 382 520 hits. E.L. James (the pen name of Erika Leonard) must be loving it. Those stats are awesome and I have to admit that as a writer they make me rather envious!

Photo 1: Green – the colour of Envy

Chrysanthemum green 2

The thing is though that Erika shipped. She started by writing fanfiction and she actually self-published Fifty Shades of Grey as an e-book in 2011. She had to be bold and brave. She had to take her turn. She wrote every day – even on her phone. She says she didn’t do anything else for two years.

Photo 2: Shades of Green

Leaves growing

The bestselling author even admits that her writing is not great and that she is stunned by the reaction it got. The entire book has been attributed to her midlife crisis.

So instead of being envious, her story has now inspired me. A suburban mom of two going through a midlife crisis who doesn’t have exceptional writing talent gets to write an international blockbuster!

What is your story?

Let the blogging #YourTurnChallenge begin!

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Live. Lead. Contribute.

Roses pink cluster on blue

I have joined the #YourTurnChallenge and started a new blog called Junbi. I would love to hear your thoughts on it!

This blog was initiated because of a challenge by Winnie Kao, the Special Projects Lead for Seth Godin, linked to his book What to do when it’s your turn (and it’s always your turn), to do a blog post a day for 7 days.

To follow Seth’s key theme in his book – it’s my opportunity to take my turn and to make a difference. We all have the opportunity to contribute, to lead and to live our lives to the full.

My husband is blogging for this challenge too. Read his posts on Remarkable Runs.

I have been blogging for a few years now. I have tried various approaches and some have worked while others haven’t. Fables and Flora has been my most successful as I think it’s involves the content that I am most passionate about – flowers of course! My aim for 2015 is to revamp Fables and Flora and take the content to new exciting places so watch this space.

Hope you enjoy the journey with me and please give Junbi a read too!

Of Fables, Flora and Freelancing

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Welcome to the Fables, Flora and Freelancing blog!

It seems appropriate to commence this blog when the signs of spring and new beginnings are all around us. The sights of budding daffodils, snowdrops and crocuses make me, Vanessa Lee Thomas, want to spend all day outside with my camera and also to write.

So what’s in the name? It centres around the things I love doing storytelling, taking photographs of flowers and my journey into the world of working as a freelancer.

Fables of course pertain to those short fictional tales often including animals that can speak or some other mythical creatures that provide a moral or life lesson. Now that I have embarked on a career of writing I plan to write some tales to distribute via this blog and take some time to reminisce about the old favourites.

My photographic skills leave a lot to be desired at this stage but I am hoping that my enthusiasm carries me through the learning process. The technical detail and techniques I encountered when I first bought a digital photography magazine were rather daunting but at the same time very exciting. The lessons I learn will be shared and you can judge the outcome based on the content of my Flickr photostream. Comments and tips would also be appreciated.

Working from home as a freelance writer fits in nicely with being the mother of two small children with busy schedules but also has its challenges so finding ways to stay motivated is key. Snippets on freelancing and writing will therefore also appear from time to time.

I hope you will enjoy this journey with me and will leave you with these famous words by William Wordsworth:

‘Daffodils’

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.