Category: Poem Attempts

Catching up with T. J. Blake – latest articles and creative pieces

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Sorry that I’ve been a neglectful blogger recently, but I’ve had a busy few weeks. After bagging myself a new job (which I start on Monday – woop!), I’ve been finishing up with my then current (now former) employer, editing my next thriller DECEPTION, and of course, been preparing for Monday.

Anyway, to the point of this speedy post, I thought I would just give you the titles and links to my latest articles and creative pieces; which I’ve added to my blog T. J. Blake #Author the past few months.

So, below are my latest blog posts, articles and general writing material.

About me

Why did I choose to self-publish?

Articles

How has technology affected the relation between speech and writing?

Overuse of the exclamation mark: You’re having a laugh!!!! A little strict?!!

Creative Writing

Flash Fiction

Poem Attempts

Short Story Nightmare

Illusory Waters

 

Please have a read of my latest material. Feel free to comment with your opinion, and please do share 🙂

Further amendments to my blog

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What have I been doing with all of my Saturday morning? Well I’m feeling a bit ill, so I thought why not stay in and do some work on my blog; before knuckling down to write some more of DECEPTION.  

So, what have I done? Well, I came across a piece of work which I wrote in my first year of university. At the time I think I received a 2:1, but reading back I’m not sure how I got such a good mark!
Anyway, I went through it, made a couple of changes and now it’s available to read on my blog as an article. This brings me onto my first change to the blog, my new page – the’Articles‘ page – where I can now upload articles I write or find lurking within my computer. You’re probably wondering what my article is about? It’s about how technological development has impacted our language. The article covers a basic overview of how technology has adapted, as well as looking into how it has changed people’s writing and speaking capabilities, or has it? – How has technology affected the relation between speech and writing?

I’ve also created a ‘Creative Writing‘ page, which basically merges most of my creative pieces together. These pieces currently include my Flash Fiction, ‘Poem Attempts’ and Short Story Nightmare.
On this Creative Writing page, I have added something pretty nifty. Everyone loves a poll (I know I certainly do) and when we see one on a website, it’s hard not to vote, right? This is why I have created a poll for my Creative Writing page. By going to this page and scrolling to the bottom, you can find the poll and place a vote!
It’s a basic question, it’s not political and it isn’t going to impact anyone’s life, but I would like to know which of my Creative Writing pieces you enjoyed most.

Those are my two major changes to the T. J. Blake #Author blog, feel free to have a nose!

Another makeover for the blog! 

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Hi everyone. 

If you’ve visited my blog in the last couple of days, then you’ll have noticed that the blog now has a complete new look as well as some new pages. 

With a notepad style theme and new pages dedicated to my writing, you’ll have the chance to see my ‘Poem Attempts’, Flash Fiction/Micro Fiction and new short story nightmare. 

Click the new page names above to see some of my writing – feel free to comment on the pages with your opinions, questions and own writing. 

Enjoy the blog and I look forward to hearing from you! 🙂 

A Great Article For Us Self-Published Authors

T. J. Blake3 Comments

I came across this article on Forbes which is about a very successful British Self-Published Author Mark Dawson. Mark makes hundreds of thousands a year from his self-published book series.
He explains that it’s mostly about his marketing tactics, and unsurprisingly Facebook being the most effective.

I’ve used Facebook campaigns in the past to advertise specific posts and my Facebook pages, and it is effective, so I would definitely agree with Mark. Only thing that differs between us is that I don’t make as much money as him!

This is a very useful article to read so go and have a look at what Mark Dawson had to say about his success and how he did it.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2015/05/12/how-this-self-published-author-made-450000-part-2/

National Poetry Day!

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As you may know today is National Poetry Day!

Not so long ago I did a blog event called ‘Poem Attempts’ I think it went reasonably well, I had no criticisms so my poems couldn’t have been too bad!

Relive my poems now in aid of Poetry Day! Click My Poem Attempts now! 🙂

You can take part in Poetry Day by visiting http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/national-poetry-day/ and joining in on the hashtags #thinkofapoem

My ‘Poem Attempts’ Farewell

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So of course yesterday, my Poem Attempt 4 signalled the ending to my blog’s ‘Poem Attempts’.

If you missed it you’re probably thinking ‘What the hell are you on about?’

Well basically if you do not know, I am a writer of the genre Psychological Horror, Mystery, Thriller and Sci Fi I have written two books Endurance and The Author.

I have never been a fan of poetry nor have I ever written it. But for my university course, I had to write poetry. Of course, I was very worried about it. I remember fearing that this one module would finish me off and make me lose my degree. But I actually enjoyed writing poetry.

I decided to share my poems on this blog for you to read. I decided to do a ‘Poem Attempts Weekend’ event on my blog over four days. I uploaded a poem once a day.

If you missed this then you can catch up with it all by scrolling through my blog or you can just click here to see all my poems on one page.

If you want to see the posts separately with my thought process/commentary,  then please click on each of the poem attempts below to see each blog post.

Poem Attempt 1: Invisible Friend

Poem Attempt 2: My Family

Poem Attempt 3: 4 5683 968

Poem Attempt 4: Emotion + Experience – A Path Of Life

 

Thank you for reading!

Poem Attempt 4: Emotion + Experience – A Path Of Life

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This is the last post of my ‘Poem Attempts’.

I hope all that have followed have enjoyed my experiment and attempts with poetry. Please feel free to share which one of the 4 poems were your favourite and maybe even share your own poems.

If you have missed my other poem attempts, read them here now by clicking on their title – Poem Attempt 1: Invisible Friend , Poem Attempt 2: My Family , Poem Attempt 3: 4 5683 968

My final poem was in all honesty, really odd. I came up with the idea to experiment with the difference between context and emotion. I did this by aligning the different contexts to the left and then the emotions to the right.
Aligned in the centre are something different, a marker to distinguish growth, maturity and life changing decisions.

The final line can be interpreted in many different ways. It would be great if you could share what you believe the last line is telling us and whether the poem works for you or not.

 

Copyright © 2014 T. J. Blake
All rights reserved.

 

Emotion + Experience – A Path Of Life

The monster under your bed,

 An influence of a child’s imagination

Staring into the darkness,

Susceptible to vulnerability

The uninvited thought of death,

 Fear the end of life

A knife in the back,

Experiencing deceit and pain

Friendships go missing,

Rejection and Disappointment

Life moves quickly,

Dread the future

Many decisions…

The beginning of a parting path of human life

 

A life threatening choice

Become a unit,

Fight for your country,

Wear your uniform,

Be proud, gain maturity and discipline

Silent your fears,

Control your fear

Look out onto the battlefield,

And Fight.

No longer fear.

By T. J. Blake

And that concludes my ‘Poem Attempts Weekend’ which overlapped onto a Friday and Monday.
I hope you enjoyed my poetry and have inspired you to maybe consider writing poetry.
What I have learnt from writing poetry is that you can write whatever you want, in what ever way you like in many different presentational styles. Another thing – Poetry does not have to rhyme.

Thank you for reading.

Poem Attempt 3: 4 5683 968

T. J. Blake2 Comments

Firstly I would like to thank everybody who is following my ‘Poem Attempts Weekend’ with me. Hope you’re enjoying them!

Although poetry is completely out of my comfort zone, I decided to throw romance into the mix.
This was another task for my university course. The task was to write a poem using or about technology. A pretty broad subject right?
I decided to focus partly on texts/texting, including stereotypical ‘text speech’.

If you haven’t already been following my ‘Poem Attempts Weekend, then please feel free catch up starting with ‘Poem Attempt 1: Invisible Friend’ followed by ‘Poem Attempt 2: My Family’.

But for now, here’s Poem Attempt 3!

 

Copyright © 2014 T. J. Blake
All rights reserved.

 

4 5683 968

 

Dazzled by the phone’s screen in the blackness,

Waiting for a text or call.

Staring at her name, I picture her within,

Lustring hair,

Outstandingly addictive stare,

Voluptuous and,

Enticing lips.

 

Previous message, “its nt u its me”,

Patterns itself across my watering eyes,

The inner voice repeating the text,

That un-describable feeling from my stomach to my throat,

Salted tears fills my senses, hope disperse.

“plz dnt leave”, followed by 4 5683 968. Send.

 

Phone groans, light shines; burning eyes.

“needin space” comes the reply,

The brain freezes, the heart sinks,

Loneliness settles,

Tears fall.

 

I begin to type, what to say?

Beg her? Respect her plea?

Instead, I just type “4 5683 968”,

“I Love You”

 

By T. J. Blake

Poem Attempt 2: My Family

T. J. Blake3 Comments

We in the UK are experiencing weather which we are certainly not used to. Sun and heat!
My next poem attempt will be a good one to read in the sun!

This is the first poem that I wrote.
It was part of a task at university where we were given a number of words that we needed to include into the piece. The words I chose were feud, whir, Blackberry and a couple of other which I cannot remember.

But please, tell me what you think of my poetry. You can look at my ‘Poem Attempt 1: Invisible Friend’ by clicking here.

Enjoy!

 

Copyright © 2014 T. J. Blake
All rights reserved.

 

My Family

Standing upright, forgetting the past feuds,

I stare.

Blades of grass, stroke between my toes,

Clouds afloat on the deep blue,

Wind hits the trees, peeling to a whir,

Curls of smoke cascade the flame, cooking raw meat.

I stare.

Dangling hand feels the rough, moist lick from the Spaniel,

The Blackberry drones against the wood,

The bass of voices vibrate through the ground,

Followed by a roar of laughter,

I stare.

Forgetting the past feuds, I stand upright.

I join my family around the fire.

 

By T. J. Blake

 

Poem Attempt 1: Invisible Friend

T. J. Blake4 Comments

This is one of the first poems I wrote. We were given the opportunity to write what ever we wanted to but to insert break lines. So I decided to combine Poetry and my favoured genre Horror.
I hope this works, let me know what you think of it.

 

Copyright © 2014 T. J. Blake
All rights reserved.

 

Invisible Friend

I walk in, where

I once lived.

Wooden rocking horse and

Ticking grandfather clock

All remain.

glowing yellow eyes appear,

Beneath the patchy, carpeted stairs leading

to my bedroom.

 

gaping cracks and

Burrowed mice holes in each corner of

the worn steps.

My friend waits for me,

Gold ponytails with plastic flowers,

Just like my mummy did to me.

light blue dress with printed daffodils,

Red shoes and a friendship bracelet which I made

but she found.

 

We run to our room.

Sharing the bed each night.

We have tea parties,

my friend hosts.

Offering me and the guests tea,

her daddy bursts in.

‘who are you talking to darling?’

 

Previously loved,

here my spirit broke free.

 

By T. J. Blake