Author: April-Rose Appleby

Darling Daughters

Posted on by April-Rose Appleby

Chapter Two

Some very many miles away the wind was whistling violently across a sea filled with turmoil. Somewhat reflecting the soul f one particular passenger on the ferry sat sullenly with dark expressions. A beautiful girl whose face seemed to, in its own mystery, reflect the deep grey sky that dragged the wind through the sea. Coursing waves had encouraged a sickly shade of green nausea.

The girl had sat unable to drag her eyes from the turbulent landscape. In her sweating palms she gripped a letter, once again she read the scrawl of writing, now almost known to her by memory.  Her saving distraction, an invite to visit relatives she had not long discovered, ready to embark on the new journey for the beginning of the summer.

The girl had no reason to believe in luck, she had prayed to herself that there was more than what met the eye. She had put her family through a search engine, she could barely believe she was related to this inspiring family. She had always believed she was less than ordinary, always so lacking; yet somehow she never could fit in among her peers. Her way of thinking did nothing in conforming to regular convention. Ever the oddball, after all how could she believe the world to be reflecting the turmoil within out on the sea she was sailing.

Her eyes flicked back to the envelope, “Miss E M Darling”. She didn’t feel like a Darling, not by any measure; they were great, inspiring, creative, and so it seemed sheer genius. Not once had she dared to believe herself a fraction as wonderful. Continue reading →

The 2017 Project

Posted on by April-Rose Appleby

So… The Penultimate 2017 project!!! SO less than a month to see what I can do before New Year… Not long until I begin to finalize the goals I want to achieve in 2018, of which there seems to be a steady supply. Not sure if I will keep the habit swap. Lets see what happens.

So sadly I couldn’t fit nanowrimo in November. However I did complete number 14 which means that is 7 of my 24 goals completed and I have officially succeeded at my New Years resolution for the first time ever!!!

So while the other goals I haven’t quite mastered yet, I have to say I am very proud of what I have achieved next year. I want to do this challenge again next year it was fun and enjoyable.

Now the current in progress goals are well,  8, 10, 17, 22 mainly now. Though I am still going to try the others if I can fit it in.

The 24-7 goals:

1- Write The Diary of Elliot Parker Part 2

2- Do NANOWRIMO

3- Write The Diary of Elliot Parker Part 3?

4- Write the first book of the big project

5- Finish spine tattoo

6- Finish magpie tattoo

7- Finish musical rib tattoo

8- Look for an agent/publisher for the “big” project

9- Learn to drive

10- Learn guitar

11- Finish knitting the cable knit jumper

12- Finish knitting the blankets

13- Improve views on here

14- See a west end show

15- Try and succeed at least three times on the 21 day habit swap

16- Win the lotto jackpot

17- Look for the positives more often

18- Meditate regularly

19- Keep making emotional progress

20- Keep hope and loose more doubt

21- Make posts for here in advanced, consider adding pictures, try to avoid leaving it to the last minute

22- Try to grow my hair long- aim for below the shoulder this year.

23- Become even more open-minded

24- Discover my own special brand of writers magic,

Habit swapping:

Break- Stop apologizing for myself so often. I do it a lot, it is something that really bothers me, mainly because I apologise for things that are completely not my fault and nothing to do with me. I am sick of apologizing for my own existence.

Make- Eat at least one piece of fruit a day. It is supposed to be healthy right?

Make- Write/plot at least an hour each day even on rest days. I have to start getting stricter on myself.

Make- Create and stick to a writing schedule. I have to start being more organised.

Break- Stop being hard on myself, speak kinder words to myself instead. That pretty much explains itself.

Make- A daily list of 3 positive things that I like about my day. Because sometimes it is easy to forget that there were brief sunshine moments.

Make- A daily list of 3 things that I like about myself, physical, non-physical. Because, it can be hard to show yourself some love.

Make- A little notebook of positive aspects, a once a day entry of 10 things that are positive. Literally a list of positive aspects about people, places, things; maybe one day I will post it on here.

That’s all  for now, it might change or grow but other than that, it’s all feeling good!

Darling Daughters

Posted on by April-Rose Appleby

Chapter One

The manner fell silent.

For once the manner had stopped creaking, the wind daren’t rattle the shutters. The house had stopped living; it had fallen silent in mourning. The manner hadn’t always been this way. After all, the house had seen some truly revolutionary dinner parties. The house had played host to family gatherings and celebrations; it had seen births, christenings, communions, confirmations, after parties, birthdays, weddings and deaths. The reason for its last gathering.

The old Manner itself had begun to mourn the late, the great, Archibald Joseph Darling. The man who had bonded with the house, loving its creaks and murmurs. Archie had danced the fine line between creative genius and madness all of his life, but it was he who had exposed the house’s true personality. This was the very first house to be built on this land. Having replaced the original building after its burning down around 150 or so years ago it was returned to its former glory, and then some.

This house was the foundations for the town. A beautiful little place in New England called Grimeston, not too far from Stars Hollow. The house was made truly spectacular by Archie; after all it was his inheritance. Before Archie the gardens had been plain and simple, until he designed and sculpted a stunning water feature in the centre of the back garden with neatly encouraged tangled ivy and beautiful roses trained along the borders of the garden. The house had never looked so bright and alive. Continue reading →

What’s coming up next?

Posted on by April-Rose Appleby

Well when I first began to wonder about the question I realised my original idea has to change. I haven’t been able to take part in NANOWRIMO like I had planned and hoped I could and would have, although I did begin starting to look at the project ideas and begin planning what I want it to be like I have struggled to even begin to get the words down on paper.

So I know this isn’t the ideal situation I was hoping for. I found myself with a lot of half started stories this year, and only a couple of them have been finished. So what do I want to do with the remainder of 2017? Well… I am going to do something naughty. I am going to post the first three chapters of the big project around Christmas time, so stay tuned. But I warn you, those three chapters of the big project over the Christmas period are likely to be all that is ever shown in a preview on here until I have an agent/publisher and a publishing contract and date etc all sorted out. Yes, I know that is mean, just giving a little teaser and taster of a project I have honestly loved writing. I am still hunting for the agent and publisher so it probably is a bit mean to be saying here this is the great big project I have been preparing for, for the last seven or eight years. But that being said, seven or eight years is a long old time to be working on something. I love this story and I can’t wait to share it but right now this is all I feel like it is time to share.

But that is not enough I know. So this year will see the start of a project I wrote a while ago and that has had a bit of editing from its first draft of horror to this draft of shame… in the hope that it could be more of what I wanted it to be like. It had a little bit of a make-over, which it sorely needed, and I think my way of writing has evolved and changed since then so of course editing was very painfully cringe-y. I enjoyed writing this story the first time because it meant a lot to me that I had been inspired by the wonderful strong women I know. So that will start this year and be adjusted into next year’s new post structure/schedule. So I will probably be releasing that in its chapters and I will release that as a whole next year on amazon kindle so keep your eyes peeled. It’s called Darling Daughters and will begin to appear on here VERY soon.

So what is happening to The Diary of Elliot Parker? Well, I am continuing the project, it’s developed a life of its own and taken a few twists and turns already I can’t wait to share… I think Elliot Parker is here to stay for a while, just how much post time it gets over the next year is debatable, it will return in the new year to share some screen space with Darling Daughters… I love writing TDEP and I am reluctant to let it go just yet. It’s a hell of a lot of fun to write.

Hopefully with any luck I will also be able to begin to work on the project I had planned to do for NANOWRIMO, get a good plot hashed out and ready to write, write that and then hopefully it will be ready to appear some-time next year. I just need to get a few projects done… ok more than a few. I think there is a to do list that is longer than I am tall… I will get it done though. I refuse to fall into the abyss of worrying too much about the to do list to actually get it done. It’s just going to take some time… So yes I know I am currently borrowing time like crazy, but I will get some exciting new projects and work written up soon! I promise.

So I know this isn’t exactly what I planned. But I have to roll with it, life is a bit unpredictable so I am going to be working even harder now than I was before to make sure I am releasing the best work I can on here for you to read.

May luck and adventure be on your side.

ARA xx

 

Author Update (November 2017)

Posted on by April-Rose Appleby

So it is November after all… This year has gone so very quickly.

Where has this year gone? I can’t believe it has gone so very fast! Not long until Christmas and New Year!

Has everyone else done all their Christmas shopping and gotten everything done yet?

I’ve been thinking about what I want to do next year, in terms of New Years resolutions. I am beginning to wonder what next year will bring but I am sure it will be good.

I have barely done any writing lately but I am hoping to settle into creating a new rhythm so that I am making more time to write. To be honest, barely is putting it mildly.

No NANOWRIMO this year sadly but maybe next?

This month on Netflix… I watched the Daredevil and some of the new Heartland series but other than that, tv has been lazy half baked viewing. I finished watching all of the new series of Vampire Diaries and have been watching some of the Greenhouse Academy too.

Guitar has been SO VERY slow, I have been trying to decide what song to master next but the practice schedule has been pretty hard to achieve… as in, I haven’t practiced, although we learned Two Worlds Collide by Demi Lovato, as much as I like the song I don’t think it is one that I like playing on guitar sadly.

My sumbissions of The Big Project to agents and publishers has been slow and painful… extremely … No luck as yet but there is always hope for the future.

I am still working on that whole work/writing/life balance… its harder than I thought.

Of course I still gotta throw a little plug in for The Diary of Elliot Parker 🙂 I likes writing it so of course I will keep reminding you…

The Diary of Elliot Parker Part Three is now available! Here is the UK link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075VSBT3Q

Here is the US link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075VSBT3Q

 

And as always… I just want to remind you that there are books that are open, and available to you. So here is the link to my amazon author page, why not see if something takes your fancy? There is plenty up there to get you caught up from the first edition to the current of The Diary of Elliot Parker. Perhaps I might even stick something new on there soon so watch this space!!!

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA xxx