Catching up

What feels like forever ago I got tagged by Vanilla to do a book meme, then I think this whole Phocotober thing was mentioned, then I got tagged to do the Shameless Lions collective story and then despite not doing any of the above I got an award! But sometimes real life intervenes to keep your fingers away from the keyboard and you may have noticed a lack of me talking about books, writing a story, showing pictures or displaying nice new shiny awards. I do kind of plan to put all that right (this week, not in one post).

But First on the list. I’ve been in touch with the tamer of the pride and apologised, but I won’t be joining in with the Collective Story at the Shameless Lions Writing Circle, which you can find here. I pass the story onto to Maht at the Moon Topples. The Pride is now home to a few homeless lions as well so if you didn’t get one the first time round get in quick.

Seeing as I’m not doing this catch up in any particular order, I’m now going to post some random photos. They are all old photos because although I did have my camera in my bag all week it was raining on Monday when I came home, it was raining on Tuesday. It was raining on Wednesday, Thursday I was tired and Friday I may have been a little tipsy!

Phokotber 1^st

This was taken when I first got my camera a couple of years ago. I fell in love with those swimming pool pictures by David Hockney eons ago and have probably been messing about with the idea reflections on water ever since.

Phokotber 2^nd

I think that Sacre Coeur is quite possibly the most hideous church in all existence, although that one in Lyon is a close second. Despite that I love this little park in its shadows.

Phokotber 3^rd

And something has always got to have it’s redeeming features; gargoyles are always supercool.

Phokotber 4^th

See! This one is in Troyes (pronounced trois – of course) in the Champagne region, or near it, or around it (I once posted a photo of somewhere where I wasn’t too sure of the location and I got this anonymous comment telling me exactly where I had been and where I had not been). It’s not a great photo, but have I mentioned that gargoyles are supercool?

Phokotber 5^th

And flying buttresses are also cool.

Phokotber 6^th

Troyes is a very oldey worldy town and I kind of like the fact that they are keeping it like that. Although if they could please move table service into the 21^st century I would also be grateful.

Phokotber 7^th

A wee announcement or so

Hey all, I've cut and pasted this from The Shameless Lions Writing Circle:

The judging of the lions and poems/prose pieces commences this Wednesday, June 27.

There are Jury AND Writers' Choice Awards, so YOUR vote is needed!

A jury of five independent people chosen by Seamus will pick their favourites and award the following Jury Prizes on Friday, July 13:

Best poems/prose pieces: (winners receive book vouchers and special prize badges to place on their blogs).

Jury Prize 1st Place: Amazon gift voucher worth €20.
Jury Prize 2nd Place: Amazon gift voucher worth €15.
Jury prize 3rd Place: Amazon gift voucher worth €10.
Jury Prize 4th Place: Amazon gift voucher worth €5.
Jury Prize 5th Place: Amazon gift voucher worth €5.

Best looking lions: (winners will have their lions highlighted in a sidebar on this blog and they will be provided with special prize badges to display on their own blogs).

Jury Prize 1st Place: Badge for winning blog.
Jury Prize 2nd Place: Badge for winning blog.
Jury Prize 3rd Place: Badge for winning blog.
Jury Prize 4th Place: Badge for winning blog.
Jury Prize 5th Place: Badge for winning blog.

There will also be Members' Choice Awards announced on July 13.

Best poems/prose pieces: (winners receive an Amazon book voucher and special prize badges for their blogs).

Members' Choice Award 1st Place: Amazon gift voucher worth €10.
Members' Choice Award 2nd Place: Amazon gift voucher worth €5.
Members' Choice Award 3rd Place: Amazon gift voucher worth €5

Best looking lions: (winners will have their lions highlighted in a sidebar on this blog and they will be provided with special prize badges to display on their own blogs).

Members' Choice Award 1st Place: Badge for winning blog.
Members' Choice Award 2nd Place: Badge for winning blog.
Members' Choice Award 3rd Place: Badge for winning blog.

RULES:

1. Members can cast their votes in the Members' Choice categories between June 27 and July 11 . Please choose your top TEN favourite pieces/lions (excluding your own and mine - Seamus at Shameless Words!) and rank them in order of preference, with the first line of your list (first choice) being your top choice. Please do not vote for your own pieces/lions! Also, please do not vote for my (Seamus Kearney) lion or poem!

Please write voting papers like this, not forgetting to Seamus who you are:

First poem/prose choice: name of blog (ie top choice, overall favourite)
Second poem/prose choice: name of blog
Third poem/prose choice: name of blog
(etc)
Tenth poem/prose choice: name of blog (ie 10th on list of favourites)

First lion choice: name of blog (ie top choice, overall favourite)
Second lion choice: name of blog
(etc)

2. Votes must be sent only by email to seak@caramail.com AFTER June 27 and BEFORE July 11.

3. The same member can win in one or more categories. A member who gets a jury prize may also win a members' choice award.

4. Please only consider the short poem/piece of prose (48 words or under) that appears in each member's individual listing. Do not take into account any longer pieces that have been added to the listings.

5. Book vouchers will be ordered on the Amazon site of the country you live in. Where there is no Amazon site, cash may be sent in the post. The vouchers will be organised in the week starting July 23. You will be sent the voucher via email with a code to use on Amazon.

6. The jury's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into about the list of winners.

7. Please do spread the word on your blogs about the contest, to get people visiting and commenting on all of the individual poems/prose pieces.

Do you think I've spread the word?

As well as commenting on the poems/prose pieces over at the circle, I've added a button called 'Endelyn's Mates'. If you click on that you will be taken at random to the blog of one of the other 47 members of the circle.

And while we are talking about Circles and writing and what not, pop over to Minx's. She's got a great idea and wants to know what we think about it.

Right, now I have to go and force out a bunch of words. I'm being paid to do it, but boy I don't want to...

Synchronicity

When Seamus announced this Lion thing a few weeks back I didn’t hesitate about whether I was going to join or not. Work was dragging me under but I held a certain fondness for those lions and having seen some of them in the flesh (so to speak) I felt certain connection to them. The Shameless Lions Writing Circle has really taken off and I don’t know what it will become, but there is a really good feel about it. Some of the Lions have even branched off and created their own blogs or are off on travels who knows where. The original posts back at the circle have become a little more in-depth including the inspiration behind the names and Seamus has found the creator of each lion.

As I browsed Ahtzic Silis’s website on Monday there seemed a certain synchronicity in having chosen Endelyn, or maybe Endelyn chose me. Silis is an El Salvadorian artist and designer whose work is influenced by Mayan mythology. Although my trip into Mayan territory was at the end of my stay in Mexico, it was Latin American culture that awoke my senses after what felt like a period of being asleep. It seems so right that Endelyn’s inspiration comes from that land.

And then Endelyn’s name. Without a doubt if I ever went back to England it would be somewhere in the South West. I spent four years there and I remember that every time the coach joined the A38 it would be like I was coming home, whereas going over the Hammersmith overpass filled me with dread. So again it just seems so right that her name is Cornish.

So now a little word from my muse.

From Hurucan

When Hurucan sparked into existence
did you know that one day I would be with you?
When you first looked into my golden eyes
did you question how I came to be?
As your hands caressed my very force,
did you feel the crackle of unity
skip along your every fibre?

We are connected now, you and I.
We were connected then, you and I
though we did not know it.
A filament so fine joined us
through time and history
drawing us closer together,
though embroiled in other tragic stories.

Travelling closer than further apart,
until the cord between us uncoiled.
Lost in a swirl of confusion
we reached out, caught hold, drew in.
You explore me with your eyes
boring into what is beneath the skin,
the landscape of my very existence.

What did you feel standing before me?
Your soul engulfed in emptiness.
Regret that you were not aware
of my closeness.
Indifferent coincidence brought us together,
the union of senses and being
now holds us in our place.

©Copyright, 2007. Verilion

Presenting...

From the beginning I decided that some of Shameless’s lions were female. I actually chose her name last Tuesday, but I didn’t really have time to fully research it and do some variations until today. I knew that I wanted her name to mean fire, but according to my in depth research it actually means fire soul. The name is apparently Gaelic, but I could only find details of a Cornish saint who somehow become all embroiled with King Arthur and had the power to bring people and her cow back to life!

So the name began as Endellion, sometimes spelt Endillyon, the Saint is Endelienta, but I liked the Cornish variant. So please welcome to my blog:

Endelyn

The fire within burns vibrant on her skin,
tattooing vague patterns of blazing dragons
across her flank.
Wild imaginings bursting forth,
swirling to indefinite
beginnings, middles and endings.
Prowling forth into uncertainty,
her radiance undiminished,
her force yet unrealised,
her soul a rich muse
of consciousness.

Copyright, 2007. Verilion

And please click here to go and say hello to some of her other pals, and here if you would like to adopt a lion. They're very good really. I have to admit that mine takes up a little more space on the sofa then I would like, but she's very amiable to snuggling and she's got a purr like you wouldn't believe!