Have you been asked what inspires you to write?
Does your answer change from day to day?
The people around me fills my delight
And listening to what they have to say

What should I write?
I ask myself A poem, a story, something descriptive
I look towards my inspirational shelf
Maybe it’s time for something less addictive

Will my words flow from the pen to my page
And let my inner feelings be set free
Or will they stay locked within my writer’s block cage
Where no one but me can see

No one should say that writer’s block has over taken
When inspiration is around us everywhere waiting to awaken.

He held her in his arms and told her that he was never going to let her go again. He had lost her once, due to a silly mistake on his part and he was going to make sure he made it work between them, so that it never happened again.

Marie sighed as she closed the cover of another book and placed it back on the shelf. She ran her fingers over the spines, reading the titles, trying to make up her mind which was to be her next romance novel to devour. If only the heroes of her books would emerge from between the pages and sweep Marie, cleanly off her feet. Imagination and dreams were a wonderful thing.

To say I have wanted to attend Eroticon for quite some time is an understatement.  I don’t know if I was scared, or what I was to expect, to be honest.

I wanted to improve myself on my erotica journey.  I had dabbled with my writing for a while, but I needed to know myself, if what I was doing was right.

When I was younger, I had been an Ann Summers party rep and I honestly loved it.  I never felt embarrassed and always felt confident about it.  I used to attend Erotica every year.  A type of sexibition.  I would walk in wearing a corset and stockings with the shortest skirt possible.  So why was my stomach turning somersaults right after I signed up for Eroticon?  I still had almost a year to go before the actual event.  I realise now, I was being silly.

What an amazing experience and with some truly amazing people.

So what did I take away from Eroticon 2018?  Plenty.  Lots of inspiration, new friendships and a sense of belonging.

Friday night meet and greet – I was debating whether to go to this.  The nerves were settling in.  No, I had to do this.  I walked into the Holiday Inn in Camden and I was greeted by Girl On The Net.  She started talking to me like she had known me for years.  I started to relax a little.  I still felt a bit like a wallflower, not knowing anyone, then I spotted another, who looked just as nervous as me.  We got rid of our coats and approached each other.  A new friendship was formed with the lovely and talented Pixie Heart.  We made a small pact to be with each other over the weekend, that way we would at least know each other.  Thank you, Pixie for signing your story in the Eroticon Anthology.

A huge thank you – without the amazing Girl On The Net, Molly and Michael Knight, there would be no Eroticon.  What they do for the Eroticon family is a wonderful thing.  You get a feeling of welcome and admiration and the buzz around the whole place, doesn’t die down for the one minute.

An inspiration – My first talk was with Madeline Morris on Taboo.  She was also my last talk of the whole event on Love you Longer: Writing longer erotic fiction.  A true inspiration and extremely passionate about what she was relaying to us.  She started the weekend on a high and ended it the same way.  I hope she will be talking again next year.

Shy Creatures – I think I fall into this category perfectly.  Thank you Victoria Blisse for bringing this shy creature out of her shell again.  Such an inspiration and thankfully, I did manage to get a few ideas written down, (now to actually write them up).

Goody bag – A girl does love a free goody bag and thank you to all those that added to this wonderful bag.  I am still looking at the products in awe.

The Erotica Effect – Annabelle Knight‘s talk was so enlightening.  It’s true people on the outside, looking in, will certainly frown upon sex in the written form (sometimes even the physical form).  People are slowly opening up towards the whole “erotica”, but that is due to a certain trilogy of books that actually made it into the mainstream.  Sex or erotica is a very taboo subject unfortunately, but let’s hope it’s starting to change now, for the better.

Self Editing – Thank you Anna Sky for a great talk (and for the slides).  I do tend to self-edit a lot, but with your help hopefully, I can do it better now.  I may even pluck up the courage to write something for next year’s anthology.

So my head was spinning with so much useful information and a ton of inspiration and that was only the first day.  Roll on the second day of this amazingly snow covered weekend.

Crafting Sunday – I had originally planned to go to two different talks on Sunday morning.  Sorry to those speakers that I didn’t manage to get there.  I wanted to know what KinkCraft was all about.  I walked in alone as Pixie had gone to a certain talk, but she would join me afterwards.  It was a nice small relaxed group.  We were sat around a table, chatting away and making kinky things with our hands.  I made a red and black flogger and a matching collar.  It was so therapeutic and so much fun.

Shocking the System – Kendra Holliday‘s talk was amazing.  She shared her story of the highs, quite a few lows and even a court case, but she came through it all and is still happy to tell the tales.  If there is something you like doing or writing about that is not the norm to others, don’t let those few others bring you down or stop you.

I believe you should be who you want to be, wear what you want and attending Eroticon, you can be yourself.  No one will judge you.

I do have a few regrets.

I regret that I couldn’t split myself into two as there were so many talks I would have loved to attend, but alas, I could not be in two places at once.

I regret not attending the Saturday night social.

Finally, I regret that it took me so long to make that step to actually attend Eroticon.

There will be no hesitation for Eroticon 2019.  I will be there!

 

 

 

Well, I like to think I did.

Cancer.  It’s a truly horrible word.  In 2016, my 40th year, bad news hit with abundance.  First, my beautiful step-daughter spent her 16th birthday in hospital.  She had noticed a lump on her shoulder.  It turned out to she had a rare form of cancer.  SHe had major surgery.  Thankfully she is now cancer free.  A few months later, my dad was diagnosed with the awful disease.  My dad’s was in the blood, but where he had a sore throat, it attacked the weakest spot.  After months of chemotherapy and numerous scans, he was told he was in remission.  Great news for both of them and all the rest of the family.

My step-daughter is turning 18 in May and is still cancer free.

In February 2018, my dad was unwell and a lump had appeared in his mouth.  It was thought to be an abscess.  Unfortunately, it was a mass.  The cancer was back and more aggressive than before.

Cancer Research UK, was advertising about their campaign to ‘walk all over cancer’.  They wanted people to walk 10,000 steps per day for the whole month of March.  So by the 31st of March, we should have done 310,000 steps.

I could do this I thought.  I signed up.  I have had no training.  I know walking is something I was taught from an early age, but I am unfit now (unfortunately).  I work, sitting at a desk all day, not to mention the two hours of travelling each way, to actually get to and from work.  So it is hard.  I was just about clearing 8,000 steps before and on the weekends, I would be lucky if I even cleared about 500 steps.  I have my steps on my phone and do not always remember to pick it up to record my steps.

I had to do this.  This was for cancer.  This was for my dad and step-daughter and for all the others out there, being struck with this deadly disease.

1stof March came round and I actually wasn’t at work.  I would be walking around London with my bestie for her birthday.  I smashed the 10,000 steps.  I actually managed 12,908.  I was extremely proud of myself.  One day down, another thirty to go.

I started walking to the station, instead of getting a cab (unless it was raining or snowing).  There were still work days to conquer.  I would actually have to take a lunch break and venture outside to go for a walk.

After work, it was walking the back streets to the second tube station, instead of walking to the end of the road to the first tube station.  This was giving me an additional 2,000 steps.  I was going to succeed.  The only thing was, how do I record my daily steps?  I couldn’t see anywhere on the Cancer Research website.  People were sponsoring me, I needed proof.  I took a screenshot of my phone every day for 31 days.

I was hoping it would help me lose a little bit of weight.  I don’t think I have lost any weight, but it has helped me sleep better.  I honestly feel better in myself.

My total steps for 31 days is 324,808.

I will continue to keep walking, it’s definitely helping me health wise.  To say I am proud of what I have achieved is an understatement,

Thank you for coming on this journey with me.  Hopefully, the money raised will help to eventually find a cure for this horrible disease that takes so many lives from us.

If you would like to donate, please go to my Justgiving page, no matter how small or how large the donation, it all helps and hopefully it will make a difference.

Thank You!