Well, I hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas and New Year, as have all of us here on Inkblots. We’re still pigging out on leftover chocolates, mince pies and counting down the days until the next time we can have a week off! But back to the grind we go.

Inkblots has so much planned for 2013, so here’s just a few things you can see over the first month:

• The HHC (half hour challenge to our new followers) is still in swing and for this month we’ve plumped for the theme Bells. 
  
  There are wonderful connotations surrounding bells and they are long concerned with tidings of celebrations and sorrow, but most notably, they are associated with New Year’s Day. In fact, full peals – which is 4 hours of continuous ringing – are rung out at St Paul’s Cathedral that day.

  But what really inspired us to pick this theme is from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem, ‘In Memoriam – Ring Out, Wild Bells’. The first two verses are below, but if you want to read the rest, the link is provided below.

  Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
  The flying cloud, the frosty light:
  The year is dying in the night;
  Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

  Ring out the old, ring in the new,
  Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
  The year is going, let him go;
  Ring out the false, ring in the true.

  Read the rest here.

• As always, the best three HHC entries from December will be posted in the up and coming month, so look out for those. Remember they are about Christmas, but we have a rather satirical one that we think is amusing and just the epitome of Christmas shopping!

• And for a new year we’re welcoming in a BRAND SPANKING NEW challenge called the FRIDAY FRENZY, which we’re excited to launch on the Friday 25 January. Want to know what’s involved? Check out the brief explanation below:

 

The Friday Frenzy will take place on the final Friday of the month, in which one nominated Inkblots administrator will choose a theme and post it up on our forum, The Inkwell and Inkblots, at 12am GMT Friday.

Anyone can participate and your entry can be any length you want, so there are no time constraints. However, you must have your entries submitted by 9pm GMT Friday evening, otherwise it won’t count! 

The chosen admin will then go through every entry and pick a worthy winner to bear the title ‘Frenzy Writer of the Month’.  And the winning entry will be posted right here on Inkblots. 

To enter just send your entry into creativewritinginkwell@hotmail dot com 

Good luck! 

 

So, we have lots planned for January as well as a few surprises. Remember to keep writing!

– Silver, Inkblots Editor