When I heard that there were actual university courses for English literature and Creative Writing, I nearly leapt out of my own skin. Five years later, what was once a personal hobby is now the basis of a bachelor’s degree, even if it didn’t land me an instant job. After a brief, eye-opening stint in retail last year, I decided to go back and pursue a Masters Degree exclusively in Creative Writing. While I am far from becoming a bestselling author, it has nonetheless left me with a feeling of being ‘experienced,’ (if not necessarily the reality!) and this year saw my first publication. I have been conjuring up stories since I was five years old, and being around other aspiring writers has taught me that, even though all our experiences are different, there are a few key elements we have in common. With the advent of blogging and websites such as Fanstory and Deviantart, as well as various writers' forums online, getting your work noticed has never been easier. Many of us, myse
Image from Wikipedia Good morrow readers, I am the Lady in the Hat, and today I'm going to talk about dinosaurs. Now, I don't know anything about you lovely people, but I absolutely love dinosaurs. I'm forever looking up new discoveries on the news, searching articles on Google Scholar, or poring over the beautiful fossils from China which preserve details such as feathers and skin colour. I look at the birds outside my window and marvel at how strange and wonderful it is, that these creatures are cousins to Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor. So yes, I might be a tiny bit obsessed, and I'm afraid this obsession started young. As a child, I can remember seeing the trailer for Dinosaur just before Toy Story 2, and you'd better believe that it blew my seven-year-old mind. However, after watching it, I can remember being quite disappointed. For one thing, I found the whole storyline rather dark and depressing, and even as a kid I found it uninteresting and