Haiku about Haiku

     I like haiku.
     As far as I can remember, I've only ever written one haiku, but I'm proud of it:

     ~Ha!

     I'm sure most people know this, but haiku is a style of Japanese poetry.

To write haiku,

Syllables must be counted.

Refreshing poem.

(Okay, so now I've written two haikus...)

     In English, you normally use 5 syllables on the first line, 7 on the next, and 5 on the last to make a haiku.
     ... but something people often overlook is that a well written haiku generally juxtaposes two different ideas with a common theme. This has the effect of surprising the reader slightly when he or she comes to the last line.
     In my opinion, this is what makes haiku great. Who doesn't love surprises?

A patch of daisies,

Pink and white blooms in the grass,

Close to shut out rain.

 (And then there were three...)

     Well, I'm just about done now... but just in case anybody's wondering, the inky look of the image up there ⤴︎ was produced by... actually, let me explain it this way;

Photoshop's round brush.

Custom preset makes ink marks.

Drawn with old Wacom.

     Thanks for visiting!
          Cheerio!
               Sparkey

‘Chesha'

    Here is something I painted back in 2008, to accompany one of my short stories:

     The title of the story is Chesha, and it's all about a small girl, a brown tabby cat and a glum scarecrow. It's also the first in a series of four.
     Here's an excerpt:

     Though Phoebe had searched the house and garden inside out, Chesha was nowhere to be found.

It was a warm, windy day and the season was almost summer.

The wind called to Phoebe on days like this, begging her to follow it up over the hills, toward the high, far off mountains which hid, blue against a blue sky, only their white snow-caps showing.

Perhaps it called to Chesha too.

     After all these years, Chesha is finally available for download as both a PDF and an eBook!

Download eBook!

Download PDF!

     One thing I would like to mention about Chesha, is that it is my first eBook, and I haven't fully got my mind around CSS yet. Because of this, I had to choose between proper indentation and a beautiful drop cap.
     I chose the indentation, so the drop cap in the eBook version has been replaced by a sort of "flying cap" (a drop cap's crazy relative?).
     ...
     ... but you know, the more I look at the flying cap, the more I kinda like it. Maybe I'll make it my signature thing.....
     Chesha is primarily intended for readers aged 8-13, but it's probably surreal enough to be enjoyed by quirky types of any vintage.
     I was inspired to write it by Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and various films directed by Hayao Miyazaki, so if you like those things, you just might like this story too!

     Happy reading!

     Cheerio!

     Sparkey Davis

I Might as Well Get Started

     Ah, that new blog smell.

     *Inhales*

     ... that was surprisingly disappointing.

     Anyway, since this is my first post, I would like to say something about myself.

I am a person who is never content with doing the same thing each day.

     I don't get along very well with time tables and lots of routine makes me want to scream.

     I think that is why I am, what I will term, a "multimedia person".

     I like to write, and most of what I intend to post here is text based, but I've also had a life-long passion for cartoons, drawings, music, photography and film.

     Since I consider all of these things to be part of the rich tapestry that is literature, I'm going to start my blog with a hand drawn comic strip from 2011, which I was invited to create for an exhibition in Westminster, London.
     The exhibition had a quirky prerequisite, though – everything displayed in it had to be drawn on an A5 sheet of paper. For those of you not familiar with international paper sizes, that is rather small. It's approx. 8 ¼" by 5 ¾". At the time I was in the habit of drawing my four panel comics on A3 sheets, which have four times that surface area, so squeezing my work down to A5 dimensions seemed quite challenging.
     Anyway, here it is, for the viewing pleasure of the internet:

“Fighting Helmets”

     Thanks for reading!

     Cheerio!

     Sparkey Davis