Flash Fiction: Scandal in Sakuoza

As Sakura watched the chocolate sauce soak into the woman's silk dress she felt a flutter of bitter satisfaction in her stomach. The woman hadn't even noticed the viscous drips hit the delicately embroidered pink fabric as she greedily hoovered up the profiteroles. The chocolate was cooling now, obscuring the pretty blue cornflowers that surrounded her flat chest. Sakura was transfixed, watching the woman spill more and more hot sauce on her wonderful outfit.

Sakura didn't consider herself a jealous woman but in this last week George had seemed distant, preoccupied; something terrible was weighing heavily on his mind. They'd only been married for a month, after four months of internet dating and two months together here in Japan.

She'd dismissed her suspicions at first but now, watching him talk animatedly with this stranger at the wedding of two of George's friends, she felt sure that something was going on that she wasn't going to like. Not only was she worried about her husband getting too close to this other woman, Sakura was nervous; she'd never met any of these English people before. Most of them didn't speak Japanese and they were finding it hard to understand her attempts to communicate. Sakura had decided to get away from everyone for a while and was standing under a Cherry Blossom tree, watching the guests mill around.

George seemed enraptured by the woman's heavy, Western features. Her face seemed so large and her hair was a dirty brown, unlike Sakura's ebony waterfall of locks. He didn't even seem to notice the small drips of chocolate that had given Sakura so much pleasure to watch. Sakura was too far away to hear what they were saying but her imagination was running wild.

Although George was English, he'd always said he'd preferred the bijoux features of Japanese women. They'd often joked that his attraction to Asian women was the only reason he'd decided to do business in here.

The woman was leaning in now, whispering into George's ear. Surely they knew that someone would see them? Surely they knew she was here somewhere and that she could discover them at any moment? The pair rose and wandered towards the dance-floor. Sakura followed them surreptitiously, avoiding groups of grandparents uttering platitudes to the newlyweds. Once she was safely hidden behind a group of friends, Sakura settled down at a table to plot her revenge. Would she cut up all his suits, bury his golf clubs or poison his Koi? Violent schemes turned the cogs in her mind, never revealing themselves on her pretty face. Never before had the saying 'still waters run deep' been so apt.

As Sakura plotted her husband's eventual demise, George and the stranger had disappeared back into the hotel. Sakura didn't see them leave the dance floor and was so deep in her vicious plotting that she didn't notice George's friend, who she'd met earlier in the day, sitting behind her.

"Hey Sakura! Isn't George's step-sister gorgeous? Do you think you could set us up?" he said, confused at the look on Sakura's face.

Flash-fiction submitted to the Internet Writing Workshop in response to 'What's driving (V2)'

Why employ a proofreader/editor?

Many people think 'surely a word processor like Microsoft Word can pick up spelling and grammar errors? Plus, I'll give it a look over before I'm finished with it...'

There are two reasons why this strategy won't give you the best result:

• Word processors will pick up obvious spelling errors like 'wrting', but won't pick up homophones like 'their', 'they're' and 'there'.
  

• Proofreading your own work is nigh on impossible. I'm a proofreader by trade, but sometimes miss my own errors. A writer is too close to their writing to notice spelling mistakes - your brain is designed to take shortcuts (called schemas). These shortcuts lead you to miss certain things because you've already seen something and processed it - you don't always see something how it actually is; your brain does a lot of guesswork. It's a bit like how a website 'caches' information - it only reloads something when it's new or the original information has been deleted. That's why you press F5 to get a website to reload when something's been changed on a page. I often wish I could 'F5' my own brain after a late night!

Quickly glance at this picture: Notice anything strange? Until you find it, you won't see what the point of the picture is.

Once you've worked it out, you'll know what I mean about the difficulty of proofreading when your brain is tricking you with schemas!

If you're looking for a fast and accurate proofreader/editor, then please contact me via my website for more information.

What/who is Cam Poetic License?

Hello, and welcome to the blog of Cam Poetic License, a new proofreading, editing and writing* service for businesses and students.

I offer the following services:

• Articles and features
• Proofreading
• Copyediting
• Descriptions for products and services
• Website content creation

Why choose Cam Poetic License for your proofreading, editing and copywriting needs?

I have been proofreading, editing and writing for about six years. I have just made the leap into the world of freelancing.

As a freelancer, I can provide less expensive services than large proofreading and editing companies.

From May 2007 to September 2008 I worked for a leading UK games company in Cambridge, providing them with proofreading services (amongst other duties). This experience of reading and proofreading at the same time really honed my skills and means that I am extremely fast and accurate. In my time in this role I never missed a typo, grammar error or language inconsistency.

In this role I also provided informative, engaging and interesting writing for employees. My biggest project was re-writing 20 A4 pages of guidelines. I managed to restructure and condense these guidelines into 3 pages, making the guidelines concise, educational and user-friendly. I also regularly proofread customer service responses on the company forums and tickets to players, providing feedback to the online moderators.

Another big part of my role was educating staff on grammar, punctuation and written communication skills. Other writing-related jobs I have had included editing legal documents, creating Intranet sites and report writing for Lombard North Central.

I have also proofread several students' theses and dissertations, teach English to foreign students and currently have an ongoing contract with Elekta, a medical company in Crawley, West Sussex.

For testimonials on my services, please visit my testimonials page

Cam Poetic License: a work in progress

After four years living in Cambridge, in September 2008 I moved back to Surrey, where I grew up. This move prompted me to re-evaluate what my career goals and aspirations were and I decided that I would like to go freelance. Now, after a few 'normal' jobs, I am launching Cam Poetic License.

I've been doing a lot of research on setting up a home business, marketing, advertising and other important things like Search Engine Optimisation. I will be writing about my experiences setting up a new business on this blog as well as writing articles, stories and (possibly) poetry.

If you'd like more information on Cam Poetic License's services, then please visit my website.

*please note that I do not provide writing services for students; only proofreading and editing.