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  • Raine posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 1 month ago

    Anyone got swallows back yet? Was looking for them today but no luck yet. Walk along the beach did turn up a white sea brick though (now called Beatrice, mini lugged it home), a bit of sea tile with the letter E on, and a perfect conch shell. Along with the usual sea glass & good painting stones. A moderately good haul which will all end up in one…[Read more]

    • None at the palace yet. I checked yesterday.

    • “sea glass” – such wonderful connotations.

      • No swallows as yet but in the evening the beach (forbidden to humans) is full of birds congregating along the water line. It is getting light enough after supper to slip past the ‘interdit’ signs and watch them dart in and out of the little frothy waves or stand still on the sand and watch the sun set behind the islands.

        • What a delightful picture you paint, Raine. No, I have not seen any swallows yet, but many other birds visit our garden, as we have countryside all around our home. We are a long way from the sea and beaches, but we do have terracotta bowls of such items as you describe in our home – many dating as far back as when we lived in Cyprus! Have a…[Read more]

          • Looking out for swallows here. We only moved in in January, so not sure what the avian fauna are like, except there a rooks/ravens plucking twigs from trees and then flying off to build nests, and seagulls doing their squawking thing, and since we started putting food out the sparrows, tits and similar have been very enthusiastic, also the rats…[Read more]

            • Yes @raine, What is a sea brick?

            • 😂 It’s a brick that’s been washed up by the sea so it’s all eroded and smooth. We get a fair few normal ones but a white one was special! Sea tiles are my fav – bits of broken and smoothed ceramic from all sorts of things. Old decorated plates are the best.

    • Sounds lovely. I’ve never seen them though. Is there a reason why they wash up? Our beach, although lovely in every way, doesn’t get much washed up apart from bits of fishermen’s nets.

  • Bit different this time in an attempt to find beauty in our (confined) surroundings – look around the room you are in & find the oldest item (not counting people!). Now tell us something about it. Why is it precious, why have you kept it so long, who owned it before you… whatever.
    400 words. Hope it brings a little light. 🙂

  • Thank-you so much John and everyone! I am delighted to have worried you all! I love how utterly different all our stories were, so well dones are due to the rest of you as well – each one was great. 🙂

  • Thanks all. Was glad this one found a home, not having had much success with short fiction recently

  • That’s amazing Elle, well done. Thoroughly deserved, of course. I love your craft, your prose is amazing and you’re one of those writers where every word is perfectly chosen, so I look forward very much to the result!

  • Raine posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 1 month ago

    Submitted a bunch of flash things to various magazines today AND did my monthly comp entry. For day 1 of homeschooling, I’m giving myself a gold star! 🙂

  • (Bang on 400 words, I think)

    Spring-Hollow Secret God Sleeping

    Bring withy willows with you to weave a net on a night when the moon rides high. We will catch her face in the black mirror at our feet, dance her widdershins and threefold so that our withies weave moonlight all around.

    Bring silver sage and silver blades and your hair hanging…[Read more]

  • I said on Twitter, but will say again here because this is worth double congratulations …. YAY!!! I’m so delighted for you. Not at all surprised that you’ve found yourself an agent, and cant’ wait to see where you go from here. 🙂

  • Raine posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 2 months ago

    I did the decluttering exercise the other day, @janeshuff. But yes @janette, I might try the monthly prompt as a mini-challenge next week. I’ve actually just speed-written 1,300 words of a brand new wip with NO PLANNING WHATSOEVER, which is Very Not Me! I figure in the absence of an ability to concentrate, maybe I should give pantsing a go! 😀

    • @Raine, I feel very guilty about this, but my meeting with the agent today has left me with quite a list of ‘to do’s’ she wants done quickly, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to make the comp.
      Re the new wip, best of luck, though I feel it is in very capable hands and sometimes no planning comes up with surprising results!

    • @Raine – sounds liberating. Long may it continue.

  • Raine posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 2 months ago

    So today I wrote lesson plans for a four week writing course I will hopefully be running at Falkland Palace at some point (thanks to @seagreen). Having only taught primary school kids before, I’ll be slightly going to the other extreme audience-wise, I imagine! Likely to feature fewer zombies and superheroes perhaps! Still, it feels quite exciting. 🙂

  • Brilliant news, Janette. Congratulations 😊

  • Raine posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 2 months ago

    Hello – Welcome to the virus-free shutdown survival space. I’m sure I’m not alone in struggling to do ANYTHING AT ALL what with the various worries, uncertainty and black hole of endless news … so let’s make this somewhere we can retreat to away from homeschooling, home-partners, stress and loo roll panic. Prompts, writing news, other stuff, mor…[Read more]

  • Raine posted an update 6 years, 2 months ago

    So, you know how we did a slowmo group a while ago? Do we need a coronamo group to keep ourselves from sinking into anxious lethargy over the coming months? Same idea – tiny victories, tiny targets, tangential positives… Or is the MA course etc enough?

    • I like that idea, Raine. At present I’m still at work but if the libraries close then I’ll be at a loose end. And I definitely have books to write!

      • Liking the idea

        • I’m all for it. Currently on lockdown in France but finding it surprisingly difficult to concentrate on anything other than phoning friends. Would love a group to get me focussed on achieving a few things. Could we ban discussion of the virus though?

        • I won’t talk about anything that you lovely people won’t mention. But if I find one of my delightful companions who needs to talk about what’s afoot, then I’ll stick with then and slope off

          • Ath, just to be clear, I am not trying to stop anyone talking about it at all. God knows I seem to have spent the last two weeks discussing, panicking and worrying about it. I would just love to have a tiny bit of something somewhere which was free of it. Like a coronamo group. But only if everybody else feels the same. It won’t stop me wanting t…[Read more]

  • Barny posted an update 6 years, 2 months ago

    I’ve just donated to help keep the Den alive – go to the Donations group to help keep this place running

  • Really good, Daeds – and IMO we could all go out and respond publicly to your and Kaz’s FB posts with words to recognise how good this story is. Fantastic.

  • Daedalus replied to the topic The $2,000,000 Guitar in the forum Blogs 6 years, 2 months ago

    Wow. Magical stuff!

  • Some of you might remember my story The Living from last year’s Den winter challenge. I’m pleased to say it has finally (in slightly evolved form) found a publisher in the shape of Barren magazine issue #13, now available to read online https://barrenmagazine.com/the-living/

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