-
Janette posted an update 3 years, 1 month ago
Joined @johnt3 in giving BlueSky a go. Looking forward to finding more familiar faces there, but I haven’t much to report on yet. My book 2 (way off finishing its rewrite) needs to be closer to ready before I consider which way to get book 1 published. Black dog keeps sitting on my keyboard.
-
John T posted an update 3 years, 1 month ago
The proof copy of my novel has arrived. This is getting scarily real!
-
Woohoo! Exciting as well as scary, I hope.
-
Yep.
-
-
Must feel wonderful, John. It’s been a long trip!
-
It certainly has. I began writing seriously in 2004, at the age of 50.
-
I can see some similarities there. I started around then as well. You were a couple of years ahead of me on the age front, but it seems we picked up our pen and paper about the same time.
-
Not exactly surprising, given the similarities between our writing, but interesting.
-
Mind you, I’m still puffing away a good stretch back from the finish line 🙂
-
I’ll be cheering you on!
-
-
-
-
-
Woohoo! Can’t wait for my copy.
-
Being the the most amazing beta-reader, your copy will appear before I publish it. Pre-publication copies are currently at the printers.
-
-
-
John T posted an update 3 years, 1 month ago
Any of you guys on BlueSky? I’ve found Raine and Athelstone. I’m @johnunworded.bsky.social
-
Janette replied to the topic Monthly competition – September 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
Strange tastes
Oh, I did miss my Bert. Watching him through the window, wheelbarrow-in-hand, shaping our garden into all sorts of strangeness: gaudy, modern art in bloom.
Me, I preferred order. Neatness. A little chintz perhaps; a Capo Di Monte on the sideboard. ‘Let go, Pammy! Unstiffen your lip,’ Bert would say while waltzing me roun…[Read more]
-
Janette replied to the topic Monthly competition – August 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
Yes, thank you, Sandra, for a prompt which took me on a tangent I quite enjoyed!
And congratulations, Squidge. Well deserved!
-
Sandra replied to the topic Monthly competition – September 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
“Stealing and giving odour “ [Twelfth Night]
From my very first whiff of the pipe tobacco I was a sucker for the scent of Balkan Sobranie. Given its name, thirteen-year-old imagination conjured red-jacketed hunters chasing yellow-eyed wolves through night forests. My Dad’s dour, ‘Four Square far cheaper,’ confirmed its blend of leaves — Latakia…[Read more]
-
-
Squidge started the topic Monthly competition – September 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
Your prompt this month consists of three words:
wheelbarrow, street lamp, and a pipe (smoking)
Use them however you would like, in no more than 300 words. Have fun 😉
-
Squidge replied to the topic Monthly competition – August 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
Oh blimey! Did not expect that at all… Wow, thanks, Sandra.
Everyone else’s was fab. Feel a bit of a fraud having popped in here for the first time in ages and getting to set this month’s challenge, but I’ll do my best x
-
Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition – August 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
Thanks for the prompt, Sandra. Enjoyed it this month. And very well done to Squidge. A worthy winner!
-
-
Sandra replied to the topic Monthly competition – August 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
Setting a writing prompt then watching the array of exciting interpretations — six in all!! — flood in as they did this month, confirming there are always many times more than one ‘correct’ answer, I consider one of life’s especial pleasures, but I have to say actuality exceeded expectation by some considerable margin – thank you all!
-
-
Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition – August 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
There is not the smallest piece of amusement in her confusion as she stands with a knife in one hand, a fork in the other. Which to the right and which to the left? She knows, of course, but in that moment the answer eludes her. So much hangs on the decision. Once, many years ago, she served water in a glass; put it at his place. For her trouble…[Read more]
-
-
-
-
Squidge replied to the topic Monthly competition – August 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 2 months ago
Not quite sure where this was going, but it felt good to respond to a prompt for the first time in ages… Also not sure why only a bit of the text unbolded when I was aiming for the lot! Ah well…
“In a yellow rectangle, in the black facade of a house, a woman is laying a table.”
He could have picked any window, of any house, in any str…[Read more]
-
-
Athelstone posted an update 3 years, 2 months ago
Whodunnit? Idunnit. There’s a new challenge. Find your way to the new group called Whodunnit? to solve all your questions about how to fill those autumn and winter days.
- Load More

There are an increasing number of us there, including a fair few from the Den.
Janette, do you mean a real black dog, or black dog in the metaphorical sense?
Metaphorical – though just as pesky and stubborn.
I know that black dog. It’s hard to shove it out of the way, sometimes. Big cwtches from Wales x
Thanks, John. Big Yorkshire hugs right back atcha x
🙂
Sorry to hear it. It is remarkably adept at confounding all good intentions to write.
Thanks, Ath. Yes, writing and reading both confounded. It feels like a midge infestation in my head when I try to take things in or concentrate further than one page. Hopefully, I’ll overpower IT sooner rather than later.
My usual remedy for reading problems is to read children’s books. I read a lot – they’re my therapy.
I hope life becomes easier, Janette.
Thanks, Libby. Here’s hoping x
@johnt3 Good idea. Some of my favourites are children’s books.