Debi Alper

  • Libby posted an update 6 years, 4 months ago

    Re swallows, from the British Trust for Ornithology’s migration blog for this week:
    ‘The cold weather and northerly winds from the last week will likely to have caused a bit of a bottleneck for those species migrating northwards across Europe but with a change in wind direction and an improvement in day time temperatures, 17 degrees is possible…[Read more]

  • Squidge posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 4 months ago

    Hi all. Been having problems logging in again, but Jules has worked her magic and got me into the Den.

    How are you all doing? I’m a bit like Kaz – head space not into writing much, so editing Tilda 3 is very slow going. I mean, how hard can it be to describe an underground (ie in a cavern) market? We’ve taken to cooking and baking with the kids…[Read more]

    • Hi Squidge. Much the same as you, my head space is not into writing. I’m doing what I can and have forgiven myself for the fact it’s so slow. Apart from that we’re pottering on, enjoying the glorious weather from the safety of our own garden and surrounding countryside during the permitted hour a day we’re allowed out.Nature is slowly expanding to…[Read more]

      • Hello, Squidge and Jane. I was interested to read how present circumstances are affecting your writing. Like you two, I am keeping busy (and maybe distracted) with the simple things of life and enjoying the slower pace, actually. Not to say there isn’t the general underlying anxiety, but trying to keep hopeful and positive despite all the…[Read more]

  • Not the best poetry, but hey ho…

    It has no chain, though once it might,
    It’s on a shelf, mainly out of sight.
    I wound it up and heard it tick
    Then set the hands with a firmer click.
    Triangles mark the quarter hours
    and rectangles? The intervals and other hours.
    It’s made by Smiths, a British firm
    Not Timex, Rolex or another well known.
    It’s…[Read more]

  • KazG posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 4 months ago

    Popping in to say hello – I’ve been in a most peculiar head space and sure it’s do to with It That Shall Not Be Named, but slowly getting some focus and clarity back. I’ve felt like a cabbage moth, flitting from here to there and never really settling, when I need to channel the caterpillar, with her steady devouring progress.

    Also, I had some…[Read more]

    • Thanks for the catch-up Kaz – and brilliant (and not undeserved) news about the residency. Fingers crossed all will come to pass … whenever.

      • Fingers crossed from me too @kazg. A lovely boost though.

        • Retreat sounds amazing Kaz – and I am totally not surprised they were won over by the Needlies!! Love them so much. On the + side, by the time this is all calmed down a bit, you will be in SERIOUS need of a bit of time away, so it’s nice to know there is that waiting for you. How is Book2 going atm?

  • Congratulations Raine. And thanks to everyone for their stories and the pleasure they gave me as well as John for the competition.

  • Congratulations, Raine. Your story has made me shiver with anxiety! Well done – fabulous writing.

    Thank you John for setting the competition. I’m sorry March passed me by in a blur, what with one thing and another, and I didn’t manage an entry.

  • Well done, Raine! Thanks for the comp, John.

  • RichardB posted an update 6 years, 5 months ago

    My elder son – 40 this November – is a bit of a free spirit and so is his missus. Just before Christmas they announced that they were going to give up their jobs, sell up (not that they actually owned a house) and go off globetrotting. They weren’t to know, but they didn’t exactly pick the best time for that, with the result that they are now…[Read more]

    • I hope they are managing to make the most of it. My sister and brother in law were stranded in the Galapagos and it was no fun at all. They got flown to mainland Ecuador last week and should be on their way back to Canada today, all being well.

      • His verdict on the situation was, ‘It could be worse.’ Knowing his attitude to life, not to mention his fondness for sardonic humour in e-mails, I rather doubt that they’re suffering unduly.

  • Thank you, everyone, for your support. It means a lot. @Hilary, please never give up. I’ve been told there couldn’t be a better time for pitching, what with so many events cancelled and agents working from home. And you deserve a break too.

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

  • Great news, Janette! So pleased for you.

  • I will say congratulations again on here, Laure! Absolutely brilliant. Well done!

  • Just caught up with this. What brilliant news, Janette. So very, very pleased for you. Congratulations! Well done. (News like this always gives me hope!!!) x

  • It’s official, folks – hope you like the pen name! https://andrewnurnberg.com/book-author/ellen-richards/

  • 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!

  • RichardB posted an update 6 years, 5 months ago

    Okay, so there’s danger in crowds. So let’s escape from the crowded city and go to the seaside, or the country………where we will crowd out the beaches and the cafés and the ice-cream stands…

    • That is what has happened here, Richard, and now the beaches and coastal paths are closed.

      • WTF is so hard to understand about social distancing? It drives me bonkers to see how people behave. I have a very large personal space zone at the best of times, which is serving me well. I have become adept at managing my supermarket trolley to keep people at a distance.

        • We’ve a very popular chippy in our harbour. It, and every other food place in the village had switched to take out/delivery only, which seemed doable for keeping them in business. But there were so many tourists day-tripping or holiday-house-visiting at the weekend that the chippy queue went down the street, meaning that they’ve had to take the…[Read more]

          • This emergency really does seem to be bringing out the worst in people – and I don’t just mean stupidity. MrsB relayed to me today a news item she’d found on-line, to the effect that refuse collectors are reporting a 30% increase in food waste, some of it still in its packaging. To spell it out, this means that the bastard hoarders are not only…[Read more]

  • This is SO SO SO fantastic! And what a ride! Laure really has worked so hard for this, constantly writing and submitting short stories, going on courses, writing and re-writing her novel(s), and continually striving for her break. SO PROUD OF HER!

  • This is such brilliant news, Janette! I can wait to hear all about the book… and see it on the shelves in all its published glory! Xxx

  • Thank you, Bella and Mad x

  • Wowee Wowee Wowee Janette! Well done you!! Absolutely amazing news.

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