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Athelstone replied to the topic The Enemy Within in the forum Blogs 1 year, 3 months ago
I remember as a young child of nine or ten learning about the coal mining industry in Britain. The teacher confidently predicted that there was enough coal to keep Britain self-sufficient for as long as the next thousand years. Most sane, or I should say morally-sane people know that exploitation of fossil fuels in a way that releases pollutants,…[Read more]
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RichardB started the topic The Enemy Within in the forum Blogs 1 year, 3 months ago
Today is the fortieth anniversary of the start of the 1984-5 miners’ strike. Living where I do, this resonates strongly with me, so it seems appropriate to post this piece, which I originally wrote some years ago.
Advisory: contains strong political opinions.
‘Galtieri and the Argentinians were the enemy without. Arthur Scargill and the…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition – February 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 3 months ago
Fabulous! I loved each and every one of these. Sandra, very well done. I’ll remember this as I tuck into my light supper tonight.
Thanks for the prompt Seagreen.
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Sandra replied to the topic Monthly Competition – February 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 3 months ago
Wow, Sea, that is a surprise, especially as I felt completely out-classed by every other entry – but challenged too, which was a Good Thing. I’m away from home at the moment but will aim to post March’s compTuesday evening. Thank you all for the several inspirations.
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Janette replied to the topic Monthly Competition – February 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 3 months ago
This is my second attempt – lesson learned in posting too hastily without allowing time to edit (not that this one fared much better). Please feel free to disqualify if this is outside of the rules.
Snuffle and the Tylwith Teg
Brittle scales fell from his body as he staggered to the edge of hanging rock. Laughter rang out all around, but I…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 3 months ago
Some of you may remember Gary Steward from the Wordcloud days. I see that he’s just published the book he was working on way back then. I *think* it was called “The Lemon Grove” back then, but you can find his book on Amazon, kindle or paperback, as the similar sounding “Where Lemons Grow”.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition – February 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 3 months ago
Katherine is typing…
JohnG91 19:44
Hi Kath. I’ve been thinking about what you said. You know, about being decisive. I’ve made a decision. You’ve bullied me into it.
JohnG91 19:57
Just read that back. The bullied thing was supposed to be a joke. Well light-hearted anyway. You’re not a bully. I know when you talked about people who don’t mak…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic Monthly Competition – February 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 3 months ago
And it looks well worthy of continuing, Terrie!
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Sandra replied to the topic Monthly competition – January 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 3 months ago
Somehow I missed this entire comp – sorry Richard – but am nevertheless rewarded by being gifted four marvellous pieces of writing – thank you each and all.
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Sandra replied to the topic Monthly Competition – February 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 3 months ago
Dilemma
So, last night’s message warning that the Wimps were planning some sort of revolt had been genuine, despite the unlikelihood. As Jack had said, delivering it, something must’ve fired them into action, provided them with a Warrior script instead of the Wimp one their biology merited.
Frey’s eyes sharpened on noting my arrival (We’d a…[Read more]
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RichardB replied to the topic Monthly competition – January 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 4 months ago
Late, Seagreen? Not really. It’s only the second of the month, and I didn’t post my judgement yesterday until the middle of the afternoon. No apology needed.
A strong field indeed.
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Daedalus replied to the topic What if I'm a bad human being? in the forum Blogs 1 year, 4 months ago
Oof. Yes. Gaiman. I think a lot of people I know are particularly hurt by that one because he appeared to be a writer of such humanity. I didn’t read anything of his that I didn’t like, and connect with in some way. At first, I did allow myself to give him the benefit of the doubt. Not for very long, and I’m not sure there’s any doubt now…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic What if I'm a bad human being? in the forum Blogs 1 year, 4 months ago
But now the debate does (briefly?) raise its head again as I contemplate that doyen of popular, left-liberal writers, Neil Gaiman.
Why must people keep doing this? I almost completed that last sentence “to me” because it does feel personal sometimes.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition – January 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 4 months ago
Some strong writing this month. Very well done, Seagreen.
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RichardB replied to the topic Monthly competition – January 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 4 months ago
Oh, my. Four entries, all excellent, all completely different from each other. For such a small community, whar a range of talents we have.
Terrie, your gallop through the various endings we meet in life was entertaining and thought-provoking, with a nice humorous squib at the end to round things off.
Libby, I applaud your courage in essaying…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 4 months ago
Apologies to Denizens who are not members of the group “A Different Time”. Any member who is considering an entry to the challenge, or who may have forgotten about it, please note that we close for submissions on Sunday 2 February at 22:00 UK time. Thank you.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition – January 2025 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 4 months ago
I’ll come back tomorrow
I’ll come back tomorrow to look at the clear space between the Co-op and the Santander Bank. The fresh morning sun will light the glistening concrete and the unexpected birds taking baths in puddles where carpets have been carried off. Men in hard hats and hi-vis vests will bundle drills about and smoke their cigarettes a…[Read more]
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Daedalus posted an update 1 year, 4 months ago
Finally completed a more-or-less subbable draft of the novel I’ve been working on since 2013. I did the Writers’ Workshop Self Edit course using this novel in October 2014 (back in the days when I hilariously thought of it as ‘nearly finished’). Is anyone still around from that course? Anyway, it just goes to show that if you occasionally put your…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic The latest in vanity publishing in the forum Marketplace 1 year, 4 months ago
I asked it about limits and it recommended breaking text into chunks, so I divided the input into blocks of chapters, but as I was about to do the final block I hit an error, which I think was the limit of my free access: there was a message about that soon afterwards. Annoyingly inconclusive! Some chapters were summarised in full, others were…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic The latest in vanity publishing in the forum Marketplace 1 year, 4 months ago
I tried a 500 word synopsis. It was curiously like a “bad” synopsis that an inexperienced writer might try, too much detail at the outset and then broad generalisations for the middle and end. It always concludes by asking whether you want any refinements, so I asked for more detail about the conclusion and it invented a character and several plot…[Read more]
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