@helen
Active 3 months, 1 week ago-
Athelstone posted an update 4 years, 6 months ago
21 November already! Time to knuckle down and enter the monthly competition. All it takes is between 1 and 500 words and the prize could be yours.
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Athelstone posted an update 4 years, 6 months ago
Half way through the month. Time to dig deep and enter the monthly competition. You know you’ll enjoy it.
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Sandra replied to the topic Monthly comp – November 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 6 months ago
Failed on the basics.
I’d been riding pillion on a BSA since my teens. Clandestinely to start, because my parents forbade me, but by 2004 I was well past that, and three years past my first BSA rally, which had taken us to Australia. Being one of 200 bikes wending our way across rolling golden hills an unforgettable experience. Even so, that…[Read more] -
Janette posted an update 4 years, 6 months ago
Can anyone help me with my book research? I’ve come across a fatal flaw in my book and need to age up a character a little (otherwise it’s a full book rewrite, which I’m trying to avoid).
Did anyone (or anyone you know) leave school in Summer when you could have/were due to leave in the Easter break?
My MC leaves at Summer, but I need to add…[Read more]-
I can’t think leaving at Easter would’ve been that likely, because of ‘O’levels.
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Hi, Sandra,
I was one of the ones who had to stay on an extra year and leave aged 16 (in June 1974 – oops, showing my age!), which I was pleased about because I wanted to sit exams and my parents wanted me to leave to earn a wage. It was a common thing then, that some kids were expected to leave the earliest opportunity to ‘bring home a wage’, and…[Read more]-
I was 16 at Easter 1963, so can’t help you there, sorry.
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Steve says school leaving age was 15, but you could stay on. Also see wikipedia Raising_of_school_leaving_age_in_England_and_Wales
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Thanks, Sandra. I’m trying to find someone who could have or did leave at Easter. Better still, someone who remembers if it was mandatory or whether there were exceptions. My MC wants to stop on, but her parents are insistent she leaves asap. However, if something meant she couldn’t or shouldn’t leave at Easter …
It’s a long shot, and I’m fast…[Read more]
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I don’t think it’s ever been mandatory to leave at Easter – short of expulsion. You are required to choose your subjects for a full year well in advance of Easter, so that staying on is the default position, even if it’s obvious to all that a specific student is going to leave. In theory, I could have left school at Easter in 1972, but at that…[Read more]
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Thanks, Ath, that’s very helpful. My MC is being pressured by her parents to leave school and earn a wage, but the employer/employment route might be the way to go. Pity I didn’t think of this when I drafted the book.
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 6 months ago
I really enjoyed your story too, Newbie!
Thank you Raine, for being a wonderful comp host, it was funfunfun like I knew it would be 😃🦇🎃👻
Couldn’t agree with Ath more, we duh best 🥳✨
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Athelstone started the topic Monthly comp – November 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 6 months ago
OK NaNoWriMo: this month I’d like you to write just 50,000 words on anything that strikes you as appropriate. No, on second thoughts, I’d like a maximum of 500 words on the topic of something difficult, a target that would take a great effort to achieve, that was either met or missed.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 6 months ago
Awwww!!! Thank you Raine, I really enjoyed the comp.
I love the other entries. We are the best! -
Seagreen replied to the topic The world, her dog, memories-dot, dot, dot. in the forum Blogs 4 years, 6 months ago
On the phone so I’ll keep this short…
I’m not the same person I was ten years ago (or even five years ago) and the things that impacted me then are not the things that impact me now.
I see it as growth ☺️ -
Athelstone started the topic The world, her dog, memories-dot, dot, dot. in the forum Blogs 4 years, 6 months ago
Read some blogs I wrote about 10 years ago that recalled events of 30 years before that. Curiously, unable to connect directly to those events anymore, in that I remember them and can recount the details, but much of the emotional impact that was there when I wrote about them is no longer available. I can remember that there was an impact and can…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 7 months ago
=)
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 7 months ago
Ath that creepy as hell, man 😭😭
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 7 months ago
Hallowed Evening
The Bakers have lived over there for nearly fifty years now. I recognise the car in the drive. They bought it just before I arrived here. Then there’s Helen Smith’s house. I know she’s still there because I saw her heading out an hour ago. She’s changed a lot over the years, but I’d recognise her anywhere. Not sure who the neigh…[Read more]
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 7 months ago
All done! Lost the ending I wanted to word count woes lols, but this was very fun none the less 👻🐱👤
Lost
Tall pines creak in the eeriness of night, blown by a sudden, fierce gale. It tears through the forest like a spectral fox hounded by wild and ghostly dogs, and the darkness feels alive with power and invocation. Two, small boys stop running…[Read more]
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Comp – October 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 7 months ago
oooOoOoooooh!! I love it. This is going to be funfunfun 🎃👻🦇
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Competition – September 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 7 months ago
Go for it!! I don’t need to tell you whose piece tied with hers in muh heart 😍😍 haha #mybiasisshowing
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Seagreen replied to the topic Monthly Competition – September 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 7 months ago
Woohoo, Sandra! Congratulations! ☺️
And well done, Knicky. Thanks for a challenging (for me, anyway) comp 👍
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition – September 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 7 months ago
Fabulous stories and especially well done, @Sandra. Thanks for a great comp @knickylaurelle
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Competition – September 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 7 months ago
Okay guys, I’ve completed my reading and I really must say these are all so good and left my expectations very well-met.
@squidge – I enjoyed this far-away, fantastical dream sequence, with its lightly pressing sense of isolation, elusive understanding, and finally, lucidity.
@athelstone – Gorgeously streaming subconsciousness with this one,…[Read more]
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Competition – September 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 7 months ago
Hello and thank you to all who took the time to participate. I have just finished up work for the week and really look forward to reading the last few entries over the weekend before I select this September’s winner. Please bear with me as I get it done. Results will be posted by Monday latest ✨
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Sandra replied to the topic Monthly Competition – September 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 8 months ago
Another pieced-together piece, and only 245 words, but best I can manage.
Bourbon dreaming
A bottle of Makers Mark from my husband for Christmas and a wine-free tea (Köstritzer Schwarzbier instead) so I took a glass of bourbon to bed with me, along with John Rebus.
And I dreamt, more vividly and memorably than usual, with more logic than usual…[Read more]
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