Janette

  • Sorry. Book stuff is hectic just now. I do love these comps & have had several publications out of them so they are really worth doing. But …. *wails* I have no time!!

  • Raine replied to the topic Reads for 2022 in the forum Coffee Shop 4 years, 4 months ago

    Oh gosh, loads. Intisar Khanani’s next one, Chloe Gong’s first adult book, I think Lucy Foley has a new thriller due out soon. Emily St John Mandel’s next one looks fab, and I can’t wait for Jennifer Saint’s Elektra, and Guy Gavriel Kay’s new one.

    And of course there’s our own Jane Jesmond (@janeshuff) and Fiona Erskine (@bric) releasing new…[Read more]

    • Thanks for the tips, Raine. I hadn’t heard of most of these authors apart from Jane and Fiona. My knowledge has increased.

  • Happy News Years, Den!!

    I know I don’t have to tell anyone that the last 3 years have been a task. Yet here we are! It’s an undeniable wonder. In keeping with that spirit, the theme for this month’s competition is Overcoming Adversary. This is super broad topic, so the actual adversary can be anything or anyone, and I’m expecting loads of…[Read more]

  • Alrighty, I’ll get right on it. Like right now. Sorry for the delay. Ath is right, Libby! 😊✨

  • We’ll all be pleased to see your entry, Libby.

  • Knicks, you very closely echo my thoughts about participation in the comps (and in the Den as a whole, to be honest, despite Ath’s striving to make it a more use-friendly site) but I think the answer IS just to press on with setting one – if we join the non-participants, they have us beat.
    And yes, I do know how Life leaches away time, am well…[Read more]

  • Thank you Sandra, and Athelstone too!! I don’t think I could have managed what I did if Ath didn’t set his usual bar for quality, enjoyable, supremely witty writing 😊✨

    That said – and Please Forgive Me if this isn’t the place to say it, I’m not sure where that place would be – it kinda feels like its just mostly us three passing the ball around…[Read more]

  • I should spend less time on the test site and more here. Cracking story, Knicks. Well done. Thanks for the competition, Sandra. I found it tough but fun.

  • Sandra posted an update 4 years, 4 months ago

    I’ve just been reminded of Allan Guthrie’s 34 tips on writing, including pleonasms – a word unknown to me when I first heard it, but which tweak my writing conscience quite frequently. https://notetoselfhumanize.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/32-writing-rules-allan-guthrie/

    • Thanks for the link, Sandra. I’m guilty of using pleonasms. They’re filler words when I’m thinking of what to say next, like typing a comma whenever deeper thought is needed.

    • Thanks, Sandra. This is an excellent list. I shall bookmark it.

  • Sandra posted an update 4 years, 4 months ago

    December competition winner now announced.

  • December destined to be a quiet month, I suppose, and very few of you seemed to have suffered from the prurient curiosity about the activities of Jack and Jill’s activities I did, Nevertheless the two entries submitted were a pleasure.
    Ath’s trawl through several nursery rhymes returned me to childhood, browsing through books illustrated by the…[Read more]

  • RichardB posted an update 4 years, 4 months ago

    One piece of good news for the new year: subsequent to the vile attacks on it by the Farage thing (and others) for rescuing migrants in the Channel, the RNLI has just announced that donations in 2021 have broken all previous records. The more I think about the implications of this, the better I feel.

    • Yes, I saw that. It’s great. Really marvellous. We seem to have certain people amongst our present government who lack even the most basic decency and compassion*, so it’s heartening to see a positive reaction like this.

      *for the sake of impartiality, other domestic political parties may well have members similarly lacking in humanity.

      • Although, of course, Farage is not a member of HM Government. The fact that he has stood for Parliament seven times (I believe) without ever coming near to being elected is another heartening sign that his poisonous opinions aren’t as widely accepted as he (and others) would like to think.

        • Hi Richard, did you catch the radio programme about the Penlee lifeboat disaster?

          • Unfortunately I missed it, but I have found something on YouTube posted by the RNLI itself. I hesitate to post a link because funny things have been known to happen when I do, but a search for ‘RNLI 40th Anniversary of Penlee Lifeboat Disaster’ will find it. Relatives of the lost crew, and others, reminiscing. It’s rather moving.

  • Just realised deadline is today – I’ll be back ASAP to read and muse over a decision.

  • A very happy new year to all Denizens. Here’s hoping for a better one.

  • A very merry Christmas to all Denizens.

  • RichardB replied to the topic Sounds familiar? in the forum Blogs 4 years, 4 months ago

    I did actually consider putting in something about rationing, but decided that I’d make my point more vividly by keeping it simple and sticking to one issue.

    Rather more distressing than your neighbour, I had an e-mail argument a few months back with my oldest friend (I haven’t seen him for a couple of years, and perhaps it’s just as well), who…[Read more]

  • Athelstone replied to the topic Sounds familiar? in the forum Blogs 4 years, 4 months ago

    Also “An IOPC spokesperson told PA Media: “We can confirm that on 17 December we received a referral from the Metropolitan police service [MPS] of a complaint about an alleged party at Downing Street in December 2020.

    “Having fully assessed the referral we have decided it is invalid and we have returned it to the MPS to handle as it det…[Read more]

  • Athelstone replied to the topic Sounds familiar? in the forum Blogs 4 years, 4 months ago

    Absolutely!

    I do not like wearing a mask when I go shopping, but it is a tiny hardship compared with, say, passing on the virus if I unknowingly had it, to somebody else. I’m so tired of hearing people, my neighbour for instance, declaring that he will “never” wear one in a shop because he’ll “never catch it that way”. He’s a tree surgeon and…[Read more]

  • RichardB started the topic Sounds familiar? in the forum Blogs 4 years, 4 months ago

    Let me introduce you to a news story that might have happened in an alternative November1940.

    JAILED DOCKER IS HERO, SAYS MP

    It was a national disgrace to jail a man for striking a blow for freedom, said Marcus Snellgrove, MP for Much Ordure and leader of the Bin the Blackout campaign, after Poplar dock worker Albert Throbbing was sentenced…[Read more]

  • Well Done

    Jack opened his eyes to see the hooded glower of Constable Roquefort shining down upon him like the judgement of heaven. That glower caused him to squint, which drew his attention to the dull pain pulsing from his vinegar-wrapped crown.

    “Where’m I?”

    “Hospital.” Roquefort’s brusque, deep growl was like a wolf’s, of which Jack wa…[Read more]

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