Julie Cordiner

  • When Jack and Jill are found – Jack unconscious, Jill bruised, with a broken wrist, on the downward path from Old Well Hill, each are separately interviewed while in their hospital beds. Each gives an implausible and conflicting account of the events which led to their injuries.
    As a local journalist you want a front page story but are mindful o…[Read more]

  • Thank you Ath, and thank you Knicks for a version I wish I’d thought of , so many excellent phrases. Now to try to craft an irresistible competition!!

  • Ath, I know I’ve not been round much recently, but that looks fab! Noticed that blogs and whatever the heading is next to it both go bold when you click on blogs, but it seems so much easier and intuitive to navigate. Thank you xxx

  • Hi @Athelstone, sorry – no I don’t think there is a delete option currently either, it was just that I could delete it off the main wall, but not in the forum which seemed like it might cause confusion. It would be good to be able to delete your own comments though, particularly for the monthly comps & publication rights issues, but it’s not critical.

  • It does look much improved @athelstone. Thank you for all the hard work. I love that copy/pasting from word works better & that reply threads won’t vanish. Also love the chat – I commented in there that I almost didn’t spot it though – is there a way of making it more prominent? Or listed on the ‘Activity’ drop down menu at the top?
    THe other…[Read more]

  • 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, 8 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.

      • 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.

          • Steve says school leaving age was 15, but you could stay on. Also see wikipedia Raising_of_school_leaving_age_in_England_and_Wales

            • 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]

    • 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]

      • 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.

  • Hi all! Thank you so much for entering this month – sorry I’m not the actual winner of last month but I’ve had fun being undeserved organiser anyway!

    @knickylaurelle, I loved the dark, shadowy atmosphere to this. Lost boys and forests and witches – *chefs kiss* Some utterly beautiful imagery in here, my favourite has got to be ‘a cackle can be…[Read more]

    • Thank you Raine for so topically filling the breach, setting and judging (always the hardest part) the monthly comp. I am making good progress after stroke + surgery so hope to be back to full-strength participation soon

      • *giant hugs*

      • Oh my goodness, Sandra, I had no idea you were going through such a hard time. Pleased to hear you’re making good progress. Take it easy. Best wishes to you and yours. xxx

        • Thanks, Newbie. I count myself lucky to have come through it with minimal side effects – and a huge warm glow from the quantity and breadth of caring messages which have come my way from friends and family.

  • Great! I’d love to read some blogs from ten years ago – before all the nonsenses that started in 2016, and when there were busy Writers Forums full of blogs, shallow or profound but always fascinating…

    Please post an example…

  • Raine posted an update 4 years, 9 months ago

    One week left to get your spooky flashes in for the October comp. Come unnerve and delight me. 🙂

  • Done! and lol! 😀

  • Okay, so as Sandra is offline, I’ve stepped in to set this month’s challenge. Keeping it simple, it’s Halloween month so I want <400 scary/eerie/weird words featuring one (or more) of the following:
    A black cat
    A skeleton (of any species)
    A ghost
    A small child out at night
    A bag of sweets

    Have at it. Entries close midnight on Halloween.…[Read more]

  • @knickylaurelle just to let you know Sandra won’t be able to set a challenge as she’s offline for a wee while. Did you want to set another? Or I can invent something?

  • Very deserved win @sandradavies, well done! & thank you for an unusual, fun challenge @knickylaurelle. Everyone’s entries were great (& fascinating insights into your psyche!!).

  • 449 words. CW – it’s a little bit dark.

    The Hounds

    Dark water curls around the bases of the towers and somewhere the hounds are baying. From here, on the bared skeleton of the top floors you can see fires burning on other towers, flags red as blood flying like strings of prayers and there is safety there, possibly, but they are as far away as…[Read more]

  • 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]

  • In the place and time I found myself, I had done something wrong.

    My punishment? A chain of large metal links, secured around my throat, pressing against my flesh, reminding me of its presence every time I swallowed or turned my head.

    A man, with whom I had a connection – were we related? Was he the reason for my wrongdoing? – received the sam…[Read more]

  • Squidge posted an update 4 years, 10 months ago

    Found out today that Super Stories has been longlisted (1 of 8) in the Lunchtime Book Club, a new children’s book prize based in Luton! SO chuffed.

    (Also in some amazing company – Frank Cotterell-Boyce; Lauren St Child; Marcus Rashford as well as others I’m not so familiar with)

  • Oh my days…I’m going to be spoilt for choice, the state of my dreams! I’ll avoid the teeth-dropping out ones and see what else weird and wonderful I recorded in my dream diary.

  • Raine posted an update 4 years, 10 months ago

    Just sneaking in to say that if anyone is loitering around Birmingham with nothing to do on Saturday 25th Sept, we’re holding a launch for my book at FantasyCon. It’s 11-12am & in the Jury’s Inn hotel. Downside is that you have to buy a day ticket to the Con to attend, which at the moment is £41. BUT that means you also get all the other bookish…[Read more]

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