Julie Cordiner

  • Squidge posted an update 6 years, 1 month ago

    How’s everyone doing as things start to ease? Had some tricky deadlines to meet (note to self- read the blasted edit properly first time, and don’t leave it to the typeset to make some plot changes) so haven’t been around.

    Sock production has reduced now the weather’s improved, but gardening has increased. Not that I’m a gardener, really. More…[Read more]

    • I second that approach to gardening, Squidge. It’s been a weird couple of months but I have got a lot of writing done. Loved the cover for the second Tilda book btw!

      • Thank you! I’m really interested to see what Bink give Tilda for the other books…there are bones in 3, dragons in 4 and I’m still working out number 5! 😉 All I do know is that the colour of the books will reflect the region where the action happens – so we’ve had red and green, still got yellow, purple and blue to come.

  • Sorry – have had a deadline on the novel, so completely forgot about the May comp! Well done Jill!

    And thanks for the comments, Libby. You read a lot more into my little walk than I realised or intended… 😉

    • It’s interesting when a piece of writing develops a life of its own. And encouraging too I hope 🙂

  • Well done Jill – you came so close to winning on YWP that it is only justice you come first here.

    And thank you Libby for setting a theme which sent me back to all of these small stones and properly gather them in one place (now up to #94

  • A circuitous route – the same-old, same-old – but not so taken for granted as once it was.

    Hot grey asphalt, its dull top layer peeled back by sun and tyres, glistening wet and black under, suggestive of a just-laid stickiness.

    Pavements littered with the faded shadows of chalked rainbow messages to un-caped crusaders or old-fashioned hopscotch…[Read more]

  • Raine posted an update 6 years, 2 months ago

    7 weeks of homeschooling (9 of lockdown) done. 5 & 1/2 weeks of homeschooling left. The end is just beginning to appear over the horizon!

    • Hurray! And well done on the home schooling. Have you managed to get any writing done as well?

      • Mixed feelings about the whole school thing here – some are going back, some not, some parents agree, some don’t… Having seen reports where teh libraries are being taped off with hazard tape to stop the kids handling books, I don’t think I’ll be putting my volunteer librarian hat back on for some time…

        • Yes, much as I and the mini are missing school (!), I am so glad we aren’t in England & facing going back to schools when it isn’t safe and when the measures schools are forced to use seem to be stripping all joy and light out of the school environment. Those photos of taped off bookshelves, and of chalked squares in the playground make me feel sick.

      • Bits, yes. I am struggling health-wise, and my capacity to structure and concentrate is shot to pieces. But I am doing lots of ‘research’ reading (about hedge magic, herbal remedies, victorian women botanists and the British Raj!), and pantsing a couple of novels that are almost certainly destined for the bin but are providing some escape for now.…[Read more]

        • Glad to hear you are managing to write ‘bits’ but very sorry about the ill-health. It’s a bugger, especially when you know that you’re not firing on all cylinders – so frustrating on top of everything else. However just reading about your research makes me want to read the novel that will result! It’s an enticing concoction. There’s every chance…[Read more]

  • Great stuff. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Must look out for The Hill of Dreams

  • Squidge posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 2 months ago

    Well, still trying to edit Tilda 3. Have made some major changes to plot to keep the reader guessing a bit longer, but seem incapable of getting it all to ‘flow’. Feels like I’m making it worse instead of better! But keeping on keeping on, regardless…

  • Between 2011 and 2013, for some eighteen months, I participated in a ‘Small stones’ project; a daily moment of intense observation. Many were made during the twelve minute walk (six there, six back) to buy a morning paper. This is a 396 word selection.

    Autumn

    Stepping stones of yellow sycamore
    stuck to the rain-damp road

    And the sky this mor…[Read more]

  • Well done, Libby, thoroughly deserved.

  • Well done, Libby! Loved your piece. Interesting to read the stories behind the objects from everyone.

  • Thank you Raine – both for setting such an interesting, informative and though-provoking challenge, and for picking my favourite as winner. Well done Libby.

  • Thank-you all. I just realised as I logged on to write this that we talked about making these comps run over two months rather than one? I’ll stick to one month being as that was how I set it. So. These were all a delight to read. So many memories and things that resonated with me very powerfully. Anyway, on to my thoughts.

    @jllsted I am very…[Read more]

  • Sandra posted an update 6 years, 2 months ago

    @libby, I loved, loved, loved your comp entry – the agonising over the purchase and then the description – sounds a wonderful piece of inspiration to have in sight.

  • Raine posted an update 6 years, 2 months ago

    24hrs ish left to enter this month’s comp… Give me something to do tomorrow other than supervise maths. Please. 😀

  • Bringing a little light

    I suspected, on reading the rules, if I did submit anything it would be something of a cheat, because there’s not a lot that’s actually old in itself in this room. Not much in the way of ‘things’ really, anywhere in the house (although I do have, in the loft, my great-grandfather’s two writing boxes such as Jill describes…[Read more]

  • Raine posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 3 months ago

    1900 words today despite my computer (actually) screaming at me when I first turned it on this morning! Seems to have exorcised whatever ghost that was – phew. But then realised today’s words were about a ghost of a recording of the Little Red Ridinghood story so am expecting the computer to turn on with a howl tomorrow!

  • Raine posted an update 6 years, 3 months ago

    10 days left to post something in the Monthly Comp. Not a ‘create a story’ prompt this time, so much as a ‘play with words’ one. So even if you’re feeling low on inspiration, give it a go.

    • I started working on something this morning, enjoying, just at the moment, not to have to think up a story. That’s not because of the virus but because have been editing the novel and my brain isn’t flexible enough for a sudden shift to other fiction.

  • Barny posted an update 6 years, 3 months ago

    “And pay by card, if you can” Discuss.

    • Only a very small proportion of my payments are in cash these days and I think the last cheque I wrote was about 3 years ago. I have two pound coins in my pocket and I think that’s all the cash I’ve had for about a month. These are unusual times in that we are trying to minimise the shopping we do in person, i.e. I’m unlikely to nip out to the…[Read more]

      • I had to hunt out our cheque book when confinement started as we’re having to do a lot of payments by cheque. I couldn’t even remember what colour it was.

        • I’ve not written a cheque since October 2019. The one before that was written in April 2019. I haven’t handled cash since 31st March when the pharmacist called round with a prescription I had to pay for. Credit card points are building up nicely. Silver linings and all that.

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