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Athelstone started the topic Things that go bump in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
Well, I’ve gone and done it again. Time for a short story challenge I believe. This one has a ghostly and supernatural theme. If you’d like to find out more then hurry over to the group Things that go bump. Once you have joined, you can read all about it in the forum.
You know you want to.
You’ll be sorry if you don’t.
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Phew – it’s been on mind for the past week or two … on my way.
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That time of year already. Hooray.
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RichardB started the topic Susie in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
When you’re in your mid-thirties with three young children, when your life, which not so many years before was right on the edge of falling apart, has finally settled down, just about the last thing in the world you could possibly need is to fall in love with a barmaid fourteen years your junior. But then, Susie was no ordinary barmaid.
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RichardB replied to the topic A Want of Discipline: Abergele, 1868 in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
That, of course, is because, while ”snwcr’ is one of the many words the Welsh have borrowed from English and re-spelt (rather entertainingly) phonetically in Welsh, ‘heddlu’ (hethly) is a real Welsh word. But the Welsh for policeman is ‘plismon’, and for policewoman – wait for it – ‘plismones’.
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RichardB replied to the topic A Want of Discipline: Abergele, 1868 in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
Ath: ‘Herald of Free Enterprise’, Grenfell Tower…
Libby: When we first moved to Wales we did a Welsh language course for a couple of years. It’s a hell of a hard language to learn (for example, there are at least a dozen ways of turning a singular noun into a plural and there are no hard and fast rules, so you have to remember each noun’s…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic A Want of Discipline: Abergele, 1868 in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
Fascinating, Richard. Rich’s words may have been ahead of their time, but that serves to emphasise how persistent the root causes of these disasters are. We still do it, even with our modern safety culture. Sadly, there are forces working to erode what gains have been made. The “Health & Safety Gone Mad” slogan may not belong to a formal campaign;…[Read more]
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Sandra posted an update 5 years, 8 months ago
Lesley Glaister speaks about her writing process – both fascinating and encouraging in its familiarity: https://www.facebook.com/events/607610230131239/621568822068713/?notif_t=admin_plan_mall_activity¬if_id=1597861845278044
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RichardB started the topic A Want of Discipline: Abergele, 1868 in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
Up until the grouping of 1923 the London and North Western Railway, whose principal route was what is now called the West Coast Main Line from Euston as far as Carlisle, was the giant of British railways: indeed, at one time it was the largest commercial undertaking of any sort in the world. It was also, in its origins, one of the oldest,…[Read more]
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Jules replied to the topic Positive thoughts in the forum
CoronaMo 5 years, 8 months agoWell done on the short story acceptance, Doug.
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Raine replied to the topic Positive thoughts in the forum
CoronaMo 5 years, 8 months ago@dougk sorry for being so useless at checking in here. Hi & well done on the short story acceptance. Is it available online?
I repeat the ‘this too shall pass’ thing to myself fairly regularly! It’s the perfect balance of hope and recognition. -
JaneShuff posted an update 5 years, 8 months ago
Some advice please. I have just started reading aloud everyday via Facetime to my father who has Alzheimers and we are close to getting to the end of the book he had picked up. So I am looking for something else to read? Does anyone have any recommendations? His passion was sailing although he is quite happy to read anything. Short stories might…[Read more]
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Sorry – can’t really help. The only remotely sailingy books I can think of are @daedalus‘ eponymous book, ‘the life of pi’, ‘this thing of darkness’ and MM Kaye’s ‘trade winds’. He’d enjoy Daed’s perhaps? And ‘this thing of darkness’ is awesome, (& ~biographical) but the other two prob not ideal!
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What about that perennial fave of mine, Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’? It’s quite short, the plot and language alike are stripped down and simple, yet it’s so moving.
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Oh, and for most of the story it’s a man alone in a boat. Ought to be right up your father’s street.
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Hi @janeshuff I’ve had a quick look through the public library catalogue. I haven’t read any of the following but how about:
In the wake of heroes : sailing’s greatest stories introduced by Tom Cunliffe
London : Adlard Coles Nautical, 2015.
All at sea : true and tall tales / trawled by Libby Purves. Fontana Paperbacks, 1984. Published to…[Read more]-
Joshua Slocum’s ‘Sailing Alone Around The World’ is great. Then there’s Francis Chichester’s book about his own circumnavigation, which I think was just called Gypsy Moth, or possibly Around The World In Gypsy Moth? Thanks for recommending Daedalus @raine – very kind. It’s OOP now but I’ll see if I have any spare copies left
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Thanks @richardb, @libby, @daedalus. Great suggestions. If you had a spare copy, Daeds, I would happily buy it.
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Thanks Jane. I only have two left I’m afraid, and I didn’t want to go lower than that. There may still be some in a shop or two somewhere which I’ll chase up but very few of the places I sent copies to on sale or return ever got back to me
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If you can that would be great Daeds.
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Raine posted an update 5 years, 8 months ago
After five looooooong months, I had five whole hours without the mini yesterday when she had her soft transition day back in school (full, ‘normal’ start on Monday). I sat at my desk (which she’d been using) AND WROTE WORDS. Not many, but some. (And then watched Umbrella Academy to recover). It was all rather lovely. 🙂
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Oh, joy, Raine. I’ve said before I don’t know how anyone can write (or otherwise create) with offspring demanding attention. Long may the writing of words continue.
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Raine replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
Totally agree re Boyne, @jillybean. He’s lazy and complacent, and doesn’t care who he hurts as a result.
Having recently discovered the horrors of researching hist fic, I must admit to struggling with knowing where the line is between really getting stuck on details that don’t matter, and making sure the whole worldbuilding feels authentic.…[Read more]
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Squidge posted an update 5 years, 8 months ago
July’s comp is now July-and-August’s comp! If you fancy having a go, check it out here: https://www.denofwriters.com/forums/topic/monthly-comp-july-2020/
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Jules replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
Pretty sure Stephen King now has a team of fact checkers. But yes I imagine the tone of those letters is gleeful. What I’ll say for King is that even though he’s writing speculative fiction, he portrays characters who’ve had life experiences he has not respectfully. The same cannot be said for Boyne! One of the big problems with The Boy in the…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
Ah, yes. I take your point Athers. My ignorance obscured it earlier.
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Athelstone replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
There are degrees to this and a dependency on the type of book being written. I am not searching for an artificial precision in moral culpability. I am not saying that there are some absolute rules at play. I am saying that if you bend the truth to suit your story, while at the same time maintaining that what you write is authentic, then there are…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
Athers, I’ve not read Boyne, so took the passage you quote as from a fantasy novel which, in my understanding, means anything goes in the way of made-up words and facts.
On the subject of ‘proper’ research; at Newcastle Noir a couple of years ago, one crime writer told of being asked how many specialists he had on call to help him with research,…[Read more]-
There’s an article in today’s Telegraph referring to this, and mentioning it seems to apply less to film-makers, e.g. Braveheart where kilts were worn 500 years before in use “because they looked better”. Artistic licence, innit?
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Athelstone started the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
This is a lightweight blog.
I was just settling down after reading about the astonishing performance by George R R Martin at the Hugo awards, when my son approached brandishing his phone.
‘Look at that,’ he said.
I looked. My son has been a fan of the Zelda video games since he was little. I played a few along with him in the last few years,…[Read more]
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I didn’t gasp – too world weary – but I can see why you’re annoyed, Ath. On a lighter note I was disappointed, having hoped to learn something more about nightshade! Woody nightshade grows in our garden, is pretty and you could imagine the berries being used for dye. It’s also poisonous. But when I got a bit further I’d have switched off if you h…[Read more]
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Here’s a review of the book https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/06/a-traveller-at-the-gates-of-wisdom-by-john-boyne-review-an-ambitious-era-hopping-epic
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Thanks, Libby. A really interesting review. I hadn’t realised that the Zelda mistake was one amongst many. Aside from characters deep in history musing about their peers in the language of C20th psychology, we have ‘…kimonos and obis to the Chinese, igloos to the Norse Icelanders, and steel and horses to pre-Columbian South Americans. Potatoes…[Read more]
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That makes me flippin mad! All the hard work we put into our MSs, and he just… 😫
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Absolutely agree. I accept that the ‘worlds’ we base our stories in have a lot of the unlikely and improbable in them but there is a big difference between that and not bothering to do proper research.
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