Just a few days left for the Monthly Competition. Hurry, hurry, hurry!
Just a few days left for the Monthly Competition. Hurry, hurry, hurry!
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Raine

  • The Leap

    Before I knew what The Leap was, I thought it was magic. Like I thought magic was a real thing. Me and Cob and Dez and Piggy were all under ten years old. I mean, I didn’t know what a year was. That was an earth thing. Piggy was nine, and he said that a year was like four and a bit turns of the stars. Turns were an asteroid thing, a K…[Read more]

  • Janette posted an update 1 week, 3 days ago

    Apologies for the big absences. I have had a lot to get my head around and the battle is not yet over, but I am starting to ease myself back into addressing an unfinished WIP. I have found a brilliant library: The Bradford Mechanics Institute Library, who serve teas to your table while you write. I love that you have to be a member (for the small…[Read more]

    • Hi @janette, I grew up close to Manchester in the 1970s. I don’t know a great deal though can remember the atmosphere and what it looked like. There was a sense of desolation despite the moneyed suburbs. I don’t know anything about the theatres – a memory of the Library Theatre but that’s all. But if you think I can help, send me a private message…[Read more]

    • I know nothing about Manchester in the mid 70s. I did do a few trips by coach from Newbury to Wigan in the early 70s (to the Casino) fuelled by optimism and fabulous blues music, Not so many that I was a regular. Happy to discuss.

    • John T replied 1 week ago

      I was born in Manchester, but no help, as I left in 1965, aged 10! The Mechanics Institute Library sounds amazing. Dad was a member of one in Hull when he was teenager before the war, and made a point of joining one in Cardiff when we moved there in 1965. All part of the workers’ education movement – he was a big supporter.

      • I’m also looking at how backstage works in theatres, particularly the wardrobe part, meanwhile I aim to generalise and hope it suffices.
        Yes, the Mechanics Institute Library is amazing. I only wish I’d more time to explore it. Ours at least, had the education part of it taken over by the council, but it is interesting to see how many groups…[Read more]

        • Mandy’s son Sam has done backstage work, but I think that was more technical – lighting etc.

  • Cheeky leap into an attempt of an opener for ‘Snap is not a children’s game’ 

    Vic Duncan. Did Lucy but know it, the first of three Duncan men she’d sleep with before she died, possibly dangerous, but an especially satisfying addition to her habitual  maintenance of a quartet of alphabetically consecutively-named lovers.

    It began in the final yea…[Read more]

  • Well done, @purplewitch. That was an excellent return to the monthly competition 🙂

    Liked that prompt @pinkbelt. Super bunch of entries this month.

     

  • Congratulations Terrie – a tale that got richer with every re-reading, as did those of Alex at Ath. And thank you Pinkbelt for the challenge.

  • First of all, thanks for allowing me to come back into the fold and do this. I’d forgotten how much fun these are, and I can’t believe just how much people can express in so few words. I loved all of them in different ways.

    Sandra, I found your piece thoughtful and intriguing. I love the part of writing when you revisit a character to find out a…[Read more]

  • The Return

    Brenda’s dad died in 1983, so when he returned forty years later, it was a bit of a nuisance. Brenda woke up and went down to make a cup of tea. She was rather surprised to see him sitting in the kitchen looking out of the window.

    ‘You’ve let the garden go,’ he said without looking round. Then he did look round, and he added, ‘Bloody…[Read more]

  • Retrieving memories

    When on the Word Cloud, in 2014, Alan P proposed the challenge ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore’, I was in need of an explanation as to why Luke Darbyshere ( DI and main character in my ‘Love triangles with murder series) regularly sabotaged relationships at the point when they looked like becoming meaningful. His upbring…[Read more]

  • Have to confess I avoid much of that for Steve, by ordering and collecting the books I want and handing them over for him to ‘hide’ (recognising he is doubly challenged by my having a birthday five days before Christmas.)

  • Every year I aim to be organised (see Terrie above) and pick presents well in advance. The practice is different. I may not be quite as bad as the proverbial desparate man, the evening before, in the petrol station shop, but I’m cutting it close.

  • @ Terrie – I second Ath’s recommendation for hard drives: the one my thoughtful elder son bought for me, having listened to my moans, scrambled its contents when my laptop blew several gaskets.

    @Athelstone – “gift lists for next year” not illegal, they masquerade as Amazon wish lists, ready to be re-written for handing to my local bookshop.

  • By the way, ” I’ve even written my gift list for next year”. I believe this is actually against the law.

  • Oh yes, prevaricating about the bush as Wallace refers to it. I do a great deal of that. Top tip. Every so often, copy the contents of that 1TB hard drive somewhere else as well. Whether that’s the Cloud (Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, Apple iCloud and so on) or another sleek 1TB hard drive. The day may come when your adorable cat decides the…[Read more]

  • Squidge posted an update 1 month, 2 weeks ago

    I always seem to come on here to apologize for not being here… Suffice to say that Life is a bit complicated and sad at the mo, and I’m not at my best. When I have the head space, I’ll be back.

    Power to all of your pens in the meantime though 😉

  • John T posted an update 1 month, 2 weeks ago

    For those of you who are interested, Apples in the Dark is now available as an Ebook (paperback coming at the end of June). Almost ten years in the writing, tearing up, rewriting, rewriting again, etc – but it has finally got there. Links to books and to website in my Linktree. https://linktr.ee/wordswithjohn

  • It’s great to pop back in and see some familiar faces still hanging around.

    Sticking with my own situation, I’m going to go with a one word theme – ‘Returned.’ You are open to interpret this anyway you like: a person returning, or an object being returned, or even something being turned and the turned again if you’re really into hyphens.

    Less…[Read more]

  • Thanks, Athers, for a competition theme that gave me much head-scratching before I found a direction, and for chuckling, since I didn’t intend to sound self-pitying. Also I thoroughly applaud your giving Pinkbelt the opportunity to challenge us in February.

  • Well, what do you know? Three totally different old things.

    Sandra, you brought a bit of Rembrandt’s brutal honesty in your piece. I’m not sure whether I was meant to but I chuckled along as I read this. It reminded me of the moment when I realised that my hands now resemble my own father’s as I remember them from years ago. It was an honest…[Read more]

    • Wow. Never expected to win. My way of gently reintroducing myself. I’m dipping my toe back in so I’ll give it a go. Let me have a think and I’ll post a bit later.

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