@raine
Active 3 years, 3 months ago-
Squidge posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
Just wondering how many here were in the Sept (I think) 2014 Self edit course? @swoop @tenacityflux … Jody Klaire, who I don’t think has found us yet? Anyone else?
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Squidge replied to the topic As an opening… in the forum Critiques 7 years, 7 months ago
Haha! He’s the one! I could picture him…but not remember his name!
I looked up the author – her novel sounds brill, must look it up. I like the idea of women ruling the world 😉
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Sandra posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
An anthology of poetry, kept beside the loo, results in a LOT more poetry being read than if I keep it by the bed.
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lol! I used to read poetry way more than I do now. Perhaps I should try your trick! Or by the kettle, to read whilst waiting for it to boil?
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I’ve been reading a bit more lately. The resurgence started after I bought Alan Bennett’s ‘Six Poets’ selection for the Orkney break. I remember thinking ‘Blimey, I wouldn’t have chosen that’ and never looked back
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Ath, Did you ever get round to reading Orkney’s no.1 poet, George McKay Brown?
The anthology I’m currently reading is 1992-2001.-
embarrassed to admit that I said I would, but I didn’t. However…I have just bought his collected works and am looking forward to some light and delightful reading if these words from ‘the poet’ are typical: When all the dancers and masks had gone inside
His cold stare
Returned to its true task, interrogation of silence.-
collected ‘poems’ not works
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Yup – that sounds like GMB – he inspired so much of my print work when I was at college.
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I wish I had been inspired at art school. I allowed myself to be ‘shaped’ into a worse artist than when I arrived.
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At least I had the courage to quit and go to university. Ah! The world of grants and state-paid fees.
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Benefit of being a ‘mature’ (haha) student.
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Did somebody in this thread alter or delete a reply? Just curious because a lot of it seems to have disappeared
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Yeah I found that- then THIS time I see above your last comment a box saying SHOW ALL 10 COMMENTS so perhaps it’s a space-saving gimmick.
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Ah – and it doesn’t work 100 percent.
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I can highly recommend Wild Embers by Nikita Gill. Her stuff is beautiful and makes me cry quite a lot! Also got Kumukanda by Kayo Chingonyi which is good too. A lot about coming from Zambia to the UK, which my mum did, so it feels personal in some ways.
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I’m finding it’s not the beautiful but the thought-provoking, recognition of something previously unvoiced that is currently jolting me into appreciation.
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John S Alty posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
I’ve been working hard on our kitchen remodel – now finished, as far as these things are ever finished – and can get back to doing a bit more writing.
I wonder where this will appear when I post it? Finding my way around.-
I know what you mean about being finished! Fwiw this appeared on my ‘Activity’ feed
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Oh, don’t get me started on kitchen refurbs. We’ll be going to court in October over ours…
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Oh my word @squidge! That sounds horrendous! What did they do?
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Squidge replied to the topic As an opening… in the forum Critiques 7 years, 7 months ago
Thanks all!
Stella, I’ve not heard of Naomi Alderman at all – I’ll have to look her/her books up.
It’s sods law that what I’ve written makes you think of someone else’s work – originally the Power was rings, and I got slated by an agent over it being too LOTR, when the story itself is nothing like.
Ah well, they do say there are only so many…[Read more]
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Hilary replied to the topic Festival Dreams in the forum Blogs 7 years, 7 months ago
Thanks for posting this, Skylark. I, too, was very sorry to miss your speech, but glad to hear about it and glad it all went well. You continue to be an inspiration to others of us who are taking a LONG time!
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John T replied to the topic Writing Advice in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 7 years, 7 months ago
One I picked up from Brian Keaney at York for intense, magical or transformational scenes (to be used sparingly). Write it as prose, rewrite it as poetry (however crappy) then rewrite it again as prose. The idea is to knock away your own familiar turns of phrase and find a different language. I’ve already tried it in the last couple of days, and…[Read more]
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Squidge replied to the topic New Blog from Emma Darwin in the forum Blogs 7 years, 7 months ago
I did a version of this… Rather than setting myself so many days up front, I just made a grid and marked off one square every time I wrote something. That way, there wasn’t so much pressure if I had to allow myself time off when life got busy or I needed a short break. I always wrote in the date so eventually I worked out that a break of any…[Read more]
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Squidge posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
You know some of us are having to log in again on the https site? Well, might be worth mentioning it seems to have undone the thing we sorted to stop getting email notifications of everything… So if you’re getting loads of them again, might be worth going to settings to check.
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Sandra replied to the topic New Blog from Emma Darwin in the forum Blogs 7 years, 7 months ago
Brilliant blog, as ever, and I’ve done other 100 days things over the years and can vouch for their effectiveness, but this time I too have novels to edit and to write (and in any case have no need of inducement to write every day)
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Sandra posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
I’m having a battle with WordPress and my password … hopefully, having arrived here again, I’ll be okay so long as I stay logged in.
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Yay! Wondered where you’d gone. 🙂
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Where has the list of topics gone?
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I’d rather like to know that too.
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Umm, I hadn’t noticed. YOu can see recent topic activity by selecting topics or replies in the drop down menu at the top of this activity wall? Or did you mean in the right hand column? I know @Admin were thinking of tweaking that column to include a list of blogs, so it might be in the middle of a reshuffle?
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I noticed the list of topics in the forum had gone, but saw I had been logged out, and when I logged back in they were back. Sandra, have you done the thing of logging back in with ‘https’ at the start of the url instead of just ‘http’? May help to clear cookies etc
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Daeds, I hope I never have to log out again! – bookmark is showing https, but the WordPress seem to think user name and email refer two different people.
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Yeah, WordPress can be a bit tricky. I have my main WordPress account (which I run my two blogs from) and a separate login for the Den. It seems to work OK but involves a bit of logging out and in again to different accounts. Hope it works ok for you now
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Have you changed the Den address on your favourites bar, Sandra? Once you’ve typed it in (or copied and pasted it) as https://www.denofwriters.com you should be fine. If not, let me know. I may be able to help.
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Thanks Jules and Daeds,
Den address is correct. I do think some of the problem might be my fault (forgetful of passwords) My main panic was missing out on Ath’s Room with a View deadline, so I’ll sit tight until the 21st at least.-
Sandra, DON’T PANIC. I extended the deadline to the 30th in the hope that some of our former entrants might find their way here in the extra time.
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Mad Iguana replied to the topic Festival Dreams in the forum Blogs 7 years, 7 months ago
Well done Skylark. So delighted for you! Like everyone else, I wish I’d been there for your speech. But it’s great to see lovely people and wonderful writers getting the good stuff that they deserve, regardless of how long it takes.
Congratulations!! - Load More
I went twice to FoW, & was in a self edit course straight after one of them, with you & Tenacity. I’m going to have to work this out by cricket seasons I think, hold on….
Jody was definitely on it, but I’m caught on whether it was 2013 or 2014
I changed clubs at the end of the 2012 season. I missed my last match for my old club when they were relegated to be at my first FoW, then I missed the last match for my new club when they just escaped in 2013. I couldn’t take that any more & haven’t been since….til next year. Pretty certain my self edit was 2013
2013? Blimey, didn’t think it was quite so long ago. There was Sir something on it too… can’t remember his cloud tag.
Yeah, went to one FoW that I went to certainly. Had a beard but his name escapes me, although I’m pretty sure he lived a couple of valleys across from Skylark…..so that should be relatively easy to work out. He says…..
@skylark. Ooh, there we go, technology!
There was a lady who wrote a novel that was a love story that involved spitfires? Think she was published shortly afterwards?
@louisewalters – was it you in our group?!
It was Hurricanes, but I’ll let you off, Neil 😉
I did it before Mrs Sinclair came out, but after I got my agent, so I think it was in 2013 I did mine. But I think Neil was on my course – Hi Neil!- so I may be getting muddled!
Yes it was @louisewalters in 2013, sorry I couldn’t remember, time flies. Sirtanic is who we’re thinking of, Mills?
Wouldn’t @debi know this anyway? Or were all records cloud based?
Yes, I wondered if records can tell us which intake we were all in?
There are no records of anything that was on the Cloud at all. Everything went pfft. 🙁 I could tell people who was in their group but it would take me some time. I’ve just done it for one recent group. One person contacted me and said they wanted to get in touch with their group so I went back to the emails I sent out with the course pack at…[Read more]
Oh blimey, no, too much work Debi. I reckon we can work it out if we stop and think, and search our own docs for clues!
Sirtanic – of course! I think Neil’s right, it was 2013 for us all, cos I was working on Rurik (who is now Tilda) and think I’d published Granny Rainbow in that year so I had the confidence to revisit the novel.
Much good it did me – as I edited it again for the milioonty-umpteeth time last year. Thank goodness it’s got a contract with it now…