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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Competition- May 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 2 months ago
[TW for an F-Bomb 💣]
And Your Flesh Shall Be A Wild Night and A New Road
The wild scream of the guitar ripped down his spine, surging like power in his veins. Dominion, utter and absolute electricity, was what their music held over the night.
. . . 1984.
That was the last time he saw her, and all he could recall were a few, sparse details of…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 4 years, 2 months ago
The trouble is, it’s easy to get used to odd phrasing or vocabulary when I’ve produced it myself.
There’s definitely something in that. It’s a similar issue to writing something which doesn’t make sense on its own because you know all the back story that your audience is missing. You know what a turn of phrase means and it’s something of a sur…[Read more]
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Competition- May 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 2 months ago
I’m emotionally excited over this!! haha. We’ll see what I get up to 😊✨
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Athelstone replied to the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 4 years, 2 months ago
Re the bee in your bonnet. My comments about commas were not directed at you. Commas are wonderfully useful and under-used.
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Athelstone replied to the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 4 years, 2 months ago
No, I don’t worry too much about rules. Most of the rules are inventions of over-educated elites designed to reinforce the idea that how the aristocracy spoke and wrote was the correct way*. That’s how we end up with such nonsense as split-infinitives and pointless debates about whether there should be a comma prior to and in a list. Seeing as…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 4 years, 2 months ago
Crossed with your reply Kate.
Yes! It is creepy. I have been discussing it offline with another member of the circle. We thought that ‘against her hair’ was perhaps one of the worst possible adjectival phrases.
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Athelstone replied to the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 4 years, 2 months ago
I did think of a comma and I agree that it helps. What still interests me is whether the construction actually breaches any commonly agreed grammatical rules.
I take your point about common speech tags being transitive, although several are actually ambitransitive e.g.
It was necessary to answer. John answered.
I agree that ‘against’ is a poor…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 4 years, 2 months ago
There are oddities in the English language that are never expressly taught. I have in mind things such as the order of adjectives, by which I mean that a native speaker will (usually) prefer my big, green, timber, house to the alternative my timber, green, big, house. There are rules, or what purport to be rules, derived from how native speakers…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition – April 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 2 months ago
Super story @seagreen. Positively inspired and a worthy winner.
Thanks for the comp @knickylaurelle. I enjoyed it in spite of it bringing back a few awful memories.
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Competition – April 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 2 months ago
Each of these had me quite tense – from the loop of endless phone calls to unnerving gun point to the high pressure of never-ending tasks you have to micromanage – and each one left me wondering why I did this. I should have asked for peaceful entries to assuage my own anxieties 😅😅, but that might not have been as riveting, lol.
They are all…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic I Remember in the forum Blogs 4 years, 3 months ago
I went to his funeral a few weeks back. Still a bit raw for everybody but I’m glad I went. He came from a BIG family with ten brothers and two sisters and it was very interesting to meet some of them. Did have one amusing incident. I spoke with the wife of the eldest brother who told me that she always found the brothers, including her husband, ‘a…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition – April 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 3 months ago
That Conversation
‘Frank want’s the self-appraisals by Wednesday, remember.’
Colin’s words cut through my frantic attempts to pull the KPI figures together. No, I did not remember. I did not remember Wednesday figuring in any of the discussions.
‘But nobody has even started because we were told not to. The training doesn’t begin until Thurs…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 4 years, 3 months ago
OK, tiny announcement. I’ve moved the chat feature onto the sidebar. Actually, since it defaults to being in-view, it actually sits down in the bottom right corner. Don’t panic if it opens up and covers the window you want to look at. The minus (-) button will minimise it back into the corner. The plus (+) will open it again. Opinions? OK, horrible?
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Knicks started the topic Monthly Competition – April 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 3 months ago
Here we go. This week at work I am under enormous pressure to complete all of my reports, my register, scheme book and other administrative paperwork, as well as work on my school’s Easter Hat Parade and organize a webinar on reading for all infant parents. Enormous Pressure. The kind that makes you queasy in the chest and your armpits…[Read more]
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly comp – March 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 3 months ago
Woopity woop! 🥳🥳 Thanks, Ath! This was a real challenge for me as evidenced by my unusually late submission. I thought I wasn’t going to make it, but I was working on it the whole time, trying to get the voice right, and make sure my own meaning was clear.
Love your work as always, ladies. Seagreen, your piece was absolutely beautiful; Sandra’s…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly comp – March 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 3 months ago
Oh my, how to decide between four super entries?
Seagreen: poetic, inspirational.
Sandra: a slice out of a life that seems to be true.
Kate: warm to the max.
Knicks: beautifully wrought and fiercely hopeful.
I read these last night and thought “Blah! I’ll look again tomorrow when it’ll be easier”. It isn’t. I really could pick any one of…[Read more]
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly comp – March 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 4 months ago
Happiness Is An Old Slut
Y’know, there were a time – before the Great Dark – when I would chase Happiness. Relentless in my pursuit, I would pin her with a heated stare onto the walls of my life, undress her slow and vulgar, dry fingerin’ the places where she kept her best secrets. But even when I caught her, had my way with her, I knew Happine…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly comp – March 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 4 months ago
The March comp has two super entries and, maybe, another on the way? With a whisker under a week to go, and a word limit as low as 1 (2 would be better) and as high as 500 there’s tons of time to rattle of an entry. And all it needs is a happy ending. Yippee! Look there’s a one-word-entry with a happy ending. You can’t have that one though.
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly comp – March 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 4 years, 4 months ago
Ath! Ath! I got sumthing!! Had real worries about it but a slight thing came to me this morning. So I’ll see where it takes me 😃✨
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