David C Wilker

The Urban McGonagall [one expletive]

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. I’m a poet.
Not that many folk, to look at me, would know it.
(Part because they look but never see beyond the Council-issued uniform: pea-green.

Mostly I’m invisible. Indivisible, from barrow, brush and bucket. And yes of course, when drunks stumble, trip and tumble over my…[Read more]

@Seagreen

Good heavens!! What happened to April? I completely forgot I’d set a competition, was somewhat startled to discover it was May, but I do like this – rings some bells since, apart from invisible, April seems to have been a retrospective month, for more than me.

So without further ado, I’m handing the baton for May’s competition to you -…[Read more]

🙂 Confess I haven’t checked it out

Thank you @Athelstone and @seagreen. Also thanks @Janette for a prompt which enabled me to try out a reason for a murder.

Wow. Thank you Janette, I’d relaxed, confident of having been entertainingly pipped at the post. Will drag myself from editing and see what I can come up with.

Thank you Jane – and Kate and Raine – it’s always good to get positive feedback, and Carol’s was more incisive that I could have managed. (I’m still grinning)

If anyone is wondering about splashing out on a print version of any of the ‘Love triangles with murder’ series, Blurb has a SHIP4FREE offer – at their usual rate of £6.99 for one book this is of considerable value, but offer ends 30th March

h t t p s://w w w.blurb.co.uk/user/SandraDavies…
Use the code SHIP4FREE

Thanks, Ath. I bought a copy of Carol’s novel, but as it only arrived yesterday I haven’t begun it yet.

With crime fiction, it seems that the ‘THIS IS WHAT THIS IS signifier is a silhouetted man walking down a tunnel or over a bridge or along a lonely road BUT IT IS ALWAYS THE SAME BLINKING MAN!!! and I wonder authors don’t put their foot down. Even more so when I see what can be done by a small company with ‘This is our undoing’

Our local indie bookshop – https://www.drakethebookshop.co.uk/ – is doing a brilliant job of keeping us stocked up with books – and says he has deliveries of stock arriving daily for click and collect. I’ve already spent £100 with him this year – and my ‘need’ list grows ever longer.

Catalyst

Despite the haste of his extreme, and unavoidably, late arrival – ‘Sorry, sorry, bastards took my phone so no way to warn. I’ll be fine, just need to wash the blood off … nose, yeah. Not broken. No, it’s fine, Alix paid my cab off at the door. And yeah, the police took witness statements.’ – he’d caught a glimpse of her as he hurri…[Read more]

Yay indeed – well done Janette! And well done for choosing from such a disparate selection, Athers.

Having heard of someone else’s concern about the danger of overusing ‘I’ I am more sensitive, and have seen writing where it becomes a pain, but it’s hard to cut beyond a certain point. As for contractions – sometimes NOT to use them adds an unnatural stiltedness; like Jane says, their use needs tailoring to what’s being written.