More than Writers

  When I typed a filename for my draft of this piece on Word, I mishit a key and accidentally typed ‘booklaugh’.   And I’m not making this up! On Friday (1 August) at 7.15pm, I will be doing an online book launch.   What?   Me?   Yes, really.   I will be promoting (frightening word) Past and Present , a collection of my short stories, some with a historical setting, some contemporary and many of them funny.   (I love writing humour.)   It’s all advertised on Eventbrite and the book itself is on Amazon .   My host for the launch, Allison Symes (whom ACW members will remember), and I have worked on the format of the launch, readings and questions. Am I apprehensive?   Yes.   Am I nervous?   Definitely… but not so much as I might have been a few months ago.   For a couple of years, since my novel, Wodka or Tea With Milk was accepted for publication, the business of marketing the books I have written has terrified me. ...

Image Credits:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. Holiday season is often when most of us will continue to write but not to our usual extent given we all need breaks.   But, once back again, have you given some thought as to what your characters would write if they were on holiday? What would such things tell you about them? Better still, what would your readers make of their postcards “home”? Now this is a great flash fiction exercise. Imagine one of your characters is sending a postcard home. Allow them to send just one. It has to count! What would they write and who to? Is the recipient expecting a card? Where would the card come from? Answering those questions should spark story ideas (as would the recipient’s likely response).  This is an apt exercise for me to suggest because flash fiction has had many names in its time and postcard fiction is one of them. Usually you would get up to 100 words on a standard postcard (possibly 50, depending on how la...

During a heatwave earlier this month, my husband suddenly came down with a nasty cold, so he spent a couple of days in bed recovering. He likes to solve puzzles with a notebook and rollerball pen, and unfortunately at some point a black ink spot about the size of an old halfpenny piece appeared on our pristine duvet cover.     Always up for a laundry challenge, I googled how to remove it and was delighted that the first solution I found involved the use of ‘rubbing alcohol’, otherwise known as ‘Isopropyl Alcohol’. I happened to have some in the cupboard (why, you might ask? Because it has a multitude of uses!), so I set about following the instructions, first dabbing the stain with a cloth soaked in the stuff. That didn’t appear to have any effect at all. I felt like Lady Macbeth, unable to expunge the stain.     So, I spot-soaked the stain in a bowl, along with another smaller spot on a sheet, and left it for a while. When I came back, the stain had spread not only ...

  The strains of 'Everlasting Love' reached my ears as I  was sitting on my balcony. Time to pop next door. How lucky am I, living a stone's throw from my local library.   However, libraries just aren’t what they used to be… And I mean that most sincerely folks. In absolutely the best possible way. Ours has recently had an external makeover. Including glorious new paintwork, flowerbeds, and… the acquisition of a Rat. https://hullwhatson.com/mischief-of-rats-sculpture-trail-hull/     On that particular day it was celebrating its 90 th birthday. The atmosphere inside and out was buzzing. Music, speeches, local politician, talk, coffee and cake, free ice-cream with your library card, fun, laughter, games, activities, memories… in no particular order.  I make no apology for the photo  (below) of Granny Grunt and Jojo. In the shelter of a tree on this gloriously hot July day, modelling a blanket of knitted squares. The blanket was borrowed from the c...