Linda Acaster's Blog, page 4

Hello from Linda Acaster's Blog!

This post is for people who signed up, probably years ago, to receive my blog posts direct to your Inbox (~~waves~~ and thank you!). It was run by Feedburner, which I thought was doing a decent job but it seems may not have been. So if you haven't heard from me for a few months, this explains a lot.However, Feedburner is closing next month, and so I've sought a replacement - hence the green

Writer Blowout: 10 Books To Help Hone Your Craft

 David Gaughran's Blowout runs until 4th JuneYes, it's the end of May already, and the wettest, dullest, chilliest May since... Ahem! Didn't we do this in April? Unfortunately, yes. And as I write, here in the UK it is the close of the Late May Bank Holiday. Most of the country has been basking in sunshine all weekend; here on the Yorkshire coast we've had low cloud and sea mist. It's enough to

Busy Doing Nothing...

Image by Clikr-free-vector images via PixabayWell, April has felt as if I’ve been part of a musical comedy, à la the 1949 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; either that or I’ve been doing a good impersonation of the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass. Yes, I seem to have been running very fast and seemingly getting not very far.The mystery novella (metaphors as

Of Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Volcanic Eruptions

By Jonatan Pie via UnsplashIt’sbeen an interesting month. More on the pic in a moment.Mycurrent work-in-progress is crawling to its finish (let’s notmention when I started writing it). It’s a Mystery, which is a bitof a departure for me, and there will be more on this next month. Ishould have a cover for it by now, but I don’t, organised as I am.I’vealso become aware of the

Spring Conferences: Archaeology, Hull Noir Crime, Wrexham Carnival of Words

The Pandemic might still be with us, but spring is springing, therefore the Virtual Conference Season is starting. I have notification of three, and no matter where you are in the world you can join in. Two are even free! 05-07 March - FREE via YouTube Current Archaeology magazine is hosting Current Archaeology Live! 2021 (note the March date)There are 20 talks scheduled including an update on

When Your Health Turns On You: #Hypothyroidism --- 9: Covid-19 and Vitamin D – Jan 2021 Update

Vitamin D3 capsuleWhen I started this series in February 2020 I never expected still to be adding to it in January 2021. There again, one year on from the first Covid-19 hospitalisations in the UK, no one here expected to be living under Lockdown-3. It could be worse, and it is in some parts of the world; at least we don’t have a curfew.However, the UK figures, horrendous as they are, speak for

Let’s Embrace 2021 with a New Hobby - or Two

 Happy New Year! Let’s lift a glass in a dubious welcome to Covid-19 Mk2. Well, we manoeuvred Mk1 and now better know what to expect. Just as important, we know to balance our expectations while awaiting the full roll-out of various vaccines. For most of us that isn’t going to happen anytime soon so we just have to make the best of it. And, after whinging in true British style, that's exactly

All Things Father Christmas - including Santa and NORAD

Here I am, back again with my  traditional Christmas post, because, as with all good
Traditions, it has the right amount of fact while not taking itself too
seriously.  And after a year of Covid do we need a bit of not taking oneself too seriously! 


Let it raise a smile as snippets are retold over a glass of something
warming and yet another mince pie.

Wishing all my readers, of this blog

When Your Health Turns On You: #Hypothyroidism --- 8: Vitamin D – The Results!

Vitamin D3 capsule It’s been a while, 20 April to be precise, since my last post in this series. But it has been worth the wait – on a personal front, and a Covid-19 front. The results are in!The backstory for those just joining me:During 2017 I was suffering lots of weird health symptoms, the most concerning being that my brain refused to function properly – hardly a useful trait in a novelist.

Trialling Audio for a Virtual FantastiCon

What a weekend that turned out to be, sitting drink in hand for six
hours each day watching FantastiCon unfold on my laptop. Covid-19 has a
lot to answer for, but Dan Grubb is a can-do kind of fella, and he will not be beaten by a mere world-wide pandemic. He and
his wife run Fantastic Books Publishing and their annual FantastiCon is an in-person event held at Cleethorpes, just south of the