Lily Lawson's Blog: Lily's log

Life with Lily

Greetings Randomers

Hope all is well with you.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

News

As I’m working on my layout for Rainbow’s Book of Prompts I thought you might like to see the cover. With many grateful thanks to Jeanne Roland and Joanne Paulson for their help.

What I’m reading

I’m listening to About Writing by Gareth L Powell.

I love non fiction and audio books and I’m learning so triple win!

Follow of the week

My follow of the week is K L Small you will find her on Facebook, X and Instagram

She’s not just a middle grade author.

There’s a new direction brewing you might want to check out.

Her newsletter is all about life on Carousel Acres with lots of animal news.

Prompt of the week

‘Fate’s dice roll separates life and death.’

Refuge - Rainbow’s Red Book of Poetry

Word of the week

Not to be confused with Booksy

Music of the week

The Bluebells - Young at Heart

My Books –

https://mybook.to/Sandcastles

https://mybook.to/Rainbowseries

https://mybook.to/RainbowsYellowBook

https://mybook.to/RainbowsOrangeBook

https://mybook.to/RainbowsRedBook

https://mybook.to/MFD

https://mybook.to/TasteofWhatstoCome

https://mybook.to/SantasEarlyChristmas

https://mybook.to/IfIwereInvisible

https://mybook.to/PalmTreeSwingers

Places you can find me -

https://bsky.app/profile/lifelovelily22.bsky.social

https://twitter.com/lifelovelily22

https://www.instagram.com/poeticrainbow9/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20433114.Lily_Lawson

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lily-lawson

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lily-Lawson/e/B08BKWYJC1

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08BKWYJC1

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Life with Lily

Greetings Randomers

It’s been a minute.

Hope all is well with you.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

News

I’ve been published in a book. Emma Bloor has added a couple of my poems to her book Penned on my wall: Featuring vss365, NAlove, & vssGhostShip

which you can check out here –

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Penned-My-Wall-Featuring-vssGhostShip-ebook/dp/B0F8PDX2WY/ref

Blurb - A selection of poems and prose created using daily prompts words chosen by the writing community on X (formerly Twitter).
Featuring vss365, NAlove, & vssGhostShip.
Includes guest poets. (me and other folks)

I’ve started posting prompts on Threads – keep your eyes peeled for why.

On Instagram I’ve returned to my roots. It’s all about the poetry.

This is one of my recent favourites.

To all the women I've known in life

Someone's sister, mother, wife,

Someone's daughter, neighbour, friend

Someone's person till the end

To all the roles you've had to play

For troubles you have chased away

For all the things you've given up

For all the times you've shown you're tough

For every hug for someone near

For every hand you held in fear

For every tear that has been shed

Every time you've used your head

For many forms of love you've shared

For all the times you've been prepared

For actions big and actions small

For words you likely won't recall

Past and present

Future too

You give so much

Wow and thank you

Copyright © 2025 Lily Lawson

In other news I have been challenged to write a list of EVERYTHING I have to do – thanks KL Small (I think…maybe…)

Will update on all matters as news comes in …

What I’m reading

World by Design – Norb Aikin

Which you can find in his shop or on Amazon

Blurb –

In World By Design, Norb Aikin's third book of poetry, the question of whether we truly create our own world or are living in a world created for us is posed. Existence is a balance of multiple paradoxes yearning to be uncovered; what we do with them is really the only part we get to dictate, and even then it isn't always a matter of choice. Maybe this book itself is an existential crisis clouded in a mystery of words, but you won't know if it's life-changing or not unless you read it. Your results may vary.

Norb Aikin is a poet and blogger originally from Buffalo, NY and now living in Cortland. World By Design is his third book of poetry, after 100 and Mutants. Please be kind; you never know what others are dealing with in their own lives. Support local and indie authors, creators, and bookstores. Go Bills!

Follow of the week

P S C Willis – who you will find on BlueSky and Instagram

There’s some news happening you might want to keep an eye on …#justsaying

Prompt of the week

‘Touch me like you did in the rain’

Rain – Rainbow’s Yellow Book of Poetry

https://mybook.to/RainbowsYellowBook

Word of the week Music of the week

Girls Aloud – I’ll stand by you (Sarah’s version)

My Books –

https://mybook.to/Sandcastles

https://mybook.to/Rainbowseries

https://mybook.to/RainbowsYellowBook

https://mybook.to/RainbowsOrangeBook

https://mybook.to/RainbowsRedBook

https://mybook.to/MFD

https://mybook.to/TasteofWhatstoCome

https://mybook.to/SantasEarlyChristmas

https://mybook.to/IfIwereInvisible

https://mybook.to/PalmTreeSwingers

Places you can find me -

https://bsky.app/profile/lifelovelily22.bsky.social

https://twitter.com/lifelovelily22

https://www.instagram.com/poeticrainbow9/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20433114.Lily_Lawson

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lily-lawson

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lily-Lawson/e/B08BKWYJC1

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08BKWYJC1

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I don't know what to say

I’m a writer. It’s what I do. I use those cute little things we all learned to form at school to make words, sentences, paragraphs, pages, sometimes (hold the front page it’s getting crazy) books. Okay I use a computer not paper and pencil, but the concept is kind of the same.

But here’s the thing this writing blog post/newsletter stuff well it’s different, you know.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I have an imagination (yes I know I wrote about not being able to write fiction and that was/is true. Don’t fret it’s taken a vacation – its clothes are still in the closet it hasn’t thrown its keys on the table and slammed the door. Seems like it’s checking in so stories will return. Bear with while it shows me its holiday photos and gives me some trinket from some place I can’t pronounce and have no clue what to do with).

I digress – you knew what you were signing up for don’t look at me like you’re shocked.

Grab a drink, a snack and a comfy spot and we’ll continue.

Nonfiction - this stuff here (ok mostly) has command of the bookshelves.

Poetry is allowed full access (not that she cares she is very happy on the sofa knowing I’m not going anywhere without her so she will only get freaked if I tell her to pack her bags then she pitches her tent in the garden and waits for me to notice it’s raining so I’ll open the door, hand her a towel and dry clothes and we pick up where we left off – she might whinge a bit but she soon settles down).

Fiction wanders like a lost soul – sometimes allowed on the bookshelves, sometimes on the sofa, sometimes goes off for the day, days, weeks at a time but always comes back. I was a little concerned this time (He could have called you know) but as I say all will be well.

Making nonfiction do more than its fair share of the work made it a little tired. Think it was about to call the union on me if I didn’t get poetry off the sofa and make her help out. She did eventually and they are working on their relationship. At some point fiction’s holiday mood will leave. He’ll stop dancing like nobody’s watching because deep down he wants them to, and he’ll do some work and there will be a sense of balance.

But yes to get back to where I was (if anyone knows) this is different. Blogging/writing newsletters is not a story exactly but can be, not poetry but can be, nonfiction kind of sort of but not in a university assignment or write to this theme sort of way.

It requires ideas, imagination (sometimes) and a willingness to intrude into inboxes where it may or may not be welcome. If I write nonfiction for a book you get some idea what it’s about up front so you can say yes or no or leave parts unread. OK you can delete my emails unread if you so desire but where’s the fun in that?

I’m random in case it passed you by so one post may be rather different from the last and the next and so on which may thrill or delight you (ok too much I’m getting carried away) you might enjoy that aspect (better) or it might drive you to wonder what you signed up for don’t look at me. I have no answers I only write words and sometimes I clearly don’t know what to say.)

P.S. Aren’t you glad I have someone check my punctuation before I publish my books?

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

It's a poetry party

Marketing is tough to crack even for long established folks.

Think of how many campaigns brands do. They change things up on the regular because that approach stops working or is no longer relevant etc.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

In the world of selling you don’t want to become wallpaper.

There is a lot of trial and error involved and even the big guns make mistakes sometimes (which might weirdly work if it makes the brand stick in your mind but that may not be for the right reasons). But when it works it’s magic.

People’s lives are busy, stressy and sometimes messy. Getting people to notice whatever you want them to is far from easy.

There’s loads more marketing advice than any human or brand can possibly need. Is it good advice? Will it work for you? I can’t answer either of those questions. I doubt anyone can. People will tell you differently.

If you’re like me you’ve had the odd great post or note that got attention and after you’ve dissected it and analysed it like a detective trying to solve a case you may or may not know what it was that made it fly like superman and you may or may not be able to use that information. What works well can be something of a surprise.

I’m trying things to see if I can get anywhere. Because what else can you do?

I’ve reduced all my poetry books and Sandcastles (short stories) to 0.99 in the UK, USA and Canada for the whole of Indie April. Great time to buy. You pay less and get to support an Indie author during Indie April.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08BKWYJC1

Also on my let’s try this and see if it works list I’m trying stuff with other authors banding together.

One of these things is a Poetry Palooza which V Walker is running.

For three days only, dozens of indie poets will be offering their eBooks for just $0.99–$1.99.

If you’ve been meaning to dive into more poetry—or explore new voices—this is a great time to do that.

📍April 12–14, 2025

🎁 Every purchase = entry into a giveaway for a $15 Bookshop.org gift card or a $20 Bookshop.org gift card (2 winners total!)

Click here to get a free entry into the giveaway.

All of my poetry books are included so you get a free entry into the giveaway draw for every one you buy during the Palooza (12 - 14 April).

If you need a sign poetry is not dead here it is.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Oh No, No NaNoWriMo

It likely comes as no surprise to those who keep up to date with this matters that NaNoWriMo will be shutting down.

https://gizmodo.com/longtime-writing-community-nanowrimo-shuts-down-after-ai-drama-2000583619

I am not a novelist but I did dip my toe into its waters several times. I even won once. That was actually NaPoWriMo I’m sure you won’t be shocked to learn. A poem a day being more my thing than 50k.

I may not be crying over my keyboard but the community and accountability of NaNoWriMo made it a well established part of the writers writing year. Countless novels started their life with a sign up to the site. Many a friendship was forged as a result of participation.

If you want to read some info on some options read on. There are lots of options and I couldn’t list them all here. Feel free to jump to the section you want if my post is too long for you.

I have included - The ones I know, The um sort of one, (which I know a bit about) Now into the unknown, (ones I have only read about) Links (Lists of options which include the ones I’ve mentioned and more)

You may want to try a few out.

If you want the whole enchilada of what I could find I have added links at the end so you can get more options and more information.

What Now?

If you are bereft and wandering where is there to wander to -

I have experience of some of them

The ones I know

https://shutupwrite.com/

Meetings are online or in person. Locations are international and there are numerous options every day. Numbers are limited and can vary depending on host. The idea is you well, shut up and write.

I did this regularly for a while and the accountability helped me enormously. If you attend the same time each week you are often with the same people and it can be (and I think is likely intended to be) a chance to build community. You are aware in advance (when you book) who the host is (some run multiple sessions) and the size of the group so you can decide what works for you. I like the flexibility of being able to book whatever session(s) you can do which helps if you don’t have a set schedule to work with. My experience was online only so I’m unsure how that works in person.

https://writershq.co.uk/

A variety of online and in person events and courses including retreats some of which are free. The paid ones are affordable. They run all year round and the courses cover a lot of areas writing wise. I’ve done a few courses and a couple of online retreats and they are useful. Well worth a look and a free membership.

The um sort of one

https://4thewords.com/

When I looked at the site I have a name so I appear to have made an account. That’s as far as it went though. Someone I know did use it (not sure if they still do) and told me about it. It’s a game based platform and comes with a discord and you can quest with others by forming a group. There are free and paid options.

Now into the unknown

https://www.mywriteclub.com/

This feels a bit NaNo esk from what I’ve seen of the site.
You set goals and connect with people who see how you’re doing and you cheer each other on. Its in beta testing mode atm so things may change along the way.

If you’re a seasoned NaNoWriMoer it might be your jam.

https://www.novlr.org/the-reading-room

This is another WIP site. Its the worlds only writer writer owned creative writing platform. It feels a bit WHQy with lots of options. Depends what you’re looking for.

https://www.autocrit.com/novel-90-writing-challenge/

Lots of stuff going on here. The idea is you write your novel in the less pressured 90 days rather than the crazy hold my life 30. Free and paid options.

https://pathfinderswritingcollective.com/

Challenges throughout the year and a discord with various options. They aim to be inclusive and have something for everyone.

https://trackbear.app/

A free app to track whatever writing goal you want to track.

The whole enchilada

My suggestion for what it’s worth is to work out what you need/want and what you will miss from NaNoWriMo - and then see what options might fill that role for you.
Is it word tracking, goal motivation, a sense of community or some combination or something else entirely?

Links

I got my list above from

https://openbookeditor.com/2024/10/24/5-great-writing-challenge-alternatives-to-nanowrimo/

https://medium.com/illumination/nanowrimo-alternatives-bcab90d8c512

You can find some of the ones I mentioned and more besides from

https://gretaham.blog/2024/09/12/alternatives-to-nanowrimo/

https://rmarcher.com/2020/09/nanowrimo-alternatives-word-count-tracker-community/

https://hnossproofreads.co.uk/17-alternatives-to-nanowrimo-to-help-you-write-more/

Some of these posts, given their age, may include options that are no longer available. I have only checked the ones I mentioned.

Good luck and happy writing.

The Mighty Zon

I am a writer. An indie author. So are a lot of people I know.

The ‘boycott Amazon, stick it to the man’ brigade have a point.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

We live in a world where big corporations swallow small businesses chomping their way through towns and cities till all individuality is removed. When you arrive somewhere new it can feel like someone blindfolded you and said to the stores change places and then the blindfold is removed and you play some strange game of spot the difference.

Maybe one or more are missing or duplicated. Maybe there’s a pub or a church or a school or a theatre or cinema or a library or even shock horror a bingo hall or leisure centre or even more than one of those or which may or may not be being used for their original purpose. (My list is what came to mind so is unlikely to be exhaustive). You might even have landed where there’s a collection of these community spaces which were the mainstay of every town once upon a time.

In a twist of video killed the radio star the internet swallowed some of the stores the supermarkets or similar brands left standing.

Some stores only use the internet to display goods you have to actually go to the store to buy stuff. Can you imagine?

It could be argued that the ones with websites or store fronts on places like Etsy and dare I say it Amazon now have a reach they could only dream of in suburban or rural ghost towns.

So it is with Indie Writers.

If this was a panto Amazon would be the big bad villain everyone boos but panto season has long since past and what is played out on stage is only part of the story.

I do understand we all need someone to blame and in this story they are lining up to see the judge (which is you, the customer) but here’s the stinger - boycotts hurt the innocent as well as, or sometimes more than, the guilty. If you as judge have allotted those roles.

Amazon is where most if not all of us sell our books, for some of us the only place we are able to do that. A website where we also get paid for page reads via a programme where you can read as much as you like for a monthly fee if we are willing to accept Amazon’s ebook exclusivity clause. (Kindle Unlimited).

Its also a place where small businesses sell their goods.

Can you see where I’m headed here?

Who suffers from this boycott? The big bad Amazon or the unknown author trying to make a bit of money by selling the words they have torn from their souls and laid out in book form?

The aforementioned small business is getting beat up too and what did they do? Use the tools at their disposal to give themselves the best chance of competing in crowded markets. If you were them wouldn’t you?

If I thought that people would run to Indie Bookstores and small independent retailers and spend their hard earned there (and if you do keep doing that) then I would applaud. But in reality as the scenario above illustrates those are few and far between. (I must be fair and say they still exist and I know of at least three that have opened in the past year or intend to open soon.)

I will never tell you what to do, that’s not my place. But I will ask you to fully consider who your actions affect when you boycott and what you are hoping to achieve.

Can I suggest you walk a mile in the shoes of an indie author or a small business owner please?

I know there’s hope and I hang onto that.

We are grateful for each bit of river that flows our way and isn’t swallowed by the sea.

We value each and everyone of you.

We like to think you value us too.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Investigation - I'm a curious bod

When I write a Substack post I share it with an image and preview text across social media as well as here (including notes) and email.

People open their email or read from the link I’ve shared. This is my understanding and may not be entirely accurate. I have no way of knowing if my subscribers read my words or just open the emails and delete them unless they say.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

My open rate is below average which is to be expected. I am hardly dropping pearls of wisdom that make essential reading and I am still finding my voice as they say. This is not a poor me post, that is not my style.

A number of kind humans told me my ‘Elbows Up’ post was well written and to my critical eye I considered I had done a decent job. This is a rare occurrence. I have high standards for myself and I am aware I do not always meet them. On this occasion I felt I had.

I woke up the other day with the thought that I should try an experiment to see what happened.

I posted the whole thing in full everywhere.

For X, Instagram and Facebook that was one post.

For Threads it was an 11 part thread.

For BlueSky 19.

This was a second posting so my expectations were low.

In all areas it was mainly an ‘I didn’t see this’ audience.

Apart from Threads the range of reactions, shares and comments fell within my expectations more or less given the situation.

So what happened on Threads?

I will tell you to my knowledge the post with the highest number of views I had prior to posting was around 1600 and that was a shout out along the lines of ‘I will share your post if you reply’. My highest otherwise was approx 240. I have less than 300 followers on Threads.

I don’t have a Facebook page just a profile so my numbers there are equally small. My Instagram is almost double my Threads. My BlueSky and X follower counts are huge in comparison - 2.3k and 11.1k respectively. I am slowly building a following here.

The full post has reached 14.6k!

The eternal student and social scientist in me needs to unpack this.

My thoughts on reasons people don't click Substack links.

1. You have to have a Substack account - no you don't. Substack is a platform where people can read from links without an account.

2. You have to follow/subscribe to my Substack to read the posts. I'd be delighted if you did but it's not necessary it's more important you read my posts.

3. It costs money to read Substacks. In some cases yes it does. Mine are free atm. I can't rule out charging for something at some point but I will be upfront about that as are the people who have paid newsletters etc

4. My posts are long. Yup no argument from me on that one. You can skip any bits you don't want to read. I realise that's easier when I post in full.

5. You might not like my posts. Fair enough. I welcome feedback but I am never going to be able to write to everyone's taste.

6. It's a dodgy link. I can promise you it goes to a legit site but I understand someone has to bravely click to know that. You have to kind of trust me on that one. You can search for Substack and find me that way.

I'm Lily Lawson and my publication is Life with Lily - one sentence at a time.

7. What's Substack? It's kind of social media meets website. It has a number of functions but the most well used one is people writing stuff and sharing it on the site and elsewhere.

Hope that helps someone.

Working out why readers don’t read our posts is as important, if not more so, than working out why they do. If we lose a reader they are often gone for good. If we get one they might stick around and see what else we have to say. Even if they are not reading our posts if they still get to see them they might one day.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Are your reels really working?

Adam Mosseri has said this week that there is really no ideal length for reels. It depends on how long it really takes to tell the story. If you can reel users in with really good bait on your hook they might stay on the line for the whole three minute maximum but it really needs to be a really good reel.

I follow

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

https://www.instagram.com/mosseri/

https://www.instagram.com/jacktalkscontent and

https://www.instagram.com/instagramforbusiness/

which you might find useful for help on using the platform.

So direct from Meta this is the advice –

https://futuresocial.beehiiv.com/p/3-...

Post 3 to 5 times a week and that means posts not stories – its gotta be on the grid.

Use 3 to 8 hashtags in the caption not the comments which reflect the audience you want. Anything over the 8 the algorithm is not guaranteed to take into consideration. So you gotta make the 8 count.

Ok now for the confusingish part – are we brands or creators?

Both I hear you say, and I agree. I think Instagram’s idea of brands and ours may differ a bit here.

Music wise we are to use trending audio to help the algorithm if we are creators.

If you’re a brand (which I am taking in this context to mean set up as business with a professional account – (you have now entered blur central please take appropriate precautions – you need fluid at this point)) then you can only use music in the ‘sound collection’. Yep, me neither so I checked it out.

This article on Buffer gives you 8 ways to find tracks and 17 tracks that are trending (or were when the article was written at the end of January). The tips are worth a look regardless.

https://buffer.com/resources/trending-audio-instagram/

The goodish news is that there are 14,000 tracks of music and sounds to choose from and if you can’t find them on Instagram you can’t use them.

If you have a professional dashboard you may have seen something new lurking there. It’s called Best practices and it’s a collection of videos covering creation, engagement, reach, monetisation, (I wandered off to spelling bee there) and guidelines to help you keep on track. When you click it tells you how you’re doing in these categories so you can keep track and work towards improving in these areas.

Reels may reel off on its own in the future as things are getting a little crowded in Instagram land.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/27/instagram-may-spin-off-reels-into-a-separate-app/

All the big guns are after filling your phone, so you don’t have room for the rest. I can get nine icons in a folder – Meta has

Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, Edits … and more.

They want to be all things to all people social media wise.

As they have filled two newsletters so far

…

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Elbows up

I am a UK resident who was born here. As far as I know there is no Canadian in my blood. So why am I so pro Canadian? We share a monarchy, a language (ok mostly) and a similar political setup. Canada is part of the Commonwealth. But that’s not it.

On social media we make connections, we met and learn about people from other places, some of those people become friends. Those friends support us beyond reactions, comments and shares. We share stories beyond writing. We find ourselves caring as much about them as we would if they shared our neighbourhood maybe in some cases, dare I say it, more.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

It just so happens that for me a number of these people are Canadian. In some cases I’ve seen their animated faces and heard their voices through the wonders of zoom, spaces and other forms of social media. I connect with them regularly. They are among my people.

I do have friends of other nationalities who fit this criteria including Americans. But this is Tariff Tuesday and this is about Canada. This is about Canadians. Canada also has a large percentage of Ukrainians living there I found out today so win win.

I should mention that friends I have known all my life (or theirs) are also Canadian citizens. I have many memories of our time together while they lived in the UK.

I am tis true a one who loves an underdog, the sidekick that outshines the MC, and you could argue that this is what I’m doing here, but that wouldn’t be true. Canada is nobody’s sidekick and I wouldn’t dare to suggest otherwise.

This latest action of the US government makes no sense to me with my Commerce GCSE/O’Level and my few months of economic classes. To alienate your closest neighbours who share your borders for what appears to boil down to financial gain without fully thinking through the implications of how it may affect those who you are elected to serve is not to me good business. I may be doing the administration a disservice but I can find no evidence of that.

The USA filling of the Mexican Canadian sandwich has no alternative bread. This action will live in the memories of Mexicans and Canadians long after this term of office. History has been made but not all historic moments are positive and some have far reaching consequences. I do not wish to follow this line of thought to its ultimate conclusion, I hope with all my heart the train stops here.

We are where we are. We know not of tomorrow. We know only of today.

I have been thinking, posting, asking and researching since I had notification this train was on the track how we as non-Canadians can support our brothers, sisters, and friends who proudly fly the Maple Leaf flag.

If you follow me on social media you may know that I have been promoting Canadian writers and music (please buy their books and music obviously) but I wanted to see if we could extend a little beyond that as there are limits in those areas and their output may not have universal appeal. If you wish to buy Canadian where do you start?

The suggestions of consumables ran way past the (you could say obvious) maple syrup.

I was sent this link which may help

https://canadianstore.co.uk/en/

A half hour or so on supermarket websites gave me -

Flour, Whiskey, Salmon, Cleanser, Moisturiser, Chickpeas, Wine, lentils and of course Maple Syrup.

I have been reminded that Canada grows a lot of wheat so bread, pasta etc may be Canadian too.

There are many more from clothes to confectionary.

Why do I want you to buy Canadian?

If my, somewhat personal, take on this situation is not convincing then ask yourselves this - When do they come for us? This administration has already made noises that Europe and the UK may not be spared these tariffs. And yes buy British too. I might suggest anything but American but perhaps you would think that a step too far, maybe.

Our Canadian family need us because we need them. It’s that simple.

We have to stand together.

#ISTANDWITHCANADA

Who stands with me?

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Maybe Insta has the answers

Today I am a little excited (I am such a geek) because you can pin three Instagram chats to the top of your chat feed. I know it’s not much, but I do use this function on X and I find it very helpful. You should see my chats list on both platforms – you would understand if you did.

In what could be considered more useful news Instagram is also allowing people to prewrite messages and scheduled them up to 29 days in advance. You can already schedule automated replies to go out when someone new messages you. Great fun in group chats – think about it.

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You can also pin individual messages in the chat so people can see them if they are not there when you posted them.

These improvements are to assist people in different time zones and/or busy group chats so important stuff is not being missed.

More stuff that is on the way includes being able to invite friends to a chat using a QR code and being able to listen to the same song at the same time without using links or leaving Instagram. The music part extends to broadcast channels too.

You can also translate messages into 99 languages if you should feel the need. I can see this one being amusing for some and extremely helpful for others.

https://www.theverge.com/news/614816/instagram-direct-message-scheduling-pins-music-translation

Instagram seem to have bought out the ideas shop.

Maybe they want people to stay longer on their platform?

And bring their friends? I couldn’t possibly say

.

Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.