David L. Atkinson's Blog, page 122
April 13, 2014
Writing - Twitter changes and making the best of the platform
I have never claimed to be and expert in the use of social media and have avoided trying to appear one to listen to in the use of Twitter as a tool for furthering the course of having my wares successfully out there. No there isn't a 'but' - I discovered some advice issued at a time when Twitter is to have a face lift and it isn't my own![image error]Start with the basics. Pause to think about your profile picture and description before you start tweeting.
PeerIndex warn clients that tweeting less than once a day runs the risk of their followers culling their account Pick something personal which says something about you specifically.
Remember the Twitter profile photo is very small so a full-face image is going to be easier to see than a full-body.
With your bio try telling people about the sort of things you tweet about, that way they can easily decide to follow you based on shared interests.
Twitter's new layout allows you to add a Facebook-style banner image at the top - so, it's worth thinking about whether you want to use the virtual real estate to post a second larger photo of yourself or another image that tells visitors about your interests.
Seriously, be funny
An uncluttered wallpaper that also speaks to your personality can also make your profile seem appealing. But once you have finished fiddling with the layout how should you reel people in?
Your perfect tweets will have at least one of the following: information, insight, and humour.
If it has all three then it is going to be incredibly shareable.
Information is stuff that people want to know. Insight is 'here you are behind the scenes', and humour is humour.
And some does and dont's
Keep it short. Don't feel compelled to use all 140 characters unless you need to. Research shows that followers prefer short sweet tweetsKeep it coming. Be the account that does that recurring thing (be it a weekly Twitter quiz, monthly Twitter interview or a Friday giveaway)Know your @s from your elbow! Remember that starting a tweet with an @ means that it's only seen by that person and your mutual followersDon't #overuse hashtags. They are important when they're used #correctly but are #pointless and #annoying when #overusedThere are other things that should be remembered about Twitter manners which I have no intention of going into as I think there is enough to take in already.
God Bless
April 12, 2014
10 things we didn't know last week
From tongues to spam!
[image error]
1. Your taste buds go numb when you fly.
Or eat really hot curries!
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2. Swedes will pay a lot for the first strawberries of the season.
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[image error]
3. Flies can completely change direction by rolling their bodies and giving a slight flick of their wings - all within five milliseconds.
So can I given the right kind of 'fuel'!
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[image error]
4. Hawaii consumes more spam than any other state in the US.
I used to enjoy spam fritters.
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5. Professional musicians struggle to tell the difference between Stradivarius violins and modern instruments in blind testing.
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6. Bank of England workers in the 1980s had to do dexterity tests using tweezers and washers.
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[image error]
7. Lawrence of Arabia was offered a job as a night-watchman at the bank. He turned it down.
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[image error]
8. Yellow sac spiders are strongly attracted to Mazda cars.
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9. Only a steel shortage stopped the Soviet Union creating the world's tallest structure in 1922.
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10. People called Eleanor are disproportionately likely to get into Oxford University.
Really?
God Bless
[image error]
1. Your taste buds go numb when you fly.
Or eat really hot curries!
--------------------------------------
2. Swedes will pay a lot for the first strawberries of the season.
--------------------------------------
[image error]
3. Flies can completely change direction by rolling their bodies and giving a slight flick of their wings - all within five milliseconds.
So can I given the right kind of 'fuel'!
--------------------------------------
[image error]
4. Hawaii consumes more spam than any other state in the US.
I used to enjoy spam fritters.
--------------------------------------
5. Professional musicians struggle to tell the difference between Stradivarius violins and modern instruments in blind testing.
----------------------------------------------
6. Bank of England workers in the 1980s had to do dexterity tests using tweezers and washers.
--------------------------------------
[image error]
7. Lawrence of Arabia was offered a job as a night-watchman at the bank. He turned it down.
---------------------------------------
[image error]
8. Yellow sac spiders are strongly attracted to Mazda cars.
-----------------------------------------
9. Only a steel shortage stopped the Soviet Union creating the world's tallest structure in 1922.
--------------------------------------------------
10. People called Eleanor are disproportionately likely to get into Oxford University.
Really?
God Bless
April 11, 2014
Writing - Pulses and Passion
The history of our places fascinates most people at some times in their lives and I think perhaps for many they are looking for answers to the question why? As we age there are a couple of truisms that become more apparent.
Today you are older than you've ever been and the youngest you are going to be.
The history of Steele in that series of novels is formed over the first five books but pulled together in a more formal way in Inceptus, the fifth story. It wasn't a deliberate plan but then as I have often said I don't plan in depth. Creating a history for your lead characters adds depth and realism and as always the advice 'right from where you're at' is relevant. Steele is in part my upbringing and certainly from my home area.
Speaking of history I came across the following beauty which I'm sure will make you smile but wouldn't it be funny if in 100 years time if we could look back, we are reduced by the health nuts to eating grass, when we should have had fat and first class protein in our diets!
Pulses and Passion
Four centuries ago, flatulent foods such as beans and chickpeas were hailed as a cure for a flagging libido. In fact 'windy meats' (pulses) were promoted only for men. In fact flatulence was thought to be particularly damaging to women. Wind enhanced both the amount and potency of the seed and the function of the male reproductive organs. In the seventeenth century Helkiah Crooke wrote in Mikrokosmographia: A Description of the Body of Man,
"When as in venerious appetites, the bloud & spirits do in great quantity assemble themselves out of the veines and arteries, that member is as it were a gutte filled with winde, presently swelling and growing hard"
All stirring stuff - enjoy your beans!
On VG today.
http://venturegalleries.com/serial/he-was-young-fearless-and-had-lost-half-of-his-body/
God Bless
Today you are older than you've ever been and the youngest you are going to be.
The history of Steele in that series of novels is formed over the first five books but pulled together in a more formal way in Inceptus, the fifth story. It wasn't a deliberate plan but then as I have often said I don't plan in depth. Creating a history for your lead characters adds depth and realism and as always the advice 'right from where you're at' is relevant. Steele is in part my upbringing and certainly from my home area.
Speaking of history I came across the following beauty which I'm sure will make you smile but wouldn't it be funny if in 100 years time if we could look back, we are reduced by the health nuts to eating grass, when we should have had fat and first class protein in our diets!
Pulses and Passion
Four centuries ago, flatulent foods such as beans and chickpeas were hailed as a cure for a flagging libido. In fact 'windy meats' (pulses) were promoted only for men. In fact flatulence was thought to be particularly damaging to women. Wind enhanced both the amount and potency of the seed and the function of the male reproductive organs. In the seventeenth century Helkiah Crooke wrote in Mikrokosmographia: A Description of the Body of Man,
"When as in venerious appetites, the bloud & spirits do in great quantity assemble themselves out of the veines and arteries, that member is as it were a gutte filled with winde, presently swelling and growing hard"
All stirring stuff - enjoy your beans!
On VG today.
http://venturegalleries.com/serial/he-was-young-fearless-and-had-lost-half-of-his-body/
God Bless
April 10, 2014
Writing - Handwriting and the Voynich Manuscript
Today I received my third handwritten letter from Bert Carson who lives in the USA. It doesn't seem particularly remarkable apart from the fact that it was handwritten and posted in Oxford Tennessee then delivered by hand to me in Mirfield, UK.
[image error]Bert Carson
Bert loves his fountain pens and has set up a website where fellow writers can write to each other - Corresponding Writers. There are names and addresses on there if you are interested.
I was apologising to Bert for the quality of my writing as I was naturally left handed but that was caned out of me at the age of five. As a result my writing isn't that great but I have bought myself a Parker pen and use it for everything from shopping lists to letters. Thanks Bert.
Of course thinking about writing was uppermost in my mind when an article on the BBC website hit me. It was probably a scatoma. It was entitled 'The Riddle of the Voynich Manuscript' and the title intrigued me. Click on the link to read the full thing but here is some background.
[image error] The manuscript is about the size of a Penguin Classic edition and is written in a language that no one can decode and with illustrations of things no one has ever seen. It was supposedly discovered by second hand book seller Wilfrid Voynich in Italy in 1912 and has been tested and examined by some of the world's greatest cryptologist without success. Bound in a limp vellum cover the colour of old ivory, it contains 240 richly illustrated pages. The illustrations look like something Timothy Leary might have seen on LSD. Strange plants, astrological symbols, jellyfish-like creatures and what looks like a lobster. In one image, a group of naked ladies with alabaster skin shoot down what looks like a water slide. The text, written in brown, iron gall ink, reminds me of Tolkien's Elvish.Voynich claimed to have stumbled on the manuscript at a Jesuit seminary outside Rome, The Villa Madragone. Appended to the manuscript was what purported to be a letter written in 1665 by Johannes Marcus Marci, a former physician of the Holy Roman Emperor.
It stated that the manuscript had once belonged to Rudolf - and was probably the work of Elizabethan alchemist Roger Bacon. Two other possible authors are regularly in the frame: John Dee, magus extraordinaire and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, and Dee's fellow alchemist, Edward Kelley. Voynich himself referred to it as "The Roger Bacon Cipher Manuscript".
Since then, it has been a Venus flytrap for brilliant minds. American William Friedman, one of the greatest cryptographers of the 20th Century, who created an institution recently made famous by Edward Snowden, the NSA, spent 30 years trying to crack the manuscript's code. New theories breed like mayflies. A retired American botanist recently claimed that some of the plants are of Meso-American origin. A British applied linguist claims to have translated 10 words.
So what is it? A cipher for buried treasure? A poisoner's handbook? The coded recipe for eternal youth?
It probably is a scam as apparently people in Voynich's trade were renowned for their tricks to attract custom. If that is the case how difficult would it be to create something like this?
Consider - when you write on any media you are following rules and accepted patterns so that whoever you are writing to understands what you have written. So to then write something that no one can follow you have to break through the learned codes and patterns to produce something and do that in a language no one knows! At the very least it is amazingly clever!
Nice one Wilfrid!
God Bless
[image error]Bert Carson
Bert loves his fountain pens and has set up a website where fellow writers can write to each other - Corresponding Writers. There are names and addresses on there if you are interested.
I was apologising to Bert for the quality of my writing as I was naturally left handed but that was caned out of me at the age of five. As a result my writing isn't that great but I have bought myself a Parker pen and use it for everything from shopping lists to letters. Thanks Bert.
Of course thinking about writing was uppermost in my mind when an article on the BBC website hit me. It was probably a scatoma. It was entitled 'The Riddle of the Voynich Manuscript' and the title intrigued me. Click on the link to read the full thing but here is some background.
[image error] The manuscript is about the size of a Penguin Classic edition and is written in a language that no one can decode and with illustrations of things no one has ever seen. It was supposedly discovered by second hand book seller Wilfrid Voynich in Italy in 1912 and has been tested and examined by some of the world's greatest cryptologist without success. Bound in a limp vellum cover the colour of old ivory, it contains 240 richly illustrated pages. The illustrations look like something Timothy Leary might have seen on LSD. Strange plants, astrological symbols, jellyfish-like creatures and what looks like a lobster. In one image, a group of naked ladies with alabaster skin shoot down what looks like a water slide. The text, written in brown, iron gall ink, reminds me of Tolkien's Elvish.Voynich claimed to have stumbled on the manuscript at a Jesuit seminary outside Rome, The Villa Madragone. Appended to the manuscript was what purported to be a letter written in 1665 by Johannes Marcus Marci, a former physician of the Holy Roman Emperor.
It stated that the manuscript had once belonged to Rudolf - and was probably the work of Elizabethan alchemist Roger Bacon. Two other possible authors are regularly in the frame: John Dee, magus extraordinaire and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, and Dee's fellow alchemist, Edward Kelley. Voynich himself referred to it as "The Roger Bacon Cipher Manuscript".
Since then, it has been a Venus flytrap for brilliant minds. American William Friedman, one of the greatest cryptographers of the 20th Century, who created an institution recently made famous by Edward Snowden, the NSA, spent 30 years trying to crack the manuscript's code. New theories breed like mayflies. A retired American botanist recently claimed that some of the plants are of Meso-American origin. A British applied linguist claims to have translated 10 words.
So what is it? A cipher for buried treasure? A poisoner's handbook? The coded recipe for eternal youth?
It probably is a scam as apparently people in Voynich's trade were renowned for their tricks to attract custom. If that is the case how difficult would it be to create something like this?
Consider - when you write on any media you are following rules and accepted patterns so that whoever you are writing to understands what you have written. So to then write something that no one can follow you have to break through the learned codes and patterns to produce something and do that in a language no one knows! At the very least it is amazingly clever!
Nice one Wilfrid!
God Bless
April 9, 2014
Poetry Thursday 105 - Emotional extremes
A couple of views of emotional extremes including another villanelle.
[image error]Unrequited Love
Will she know to return the love?A dance at her peripheryShould one pray to God above?
Wishing as a peaceful doveWith deep affection for her beautyWill she know to return the love?
Blithely continuing in life’s grooveUnaware of another’s expectancyShould one pray to God above?
Is its return a wish too removeand undeserved by such as he?Will she know to return the love?
Or will her heart unfeeling proveand fail to see his melancholy?Should one pray to God above?
She’s the one whose heart must moveand so fulfil his destiny.Will she know to return the love?Should one pray to God above?©David L Atkinson April 2014
The Final Nail
All hope is shatteredAnother chilling defeatWinter’s failure ends©David L Atkinson April 2014
[image error]
Maria Miller MP
Maria Miller
Blown out of office
Had her fingers burnt!
©David L Atkinson April 2014
God Bless
April 8, 2014
Writing - Who do we think we are?
The BBC announced that they are carrying out a survey into who we think we are and in doing so they are asking questions that would make, in part, an interesting construction frame for developing characters in stories.
They didn't ask questions about hair colour, eye colour likes and dislikes but more about relationships between friends and neighbours, fellow countrymen and foreign countries. I believe that it is the type of querying that will give insight into the nature of characters in books, so for example - Steele has a strong English identity which comes out in the 2nd book in the series 'The 51st State'.
This is an important part of the characters we create which can give a sense of direction in the way they behave and interact. It is important to create a physical identity but more interesting for the reader are realistic interactions and human frailties which stem from character traits that develop throughout life.
The BBC have asked people to send in 'selfies' to illustrate what people think about who they are and there have been some interesting submissions which can be seen on the website. I haven't submitted one but have compiled a set of pics of yours truly taken over the last 64 years. I know this can be boring but I'm working on the principle that readers like to 'know their authors more fully!
Aged around 9 months and taken in 1950. What could I have thought my life would turn out to be like at this stage? My father was a mechanical engineer working in the coal mines and mother had been a civil servant. Yes I am wearing a dress but that was what all children were dressed like in the early fifties! Honest!!
Aged 7I would have been at junior school when this was taken and the fly away shirt collar was a signal, had I but known it, that looking smartly dressed was always going to be a problem. I can put on a new suit and half an hour later it looks as if I've slept in it! Is your central character unkempt - Steele isn't. I'm just curious as to where all that hair went!!!
If I was to choose one pic that exemplifies who I am, this would be the one. I was 17 years old, attending a grammar school and taking part in the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. Of course it was taken pre-selfies!
Aged 36
After three years of full time work and part time study I was awarded a B.Ed. (Hons) degree in Management in Education and Computer Literacy. Perhaps this was the point at which Literacy changed from that with computer software to make believe!
Aged about 62 and this one is the familiar face of the writer. Today the beard is longer as I haven't trimmed during Lent which is just part of my penitential behaviours this year.
All of the above are actually part of the biological soup that is yours truly and when you create a character it is that level of depth you have the opportunity to delve into to set your character on their way. Obviously, you can write a series of stories and that will increase the opportunities to round off your created personalities.
God Bless
They didn't ask questions about hair colour, eye colour likes and dislikes but more about relationships between friends and neighbours, fellow countrymen and foreign countries. I believe that it is the type of querying that will give insight into the nature of characters in books, so for example - Steele has a strong English identity which comes out in the 2nd book in the series 'The 51st State'.
This is an important part of the characters we create which can give a sense of direction in the way they behave and interact. It is important to create a physical identity but more interesting for the reader are realistic interactions and human frailties which stem from character traits that develop throughout life.
The BBC have asked people to send in 'selfies' to illustrate what people think about who they are and there have been some interesting submissions which can be seen on the website. I haven't submitted one but have compiled a set of pics of yours truly taken over the last 64 years. I know this can be boring but I'm working on the principle that readers like to 'know their authors more fully!
Aged around 9 months and taken in 1950. What could I have thought my life would turn out to be like at this stage? My father was a mechanical engineer working in the coal mines and mother had been a civil servant. Yes I am wearing a dress but that was what all children were dressed like in the early fifties! Honest!!
Aged 7I would have been at junior school when this was taken and the fly away shirt collar was a signal, had I but known it, that looking smartly dressed was always going to be a problem. I can put on a new suit and half an hour later it looks as if I've slept in it! Is your central character unkempt - Steele isn't. I'm just curious as to where all that hair went!!!
If I was to choose one pic that exemplifies who I am, this would be the one. I was 17 years old, attending a grammar school and taking part in the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. Of course it was taken pre-selfies!
Aged 36After three years of full time work and part time study I was awarded a B.Ed. (Hons) degree in Management in Education and Computer Literacy. Perhaps this was the point at which Literacy changed from that with computer software to make believe!
Aged about 62 and this one is the familiar face of the writer. Today the beard is longer as I haven't trimmed during Lent which is just part of my penitential behaviours this year.All of the above are actually part of the biological soup that is yours truly and when you create a character it is that level of depth you have the opportunity to delve into to set your character on their way. Obviously, you can write a series of stories and that will increase the opportunities to round off your created personalities.
God Bless
April 7, 2014
Tuesday Recipe - Spicy Haddock Chowder
Spicy Haddock Chowder
There was an announcement in the news last week that our 5-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables is insufficient to prevent premature death and that we should be looking at 7 or even 10 portions of fruit and veg a day. Well the above recipe will certainly get three of those portions for you and you will enjoy eating them. From a calorific point of view it can be reduced by using semi-skimmed milk for the chowder base rather than full cream milk but the remainder of the meal is simply vegetables, fish and 1oz of butter. So although it looks rich and fattening it isn't really. too bad. The recipe comes from Nigel Slater who I find rather frustrating at times but who produces some quite simple and very tasty recipes. This is the case with this one and it is slightly spicy - the second time I made the meal I added a teaspoon of chilli powder which gave it a kick.I've been producing recipes on Tuesdays for a couple of years and this is one of the tastiest and I can really recommend you trying it for a change.
The recipe is on the appropriate tab
RIP Mickey Rooney
[image error]1920 - 2014
It has been announced that Mickey Rooney died today. He was described by Lawrence Olivier as the best actor to have come out of America. He was born of parents who had a stage act and made a first stage appearance at 15 months old, and he appeared in Night at the Museum in 2011 so a prodigious career. God Rest His Soul.
God Bless
April 6, 2014
Writing - Solipsism and more.
The philosophical idea of solipsism is that the only existent that is provable is that of self. Consider this amusing story as a demonstration:-
An elderly lecturer at university was a disciple of solipsism and even though he was of great age kept turning up to carry out his teaching commitment. Two other teachers observed the old man turning up to work one day and one said to the other,
"I wonder why he keeps going at his age?"the reply was,
"You'd better hope he does because if he stops we all do!"
[image error]
This philosophical consideration reminds me of numbers of semi-drunken discussions in the wee small hours while away at college, about the meaning of life. As with youngsters who have time on their hands they consider their own futures and what that may mean but can generate some daft and some interesting ideas.When we write what else are we doing other than exploring different versions of our world as seen through the eyes of alternative consciousnesses. Patrick A Steele allows me to do things on paper that would be quite illegal in reality. The beauty of thinking outside the box in this way is that there aren't any boundaries. The only limits are the constraints you place on your own mind and in that fact you have a therapy which is free of charge and limitless. So if you are suffering a block just allow your mind to drift and consider the alternatives available to you, if nothing comes - make it up.
----------------------------------------
[image error]Maria Miller MP
I can't let the case of Maria Miller, culture secretary, go by without some comment and in some ways it is not unlike the different viewpoints of a situation as described above. It's yet another expenses scandal in which she has been accused of using tax payers money to fund a house for her parents to occupy. The amount of money is around £90 000. The Parliamentary Commissioner of Standards ordered that she repay £45 000 which was then commuted to £5800 by the House of Commons Committee on Standards and Ethics. This committee is a body of 13 people 3 of whom are not MPs. Those three folk are not allowed to vote on matters concerning discipline matters for MPs! Strange don't you think? Well in my mind it's strange.The PM doesn't want to lose Maria Miller because she is one of only 4 ladies in the cabinet but if she's been dishonest I don't see that as an excuse for clemency. Another minister says that he supports the lady because he doesn't want to see a 'witch hunt'. Neither of these 'reasons' excuse crime in my humble opinion and the fact that Maria Miller has to repay money, no matter how little, would confirm that there is some guilt.
What annoys me is that we ordinary people would be locked up for such crimes!
Sleep well Maria!
God Bless
An elderly lecturer at university was a disciple of solipsism and even though he was of great age kept turning up to carry out his teaching commitment. Two other teachers observed the old man turning up to work one day and one said to the other,
"I wonder why he keeps going at his age?"the reply was,
"You'd better hope he does because if he stops we all do!"
[image error]
This philosophical consideration reminds me of numbers of semi-drunken discussions in the wee small hours while away at college, about the meaning of life. As with youngsters who have time on their hands they consider their own futures and what that may mean but can generate some daft and some interesting ideas.When we write what else are we doing other than exploring different versions of our world as seen through the eyes of alternative consciousnesses. Patrick A Steele allows me to do things on paper that would be quite illegal in reality. The beauty of thinking outside the box in this way is that there aren't any boundaries. The only limits are the constraints you place on your own mind and in that fact you have a therapy which is free of charge and limitless. So if you are suffering a block just allow your mind to drift and consider the alternatives available to you, if nothing comes - make it up.
----------------------------------------
[image error]Maria Miller MP
I can't let the case of Maria Miller, culture secretary, go by without some comment and in some ways it is not unlike the different viewpoints of a situation as described above. It's yet another expenses scandal in which she has been accused of using tax payers money to fund a house for her parents to occupy. The amount of money is around £90 000. The Parliamentary Commissioner of Standards ordered that she repay £45 000 which was then commuted to £5800 by the House of Commons Committee on Standards and Ethics. This committee is a body of 13 people 3 of whom are not MPs. Those three folk are not allowed to vote on matters concerning discipline matters for MPs! Strange don't you think? Well in my mind it's strange.The PM doesn't want to lose Maria Miller because she is one of only 4 ladies in the cabinet but if she's been dishonest I don't see that as an excuse for clemency. Another minister says that he supports the lady because he doesn't want to see a 'witch hunt'. Neither of these 'reasons' excuse crime in my humble opinion and the fact that Maria Miller has to repay money, no matter how little, would confirm that there is some guilt.
What annoys me is that we ordinary people would be locked up for such crimes!
Sleep well Maria!
God Bless
April 5, 2014
Writing - 10 Things we didn't know last week.
Fun, facts and farce for another week.
[image error]
1. Dodger Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is the most expensive Major League Baseball ground in which to propose marriage.
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[image error]
2. Female cockroaches make eggs more quickly if they cuddle with other roaches.
--------------------------------------------------
[image error]
3. Denmark consumes the most apples per head while Morocco has the highest orange, tangerine and mandarin consumption.
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4. The Inuit language doesn't have a word for freedom - the closest is "annakpok" which means "not caught".
------------------------------------------------
5. Bretons traditionally kiss each other only once on the cheek, unlike their more effusive compatriots in the rest of France who opt for two, three or four pecks.
Kissing! What's that? A sad statement but as I live alone and have no partner, no one kisses me any more!
---------------------------------------------------------
6. Adult characters on cereal packets look straight ahead, while children's characters look down at a 9.6 degree angle.
-----------------------------------------------
[image error]
7. The biblical dimensions of Noah's Ark were probably realistic.
---------------------------------------------------
8. Dollar squiggles on the pavement denote electric cables below.
-------------------------------------------------
[image error]
9. Sloths only defecate about once a week.
Working on one!
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10. Fanny, Gertrude, Gladys, Margery, Marjorie, Muriel, Cecil, Rowland, Willie, Bertha and Blodwen are "extinct" names in the UK - meaning none have been recorded in the latest record of births.
How can a name become extinct? Surely extinction suggests 'life' and a name can come back into use at any time.
God Bless
[image error]
1. Dodger Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is the most expensive Major League Baseball ground in which to propose marriage.
---------------------------------------------------
[image error]
2. Female cockroaches make eggs more quickly if they cuddle with other roaches.
--------------------------------------------------
[image error]
3. Denmark consumes the most apples per head while Morocco has the highest orange, tangerine and mandarin consumption.
-------------------------------------------------
4. The Inuit language doesn't have a word for freedom - the closest is "annakpok" which means "not caught".
------------------------------------------------
5. Bretons traditionally kiss each other only once on the cheek, unlike their more effusive compatriots in the rest of France who opt for two, three or four pecks.
Kissing! What's that? A sad statement but as I live alone and have no partner, no one kisses me any more!
---------------------------------------------------------
6. Adult characters on cereal packets look straight ahead, while children's characters look down at a 9.6 degree angle.
-----------------------------------------------
[image error]
7. The biblical dimensions of Noah's Ark were probably realistic.
---------------------------------------------------
8. Dollar squiggles on the pavement denote electric cables below.
-------------------------------------------------
[image error]
9. Sloths only defecate about once a week.
Working on one!
--------------------------------------------------------
10. Fanny, Gertrude, Gladys, Margery, Marjorie, Muriel, Cecil, Rowland, Willie, Bertha and Blodwen are "extinct" names in the UK - meaning none have been recorded in the latest record of births.
How can a name become extinct? Surely extinction suggests 'life' and a name can come back into use at any time.
God Bless
April 4, 2014
Writing - Value of books, literary conflict and agents.
Periodically there arises arguments about plagiarism and the after effects. It has gone on for donkey's years. Well there is a new revelation about the amazingly successful 'Game of Thrones'.
[image error]
To a degree I feel unique in that I can say with some pride that I have never seen a single episode nor have I read the books, 'A Song of Fire' and 'Ice', written by George R R Martin. Now, however, there is a rival for the attention. (It can only be good for the writers!) This is not really an intellectual property argument because it is Martin himself who revealed his source of inspiration. Books written by Maurice Druon, 'Les Roi Maudits' (The Accursed Kings) is a seven book series written between the 1950s and the 1970s and is predominantly a historical series. Game of Thrones is full of intense political intrigue and gruesome deaths. War and its aftermath are described in brutal detail. Characters have sexual relationships, and sometimes even heroes die unexpectedly. Strip away the supernatural elements, and what is left looks more like a historical saga, chronicling all-too-human conflict. In other words The Accursed Kings! The bottom line of course is good for the authors. The French version has been translated and is being reprinted when previously it had dwindled into literary obscurity, wallowing around somewhere above where my efforts lie!
Whatever the arguments, when they arise, are very simply of benefit to the writers. People are curious and they will seek out the books and buy - all grist to the mill. The origins of works usually form the basis of these conflicts and have gone back for centuries such as the claim that Edward de Vere 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and poetry attributed to William Shakespeare. I always thought it was Francis Bacon or was it Christopher Marlowe perhaps another of the 80 candidates that have been put forward!
I suppose it would be quite flattering to have someone claim that Clive Cussler or Bernard Cornwell had written the Steele novels in years to come! Of course these authors were conventionally published and that particular issue was raised this week. I was asked if I'm still trying to engage the services of a literary agent and the simple answer is - no. That is not to say that every so often I don't revisit the idea. There is in me that essentially human desire for recognition and so I'm writing this tossing the idea around. I've even glanced at some literary agent websites but the slightly worrying thing is that some of them seem to have hardened their attitudes towards previously self-published works, rejecting them out of hand. As a writer with only six completed novels under my belt I know that my skills are improving and so the last novel Cessation would be a good candidate for submission.
If there is anyone out there with any easy answers!
God Bless
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To a degree I feel unique in that I can say with some pride that I have never seen a single episode nor have I read the books, 'A Song of Fire' and 'Ice', written by George R R Martin. Now, however, there is a rival for the attention. (It can only be good for the writers!) This is not really an intellectual property argument because it is Martin himself who revealed his source of inspiration. Books written by Maurice Druon, 'Les Roi Maudits' (The Accursed Kings) is a seven book series written between the 1950s and the 1970s and is predominantly a historical series. Game of Thrones is full of intense political intrigue and gruesome deaths. War and its aftermath are described in brutal detail. Characters have sexual relationships, and sometimes even heroes die unexpectedly. Strip away the supernatural elements, and what is left looks more like a historical saga, chronicling all-too-human conflict. In other words The Accursed Kings! The bottom line of course is good for the authors. The French version has been translated and is being reprinted when previously it had dwindled into literary obscurity, wallowing around somewhere above where my efforts lie!
Whatever the arguments, when they arise, are very simply of benefit to the writers. People are curious and they will seek out the books and buy - all grist to the mill. The origins of works usually form the basis of these conflicts and have gone back for centuries such as the claim that Edward de Vere 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and poetry attributed to William Shakespeare. I always thought it was Francis Bacon or was it Christopher Marlowe perhaps another of the 80 candidates that have been put forward!
I suppose it would be quite flattering to have someone claim that Clive Cussler or Bernard Cornwell had written the Steele novels in years to come! Of course these authors were conventionally published and that particular issue was raised this week. I was asked if I'm still trying to engage the services of a literary agent and the simple answer is - no. That is not to say that every so often I don't revisit the idea. There is in me that essentially human desire for recognition and so I'm writing this tossing the idea around. I've even glanced at some literary agent websites but the slightly worrying thing is that some of them seem to have hardened their attitudes towards previously self-published works, rejecting them out of hand. As a writer with only six completed novels under my belt I know that my skills are improving and so the last novel Cessation would be a good candidate for submission.
If there is anyone out there with any easy answers!
God Bless
