David L. Atkinson's Blog, page 39

10 things we didn't know last week

Some great stuff this week around the most useless animal in the world to really useful strategy for hot land.


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1. The Norwegian Socialist Left Party wants people to set aside one hour twice a year to hunt slugs.

As long as Jeremy Corbyn doesn't follow suit.


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2. Dogs are more likely to develop limp, hard-to-wag tails the further north they live.


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Would you want to in the cold?

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3. The Northern Line is the dirtiest line on the London Underground.

Clue is in the name!


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4. It's possible to be arrested for being drunk while riding a mobility scooter.

What I'm cruising towards!


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5. The world record for rope skipping is 671.5 jumps in three minutes.

The idea is excruciating.


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6. Intelligent people tend to be messier and swear more than others.

I always tried to get away with it using that excuse.


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7. The Pokemon Go Wikipedia page has more citations than the Wikipedia page for the Bible (or at least it did on Monday).

Interesting that many who voted to remain in the EU are now doing this!!!!!!!!!!


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8. One of the last groups of woolly mammoths may have died of thirst.

Big enough to know better.
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9. The Yorkshire Dales national park is not confined to Yorkshire - more than a quarter is now in Cumbria.

God's own county is spreading.
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10. There are plans to build the world's largest solar farm in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

A good idea.


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God Bless

Writing - Man's inhumanity

Tomorrow is the 6th August and 71 years ago the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan. Three days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died.


A Bomb building
I visited Hiroshima in August 2007 and took the photos you will see on this post. The cold calculated murder, which are nuclear weapons, was exploded 600 feet above the building for maximum killing effect. Scientist worked that sick statistic out.
The Children's Monument
The children's monument is beautiful but a crying shame that it is necessary. There is a bell hanging beneath that you can ring as a prayer.
The War Memorial
The view of the A-Bomb building through the War Memorial and across the Peace Park.
In light of my efforts to add value to my posts for people who follow them, you may wonder where it is other than in shared sympathy for our fellow man. Well sometimes understanding where a writer stands on some issues helps to understand their work.


In contrast my good friends at Venture Galleries have been featuring my award with the East Texan Writer Guild and the Steele novel Flight into Secrecy which is quite topical as yet another theory about the missing MH370 has appeared in the news. The link to the feature is below.
http://venturegalleries.com/blog/etwg-first-chapter-book-award-flight-into-secrecy-by-david-atkinson/
The award chapter is included in the above blog as a sample of the whole book. 

Click here to go to Amazon where the book is available in all formats.
God Bless

Writing - True to your art

So we are all individuals and if you write, paint, draw, sculpt, photograph or whichever is your artistic bent, we put ourselves into our work. People who do not make their lives from art by reviewing or criticising, will have the time and inclination to enjoy the art that engages with them on a personal level. In a sense it is the artist conversing with the recipient at a subconscious level.

[image error]David Bowie
Nobody typifies the above view than David Bowie who expressed his artistic side in music which changed and developed as he grew. The people who followed his music may have enjoyed his early stuff or his later work, whichever they dip in and out as it suits. Writing your stories or poetry is very similar, so why do the 'gatekeepers' stand in the way of progress in the name of capitalism? How many books you sell or don't sell, isn't a testimony to your ability to write, but a measure of the people with whom you have connected.
My point - be true to your own art. You won't sell more books by trying to make yourself more popular.



In contrast my good friends at Venture Galleries have been featuring my award with the East Texan Writer Guild and the Steele novel Flight into Secrecy which is quite topical as yet another theory about the missing MH370 has appeared in the news. The link to the feature is below.
http://venturegalleries.com/blog/etwg-first-chapter-book-award-flight-into-secrecy-by-david-atkinson/
The award chapter is included in the above blog as a sample of the whole book. 

Click here to go to Amazon where the book is available in all formats.
God Bless

Poetry Thursday 223 - Where is the power?

There is an awful lot spoken of power and there is more than the one type. I address two of them here.

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Powerless
Turn everything off and listen.What is it that you hear?No music, no beeps, no talking.Don’t worry there is nothing to fear,from the quietness of the worldor the natural working sphere.
Take away the electricity,remove that source of power,time carries on mechanically measured.advancing hour by hour.The natural world keeps going,as described by tree and flower.
But what to do now that it’s gone?All depends on its generation.No money, no travel, no work, no play,just the stuff of natural evolution.God’s handiwork left untouched by us,the beauty and peace of His creation.© David L Atkinson August 2016


Then there is personal untouchable power that plagues the minds of the health nuts.

The Sword of Damacles
What power is always possessedthat could ever be under threatof the dread weapon hanging overheadwaiting to render the target dead?
An ordinary man, a biological edgebetween the realms of life and death.A constant battle to maintain the border,endless advice to balance the order.
The dread creeping club we joined as soon as we took our first breath,holds us beneath the glacier of age,picking the spot of initial damage.
Not often a final, decisive, blowto snuff out the fading light.More a gradual, persistent penetration,rendering the subject to infinite perdition.
The final release as the edge dissolvesand the vessel traverses to inevitable death.All memory of pain and suffering goneas the spirit is set free and travels on.© David L Atkinson August 2016

God Bless

Writing - The network

I am not one to produce lists of how to to do this or that, or to give others advice. I try to help fellow writers by sharing my experiences.The network of writers that I have connections with is huge even though few of them are regular contacts. What I have found from the fellowship of writers is that they are invariably kind and helpful, when they can be.I have some special contacts and benefited from their experience, they are Stephen Woodfin and Caleb Pirtle III. They run a site called Venture Galleries.
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This very active blog is a showcase for writers including the two principals. The group is quite huge and books are showcased daily. It is a group well worth considering. If you wish to have a look and see what a fantastic job these two guys do click on the following link.
http://venturegalleries.com/blog/ 
It is easy to sign up and I'm sure all are welcome. Another aspect of their work is to provide access to such competitions as the one in which I was fortunate to be a finalist. More details are available at the link below. A thoroughly worthwhile team to contact or just read their blog. 


In contrast my good friends at Venture Galleries have been featuring my award with the East Texan Writer Guild and the Steele novel Flight into Secrecy which is quite topical as yet another theory about the missing MH370 has appeared in the news. The link to the feature is below.
http://venturegalleries.com/blog/etwg-first-chapter-book-award-flight-into-secrecy-by-david-atkinson/
The award chapter is included in the above blog as a sample of the whole book. 

Click here to go to Amazon where the book is available in all formats.
God Bless

Tuesday Food Blog - Meatloaf and salad

This week's food post is rather simple but in the realm of having value for my readers has opportunities for individualising the dish.

Meatloaf
There is no great secret to meatloaf. However, the basic meat sauce can be varied to suit your's and your family's preferences. This one is very simply pork mince, Henderson's Relish, mustard, tomato puree, onion, garlic, parsley and oregano. It included the binding agents, bread crumbs and a beaten egg, along with seasoning. It is cooked for 60 - 75 minutes at 180/350 degrees.The streaky bacon I used to line the loaf tin could be replaced by pancetta or another fine ham.Variations There are different varieties of mustard.Henderson's Relish could be replaced by Worcester Sauce.Vegetables can be added such as carrot and celery.I am considering an Italian style using tomatoes.
with salad
My salad may seem to be missing leafy greens but then I have never been a grazing animal! This meal had a hard-boiled egg sliced with it eventually but even so quite healthy with four of your five a day on the plate. Very simple but tasty hot or cold.


In contrast my good friends at Venture Galleries have been featuring my award with the East Texan Writer Guild and the Steele novel Flight into Secrecy which is quite topical as yet another theory about the missing MH370 has appeared in the news. The link to the feature is below.
http://venturegalleries.com/blog/etwg-first-chapter-book-award-flight-into-secrecy-by-david-atkinson/
Click here to go to Amazon where the book is available in all formats.
God Bless

Writing - Here is the weather

In an effort to keep the value of these blog posts up I have researched a variety of subjects including history which is one of my pet subjects. I am a firm believer that we can and should learn a great deal from history and this post is an opportunity to sample conditions as they have been over the centuries.

[image error]Mary Shelley
This post is about the weather and the links it has with writing. I wrote a post a number of weeks ago about Mary Shelley and her book Frankenstein. It was written in 1816 which was described as the year without a summer. She wrote the book while in Geneva but she wasn't the only one trying to escape the bad weather.Jane Austen writing from Hampshire lamented that 'it will never be fine again!'J M W Turner captured driving rain and red tinged skies in his work Lancaster Sands.In Ireland they suffered eight weeks of rain and Nationalist politician Daniel O'Connor grumbled about 'dreadful weather ... There is nothing but rain and wretchedness.'It was also extremely cold and four inches of ice were recorded in Essex at the end of August.
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It wasn't just in this country where there were weather related problems. In Portugal the fruit crop was ruined, in Switzerland the grape and grain harvests failed and peasants were resorting to begging. In the USA no grain was harvested in New Hampshire and in Vermont people were reduced for foraging for nettles, wild turnips and hedgehogs.
All the above are facts and for an historical author relevant but there are also one off weather events that may trigger ideas for stories. One such event that you don't hear of these days were the London pea soupers. They were dense fogs that were tinged green/yellow because of the air pollution. Ideal conditions for clandestined activities, murder and sabotage.
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The Great Frost 1683-84
The Thames was frozen to a depth of two feet and the frost remained from Christmas to February. There were regular markets, Chipperfield exhibited a menagerie of performing animals and Charles II had a spit roasted ox on the river.
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The Great Storm 1703
On 26th November booming thunder terrified southern England destroyed homes and 4000 oak trees in the New Forest. At sea the storm killed a third of the navy and the 120 foot Eddystone lighthouse was swept away. There were reports of a ship being tossed 800 feet inland by a water spout and Queen Anne sheltered in her wine cellar.

The Great Smog 1952
I was two years old and remember later smogs but this one lasted for five days and killed upwards of 4000 people. Theatres closed, sports fixtures were cancelled, transport was brought to a standstill  and people fell into the Thames.
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The Great Drought - 1976
I was twenty six and remember this quite well. There were hosepipe bans, 400 spectators suffered heatstroke at Wimbledon and ball boys fainted. The government appointed a drought minister, Dennis Howell, who was nicknamed the minister for rain when it started throwing it down a few days into his appointment.
All of this material can provide background for stories and I have only given a small taste of what it was like during these events.
God Bless

Writing - 10 news snippets

In this more careful look at how my blog posts may be of value to readers and writers I wondered about this style of post. Initially I intended it to convey a little humour, however, there is more to be had from these snippets of the week's news. Some of the items, like the first, speak for themselves, others have less value.


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1. "Burn" is the most heavy metal word in the English language, whereas "particularly" is the least.

Not particularly of burning interest.


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2. Badgers are terrified of the BBC World Service, CBC News and The Wind In The Willows.

They don't like being badgered about it!


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3. Barack Obama does not eat exactly seven almonds every night, even though his wife once said he did.

How many then?


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4. Someone has painstakingly recreated 10 minutes of footage, filmed in Milton Keynes, from the 1986 film Superman IV.

Someone has to make the place interesting.


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5. You can turn urine into beer using solar power.

Surely the most extreme form of taking the piss.


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6. UK police fired their guns seven times in the year to March 2016.

Has this something to do with Obama's almonds?


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7. Australia is moving 7cm (2.75in) north every year

No!!! they're close enough.


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8. Strange markings on a pavement in Oxfordshire, suspected to be the work of burglars, were in fact left by a running club.

Whatever - it must be Banksy.


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9. There are at least 42 different fares for rail travel between London Euston and Birmingham, ranging from £6 to £119.

The pricing regime on the trains these days is the biggest mystery since The Mousetrap.


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10. One in three people have Staphylococcus aureus in their nose, including in some cases the superbug MRSA (multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).

I've nothing purple up my nose!


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God Bless

Writing - Where is the balance?

Almost throughout my teaching career there was a need in the people who ran the show to find the right balance in the material we delivered to the children. Some of that was in religion and eventually various models for the delivery of a comparative religious format. Later there was a similar movement in the delivery of English but it never really materialised across the whole educational estate. In researching the subject there were plenty of instances of people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds that have written excellent works but still the system resisted the change from white middle class male writers. It has taken a long enough time to include the works of female writers and yet there are some great words from Asian and black writers out there.

Dr Harold Moody
One of the main educational points of having significant people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds is so that children of a similar ethnicity can identify with them and feel included. Dr Moody was a physician who came to England at the end of the 19th century but was refused work because of his ethnicity and so started campaigning against prejudice. Although he wasn't a writer he was a significant individual whose life and work are worthy of study.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 1875 – 1 September 1912) was an English composer of part Creole descent who achieved such success that he was once called the "African Mahler". Samuel was most widely known for his work The Song of Hiawatha but he also composed and produced an opera which is in the British Library and written in his own hand.
[image error]Walter Tull
Walter Tull was a professional footballer who played for Tottenham Hotspurs and Northampton Town. He joined the army and fought in the First World War and was the first black officer leading white soldiers. He died in battle in 1918.
[image error]Mary Seacole
Mary Jane Seacole (née Grant; 1805 – 14 May 1881) was a Jamaican woman of Scottish and African descent who set up a "British Hotel" behind the lines during the Crimean War. She described this as "a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers", and provided succour for wounded servicemen on the battlefield. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. In 2004 she was voted the greatest black Briton.
So four black people who have made the top 100 Black Britons list and who have had biographies produced about their lives. 
[image error]Ethnic Balance
It is difficult enough producing stories and so maintaining an ethnic balance could make the story more complicated than it needs to be, but there is no harm in having characters of different ethnicities. It could make your story more appealing to a wider social group.
God Bless

Writing - An anniversary and more

about
Bearing in mind giving value to my blogs, there was a problem today in that it is the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth. It has already hit the news and so the amount of value to fellow writers in producing a blog on Ms Potter is limited. However, there is some interesting stuff later on.

[image error]Beatrix Potter
For your edification Beatrix was born in Kensington, London in 1866 and was a natural scientist, conservationist, writer and illustrator who became famous for her children's stories.As recognition for her work Royal Mail have produced a set of stamps including four scenes from her first book The Tale of Peter Rabbit. 
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I think her illustrations are excellent and of course she began doing her own. But in fact getting to the stage of producing the stories to be read by others was not easy.
Self-publishing
This is the value bit!In fact Beatrix Potter had difficulty getting her work published, so fellow writers who are, like me, self-publishing take heart.In fact Beatrix was so fed up of receiving rejection letters that in 1901 she decided to do it herself. On the 21st December of that year Beatrix paid for and published 250 copies of her book about a certain naughty rabbit.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit was printed with 41 black and white woodblock engravings and a colour frontispiece, and proved so successful that, within a year, it had been picked up by one of the six publishers who had originally turned it down. By Christmas of 1902, Frederick Warne had sold 20,000 copies of the book, with Potter's own watercolour illustrations, at 1 shilling, and 1/6d for a luxury clothbound edition.But Potter's self-publishing adventures didn't stop there. In 1903 she again took her career into her own hands after failing to reach agreement with Warne over her new story The Tailor of Gloucester.
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So if you think self-publishing is a 21st century phenomenon think again and never give up hope of being picked up by a publishing house. However, there is a health warning. The lady was not for turning and she maintained a tight grip on her work hence the break from Warne Publishing. 
The work you produce is your baby and you should never let go of that simple fact.
God Bless