Let’s play spot the writer!!!

Could you pick out the writer from the crowd???

Have We Had Help?

How good are you at guessing what people do merely by looking at them? For instance, could you spot the writer in the queue of people at your local supermarket checkout, or buying something in your neighbourhood convenience store? How about on the crowded commuter train or bus you use each day? Come to that, have you ever thought about what the people you see walking along the street outside your door every day may do for a living?

For the vast majority of the population of any country you care to name, if you saw a highly recognisable and successful writer signing copies of their latest work in a bookshop near you, most would simply not realise that they probably had a writer of their very own living in their midst.

If you were asked to describe what you believe a writer looks like, what would you say? In…

View original post 489 more words

Advertisements

The female of the species

Tallis Steelyard strikes again…

Tallis Steelyard

Every so often you meet somebody who is genuinely honest and courageous. Possibly too honest and courageous, but never mind. I’m not sure how many remember Bilart Warldome when he was young. He’s gone on to make a name in the law courts, and to be fair to him, he had a good reputation as an honest lawyer and now, as an honest magistrate.

When he was younger, he made something of a name for himself in the ring, fighting under the Sinecurists rules. These didn’t go into details about what blows you could or couldn’t use. They just said you shouldn’t inflict ‘life changing injuries’ on your opponent.
When you looked at him, you’d think him a proper milksop, a real mummy’s boy afraid to go out on the streets without nurse. But to see him in the ring was a revelation. He was light on his feet, nimble…

View original post 1,095 more words

Chimney Sweepers

I wonder how many kids died doing this over the years? The mind boggles…

e-Tinkerbell

During the Industrial Revolution  thousands of  desperate people came to the cities seeking work, but those lucky who managed to find one soon realized that the average wage would have kept them in poverty for the rest of their lives. Justices were given authority over the children of poor families, and began to assign them to apprenticeships to provide them with work, food and shelter.

For master chimney sweeps, these small, defenseless children of powerless or absent parents were the perfect victims to be exploited in their business.

“When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue

Could scarcely cry ” ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!”

So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.”

Their apprenticeships lasted seven years or even more, but being generally unsupervised, once the papers were signed, the children were completely left under the power of their…

View original post 942 more words

Reporting Hatred

online hatred…

writerlywitterings

This morning I received an email. It came through at 08.40, and was long. Very long. Ten pages long.

I won’t put up the bile-infected rant; there is no way I want to promote his lunatic theories. Suffice it to say, every terrorist attack, every rape and murder, pretty much, is entirely the responsibility of muslims. He has clearly not heard of the two world wars, the Chinese and Russian genocides, the American (I am guessing he comes from the US) slaughter of the Native Americans, the Australian killing of the Bushmen and their culture, the South African genocide of the Hottentots and … I digress.

The point is, I spend a good half hour trying to find somewhere on Google where I could report this man and his rant. And I could find nothing. The internet is a great resource for many things, but there is nothing so secret…

View original post 267 more words

Just keep taking the tablets; and the secret of perfect hair.

More from Jim in Cumbria…

Jim Webster

I must admit I’ve never had to give tablets to a cat. As far as I’m concerned I’ll be delighted if this happy situation continues. Giving them to a dog is a doddle. Some of them now look (and apparently taste) like some sort of dog treat. Even those that aren’t so camouflaged soon disappear in a piece of bread, butter and touch of marmite; squeezed together and proffered gingerly lest you loose a finger to the enthusiastic patient.

But have you ever considered giving tablets to a cow? With a calf it’s not too difficult. Stand behind it; grasp the bottom jaw with your thumb inside the calf’s mouth. It is really really important that your thumb is in the gap behind the incisors and in front of the molars. The thumb also holds the tongue in place. With two fingers of your other hand slide the tablet over…

View original post 841 more words

Hackers: A Warning

Something from Pete, Ollie’s human. 😉

beetleypete

If you look at your full stats page on WordPress, you will see a section on the bottom right marked ‘Clicks’. This shows you what some readers of your site will have clicked on. In most cases, this is a click to enlarge a photograph, to read a link, or perhaps to investigate the blog of one of your followers.
That is all to be encouraged of course.

I check this section regularly, mostly to see if anyone has followed links I may have added to a post, or which photos are popular enough for readers to want to enlarge them for detail.

To my surprise, and slight concern, the last week or so has shown a few clicks on my own WordPress login. This would show if someone other than me tried to access my admin page. This could have been a mistake of course. Somebody may have wanted…

View original post 243 more words

My message may be unpalatable to some…

More from my blog’s archive…

Have We Had Help?

…certain individuals don’t like plain speaking, preferring to bury their heads in the sand.

~~~

One current ugly stumbling block for all writers these days to be ignored at all costs is the average inbred moron seated at his/her computer who deludes him/herself into believing that what he/she says on a public book based forum, actually matters. His/her kind set themselves up as self-styled critics, typically wittering on endlessly about subjects such as non-American spelling and grammar in books written by anyone living beyond the borders of the US for instance. Thereby clearly demonstrating their ignorance of the English language to the world at large. The aforementioned description while general, nevertheless fits the individuals currently responsible for the majority of one, two and three star reviews for any book you care to name on Amazon, to the detriment of the genuine reviewer.

Not one of them has ever written a…

View original post 863 more words