Devourer of Ashes

More from Justin in Malta 😉

The Champagne Epicurean

She burned in the fires that consumed Greece like a red-fanged tide. She went there to see Athens and her Acropolis. I always used to call her my Cassandra.

Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam of Troy, she was cursed with the gift of prophecy. Why is that a curse? Because the gods ensured that although her prophecies were always true, no one would believe her.

And my own Cassandra was the most intelligent woman I had ever met. But she was cursed with a character so meek she could never get her thoughts heard.

I heard them. I was the only man alive privileged enough to hear her speak of Ancient Greek poetry and Shakespeare’s gender politics or how the dialectic of history has given us, in equal measure, pure evil and true goodness. She was only twenty-five, my Cassandra, yet she had the wisdom of something ancient.

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Another Timeless Tale

Love dragons 😉

Have We Had Help?

The black dragon Kilycke

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As promised, here is another timeless tale from my fantasy anthologyGoblin Tales. Of all thirty tales, this is a particular favourite of mine…

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A Temporary Truce

In which Globular Van der Graff, (Glob), Makepeace Terranova (Make), Byzantine Du Lac (Byz), Eponymous Tringthicky (Mous), curmudgeonly old Neopol Stranglethigh (Neo), and Bejuss, the one eyed lisping raven with the twisted beak, are confronted with an unwelcome arrival from beyond Goblindom’s borders.

When the unbelievably smelly plains goblin Snidely Grossbundle had woken up with a lump the size of an acorn on his pointed head, courtesy of Neo’s club, he discovered much to his great annoyance that the life he knew before had now ended. Finding himself locked inside the stinking cell previously occupied by the grand high goblin, Obadiah Fingletook beneath the mountain top lair of Baron Cragwit Grimbledoff, he had been struggling to…

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Global Warming: The British Isles

Everybody has an opinion on ‘Global Warming’…

beetleypete

I have been on and off the fence for years, regarding Global Warming, or Climate Change, if you prefer. I am still not as fired up as some of those who write about the subject, but in recent years, I have started to credit the evidence of my own eyes, rather than to continue to read the sometimes rather hysterical reports that abound on the Internet. Some parts of eastern Norfolk are already quite literally falling into the sea. Tidal changes, raised sea levels, and erosion of soft rock are making ‘life at the edge’ no longer possible, in a few communities.

I found this image online, a gloomy prediction of the near-future for Britain and Ireland.

As you can see, Beetley is under water, along with much of eastern England. London has disappeared, and many large coastal communities no longer exist. And the prediction is that this will all…

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Another Timeless Tale Just For You.

A brilliant tale, even if I do say so myself…

Have We Had Help?

The Grand High Goblin – Obadiah Fingletook

Following on from my previous post A Timeless Tale, I have much pleasure in presenting another from my much maligned fantasy anthology Goblin Tales.

These are stories you can so very easily get lost in as you accompany the goblin brothers on their adventures. Now instead of moving on as many of you normally do, why not do me the courtesy of actually reading the tale. You never know, it might even make you smile…

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                                                  Held for Ransom
In which Globular Van der Graff, (Glob), Makepeace Terranova (Make), Byzantine Du Lac (Byz), Eponymous Tringthicky (Mous) and finally, curmudgeonly old Neopol Stranglethigh (Neo), set out on a quest to rescue the grand high goblin, Obadiah Fingletook.

A loud knock on the goblin brother’s front door an hour before dawn, one day in early spring, woke Glob from a deep sleep…

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Wheels within wheels

Another great tale from Jim…

Tallis Steelyard

If ever a man was an innovator, it was Stillitoe Cloudwiller. Others would have been happy to bask in the relative success of the aquatic tripod. After all, whilst this was limited to one prototype, it did at least work, came in under budget, and he managed to sell it and recover his investment. Many, more prestigious projects, have not managed to achieve even this.

But Stillitoe was an argumentative man prone to making wild claims. Just as the aquatic tripod had been developed because of an argument with the ferry company, the Commendable Monocycle came into being when he had an argument with a pair of sedan chair bearers. He swore that not only would he never hire them again, he’d give people a method of travelling swiftly and in comfort that put them out of business. In reality such a method already exists, the horse is reliable and…

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solitude

A lovely poem for Sunday…

The Lonely Author

solitude

locked behind open doors
the sun sets upon my soul
shadows move along stoic walls

I inhale breathless poetry
encouraging a cage to open
releasing silent misery

wrapped in solitude
the silence echoes
when I whisper your name

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A Few Further Thoughts

What I said back in 2015 is still relevant!!!

Have We Had Help?

I’m still engaged in working out chapter two of my new science fiction novel The Guardian. Because I need some more serious thinking time to solve a particular problem, specifically how I go about introducing more characters, how many, and the gender ratio, I thought I might say something about a few things that tend to happen when we write, and some which get overused, not just by newbie writers I might add. A lot of what I’m about to say, I’ve said in previous posts. For my long time followers, please bear with me. This is mainly for any and all newcomers to my blog with dreams of one day becoming a published writer.

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Some of the novels and novellas by first time writer’s I have read recently, seem to rely solely on descriptive prose, while others believe that narrative and nothing else is all you need to…

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There are times…

More from our man in Beetley…

beetleypete

Are there times when you wish that you had done something different? Or times when you regret doing something that has affected you ever since? I know that both apply to me. I wonder if this will provoke thoughts or feelings in some readers? If so, please add your own examples in the comments.

There are times…when I wish that I had gone to university. I have no way of knowing if that would have made my life turn out any differently to what it is now. But I could have gone, and at the time it would have been free of charge too. I should have gone, and perhaps studied one of my passions.

There are times…when I wonder what it might have been like to have had children. Not that it is something I have ever regretted, I assure you. But I have wondered.

There are…

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That Sacred Closet When You Sweep

More from our lovely Steph 😉 x

e-Tinkerbell

That sacred Closet when you sweep —
Entitled “Memory” —
Select a reverential Broom —
And do it silently.

‘Twill be a Labor of surprise —
Besides Identity
Of other Interlocutors
A probability —

August the Dust of that Domain —
Unchallenged — let it lie —
You cannot supersede itself
But it can silence you — (Emily Dickinson)

Every year, on the 27th of January the world observes the Holocaust Memorial Day. On that day we are called to remember how far can the folly and cruelty of man can go. We must remember; and teach our children that the privilege of being born in such a long time of peace and wealth, at least in this part of the hemisphere, is not for granted, it may not last forever as those dangers are always behind the corner. Peace must be defended by any attack ignorance and arrogance may…

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This is What Meddling In Middle Eastern Politics Gets You!

With Trump doing his damnedest to cause trouble with Iran, read this…

Have We Had Help?

I’m betting that the majority of the eight hundred and forty seven people who follow this blog won’t even bother to read this, let alone comment. Some may even stop following it considering this post’s content, especially woolly headed bleeding heart liberals, who prefer to bury their heads in the sand. Or the shoot first brigade. So be it!

Ever since the West redrew the boundaries in the Middle East at the end of World War One to create a homeland for the Jewish nation inPalestine, we have continued to meddle in that part of the world.

While in recent years we in the West abhor what both Muammar Gadaffi and Saddam Hussein did in their respective countries, and the Middle East at large, there is no getting way from the fact that together with the one remaining strongman, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, at least they kept a lid…

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