Blogs

WHY DON’T YOU switch off your phone and go and do something less boring instead?

Posted by celticman on Fri, 11 Oct 2024

WHY DON’T YOU switch off your television set phone and go and do something less boring instead? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Don%27t_You%3F https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/11/put-phone-down-habit-reading-books-english-oxford Smartphones aren’t as bad for you as smoking but are the reason our kids are intoxicated by their screens as glue sniffers. Most people in London know somebody that has their phone snatched from their hands...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 11 Oct 2024

Posted by airyfairy. Amongst some thoroughly absorbing reads this week, two stood out for me from the moment I read them. Story of the Week is the latest part of Harry C's memoir 'Gift: A Son's Story'. Harry is clear that this is still a work in progress, as he looks back on his time as carer for his mother. This particular extract achieves the difficult feat of bringing a special day to life with meticulous detail, at the same time never losing...

Jackie Kay, BBC 1, BBC iPlayer, In My Own Words, Director Louise Lockwood

Posted by celticman on Thu, 10 Oct 2024

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0023998/in-my-own-words-series-1-jackie-kay I was born around the same time as Jackie Kay. Like her, I wasn’t expected to live. I was brought home. She was given away by her white, birth, mother. Her father was Nigerian. She was put up for adoption. Her real mum and dad (Mr and Mrs Kay) already had a son. He too was adopted. She tells the story of how this happened. Her Glaswegian parents were told by...

A Manifesto for Creative Liberation

Posted by Caldwell on Wed, 09 Oct 2024

As I sit here, in front of my screen, with the rain beating down outside, I feel a strong urge to register some reflection on my and all of our existences. The air is humid and slightly cold and there seems to be an energy in it - like a faint electric pulse. It's connecting everything. And even though I am tied to the mundane tasks of my job - writing code - which is something I have done for over 25 years now, I sense that there are epic and...

Danny Robins (2023) Into the Uncanny: A Real Life Investigation into the Paranormal, BBC books.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 08 Oct 2024

I’d déjà vu reading Into the Uncanny . I felt that I’d read it before. Then again, I often pick books up, read a bit and put them down again. Danny Robins admits to being one of the lucky ones. One of the chosen. He was kicking around doing nothing very much with his life and trying to write a play about ghosts. Like me, he’d spent lots of time reading books about paranormal phenomena. Testing themselves by trying to bend my spoon by rubbing...

Well Holiday Is Over

Posted by Dark Fox on Mon, 07 Oct 2024

Well my holiday is over. Had to go to office today to get gloves for work and tell them why I was sick again. I'm sorry I had covid a week before my holiday. I still went to work before I went away so they can't say I made it up. I was on a half day tomorrow and now I am on all day. But I really don't mind. I will see a few people that I have not seen for a while. I do a different round now so I don't see these clients much anymore. They are...

Irvine Welsh (2024) Resolution

Posted by celticman on Mon, 07 Oct 2024

Resolution is the No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller. For most authors that would be a life-changing event. But Irvine Welsh is not like most authors. Or, rather, he is, in that he puts down words on a page, creates characters, such as former Detective Ray Lennox. Gives the the boy from a Leith housing scheme a girlfriend with a name that would have him smacking his lips and wanting a bite of Carmel, but still want her pudding. I know, terrible joke...

Qualitative Research Answers on Being Single over 40 as a lady

Posted by Shannan on Sun, 06 Oct 2024

Chapter One - Write a very brief, publishable blurb on how you arrived at She, Over 40, Solo. These are the stories of the respondents to the questionnaire around being single over the age of 40 as a woman. Respondent 1: Donna, 44, Christian, who has 100% support from her family and has been single most of her life. I believe that sex was made for the intimacy of marriage. Most men (generally) want sex when dating, I blame the media for that,...

Story and Poem of the Month

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Sun, 06 Oct 2024

Our Story and Poem of the Month for September - very kindly chosen by onemorething: Picks of the Month for September: Happy to be doing this as it approaches my favourite time of the year. Am wishing all a cosy and writing-filled Autumn. If you take an overview of the writing on this site over the course of a month, you can’t help but be struck by the sheer range of talent, story-telling and poeming, it’s a wonderful thing. So, thank you all for...

Douglas Skelton (2024) The Hollow Mountain.

Posted by celticman on Sat, 05 Oct 2024

‘A murder that wasn’t a murder.’ That’s the tagline. A Rebecca Connolly mystery. I don’t think I’ve read any other in this series. I was pretty sure I’d figured out who the murdered that wasn’t the murderer was. Like the Brexit result, I was wrong. Small margins. Leave or Remain? I voted to Leave England but remain in Europe. Most of Scotland voted for the latter, but not the former. Very few, then or now, voted in the Tories. The moron’s moron...

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