Donna No, none that I can think of. Alyss Hallmark Romance movies, Romance novels – from Jane Austen to Nora Roberts, Facebook where the highlight reels are friends and their children and loved ones. I used to happily go to restaurants on my own, but I can’t manage that anymore. Sadly, I was given a restaurant voucher as a gift, but I have no-one who visits me, or who I could use it with, and I don’t want to sit there on my own anymore… so that...

Adam Kay (2022) Undoctored. The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients. Adam Kay jokes he’s the 13 th best-known ex-doctor in Britain. He’s also a comedian. Or ex-comedian, author of the multi-million bestseller This Is Going to Hurt . We therefore already know about his painful, disillusionment with medicine, the only world he knew. The post-traumatic-stress-disorder after too many things went wrong and a baby under his care died. I’m not...

This is the 2024 version, which is remarkably similar to the 2023 version etc. A couple of years ago, having finished dressing the Christmas Tree, in a bout of whimsy I wrote a story about the supposed conversation between some of the perennial characters on the tree. I rather enjoyed this process but the story itself, although it appeared here on ABCtales, rather slipped under the radar, possibly because it was one of three that I uploaded at...

Donna I trust in God to give me the strength to carry on. Alyss, Oh, this is a tough one. There are more low days now than there have ever been. I do not recommend living far away from family and friends. My motivation has completely angled itself into Bible reading and studying. Loads of online sermons and Instagram sermon clips/motivational clips. I do feel like this lonely, low time has a purpose though, in a very strange, yet sensible way,...

I tell lies every day. I call it writing fiction. I followed with interest a great country drowning under the weight of its own stupidity. "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mentiri." "It is sweet and fitting to lie for one's country." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/05/tulsi-gabbard-national-intelligence-community-fears Shibboleth. Biblical Origin: The term originates from the Book of Judges 12:5–6 in the Hebrew Bible. The Gileadites...

It’s been a few weeks since I read The Girl Who Smiled Beads . We know the story, but don’t know the story in a way many readers will be familiar with. I could read it again. There’s much of Clemantine Wamariya’s biography (I won’t call it autobiography, although it is, because I presume Elizabeth Weil is the ghost-writer) that is increasingly relevant. Wamariya was born in Rwanda to kind and loving parents. Prosperous even. Her dad owned a...

I was reminded today that, this time last year saw the podcast debut of Josiah and Archibald! It was really interesting, from my point of view, because this was the first time that they had been brought to life and interpreted by anyone other than me. I thought it worked out pretty well, but have a listen and see what you think Yorick Radio - A Dubious Undertaking

Start Writing Fiction – Free Online Course through the Open University So you wanna be a writer? Well, I do. I imagine you do as well or you wouldn’t be reading this. Everyone comes at creative writing from different angles, for different reasons and with different backgrounds in terms of prior learning. Not everyone has been through university and earned a degree in creative writing. I certainly haven’t (even if my son has). Having been back at...

I've been going back over some of the stories I've written from the point of view of the dogs at my daughter's care farm. I think the approach of Christmas has made me a bit sentimental! This is a bit of a sad one.This story is from the Christmas after one of the dogs (Packham) had sadly passed away, leaving India on her own and before the arrival of Rohan, the puppy. I always hoped this would get more attention than it actually did: https://www...

I bore myself with my obsessive compulsion to endlessly create word puns in the worst dad joke way that leaves me groaning before I have even shared them, and yet they keep coming. This morning for instance I was considering grandiose titles of books and with a few letter changes diminishing their power. Tern of the Sentry - An old guard officer who had tamed a sea bird, and together, they would defend the gates of the palace. The Gapes of Roth...