Jury Service For Absolute Beginners (Sorry.)

This is the second in my Absolute Beginners series. (Being an absolute beginner at “absolute beginners” posts, I had no idea I was going to write a second and can’t promise there will ever be another in this “series.” I can promise this is just as informative as the first.) I had jury service this week. I sort of couldn’t … Read More

New Lucrative Genre of Fiction

A while ago, “experts” predicted that novels set at the school gates were about to become the next big thing. The main idea behind these novels is that women meet at the school gates, get coerced onto committees (or bully others onto committees.) And everyone worries about what everyone else thinks of them. The launch of Hive by Gill Hornby … Read More

Chocolate Cake For Breakfast. Thank You

I just ate chocolate cake for breakfast. Yum. Following advice from a herbalist, I am on a no-refined carbs, no dairy diet just now because of a health issue. I haven’t broken that diet. My 14-year-old daughter made cupcakes with Rapadura Sugar (which is the whole cane) and whole wheat flower. (Darned autocorrect! I have never once baked a marigold … Read More

Burning with Thanks (And The Dress revealed.)

On Sunday I was grateful for vinegar and soda. Here’s why. I put dates in a pan with water and left them to cook. The plan was to use them to sweeten apple crumble. The rest of the dinner was pretty much ready since we were having leftovers. So I went out of the kitchen (first mistake) and into the … Read More

A “Sort-of” Scot Clears up Some Anglo-American Confusion

A large proportion of this blog’s readership is American (around two-thirds) so I’ve decided to do a little to further Anglo-American understanding (Anglo in this sense including Scotlo too, since I am (sort of) from Scotland and live there too.) In my last post, I used the British word “hob” and I included the American term “stove top.” Sarah, of … Read More

Who Writes Your Stories?

Many times, I have sat down to write with a plan in my head of how an article or novel chapter should be, and when I’ve finished writing it is something very different to what I’d imagined. Writers talk about this frequently. Fiction writers often say that a character wouldn’t do what they wanted, or that the characters took over … Read More

Humour is Subjective: Continuing my NaNo Diary.

It’s November 4th, which is the 4th day of NaNoWriMo, and my third day. Yesterday, being Sunday, there were family things to do, but I still managed to get over 750 words done, so I felt fairly pleased. By the end of the day, the NaNo website promised I’d finish by March 2014 if I keep up the pace. Actually, … Read More