Continuing Professional Development occurs across most industries and it applies to writing too.
How come?
Continuing Professional Development
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Part 2 – The Chronicles Continue – Dawn Knox
I’m delighted to welcome back a good friend of mine, Dawn Knox, to Chandler’s Ford Today. Dawn and I are both published by Cafelit and Bridge House Publishing. Both of us are flash fiction and short story writers but Dawn is also a playwright and has recently released her second hilarious set of “chronicles” stories called The Macaroon Chronicles. This is the follow up to her debut set of chronicles called The Basilwade Chronicles. If you like a good, funny read, do check these out.
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The Selwood Christmas Tree 2020
The Selwood Christmas tree has been lighting up Chandler’s Ford since 1953. Look at this stunning tree!
Richard Bright, 1st Chairman at Workdry International Limited (Selwood & Siltbuster) said, it’s always a pleasure to bring this tradition to the local community.
To friends of Chandler’s Ford, what does this Christmas mean to you? Please leave a comment below. We wish you all safe and well.
Richard has also given us more details about the tree this year.
Richard said, “The tree is meant to be 35ft but I think it’s slightly taller this year… I usually tell by comparing it with the flag poles 😊. we used to get it from Longleat as part of a forest management scheme but that has since come to an end so we have sourced it from a plantation off the A303 the last few years. We try to get it as local as possible to keep it “green” as I know a lot of large trees are imported from Norway, which I can’t bring myself to do due to the huge environmental impact.”
Introducing Dawn Knox… The Chronicles Continue
Dawn Kentish Knox is a great friend and we have publishers in common – Cafelit and Bridge House Publishing in particular. We usually meet at the twice yearly Bridge House events (though technically the one in the summer is the Waterloo Arts Festival Writing Competition one, though Bridge House sponsor that). We are both missing these events this year though we have met on Zoom.
Along with Paula Readman, whom I interviewed a few months back, Dawn and I make up the photo that appears on top of the Scribblers Sans Frontiere Facebook group which is for authors published by Bridge House and its imprints (including Chapeltown Books).
[Read more…] about Introducing Dawn Knox… The Chronicles Continue
Brechin/Angus Book Festival – Local Author News – Allison Symes
One thing to come out of the pandemic has been the cancellation of so many author events. The ones still running have had to go online but these have proved to be a lifeline for writers and readers alike.
Going online has also made certain things possible/more accessible, which is one positive thing I’d like to see continue long after the pandemic crisis is over (and hopefully it will be one day!).
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Introducing Elizabeth Hurst – Historical Mysteries, Romances, and Ghosts!
One joy of going to a great writing event such as the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School is discovering so many wonderful writers and their amazing range of work.
It is my pleasure then to introduce Elizabeth Hurst, another Swanwick stalwart, who writes the Lost Souls series.
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Memorials to our War Dead: the Cenotaph and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior
I wonder how many people know the history of these two significant and impressive memorials to those who fell in war.
The Cenotaph.
Designed by Edwin Lutyens, the Cenotaph (meaning ‘empty tomb’) was first erected in 1919 as a temporary wood and plaster structure for a victory parade at the end of the First World War. It was to be temporary as it was thought that this parade would be a one-off. But the Cenotaph quickly captured the public imagination. Repatriation of the dead had been forbidden since the early days of the war, so the Cenotaph came to represent the absent dead and served as a substitute for a grave. Beginning almost immediately after the parade and continuing for days afterwards, members of the public began laying flowers and wreaths around the Cenotaph’s base: people needed to mourn their sons, fathers and brothers. So clear was this need for a visible monument, that in 1920 it was replaced by a permanent Portland stone structure, to the same Lutyens design, and designated the United Kingdom’s official national war memorial. [Read more…] about Memorials to our War Dead: the Cenotaph and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior
Board and Card Games
Were you a fan of board games? Perhaps you still are.
I have fond memories of playing various board games with my family over the years. I was fortunate enough to live in a big old Victorian semi when I was growing up with a separate living room and dining room.
The dining room was really only used for that for Christmas and other special occasions as we often ate in the kitchen but we also used this room as a kind of games room. The big table we had in there was ideal for board games and the like. And we could leave a game set up in progress if we needed to do so.
Life in a Pandemic: Who am I?
There is a story of a pompous man pushing into the front of and airport check-in queue. The check-in girl tells him to go to the back of the queue. ‘Do you know who I am?’ asks the man. The check-in girl asks the queue, ’can anyone help? This man does not know who he is.’
I sympathise with this man, not because of pushing into a queue, but because I am not known by my name any longer. The days when I heard people say, ‘Hello, Mike, nice to see you,’ have gone because, in COVID protection mode, no one sees me.
Reduced to a Binary Digit
I am known to my computer but only as a string of digits. The screen wants to know my ID number, password, authentication code, admin password, username, wireless key, PIN, account number or registration key. Then there are numbers and codes sent to my phone which last only an hour or so. If I go to a bar or restaurant, my phone communicates with a QR code. I can text my order and someone brings drinks. [Read more…] about Life in a Pandemic: Who am I?
The Joy of Photos
I love photos. Love looking at them and taking them and I’ve taken to digital photography well too. I recall taking film rolls to the chemists and waiting a week for them to come back. (I used to go to what is now Day Lewis Chemists for this if I wasn’t posting rolls of film off to people like Bonusprint. And there’s the old joke about Cinderella, . Why was Cinderella at the chemists? She was waiting for her prints! And yes I have cleaned that joke up a bit..!).
One of the joys of a site like CFT is of course seeing the photos people share here and that’s fabulous. I thought with this post though I’d share a few of my favourite pictures and then invite others to write a follow up post to this one with their favourites. Any takers? I do hope so.
Wrapping Up
It’s a wrap! How often have you heard that? It usually means a film or a scene within it is “finished”. For writers, I guess our “wrap” is when we’ve written our draft, edited it and polished it, and then finally sent it off to a publisher for their consideration. At least you’ve got that stage done!
The Phone Conversation
Do you recall the old cop show dramas and series where a suspect is allowed one call to their lawyer? I’m sure that is nothing more than a plot device but I thought I would take that idea for this post and run with it, so to speak.
If there was one phone call you could make to anyone, who would it be and why? What would you say? You can go backwards or forwards in time.
LOCAL AUTHOR CYBERLAUNCH NEWS – ALLISON SYMES – TRIPPING THE FLASH FANTASTIC
Just a quick post from me this week to flag up my cyberlaunch for my second book from Chapeltown Books, Tripping the Flash Fantastic, on Saturday, 10th October 2020.
I’m holding this event on Facebook from 7 pm to about 9.30 pm. Would love it if you could join me. (And if you can only pop by for just two minutes, you’ll still be most welcome!).
The lovely thing about online launches? No worries about social distancing etc! And they give an author a chance to celebrate the fact their “baby” is seeing the light of day!
See https://www.facebook.com/events/1246876649024453 for more details. Meanwhile I am delighted to share a link to my book trailer. I share one of my stories from the new book here – Time For Some Peace.
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Preparing An (Online) Party
I am happily preparing for a party at the moment – an online one to celebrate the publication of my new book, Tripping The Flash Fantastic.
Date For Your Diary: Saturday, 10th October 2020
Time: 7.00 pm to 9.30 pm
Venue: Your computer, laptop, I-Pad etc at your home!
Link for Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1246876649024453
(Can’t beat the convenience here! No traffic hold-ups. Just a good internet connection needed which you hopefully should have anyway!).
Living with a Fitness Tracker – Part 2
In my last post I extolled the benefits of my new fitness watch – mainly in accurately measuring the distance and time of my runs, but a few other (less important) features as well.
But the data doesn’t have to stay on the watch. I can upload it to web-based applications and, Oh wow! What a plethora of fun and procrastination that opens.
For example, I can view pretty-coloured graphs that track my daily health and fitness, such as movement and heart rate and progress towards daily step goals. [Read more…] about Living with a Fitness Tracker – Part 2
Living with a Fitness Tracker – Part 1
So, as pondered in an earlier post, I decided to treat myself to a fitness tracking watch. I justified the expense (both to myself and to Mrs Chippy) on the basis that it was less than half the money I was saving on fuel by working at home. I didn’t really need to justify the expense to Mrs Chippy at all; within a few days she had bought herself one too!
I have to say, I am impressed. Obviously, it tells me the time and date – it is a watch, after all – but it will also fairly accurately track how far I run, walk or cycle – it’s even clever enough to work out what type of activity I am doing. [Read more…] about Living with a Fitness Tracker – Part 1
A Romantic Romp through the NATO Phonetic Alphabet
In this bit of nonsense, I have included each of the NATO Phonetic Alphabet codewords …
Last November, alpha male Mike and his Zulu boyfriend Charlie took a holiday at the famous golf hotel in Lima. Wanting a break from the game, they took a drive through the delta, up into the sierra, where they heard the famous echo. In the evening they were joined by their yankee soldier friend Victor (who was in uniform) and his Papa.
They all went to the theatre where they saw Romeo and Juliet (it was an Oscar-winning performance – ‘Bravo’, they cried) and then went dancing, first the foxtrot then the tango. [Read more…] about A Romantic Romp through the NATO Phonetic Alphabet
Local Author News – Allison Symes – New Book, New Anthology, New Zoom Event!
Murphy’s Law has struck again for this writer! No news (publication or otherwise) for a while and then lots all at the same time!
[Read more…] about Local Author News – Allison Symes – New Book, New Anthology, New Zoom Event!
Lessons – Part 2 – Lessons Learned from the Writing Life
I talked about lessons from school, learning to drive etc., last week. This week I’m going to look at what I have learned from writing and how that has developed life skills too.
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Lessons – Part 1
Lessons are a big part of life. Some we love, others we loathe. In this two-part series, I thought I’d take a look at how lessons are an ongoing thing. We’re just not always conscious of it. I’ve learned so much from writing which has helped directly not only with that but with life skills too.
So let’s start with the obvious then.
