Memoir: When The Going Gets Tough, Don’t Give Up - A Life Lesson

When I was at school, there were two sporting events each year that I dreaded.

The first, was the annual school swimming festival. 

Every boy was expected to take part in the swimming trials. Swimming was not a sport that I was good at. At best, I was a recreational swimmer, not a competitive one. For a start, I disliked water getting into my ears, nose and mouth, and we didn't have ear plugs or nose clips. I suspect they were available at the time, but no one told us. Swimming as fast as possible with head under the water felt like drowning. 

It was not a sport that appealed to me. 

I did my best, but it was never going to be good enough. It wasn't a question of giving up, I just knew that there were other boys better than me. They liked swimming in the same way that I liked football or cricket. I was never going to put swimming ahead of the sports that I liked.

I swam, but never made it to the big day.

Then there was the annual cross-country run.

Five English Proverbs That Describe The Writing Journey

I decided to find five English proverbs that best describe the writing journey.

                                           Free image by Queena Deng from Pixabay

Here’s what I chose.

"The pen is mightier than the sword." 

If you can write and tell a story, then you have a powerful weapon. This has been known throughout history. It is why the enemies of words try to ban or burn books, and why the writer is often seen as dangerous. 

Become a writer and challenge the world.

"A picture is worth a thousand words."

Pictures do sell products.

It is probably why publishing companies and authors spend considerable time thinking about the cover image of a book.

Good writers paint a picture with their words. Is there a better feeling than finding a story that paints a picture in your mind when reading?

Writing and Reading: The Struggle to Find Time For Both.

I am struggling to find the time to read any of the books on my "to read" list. 

The struggle exists because most of my spare time I now spend writing, or researching for writing. 

 Image by wal 172619 from Pixabay

I have four writing projects in progress right now.

My Medium Writing Journey: The Little Bell Icon

 

My experiment with the writer's platform Medium continues.

Anyone who is a creative can become a slave to the little bell icon. That little bell icon. Twitter X has one, YouTube has one, Medium has one. I assume that all the social media platforms have them. It is a reminder of how popular, or not, you are.

Let me explain.

Medium Update: Latest Article and Story.

The following article and story can be found on Medium.

The Grammar Check 

I have, what you might call, a love-hate relationship with grammar check software. We all make mistakes when we write. I know that I do. The mistakes are corrected during editing, but...

Welcome to The House of Fun 

My journey into Bedsitland had begun when I rented a small, partially furnished single room on the ground floor of a terraced house, close to where I had lived as a boy...

The Writer's Life: 66666 - The Number of the Book

 

Well, that looks ominous. 

I had finished writing, and I thought to myself, I will stop there for now. 

Then I looked at the word count. 

Photo by Lucas van Oort on Unsplash

I Guess That's Progress...

A New Look For the Blog.

So, yesterday I decided to change the look of the blog layout and theme, and I think it now looks better. It has a cleaner look to it, no background picture. 

I also simplified the Son of My Father page, along the lines of chapter headings telling the story of what the book is about.

Here's a sample.

Chapter Nine — Son of My Father.

Chapter Ten — Big School.

Chapter Eleven — Related to a Film Star?

Chapter Twelve — The Family From Hell.

Chapter Thirteen — The Girl With Beautiful Eyes.

I also managed to write 2300 or so words yesterday of my new WIP (Really getting with it now, it does mean Work in Progress, doesn't it? Doesn't it?). 

I'm sure that one day I will be a real writer.

Catching Up. Just a Short Post.

Well, I had covid, and I got over covid. At the time, I did plan to do some reading, maybe some writing, but in the end I really did not do too much of either. That means there is a lot to catch up on and the blog got left behind. 

So, here are a few posts to come.

Another charity shop book haul.

I found more books (twice) that someone left in my local wildlife park.

I have two book ideas in development. (If my mother was still alive, she would be saying, "Hark at you. Who do you think you are, Harlan Coben?")

Various Twitter X spats.

Blog shorts, like this one. 

Soon winter will be over, and the five o'clock darkness will disappear for another year.

Until You Realise, It's Just a Story

43 years ago today, the band Teardrop Explodes released their debut album Kilimanjaro. An unofficial Twitter fan account describes their music as bubblegum trance music, psychedelic soul music. Not sure what it is, but it is very pop and melodic, very 1980s post punk, new wave. It was music that I had long forgotten about until I listened again today.  

Music is subjective, so just to say that having rediscovered this today, it is like finding something new. I will be reacquainting myself with their back catalogue of music for a few days now. It seems to have stood the test of time.

As they say. Until you realise, it's just a story.

A Little Admin: Setting Up a Twitter "X" Feed

I've been meaning to set up a Twitter feed to the blog (I know Musk has decided to call it X, but hardly anyone does, so I think I will stick with Twitter). But I only got around to it yesterday. In itself, it was quite straightforward to do once I had found the instructions on the web. So, the Twitter feed can be seen at the bottom right of the blog.

However, there are one or two problems with it, thanks to Elon's new Twitter rules.

First, I noticed today that the Twitter feed was not showing any Tweets. When you click on the Twitter link, it simply takes you to the Twitter login.  This is Musk's new rule, to see any Tweets you have to be logged in. However, I noticed that when I logged in to Twitter, the tweets on the blog can be seen, but I assume that if anyone else clicked on them, you will still be presented with the Twitter login. 

So, I don't think there is anything that can be done about that.  Musk has his new rules, including plans to charge everyone a monthly fee to use “X”.  

I think if that happens, I probably won't be using Twitter “X” anyway, but we will see.

The Writer's Life: The Fine Art of Procrastination...

I don't think I can be bothered to write about this.

Maybe.

No.

It's not the right time.

So, here's another picture instead.

 

 

 Image 2 by KatrinaS from Pixabay

The Steps of Balamand University

I was on Twitter (or X as Musk would prefer it) this morning when I came across this picture.

The steps of Balamand University, Lebanon.

How original and clever. Wonderful. 

Don't really need to say much more.

Going For a Walk: Meeting a Dog Named David

I enjoy a good walk, both for exercise and for thinking.  I find that some of my better ideas come to me, or are developed further on a good walk. Likewise, I try to do some walking every day, several miles a day if possible. Not always possible, but I find it good for the soul when I do.  I always seem to feel better about life after a walk.

The NHS in the UK states that research shows that physical activity can boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy, as well as reducing your risk of stress, clinical depression, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease.  That's good, especially in times like now.  

My walk this morning was a strange one.  A woman was walking her dog and while there was nothing strange about that, I heard her calling out to “David”.  I thought that David might be her son, hiding somewhere, but no, David was the name of her dog.  Is that a modern trend?

I had to look it up and saw on one site the 10 most popular names for boy dogs in 2022 were, Max, Charley, Cooper, Milo, Buddy, Rocky, Bear, Teddy, Duke, and Leo.  No sign of Prince, which was the name of a family dog that we had way back in the 1960s.

https://www.rover.com/blog/dog-names/

That was a USA listed site.

I found a UK site and Dave was listed number 24.  Prince is still in use by some, listed at 34.  Nice to see that Prince is still in use, although at number 11 is Harry, singular with no Prince title.  

https://www.bluecross.org.uk/advice/dog/wellbeing-and-care/top-dog-names

 

Image by Pexels from Pixabay.