When I Was a Lad: Billy's Boots, a Blast From the Past.

I was on Twitter X the other day, when I came across a post about the comics that were a big part of life for children back in the 1970s. The question was asked, how many did you buy? There was a picture of the comics available at the time. Not sure if it was all of them, but there were a lot. Most of them were for boys, some, like Sally, Bunty and Diana, for girls.

Here it is.

It's an impressive number. The ones that I remember buying were the Beano and Dandy. I also remember Look-in, Joe 90, Marvel and Spider-man. Most of the names here are familiar to me, and the chances are that I occasionally bought them. It has to be said, though, that I couldn't afford to buy all the ones that I probably wanted. 

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.

Medium: Links to All Stories and Articles

Find links below to all current stories and articles that I have posted on Medium to date.

If you like, you can leave a clap. Apparently, you can clap as much as you like (I think so)! 

You can also leave a comment.

My Journey to Bedsit-Land Part Two: Welcome to the House of Misfits 

My Journey to Bedsit-Land 

The Bully and my Aston Martin 

The Man with the Meat Cleaver

Walk More, Live Better: The Health Benefits of Going For a Walk 

Why I Write

 

What is Happening to Twitter X?

So, what is happening to Twitter X? I don't think that I will ever understand the way the algorithm of Twitter X works. I'm not the only one, given the comments from others that I find in my timeline.

Here are some things that I have noticed recently.

1) I keep seeing a lot of posts over and over again, often twenty-four to forty-eight hours old. There is no option on Twitter X to see posts in time or date order. There is also no option to see recent posts in chronological order. 

2) These old posts seem to be from the big accounts—users with tens of thousands of followers. By the time I see them, there are typically several thousand comments. It is not worth replying to, as no one will see it.

Medium: Trying Something New.

It has been a while since I posted, but I do have an excuse. Well, two excuses, actually. First, I have a book to write. Well, I'm trying to write. For now, the book is my priority, and it takes up a lot of time, as any aspiring author will know.

Next, I was in the process of writing a second book when I realised that these true stories might be more effective as articles. After reaching twenty-six thousand words, I have decided to set it aside.

Which led me to the website for writers and readers, Medium.

What is Medium?

I went to their website to find their definition of what they offer. 

Medium is a home for human stories and ideas. Here, anyone can share insightful perspectives, useful knowledge, and life wisdom with the world—without building a mailing list or a following first. The internet is noisy and chaotic. Medium is quiet yet full of insight. It’s simple, beautiful, collaborative, and helps you find the right audience for whatever you have to say.

https://medium.com/about

I decided that the best place to go to find out more was YouTube. I mean, you can usually find someone on YouTube who has made a video about their experience. I was right, but some videos looked like clickbait. They offered a magic formula. Just do what they do, and you can do the same.  

Well, no, I don’t think it is like that.

Saturday Night: Burning the Midnight Oil.

There are times when you just have to write. Last night a scene came to me out of the blue, and I just had to write it down because otherwise I would probably have forgotten it. So, around midnight, I ended up writing about 900 words of dialogue between the two main characters in the book that is my first attempt at fiction. 

I am finding that I am not writing the story from start to finish in one go, in that while I have the story in mind, a beginning, middle, and end, things tend to change as I go along. Then ideas for inclusion at any point in the story just tend to come to me. I start at the beginning of course, but at some stage, what I have already written, may need a re-write to include the new ideas. Seems like an anarchic way of doing things, but that is the way that I write. I suppose it is just the way that my mind works. It doesn't give me the whole story from the start!

That's what happened last night. The dialogue I wrote will be included in a later chapter that I am still some way off from writing. The scene is written now, and other than the inevitable editing, it is waiting to be included in that chapter, whenever I get to it.

I Guess That's Progress...

Ten Signs of an English Baby Boomer.

1) You ate sugar sandwiches, because jam was not available.

2) You had an aunt who would cut your hair.

3) The local library was the internet.

 4) You are old enough to remember when England won the World Cup.

 5) You had to put money into a coin meter for electricity.

6) A cost of living crisis was the norm.

7) You watched television pictures of a man landing on the moon.

8) The girl next door was probably your best friend.

9) There were only two, then three television channels, and even then, the adults complained that there was nothing worth watching.

10) The toilet was outside, in the backyard. 

Such was life.