The Pancake Threaders Song

Posted on August 13, 2019 by crispina kemp

image by Ionas Nicolae on pixabay

Heel and toe, heel and toe, it’s over the tallow-dripped boards we go
Turn me around, hold me high, mind the pans, don’t want to fry
Skip it and slip it and skim the next bit, twist it and twine it, make me a wick
Hold it loose, pull it tight, don’t want to burn it, don’t want a light
Heel and toe, heel and toe, it’s over the tallow-dripped boards we go
Join as one, join as all, forget the choices, raise your voices,
Take the cake, take the pan, but don’t take it wrong
In this, the Pancake Threaders song

Written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: 102 words.

 

 

Posted in Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , , | 42 Comments

What Pegman Saw: Taffy’s Homebrew

Posted on August 12, 2019 by crispina kemp

Manitoba. Image by CG on Google Maps

She’d told Jeff she didn’t want Taffy’s homebrew beer.

And he’d answered, “You wanted to come with us, be one of the fellas, so you’ll drink that beer.”

Fine. Except Jeff and his mates were used to Taffy’s homebrew, and she wasn’t. And in the course of the night it had gurgled through her intestines until, in the early dawn…

Feet rammed into boots, jacket slung over her jimmies, she dived for the door. And who’s cool idea was it to book them a cabin with an outside can?

“Yikes, where’s the rucking key?”

Then key and lock refused to match – a bit like Taffy’s homebrew and her intestines.

“Hells! What!” The door wasn’t locked.

Sat inside that rickety outhouse, she found blessed relief. Until…

What was that snuffling and chuffing?

She opened the outhouse door just enough.

“Oh shits! A rucking polar bear!”

144 words, written for What Pegman Saw: Manitoba, Canada

Adaptation of a story told me from a friend’s first marriage. But it wasn’t a polar bear, and it wasn’t in Canada, it was in Colorado, and it wasn’t on a hunting trip but at her new home.

 

 

Posted in Mostly Micro | Tagged , , | 61 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Butterflies and Blackberries

Posted on August 11, 2019 by crispina kemp

Meadow Brown butterfly: 31st July 2019

A meadow brown butterfly rests upon a head of unripe blackberries, a perfect blend of colours.

And the meadow brown as more often seen: at rest in a meadow.

Meadow Brown butterfly: 31st July 2019

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , , | 52 Comments

Reflections on Shadows

Posted on August 10, 2019 by crispina kemp

Waterweeds and… something other: 4th June 2019

Despite I took this photo, I look at it and look at it, and I can’t figure out what plant that is whose shadow is reflected, all entangled with the waterweed. Thus I declare it, an Enigma and post it for the #2019picoftheweek challenge.

For details of #2019picoftheweek challenge see MariaAntonia

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , | 25 Comments

CCC39: Chains

Posted on August 8, 2019 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #39

Chains long in the making
Chains not for the breaking
Tie me to this, my waterside settlement

Links forged by my kin
Links forged in Anglin
Held us while crossing
Chased by the Flooding
on storm-seas that were tossing

Chains secured the steading
Chains measured the crop land
Chains ringed this, Hranni’s Land
My beloved Ranworth

It’s disputed whether Ranworth means Settlement on the Edge (of the river? or of the heath?) or if it means Hranni’s Settlement. So I allowed for both. Regardless, it is the land of my fore-fathers, as is the Anglin region of Denmark (though probably via Frisia).

And for those who didn’t see it tagged to the end of Wednesday’s post, the chains in the photo secure Ranworth Broad’s Visitor Centre to the land. The broad is fed by the River Bure, which here is tidal, thus the Centre must have freedom to rise, and fall, and not float away.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , , | 29 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #39

Posted on August 7, 2019 by crispina kemp

CCC#39

Welcome to my weekly challenge—open to all—just for FUN, FUN, FUN

Here’s how it works:

Every Wednesday I post a photo (this week it’s that one above.)
You respond with something CREATIVE

Here are some suggestions:

  • An answering photo
  • A cartoon
  • A joke
  • A caption
  • An anecdote
  • A short story (flash fiction)
  • A poem
  • A newly minted proverb, adage or saying
  • An essay
  • A song—the lyrics or the performance

You have plenty of scope and only two criteria:

  • Your creative offering is indeed yours
  • Your writing is kept to 150 words or less

If you post a link in the comments section of this post I’ll be able to find it
If you include Crimson’s Creative Challenge as a heading, WP Search will find it (theory)
by ‘Searching’ in the WP Reader (fingers crossed)

Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN.

Details of the Visitors Centre at Ranworth Broad, Norfolk

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge | Tagged , | 74 Comments

Skedaddle

Posted on August 6, 2019 by crispina kemp

image by Ruth Archer on pixabay

Incompatibility, Ignominy, Incongruity
Jealousy, Rivalry, Malignity
Hostility, Disloyalty, Ferocity
Enmity, Asperity, Antipathy, Animosity
Bad chemistry, Pugnacity, Unpopularity, Bellicosity
Irascibility, Irritability, Implacability, Inimicality

In other words, we don’t hit it off

Written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt

Posted in Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , , | 42 Comments

What Pegman Saw: They Came to Trade

Posted on August 5, 2019 by crispina kemp

image by Freeman Kelly Dronography on Google Maps

They came to trade, they stayed to rule,
They came with strange weapons and their tools;
They claimed the protection of their god
And believed that we’d be overawed.

They took our food, they took our land,
They broke us, herded us band by band
Into compounds, our warring spirit to subdue.
And then they took those compounds too.
They weakened us, divided us, derided us out of hand
Until we remained but an alien remnant, in our Ancestral land

Inspired by the prompt, but by no means limited to the Lakota and other Amerindian tribes. Homo sapiens did similar to Homo neanderthalensis; Near Eastern Farmers to Western Hunter-Gatherers; Steppe Indo-Europeans to the Old Europeans: British and Spanish and Portuguese, Dutch, Russian and French to those who had no comparable weaponry; Romans to an ever-widening reach; Arabs to Infidels… ad infinitum

79 words

Written for What Pegman Saw: Black Hills, South Dakota

Posted in Mostly Micro, Poems (Some Silly), Thoughts | Tagged , | 53 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Up Close and Personal

Posted on August 4, 2019 by crispina kemp

with scabious…

31st July 2019

An amazing range of colours, not seen as we pass it on the wayside.

31st July 2019

Scabious is a member of the Teasel Family.

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 32 Comments

The Spinner’s Game e-book update #21

Posted on August 4, 2019 by crispina kemp

August … and the question is: Will I be ready to publish The Spinner’s Game quint at Christmas? It is possible. Although I am glad it’s my own imposed deadline, and thus moveable, rather than an agent’s or publisher’s.

I haven’t much to report. Family commitments and medical appointments took huge chunks out of my available time this past month. So I’m feeling I haven’t made much progress. And yet…

Book Four: Lady of First Making (working title Asaric Sons)

After putting the rewrites for this on hold for what felt like forever, I am now two-fifths of the way through. The major rewrite part (opening chapters) is done, although the final chapter needs serious attention too. And in the middle, revision of some twiddly bits. These might appear insignificant timewise, but I’m finding they take longer than a full rewrite. Alter one small piece and the entirety can be affected.

In addition to the rewrite and revisions, I’m doing an in-depth edit and polish as I go along. I have recently discovered Pro-Writing Aid, which in my opinion knocks spots of Grammarly. As with Grammarly, it sits inside MS Word. But it doesn’t go into action until called upon. And even then, you can select any one of the twenty-three different reports, so it’s not coming at you all in one overwhelming and time-gobbling piece. I don’t use all the reports, but Grammar, Style, Diction, Overuse, Consistency and Pacing, without all the rest, is well worth the £60 annual licence.

Hopefully next month I will be able to report that this, Book Four, is complete. And then I will reveal the book cover. Another of Lauren’s wonderful designs.

Book Five: (working title Asaric Sins)

Book Five is now out with my beta readers. And three have read its entirety in less than the month and returned their feedback. For which I do thank them, ten-times over.

One of these betas is a newbie to The Spinner’s Game. It was gratifying that she was able to pick it up and get right into it without having read the previous four. The Spinner’s Game is not a series, intended as standalones. Although episodic in structure, it is a story told over the course of five books.

The feedback to date is overall good. But I’d be a liar to claim no amendments are needed, and additional material inserted. That work awaits everyone’s returns.

That’s all for now, folks. The next e-book update will be… Sunday 8th September.

 

 

Posted in On Writing, The Spinner's Game | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments