Deep in a Hole

Wascana Centre; Google Maps. Image by Xinan Lui

Deep in a hole beneath the ground
lived something unusual that made not a sound.

What was it, what was it, tell me quick.
Was it a snake?
A goffer?
A troll?
A stone?

Nah, none of these things, my goslings. T’were a bone.
T’were a bone of a beast, a gigantic colossus,
four hefty legs and a long proboscis.

It was a rhinoceros?

Nay. Nay-nay-nay-nay.
T’were a bone of a trunk-tooting flummoxing lummox.
A bone nigh as big as a bloody great planet.
A bone of a great lumbering mammoth.
And I’m telling yer now, it weren’t alone.


This piece of nonsense was written for What Pegman Saw: Saskatchewan, Canada

99 words

Posted in Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , | 51 Comments

Sunday Fungi: Jelly Ears

What more need I say? They look like ears, and they feel like jelly.

Jelly Ears: 19 Nov 2019

The sun caught these fungi just right. These last throughout the year, but need the rain to *blossom* like this. Otherwise they’re just nobbly brown bits, barely noticeable.

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 35 Comments

The Spinner’s Game e-book Update #25

December update… and yes, things are progressing with the preparations to publish The Spinner’s Game on Kindle (and POD), launch date: 20th March 2020, Vernal Equinox.

Editing…

I can report with great relief that Books One, Two, Three and Four – The Spinner’s Child, Lake of Dreams, The Pole That Threads and Lady of First Making – are all polished and every word sparkling. Yay!

The Spinner’s Sins (Book Five aka Asaric Sins, working title)

The rewrites and revisions have begun and are progressing well, to my satisfaction. Some chapters take longer than others, needing just that little bit more attention.

And whilst doing that, I’m giving each finished chapter its final edit.

Where am I with this? About halfway through.

And hey, here’s another chance to show off Lauren Willmore’s fantastic cover design.

 

Maps. Yay! Maps.

Have I said before I. Love. Maps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I’ve now got to grips with a map-making app Inkarnate. And as a first try out, I produced this. It was done on the freebie version. To produce maps to use commercially, I need to buy the licence. I thought I’d wait till after Christmas for that. But I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a much better version.

The Spinner’s Mythic World – A Traveller’s Guide

The Supplement Giveaway, to be offered with Pre-Orders, loosely styled on the Lonely Planet Guides. The material for this is still lodged in my head although I have made notes. So that’s another step nearer.

Still much work to be done before that Launch Date arrives. And meantime, thoughts arise of What About After?

Bellinn Road

Bellinn Road is less a sequel more another story in the Asaric Tales series. I hope to get it out on Kindle by mid-summer. More news of that anon.


Next e-book update will be… Sunday 5th January 2020

 

 

Posted in Fantasy Fiction, Mythic Fiction, On Writing, The Spinner's Game | Tagged , , | 32 Comments

No Place to Sit

Burlingham Woods: 19th November 2019

So we’re walking along, five miles since we jumped off the bus, and I’m thinking now I’d like to sit for a while, maybe have a coffee, brought in my flask. And here’s a seat… and isn’t it ironic, it’s broken. All these trees, not a place to sit.

Isn’t It Ironic, one of the titles in #2019picoftheweek challenge. For details see MariaAntonia

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 42 Comments

CCC#56: Golden Lure

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #56

Eagle landing on a pole,
Locus bright
Talons caught upon the web
turning day to night
Eagle’s wing pinioned on a lyre
Vega was the ancient gyre
Remembered now, a star alone
Alas, the eagle turned to stone
Ivy tangles talons now
Polaris and a lesser plough

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #56

CCC#56

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.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos | Tagged , , | 77 Comments

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

image by Steve Buissinne on pixabay

After remarking yesterday that I love words, I remembered this post from back in January 2013. So here’s giving it another airing

Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , | 16 Comments

What I Mean…

image by conger design on pixabay

Philology?

No, morphology.

Not phenomenology?

No, and neither physiology.

So, not anatomy nor neurology?

You’re thinking only of biology.

Ah, geology then, like… geochronology?

No. Not even geomorphology.

None of that is what I mean by morphology.


37 words, written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt

Posted in Mostly Micro, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 45 Comments

Sunday Fungi: Beneath the Spreading Chestnut Tree

And I bring to you this Sunday…

A pretty little fungus… looks more like a flower

And lo! An undershot too…

I’m tempted to say it’s an Orange Milkcap. But then there are so many other milkcaps all of a similar colouring… we’ll say it’s a Milkcap and leave it at that

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Parasites and Fungi

Tiny-tiny fungi: 19th Nov 2019

It took me a while to find a name for this very small fungus. Paecilomyces farinosus... which is parasitic on buried moth pupae. Alternatively,00 it could be a white variant of the yellow stagshorn… though I’d say it’s too small and singular.

A Small World, one of the titles in #2019picoftheweek challenge. For details see MariaAntonia

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , | 39 Comments