I’m jotting this as I travel in a car, it's okay, I’m a passenger, not the driver. I realise many people like to know about the authors whose books they read, so this post is a reveal, a confession... I am a bit of a petrolhead. I'm on the right, wearing sunglasses. Although I do mention cars in several of my books, I do not often go into any intricate descriptions. I like to leave much of the detail in my stories to the reader's imagination. I think this respects the reader, allowing them the freedom to create such subjective images, and for their imaginings to become an integral part of the story. My belief is allowing the reader personal visualisation is what makes books far superior to a film, or a movie, where every detail is spoon-fed to those watching, it leaves nothing, or very little to the imagination. Whereas with a book the author simply suggests many things, it is the reader whose mind interprets and creates the fictitious, fanciful world they find the...

  When the four sisters Bebe, Heather, Laurie, and Mimi agreed to have a representative image of them taken every year, they probably never imagined that forty years down the line the results would be  simply astounding. They began their journey in 1975 because of a random request for a picture. Nicholas Nixon, who was a photographer, asked the sisters to pose for a family photo, from there, it became an annual cherished tradition within this family. Don't take my word for it, take a look at the images yourself,  https://www.worldation.com/stories/40-years-four-sisters-photographed/ 1975

I had to share this post in full. Read it and you will know why, Paul.                                                                                            Fi rst posted on               https://www.elephantjournal.com/2017/07/what-shunryu-suzuki-taught-me-about-time Via  Jim Owens on Jul 16, 2017     533 Shares get elephant's newsletter Shunryū Suzuki , was a master of many things, not the least of which were meditation and calligraphy. His teaching—sometimes simple, sometimes confusing, but always profound—has influenced me greatly. I have also admired the work of other remarkable men and women: the Nobel Peace Prize winning,  Thich Nhất   Hanh , the Trappist monk, T...

A great post from Bob, highlighting how social concepts change over generations with the advent of better living standards and innovation. “The Bed-Time Book, written by Helen Hay and illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. Photo by Plum Leaves,  CC BY 2.0  via  Flickr  (unedited) Do you like to read in bed? I do. Most of the time, I only read a few pages before nodding off. Usually my wife comes to bed after I do and turns out the light, and I usually wake up just enough to mark my place and put the book aside. Pretty harmless, huh? It wouldn’t have been thought so at one time. I recently came across a blog on the  evils of reading in bed , by Kristen Wardowski, who posts some great stuff about books, reading and writing. She, in turn points to an   article  in  The Atlantic  by Nika Mavrody. The gist of both posts is that there were two dangers, one very real and one feared. The very real danger had to do with how people were...

Of Cookies, People And Individuality First posted by  WORDYNERDBIRD ,   MAY 27, 2017   https://wordynerdbirdwrites.wordpress.com/2017/05/27/cookies As with allposts on Brilliant Blogshare they have to earn their place. This, simple but wonderful, post does just that. People aren’t all the same shape and size As though there’s only one cookie cutter, Nor are they placed neatly onto a tray To bake until they’re all exactly right. Have these people never noticed how Two cookies that appear identical Are rarely ever actually so? Sometimes, even a perfect cookie breaks Under unexpected pressure, or when Rudely bumped into by another. Very often, the best looking cookies Prove to have very little merit When it comes to both substance and taste. Then why, pray tell, should my life or my love, My self-image or physical shape and size, Be required to fit into someone else’s Decision of who and what I should be? Whose crumby, half-baked idea was that?

The words the world does not want to hear, but will inevitably do so. When people think of a contemporary royal death in Britain, they think, inescapably, of Princess Diana. The passing of the Queen will be monumental by comparison. It may not be as nakedly emotional, but its reach will be wider, and its implications more dramatic. “She is the only monarch that most of us have ever known” The royal standard will appear on the TV screen. The national anthem will play. It will be a day when you will remember where you were. For Queen Elizabeth II of England, the plan for what happens upon her demise is known as “ London Bridge .” The prime minister will be woken, if she/he is not already awake and civil servants will say “ London Bridge is down” on secure lines. From the Foreign Office’s Global Response Centre, at an undisclosed location in the capital, the news will go out to the 15 governments outside the UK where the Queen is also the head of state, an...

9 Mar 2017 by Liela Casusi on Niume https://niume.com/post/278003 . Hype Favourite Shares     I was writing in my mama's womb. She said, can I please tone it down in there? You see, I had this clunky Olympia typewriter when God put me in there. "Here," He said, "keep busy!" "Write something of note." But since I had not been outside of my mama's womb yet, I didn't know what to write. Furthermore, it was gooey in there. And the darkness! My God, the darkness! I can't very well light a candle in there. My momma's gonna get singed. Not only that. I'm gonna choke in there. So, I wrote in the darkness, familiarizing myself with the QWERTY of the cool typewriter. I went where no man has gone before. How can I not? There was no material to write about. Oh, I correct myself on that one. I had my own "listening post" where I could hear my Dad's loud, blaring music for all...

A Fifties Child first published on 4 Aug 2016   by Carol Taylor  https://niume.com/post/79822 Hype Favourite Shares     Pin it Born in the early 50's, one of 3 and the oldest we had no Tv or phone we played out until dark and sometimes we were out all day playing in the woods, making camps...I was definitely not one of those girls who played with dolls and pushed someone else's baby up and down the street..for fun! Really...I was  a tom boy...one of my earliest memories was this pink spotted dress my mum made me...she made all our clothes and I remember that when the elbows of our cardigans or jumpers wore thin my mum unpicked the sleeves and changed them over so the darned patch was in the crook of our elbow. I also remember climbing the big old Oak tree in the middle of the green and catching the said pink dress and tore it! Girls then did not wear trousers only skirts and dresses. We made tents in the garden by slinging ...