Week 361 – Diane Needs A Bigger Shelf, R.I.P Marvin And Who Knows The Marbles?

Well here we are at Week 361.

Now before I start, I just want to congratulate Diane on one hell of an achievement. At the time of me writing this she was just waiting on notification on when her twentieth novel will be available!!

TWENTY!

We all strive for one. But for Diane to have researched and typed and edited and typed and edited and typed and edited and been accepted twenty times, I cannot begin to express how proud and in awe I am of her.

Huge congratulations Diane, you deserve it!!!

This is probably my in-a-row stint over for a wee while as we’ll be going back to me and Leila taking these on in turns.

So hopefully you’ll get some sense next week.

Anyhow, as always, you don’t really need to look very far to find inspiration for these types of posts!

We have another issue regarding language this week here in Britain.

It’s a biggie.

I’ve just seen that M&S are re-branding Midget Gems because this has been deemed offensive.

…To who?

I am more than sure that most folks only consider them as gummy sweets.

What next, Blackjacks? White Chocolate? Giant Buttons? Oddfellows? Garibaldi’s? Bazooka Joes’?

Mind you I think Rainbow Drops and Rainbow Sherbet should be fine.

I am offended by the royal family so should they then be branded as leeching fuckwits to appease me?

Half of Glasgow can be offended by the other half of Glasgow, so should they be renamed not to cause any bigot laden outrage?

Some who call themselves Christians, Muslims, Jews, Jehovas can have issue with each other so should they all be called something that they could all agree on so as not to upset each other? (I know that agreement would always be stretching an impossibility into something more impossible)

When some person states that they are outraged, insulted, should we listen?? Is it a numbers game?

Folks say it doesn’t matter but in what way?

So if it doesn’t matter should it be changed or remain the same?

Life is getting so complicated due to folks making it so.

And then when you consider super-market profit making and bandwagon jumping by those who make decisions, we really are in a time when reasoning is more questionable than anything else.

I was so saddened to hear the passing of Meat Loaf. He was one of those artists who has put out a perfect album.

And that has given me an excuse, as a tribute mind, to revisit a list. (Leila will be happy!)

To me others include (Not talking about the obvious ones that the sycophants fawn on how amazing they are just for them to be able to fawn!)

Adventurers – Sea Of Love (What a sound – What vocals!)

Gary Moore – Still Got The Blues For You (This would have been more than perfect if Parisian Walkways was on it!)

Elton John – Too Low For Zero

Springsteen – The River

Status Quo – Can’t Stand The Heat

Aerosmith – Pump

Dr Feelgood – The Collection (Yes! I know I shouldn’t have a singles collection here)

Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man

Radiohead – Pablo Honey

Radiohead – The Bends

The Cult- Love

The Kane Gang – The Bad And The Lowdown World Of The Kane Gang

The Icicle Works – The Best Of The Icicle Works (Some greatest hits albums have to be listened to!)

Queen – The Works

Queen – Made In Heaven (Sad, beautiful and what a legacy to leave!)

Billy Joel – An Innocent Man

Sisters Of Mercy – Floodland

Cocteau Twins – Treasure (Best album to…Well listen to it and you may be able to work it out!))

Franky Goes To Hollywood – Welcome To The Pleasure Dome

Bob Seger – Nine Tonight

Bowie – Changes (See Dr Feelgood and The Icicle Works)

Rumer – Seasons Of My Soul (As good a voice as Karen Carpenter)

Rainbow – Down To Earth (Graham Bonnet’s vocals are amazing. Check out below for a taste when he started out!)

Rainbow – Difficult To Cure

Gun – Gallus

Fleetwood Mac – Rumours

Roxy Music – Flesh And Blood

Gerry Rafferty – City To City

And any Andrea Bocelli album except for those that are from movies!! Not even Big Andrea can save that fucking Titanic song!

Most folks would be able to come up with their own version of this. Every one of these albums has a meaning for me and I’m sure that everyone is the same.

I’ve always wanted to try and write a ‘compilation’ story with the songs on a jukebox being the catalyst for individual stories – I think that could be my next failed novel!!

Back to Meat Loaf – The first time I heard ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ it blew me away. It is one of the few songs that I know all the way through.

And any artist who can sing like he did and was in ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and ‘Fight Club’ – Well I’m bowing as I type!!

I Nearly forgot – Graham Bonnet –

Okay onto this week’s stories.

Usual lines here guys, topics were various and writers were brilliant.

Some of our initial comments follow.

This has been two weeks in a row that Marco Etheridge has graced the site which is all good.

He got us up and running on Monday with ‘Architects Of Their Own.‘

‘Well imagined and excellent writing.’

‘Very well presented – Up to Marco’s usual brilliant standard.’

‘I like the idea of Hitler being on a special level.’

Next up was Townsend Walker with ‘The Sketcher.‘

This was Townsend’s third story for us.

‘Some excellent descriptions.’

‘Loved the tone of it.’

‘The ending is really what the reader makes of it. That shows writer confidence in so many ways.’

On Wednesday, it was me with ‘Just Dad.’

It’s always an absolute delight to make it onto the site.

As always I thank Diane and Leila and any of those folks who left me a comment.

We are always delighted to see a new writer in our midst.

We welcome Shoshauna Shy, hope she has fun on the site and more than anything we want to see more of her work.

‘A Bit Of Storytime‘ was story number one for Shoshauna which was published on Thursday.

‘This really does capture the tone.’

‘To get the reaction that we are feeling, we must accept what exceptional writing this is!’

‘The writing makes your skin crawl so the writer has done their job brilliantly.’

And to finish off we had Jon Beight.

We’ve not seen Jon for a wee while so it was an absolute pleasure to publish his fourth story, ‘Like Swatting A Fly.’ on Friday

‘Very plausible.

‘Her doing the scratch card at the last minute was a really good touch.

‘Proficient, well structured and a really good story.’

That’s the round up rounded up.

Usual requests guys, please comment. If you want to put your thumbs up, put it up somewhere more interesting – Please comment!!

I see we keep being promised that folks will have a shot at the Re-Run but no takers. Did they all have puppies as kids??

Leila is holding up the wall of memories all on her Todd, so have a go!!

Just to finish, I want to explore some reasons that make writing difficult.

We have the dreaded writer’s block. We have the lack of knowledge which means we need to research.

We have that weird time when our words just won’t sound right and there is no resolve.

There can be interruptions from family or life in general.

Sickness and lethargy can also play a part.

But to me, the most daunting hurdle is the one shown below!

Hugh

Banner Image: Image by Shirley Hirst from Pixabay 

Gorgeous cat – One of Hugh’s new writing assistants.

Aw Hugh. Thank you – you make me blush. I know that you know how much work goes into everything to do with writing, not least these shorts from our wonderful authors so thank you. x

Congratulations Diane! To write twenty books is a great achievement, but to have that many accepted and presented by a publisher is truly amazing. I have at least eight of your titles split between Kindle and print, and I look forward to adding more.

Leila