Our writing group, the Whittlesey Wordsmiths, are in the process of gathering together a second anthology to self-publish. For last year's collection, I downloaded a template from Amazon and pasted everything into it, only finding as I went along that certain features of the template would need to be tweaked. As the volume progressed (or … Continue reading Novice Self-publishing
Author: Cathy Cade
After a career in libraries, I dabbled in part-time employment before deciding to give up the pursuit of remuneration and, instead, do something I enjoyed.
I have since been learning about creative writing and, so far, have work published in Best of British and Scribble magazines, and in the anthologies 'To Hull and Back 2018 Short Stories' and 'Where the Wild Winds Blow', from our writing group, the Whittlesey Wordsmiths. I also self-published one of my verses from this anthology to present to my family at Christmas. 'A Year Before Christmas' is still available on Amazon.
Most of the time I live in Cambridgeshire, surrounded by ever-changing Fen fields. The times in between, I live across a garden fence from London’s historic Epping Forest.
The Unwanted Gift
‘We love it, Mum – don’t we Mark?’ Hm. It’ll go with the gnome.’ He hadn’t yet managed to break the garden gnome his mother gave them for Christmas, although the lawnmower came perilously close to it at times. This was one of those twee little doors meant to look as if an elf or … Continue reading The Unwanted Gift
Naming your Characters the Easy Way
I have problems coming up with names for my characters, so I liked this solution – if only to fire up my own synapses. It’s an old blog post from a blogger I’ve come to trust, but I’ve checked the links and they’re all still live. Now I’m going to have some fun coming up with more descriptive names for my characters.
Let me know which of these sites you like best – or if you know a better one.
I was having this conversation with MMJaye, and she was observing how hard it can be to find the right name for your characters. First, I was reminded by this hilarious comic by Tom Gauld:
Comic by Tom Gauld, tomgauld.com
Then, I remembered all the research I went through when I was looking for character names for my epic fantasy series, Pearseus (in my sci-fi collection, The Power of Six, I cunningly avoided using names). The people on Pearseus are the descendants of Earth’s high society, so they’d be from all over the world. It’s an indecisive writer’s worst nightmare; the sort of situation that keeps you up all night: I’m looking at a character that’s half Persian, halfIndian. What is a common name for that, I wonder? Hmm…
So, when I came across the Character Name Generator for fun, I giggled like a schoolgirl. It’s a website that…
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Where the Wild Winds Blow by the Whittlesey Wordsmiths
I’d like to thank Eva Jordan for her review of our writing group’s anthology Where The Wild Winds Blow.
Eva’s most recent title, Time Will Tell, is her third and concluding story about the Lemalf family, following 183 Times a Year and All the Colours In Between.
Book Review – Where the Wild Winds Blow by the Whittlesey Wordsmiths
Independently Published
Recently, a member of a local writing group approached me and asked me if I’d be interested in reviewing a book they had put together and published. Honoured, I said I’d love to.
Where the Wild Winds Blow is an eclectic mix of fact and fiction, featuring short stories, poems and memoirs contributed by the various members of the Whittlesey Wordsmiths. I have to say; I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I will admit I was pleasantly surprised. Informative, thought provoking, and at times, enjoyably humorous, it was a real pleasure to read.
At just over 400 pages long it is quite a dense book, but for me it is not a book that should be devoured all at once, but rather savoured, slowly. Neither does it need to be read sequentially, but rather…
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12 Poems
(I'm attempting to produce this blog post using the new editor. I'll let you know how it goes – ie: whether I give up and revert to the old one, as I did last time.) 12 poems in a year I've joined a challenge to write twelve poems in twelve months on https://12shortstories.com/poetry/ This is … Continue reading 12 Poems
Apostrophic Error’s.
The apostrophe indicates that a letter is missing – as in that’s, can’t, who’s (who is), there’s (there is), could’ve, fish'n'chips… One school of thought claims that all apostrophes indicate missing letters, and this alone should inform our use of them."But what about possessives?" I hear you protest (those of you who are still awake). Merriam-Webster puts … Continue reading Apostrophic Error’s.
A Money-saving Alternative to Acrobat.
Here's another second-hand tip Photo by maitree rimthong on Pexels.com I picked up this tip from Nicholas Rossis at http://nicholasrossis.me/2019/01/21/pdf-element-an-alternative-to-adobe-acrobat-dc/ I haven’t been following his blog for very long but I’m finding it an informative site that covers a wide range of topics. This particular post points to an affordable alternative to Adobe Acrobat called … Continue reading A Money-saving Alternative to Acrobat.
Staying Safe Online
I've been offline – last week we lost our internet from Friday until mid-Saturday, as our overloaded telegraph pole was replaced, and Things Went Wrong in the transfer. This was followed by a busy family weekend, and today I’ve been catching up with a weekend offline. One blog post, in particular, was a wake-up call, … Continue reading Staying Safe Online
Wordcounting, and other edits
I like editing. Back in the days when most of my writing output was instruction leaflets for library resources, I enjoyed re-organising paragraphs and sections to hold back information until the student needed it, rather than pre-loading with explanations they didn't need yet and wouldn’t understand. Now I've broadened my writing scope, I still enjoy … Continue reading Wordcounting, and other edits
The New WordPress Editor:
Introduction & Basic Functions (with Screenshots & Step-By-Step Instructions)
Maybe I move in the wrong circles, but all the posts I’ve seen so far about the new editor have detailed how to turn it off, so I found this advice on retrospectivlily.com encouraging as well as enlightening.
Hi, friends. Happy New Year! 🙂 Speaking of things that are new…
A new editor has come to WordPress, and while using it isn’t mandatory for now, we’ll all (presumably) be forced to switch at some point. [It’s actually a few months old but new to me.]
Anticipating that, I have been using the new editor for a couple weeks. At first, I hated it, because who likes change? Now that I’m used to it, I like it more than the old one (mostly).
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
The Foundational Difference Between the Old & New Editor
The old editor works like the average text document, such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. A blog post is essentially one text document filled with various components. All the options for formatting are arranged across the top. If you want to write a list, insert a blockquote, make a…
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