Category: beginning writers

Naming your Characters the Easy Way

~ Cathy Cade ~ 6 Comments

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.

Nicholas C. Rossis

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:

Indecisive novelist, Comic by Tom Gauld, tomgauld.com 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

~ Cathy Cade ~ 10 Comments

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.

Eva Jordan

Book Review – Where the Wild Winds Blow by the Whittlesey Wordsmiths

Independently Published 

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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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A Money-saving Alternative to Acrobat.

~ Cathy Cade ~ 7 Comments

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.

Switching on the imagination

~ Cathy Cade ~ Leave a comment

I sometimes feel that, as a fledgling writer, my advice on here is rather like the blind leading the blind (excuse cliche ). With that in mind, I share these thoughts from our writing group’s blog.

Whittlesey Wordsmiths

Sunrise in the fens with windturbines A spectacular Fenland Sunrise One of the most beautiful sunrises I have witnessed

Reading is a means of switching on the imagination. The pictures drawn in the mind, the voices heard and the drama that unfolds can be as real to a reader as anything encountered in life. In many ways it is a better reality, one that is acceptable on the reader’s terms, limited by what they want to take out of it or see within it.

As writers we grope around for the switch that lights the imagination of our readers. The words though must first paint pictures in our own minds, we are after all the first reader. Hopefully these pictures will be seen in  the mind’s eye of our readers. We know they  will see different pictures to ours, pictures on their terms. The voices too they hear will have different accents to the ones in…

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Danny Boy

~ Cathy Cade ~ 2 Comments

As previously reported, I entered the recent 24-hour short story contest run by Angela Hoy's Writer's Weekly. com  (https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/ ) – just to see if I could. Thinking up stories on the hop isn't my strong point. As promised in my earlier post, the story is reproduced below. On the date of the contest, (around 6pm … Continue reading Danny Boy

A Diversion

~ Cathy Cade ~ 1 Comment

Challenges from Chris Fielden and Friends I’ve been following Chris Fielden’s website for many moons, at https://www.christopherfielden.com/ and have twice entered short stories in his annual To Hull and Back competitions. It’s a lighthearted and responsive website. Chris is generous with advice, offering listings of current competitions and advice about entering them, among other things. Since I first … Continue reading A Diversion

Life of a Lady magazine

~ Cathy Cade ~ Leave a comment

I enjoyed this post from Ernestine Marsh at https://alwaysalaugh.com/

I know my writing group will too – looking forward to more.

So You think you've got problems?

Dear Aunty Jean,

I am writing to ask if you believe in curses. I know that seems like a strange question, but I have had such a run of bad luck, that you wouldn’t believe it.

I was a very wealthy window of 76 before meeting my new husband while on holiday in the Bahamas. I couldn’t believe that he was attracted to me, being an Adonis of 23. He was a waiter at the hotel I was staying at and could have had any girl he wanted, but he took one look at me and said it was love at first sight for him!

We had a whirlwind romance and were married before my holiday was over. We went straight on to Paris for our honeymoon, briefly stopping in London so I could change my will with my solicitor.

It was in Paris that this bad luck began. My…

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