In response to “An update on search terms,” Drewdog 2060 wrote, “I am finding it difficult to comment as my collar, freshly starched by my butler this morning, is restricting my air supply. Too many good dinners at the gentleman’s club in Pal Mal. I do not, of course subscribe to stereotypes.”

Which got me thinking about stereotypes a bit more—okay, I’m not going to say seriously, since I try not to take my seriousness too seriously here, but a bit more than I had been. Even though I was the one to raise the topic.

When I was a kid, my father would sometimes give voice to a character he called the Constipated Englishman. The CE was a kind of Colonel Blimp figure (more about him in a minute) who never managed any real words but harrumphed a lot and made my brother and me giggle.

Irrelevant photo: Field…

I’m unsure as to how I’ll write ten sentences about love in four words each. So I’m going to give this a little twist…

                         He looked at her,
                 Like everything he wanted
                   Was embodied in one,
                So beautiful and majestical.
                   A spine tingling sight.
                Like raindrops on leaves,
               She glimmered in sunlight.
                 Like candles in the dark,
                She brightened dark days.
          Staring speechless and bewildered,
                     What could he say?
           Love was a mere understatement.

Okay, so I tried to keep each line as close to four words as I could and I know these are more than ten *oops*
Now the rules are, that you must write ten sentences related to love, each sentence must consist of four words each. And in the end you must top it all off with your favorite love related quote.
Tag ten-…

I have a very special guest in my hut today. None other than friend to readers around the globe, and tireless supporter and mentor to indie authors. Chris Graham is The Story Reading Ape we know and love. For those of you who know Discworld, you might be surprised to hear that his first cousin is the Librarian at the Unseen University – no need run though – our Ape got all the friendly genes.
Mostly for me Chris is a wonderful friend, and not because he has the klout to make my books visible to real readers, but because for the duration of the time that I’ve known him, he’s often blown me away with his acts of generosity to so many of our tribe of often much maligned indie writers. He promotes our work, shares really useful tips on the nuts and bolts of our profession, and often…

I can not quite recollect when I first came across the poet Ernest Christopher Dowson. Perhaps it was while listening to one of the many recorded anthologies of verse which have delighted me over the years. Possibly I read his “They are not long the weeping and the laughter” while browsing through the Oxford Book of English Verse. Be that as it may, I was delighted to come across The Poems And Prose Of Ernest Dowson With A Memoir By Arthur Symons as a free download in the Amazon Kindle store, http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000JQUZY6?ie=UTF8&ref_=oce_digital_UK.

Dowson was born in 1867 and died in 1900 at the tragically young age of 30. During his short life he produced some of the most moving poetry in the English language including his often quoted “They are not Long”

“They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,

Love and desire and hate;

I think they…

A challenge, issued by Kevin Morris at Newauthoronline to write a post about our favorite book. (Please visit Kevin at his site; you will be glad you did!)

My choice is, The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham published in 1944.

An unusual book in that the author narrates but also plays himself in the story and hints that the novel may have some truth in it. You can Google it and find a few websites dedicated to proving it factual.

The story begins at the end of WW1 and follows Larry Darrell who served as a fighter pilot and saw action over the skies of France. Larry befriends another pilot, a jovial Irishman who dies after saving Larry’s life. From here on Larry’s life changes as he searches for answers about death, God and what’s the purpose.  Larry returns home to his fiancée Isabel and befuddles everyone as he turns…