Some years ago now, I got a fleeting glimpse of a book begun and put aside… a book that felt as if it needed to be written and set free to fly. When I saw that my friend, Alienora Browning, had finally released the book, I was so very glad. It is a story that has long waited to be told…

UNDER CADER IDRIS

 The Longest Literary Pregnancy in recent decades!

Alienora Browning  

Back in 1984, when I, a mere stripling of twenty-six, was in my third year as an English teacher, my nightly marking routine was suddenly interrupted by three and a half sentences popping into my mind:

‘The mountains unclouded. They were purple, sharp-pointed. Rain bristled. Two young hares, rump to rump…’

The words arrived from nowhere – and, despite the fourth-form exercise books piled all around me, I took pen and paper and wrote them down.

It…

This is the eleventh part of a fiction serial, in 815 words.

My thirty-ninth week got off to an unremarkable start. I had noticed a lot more movement, and a change in position of the bump. It wasn’t anything too drastic, but enough to make me notice the difference. Indigestion had got me up during the night, as well as two separate trips to the toilet needing to pee. Another lazy day followed, spent chatting to Rosa as she did my housework, me flopped on the sofa in front of the telly.

It was remarkable how quickly I had lost any feelings of guilt about another woman being paid to clean for me.

I must have dropped off watching some nonsense afternoon film, when I woke up feeling very thirsty. As I reached into a kitchen cupboard for a drinking glass, my waters broke with a gushing sound. It made…

Having discovered to my shock that the cornish pasties I’ve taken a shine to have a whopping 28 syns, even if I had one on my double syn day, they are still too high and therefore off the menu. Bummer. Never mind. Hubby had ‘mine’ today and I experimented with sausages.
The sausages I buy from the butcher in town are low in fat and extremely tasty. Looking them up and erring on the side of caution going by size and fat content, I’ve allowed 4 syns each, so today’s starter for ten was, well, a main course for eight.
I cut them up and cooked them in a frying pan. As expected, very little fat came out of them and they browned nicely. I put some tri colour pasta in boiling water to soak, and diced an onion, chopped some mushrooms and a handful of frozen peppers, then threw…

tender leaves of truth

firmly rooted and planted

beauty in its bare

~ * ~

Photo Courtesy of Pinterest

Two simple truths:
there is nothing that cannot be forgiven,
and there is no one undeserving
of forgiveness.

~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu ~
__________________

You want me to come home
What is a home?
For you
For me
it’s where my heart is
Not where my heart is
buried under the ground
of your monarchy
You want me to come home
Not because you love me
but because you feel alone
Not because you want me there
but because you hear the whispers
Which tell you
you shouldn’t have done
all the things you had done
You want me to come home
where the walls echo
how rotten you really are
Was it a home?

© W. Donovan

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Hi SErs! Harmony here. Animated book covers have become all the rage for social media promotion. So, today, I’d like to show  you how to animate a book cover. I’ve discovered both free and fairly cheap Apps to achieve this. At first, I found it a steep learning curve, but once I got the hang of it, I could come up with a great graphic in minutes and have fun into the bargain.

What You’ll Need:

1. Tablet or Smart Phone
2. Pixaloop App
3. Canva App (or any other app where you can generate and save an Instagram-sized PNG.
4. Video Editing Software (Optional)

On your tablet or smartphone, download both the Pixaloop and Canva Apps. Canva has both free and paid options. The free option offers plenty of scope, so you don’t necessarily need to go for the paid option if you’d rather not.

Pixaloop costs me £17.99…