To any who may read my latest posting "An Unexpected Christmas Gift (Omnibus Edition)". I found the "Create Content" heading very unco-operative in editing the story, mostly in spacing to make it readable. Being frustrated I decided to post anyway and will continue to edit in "My Stories" which seems to be far more forgiving to a computer Klutz like me, so please bear with me for a couple of days.

Much of the so-called "News" items being published at the moment is being sourced from The Dailly Mail. You should know that this paper is no friend to the LGBT+ community and is politically extremely right-wing, including backing the UKIP party at recent elections. That is Nigel Farage's organization.

They are posting a lot of "news" about the USA elections. Treat with a very large grain of salt.

I hope this doesn't contravene the site's restrictions.

My lovely 'Drea has been practicing her craft and she's so good at it that I've had to succumb.

There have been a few comments about various stories and authors in the last couple of weeks.
If you want a real treat read Bronwen Welsh's 'A Foreign Country'.

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!

First let me restate that this is in no way an endorsement of any of the stories submitted for the 2024 New Year’s Contest. That ain’t my job.

Comments are oxygen to authors, lifeblood. They show that somebody has read their story and cared enough to respond with some encouragement, or not, as the case may be, but at least appreciated the effort that went into posting.

I thought some more thoughts about comments on the New Year's Competition might be relevant. This also is relevant to comments on any story, regardless of whether the story is an entry in the contest or not.

I watched Love Actually on Netflix. Yes I'd seen it before but it's back at No.8 in the top10 Australian shows, and my memories of it were a bit fuzzy. It is, after all, 20 years old.

What a lovely movie it is, fantastic cast, heartwarming stuff for the season, and some good songs in the soundtrack. Also some poignancy for me, like Alan Rickman, who died fairly recently, playing one of his rare nice roles.

Well worth another watch.

There have been about 30 contests promoted on this site since I came here. I joined in June 2007 and I had never written a story in my life!

Many of Maddy's blogs IMHO don't get the attention they deserve, maybe because they are about bits of Britain that the majority of readers and adherents to this site are American or Canadian and their interests are understandably closer to home.

But Maddy's latest blog (as of 22 November) draws attention to the plight of those who might fall through the cracks in our society and are ignored, even when it comes to charitable causes. I could have appended this to her blog but thought it could get a bit more attention if posted as a stand-alone, particularly at this time of year.

An article in today's Australian newspaper (Newscorp's description, not mine) claims that "new evidence" supports limiting childrens' access to blockers. The article claims that 34% of children in a survey reported deterioration in their mental health one year after using blockers, while 29% said they felt better and 37% felt no difference.

The article then quoted "a leading child psychiatrist" as urging restraint in prescribing blockers for trans children on the grounds that they could be deleterious to their mental health.

I have spent five holidays in Hawaii and every time I have spent most of the time on Maui, and each time I have been in close proximity to Lahaina. I never stayed in the town itself but always in Ka'anapali, a couple of miles north and Lahaina was where we would go to dine and just walk around for enjoyment. The banyan tree was a favourite sitting spot and Front Street was where all the good cafes and restaurants were located, so it is with a heavy heart that I see the devastation which has befallen the town.

It's only a matter of time before we join the list of books banned in many states of the USA. When the Right-Wingers have finished going after the children and their parents and the doctors who treat them, then they are going to come after what they see as those who encourage and/or educate them.

That's US, folks. They can't burn our books but they can ban us from the internet and restrict us in many ways. Do you think we'll get any help from the tech giants?

Think again.