Speaking and writing in English can be like opening a can of worms. In recent correspondence I’ve been asked (albeit politely) whether I meant ‘a flu shot’ rather than ‘a flu jab’, ‘careening (a word I’d never come across) rather than ‘careering’ and whether ‘whilst’ (as opposed to ‘while’) is common in British English (yes it is - although its use is gradually declining). These are all matters of usage which changes over time and place and is to be celebrated so long as it does not impede communication. None is more ‘correct’ than the other.

It has been nearly nine months since I last contributed a chapter to the site. It was not that I've not been writing, but I have made a couple of false starts and after 20-25,000 words I have become blocked. I have however now completed fourteen chapters and 44,000 words for my third attempt, and have a clear idea of where I want it to go, so I will risk posting again. I have just posted chapter 1 and will post chapter 2 tomorrow. Thereafter I will post chapters at weekly intervals as usual.

Louise

My apologies that the promised 'few weeks' before starting my next story has turned into nearly five months. It has been a busy summer! However, I have now written 25,000 words towards a new story entitled Dancing Queen. This should be enough to keep me going with weekly postings until the New Year (by which time I hope to have written the remainder). Bronwen is currently correcting my punctuation and pointing out mistakes, and I am looking for a suitable title image so that I hope to begin posting next week.

Louise

For those readers who like to be sure that a story will be completed before they begin to read it, Perspectives is now finished (as are all of my stories at the time of posting this blog).

Somewhat to my amazement I have just posted the final chapter of my fourth full-length novel. Before I started posting to BC, two and a half years ago, I'd never managed to complete any of the six novels that I’d started writing. I would get so far and then become blocked, and so would start writing something else. I ended up with six partly written novels each one about 35,000 words in length.

Apologies to anyone waiting for the next installment of 'A Summer of Changes'. Unforseen circumstances have kept me away from my study and word processor. I hope to post the next chapter in about one week from now.

Regards

Louise