Well, it was a big one. I have, like so many people, a long list of old e-mals on my system, from years ago in many cases, where I have swapped with people I met on training courses, or at college, and so on. Yesterday, one of them came up as 'on line' on my instant message system,and there was a rather surprising change of name, from a clearly masculine one to an absolutely female one.

I have e-mailed the person concerned, but if by any chance they are on here, and what I think is going on is actually happening, welcome and best wishes.

I have been asked or prodded to put up something to give an idea of who's who in the story, as it drags on and on, so I have composed a little list of main people. I have attempted to add it as a comment to the 'outline', but as a technophobe have probably done it incorrectly, so here is the list in an accessible place.

I have been reading the latest 'year's best SF' and quite enjoying it. I then look up stories here, see 'SF' or fantasy in the header, and switch off. One story, "The Island", intrigues me,and I will continue reading it, but those stories with miraculous devices/transformatons do not speak to me. Clearly, this is a personal thing, and I mean no criticism of others, but while I love SF I can only connect with TG stories that are close to real life. Perhaps this is personal identification, maybe I am inflexible, but I offer now my apologies to those who write that sort of story.

Please help. When I wrote Something to Declare,I was listening to folk music. When I wrote the two strands of Points of View, it was Sibelius, mostly. Here I am writing a Cold Feet altercation in a Welsh pub, and it's Budgie's heavy metal riffing.

Do I have to play the soundtrack of my writng?

This is the article I mention in the final chapter of "Another Point of View"
Some of it is distressing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/jul/31/health.socialcare

Just finished a German exam over a mobile telephone. Hard to hear the examiner, and for some reason I was nervous as all hell. I speak German, for gods' sakes.
That's it, though, my last exam for the foreseeable future. Do I care about the result? Course I do!

I was musing as I worked today, while also preparing for a language exam and nursing sore LH fingertips from a session last night. I started submittng stuff here two and a half months ago, or so, and I have ended up doing a bit of self analysis.How do I write? Oh shut up at the back, yes, I tap buttons on a keyboard, but...
Apart from a deliberate change for a horror story, all my central characters are TS.
Everything is first person.
I like to drop hand grenades into the plot.
There are set-piece events,like PBP and the rugby in StD.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11605038

Both Bailey and myself, among others, have posted stories concerning the abuse of children. Bev has told her own story. This is the sort of thing that sends me incandescent with rage and grief. Not just the rapes, but the cover-up. He is not the only one who belongs in a cell.

The next episode (18) is the last, as the events have run ther course. I do not know whether it is right to continue the stories of my characters. They have a long way to go, but it would be a very different type of tale.

It appears I have done something, or something has happened, to prevent comments. I am sorry about this; if anyone knows how this has happened, and how to sort it,please let me know.

They know we are here. Don't let them see the whites of your wrists. I'll take the first watch....

I came back from my trip to forn paartz and tonight was the evening of my folk club. I played....and you have to understand the difference between the music and "the dots", which is the written notation.
A member of the club I really respect as a musician came up to me after my bit and complimented me on how I had made the piece my own.
It is difficult to get across to a non-player exactly how nice a compliment that is.

Happy bounce!

I had a request for this just as I was about to start writng it! Spooky.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War
is a quick reference to the main events in the real world and the setting of my story. Here are a few key words
LCU a type of landing craft

So....up, and go to fix the tyre on the road bike. t turns out to be the tyre itself, the sidewall has gone. So, back to the tourer, load all five bags on and do the supermarket run while I still have money in the bank for food.
And the landlord has put up the rent.
Dither over whether to buy mushrooms....and don't, for some odd reason. Pay, load up, ride back and put everything away. As put my bike away, I realise my little bed of Agaricus campestris has fruited. I have, instead of supermarket A bisporus mushrooms, eight new, fresh wild ones. Result!

And I am back. Just in the door, kettle on and tent laid out to dry. I spent four and a half hours playing in a session last night, preceded by two hours at lunchtime, and similar times for Saturday and Sunday. Not only was the fiddler I largely based a character on there, but I heard that his old collaborator of years past has now come out as transgender, so all threads seemed to be drawn together. I played bodhran for a while with a woman who loved to syncopate, and we ended up having a duet of sorts which was huge fun; I then got asked by one of the audience for a lesson (blush)