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Includes Biography and a rather haphazard infrequent blog, now ordered with most recent entry first
The Biography is at the end and is dated 07/09/2019
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All dates are in DD/MM/YYYY format

28/04/2022

Many decades ago when I just a little girl, an old lady I liked enormously and respected even more told me if you can’t say something good then it is best to say nothing, for that way you will always be seen to have the moral high ground.

The other day I realised that blocking someone does not prevent them sending you a PM. Ah well you can’t have everything.

The PM was, “These stories, that are more like vignettes taken out of context, are becoming more and more annoying.”

What puzzles me is given what the writer has said of my material in the past which led me to block him/her why do they read my work and even more why do they waste their time commenting on it. Truth is I can take criticism, I don’t always agree with it, but I have been known to take it on board and actually do something about it. However, bad manners are never acceptable.

Regards,
Eolwaen

27/03/2022

I was going to remark when the equinox passed, but due to personal issues I didn't. However, the clocks have moved forwards since then and I am taking note of that.

I've done some writing recently, but have done a great deal more reading on this site. I have been surprised by some of what I have read. I clearly do not understand the mind sets of some trans women, whom I have always been willing to accept as women. Some of their writings, and I refer to some of the most popular authoresses on the site, to me at least, seem to be the writings of persons with a male mind set, which puzzles me. As a woman born who has never had any issues accepting ‘sisters coming from the other side’ I do wonder how these women see themselves and what they seek via their writings.

Bev Taff is completely upfront concerning her stance concerning gender issues, and she has my total respect as a human being who found herself in a difficult place and who has done her best to overcome the hate and nonsense that society would shower upon those outside their narrow view as to what is acceptable. I find her writing, and that of many others who post on BCTS too, to be entirely in keeping with the mind set they presents to the readership.

I don’t care what any chooses to refer to themselves as, though can’t help but speculate on the anomalous nature of some of what I have read. Girls, I respect and support your right to proclaim your girlhood, but I just don’t understand you when your writing seems to proclaims your manhood. Maybe the problem lies within my elderly mind set which I admit is a product of my times and I am the first to admit I’m not exactly the most typical of women. I’m not criticising the stories, I have thoroughly enjoyed many of them, but I am puzzled by a number of them.
Regards,
Eolwaen

05/03/2022

There are those whose comments are so fatuously obvious that here is no possible intelligent reply.

14/02/2022

It’s a long time since I wrote anything here. The Sunreturn [dawn after the longest night] has long gone and the evenings are noticeably drawing out now. The new cycle is well underway. My long gone father would be celebrating his birthday today, he’d be at least a hundred and twenty but I don’t know exactly, and the truth is I barely remember him and have no regrets about that, for most of what I do remember was unpleasant and painful. Still it does puzzle me why I remember events of that ilk, maybe I care more than I realise, but I don’t like that thought either.

I checked earlier today when I was doing a long overdue reorganisation of my fiction and I have twenty-four stories partially written and dozens of single paragraph ideas for stories, as well as several hundreds of dark tales written in bleaker days that I’ll probably never summon the emotional fortitude to polish and post.

Other than the usual winter ailments I fortunately have been well recently and the spring is on its way. The blackthorn [sloe, Prunus spinosa] has been in blossom for a couple of months, but in these parts it sometimes breaks bud in late November. I always notice it first from my upstairs bathroom window from which a mass of blossom can be seen. When one looks at the same section of hedge from the ground one can see nothing because the flowers initially all point upwards. Snowdrops are abundant and present in swathes over the woodland floor and a few crocus are breaking bud. The daffodils and narcissus are plump budded, and although none have broken bud on my property yet there are a few hardy blooms to be seen elsewhere.

I have written and posted a few pieces recently, and engaged in some interesting PMs with a few persons. I’m currently trying to create a Grumpy Old Men tale out of forty or so notes, ideas, both based on fact and not so based. I’ve written most of a TG tale that just came to me the other day, but inspiration faltered as I reached the denouement, so I’ll leave it for a while and work on something else. I have three tales that have been finished for a year or so, one is TG the other two are not, yet something hold me back from posting them. I’ll wait and see if I can render them acceptable to my harshest critic, me. In the mean while my workshop calls, for I have a lot of small things to do that are irritating me. None of them will take long to do once I start, but as with everything they will take forever if I leave them till yet another tomorrow.

Regards,
Eolwaen

30/10/2021
The clocks go back tomorrow night in these parts, doesn’t time just evaporate. I posted Zizzie's Zex Spectrum Shift the other day. Not one of my better works, even I don’t really like it. However, it lacked the ability to hold my attention well, or long enough to persevere and improve it. There are folk out there who don't like my writing, which is fine for there're are a lot of pieces out there I don't like and what one likes to read is a very personal matter. I don't have an issue with criticism. I do have a problem with bad manners, but that's what the block function is there for. I've only used it three times, so I guess that's a very positive thing to say concerning the BCTS membership. I have taken some serious criticism regarding my writing over the years, but none as severe as my own criticism of my writing, but obviously I'm never bad mannered to myself!

I'm working on fifteen pieces at the moment and laying down the framework of some Castle the Series stories. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be getting very far with many of them despite the fact that several are essentially finished. Those essentially finished works are 'lacking' somehow. I know they don't need much to vastly improve them, but they do need something. Unlike the Zizzie's Zex Spectrum Shift I consider them worth the effort, so I shan't be posting them till I am satisfied. If that takes till the Sun Return, so be it.

Regards,
Eolwaen

03/10/2021
Now we’re past the equinox!

I don’t usually take part in discussions of trans issues because I’m not qualified to do so. I have deliberately not added to Leeanna19’s blog entitled “What is it to be a woman?” but I wish to leave something for those who seek to find. I’ve had a cervix for eight and a bit decades now, and I consider myself to be a woman, whatever that is. I have however never defined myself as a woman as a result of having afore mentioned body part, nor indeed any other body parts that are ‘considered’ to be female. So why do I consider myself to be a woman? Simple, because I do, it fits my hard wired mind set, and that is despite having an interest in machine tools and a rather well equipped workshop, never having been even close to being married nor become pregnant, from choice I hasten to add. I am a ‘straight’ who has only ever had sex with ‘men’, whatever those two terms mean, but again neither of those concepts make me a woman, nor do they preclude others of any other inclination(s) from being a woman. Identity is a subject that has always fascinated me and it is complex for everyone. I’ve never understood why anyone cares how others perceive them selves to be, and I certainly don’t understand why they get upset about it to the point of becoming vitriolic. I don’t know what’s in the mind of any other, so if they identify as female I treat them as such. I suppose to me it’s a matter of good manners and respect. I admit I struggle with the plethora of pronouns available these days, but I do try to get it right. I invariably use she, her and hers with someone who self identifies as female, but as I said I’ve had a cervix for eight and bit decades, so some allowance has to be made for a bit of ‘senior slippage’. As for politicians, all politicians everywhere, I don’t know who said this first, but it contains a lot of truth. ‘I could never bring myself to trust anyone who wants to make a living out of telling others how to live,’ maybe it was Robert A. Heinlein’s Lazarus Long? It sounds like it could be doesn’t it?
Regards,
Eolwaen

16/05/2021
Doesn't time slip through one's fingers quickly. In another seven weeks it will be All Fallows Eve, again, with just short of eighteen hours of daylight, and after that the nights will be drawing in. It's weeks since my last entry, and I have been doing a lot more reading and workshop activity than writing, yet despite that I have a dozen short stories started but not finished to my satisfaction. I have been working on CTS too, but haven't really made much progress there. I've been upset by the death of one of my feline companions, he was a month short of nineteen.

It's been a poor spring and my bees are struggling to survive. I'm feeding them and from the look of it I'll be feeding them all year. We've still got freezing nights and a lot of cold rain. The blackthorn blossom was late, the fruit tree blossom was a write off due to the cold rain and the storm (sixty-five mph gusts) that followed. The Mayblossom, (hawthorn flowers) is sparce and being blown away. Next month is the infamous (to bee keepers anyway) June gap in the nectar supply. The only blossoms around are the whins (gorse) and the dandelions and both are scanty. There'll be little around in July and unless one takes hives to the fells for the heather in August (always a risky proposition) the summer is then over. At my age saying there is always next year is never a certainty, but ah well there is always next year.
Regards,
Eolwaen

25/03/2021
A long time ago I decided on a philosophy concerning those who attacked me publicly both verbally and in print. Basically the response I decided on was to ignore the attacks. It was decades later when I realised that H.M. Elizabeth II used the same strategy. She referred to it as ‘Don’t complain. Don’t explain.’ It’s good to be in such company. I’m a republican (In the European sense not the US sense) with no time for inherited wealth and prestige, so I’m not referring to her inherited status, but I am referring to her well earnt personal prestige. I’ve recently been subject to criticism concerning the way I write which is how I speak, and I would add how going on for a million of the folk who live around me speak too. I’m not complaining and I’m not explaining.
Regards,
Eolwaen.

17/03/2021
I've solved most but not all of my laptop issues. I've also written up all of what were in my GOM ideas file. Chapters 26, 27 and 28 are finished. Chapter 29 has ca. 2500 words of fully written material so I need a bit more. Ch 30 has three lines of ideas and that's it. I recall there are more ideas on one of the hard drives, but I haven't rescued the files yet.
Regards,
Eolwaen

25/02/2021
I'm having laptop issues. The high speed USB port has given up the ghost. Two 1TB SSD drives have died and the power in port has become intermittent. All this on a £600 laptop that is 13 months old, so it's just out of warranty. The most important issue is to recover my files off the drives. They say there is always someone worse off, but it doesn't make me feel any better.
Regards,
Eolwaen

19/02/2021
At the moment I'm trying to organise my GOM notes to create a workable Ch 26. I've certainly got more than enough material. I've added four ideas to it today.

I've also got a story about a man I know who lost his children to an ex wife and the system more than fifty years ago. He has been married to a friend of mine for decades and both are now well over to seventy. He telt me the tale years ago and recently said I could write it up, providing none were recognisable from my telling. He entrusted me with all the correspondence that he had concerning the matter. Much was of so sensitive a nature that I copied it all and returned the originals to him as soon as possible. He said he wanted the tale telt because the more telling of such tales that are out there in the public domain the more pressure is on the system to bring about change. To me it is a deeply distressing tale and difficult to write. I've cried buckets over it and doubtless shall cry some more before I am done with it. I wish to keep its essence, all of it, without giving away any names or even place names which makes the task even more difficult. It goes without saying that he has to approve of the tale before I shall post it.
Regards,
Eolwaen

13/02/2021
I thought I was managing to sort out, read use up, all the odd bits and pieces in my Grumpy Old Men's file and create workable chapters out of them. Alas no such luck because as fast as I was dealing with the material, some of which had been lying there unused for many years, I was adding new material to the file. GOM is a wonderful vehicle for using all sorts of ideas even the very fragmentary ones like 'sellery storks'. It can use jokes, tragedy, the bizarre, funny things and even true events (well as true as anything can be in a fictional vehicle) and the ability to blend them in a reasonably realistic setting in just the way folk would talk about them means that I suspect there will never be a shortage of material.
Regards,
Eolwaen

12/02/2021
Much as it pains me to write it, it seems to me that many of the users of this site have difficulty in distinguishing between reality and fiction. I am not Sasha, nor any other character in my stories. The views expressed by the characters in my stories are not mine, they are purely fictional, and as such I neither have to defend them nor justify them. And I shall not so do.
Regards,
Eolwaen

03/02/2021
I seem to have a dozen stories nearly finished at the moment including at least six Grumpy Old Men 'episodes', but just don't seem to be able to finish them to my satisfaction, so I've given up on writing for a while and am working on a few things in the workshop. My new plasma cutter is a lovely toy and I've numerous things for it to do, but the workshop is too cold to spend long in it. I can't be bothered trying to keep the wood stove going, so I've ordered a couple of electric fan heaters. The only writing I'm doing at the moment is adding things to my ideas files.
Regards,
Eolwaen

28/01/2021
I'm seriously considering abandoning BCTS, or maybe considering it as an also ran, second place to post. I get little feedback here and have been described as as dull as ditch water, admittedly by only one reader, but there it is. I don't have that much time left in front of me and what I have is precious to me. I've never been part of any 'community' least of all any part of the LGBT+ community because I've never been welcomed anywhere and perhaps most importantly I don't want to be regarded as part of a 'community' because I'm me no more and no less. I'm no longer sure , there is a place on BCTS for a woman with a male soul in terms of her interests. I've said it before, I'm female and have always been happy to be so, but most of my interests are considered to be male. Maybe I'm in the wrong place posting here. I need to think about it.
Regards,
Eolwaen

03/01/2021
I've begun to prepare some stories recently. Some are new, some I've had notes on for many years. I'm working on four or five Grumpy Old Men stories at the moment but it seems to be slow going. I've spent a lot of time doing nothing recently due to major dental work, but I used the experience as the skeleton of a new truth and created a far more interesting experience for Sasha in GOM 22 or 23.
Regards
Eolwaen

24/10/2020
I've not done much writing recently because I'm catching up on all the things left behind whilst I was posting CTS. I do have a lot of material both CTS and non-CTS that need finishing/polishing but my holding and workshop need my attention first. I posted A Real Train Layout because it came to me as an entire idea and I wrote it quickly - in an hour or so. Likewise Vive La Difference.
Regards,
Eolwaen

19/09/2020
I've just posted the final Ch of CTS Ch 129. I posted it with an explanation of the relationship between the time frames of Earth and Castle which I referred to as Ch 130. I have to say I'm glad to have it all posted. Now I shall have more time to write other material and play in my workshop which I have sadly neglected recently. To those of you who have read any of CTS thank you. To those few (I suspect it's just a few) who have read it all thank you twice over and to the even smaller number who have offered suggestions, pointed my attention to errors, and asked questions that made me reconsider certain aspects of the explanations I can't thank you enough.
Regards,
Eolwaen

08/09/2020
Today is Tuesday and I posted CTS Ch 127 The Music Man last Saturday. Next Sunday I'll post Ch 128 and then there is just the final chapter to follow the Sunday after that. I shall be glad when it's finally all out there, for I shall then be able to think about other things. There is a lot I would like to do yet on CTS, but not for a while. A while ago I asked Erin how do I create a 'Universe', for I was toying with the idea of opening CTS up in that way, but there are two problems with that. First, I'm not sure if I could define the Universe succinctly enough for others to make sense of it. Second with a typical number of reads of just over a hundred per chapter I doubt if any would be interested in contributing anyway. If I'm wrong let me know and I'll consider the matter and if I decide it's worth doing I'll post reference material as appendices for the perusal of others.
Regards,
Eolwaen

30/08/2020
For good or bad I posted CTS Ch 126 a couple of hours ago. It is the least 'filled' of all Chapters. Originally the material that is now Chs 125 and 126 was merely a vehicle to get from Ch 124 to Ch 127. The outline of CTS was written decades ago including the end which is now in Chs 127 and 129. The work was not written linearly but oft by following a major character through the work. I also wrote stand alone bits and pieces as they occurred to me. As the work developed some material had to fall in the time slot that is now Chs 125 and 126.

I have deliberately not posted anything to do with the 'Explorer' class vessels, nor anything concerning the Fell Year. I have some material but it is sketchy and needs a lot of time spending on it. There are also numerous other omissions which I have the vaguest of outlines for, some of which will be part of Chs 125 and 126. The intention was to produce material that could be posted so that I can post the end of the work, Ch 129. Given my age the reasoning is obvious. I am in good health but one never knows.
Regards,
Eolwaen

11/08/2020
I seem to have done nothing but work on CTS Ch 123 for three weeks. I know I've done other things but it seems that way. Ch 123 grew to the point where I had to split it in two, so the final Ch is now Ch 129, unless of course I write much more. Any way I'll post Ch 123 betimes and Ch 124 in berount a week.
Regards,
Eolwaen

03/08/2020
It's just gone midnight [so it's 04/08/2020 really] and my wee red monster just walked in as if nothing had happened!
Regards,
Eolwaen

02/08/2020
My wee red tom cat walked out of the house at ten last night and hasn't returned. He's nineteen and I suspect he won't be coming back. I've just spent three hours looking for him and I can barely see to type this for the tears. It may be a while before I post again.
Regards,
Eolwaen

16/07/2020
I have now prepared CTS Ch 122 and am working on filling the gaps in Ch 123.
Regards,
Eolwaen

12/07/2020
I've just posted CTS Ch 119. I have prepared Ch 120 and Ch 121. Ch 126, 127 and 128 are done (they have been for many years and Ch 128 is the final Ch) but Ch 122, 123, 124 and 125 exist as collections of written pieces with quite a bit just as notes as to what needs to be written. I have decided to focus on CTS seeing as how close to the end I am, which will probably take me three months at the rate I am going. I decided that because though it only has a small number of folk who read it all and wait for the next chapter I don't wish to keep them waiting and I should like to finish it, and even if there are large time spans where little happens and it becomes somewhat journal like additional material can always be written later after the explanations as to why and exactly what is going on have been posted. Then I shall be free to write things other than CTS.
Regards,
Eolwaen

05/07/2020
I finally posted CTS Ch 118. There was much more writing to do than I'd realised. I've also done all the writing for Ch 119 though I haven't prepared it yet for posting, but that's easier than writing. I've been writing for too long and my eyes are twitching so I'm going to bed despite it being 09:26.
Regards,
Eolwaen

20/06/2020
Well it's All Fallows Eve thiseve. At 20:43 the solstice marks the beginning of the closing down of the year. Every year for some time now I celebrate with a sense of gratitude, for it may be the last one I'll live to see. may hap not this year, but one year not too far away, it will be. Enough of what may be be perceived as maudlin fatalism, I want to live for ever, for there are far too many folk who have done me harm who I yet have to upset, though I suppose I could come back to haunt them.

I do wish to finish rebuilding my surface grinder and posting Castle The Series. The former will be finished in a couple of months and the latter I suspect in half a year, by the Sun Return (Monday 21st of December) I hope . I know the length of time I am now taking between CTS postings is increasing due to the material I have not yet written: the gaps, and as a result the number of reads is increasing, though the number of likes is decreasing. I am trying to include a non-CTS story after every third CTS posting. As I have posted before, I do not write for kudos or any other's approval, but I do wish to finish my self appointed task, for the end will I suspect be an enjoyable surprise (not shock as is usually used under such circumstances for that is a corruption of its usage) to most of my readers. Well I hope it will. My list of blocked members is increasing, for if I can't post anything pleasant to say I don't post anything. Any who post unpleasant things regarding my material I block. The last such person posted, "I hate to say anything negative, but....." If that were true why post at all. Result, I blocked her/him. You only get one chance with me, and I've no intention of apologising for that.
Regards,
Eolwaen

09/06/2020
I'm busy and have not had enough time to finish CTS Ch 116 yet. I've not much writing to do for it but I have yet to outline one of the plot lines. It's now 14:39 on Tuesday. I have yet to do a little in my vegetable garden, probably a couple of hours, and then I'll make a start on CTS. I've done all else so with a bit of luck I'll be posting it later this evening.
Regards,
Eolwaen

25/05/2020
I've almost finished CTS Ch 115, just a single small piece remaining to be written. The even smaller bit I've already written was easy enough, but it required the creation of an extra pair of cameo characters, Rhame and Moil. Rhame is Moil's widow, and Moil plays no part in the tale, but to avoid potential problems in the future I wanted to know who both parents of Alfalfa and Blush and their five as yet unnamed siblings are. The trouble with that is not only do they have to be included in the tale (the easy bit) they have to be assigned ages and a minimum of characteristics for my lists of characters and then fitted into my family trees. And I suspect the last part will require at least one cameo character.

I've realised that before I can do much more on CTS I shall have to print the index of Ch headings (22 pages of print size 10) to avoid any time anomalies.

I'm working on a Grumpy Old Men posting, but not getting very far with it, and have a number of other non CTS tales in progress.
Regards,
Eolwaen

10/05/2020
After much more effort than I thought it would be I have finally posted CTS Ch 112. I have also chopped up my remaining manuscript into portions to prepare for posting and it currently reaches Ch 128. However, a reasonable amount requires to be written yet, all between Ch112 and Ch 125. The end requires nothing. A small piece at the beginning of Ch 113 needs to be written, but after posting Ch 113 I shall have to do a fair amount of work.
Regards,
Eolwaen

03/05/2020
I've just been looking at my original document for CTS, and there are about 175,000 postable words left in it. Some of that is only notes for material that still has to be written. However, at ca. 12,000 words per posting that would run to maybe 15 postings. With the notes taken to their full story maybe 20-25 postings. So I am well past the half way mark. Towards the end there are sizeable time gaps where material could be usefully included after the tale finishes without detracting from the story. Duringquels? Parallelquels? I'm sure there must be an appropriate word even if it has to be made up. After all the OED says prequel was only used for the first time in 1958.
Regards,
Eolwaen

30/04/2020
So much for preparing ten Chapters of CTS. I managed just one because I need to do some writing for Ch 112. I posted Ch 111 earlier and am working on something else to post in a couple of days.

P.S. I heard we got the first local case of COVID 19 today, about three miles away. The person involves works in a nursing home and had to travel 120 miles to Edinburgh to get tested. We live in interesting times.
Regards,
Eolwaen

26/04/2020
I've done virtually no writing in the last week and have nothing ready to post. It's now 14:54 and this evening I intend to lift ten? chapters' worth of material from my CTS main document for processing. However, we all know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I went out yesterday for the first time in I can't tell you how long for some fresh supplies. I don't know why I bothered the supermarket shelves are still empty. I'll get by on what I've got. I reckon I could live for at least twelve months on what I've got, so I think I'll just stay at home till either the bug gets me or the whole sorry escapade is over which I reckon will probably be about three years.
Regards,
Eolwaen

18/04/2020
It wasn't a GOM but 'Sauce for the Gander' I posted. I'm wondering if I can find more to write concerning Samantha and George (Gee). I suspect so. I'll think about it. I'm still struggling with an intergalactic tale I started years ago, It's mostly written but needs finishing. It revolves around the life of Jessica, an elderly Hollywood and Broadway Jewish actress who has been a superstar from a very early age. Jessica had a poor series of relationships till she met Owen, a genius Nobel winning geneticist who has Asperger's and is from a Methodist Welsh speaking background. I've 24,000 words down and I suspect another 6000 or so will finish it. I must try harder! I also have the material for several 'Gloria Greenways Academy' tales and maybe a dozen 'Grumpy Old Men' tales too. I've been spending more time in my workshop and less writing recently and CTS Chs 109 and 110 are all I have prepared to date. I really need to work on CTS or the next few chapters will read like a cookery book since there is a large amount of Iola fully written and much other material is in note form and in need of expanding so Iola does not dominate the story. I sowed the rest of my peas earlier as well as maincrop carrots and spring onions [scallions]. And I really must do some work on the map of Castle.
Regards,
Eolwaen

12/04/2020
I posted CTS Ch 108 earlier with the 'hole' filled - it was the Council discussion of the Turners. I'll be posting a Grumpy Old Men tale next I think, but life is a bit hectic at the moment because it's seed sowing time and I don't seem to have much time for writing.
Regards,
Eolwaen

19/03/2020
I'm not sure when I posted appendix 4 which is merely Ch 42. It concerns Castle time keeping and its calendar and also weights and measures. I didn't know how to do an appendix when I first posted it as Ch 42, but I think it is more convenient for those interested as an appendix. I posted CTS Ch 101 about half an hour ago. It concerned what was a large hole in what I had already written. The story of Zrina, Zeeëend and Zlovan the triplets who live as a married triple, (Zrina is female, Zeeëend is of two natures and Zlovan is male) was written a long time ago, as was The Valley of Aurochs. What wasn't written was the technical material concerning the valley that led to the pass and also that of the Valley of Aurochs itself. I had some of the research notes but hadn't finished the research or organised what notes I had. That I have done over the last ten days or so.

I had the story of Theresa and Therese the conjoined twins of two natures (who became Zylanna and Zylenna when they married the triplets and formed a marriage of five) a long time ago too. What I hadn't done was the research as to how they could come to be. What is in Ch 101 is a small part of what will eventually be included as their tale unfolds, and that is a tiny fraction of what I learnt and wrote for my research notes. But eventually I wrote and posted what I needed to in order to continue with CTS. I have extracted up to Ch 110 from my main document and there is only a small 'hole' in I think Ch 108 which will cause me no problems.

I have noticed a fair amount of comments on the subject of self isolation and COVID 19 recently. I can't actually remember the last time I spoke to someone (as opposed to telephone or via the internet) but it was certainly over a month ago. As to toilet rolls I bulk buy them, as I do everything, off the internet. Two gross arrived via Hermes the carrier at the back end of January, along with a similar number of absorbent kitchen rolls. I buy dried pulses and rice by the 25kg [55 pound] bag again delivered by carrier, 2 at a time. I grew half a ton [1120 pounds] of potatoes last year, and a lot of other vegetables too. Most keep well. I'm still eating last year's apples and usually am still doing so when the first earlies are ready, same with the potatoes. Cans arrive by the tray [12 cans on a tray] but I buy 4 trays at a time. I guess you understand now how much I hate food shopping. I don't pay for a supermarket delivery service I buy direct. Meat, well lets not go there and upset the nut cutlet eaters, but my property is a registered farm holding and my neighbours are very reasonable when we negotiate the price grazing my grass is going to cost them. Suffice it to say no money changes hands, and we have a lot of folk round here who can kill and butcher including me, though I'm a bit long in the tooth now for working that hard.

Self sufficient? Not a bit, it's just how I and a lot of my neighbours live, and I do have an 'All American 42 Quart pressure canner' which sees regular use. COVID 19? Bring it on. I'm convinced we all have to live on the assumption we'll get it. Me? Well it'll either kill me or it won't. My only underlying medical problem is old age. Either way I've made sure of the important things in my life: my cats will be okay.

I’ve lost £4000 ($5000) off my one of my pension funds due to stock market reaction to CORVID. Ah well easy come easy go.
Regards,
Eolwaen

29/02/2020
I have just edited and added to Appendix 3 of CTS, and it occurred to me that since there are entries from the entire work, including the very end, there are things that will certainly make the observant wonder what on Earth are they there for. I considered removing them, but then I would have had to put them somewhere for later inclusion. Better I thought just to leave it as it is as they are not spoilers. I need to reorganise Appendices 1 and 3 to make things a little easier to navigate, but right now I'm writing at long last, so that will have to wait.
Regards'
Eolwaen

24/02/2020
What I wrote here yesterday seems to have disappeared! May be I forgot to save it? Anyway, it said I've created a couple of appendices after asking for advice from Erin. One is a list of places, foods, animals, plants and minerals to be found on Castle. The other is a list of Folk expressions, verb forms, a few conjugated irregular verbs and some other language information concerning the 'normal' Folk rules. neither are exhaustive, nor complete. I have started thinking about a dictionary to post as an appendix, but it is not easy. I have my own, but it would be impossible to copy and post for reasons of incompatibility of the formatting conventions. I have worked out how to do it, but it will take time.
Regards,
Eolwaen

22/02/2020
I'm now being told how I should be writing CTS by some one who clearly hasn't read the necessary material. Only one thing to do, hit ignore. If folk want stories written differently they could always write them themself. Oh well, I suppose I should write a bit more of that dreadfully written CTS.
Regards,
Eolwaen

14/02/2020
I've just posted Ch 90 of CTS. I'd not realised I had to write the explorations of Tuyere and Morgelle North and South from the holding. I should have known, there were markers in my MS to tell me. As a result it took time. However, it's done now, and my next posting is a non CTS tale which gives me a little time to prepare some CTS material. Those of you who read CTS have my gratitude, because it is important to me for a host of reasons, not least of which is the value some of the LGBT+ friends I have place on it. I appreciate their views. Most tell me that my blending of reality, fantasy and a brutal but hopeful future matches their lives and their dreams. I understand that because it is written from my life and my vision of a future too. Lest you think that arrogance on my part, I have read much I could not have written that matches that too, but anything that makes my life more comfortable is I consider to be wonderful, and I am proud to be considered in that light, even if it is only by a few. Those of you who make the lives of others better by your writings have already accomplished far more than most and should likewise be proud. Please continue.
Regards,
Eolwaen

11/02/2020
I've written Llyllabette and Yoomarrianna's journey to Southern Holding and managed to chop out 12 chapters from my MS of CTS, which takes me up to Ch 100. I was going to prepare Ch 89 late this afternoon [it's now 19:55] and post it about now, but storm Ciara has caused untold problems. The power outage itself didn't bother me because the generator turns itself on automatically, but the noise it makes drives the cats demented, so I've spent since 17:37, when it kicked in, trying calm the cat's down. They won't go out in the wind [50-odd mph] because it plays havoc with their ears and the generator is almost as bad. This summer I'm going to have a concrete block noise proof shed built for it, at the moment its in the workshop which is attached to the house. Trouble is the cats believe I can fix everything instantly and the look of reproach in their eyes would melt a harder heart than mine. The power came back at 19:46. I had been looking at a long night because the electricity supply company website said power was expected to be restored at 03:00 tomorrow and the meteorological office site said the wind was going to be the same till 08:00 when it was expected to drop to 22 mph. I actually wondered if I'd got enough malt in the house to see me through that far. Four psychotic cats are no fun. Two of them haven't calmed down yet. I'll post Ch 89 as soon as I've sorted it out which is may hap an hour's work, but I'm about to eat; I use the propane cooker when the power is out. I wrote a solo TG tale yesterday to post in a few days, I'm still polishing it, and I'll get another Grumpy Old Man ready may hap tomorrow. My ideas file is still filling but not with enough to post as a self contained tale.
Regards,
Eolwaen

09/02/2020
Due to having been ill, I'm not doing as well as I'd hoped to do. I posted CTS Ch 88 earlier and have no more ready to post. I'm about to continue with one of my Castle maps so that I can write Ch 89 [Llyllabette and Yoomarrianna's journey to Southern Holding]. After writing that the next chapters are already written for a good while. It is a hole I left to write because the map was not ready to use to describe their journey. It may be a few days before I post, but I am working on it. It is now 22:46 GMT and I'll get a few hours in before I catch a couple of hours of sleep. I still haven't started on the major missing pieces yet, but anticipate so doing within a few weeks.
Regards,
Eolwaen

04/02/2020
I've not been well, and only been managing to post every other day. I only have a couple of things ready to post, but I'm getting better, or at least as much better as anyone of my age ever gets. I'll try to keep posting at that rate till I'm well. I know I'm getting fewer reads for CTS than I have had in the past, but those of you who have emailed me with concern have my thanks, and I shall continue posting CTS. I'm very grateful for your expressed pleasure in the reading of the tale, and to answer the concerns some have expressed, no, CTS shall not change in its fundamental points of view. It can't, for the end has been written for many years, though there are gaps I've referred to before betwixt where it is now and that end. I shall not change regarding my views of Earth, Castle and the Folk. I'm too old to care what any thinks regarding the way an old woman sees things and shall continue as I have started. I have an idea of a non CTS story, a short short, to write for next week which is occupying my thoughts at the moment, but mostly I am busy with the next section of the CTS manuscript that is to be prepared for posting in chapters.
Regards,
Eolwaen

24/01/2020
I've just finished 'filling a gap': the informal dance where Alwydd and Spearmint become heartfriends. I'd left this for a couple of years awaiting inspiration, but was forced into paying it some attention because it's needed for Ch 85. I always had a clear idea in my head that Spearmint was not merely Warbler's sister, but a character in her own right. She is a forceful and very different kind of girl from her elder sister. That difference has already been referred to by their grandmother, Åse. It gradually came to me over three days how to achieve that difference. Spearmint though younger is far more sexually 'up front' than Warbler, and though of a more nervous disposition she is prepared to take bigger risks. Warbler is very bright, whereas Spearmint is of average intelligence. Spearmint also suffers badly from mood swings due to her lunetimes and even before her menarche patience was never her long suit. Having become heartfrienden with Alwydd Spearmint wants the benefits of her leaçe (the right of intimacy) as soon as possible to make up for the possible six years she has lost without a heartfriend.

That seemed like a workable proposition, Spearmint is old enough for that. Alwydd is nearly nine. He is young, but not impossibly so for how ever the relationship develops. Read the papers, nine year olds have fathered children recently and been found guilty of rape too. Too, Alwydd we know is big for his age and looks much older than he is, so the whole scenario just about hangs together.

Anyway it takes me on to the next 'gap' to fill: The journey of Llyllabette and Yoomarrianna and their flock escorted by Silverherb Mistress waggoner to Southern Holding, which I think will be easier to write. It got left because the idea of them going to Southern with a gifted flock from the incursion animals was written much later than their incursion. I need that gap filling in order to post Ch 89.
Regards,
Eolwaen

19/01/2020
I'm now getting correspondence written in Folk, which is unexpected but rather enjoyable!
Regards,
Eolwaen

14/01/2020
My new laptop arrived today. I've just finished installing the software I use, (it's 17:22 here). I keep all my work on external SSD drives so that makes life a bit easier. I've managed to prepare up to and including Ch 79 (end of day 7) for posting. Now I need to write some none CTS stories I have outlines for and prepare more CTS material.
Regards,
Eolwaen.

12/01/2020
Alas my laptop has died. I'm having to use my desktop in my office which means I'm not doing anywhere near as much writing because I don't like doing it that way. A new laptop is on its way, but it's been ten days and no sign yet.
Regards,
Eolwaen.

03/01/2020
My laptop started doing silly things maybe a month ago, so I've decided I'll have a new one. I rang my IT guru yesterday to organise it for me, but his wife informed me he had gone to his mother's in Birmingham (250 miles south of here). He was on his way back but his car was playing up. It's an old Mercedes. When I first met him 12 years ago he was rebuilding the automatic transmission. Last year he told me he really needs a new car, but I thinks he likes the Merc enough to put up with the maintenance it requires. He was going to ring me today but I suspect he hasn't got home yet. I'm typing this on my desktop which is a pain because though only a few months old it's in my office and I prefer to do this sort of thing downstairs in my drawing room.

I have finished a new piece 'The Making of Clan McTavist' which I'll post in 4 days.
Regards,
Eolwaen

31/12/2019
I have lifted 9 postings of material out of my main MS for CTS which will take the tale to the end of day 7. The development of Warbler, Jed and Otday has begun, as has that of Iola, all of who become major characters in the tale. I haven't prepared the pieces for posting yet, but despite most of them being maybe twice the length of what I have posted to date that should be an easier task as I am not going to provide such detailed explanations on word usage (see above). I'll put together a simple list of the most common words and their Folk renderings and explain any words that are not obvious.

Eventually I shall have to post less frequently to give me more time to write, for there are sizeable bits missing in CTS that only exist as outline notes, and of course I do want to write other stuff too. I don't use much sleep, but I do need some and I do have other interests too.

Kath and her sister came over on on Saturday and we all enjoyed 'The Blind Side' and nearly ran out of tissues. We did run out of Shiraz, but I had a couple of bottles of Laphroaig so all was well. Kath's three years older than I and Katie one year younger than I, so our average age is 80+. And Bev Taff says she's growing old disgracefully! She'd have been proud of us, but I have to admit that though it was fun it'll be a while before any of us do it again, though it's possible tonight may come close.

I went shopping in early December and my butcher said he'd set aside a couple of the haggis I like for me. He can't always get hold of them because they are made, I suspect completely in contravention of EU legislation, on a farm just over the border, and they sell out fast. I took the pair and one is for dinner with a few friends tonight with all the trimmings and accompaniments, though it's Lagavulin not Laphroaig tonight. The other is for my Burns supper. Enjoy your new year.
Regards,
Eolwaen

28/12/2019
It's 6:43 am GMT and I've just finished CTS Ch 70 which ends day 4. I'm surprised no one got upset enough to say so over 'What Works, Works' and it's had 758 reads and 74 likes when I looked. I don't write things to upset anyone, I just write about what goes through my head and if it does upset anyone I don't worry about it.
Regards,
Eolwaen

25/12/2019
I did 12 hours on CTS today. I know it's Christmas day, but I don't do Christmas. It's just an excuse for the world to over charge me for things I neither need nor want. I had a tin of Heinz tomato soep (soup if you insist) with a French loaf, I bought it for £0.09 because it was past the sell by date, for lunch and as usual I only ate one meal today. I didn't bother to unlock the front door this morning, and spent the evening working on my dismantled surface grinder. It's now 22:43 GMT so I'll get another couple of hours in.

But first I'll clear up my drawing room which looks like a cross between an abattoir and a horror film because it was a warm sunny day here, and the cats all headed out via the cat flap to wreak a bit of death and destruction on the local vermin population. They either dump the carcasses, or at least the remains thereof, on my fireside rug or in my bedroom. I always check to see if there is anything in my slippers that may squish between my toes. I've left it till now because the last of them has just come in for the night. They're getting on in years now and don't do night shifts any more.

Tomorrow I'll go to the supermarkets to see if I can buy any half price, or less, turkeys. Christmas is the only time they sell in the UK and they offload any remaining as fast as they can on the 26th and thereafter. That will take care of the morning and I'll probably spend the afternoon butchering them for the freezer into portions I can actually eat in at most two meals. Any frozen ones I'll butcher on my bandsaw. Not all the supermarkets are open tomorrow so I'll do the same on Friday as well.

A friend is coming over on Saturday evening for supper and Shiraz and she's bringing 'The Blind Side' for us to watch. She told me to lay in a good supply of tissues, at least a box each. I don't know anything about any sport and have no interest, but she says I'll like it.

This is a PS really. I decided that since CTS is getting between 80 and 110 reads and 9 to 12 likes the readership is probably the same people who must be getting uest to the Folk word usage by now, so I'm going to slim down the Word Usage Key after Ch 70, which concludes Day 4, to only the less obvious words, such as words with no English equivalent and words that have developed very differently from the way English did. That will save me hours which I wish to spend writing new stuff. I think, or maybe hope, as the story gathers pace that the readership will grow, however I suspect any new readers will be able to work out most of the words. Those who can't probably wouldn't read CTS anyway and if they did probably wouldn't bother to use the key. That may be arrogance on my part, but at my age time is a finite and rapidly diminishing resource.

PPS. 'What Works, Works' is a TG piece with political overtones speculating on the consequences of Brexit to Western Europe and not just the EU. It is definitely not PC.
Regards,
Eolwaen

23/12/2019
I've written ’ A Woman's Voice 2/3' and have drafted the ideas for AWV 3/3. I admit like most sequels they lack the force of the original, but I enjoyed writing part 2 and doubtless will enjoy writing part 3. I have also written a piece entitled 'What Works, Works', a TG piece that a TG woman friend of many years said was nice because it was an example of wider TG in its entirety. She also said it was possible I would be seriously criticised for it by the self proclaimed 'proper and real' TG girls. So what's new? No section of society is exempt from being capable of hate speech and that includes the TG, but that's why the ignore facility on BCTS is there isn't it?

Yet again my gender has been subject to scrutiny because of what I write and the various POVs, or should that be PsOV, I write from, and though not specifically referred to I suspect the 'shop' language I employ in some of those tales has influenced the remarks. If you are one of the speculators I have said it all above. Try rereading it! Women are by no means all shrinking violets. Try threatening any woman's children and see how far she is prepared to go to protect them.

Please, we are all who and what we are and some of that is what nature made us and some of that is choice. None of us have the right to deride the choices of others and certainly we have no right to criticise what nature made anyone. If you are blackguarding me at least you are leaving someone else who may be more sensitive than I alone. The Australians have a wonderful and expressive acronym: DILLIGAF, for how I feel about the matter. Go on, google it, or better yet search Youtube for Kevin Bloody Wilson DILLIGAF. Though I'm not that kind of a bloke, I am that kind of a lass. Round here a lass can be of any age, a lassie implies a young lass - I've not been there for a long time!

I knew a wonderful woman years ago who ended up as a mathematics teacher. She told me she had been prevented from doing sciences at advanced level because 'Girls don't do those sorts of things'. Fortunately for her her father was a machinist and at least in her own time she enjoyed life using lathes, milling machines and the like. She would have made a wonderful engineer, but alas it was not to be. She was a loving wife and mother to three sons, and we spent many happy hours together in each other's workshops. She'd inherited all her Dad's equipment and I would have loved to have met him.

If you want to be respected you have to be respectful of others. Most of us in the LGBT+ world appreciate that at a very deep and intuitive level, but some of us need to recognise that our way is not the only way to be anything and go back to school. Sorry about that, sermon over! Have a good Christmas and a happy new year in whatever way that means to you.
Regards,
Eolwaen

14/12/2019
I had some ideas that may provide a part 2 to 'A Woman's Voice'. When I finished it I thought I'd used all the possibilities up, but perhaps not. I started noting down ideas last night, it's 02:29 GMT at the moment. I'd love to dream up something about the general election we'd just had but there's nothing funny about UK politics at the moment. It makes you laugh, sure, but that's a mechanism to prevent you crying.
Regards,
Eolwaen

09/12/2019
I posted CTS Ch 47 yesterday early evening (GMT) and have up to Ch 54 ready for posting. Ch 58 concludes day 3. Day 4 is Quarterday and though completely written years ago in my MS, that was written for me. The tales concerning some of the minor characters when they make an 'appearance' on the Quarterday platform to have their agreements with their new spouses put to the Folk are repetitious, so I shall have to work on that. I never had the nerve to render spouses into Folk as spice. After day 4 all 286 of the incomers have been mentioned by name at least en passant, so the pace picks up. Many of the newfolk do not appear in my MS again, but of course that could change.

I've written some more non CTS tales recently and my ideas files are overflowing. I'm amazed that the Grumpy Old Men tales is still going and I have material for at least 4 more. It was only envisaged as a solo initially, but was an ideal vehicle to take a lot of snippets out of my ideas files that wouldn't provide enough substance for a tale in their own right.
Regards,
Eolwaen

21/11/2019
I notice readership on CTS is decreasing, but never mind. The work contains so much that really things are still only being set up. Many of the characters introduced over the first four days barely play cameo rôles thereafter. Many are minor characters, but all the incursionists [286 in number] get a mention in the first few days by name, women, men, girl, boys and even the babes in arms. Some of the children are major characters in the work. By the time I'm posting the main events after the incursion it will not be necessary to have read many of the earlier postings to understand what is happening. I'd like to post more at a time than I have been doing but it takes time to prepare the footnotes. I know, I've said it before.

As I post more of the first few days doubtless I'll not be posting daily as I'll have to do more writing to fill in the parts I only have outlines for, and there's a lot of writing I wish to do, though I wrote the end of the work years ago. I'm trying to write more non CTS pieces but that's relatively slow. I have written a dozen or so in the last six weeks but all bar three have been posted already. I've prepared up till the end of day three for posting which takes it to Ch 58, a month or so at the rate I'm going.

I've read a lot of comments recently concerning unfinished works, which a lot of readers have a problem with. Me too, I was disappointed that 'The Ice Tiger' didn't continue. I don't wish to seem morbid or vain, but if there are any out there who like CTS enough to be disappointed should it not conclude I have made arrangements for all to be posted, if need be elsewhere, in the event of me being unable to finish posting it.
Regards,
Eolwaen

10/11/2019
I worked through all copies of CTS postings to give them a 4 digit code rather than 3. I didn't fancy having to do that when I reached ch 999 which is entirely possible if I live that long. That was tedious.
Regards,
Eolwaen

07/11/2019
The comment I referred to yesterday has been removed, presumably by one of the site administrators. I did not draw their attention to it, but tis said everything comes to she who waits. However, my decision to hit the ignore button is permanent.
Regards,
Eolwaen.

06/11/2019
Some one was offended by 'Anna and Anna' and took me to task invoking God. Ah well, it takes all sorts. I don't do religion or any other superstition in any shape or form and only I decide what I write about. The offended person is clearly in direct breach or Erin's Rule Number One. There is only one thing to do, and it isn't make a reply, or complain, it's hit the ignore button. Funny thing is I had that person on my ignore list once before for a similar reason, and must have been feeling generous when I removed them. I won't make the same mistake twice.
Regards,
Eolwaen

27/10/2019
At the rate I'm posting CTS I could have posted it all in maybe a couple of years. That's not going to happen because I'm still writing some of it, and there are a lot of gaps to fill and tales that are only sketched out. My major effort at the moment is converting my early MS into a form suitable for posting which takes time. I'm about fourteen postings in front of myself at the moment, but a time will come when I'll go back to more writing which will mean less posting.

I have drafted the outline of a trio of CTS characters that involves some psychological research and the blending and descriptions of a particular mountain pass [US] leading into a specific valley. [Switzerland] I can obtain photos and maps of both easily, so it will be fun. I want to make a start but haven't the time at the moment.

Day 2 of CTS takes me up to CTS - 43, and there are probably up to CTS - 100 postings, or even 200, that merely need converting. I took delivery the other day of 5 polystyrene balls 16", 400mm in diameter, so I'm going to put some of my maps onto globes so as to get a better image of what I've created.
Regards,
Eolwaen.

22/10/2019
I've now managed to have the numbering system okay after renumbering three times (each time using something I should have thought of before). I posted CTS - 13 yesterday. CTS - 19 takes the story to the end of the first day and includes 16 & 17 both tales of child abuse and both based on events I was aware of involving folk I knew albeit a very long time ago. There is a further such chapter which is Thrift's back story, again based on events I was aware of a long time ago, but that is way in the future being telt by Thrift on Second Quarterday 569. Doubtless some will be offended. I was at the time. I was powerless to do anything but refused, unlike a lot of others, to behave like an ostrich.

I keep a spreadsheet on reads and likes, which is interesting. GOM tales now get few reads with a high proportion of likes. C-TS gets few reads and perhaps 1 in 15 folk like it. The stuff I write just to keep my ideas files from overflowing seems to be the most popular, strange because I don't particularly rate most of it. I've more or less cleared the easy to post backlog of such stuff, but I have a lot of material, particularly in my journals, that will need time to place it elsewhere, elsewhen and with different folk; I don't fancy gaol at my age! Though GOM 11 implies it's not so bad. Most of what I'll post in the near future will be C-TS. I've managed a slightly better system with the footnotes, but it's still tedious.
Regards,
Eolwaen

13/10/2019
I'm working on the numbering of the pieces of Castle The Series so I can work out what I've posted, what I've left out and if I decide to go back and develop something where it fits in. I'm struggling because initially I didn't have a good enough system. I do now, but it means I've to go back and redo every thing already posted so everything uses the same system. It's not helping that I posted pieces out of order to make it intelligible. I'm using two screens, one with the posted material and another with the equivalent material in my original manuscript. It's boring, and I want to be back writing, but two or three days more should do it, and I have managed to write two pieces (neither Castle based) in the mean time and had half a dozen new ideas for the grumpy old men to kick around, all safeguarded in the ideas files now. I'll be posting Castle The Series - Mercedes later
Regards,
Eolwaen

07/10/2019
I posted 'Pi' early this morning. It is remarkable that of the 105? or thereabouts tales I've posted three of them have generated way more comments than the rest, and two of the three are about mathematics and the other about food. 'Zero', 'Pi' and 'One girl's Meat'. I'm sure that must mean something on a TG website, but I've no idea what.
Regards,
Eolwaen

30/09/2019
I wrote 'Our Lady of Niok' last night and expect to get some flak for it, but everyone who puts themself in the public eye in anyway at all, even as minor as posting a story on BCTS, must anticipate all possible responses, and some may be negative, some unjustified and some possibly hateful. It's a hard world and that's how you tell the grown ups from the kids. The grown ups don't whine, 'It's not fair,’ because they already know, and they know it never has been and never will be. It's called life.
Regards,
Eolwaen

25/09/2019
It occurs to me that I may as well manage this the same way I write tales. I write a basic skeleton down first and then read it through over and over again. Possibly scores of times over. Each time I flesh out the details, names, places, hobbies &c.. By the time I am finished I know my characters. No one will ever read this as often as I will - I've probably read it a dozen and a half times already and I'm still finding and correcting the odd typo, and I'm still remembering things to flesh it out with. Spell checkers are okay, but they don't find the wrongly used word that is a word, or missing commas. I'm not decrying the usefulness of packages like Grammarly but they too have their limitations. I use Open Office not the MS product and Grammarly won't work with it. Too, the version of Grammarly I have can only handle a limited amount of text at a time. For a work like Castle which uses thousands of words of nearly English (usefulth, limitet to name but two) and other words that are not English (riandet, leaçen) such packages are nowhere near as good as the Open Office spell checker used in conjunction with its self learning dictionary facilities.

If you've read it before (thank you) it will not be the same, for there will be more to it. I'm normally reclusive and private, but as I age I find myself becoming more and more prone to attacks of what the hell. Too, I have become more okay about BCTS. There have been few who have been offensive, and what I find offensive most would probably not, but then what a lot of others find offensive I don't. I ignore the few and focus on the many who have been kind and supportive, for I admit I was not sure posting here was going to be a wise thing to do. Now I'm sure it was.

I'm going back over this and have a few things to add. The site and I had problems early this morning (GMT) and I ended posting Marcy 4 rather than A Collection of Limericks which I hope to post in a couple of hours. Erin thought the original problem was at BCTS end, but eventually I discovered the error message was due to my use of an interrobang "‽" in the title. ‽ is accepted fine in the text body but not in the title box. There may be other such characters too, but I don't know. [12/10/31 It turns out that the title box only accepts a tiny subset of the entire Unicode set]
Regards,
Eolwaen

17/09/2019
I seem to be managing to use the Outline function well enough, (I had to go back and correct my usage 48hrs later) and have posted 3 pieces from Castle so far. I've had some encouraging responses and some not. The ones that are not seem to be in the main from users who have not read the explanatory material available on BCTS. No one has to read the explanatory material, but it does seem odd to me that anyone prepared to invest time in communicating an opinion at length on my work has not done so.

I have always refused to take on any rôle where I had to criticise or sit in judgement on another [students excepting] and whenever I was up for performance review I infuriated whoever was sitting in judgement by acknowledging their opinion and refusing to comment on it. It was their opinion, they had a right to it, but no right to make me discuss it. It cost me two jobs over the years and I left both without commenting on being fired. That has been the guiding principle of my life, don't argue, just walk away because it hurts them far more. Years later I discovered Queen Elizabeth's guiding principle is "Don't complain. Don't explain" so may be I'm in good company.
Regards,
Eolwaen

12/09/2019
I managed to post the title page to Castle last night. I'm sorting out some thing to post tonight. If there is something wrong with how I've done it I'd appreciate being told about it. I'm trying to have the title page point to the story which is non-TG. The next story is TG and in I suspect six chapters which is my subsequent challenge. I.e. Title page points to Story pages one of which points to Story Chapters. I'm sure it's doable, but whether by me remains to be seen. Should this sort of information be on a blog? And If so how?
Regards,
Eolwaen

07/09/2019 I think. (It's 12/09/2019 at the moment)
I wasn’t going to post a biography but three circumstances have made me change my mind.

First the rather unpleasant things that were posted to my now defunct website which could only have come from some one who had read some of my work that was only posted on BCTS. Member or not I don’t know. I’d been thinking of killing my website anyway because it didn’t get me a fraction of the reads that BCTS does and though not expensive it wasn’t cheap either.

Second the number of comments and PMs I’ve been receiving asking, or yes almost insisting on, about the autobiographical content of my stories. Even Erin asked! It’s been getting a bit much replying to them all, but I’d have to be at least six people if everyone were correct.

Third there are I admit apparent inconsistencies in what I have written. Users of the site have been kind to me and I feel I need to clear up those apparent inconsistencies. I’d hate to think anyone considered I was returning kindness with deliberate misinformation.

I’m nearer 80 than 70, how much nearer I leave you to guess, but I'll give you a clue. [The clue is a subsequent addition] I was born the day before WW2 started. I'm reasonably certain the two events weren't connected. If the two pieces of information seem at odds I suggest you think a little more deeply and literally about them.

I’m definitely no one’s idea of a sweet little old lady. I’m more likely to be referred to as the witch that lives at the bottom of Shanders Lonning. A lonning is a lane and for obvious reasons I made that address up.

I’m female, from conception. I really didn’t want to have to admit that on a TG site, but there it is.

I’m five foot three and three quarters (when wearing four inch heels) and somewhere round the six stone mark, about eighty pounds.

This is where it gets difficult. Yes I’m 100% Sámi by birth, but I’m probably 60/40 Sámi/ Gael culturally + some odd other bits. Don’t bother reminding me that adds up to over 100%, I did say probably so that gets me out of that mess nicely.

My childhood was filled with love and an equal measure of horror involving 2 parents, 2 different sets of adoptive parents and god alone knows how many foster parents. There were social workers from 2 countries involved at different times. I tend to use the words Mum and Dad indiscriminately, but if I use them at all I'm referring to someone I cared about. I wriggled out of the social worker involvement in my life in one of my comments by saying I had no personal experience of social services, sorry about that. Death, violence and abuse, I’d had my share before I was old enough to go to school, but I’d had my share of love, care and support too.

As a result of winning a scholarship [by examination] I suffered an English girls’ public school education from 12 to 16, [to readers in the US that’s a very expensive upper class private boarding school] which I left with Advanced levels at six weeks short of sixteen. Whilst at school I learnt English and started to write. I spent a fair amount of time on the streets during the holidays pretending to be a boy, it was safer for a boy, because anything was better than the [lack of] care system.

Imagine a diminutive little girl who couldn’t speak English with several hundred other girls all trying to cope with with becoming women. In that sort of environment cycle synchronisation is a well known phenomenon and girls become premenstrual simultaneously and who better to take it out on? The green eyed alien with the ginger hair of course.

I regard my half siblings, half step siblings and step siblings (along with a few others) who have cared about me as my sisters and brothers. I call them that even though many have no relationship other than that care. Sadly many of them have passed on now. Once I got away I never contacted the relatives or any others who treated me badly again.

I’m clever with a good memory, a retired STEM academic. I started my professional life as a pure mathematician, but I put it that way because I worked across many scientific disciplines. I’ve lived and worked all over the world and spent a lot of time in Russia and the Ukraine. I’m good at languages. I’m interested in machining and am kind of okay ish at it. I have my own workshop to play in with a milling machine and 2 lathes. I’ve kept bees for decades. I have never owned a TV, nor ever used a mobile phone.

Though only interested in men, I've never wanted to own one, so I’ve never married, nor had children, am cynical and most of my friends are trans, but I’m definitely not Francesca nor indeed any of my other characters, though there are snippets of me sprinkled about in my work all over the place. The only deliberate biographical content in my work is the cats, but alas Psycho and Parky are no longer with me. The Marmalade Murderer is still going strong, at nineteen the marmalade has faded a bit, but then I was a bright ginger too once, though the freckles are still all intact. Mammy Sal is now twelve and her boys Thug and Special Needs are eleven.

We all live on a respectable sized holding just south of the Solway in Cumbria, UK which provides the death squad with lots to do.

I've never allowed myself to be made a victim and sympathy is for those who need it. I don't and I resent it.

I’m sorry if that was all a bit much, but I’ve only ever written an academic CV before, and I wouldn’t inflict that on anyone, unless I really didn’t like them.

To perhaps more significant matters than things that ceased to bother me decades ago.

Everything I have posted so far are just scribbles written when I wanted a change from writing ‘Castle - the series’, which currently runs at 1.5 million words. Castle is a pre-industrial society , that receives 200-300 incomers from Earth at 40-50 year intervals. It opens with the latest incursion which takes the inhabitants through their industrial revolution.

I amuse my self with maps, models, character indices, family trees, lists of who follows what craft, flora, fauna, a dictionary and a phrase book for its language which is based on middle English which developed differently.

It is complex - over 1000 characters and a complete world in it self with connections to Earth via a mediaeval castle designer and to the masters of time and space. Initially written out of pain and anger, it took on a life of its own. I need the comprehensive indices and family trees to make sense of it all and it gets more difficult as it becomes more complex.

I'll probably post some extracts from it but essentially it was never undertaken for others to read as some of it is pretty dark - a reflection of life here on Earth. Sorry to blather on - it's not often I can find an excuse to talk about what has become a major part of my life since retirement.

Regards,
Eolwaen