I am putting in an extra blog this week because I’ve just received an email to say that the review below has been posted by John Thornton. I am most flattered by what he said. The email arrived yesterday at 4.15 or there about, so I don’t know if it’s gone live yet.

 

Thank you for your kind words, John.

5 Stars

“The Wolf Pack” is an original and well crafted fantasy novel. If you like novels like the “Earthsea Saga” by Ursula Le Guin or “When the Heavens Fall” by Marc Turner then I suggest that you may well enjoy “The Wolf Pack.” British style and spellings throughout. Not really a negative, just a difference to be noted.

Positives:

I found the characters well developed, and complex (in a good way).

The plot is unique and unusual. It is not easy to explain, but does unfold nicely as one reads through the book. I am trying to avoid spoilers, so I do not want to give too much away.

Dialogue is well written and each character has his or her own voice.

Negatives:

It took me a bit to “get into” the book, but that might be because fantasy is not my favorite genre. Some might call this “high fantasy” but I am never quite sure where the lines are on the various types of fantasy novels.

Otherwise a solid book. My rating, A-

I have been a little confused recently about the naming of verb tenses. When I was at school I learned that there was the future tense (I will walk), the present (I am walking or I walk), the imperfect (I walked), the perfect (I have walked) and the pluperfect (I had walked). Then I read a book on grammar and it told me that the tenses are: future (I will walk), present (I am walking), simple past (I walked), past imperfect (I have walked) and past perfect (I had walked).

Now this is most confusing. It may be that there is a difference in the naming of the tenses in the USA and the UK, where I live, or it may be that there has been some change that I have missed. The above, which I said I had learned at school, I learned in English, French and Latin classes so it wasn’t just that we had a poor teacher who got it wrong. I wanted to write a blog about using tenses, but this discrepancy makes it rather difficult as it feels wrong to use what I have read in this particular book.

So what about today’s blog? I was going to do one on the use of the past tense, but until I can clear up this little problem I have with nomenclature I’ll leave it to a further date.

Please would some of you help me with this little problem by responding in the comments section.

 

Lula Harp has awarded me the Sunshine Blogger Award. I am flattered and would like to thank her. I will be passing it on shortly.

Here are my answers to Lula’s questions.

What are 6 things you couldn’t live without?
A difficult one, Lula. My 2 children. My 3 Grandchildren. (does that count as 5? Ha ha) My husband. All those are obvious, of course. Friendship. Sunshine.

What time of day do you do your best writing/work?
Afternoon

Biscuit or scone?
Ooh, I like both, but on balance, scone.

Favorite season?
Summer.

What are your thoughts on social media?
It is both a great boon and a great disaster.

Favorite way to end the day?
Watching TV and falling asleep.

Best trip?
I’ve had some fantastic trips over the years and this one is really hard, but I think the best was probably a trip to Germany to follow in the footsteps of J.S.Bach. We visited his birthplace and many of the places he worked. We also went to a concert in the Tomankirke where he was cantor given by the boys’ choir there. Superb evening.

Would you eat at a restaurant that was really dirty if the food was amazing?
Probably not.

How important is it to you to learn something new?
This is very important as it keeps the mind alert and keeps you from being a dull, uninteresting person.

Have you ever flipped a coin to make an important decision?
No.

My mother started writing poetry when she got older. They were much in demand at whist drives and such other social events that she attended. This is one she wrote about growing older.

A Message of Hope.

Isn’t it great to be sixty?

Isn’t it great to be old?

I feel it’s a stage

Like coming of age

 And so much more life to unfold.

——————-

I’m so looking forward to travel;

Half fares and concessions and that

And hair-dos, cut price

So I’ll try to look nice.

There’s always Oxfam for a hat!

—————

But who needs a hat? Like the Royals

I’ll wear a silk scarf with aplomb.

You can still cut a dash

Without loads of cash,

And  think of the good times to come.

—————-

Oh isn’t it great to be sixty.

Don’t vegetate there in your room.

Look forward, not back.

You’ll soon get the knack

Dispersing, dispensing with gloom.

---

—————

Yes, I’m very glad to be sixty!

No need to pretend any more.

Do just as I please

And as free as the breeze

Life still has its pleasures in store.

As you can see from this poem, she was an optimist and great fun to be with. She died at the age of 80 in 1990 with her humour and good spirits intact.

I still miss her.

There are a number of words that are frequently confused by people. In this post I hope to clarify nine of these pairs.

 Bought and Brought.

Brought is the past tense of ‘to bring’ and means to fetch something.

e.g. The dog brought the ball back to me.

Bought is the past tense of  ‘to buy’ and means to purchase something.

e.g. When I went to town I bought a new blouse.

The mistake is always using brought for bought and never the other way round.

 Fewer and Less

This is a very common one. So many people will talk about ‘There were less people at the match than last week.’

It should be ‘There were fewer people at the match than last week.’

Less is used for things that you measure (like weight, temperature, volume,etc)

Fewer is used for things you count (like people, goals, items in a basket at the checkout, etc)

A simple rule of thumb can be: If it only comes in whole numbers, then it’s fewer, but if it can be in fractions, then it’s less.

 Literally and Virtually

Literally means that it actually happened.

e.g. It was literally snowing a blizzard.

In this case, there would be no visibility to speak of and snow falling as if it were in the Arctic or Antarctic with a strong wind blowing it almost horizontal.

Virtually means it is not actually that thing. It is used when a metaphor is used.

e.g. The footballer was virtually flying down the wing.

If the speaker or writer said ‘The footballer was literally flying down the wing’, that would mean that he had somehow sprouted wings!

 Infer and Imply

I recently heard a broadcaster on the radio use infer when she meant imply. These people ought to know better. Most, I assume, are journalists, or at least have a ‘good’ education with a degree. They should know the difference, and if they don’t, in my opinion, should not be in the job.

Imply is what someone says when they want to suggest something without actually saying it in so many words.

e.g.‘He implied that he was going to come with us.’

Infer means that someone has drawn a conclusion from a statement.

e.g. ‘From what he said, I inferred that he was going to come with us.’

  Lose and Loose.

This is one for the written word.

Lose is when you misplace something.

e.g. You are going to lose your purse if you don’t put it away.

Loose is when something comes undone.

e.g. My shoelace has come loose.

 Tragedy and Travesty.

A Tragedy is something very sad.

e.g. It is a tragedy that he died so young.

A Travesty is to make something ridiculous.

e.g. The dogs runnign onto the pitch made the football match a travesty.

 Effect and Affect

Effect is a noun. It is the result of something.

e,g, What is the effect of mixing red and yellow together?

Affect is a verb. It says what something does.

e.g. How did the accident affect you?

 Popular and Common

This is one I heard from young people when I was teaching.

Popular means well liked by a lot of people.

e.g. Dean was always full of fun and so was very popular with his team mates.

Common means that there are a lot of them.

e.g. Herring gulls are very common in Brighton.

In this last incident, many pupils would say that the herring gulls were very popular, but if you asked the car owners of Brighton, I think you would get a very different view.

 Defective and Deficient

Defective means that a thing is broken in some way.

e.g. I sent my new vacuum cleaner back because it was defective. It was failing to pick up the dirt.

Deficient means that there is something missing.

e.g. The new wardrobe I bought was deficient. There were not enough screws to put it together.