And if you want to remember pi to6 decimal places, here’s a mnemonic to help.
How I wish I could calculate pi.
via Happy March 14
Tag Archives: blogging
An interesting post about book promotion.
Review of Terry Ravenscroft’s Stairway to Heaven, Book 4, Still Hanging On.
BLURB
Yet another volume in the Stairlift to Heaven series. Terry Ravenscroft is still at it, accompanied by his faithful friend Atkins (although Atkins shows distinct signs of being unfaithful on at least one occasion). Similarly aged readers, and those approaching old age, will do well to heed the advice offered in these epistles. They will learn, amongst other things, how to deal with Men from the Orient who constantly plague you on the telephone, people who ring you up tell you there’s something that needs fixing on your computer if you don’t want your bank account to be emptied, General Election canvassers who arrive on your doorstep uninvited and unwanted, how to ensure that tarmac layers carry out their jobs in the manner promised and at the agreed price, and how definitely not to behave at a football match if you are seated amongst the opposition’s supporters. And lots, lots more. And, whilst doing all this, have a bit of FUN.
MY REVIEW.
I have recently finished reading Book 4 of Terry Ravenscroft’s Stairway to Heaven books. He has been writing these autobiographical books about his life and escapades for a while now, and they are very funny.
Terry Ravenscroft was, until he retired, a scriptwriter for many well known TV comedians and sit-coms, including such names as Les Dawson, the Two Ronnies, Morcambe and Wise and Ken Dodd as well as Alas Smith and Jones, Not the 9o’Clock News, The News Hudlines and many others.
This book does begin on a sad note when Terry tells of the sad death of his wife, The Trouble, from the earlier books. It is very clear he misses her immensely, and at first, he said he did not think he would write this book. I’m very glad he did,
Terry relates his escapades with his friend, Atkins, as well as tells of some letters he wrote to various pompous organisations. From trying to get Atkin’s neighbour, who has designs on him, to desist from her advances, to an incident with a letter Atkins wrote to David Beckham and Terry replied in Beckham’s place, we are kept laughing throughout the book.
I do not want to spoil it for anyone wanting to read it by saying too much of the events and escapades this book covers. Just let me say it is very funny and well worth a read.
This book is titled, ‘Still Hanging On.’ Keep on hanging on, Terry, long enough to write the next episode
I give it *****
Some of my Christmas Cards.
Each year I make all my own Christmas cards. On Sunday 3rd December I finished the final one for this year and am pretty pleased with them. I thought I’d let you guys have a look at some of my endeavours as it’s the Tuesday before Christmas.
VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY FOLLOWERS AND VISITORS.
I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL 2018 WHERE ALL YOUR DREAMS AND HOPES COME TRUE.
Punctuationg Dialogue
Today I’m going to talk about punctuating dialogue.
First of all, let me begin by defining some terms. I find writers, like many other professions, use their jargon so often they forget that new people may not know them. So here goes.
1. Tags. These are the words used to indicate who is speaking. They are things like ‘he said’, ‘Judith whispered’ and the like.
2. Beats, These are words telling you what someone is doing. e.g. Fred paced to the window. ‘Are you sure she said that?’ he asked.
Here, ‘Fred paced to the window’ is a beat.
Now we’ve got that out of the way, lets continue with our punctuation.
I admit that when I started writing, I was unsure about this. I did not know what punctuation to put after the speech and after the tag. I learned by reading books and other writers’ blogs. Not a bad way to learn. In fact, a very good way to learn.
The first thing I should note is that US English and British English use quotation marks the opposite way round from each other. As I am British, I use British English, and the dialogue in my books is the British Standard.
In British English, we use single quotation marks for direct speech and double quotation marks for speech quoted within that speech. (Not very good English there. I apologise.)
Mary said, ‘Jaqui, go and see who rang the doorbell.’
and,
Jaqui said, ‘It’s John. He said, “I’ve come to return the book you lent me.” Do you want to see him?’
In American English it’s the other way round. The above would look like this:
Mary said, “Jaqui, go and see who rang the doorbell.”
and
Jaqui said, “It’s John. He said, ‘I’ve come to return the book you lent me.’ Do you want to see him?”
The quotes, either British or US go round direct speech only. If it is indirect, then there are no quotes.
This would be wrong.
‘John said that he came ‘to return the book you lent him’.
Whenever we write ‘he said’. ‘she whispered’, etc, we always separate it from the quote using commas. See the above examples.
Now should the punctuation be inside or outside the quotation marks? That depends on whether it is part of the quotation or not, Here are some examples.
‘How can he return a book’, said Mary, ‘when I never lent him one?’
‘Said Mary’ interrupts the sentence she is saying, which is, ‘How can he return a book when I never lent him one?’ The comma goes outside the quotation marks.
But if the quotation mark is part of what is being said, then it goes inside.
John said, ‘Did you not lend me this book then?’
The question mark is part of John’s speech so it goes inside the quotation marks. If it was a full stop (period if you are in the USA) then, as it ends John’s speech, it would go inside as well.
John said, ‘I’m sure I borrowed it from you.’
The punctuation goes outside the quotation marks if it is not part of the quoted material.
Now, if you have a beat, then that is completely separate.
Susan walked to the window and looked out. ‘Tell John to come in and bring the book up.’
There is a full stop (period) after the beat and not a comma because it is a separate action. I would say that we only put a comma after or before a tag, not a beat.
That’s enough for now, Hope I’ve not confused you.
Please feel free to make a comment of any kind.
A New Offer.
First, a reminder that the offer of The Wolf Pack for only $0.99 or 99p finishes tomorrow, so if you’ve not got your copy yet, head on over to http://mybook.to/TheWolfPack to get it.
Now a new offer. From today The Stones of Earth and Air, book 1 of Elemental Worlds is on offer for $0.99/£0.99 until next Sunday, 10th December. This would make a good Christmas present for a family member or friend who loves fantasy novels.
Get your copy from amazon by following this link.
My Visit to New York
In April, my husband and I went to New York for the first time. I thought I would share some of the photos with you all.
We had a wonderful time, seeing all the sights. It was very exciting being in the city we had seen so often on the television, in both films and news. My only regret was that we did not have enough time to visit all of it, but spent most of our time in Manhattan. Perhaps another time?
We had a wonderful time. I’ll post some more in the future.
Please feel free to add a comment to this post. I love to hear what you think.
An interview with Kado from Renee Scattergood’s Shadow Stalker books
Renee Scattergood, the author of the Shadow Stalker books, has agreed to interview one of her characters, Kado, the guardian of Auren.
Welcome, Renee and Kado.
Hello Kado! I want to thank you for joining us all the way from the Dark Isle today. I know it’s just a leap through the shadow world for you, but we’re so glad to have you here.
Kado: I’m honored to be here. Although, I should add that we do not leap through the shadow world. We move through it or more to the point it moves around us. It’s called a shift.
That’s good to know. Leaping through the world of spirits is probably not the best idea. So, the first thing I’m sure everyone is wondering is, were you born on the Dark Isle?
Kado: I was.
What was it like?
Kado: Life on the Dark Isle is difficult. It’s a dangerous place to live with all the venomous plants. The villages are kept safe enough, but outside the villages it is quite treacherous if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Also, there’s life as a shadow stalker which is equally difficult.
How so?
Kado: Training starts pretty much when we are old enough to walk and talk. Learning to shift into the shadow world is scary when you’re young. It’s also risky when learning to deal with the demons that protect the borders of the shadow world. They recognize fear as aggression, so you can see how that might make things tricky at first.
Yes, very much so. Is it true that shadow stalker children live with a foster family who trains and raises them from the time they are born?
Kado: Yes.
Why is that?
Kado: Well, as I mentioned, the training is difficult and often dangerous. Parents form a bond with their children that makes them want to shelter and protect their children from danger. Over time, we learned it’s more effective and less stressful on the parents to let someone else take that responsibility.
That makes sense. So, you didn’t know your real family growing up?
Kado: Oh no. Shadow stalkers value family. We maintain close ties with our families while we are growing up. Most often children remain in the same village as their parents. In some cases, when they are raised in other villages, they visit with their parents several times a year.
So, are you still close with your family now?
Kado: The only surviving member of my family is my daughter, Shai. And yes, (smiles) we are quite close.
Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your family. How did you lose them?
Kado: Most of them died when the Galvadi invaded the Dark Isle over twenty years ago. My niece, Calista, and wife, Raven, were the only survivors. My wife died several years later, on a mission to rescue Auren’s father from the Galvadi. Cali died a couple years ago as a prisoner of the Galvadi.
So basically, the Galvadi killed your entire family. How awful.
Kado: (deep breath) Yes, it is, but things are turning around. At least I hope they are. If Auren is successful, the Galvadi will be no more.
That’s good to hear. Well, that’s all we have time for today. Again, thank you so much for joining us.
Kado: (nods) It was my pleasure.
I hope you enjoyed this interview. You can buy the Shadow Stalker books on Amazon. They are well worth a read.
Here is a link to the first book.
Book Offer
Starting tomorrow, 17th November, Viv’s Family Recipes will be on sale for only £0.99 or $0.99. This offer will last only until 23rd November, so be quick and don’t miss it.
The recipes in this book are from Viv’s family and friends. It is not only a recipe book for today, but also gives insight into how people cooked and ate in years gone by. The recipes date from 1909 to the present day.
There are also little anecdotes telling of the people whom the book mentions.
Get your copy by clicking on this link.
2 more words that cause confusion (and are driving me insane)
Last month I talked about the words NUMBER and AMOUNT. Today I’m going to talk about some similar words that get confused.
These words are FEWER and LESS.
I say they are similar to the previouys words because the same rules apply. So many people will say something like,
‘There were LESS people at the match this week than last week.’
This is WRONG. IN this case, it should be FEWER.
Just as NUMBER refers to things we count, like people, goals, sheep in a flock, minutes in an hour, items in a shopping trolley etc., so FEWER also refers to those things.
FEWER is a digital word. It refers to things we COUNT.
LESS refers to things we MEASURE. Thus we would have something like,
There is LESS snow today than the same time last year.
or There is less flour in this cake than that one.
BUT There are fewer eggs in this cake than that one.
We MEASURE the flour, but we COUNT the eggs.
Please leave a comment on this post. I love hearing from you, and reblogging would help get the message across to more people and save me from continually shouting at the TV and radio.
Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 