Authors Electric

Keeping a list... Ho, ho, not to worry. Kris Kringle will still bring gifts for children everywhere. But I hate to report that we adults in America have made this year's naughty list in blackest ink. A majority of us will find a lump of coal in our Christmas stockings. The lump will be orange, slimy and smell bad and be called a Trump. I'll not name names. You know who you are, and so does this season's frowny Father Christmas.  It's not party politics or the finer points of trade that have our Elf-in-Chief in a snit this Christmas. It's the summary, mass roundups of aliens that our doddering Don has already set in motion. Like under his first term, it includes separation of families and incarceration of children - by the millions this time. Hate based cruelty is not a byproduct here. It is the self-professed point. I t doesn't take an all-knowing Santa to recognize this pogrom for what it is - persecution, with holocaust looming.  Christmas celebrates the birth

Image Credit:  Images from the ACW Autumn Gathering Day were taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Janet Williams, my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today, for taking the shot of me signing books at the book fair. I’m glad to say October was busy. I went to an Association of Christian Writers (ACW) in person event in Rugby, where it was lovely to catch up with friends. A week later I was taking part in a book fair which was in a hall a short walk from my home. Good to be back in business on the book stand at the ACW Autumn Gathering The writing day had Paul Kerensa (co-writer on Miranda, Not Going Out , broadcaster and podcaster on the history of radio) as the guest speaker (he was hilarious) plus there was a choice of workshops after lunch. There is a buzz when getting together with other writers which I find inspiring. I had a lovely time  coming home enthused. (That’s always a sign of a good writing event I find).  Paul Kerensa gave a wonderful and funny two part talk at the

A good example of cloud iridescence from the web, July 2023. Don't know where.  How do you write about ghosts when you don’t believe in them? I don’t believe in them because I’ve not had a single supernatural experience. I stopped believing in Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy when I was very young, I’m one of those people who require the evidence of my own senses, and none has been forthcoming. I haven’t even had a spooky feeling, and I’ve never felt inexplicably cold or scared or seen objects moving of their own volition. I have a problem when people I respect tell me quite seriously that they have seen/heard/felt or even smelt something. But no one has told me that sort of thing since I was a teenager, probably because they think I’ll laugh at them. I do remember my mother telling me what happened the night her grandmother died though. She was sharing a room with her, and Gra (as she was known) was very elderly. Suddenly she said to my mum, “Ella, Ella, open the door.” My m

  I'd said goodbye and good riddance when my good old Kindle Fire reader died, full of downloaded ebooks that I couldn't read. Months, then years, had passed till I stopped thinking about it and its too tiny screen and dismal display. Though I'd taken to the concept of being an indie writer, there wasn't much pride to be found in seeing my work on that Kindle. And I never thought to replace it. Speed forward to this October as I planned for a train trip that I planned to take,. Four days on an Amtrak superliner would leave me loads of time to read--but not enough room in my luggage. So I checked my options on the Kindle store--where the Paperwhite stood out. Particularly the new 12th generation, 16gb with a 7" glare-free display and up to 12 weeks battery life.  The long story short: I went for it. And when it arrived, it was love at first sight: from the near-instant downloads to the higher contrast ratio to the quicker page turns to the electronic ink display. It

  Packing up The dolls house is packed and ready to go. The rooms are empty, the furniture and the inhabitants snug in the small boxes that will travel inside the house itself. It was less than an hour’s job and all they have to do is wait until we arrive. Meanwhile the ups and downs of moving house in the UK continue. The latest blip concerns the electrical report. Let me state from the onset that this is not a legal requirement, nor do we have or ever did have any concerns about the state of the electrics. We’re both far too nervous people to suspect our wiring might be faulty and not instantly call out an electrician to deal with the problem. Our buyers, however, commissioned a report which came back with pages of recommendations, none of which were safety issues. The report came with an estimate from the same company for the work, which our buyers asked if we were willing to pay for! The answer being no and convinced that they were being overcharged we asked our own trust

  This is an essay about the United Sates election. The topic of this essay is the grip of grievance, and what it is doing to our country and what it can do in our lives. So I want to present my essay  interspersed  with some art (some written, some visual) to maybe give you a bit of energy to keep going and striving, or to maybe unlock the death grip grievance has on your heart. So here are a few wonderful poems, and some of the USA's more beautiful monuments, and my thoughts on the election of grievance. The United States has just had an almost 50-50 split on the concept of what our country is, of what our country should be, but, more than that, of  who  our country should be. America, before the Europeans got here and began the great experiment of a country of the people by the people and for the people, probably was primarily native Americans and people from what is today Mexico, and parts south. Europeans (including Spain in that) forcibly brought more people here from other p