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  • Aditus

    Talk Talk

    By Aditus

    Conversations. Sometimes it’s too much, sometimes too little, formal, informal, clumsy, artificial, with another word: difficult. Let’s practice, Shall we? #253 Someone is on the bus. The guy beside them fidgets the whole time with an irritating tinkling bangle while telling them, it seems, their entire life story, including very personal things. It’s time to pop in the earbuds. When it’s time to get off the bus, the talker has disappeared and the strange bangle is now on th
    • 0 comments
    • 26 views
  • Graeme

    GA's Newest Signature Author: kbois

    By Graeme

    Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating kbois as GA's newest Signature Author! @kbois has been a member for 7 years and in that time she's developed from a relatively new author through to one that's reached the level of Signature Author. Her recent short stories Hide and Seek and Depth Perception are of particular note and we hope you enjoy them as much as we did. Congratulation, kbois!
    • 33 comments
    • 343 views
Writing

Ultimate Guide to Alchemy, Crafting & Enchanting

Ultimate Guide to Alchemy, Crafting & Enchanting by Nord Games is one of the many Role Playing Game resources that I have in my library.  I love world building.  One of the keys to making a world functional for stories is to have the actions and reactions of the world follow rules.  They may not be rules you tell your readers about.  But if pulling the level makes the door open, then the doors should open when you pull the lever... or a surprise should occur. Books like this one, I
Myr

Myr in Writing

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Writing

The Urban Setting Thesaurus

The Urban Setting Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Publisi is another book in their excellent series of Thesaurus books.  This one, obviously, focuses on locations you'd find in an urban setting.  Like the Rural version we covered yesterday, this one may not be used as often as some of the other books in the series.  It is, however, an excellent resource to have in your library. Like the Rural book, this gives you ways to engage all the senses in different places.  They also include
Myr

Myr in Writing

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Writing

Rural Setting Thesaurus

The Rural Setting Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglist is another book writer's should have in their reference library.  This one, as the name suggests, covers common rural areas. This one is especially handy for people that mostly spend time in cities and need to describe a country location with more details than you'd get from looking at a picture of barn.  Like the other books in the series, this book gives you something for all the senses to add that little extra depth to yo
Myr

Myr in Writing

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Gaming

Gotham Knights

Gotham Knights has launched.  I'm still forming my thoughts on this one.  Once again, another company has taken a game genre that is action/adventure and turned it into a "Games as a service" grind fest that is more about keeping you locked in the game and not doing other things.  Assassin's Creed went this route, killing off the franchise back when they released the last Assassin's Creed game, Syndicate. They created a new franchise of grindy RPG's and slapped "Assassin's Creed" on the cover, d
Myr

Myr in Gaming

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Writing

The Emotion Thesaurus

I have been doing some deep diving on different aspects of writing for awhile now.  There are a number of books in the series from Angele Ackerman & Becca Puglisi. I have posted a couple so far, but here is "The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression".  I have the entire series and there is a ton of great content in here.  Unless you are a bit obsessed with deep diving, this is not a book you'll read from cover to cover. It is, however, a great reference book for engagin
Myr

Myr in Writing

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Television

Alex Rider - Season 1 - IMDB TV

This is on free streaming from various Amazon sources, such as IMDB TV in the USA.  They did a really good job with the show.  This is based on the Alex Rider series of novels, which are over the top teen spy thriller type books.  The show (as the trailer shows) is likewise over the top.  They did a nice job here on season 1 in basically merging the first two books and giving you enough to show respect, but mixing it up enough to still throw surprises at you. Season 2 is also out, but I hav
Myr

Myr in Television

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Movies

Oblivion

This was an interesting spin on sci-fi.  The special effects and visuals were really good.  I have added the 4k Blu-Ray to my library. If you haven't seen it and you like sci-fi and some action, check it out.  It's been out long enough that you should be able to find it on one of those streaming services.
Myr

Myr in Movies

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Movies

Dune Movie 2021

Please no one tell @Cia, but I still have not read Frank Herbert's Dune.  Though I have seen 2021 Dune movie starring Timothée Chalamet. I enjoyed the visuals a lot in this movie.  It can been a bit slow at times, but it was nice to disconnect and just enjoy it.  They made one hell of a big set up... I hope all the changes at going on a Discovery/Warner Bros doesn't ruin a sequel for this.  
Myr

Myr in Movies

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Writing

The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Vol 2)

Well, the last one was Vol 1, so Vol 2 should not be a surprise.  I've taken the picture myself of the book on my desk. The X Thesaurus series of books continues with Conflicts Volume 2.  This is a continuation of various conflicts you come across and all the ins and outs of that conflict.  Like volume 1, this book helps you make sure your conflicts are well-rounded and engage the senses and emotions. Like all the other books in this series, it adds to your writer's toolkit.  It's wor
Myr

Myr in Writing

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Gaming

Forza Horizon 5

One of the ways I try to maintain my sanity is to unplug from the craziness of the real world and just do mindless fun activities.  Forza Horizon 5 is one of the nicest looking games I've seen.  It is hands down the best arcade racer style game out there.  It's huge and it's free as part of Xbox Game Pass. (PC, Xbox, Cloud - $15 a month... if you aren't doing bing searches with microsoft rewards and getting it all for free...) This is my go to game for a few minutes of relaxing each night.
Myr

Myr in Gaming

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Writing

The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Vol 1)

The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Volume 1) (Writers Helping Writers Series) by Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman. I have been doing a fair bit of reading on various aspects of writing.  This entire series of books is worth a read and having on your shelf if you are trying to enhance your writing skills.  Each one of the books focuses on as aspect of writing. This one is on Conflicts.  The book gives a high level conflict type and then
Myr

Myr in Writing

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grief

Does The Pain Ever Go Away?

The title of this blog asks the question, but you will probably ask what pain am I talking about. I'm talking about the pain of loss and grief, losing someone who is close and means a great deal to you. It doesn't matter who you are, in time it is something that we all experience. Many of us have already experienced it, some of us are yet to experience it, it is not something any of us can escape. You may ask what is the significance of this blog, why bring this up now? Well I'll tell you a
Mancunian

Mancunian in grief

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Book review

Book Review: Three Ex Presidents and James Franco by John Buchanan

It is 2008 and John, an Irish university student, is spending a year at an American liberal arts college. During that year he forms three very different relationships with three very different young men—the radically gay Jake, Eric the straight jock whose life is turned upside down when he is shot, and Brendon, his former best friend from Ireland. Also during that year he will be involved in a shooting, cause a scandal at a historical monument, meet an ex-president and be complimented by a risin
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Book review

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Writing

"His Story"

Does the pain stop when the abuse does? My new novella, His Story, asks this question by following six, different events from one man’s life, a man who survived ex-gay/conversion therapy. Though this may sound a depressing read, there is a hopeful ending, and it discussed a subject not often found in literature, how do you survive abuse and start living again. It is available here, on Smashwords, as an eBook only, but is free to download, or you can pay whatever you want to.
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Writing

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Book review

Book Review: The Machine Stops by EM Forster

It is the future and all humans live underground, each person having their own room, which they never leave. All their needs – food, drink, hygiene, medication and even sleep – are provided for them automatically from machinery within the room’s walls and ceiling. They communicate with other people without leaving their rooms, via a metal disk on which the other people’s faces are projected. They have a book that contains all required knowledge, which is being constantly updated. This world is a
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Book review

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cancer woes

Cancer sucks!

I tend to take to the blogs section to whinge, so here goes. I have been living with cancer for almost four years now (well, four years since diagnosis, but it was obviously invading various parts of my body before then.) Long story short - diagnosed stage 4 December 24th 2018. Great Christmas present. Treatment (chemo and radiotherapy) started early in 2019, knocked me for 6 and the spinal damage left me unable to walk more than a few paces and having to use the kind of gadgets normal
Mawgrim

Mawgrim in cancer woes

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Book review

Book Review: Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie

Miss Marple is probably the most famous female detective in English literature, she was certainly an original character when she first appeared in print, using psychology and character observation rather than searching for physical clues to solve crimes. This collection of stories was published posthumously after Christie’s death and brings together the remaining Miss Marple short stories that hadn’t been published in book form before, plus two supernatural stories that didn’t feature Miss
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Book review

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With Pride

With Pride, July 2019

Something New Every Year (July 2019)   The other Saturday, I did something I’d never done before. At my age, it isn’t often I get to do something as new as this, but the other Saturday I marched in the London Pride March openly as a nurse. I’ve marched in the Pride March many times before, with friends, with LGBT organisations, but never before openly as a nurse. This year, a group of staff in my Trust’s LGBT Network organised to take part in the London Pride March and we had
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in With Pride

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With Pride

With Pride, January 2017

And Some Things Change and Some Things Remain the Same (January 2017) I started to come out when I was nineteen, more than thirty years ago, and nearly overnight I lost almost all of my friends; I was ostracised just for being gay. It was a shocking experience that has left a lasting impact on me. Today, I am married to my husband Martin and work as a community nurse in North London. Everyone at work knows my husband and no one has a problem with him, I have almost forgotten the l
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in With Pride

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With Pride

With Pride, August 2015

Do Unhealthy Attitudes Ever Change? (August 2015) During my first year of nurse training (twenty-five years ago) I ran into a wall of homophobia. I was told by some of my vocal colleagues that I only wanted to be a nurse to see naked men, that all gay men deserved AIDS, that I was a danger to children, and that God could heal me and make me “normal”.  I endured it because it was 1990 and homophobia was what I expected as a gay man. It's now 2015 and our society has changed so much
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in With Pride

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With Pride

With Pride, January 2015

A Safe Place for All? (January 2015) Freddie Mercury died from AIDS in November 1991. I was a student nurse at the time. One of my colleagues told me that he “deserved it” because of his “lifestyle”. I exploded faced with her homophobia, but I was turned on by others who supported her, saying their views were right because they wanted to be parents and any parent would want to protect their sons from the likes of Freddie Mercury. And I was wrong, they said, because I was defending some
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in With Pride

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With Pride

With Pride, July 2008

Marching with Pride (July 2008)   On Saturday (5th July 2008) it was London LGBT Pride and, with bright sunny weather, my partner and I had a wonderful day there. The highlight, as always, was the Pride March. People were laughing and smiling, enjoying walking through central London together and openly. The march was headed by groups representing many of our uniformed and emergency services. First came lesbian, gay and bisexual members of the navy, army and RAF, all in their
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in With Pride

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With Pride

With Pride

The next six blogs form a short series, which I have called “With Pride” because they were all originally comments pieces, on LGBT rights and healthcare, published in the Nursing Standard magazine, and I am proud of having written them. For nearly fifteen years, on and off, I have written comment pieces for Nursing Standard and a lot of them were on LGBT healthcare. These pieces chart changes in attitudes, but they also had recurring themes and one was responding to a very disturbing piece
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in With Pride

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