The dark history of an ancient faerie well is revealed in this short fantasy tale by Adele Cosgrove-Bray, read live on 7 Waves Radio in 2008.

    Ducklings are extraordinary characters.  Something about them makes just about everyone smile.  They're cute and fluffy,  so tiny and yet so brave. Imagine how big their pond looks to them, and how much courage it must take to waddle away from the only place they've ever known - the nest - then leap into water without even knowing what will happen next.  To a duckling, that pond and muddy bank is the whole world. Have you ever  considered what ducklings make of us, watching them?  What does a duck know of our lives - of vehicles, cookers, DVDs, Prada and all the other stuff with which will forever remain irrelevant to a duck's life.  Nothing, of course. Think about a ladybird, then, crawling along a rose.  If the ladybird sees you watching it, how does it react?  It might fly off or, more likely, ignore you completely.  You're not relevant to its sphere of life; and why should you be. We're surrounded by animals, insects and plants that, similarly, get on

"Retailer HMV Group is selling its Waterstone’s bookshop business to A&NN Capital Fund Management for £53 million...  Waterstone’s sales had deteriorated due to weakness in the book market." Source:  http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/28459/hmv-sells-bookshop-chain-waterstones-to-tackle-debt-28459.html Personally, I suspect Waterstone's sales have dropped off because of poor choices in stock.  Browse the shop these-days and I rarely find anything that appeals amidst a growing mountain of junk - cookery books, 'celebrity' biogs and TV-related trivia.   The Mind, Body & Spirit shelves groan with sickly-sweet 'angels' and the kind of introductions to Wicca which begin with "This is a cauldron.  Mine has pink sparkles".  The Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror sections are ok if you want to read anything by someone you've already read most of the books by already.  Hmm, or maybe that's because I read a lot... 

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If someone stole your car, would anyone suggest this wasn't so serious an offence if the vehicle was later found abandoned and in a repairable condition?  Hey, you got your car back when it was all over. Or if a burglar broke into your home and stole favourite, valuable or useful items, would the fact that the house wasn't also set alight and reduced to rubble mean that the burglar should then be handed a lesser sentence?  There was no visible damage, not even chipped paintwork, to show for the invasion of a person's private sanctuary. What if a team of professional criminals broke into The Louvre and swiped the world's most beloved paintings, then later admitted, "Sure, it was us!", should they then be made to do a spot of community service, perhaps, since no real harm has been done?  The paintings survived.  And if these same thieves claimed they'd merely misunderstood the exact meaning of the phrase "public ownership", would any jury belie

"...People are working on exposing the pyramid walls every day... There are huge cement blocks underneath approximately a meter of soil everywhere they dig. Top, bottom, different sides of the pyramid… everywhere. They have found edges that connect two sides and even some entrances have been found.  The Archaeological Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation is saying that this is a step pyramid and the 90 degree walls are its steps. Experts from all over the world are joining the project and are actively involved." Source:  http://www.bosnianpyramids.org/index.php?lang=en   (View the source link for a photo gallery and more information).

For cryonicists and garden gnome enthusiasts everywhere...!

You'd think that planning a small family get-together would be easy.  Most of us don't live in the same areas and we all have busy schedules.  Some are available some days but not on others, and each person's timetable has little correspondence to anyone else's.  Consequently I'm still trying to get people to settle on a meeting date, even.  Our get-together celebrates two forthcoming birthdays - Mum's 83rd and Vikkey's 25th - and also the news that Vikkey and Peter are expecting their first child.  Just don't address me as Great-Aunt Adele.  I have no objection to being ancient, (or, more accurately, ageless), being the dyed-in-the-wool Immortalist that I am.  It's just that it doesn't seem too long ago since little Victoria was gurgling happily while daubing paints and obsessing about Roland Rat.   His name was her first words - though she said something more like 'Woland Wat', and would squeal with delight whenever his maniacal grey

"In the winter of 2010, the ...romance novelist Nyree Belleville suffered the same fate as many a scribe — she was dropped by her publisher. The most any of her 12 spicy romances, penned under the name Bella Andre had earned was $21,000. "So, out of sorts and feeling blue, she sat down one morning and figured out how to self-publish... A few weeks later, she checked her account. She had sold 161 copies. She’d made $281.  She put her other old book online and figured out how to place both on other e-readers. The next month, her royalties bumped to $474. Giddy, she self-published a new e-book in July. She made a jaw-dropping $3,539." Source:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/novel-rejected-theres-an-e-book-gold-rush/2011/04/09/AFZdqb9F_story.html

"The Air Force Academy in Colorado held a dedication ceremony for an outdoor stone circle erected last year as a place for Pagan and Earth-centered faiths to congregate and worship.  Despite the controversy and setbacks this has been a step forward for the equal treatment of Pagan religions within the military." Source:  http://wildhunt.org/blog/2011/05/air-force-academy-dedicates-pagan-chapel.html

"A UK developer has created a computer for school children that will cost as little as £10 to £15, potentially ending the education gap between wealthy and poorer families.  David Braben, who co-developed the Elite space trading computer game, has developed a tiny computer based around a USB stick called the Raspberry Pi. The little device will plug into a HDMI TV for video output and will allow a keyboard to be plugged in via the USB port." Source:  http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2068735/uk-developer-creates-gbp15-kids

Two very different sketches, of two very different personalities...

Top: Fabian; Second & Third: Rowan - pencil and coloured pencil sketches on lined paper. Some of my fictional characters had their origins in old RPG forums and/or blogs.  Fabian, Tamsin and Bethany Rose certainly did, though all have evolved considerably since then.  I've always found the creative process interesting for its own sake.  As well as using character charts, I occasionally sketch the fictional people I write about.  This week, I've been looking for a way of compiling these in a way that appeals to me.  Sketchbooks, being largely experimental or given over to quickly-done work, oftentimes end up containing a few tolerable sketches hidden away amidst a pile of glorified doodles.  Well, mine do anyway!  I'd like to put together some kind of album-cum-scrapbook which combines the best sketches and maybe even some finished art, photography and various mixed media to depict each character's... well, character, even.  The mild irony is that this will

Watercolour and pencil sketch, finished today...  This is a depiction of Rowan, who appears in my short story  Seagull Inn which can be read in Ruins Terra published by Hadley Rille Books.  He also appears anonymously in another short story, Shell Boy , which is published in Riverside Writers 2010 anthology, and is the main character in the eponymously named novel.