Welcome to this series of writing tips.  If you would like to pen a guest post for this series, email me at ACBwrites@aol.com . One of the frequently occurring ideas have met with, during my years with Riverside Writers, insists that there is, hidden away somewhere, a formula which guarantees success. People holding to this belief will invest much time and energy on courses, workshops, 'How To' books, endless research or the latest software searching for this formula. Courses may be interesting and educational, and the student may well graduate clutching a pretty certificate and a sense of personal fulfilment. Something similar could be said of workshops, and any gathering of like-minded people can bring an opportunity for networking. Both courses and workshops tend to be money-earning ventures, which is no bad thing in itself - most people like to supplement their income! - but remember that as educational establishments are now run as businesses, it is in thei...

I've gone frog mad.   I've now got a bee in my bonnet about making a proper frog pond, as our garden has been invaded by millions of baby frogs.   I tried making a small one yesterday only the DIY plastic liner leaks.   Who'd have guessed that, hmm?   I didn't see any holes in it, so  either I missed the holes or I picked porous plastic.   Oh well, as spontaneous bright ideas go, the principle worked ok even if it failed in practise.   No matter - I've now bought a proper liner and underlay off eBay for about £10, and I've been reading up online about how to build a frog pond properly.   I had visions of having to dig half way to the Earth's core, but apparently 25cms is perfect for the deepest point and gently sloping sides all round are supposed to be best as tadpoles like swimming about in warm shallows. The liner will be longer than the plastic I've used, but that's ok as I can easily lift everything out of the way and re-dig the pond a ...

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Welcome to this series of writing tips. If you would like to pen a guest post for this series, email me at ACBwrites@aol.com . The challenge of filling the blank space on a screen can feel daunting to some new writers.  They want to write but can't quite get going.  They can write, but don't know where to start.  They've a million ideas but what if it all goes wrong?  So they stare at the screen and wait for inspiration to zap some inspiration into their lives.  Meanwhile, the clock's ticking and nothing is getting written.  The more this hurdle is thought about, the bigger it seems to get. At Riverside Writers, we set a monthly writing project to give people a starting point.  This can take the form of a title, a location, a first line or a set of objects which need to be included in a story or poem.  We have been doing this for several years now and those who participate regularly have found it a very useful tool to help them get writing....

Click on the image to view it larger.     I was surprised to discover that one of my poetry ebooks, Entering the Grove , currently ranks at #66 in the Amazon.com Best Sellers listing for "Inspirational and Religious Poetry". The book blurb reads: "This collection of Adele Cosgrove-Bray’s poetry describes how, at the age of nineteen, she entered an order known variously as the Eternal Companions or the Initiates of Ma'at, which was led by an elderly man called Thomas Joseph Walton, (or "T"). His philosophy was similar to that of GI Gurdjieff's.  Entering the Grove describes her seven years with this group. She hoped to find answers to a series of experiences which had haunted her since early childhood, as depicted in the poems I Wonder , Twilight and Love's Hermitage , but she gradually became disillusioned with Walton’s philosophy. In 1999, Adele joined the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD), and this heralded the start of...

Emily and Poppi inspect pools of water beside the sea wall.   Hoylake Beach   Looking towards Hilbre Island   Adele at Red Rocks, Hoylake, with dogs Emily and Poppi.     Richard sitting on Red Rocks, on Hoylake Beach. Sand dunes and grassy marsh running from Red Rocks alongside West Kirby beach. Sparrowhawk hovering over the grassy sand dunes along West Kirby beach.   Several of my short stories and one of my Artisan-Sorcerer novels, Rowan , are set close to Hoylake and West Kirby beaches.  So here're a few photos so you can see the location for yourself.  Richard and I were here this morning, taking our dogs for a walk.  It was breezy but sunny and pleasant, though three hours later it's pouring down.  The weather is typically changeable here, being right on the coast and with being a peninsula, which seems to create its own microclimate anyway.   Click on the photos to see them bigger, ...

One of the tiny frogs currently in our garden.  An army of tiny frogs has invaded our garden.  The photo above shows just one of them, sitting on our block-paved drive at the side of our house, which gives a good idea of just how small they truly are.  They're so cute!  We have to really watch where we're putting our feet, there're so many of them.  It's as well that we have no chickens at the moment, as the eggs would be so full of reassembled frog that the eggs would start hopping. Our roses have been fabulous this year.  Not so our raspberries, which tasted vile and quickly went past their best.  My attempt at growing garlic ended in a shrivelled disaster, and I suspect that the sun has been too fierce for the shoots to thrive.  The rosemary cuttings have taken well to their new spot in the far border, however, and the broom looks ok too.  The big box of wild flower seeds that I sprinkled round the borders has produc...