Geas or How to tie your character in knots
In my fantasy world Skyss they use geas to control people. Not everyone is under a geas, but those in public office have it as place of their oath of allegiance. Similarly prisoners get a geas of public service compelling them to atone for their offences. Also I had my bad guy put one of my characters under a geas, just because it sort of made sense to the plot. What is a Geas? English:a design from the Book of Kells, fol. 29r. Traced outlines in black and white representing three intertwined dogs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A geas (pronounced gesh) is a sort of unbreakable vow. It's a celtic thing that appears in Scots & Irish folklore and legends. It's a bit more than a curse, in the sense that there are positive benefits to accepting a geas. Being under…
Resolutions – Review of 2016’s Resolutions & Setting 2017’s
I seem to have started a tradition of posting my new year resolutions, so I'm going to continue this with my 2017 resolutions. But before you get the 2017 resolutions I think we should look at how well I've done on the 2016 resolutions. 2016 Resolutions There were three of these posted on 1 Jan 2016. Read 40 books, at least half on paper Write Lose weight 2016 Reading According to my Goodreads tracker I've read 47 books this year. I think that I might have missed one or two off, but it's certainly more than the original 40. Also I counted 26 that I read in hard copy. This was slightly easier because I've not been carrying my Kindle around with me. A lot of the reading has been at home or on holiday. Resolution exceeded! Writing I said I…
2016 Stats for Themself – a review of the blog
The Garden Bookshelf in my potting shed, which is the real life equivalent of Themself During 2016 my blogging was patchy, I had some spells of not blogging frequently (notably in November & December). However I managed to write 81 blog posts, of which 77 have been published. That's over 47,000 words of new blog posts, not to mention the pictures. Not all of my blog writing was for Themself, some of it went on Cold Steel and a little went on a new fork of my leadership and work-related material called Red Leader. I've not really had time to do much with Red Leader, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually. The two forks took some of the traffic away from Themself, but that gives this blog a little more focus, and it still has by far and away the most material of all…
Henley Fort WW2 Experience with Year 6
I went to Henley Fort with my son's Year 6 class earlier today. Year 6 at Furzefield Primary School are just finishing their WW2 history module, they've studied WW2 since September. So today was a WW2 experience for them all to get a practical feel for what it was like being a member of the Home Guard or an ARP Warden. Henley Fort do both, and we split into two groups and had an hour and a half taster of each one. About Henley Fort Henley Fort is one of the outer London defences built in the late 19th Century, similar to Reigate Fort. It's up the hill behind the city centre in Guildford. The Forts were originally built as mobilisation centres, and artillery batteries, if the UK was invaded. They saw a bit of a revamp during WW1 and…
Early Writing (aged 7) – My Kitten
Alexander asked me how tall I was when I was his age, and I found this piece of my early writing in the book that my mother recorded such things - a story entitled 'My Kitten'. It's not precisely dated, but it refers to my baby brother, and that gives it a window for when he was a baby. So I was seven when I wrote it, in the very late 1970s. My Kitten My kitten is called peper. It drinks whisky mixed with beer and brandy. Sometimes it runs away with with my action men but it plays with the baby. It's basket is under Michael's cot. It eats 3 meals a day. It likes going out. Sometimes I play with it. Sometimes it goes on my bed and it likes watching television. Commentary 'My Kitten' is definitely a piece…