The Girdle of Melian

here I was, ready to share photos from a long-ago visit to Thun, when I realised I'd already posted the best ones. And even back in that post, I was talking of being all out of brain power! I'm reposting it, and then will explain below my current reasons for being depleted. *** hotos! I'm all out of brain power -- and so far behind in visiting other blogs! -- in the last two weeks of school. Not to mention that NaNo is going strong. I'm juggling the pacing of the end of the story at the moment, trying to save myself a lot of rewriting later. Although I've left a trail of too many "insert this scene" and "figure out this murder plot" notes behind me. No one ever said that planning a murder investigation was easy! Hope you enjoy these photos of a recent weekend visit to Thun, a town near Interlaken in Switzerland:  Thun marketplace  Signposts! Showing the distances to Rome, London, and many other places  Inter...

he Blogging from A to Z April Challenge has begun! *crickets* It feels very weird not to be participating in it at all, but between work and school and life, things are just too busy at the moment. I can't even keep up with proper commenting on regular blog posts! Good luck to all of you doing the challenge! I'm really looking forward to reading the entries, even if I don't always manage to log in and cheer you on in comments. Today is Insecure Writer's Support Group Day! A really good question this month: If you could use a wish to help you write just one scene/chapter of your book, which one would it be? The main action scene, certainly! I get my characters into place, the antagonist is there with his weapon, and... I stall. Whose fist goes where? Who's wielding the knife? What sorts of sounds and smells and other senses do I need? What kind of biting repartee takes place as they spar? Oddly enough, I used to have more trouble writing dialogu...

y favourite pen! I first blogged about my favourite pen back in 2008. Here's what I wrote then: "Some writers use computers. Some use typewriters, some use pencils. And some of us use pens. We love our pens. We blog about our pens. If I had a typewriter from about 80 years ago, I would probably use it. But until I find or am gifted with such an item [I] will continue to use pens for all drafts and copy edits. Shorthand works best in pen and, though it's a pain to have to type scenes up later on, the process introduces an additional round of edits - those done while entering madly scribbled drafts in a slightly more polished form to the word processor (is "enter to" a verb?). Now the moment you've all been waiting for: this is my favourite pen. The Pilot G-TEC-C4. The finest nib, the smoothest ink flow, the cleanest lines... Plus it's available in every colour of the rainbow, and then some. The one and only drawback is that only the red, ...

nitting round-up for year's end! Last year I didn’t really set any knitting or other craft goals, except to not let them fall completely by the wayside. I mentioned that I needed an excuse to knit something as a gift...and a couple of friends got pregnant! Some of my other posts throughout the year: A Poem and a Few Songs for Burns Night, and ROW80, Including Knitting Playlists, IWSG Day, Knitting in Public, and Elephants! Kait Nolan's New Release! Also, New Mittens and Blog Plans Till January... ROW80, A Completed Project, and The Enchanted April (a finished baby blanket) ROW80 End of Round Wrap Up, and Visits to Yvoire (France) and Gruyeres, plus Photos from Vaud (Switzerland) (another finished baby blanket) Why I didn't knit much: I completed my second year of graduate school, and this guy came along: Another friend also had a baby this year, and a group of mutual friends put together two quilts, one for each of us. Here’s me starting to embroider...