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Getting the bird

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Last weekend, on the instructions of the RSPB and the BBC so who was going to dare decline, the nation counted its birds. For an hour of our own choosing on either the Saturday or the Sunday we were to sit peering into our  gardens cataloguing the wee wing-ed beasties as they dropped in for a visit. Robins – 2 of, Collared doves – 3 of, Sparrows – 4, no make that 5 of, Blue Tits – 2, 5, 3, DAMN keep still will ya! Starlings? Who’s here for Starlings? The instructions were to watch only for an hour and … Continue reading Getting the bird

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Prune-Ella gets second equal!

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Or thirteenth equal depending on your glass-half-full-glass-half-empty perspective. The winner was more than worthy, a tight tale with lovely pace and rhythm, and only the requisite number of ‘I’s. Competition over, Prune-Ella is now out in the wild via the Nano Fiction page. Meanwhile, one of my other stories, submitted to the critiquing zoo queue, has had some quite mixed comments. To broadly simplify; half seemed baffled by the concept, didn’t quite see a plot, and wanted parts that I thought were the crucially speculative elements, more spelled out. The other half loved it, got the plot, and bought into the speculation. Both views … Continue reading Prune-Ella gets second equal!

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and it was all going so well..

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

After the snow we had mud and then we had torrential rain but today, just short of the frogs and boils which must surely follow, the day was glorious. Beautiful sunshine, the river at its height, blue sky reflected in large tracts of still water on the flood plain, and swans posing for photographs along the banks. Back in the garden, birds were visiting to take advantage of the food left out for them, and a butterfly – I kid you not – landed on the parasol. I kid you not about that unlikely feature either; every time I went out to … Continue reading and it was all going so well..

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Let battle commence!

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The CC ‘I-less’ writing challenge has closed and Prune-Ella is up against 13 others for the grand title of – well, nothing at all really. I must say though, if Prune-Ella did her stuff and flounced the opposition, I would be ridiculously pleased and need restraining from making postcards to send to people I hardly know. Also completed today was the last tutorial of the OU course which leaves just the final assignment due at the end of the month. I have a half formed offering that reads ok but doesn’t grab me. Do I work on it and make it … Continue reading Let battle commence!

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This ikigai stuff is dangerous!

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

There I was, ticking along with the bi-partite job bringing in the money and the sense of having a handle on things while I scratched away at snippets of fiction, then one sniff of ikigai and I’m thinking ‘novel’! How does that happen? How will it happen? I’m pretty familiar with project management and, way back in oooh-you-don’t-want-to-know, determined that my PhD was only going to take as long as I was being paid for so I’ve already got three years in my head. I’m conveniently ignoring the fact that I’m still working full time but I wonder if I should … Continue reading This ikigai stuff is dangerous!

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Snowbound

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Due to an abundance of snow, and for the most part we’re inconvenienced here by even a light dusting, there has been quite a lot of down time lately. No doubt someone will mutter about the billions-worth of lost productivity and eventually we will find ourselves unaccountably responsible for the national debt due to chucking a few snowballs about instead of growling at co-workers and sending pointless emails with red flags attached. Meanwhile, in the absence of proper direction, much of the population is regressing to the year Daft and cavorting around in wellies with dogs. Any dogs will do, even … Continue reading Snowbound

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Prune-Ella, Queen of the Dessert

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Yes! Finished the exercise and submitted it to CC for what will probably be a right royal chewing! I’m not even sure if I followed the rules or not as appreciation of parts of speech and flying participles (or was that buttresses?) was obstinately non-stick at school, predating teflon by some considerable margin. I’ve always written rather more by feel than by knowledgable construction and so can come unstuck, to pursue the metaphor (or is it an analogy? You see my problem?), when push invariably comes to shove. Anyway, all that can come of this enterprise is deep humiliation or the satisfaction of not drawing attention to myself as I … Continue reading Prune-Ella, Queen of the Dessert

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