My God, It's Raining

New post up on Wordpunk from yours truly.

The link is here.

I DEMAND YOU ENJOY IT

While on the bus to the Kielder marathon, I overheard someone saying to their friend that he had used all of his “ninja skills” to “get out of the house in 25 minutes.”

It made me think – either he vastly underestimates the capabilities of ninjas, or every surface in his house is lined with spikes and he has to move around it in absolute silence otherwise he’ll set off the nerve gas traps.

This weekend Alistair and I both completed the inaugural Kielder Marathon.  It’s been a surprisingly short six months since we both found out that we had got places and that we were going to be doing our first marathon ever, and while I can’t say that I enjoyed the actual running of the marathon, it’s been a pretty fun journey.

One of the first things I should say is thanks to everyone who supported us while we were training up for the event.  We raised £1343.80 for kidney research, which was far in excess of what we anticipated.  So thanks all, from Nigel, Alistair, and myself.

I will warn you now, there are photos of paleness after the link.

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A bit late this month, but here’s the story for October’s competition on the Chrons.  The theme is “Trick or Treat”.

‘Hold on, man – we don’t go anywhere with “scary,” “spooky,” “haunted,” or “forbidden” in the title.’

“So you haven’t seen them at all?”

Officer Hardy looks at me hopelessly, drained by the flood of calls that have poured out of his radio since nightfall. He rubs his hands together to ward off the cold.

“Why don’t you come inside, officer. Warm yourself for a second.”

He smiles, touched by my concern, and steps across the portal.

I’ll drive his car out of town tomorrow.

No-one’s left to notice.

I’ve decided to start cross-posting links, simply because I don’t think I advertise my own ramblings nearly enough to satisfy the cravings of my nigh-insatiable ego.

Say that after four pints!

Anyway, there’s a new post up at Wordpunk by yours truly.  It’s about remakes, and the sad panda feelings they evoke in my fragile heart.

Link

Bonus points if you get the movie right from the quote.  Yes, I do love that movie. It’s not even a guilty pleasure.  I pity the people that don’t get it.

I pity them.

So – NewCon5, part 2.

After the book launch it was drinks and dinner time at the convention.  The staff were doing their level best to get the barbecue up, running, cooking and serving up deliciousness in short order but they were severely tested by the actual size of their barbecue – a gas-fired number obviously intended to cook for 6-10 people as opposed to a convention of 100-odd.

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Again, I’ve not been doing terribly well at this blogging malarkey of late, and hopefully those of you who actually click through and read my ‘blog will forgive me. Rather than explain myself (beyond, perhaps, saying that I had an absolutely shit Great North Run and really didn’t feel like writing about how I ended up taking forty minutes to cover the last 4 km, limping like Herr Flick all the damn way), I thought I’d write about NewCon, which I just got back from.

Literally, just back. Merely long enough to settle hats and say, I nearly…-nope, sorry, I’ll stop larking about.

Write it up while it’s fresh, that’s the key.

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