Ragtag Giggagon

When Jerry Springer did Who Do You Think You Are he traveled to Central Europe to visit the camps at which his ancestors had perished. Immediate ancestors, generationally-speaking. He cried.  I felt no sympathy for him. Why not?  Because he stands in the audience of his show ripping the piss out of people.  He drags men out on stage to be told they've been unintentionally dating other men, tells a fat guy and his skinny woman (who's just been revealed as transgender to the fat guy) that, as a couple, they "look like a perfect ten from here". That sort of thing. It's sort of binary. But is he funny? Yes.  Is he politically correct, in terms of progressive values? Yes he is. Would I support him? Yes I would, mostly.

George Roberts’ semi-autobiographical work of fiction, From Ten Down to Three , features a teen protagonist who faces a tumour on his brain and is forced to evaluate life early on. The true-to-life humorous tale about overcoming struggle is available at Amazon. George: Can I ask how your brain tumour impacted on your life? Did you begin to plan for the future in ways that you hadn't previously? The brain tumour affected my life in a very positive way. I had been having the headaches for years. I was told my doctors that there was nothing wrong for all those years too. I went through my early life knowing that something wasn't quite right but put trust in the professionals, I just dealt with the headaches and they became the norm. It wasn't until I banged my head that things were investigated, by sheer luck and whilst looking for a possible blood clot the tumour was found. This made me feel very lucky. I quickly realised that life was very precious and at times full of chanc

Amie African Adventure by Lucinda E. Clarke , available at Amazon , is a genre-defying thriller with a prologue that really draws the reader in before settling back to introduce its characters and set the scene. With some keen cultural observations, it's got some great twists, upping the pace until its denouement which is both satisfying, and establishes the background for the sequel in the series. Amie is in part a primer in corrupt non-western countries, written with a flair for documentary as well as action. Jonathon and Amie are a couple on-the-up in England. Although Amie’s career in media production is stagnating ever-so-slightly, working as she does as a receptionist at a production house, she is eager to progress and knows how to hold a video camera. Jonathon is in Facilities and Engineering, and he gets an offer from his employer to travel overseas and establish a water desalination plant in the country of Togodo, in Africa. His wife is reluctant to travel; the project is

Lucinda E Clarke is the author of a series of novels set in Africa featuring her heroine Amie Fish (née Reynolds). The original book of the series serves (perhaps) as a primer for those unfamiliar with African culture and issues related to endemic corruption (in countries like Zimbabwe) or the simplicity and beauty of bush life among such ethnic groups as the pygmies and Maasai. She opened our email chat as I read the first novel, over the course of a number of weeks, with thoughts about starting the series with Amie: African Adventure and what she’s learned since. I wish I could re-write Amie 1 as I've learned so much about novel-writing since then. I spend far too much time setting the scene, although as a series it does put things in perspective. Perhaps this opening is a little chick-litty in a (good) way, in the sense of a dinner conversation where emotions are fraught, for instance. Lots of drama with the move overseas. But you've established the biographical elements

My collection of short fiction, Fade to Black , has been some time coming into existence.  Many of the stories - some of them shortlisted for contests and prizes or previously published or broadcast on radio - are over ten years old. You can buy the book at Amazon .  Some excerpts are below. From "Checkers"  From Il Miglior Fabbro   From The Road Movie    

When you do a smiley face, it sometimes has a little label that appears when you hover over it. Some of them say ::slightly smiling face:: or something similar More often than not, the correspondent has not chosen an emoji based on that option.  They may just have typed it, : - )  like that, or similar. I have questioned such smiley faces in the past. All I'm saying is, there's often no need for people to question why other people are just SLIGHTLY smiling.