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Alive and Kicking.

Alive and Kicking.
So here I sit Alive and Kicking, Double Vaccinated and long missing from my social media profiles. Well lots have gone on # one wife has a YouTube channel see social media Icons and I have added my Flickr which in all honesty was already available and my second Flickr account and Instagram iPhone photography really.     Well this is last year, as we have not got to Christmas yet. # one Daughter in year three of here degree, # one son has decided to give up on his Degree(Hopefully only temporally),  he has moved out with some comedy friends and is perusing Stand Up Comedy as a career. Who am I to say whether its a good Idea or not I always suspected my life to be a bit of a comedy act. Grace is 3 and Diego is about 10 as far as we can tell. so let the Comedy Commence.   NaNoWriMo, remember that thing I was dubious about well as therapy and my doctor tells me I need lots I have signed up for 50,000 words during November. As everything else has stalled why not start another book. (LOL). “The Last Kiss” A YA historical Fiction Novella of all things. The plan to catapult me back into the writing habit and complete the second half of my Magnus Opus and, well and. And what am I listening too all recent purchases from 1001 Albums things I missed along the way. Not sure if they are a good background, soundtrack for a Historical novella base in 16C Istanbul but what is?         All a bit noisy would be my guess. I shall post weekly accounts of my progress and the words I have written and not worry too much about the ones I have not. Have had big hits on my Blog recently can only assume its an error, lots of redirections and such but the world moves mysteriously. Comments are off because I can’t figure how to switch them back on. But the contact in the main Menu gets to me fine. Oh yes if accidentally visiting and want to find out how NaNoWriMo is going subscribe. Any encouragement at this point will help me remain compost Mantis as they say....

# 1 Son thinks it’s Funny!

# 1 Son thinks it’s Funny!
Merry Christmas and what I am hoping is going to be a Happy New Year. # 1 Son thinks it is funny, I am going to try to finish my long awaited book. No not that one or the other one but the one that is Fantasy Fiction. ” The Dark Antiquarian” . # 1 son has no respect for any of my attempts?  No he will not edit, no he will not help with the play , maybe the film script somewhere down the line. For some reason he seems to think to be a writer you actually have to finish a book. Poppycock I say. Where does he get this from? # 1 son at University year 3  Professional Communications, writing, editing and goodness knows what. My story telling. No surely not, but I have to admit he does stand up and is irreverent of me.I was OK, but in early December he rolled my pride and joy , rolled over in the snow and crushed it beyond , well beyond. Yes they are OK, his beat friend and the surprise  puppy for Christmas, Grace I love her but Collie, German Sheppard & Mastiff.   Well what else has happend in glorious 2018, well # 1 Daughter graduated high school and got a place at Grant Mc Ewan university and is doing a BA, undeclared Major yet but probably Psychology, Sociology or Anthropology.     I had Santa send me a prezzie via Amazon and for some reason it was stolen off the door step so they sent me another, Someone is going to be very surprised.   Talking of pressies I was attempting  a Birthday blog and I tracked down some of my recent presents to myself well going back to about 1978, not in any particular order and excluding the ones I drank or ate.   So it only remains to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.    ...

Bleaklow & The Rambling man

Bleaklow & The Rambling man
So the Rambling man returns,climbing his way back on to the interweb and this here Bio-Blog. The Funky Nomad is revealed as no other than…… Now hang on there a tic, maybe just because I have told the Old Man and his friends where to find my Ramblings is no reason to actually come clean. Well I hope not because I like being one of the many alternative me’s out there, where would we all be if along our journey we were not allowed to re-invent ourselves now and again. I had thought to mysteriously reinvent myself as the West Riding Tyke but I have already offered that to a friend should he ever become a radio presenter. Some of you may have spotted the overuse of the word Rambling, not just in this post but posts leading up to this and if you read other posts you may discover words foreshadowing posts to come and why not as it usually takes a year or so for all the pieces to come together. This one in particular has had a longer birth than most it has been probably up to 80 years in its making. Allow me to take you on a journey that ended up here at the bridge with ‘No Berries on the Tree’.     So without further ado I will turn you over to the antics of these four merry men, now I am not claiming that they have as much fun as Compo,Clegg, Foggy and Wally but I have my suspicions. From left to right we have Peter, Malcolm, My Old man and Robin. Like me but in an old school way they mark there passing through the world with a bound journal each year edited and prepared by Malcolm. So here is my Old Mans explanation of what they are doing at the foot of Jacobs ladder.   ‘NO BERRIES’      On August the 20th the gang of four the two Peters, Malcolm and Robin set off from Barber Booth to walk to Harvey’s Rowan Tree planted by his friends in 1995. Although the tree looked very healthy, mysteriously NO RED BERRIES! We couldn’t understand this as similar trees lower down the track were laden with fruit,we decided it was a case for Alan Titchmarsh. ( And so it should be, I...

Who cares? and what’s in it for me?...

Who cares? and what’s in it for me?
So I recently saw the question posed, Who Cares? And who cares in deed. I suppose no one cares so why should I. Lets come at this from another angle whats in it for me, what do I get from this infrequently visited Bio Blog and what on earth did I expect to happen. Who Blogs these days so quaint and old fashioned, with the voices whispering quieter and quieter, Blog after Blog being abandoned, raging click-bait and wide spread disquiet as bloggers in there dozens debate switching off their comment sections, Trolls and Flamers running riot it is a wonder anyone wants to put their delicate selves out there all raw and bloodied on the Interweb. Me Myself and I did it but Incognito lurking behind the anonymity of The Funky Nomad and purposely not telling people who would read my ramblings that I rambled away on my own custom site. Because quite frankly I am no one in particular, I have no S.E.O strategy, no advertising no way of monetizing my grand 9 followers, and possibly I have no business cluttering up the Interweb with my ramblings. I did however come across this awesome widget, there it is in my side bar pulling my Instagram pictures into my blog. Follow that too if you like. Now I know I have been a bit invisible the last couple of months and its pretty simple writing actually writing in any spare minute to struggle towards a first draft on a Novel a first novel no less is bloody tiring a long slog and I just don’t have words spare right now ( Other than the few I am using up here, and these are not the type suitable for my Fantasy Novel anyway.) So Gibbous Tyke as mentioned in other posts  is the hero who has now made his way through  37.6% of the story he is travelling through, we sit at just north of 31,000 word and the odd one or two are pretty good if I do say so myself. But we are in the doldrums the snarly do not really want to type this middle bit but slowly we climb the hump and pretty soon will be headed down hill in the wicked race to the end. And low and behold there are both boys and...

The World of Gibbous Tyke

The World of Gibbous Tyke
I know someone is going to point out that I should probably put this in the control docs or the book its-self, but having already penned 3600 words in those docs and a severe need to get on with it and as I only figured it out Boxing day I thought I would world-build right here. To give assurances to the naysayers and show it can be done.   (There is no reason it can’t appear later in the story. This is an incognito Blog after all and I have no followers, who the hell is there to read ahead.) So sitting here listening to Jethro Tull  “Broadsword and the Beast”  and well if you are going to free-form a fantasy world you need suitable music, if it takes too long I have my Led Zeppelin ready to go. (I did a map thing the other afternoon and am going to use some of my daughters colored pencils to tart it up a bit and no doubt I can post it on the blog for you all to marvel at. One time pass no erasing, what you see is what it is going to be.) Talk of the devil here it is and NO THAT’S A CAMEL (of the dromedary persuasion, I know a song about that but that’s off the point a bit.) So how far do you have to go with this world-building lark? Probably not all the way Tolkien, probably not the Earth just enough stuff to tell the story. Just in case you think I am a real moron I do have some idea what I am doing, I know how Geography, Weather, Land masses, Ecosystems, Populations, Cities, Industry Farming and many ancient and modern societies operate. I know about churches, religions, weapons, fighting systems, sword weights ( looked it up ) and I think I am shifty enough for viable work around’s for most of the pit falls so that even the most bum puckered retentive Fantasy World Watchers can toddle off and go do something more worthwhile. I have fixed the Magic there isn’t any so to speak. I have fixed the Elves and Dwarfs and Dragons, we don’t have any of these either. Language is fixed they all speak English ( or more accurately the same language but we can have some...

Ho Ho No NaNoWriMo (part 2)

If it was easy there would be no cacophony…… So when all the prevaricating and research and original thinking has been applied and the wailing and gnashing of teeth and venting of spleens has been allowed to die what path comes next. Well it turns out its pretty simple, if you want to be a writer, write. I know it’s not very helpful, of all the tasks I have undertaken it requires the hardest of things; drive from the inside. I have looked for help, for clarity what are the fundamentals that allow you to put pen to paper and write and have found some completely awesome blogs and on line help. I have followed a writer from start to finish for a fist book in the Steampunk . Thanks Literary Giant. Some very awesome no nonsense Fantasy advice from terribleminds. So here I sit typing a Fantasy novel of all things, 17 years of frothing at the mouth from pen and paper to Wordperfect to Word and on to Pages. So many first 3 chapters of really great ideas,(Probably) and thanks Chuck for brutal honesty about the writing game and Profanity Generators of truly awesome expanse I can tell you all to ****—**!!! off you dirigible **** tickling cavity marmots. So what does this fantasy world look like where every theme is a cliche and every middle aged white writers fantasy is derided for youth, ethnicity, gender, geographic relevance and RPG hate, magic systems and other  limitations. I believe you write for yourself first, hopefully you have belief enough that you have an audience and hopefully you don’t start by re-writing someone else’s Fantasy Trilogy. Not that I know anything but its a story whatever genre ( Hate that word) so it probably would not be too hard to figure out stories are character driven. So I started there, will anyone care about him. I hope so, hopefully enough to follow his journey. Gibbous Tyke, now has the responsibly to travel through the world entertaining the reader and hopefully having enough guts to stay alive to the end of a book. I am no different to everyone else who has read fantasy trilogies for ever and ever amen. Should he make it there will be an unending assault on the reader. A Trilogy in four parts no less...

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