The Review: Appreciating the countryside
The photo today is one I took in Sandwell Valley last Sunday. The car park at Forge Mill Farm was quite full. Many of the visitors who visit the farm and lake aren’t British. Perhaps they appreciate the English Countryside more? (more…)
More Farmville frustrations
It’s been some time since I wrote a FarmVille post. The original game was good, but it’s designer has left Zynga and the game is unrecognisable now and quite complicated. I have Home Farm, with an extension called Sunflower Meadow. (more…)
How to write a novel | comedy dialogue
If you’re following my story about Nick and Lily and their love-hate relationship, you will know that they went to visit Victoria, Lily’s friend from university. Mr Knight is the Lord of the Manor and Nick has a job working for him as an assistant gardener. The comedy must come in the dialogue between the characters and most of all in the dialogue between Nick and Lily. I need an event to trigger some dialogue.
Neodigital Art | changing colours
At this time of year I like to record the changing colours as the seasons change. We’re are month into Autumn in England and so I expect all the colours of nature to change as winter approaches. You can see the colours better, when we have better light. In this picture you can see the first signs of winter colours.
How to write a novel and make it plausible
If you’re following these blogs about writing a novel, then you will know the story is about Nick and Lily. Nick is typically English and a little reserved and Lily is American and extrovert. So far they have travelled in Nick’s camper van to Shropshire in England, after being thrown together by circumstances. That sounds plausible, doesn’t it?
Neodigital Art | Step by step edit
As I write this I can see blue skies and sunshine. It wasn’t like that when we went out to take photographs on Sunday, it was dull and cloudy. It looks nice today, but the wind is a cold Arctic wind. I might still try to take a few photographs later. This picture is after I did the edit, take a look at the before picture, very dull.
How to write a novel | places
The story so far in my attempts to write a novella length story, is that our protagonist; Nick, buys a camper van and sets off on an adventure. He travels the English Countryside until he meets Lily, an American from New England and forms a love-hate relationship with her. I don’t really want to go on a road trip through the English Countryside and so I’ll have to use my imagination. I can imagine Nick stopping in a quaint village and watching cricket on the village green. It could look something like my picture!
How to write a novel | relationships
If you have followed my blog about writing fiction, then you know the story so far. Nick lives in Birmingham, England in his late parents house, near the airport. His parents were killed in a horrible accident while on holiday in America and Nick is now traumatised by those events. He travelled to America to bring his parents home and now hates all things American. He travels around England in a campervan until he meets Lily, a young American woman and forms a love-hate relationship. (more…)
How to write a novel | English Countryside
If you are following this series of blog about writing fiction. You will know the story so far. Nick’s parents were killed in America and he now hates all things American. He is going to sell everything and travel around the English countryside, until me meets an American woman and forms a love-hate relationship with her. I think that gives us a basis for a romantic adventure with lots of twists and turns. I still need a name for the woman and I need a starting point for this journey. (more…)
How to write a novel | details and authenticity
When you are writing fiction it’s a good idea to make it plausible by including a few details that might otherwise go unnoticed. Last week I introduced you to my character Nick who I said could be someone who dreams of becoming a gypsy and travelling. I thought maybe he could tour England in a camper van and that would give us a nice scenario for an adventure, a thriller or even a romance. If I wanted something really unusual, he could do the tour on a canal boat and experience England’s 17th century canals. Take a look at the picture and think what little details might make the story sound more authentic. There are fancy little benches along the canal on this stretch and notice the black and white mooring points too. A lot of narrowboats chose this place to spend the night a couple of weeks ago. (more…)
One of those days…
I usually write about writing today or how to write a novel; but I’m having one of those days when things won’t go right. I’ve been trying to turn off the magnifier permanently on my laptop; it is a real pain. It keep coming on and changing the size of text at odd times. I think I did something yesterday and now all the thumbnails for my photos have disappeared! It makes it hard to select photos for my blogs. I’ve tried the help files, they were no help at all. I tried the Microsoft site and that is useless too. I wish they would go back to the old days when we had a book to go with the operating system and a way of programming our computers that was easy. (more…)
Psychology | Greed
Birthday Cake
Imagine for a moment that you have been invited to a birthday party and when you turn up someone has already eaten half the birthday cake! The greedy and overweight perpetrator excuses his behaviour, by saying that he invested in the farm, that grew the wheat, that made the flour, that the baker used to make the cake! He was entitled to a bigger slice! This is the sort of excuse the greedy always come out with. Those who believe in the religion of avarice seem to know no shame! (more…)
Farmville | Winter Wonderland
It’s been a while since I wrote a Farmville blog, it gets more complicated and time consuming. If you still have your dairies then you can make lots of coins and level up easily. I’m on level 685 and one of my neighbours is on level 750, maybe higher now! (more…)
Farmville FAQ
How do I put the train together?
It’s not a puzzle, you use straight pieces to go straight and corner pieces to go around corners! You can go to the market and enter ‘train’ in the search box because the straight bit is separate from the corners. To get the engine, you ‘make’ one in the craftshop using red clover, apple wood baskets and hay. I know it makes no sense – this is FarmVille. (more…)
Mike10613's Blog 