Excuses, excuses...

I have just noticed that I haven't posted on this blog for nigh on six weeks. I should say "Bad Wayne!" and other remonstrations to myself of that ilk, but I have been busy. So sue me. Anyway, time to do some planning.

Beta Reading

Hola. I'm back off a weeks holiday with the family and finally shucking the skin of the A - Z Challenge off my shoulders. Really felt a bit wiped out after all of that! While I was off, I started beta reading for a Five Sentence Fiction colleague of mine; Phillip R Hall at Crazy Flipper Fingers.

Z is for Zenith

Here we are. The last post of the A-Z Challenge 2013 and it's a hard letter. What do you post for Z? I have to be honest, I'm at a loss. Doesn't mean I won't try...

Y is for Yawp

One of my favourite films is Dead Poets Society. It stars Robin Williams at his mercurial best, firing one liners  at a rate of knots. It's wonderful stuff. I remember going to see it in the cinema on my own as a 17 or 18 year old. I laughed like a drain all the way through and then at the end (slight spoiler alert) I cried like a child into my enormous casket of popcorn. On my own in a packed cinema.

X is for Xenophobe

I'm plugging this series of books as I want you to read them because they are funny. I'm not getting paid for the plug or anything so sinister as that. Every now and again, it's important to have fun poked at yourself and these books do it in a broad way that you can't take offence to. Well, you could, but that would be silly.

W is for Writing

So, here we are at the crux of it. The tail end of the A-Z Challenge and I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I'm sure that there are a bunch of you out there that are feeling good about yourselves too. Nearly twenty six posts in the bag in one calendar month. That's a lot of writing.

V is for Vernacular

A little while back I had to put my car in for a service and took a half day off work to go and pick it up in the afternoon. I rock up at the garage and I see that the mechanic is still working on my car and am told that I have to pick it up the morning after. No problem I say and call a cab to take me home as it's pouring with rain. Cab arrives and it's a big MPV thing, a Citroen Picasso or something. The cab driver is a genial fellow and wants to chat.

U is for Ubiquitous

This is a stretch to get to the subject matter I'm blogging about, but I'm nothing if not game. I'll roll the writers sleeves up and get down to business.

T is for Totally Forgot

I totally forgot to do this one. I'm not even joking either. My alphabet completely misses T and goes straight from S to U. Maybe I'm secretly ancient Irish. Their alphabet called Ogham has only twenty five letters, grouped in clusters of five. There, you learned something. I'm all about the esoteric knowledge today.

Rock on,

W.

S is for Stromboli

Here we are at S. When I was writing down the random list of subjects I was going to blog about this month, I thought a recipe would be a good idea. So, here is an Assiratti family favourite: Stromboli. When I first started making this I didn't know what it was called and it became known as "Dad Bread" in our household. I cannibalised a recipe I saw on a cooking channel once made by the very delicious Giada de Laurentis. Hubba, hubba. The kids are big fans. Of the bread, not her. That would be weird. This recipe is a really sneaky way of getting spinach into the kids without them noticing too. Apologies for the poor photos, they were taken on my phone, but I think you will get the idea.

R is for Rewind

Everyone has regrets in their life, whether they be decisions not taken, lovers shunned or things uttered in the heat of the moment. What if I had taken that job, or should I have tried harder at that thing maybe? Should I have talked to that person in that bar one day when they caught my eye, fought harder for that thing....