Hear ye, hear ye! This blog has moved from tumblr to wordpress.

I simply got fed up with the irritating mysteries of the interface. I have numerous posts which supposedly have comments but which I can’t access. I supposedly have a message but when I click on it there’s nothing there. I’ve contacted tumblr support - I think it was some time just after the Boer War - and was told how much they appreciated my support and feedback and they would deal with it very soon. And I was given a very impressive Ticket Number. I asked them how their engineers were getting along in early September, and was given an even more impressive Ticket Number and was told that their engineers were aware of the issue and would deal with it very soon.

Well, the mounting anticipation and excitement has proved too much for my constitution, and I’ve now packed my bags and moved wordpress. Same blog name:

http://ramblesofawriter.wordpress.com/

All welcome for a blog-warming!

…are useful devices because they enable people to communicate over long distances WITHOUT HAVING TO SHOUT.

Pass it on.

A complaint has flooded in regarding the Most Versatile Biscuit award and the omission of the ever-popular Custard Cream. You can dunk it, eat it as it is, prize it apart and lick or nibble the cream, and probably do a lot of other things with it too.

It will be duly considered the next time the red carpet is rolled out.

I am re-reading my well-thumbed copy of Bill Bryson’s Troublesome Words, and I couldn’t help chuckling at this example of what he calls a dangling modifier: “Although sixty-one years old when he wore the original suit, his waist was only thirty-five.”

My favourite example of how words can have an unintended, although it’s not a dangling modifier, was something I spotted in the local press years ago: “Police hold man over fire”.

I’m sure he soon confessed…

Most Promising Newcomer - CADBURY’S CARAMEL BISCUITS. A little contrived, but combining a biscuit with a much-loved chocolate bar.

Best Dunker - The GINGER BISCUIT in its many guises and names. Perfect as a treat with a nice cuppa.

Best Stand-Alone Eater: THE CHOCOLATE DIGESTIVE. Can be dunked, but with sometimes melty, messy consequences.

Most Versatile: THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE. Hard to say whether it’s better dunked or as it is - but always very more-ish.

Most Boring: THE RICH TEA BISCUIT. Slightly preferable to cardboard.

The “Whatever Happened To?” Award: THE HOBNOB in its various guises. Innovative in its day, but messy and prone to break the teeth of the unwary.

Most Addictive: CRINKLE CRUNCHES. Once you’ve had one, the whole packet has to go.

Lifetime Achievement Award: (i.e. for a biscuit which you would only choose if there were no others left or as a gift for others, yet which has managed to hang around forever) THE NICE BISCUIT.

That concludes the Annual Biscuit Awards. All decisions are final and the judges are unable to enter into any discussions as to the merits of the various winners, other than with those who have paid to have an entrant mentioned.

My forthcoming international best seller, a non-fiction book about England’s last duel has a title!

It was initially to be simply called The Last Duel, which I much preferred, but I had already had a children’s version published with that title and the publishers of that didn’t want two books of the same title on the market even though one was for adults, so we had to come up with something else.

It seemed that every time the publishers came up with something, I didn’t like it (and I can be very stubborn!) and they didn’t much like my offerings. Anyway, we eventually settled on something we both liked:

A Matter of Honour - The Story of England’s Last Duel

Watch the skies - it’s out in November!

In Writing Magazine there is an article on the latest Bulwer-Lytton prize for bad writing. This won the second prize - but in my opinion this one, which won 2nd prize, was better and I keep chuckling to myself whenever I think of it. (To the uninitiated, Bulwer-Lytton was unwittingly bad, but the entries for the prize are deliberately bad!)

“As I stood among the ransacked ruins that had been my home, surveying the aftermath of the senseless horrors and atrocities that he been perpetrated on my family and everything I hold dear, I swore to myself that no matter where I go, no matter what I had to do or endure, I would find the man who did this…and when I did, when I did, oh, there would be words.”

when you buy any sort of packet wrapped in cellophane with one of those thin red strips around it which is supposed to help you open it, you can never get hold of the end of the red strip, or the end of it it breaks off - and you end up having to hack the thing open with a knife or pair of scissors?