Skip to main content
All Posts By

Antony

Happy Belated Litha & More Rivington Photos

By Adventures, Happiness & Joy, Inspiration, Life, Love & Relationships, Nature, PaganismNo Comments

Happy Belated Litha (see Pagan Festivals)!

Boyfriend-A and I took a spontaneous outing to Rivington on Friday. It happened to be Litha, which is the longest day of the year. It was bright, warm and the perfect evening to explore Rivington. We spent quality time together and I also took the opportunity to appreciate nature.

I have previously blogged about Rivington and included plenty of photos. But I felt compelled to take some more photos of this beautiful place on Friday. So here are some of those photos (click on any image for full size):

Rivington-June14

Boyfriend-A Looking at the view

Rivington-June14

Rivington Ruins 1

Rivington-June14

Rivington Ruins 2

Rivington-June14

The Pond 1

Rivington-June14

The Pond 2

Rivington-June14

Rivington: A Gorgeous View

Rivington-June14

Rivington: Another View

Rivington-June14

Pigeon Tower Information Board

Rivington-June14

Pigeon Tower

I hope you all had a equally fantastic Litha.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


Share on Social Media:

Import: How to Score a Second Date

By Journalism, Love & RelationshipsNo Comments

So you’ve met this man, you really like him and you want to score yourself a second date. Well you’re going to have to impress him.

Here are some ways to impress a man:

On the first date, let’s start with common curtsy: be on time. He’s not going to be impressed if you’re half an hour late because you were doing your hair or choosing what to wear. Leave yourself enough time to get ready and travel to the venue of the date.

Make an effort with your appearance. Looking smart will impress a man far more than looking like you fell out of a skip. Make sure what you wear is appropriate to the venue of your first date. So there’s no need to wear a suit if you’re going to the cinema, but still make an effort to look your best.

When your date arrives give him a genuine complement. We all like receiving a complement, especially if we’ve made a particular effort to look good. So your date will like this and you are likely to be rewarded by a smile and positive regard.

Be confident, but not arrogant or cocky. Watch what you say and do. Are you talking about yourself negatively? What does your body language say about you? You need to like yourself and show that you do, before you can expect your date to appreciate, like and fall for you. Remember: you are wonderful and unique. There’s no one else in the world that’s you.

While we’re talking about body language, keep your eyes off other guys. Looking at other men will tell you’re date that your not interested in him. Your date should be your focus, so keep your attention focused on him and show this by making regular eye contact.

Don’t forget that you’re on a date. It’s supposed to be fun, so have fun, smile often and make him laugh.

In conversation, you should talk about 50% of the time and listen 50% of the time. Ask your date open questions to discover his interests and passions. Keep conversation light. Avoid emotive topics such as: ex-boyfriends and politics.

Always be honest with you date. Trust is built on honesty. If your not honest and things go well, sooner or later he’s going to find out. This doesn’t mean you have to tell him your deepest and darkest secrets on the first date. Save intimate secrets for later on when the relationship has developed. It’s OK to tell him you don’t want do discuss certain subjects until you get to know him better.

Being yourself is perhaps the most important advice in this article. Don’t try to be something you’re not. It’s exhausting and won’t lead to you being happy. Any gay man who has tried to play it straight will know this.

Have no expectations about how the date will go or what will happen. That way you wont disappointed if the spark isn’t there or you don’t get on. But you will be pleasantly surprised if things go well. There are no rules, so just do what feels right.

Published by: The Gay UK on Friday 13th June 2014.



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


Share on Social Media:

My Writing Process for The Good Teen

By CreativityNo Comments
the-good-teen-plot-line

The Good Teen Plot Line

I recently self-published The Good Teen, a modern-day telling of The Good Samaritan parable, with a hint of magic. I want to tell you a bit about my writing process for this short story.

The idea came from my childhood. Being brought up as a Christian we were told the The Good Samaritan parable. It’s a story that has stayed with me and one that I wanted to retell with my own twist. So I wrote/drew out the plot on flipchart (Left: My flipchart for The Good Teen, click on image for full size).

I like to develop my ideas, plots, sub-plots, settings, characters, pacing and description on flipchart as it’s faster than typing and allows me more creative freedom. The creative freedom to draw pictures, arrows and anything else I want to.

I originally decided to publish The Good Teen as a christmas story for my readers. Hoping to start an annual tradition. But then I saw a call for submission on the BBC Writers Room website for the BBC Radio4 Opening Lines programme and decided to write, edit and submit The Good Teen.

I had already written a To Do List for The Good Teen (below) and changed the timescales to meet the submission deadline.

the-good-teen-to-do-list

The Good Teen To Do List

The editing process, as always, was maddening. I had to cut to the word count limit, which meant some scenes were either cut, not written or combined.

Unfortunately, The Good Teen was not long listed by the BBC. So I decided to self-publish it online. You can download The Good Teen on it’s page. It’s a free download, with a Twitter Tweet or Facebook Like in exchange for the download link.

Write soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


Share on Social Media:

Book Review: Thief’s Magic by Trudi Canavan

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
Thiefs-magic-trudi-canavan-cover Thief’s Magic is one of Canavan’s best books to date. Here’s what Thief’s Magic is about according to the Press Release:

In a world where an industrial revolution is powered by magic, Tyen, a student of archaeology, unearths a sentient book called Vella. Once a young sorcerer-bookbinder, Vella was transformed into a useful tool by one of the greatest sorcerers of history. Since then she has been collecting information, including a vital clue to the disaster Tyen’s world faces.

Elsewhere, in a land ruled by the priests, Rielle the dyer’s daughter has been taught that to use magic is to steal from the Angels. Yet she knows she has a talent for it, and that there is a corrupter in the city willing to teach her how to use it – should she dare risk the Angels’ wrath.

But not everything is as Tyen and Rielle have been raised to believe. Not the nature of magic, nor the laws of their lands. Not even the people they trust.

The book is split into two stories, Tyen’s and Rielle’s.

Tyen’s character and storyline were brilliant. His tale is a classic adventure story and grips the readers attention. The reader will like the concept of many different worlds and the concept of the millennium rule. Tyen’s story is compelling and will leave the reader with a hankering for more. More conversations between Tyen and Vella, more exploration of different worlds and more learning of magic.

Rielle’s character felt two dimensional and underdeveloped. Other characters in Rielle’s chapters were much more interesting than her. Canavan had well researched dyes, paints and artistic skill, which she put into the novel as required. There are some imaginative ideas and interesting plot points in Rielle’s story. But as the book continued, I sighed every time I saw Rielle’s name as the chapter title. The problem with Rielle’s character is that I didn’t care about her. This was in part because she lacked depth.

As always Canavan’s writers voice engages the reader. She showed the transition of time really well and the show/tell balance was perfect. The pacing was a little slow at times and the reader will question if some chapters are necessary or important to the story. However Canavan may have been laying the foundations for the two other books in the trilogy. Towards the end of the advanced copy I received, the editing could have been better. There were a number of typos that interrupted the flow of the story, however it is likely these were fixed prior to the printing of the general release.

Overall Thief’s Magic is a great read. Tyen’s story makes the reader excited about the next book and impatient for it to be published.

Thief’s Magic is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


Share on Social Media:
×