HUMOUR AND ANIMALS
G'day folks,
Welcome to some more funny pictures of animals.
Clancy's comment: I love heaps of these. What about you? Make you grin?
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30 April 2017 - RUNNING REPAIRS
RUNNING REPAIRS
G'day folks,
Welcome to some more samples of running repairs.
Clancy's comment: No doubt, every one of them is an unemployed rocket scientist.
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29 April 2017 - MORE TRICKY WORDS
MORE TRICKY WORDS
G'day folks,
Welcome to a few more of those tricky words.
11. HEARTY/HARDY
Hearty is for things that are warm and
nourishing, like a robust welcome or an abundant feast. They have heart. Hardy
is for things that are tough and durable, that can stand up to the elements and
survive. They are hard.
12. DEEP-SEATED/DEEP-SEEDED
Whether
you're talking about fears, habits, or emotions, the correct term is deep-seated.
Talk of depth and rootedness brings the idea of planting to mind, but seeds
don’t enter into this expression.
13. COMPLIMENT/COMPLEMENT
A
compliment is a kind or flattering comment. Complement means to go
together well. Your shoes may complement your dress, but if I remark on how
sharp you look I am giving you a compliment.
14. HOARD/HORDE
To hoard
is to collect and keep things in a secure or hidden place, and hoard
itself keeps its stash of vowels all tucked away inside the word. A horde
is a big crowd. Its vowels are scattered over the word, like a horde of
tourists on a sidewalk.
15. LOATHE/LOATH
Loathe is a verb meaning to hate. It is
a more severe sentiment than loath, which means reluctant. Loath
will always be followed by to, as in “I am loath to make small talk with
people I loathe.”
16. PERPETRATE/PERPETUATE
They only
differ by one letter, but perpetuate gets a whole extra syllable. That
works well, because perpetuate means to keep something going (to make it
perpetual) while perpetrate is to commit a single act, usually a crime.
17. PORE OVER/POUR OVER
When you
study a document carefully, you pore over it (almost as if you are inspecting
its tiny pores). If you were to pour something over it, like juice or coffee,
that would make it much harder to read.
18. CONSCIENCE/CONSCIOUS
Conscience is a noun, and conscious
is an adjective. A conscience can be cleared, or keep you awake at night, or
tell you what decision to make. Conscious is a description of a state.
If you’re conscious you're awake and aware.
19. WHO’S/WHOSE
If you
can substitute in “who is” or “who has,” then the one you want is who’s,
otherwise it’s whose.
20. AMUSED/BEMUSED
It’s
better to be amused than bemused. Amused means entertained, while bemused
means puzzled or confused. It’s the difference between a smile and a head
scratch.
Clancy's comment: I hope you were amused as you pored over these words.
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28 April 2017 - BUZZ WORDS & DI BATES
BUZZ WORDS
&
DI BATES
G'day folks,
Today, I introduce a very successful Australian writer who introduced a subscriber-based
twice-monthly online magazine called BUZZ WORDS. Di has many top book reviewers and one of them, Anastasia Gonis, has written a review for all of my books. Hence, I thought it was time I paid my dues to Di.
ABOUT DI BATES:
Australian
author DIANNE (DI) BATES has published 120+ books for the education and
trade markets. Some of Di’s books have won national and state literary
awards; others have sold overseas. Di
has received Grants and Fellowships from the Literature Board of the
Australia Council and has toured for the National Book Council.
Di
has undertaken commissioned writing for a large number of organisations
and has worked on the editorial team of the NSW Department of Education School Magazine. She was co-editor of a national children’s magazine, Puffinalia (Penguin Books) and editor of another national magazine, Little Ears.
In
2008, Di was awarded The Lady Cutler Prize for distinguished services to
children’s Literature. Her latest books are 11 titles in the fictional
Bushranger series (Desert Dan the Dunnyman won the KOALA children’s choice book award) and Crossing the Line, short-listed for the NSW Premier’s Awards and sold into Germany. More recently she has published a junior verse novel, Nobody's Boy (Celapene Press) and A Game of Keeps (Celapene Press).
In 2006 Di started a subscriber-based twice-monthly online magazine
exclusively for people in the Australian children’s book industry, such as
writers, illustrators, librarians, publishers – in fact, anyone interested in
children’s books. As an editor she gathers
material from many sources and sometimes commission material. Buzz Words’ aim
is to keep readers abreast of what’s currently happening in the children’s book
industry and to give them as many opportunities to get informed and possibly published.
Every issue contains industry news, publisher profiles, profiles of
people in the industry, an interview (editors, publishers, designers, etc),
opportunities, markets, competitions and awards, recommended books and
websites/blogs, festivals and conferences, workshops, article/s, subscribers’
achievements, letters to the editor and children’s book reviews. Links are
frequently provided to help readers.
Buzz Words is as subscriber-friendly as possible. Preference for
interviews, articles, profiles, etc is always given to subscribers. Subscribers
are also given the opportunity to advertise for free if they have a product
and/or service.
The magazine also has a children’s book review blog http://buzzwordsmagazine.com where a new children’s book review appears
every day. Reviews are also linked through the magazine to the blog. Buzz Words
has 20 reviewers; we review for most children’s publishers in Australia.
Di is happy to send anyone the latest issue of the magazine to see if they would like
to subscribe. Contact dibates@outlook.com. Cost
is $48 per year (24 issues). The magazine is distributed on the 1st
and 15th of every month.
ABOUT KIDS BOOKS:
Di also has a children's book imprint as well. Busy lady, eh? Di has published one book All of Us Together
which has gone into reprint and done very well (hopefully it will be
CBCA short-listed) but she would dearly love to publish more. The problem
is that she gets very few submissions, but she believes
there is a real dearth of quality middle grade fiction out there.
Clancy's comment: Dianne (Di) Bates has been in the industry for
decades! She has published over 130 books for children, some of which have won
state and national awards, including two children’s choice book awards (WAYRBA
and KOALA). She is married to award-winning children’s author Bill Condon.
Many thanks to Di and her book reviewers for assisting authors like me. So, folks, there are some opportunities for you on this post, especially you writers of middle grade fiction. Check out the websites above. They are most interesting and certainly user friendly.
Love ya work, Di!
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