365 Days of writing, 2026 – Beyond the second novel

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Writing a compelling book or television series requires a complex infrastructure to keep audiences engaged over multiple installments. Beyond generational lineages, world-building locations, historical integration, and timelines, several critical structural elements are essential for crafting a successful series:

1. The Overarching Narrative Arc (The Macro-Plot)

While individual books or episodes have their own self-contained conflicts, a series requires a macro-plot that spans the entire run.

The “Uber-Conflict”: This is the ultimate threat, mystery, or goal that won’t be resolved until the final installment (e.g., defeating a Dark Lord, solving a multi-year conspiracy, or reaching a distant destination).
The Breadcrumb Trail: Each installment must advance this macro-plot slightly, offering clues, minor victories, or shifts in power so the audience feels a continuous sense of momentum.

2. Series-Length Character Arcs

Characters in a standalone story change over 300 pages; characters in a series must evolve sustainably over thousands of pages.

Slower Burn Development: Flaws, trauma, and growth must be rationed. A character shouldn’t overcome their core emotional wound in book one, or they will have nowhere to go in book two.
The Cost of Consistency: Writers must balance keeping characters recognizable (their core traits, humor, or skills) with allowing them to be permanently altered by the events of each previous installment.

3. Structural Formula & Narrative Pacing

A series needs a reliable structural blueprint so the audience knows what kind of experience to expect.

Procedural vs. Serialised: You must decide if your series is episodic (a “monster-of-the-week” or “case-of-the-book” format where status quo is largely maintained) or serialised (one continuous, unfolding story where you cannot skip an instalment).
The 70/30 Rule: A common pacing strategy where roughly 70% of an individual book focuses on resolving the immediate, self-contained plot, while 30% dedicatedly services the ongoing series-wide arcs and subplots.

4. The Integration of Subplots (A-Plot, B-Plot, C-Plot)

To keep a long-form story from feeling stagnant, a series relies heavily on a rotating matrix of subplots.

The A-Plot: The immediate conflict of the current book (e.g., catching this killer).
The B-Plot: Ongoing character relationships, personal dramas, or professional rivalries that evolve slowly across multiple books.
The C-Plot: Subtle seeds planted for future books—an unexplained magical anomaly, a background political shift, or a minor character who will become the main antagonist three books later.

5. Managing Information Architecture

In a series, how you ration and recall information is just as important as the plot itself.

The Exposition Balance: Every subsequent installment must gracefully remind returning readers of past events without alienating or boring them, while simultaneously catching up new readers.
Payoff Trajectory: You must master the art of the setup and payoff across vast distances. A passing comment in book one might be the twist ending of book four.

6. Theme and Motifs

A series is often unified by a central thematic question that is explored from multiple angles through different characters and situations across the installments.

Thematic Evolution: If book one explores the corrupting nature of absolute power, book two might explore the burden of rebuilding after power falls, and book three might look at the compromises required to maintain peace. The setting and characters stay the same, but the thematic lens shifts.

…

“Sunday in New York”, a romantic adventure that’s not a walk in the park!

“Sunday in New York” is ultimately a story about trust, and what happens when a marriage is stretched to its limits.

When Harry Steele attends a lunch with his manager, Barclay, to discuss a promotion that any junior executive would accept in a heartbeat, it is the fact that his wife, Alison, who previously professed her reservations about Barclay, also agreed to attend that casts a small element of doubt in his mind.

From that moment, his life, in the company, in deciding what to do, his marriage, his very life, spirals out of control.

There is no one big factor that can prove Harry’s worst fears, that his marriage is over, just several small, interconnecting events, when piled on top of each other, point to a cataclysmic end to everything he had believed in.

Trust is lost firstly in his best friend and mentor, Andy, who only hints at impending disaster, Sasha, a woman whom he saved, and who appears to have motives of her own, and then in his wife, Alison, as he discovers piece by piece, damning evidence that she is about to leave him for another man.

Can we trust what we see with our eyes or trust what we hear?

Haven’t we all jumped to conclusions at least once in our lives?

Can Alison, a woman whose self-belief and confidence are about to be put to the ultimate test, find a way of proving their relationship is as strong as it has ever been?

As they say in the classics, read on!

…

Purchase:

http://tinyurl.com/Amazon-SundayInNewYork

The cinema of my dreams – Was it just another surveillance job – Episode 50

I’m back home and this story has been sitting on the back burner for a few months, waiting for some more to be written.

The trouble is, there are also other stories to write, and I’m not very good at prioritizing.

But, here we are, a few minutes opened up and it didn’t take long to get back into the groove.

Chasing leads, maybe

Just because you have a security card with your name on it doesn’t mean you are cleared. Yesterday, maybe, but today? Anything can happen in 24 hours, much like the political landscape.

When I walked in the front entrance and up to the scanning gate, I was just another employee coming into work. I ran my card through the scanning device, and the light turned red.

It failed.

In the time it took for me to scan it a second time, a security guard had arrived from the front desk, and a soldier, armed and ready was standing behind me.

I didn’t doubt for one minute he would shoot me if I tried to run.

“What seems to be the problem?” The security guard was polite but firm.

“My card that scanned the last time and worked, doesn’t seem to work now.”

I could read his expression, ‘you just got fired, and are trying to get back in.”

“Let me try.”

I gave him the card, he looked at it, no doubt to see if there was any damage, then tried it.”

“Have you any other means of identification?”

Now, here’s the thing. This was the office full of spies and support staff all of whom could be using assumed names, different guises, or just plain secretive with their private information. Luckily I had a driver’s license with the name on the card, but not much else.

I thought about telling him about the place he was guarding, but I doubted he would listen.

He looked at both, then handed back the license.

“Come with me over to the counter and we’ll see if we can sort this out.”

It was not a request, nor was I unaccompanied. I now had a soldier permanently attached to me.

When we all arrived at the desk, he joined another guard behind.

“Who is your immediate superior?”

It was a toss-up between Dobbin and Monica. Since Dobbin spent a lot of time in his car or appeared to, I said it was Monica.

I watched him search slowly through the phone list until he found her number, then called her.

He had his back to me when they spoke, but it wasn’t for long; after a minute, perhaps two, he replaced the receiver and turned back.

“Ms. Shrive will be down in about five minutes.” He pointed to a row of chairs against the wall, remnants from the last world war. “If you would like to wait over there, sir.”

He didn’t hand back my card.

The wait was more like a half-hour, but I had become engrossed in an old copy of Country Life, and an article that made me consider retiring to the country in an old thatch cottage beside a babbling brook somewhere in the Cotswolds.

Until I read the price.

The arrival of Monica came at a fortuitous moment. Coming to the desk.

“Nnn, I was hoping you would drop by sooner rather than later.”

“My card doesn’t work.”

“Oh, that’s because we revoked it.” She held out another in her hand. “We’ve replaced it with one with better access, or as we say jokingly, you’ve moved up in the pay grade scale.”

I took the card and went to put it in my pocket.

“You need to register your presence, so I’m afraid you’ll have to go out and come back in again.”

I did as she asked, this time greeted by the friendly green light. The soldier seemed disappointed that I was not free of his attention. The security guard on the desk had alt=ready forgotten I existed.

“Come.”

I followed Monica to the antiquated elevator, we stepped in, closed the door and she pressed a button for the third and fourth floors. It seemed creakier than usual this time.

“I’m assuming you have come in to use the computer resources?”

“Yes.”

“Good thing then we upgraded your access level.”

“And is there someone who manages access to CCTV footage?”

“Yes. Same floor, four. Her name is Amelia Enders. Tell her what you need, and she’ll find it. I assume it will have something to do with the surveillance exercise of yours.”

How could she guess, or had she been already investigating?”

“Come and see me when you’re finished. I live on the third floor. Literally.”

The elevator stopped on the third floor with a creak and a thump.

A smile and she headed off down the passage.

If I wasn’t mistaken, she had that cat who ate the canary look, and it worried me.

…

The cinema of my dreams – I always wanted to see the planets – Episode 15

Does the captain have a plan?

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I saw the alien visitor tilt his head, as if someone had just whispered in his ear, if he had an ear that is, and then made a guttural sound.

Seconds later a beam appeared, and he or she, was gone.

“What just happened?” It was out before I could stop myself.

“I suspect he just beamed off our ship to his.”

The captain pushed a button on his desk communicator, and barked, “where is that foreign ship?”

The voice of the second officer came back, “just reappeared, then disappeared again, like it isn’t there, or we just can’t detect its presence.”

“This is like an old scifi show, sir. They have what I think was called cloaking.” It would be awesome if they did, but more awesome if we had it too.

Then another beam appeared, where the captain was sitting, and then he was gone too.

OK, now we were in trouble.

I ran to the desk and pushed that same button to get the attention of the bridge.

“That ship reappear?”

The second officer was quick to reply. “Yes.”

“And I take it, it has gone again?”

“Yes. What just happened?”

“Do a crew count, now. I’ll wait.”

In those next few moments a great many thoughts passed through my mind, not the least if which centred on one of our crew, there mostly to keep an eye on some of our systems.

The more obvious, that without the captain, I had just got a field promotion, one I was neither looking for, or had the experience or training to fulfil. I had been hoping over the next ten years to get both the trains and the experience.

After the seconds report my first action would be to call space command.

The second officers voice came back, “both the captain and Lieutenant Myers are both not aboard sir.”

I was expecting the obvious question but it didn’t come.

Lieutenant Myers was a nuclear scientist. The alien had been keeping us amused while his men captured the Lieutenant. And he was not chasing the pirates, he was the chief pirate.

Damn.

“Can we trace that ship?”

“I’ve got people working on it, but it seems so. It’s leaving a trail we can pick up on our sensors.”

“Good, get after it, and that’s an order.”

A minute later I could feel the gentle tug as we accelerated.

I pushed the button to get the second officer.

“Sir?”

“You have the bridge. Let me know our progress in about 15 minutes. I have a call to make.”

…

The 2am Rant: Curious children find a curiosity

I am constantly reminded of how curious grandchildren can be when they are not asking you what it was like to live with dinosaurs!

The second eldest, who is a rather clever 17-year-old, considers it interesting that I’m a writer, and having just met a ‘real’ author who came to visit them at school, asked me a few questions, some of which sounded like those that had been asked of my ‘real’ counterpart.

Like, “how old were you when you first wrote a story, and what was that story about?”

I didn’t think it was when I was at school, but sometime after that, and after a lot of reading. Perhaps it had been one of those moments when a light bulb goes on in your head, and I said to myself, I can write these stories too.

Of course, that wasn’t an answer, so she asked again, when did I start writing?

That required a little thought, and several triggers gave me a date, where I lived at the time, the fact I used my mother’s old portable typewriter, and the fact that I had not been long out of school. I was, in fact, about 17. It was 53 years ago; I’ll let you do the math!

What was it about that I couldn’t tell her, but I said I had rescued a lot of old scribbling of mine and put them in a box to look at later when I had the time.

I guess that time had arrived.

And, yes, there was the book, the individually typed pages, some with corrections, unfinished.

The pages were brown with age.

The story, well, I read the first few pages, and it seems I’d started down the thriller path then, the story so far, an agent comes ashore from a trawler to a bleak and isolated village, perhaps on the Scottish coast.

Then there was the inevitable next question: “What was the first story you read that put you on the path to wanting to become a writer”.

That was easy, Alistair Maclean’s HMS Ulysses. I showed her a copy of the book.

That led to, “but this is about the British Royal Navy in World War 2…”

Perhaps I didn’t answer that correctly. It was after reading about a dozen of his novels, most of which were precursors to the modern-day thriller, perhaps more along the lines of action-adventure.

The next question, understandably, is “What was the first book you ever finished?”

That was The Starburst Conspiracy, the manuscript of which was in the box along with another completed novel and quite a few short stories.

Back in those days, I remembered that I had sent some of my stories off to various publishers and had entered several short story competitions, all to no avail. And for several years, until I because to old, I used to write and enter a novel in the Vogel novel competition but never made it to the shortlist.

It’s probably why I gave up writing for several years, until I worked for an interesting company that had a rich history of phosphate mining in the Pacific and was given permission to look into the archives, began writing what could only be described as a saga, and by the time I’d left, it was over 1200 closely typed pages long.

I showed the bulky manuscript to her, but by this time her interest had moved to something else.

For me, however, it seemed there was a lot of unfinished business.

What I learned about writing – When computers and memory fails

It’s late at night, and twenty other story ideas are currently running around in my head, instead of the story I should be working on.

These ideas are impinging on the current story and somehow are finding their way onto the page.

Writing, cursing, deleting, re-writing, deleting, cursing.

I’m working on the latest book, and it is not going well. I don’t have writer’s block; I think it is more a case of self-doubt. It’s why I can’t concentrate.

It’s why I’m thinking about the next story and not staying on track. And that pesky outline, or synopsis, or whatever it wants to be called, has gone missing under a pile of paper.

Next resolution, clean up this goddam mess!

This leads me to be overly critical of what I have written and to press the delete key more often. Only to realise that an action taken in haste can be regrettable and makes me feel even more depressed when I realise the deletions are irrecoverable.

Damn. Whatever happened to ‘undo’?

I think I’d be happier in a garret somewhere channelling van Gogh’s rage.

Lesson learned – don’t delete, save it to a text file so it can be retrieved when sanity returns.

If it returns…

I was not happy with the previous start. Funny about that, because until a few weeks ago I thought the start was perfect.

What a difference a week makes, or is that politics?

Perhaps I should consider adding some political satire.

But I digress…

It seems it’s been like that for a few weeks now, not being able to stick to the job in hand, doing anything but what I’m supposed to be doing. I recognise the restlessness. I’m not happy with the story as it stands, so rather than moving forward, I find myself writing words just for the sake of writing words.

Any words are better than none, right?

So, I rewrote the start, added about a hundred pages, and now I have to do a mass of rewriting of what was basically the whole book.

But here’s the thing.

This morning, I woke up and looked at the new start, and it has inspired me.

Perhaps all I needed was several weeks of teeth gnashing and self-doubt to get myself back on track.

365 Days of Writing, 2026 – 261

Day 261 – Writing about what you know well

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Why Writing About What You Know Can Be Harder Than Writing About What Surprises You (And How to Overcome It)

Introduction

You’ve spent years mastering your craft, building a deep knowledge base, and now you’re asked to write about it. Yet, the blank screen stares back, and the words refuse to flow. Surprisingly, many writers find it easier to write about a subject that fascinates or even intimidates them than about something they already know inside and out.

In this post we’ll explore the paradox of familiarity, unpack the emotional and technical obstacles that make “writing about what you know” feel like a slog, and deliver a step‑by‑step framework to turn that expertise into high‑quality, SEO‑friendly content that readers (and Google) love.

The Paradox of Familiarity
Psychological Barriers When Writing About What You Know
The Unexpected Freedom of Writing About the Unknown
Practical Strategies to Make Familiar Topics Shine
- Reframe Your Perspective
- Use Storytelling & Personal Anecdotes
- Drill Deeper: Find the “Angle”
- Leverage Fresh Research & Data
- Structure for Readability & SEO
When to Choose Surprise Over Familiarity
SEO Checklist for Expert Content
Conclusion & Call‑to‑Action
FAQs

1. The Paradox of Familiarity

Writing About the Unknown	Writing About What You Know
Pros: Fresh curiosity, high emotional stakes, “novelty” factor.	Cons: Fear of sounding boring, assumptions of shared knowledge, perfectionism.
Cons: Limited background research needed, risk of inaccuracy.	Pros: Authority, depth, credibility.

Even though familiar topics give you authority, they also bring invisible friction:

Assumed knowledge: You skip explanations you think are “obvious,” leaving readers confused.
Perfectionism: You feel pressured to be exactly right, which can freeze the writing process.
Self‑censorship: You worry about sounding “pretentious” or “dry.”

The result? Writer’s block, a flat tone, and content that under‑delivers on both reader value and SEO potential.

2. Psychological Barriers When Writing About What You Know

2.1 The “Expert’s Curse”

When you’ve internalized a topic, it’s easy to forget what beginners struggle with. This “curse of knowledge” creates a mental gap between your expertise and the reader’s understanding, making it hard to translate that knowledge into accessible language.

2.2 Fear of Redundancy

You might think, “Everyone already knows this.” That fear pushes you to over‑edit or abandon the piece altogether, believing the content won’t add value.

2.3 Perfection Paralysis

Because you can prove every point, you feel obligated to double‑check every fact, turning a 500‑word draft into an endless research marathon.

2.4 Emotional Distance

Writing about a subject that’s personal (e.g., a hobby you love) can trigger emotional over‑investment. You become overly protective of the content, stalling revision and publication.

3. The Unexpected Freedom of Writing About the Unknown

When you write about something that surprises you, a few psychological boosters kick in:

Boost	Why It Helps
Curiosity	Triggers dopamine, energizing the writing flow.
Low stakes	You’re less likely to worry about “getting it perfect.”
Novelty bias	Readers (and search engines) love fresh angles, encouraging you to dig deeper.

The flip side? You may need to research more to avoid inaccuracies, but the process often feels more adventurous and less intimidating than confronting your own expertise.

4. Practical Strategies to Make Familiar Topics Shine

Below is a step‑by‑step framework you can apply to any piece where you’re writing about what you already know. Each step integrates SEO best practices without sacrificing readability.

4.1 Reframe Your Perspective

Adopt a “Beginner’s Mindset.” Imagine you’re explaining the topic to a 12‑year‑old or a new hire.
Ask “Why does this matter to them?” Focus on benefits, not just facts.
Write a one‑sentence “value proposition.” Example: “Learn three quick hacks to cut your email inbox in half, even if you’ve been managing it for years.”

4.2 Use Storytelling & Personal Anecdotes

Hook: Start with a vivid anecdote that illustrates the problem.
Conflict: Show the struggle you faced despite your expertise.
Resolution: Deliver actionable tips that solved the issue.

Example: “When I first automated my reporting workflow, I thought the biggest hurdle would be the tech. Instead, it was convincing my team that the new dashboard was trustworthy.”

Stories humanize expertise, making dense information more relatable and SEO‑friendly (Google favors dwell time).

4.3 Drill Deeper: Find the “Angle”

Your expert knowledge likely includes niche sub‑topics that few others have covered. Use these to differentiate your post:

Typical Angle	How to Find It
Common myth busting	List the top 3 misconceptions you’ve heard.
Process walkthrough	Break a complex workflow into a step‑by‑step guide.
Case study	Share real data from your own project.
Tool comparison	Provide a side‑by‑side matrix of pros/cons for tools you use daily.

4.4 Leverage Fresh Research & Data

Even when you’re the authority, up‑to‑date statistics amp up credibility and SEO:

Pull the latest industry reports (e.g., HubSpot, Statista).
Quote expert interviews (including your own).
Add visual assets: charts, infographics, or screenshots.

Tip: Embed a Google Data Studio chart on your page. It’s interactive, improves dwell time, and signals freshness to Google.

4.5 Structure for Readability & SEO

Title – Include primary keyword early: “How to Write About What You Know (Even When It Feels Hard)”
Meta Description – 150‑160 characters, incorporating the same keyword.
H1, H2, H3 – Use a logical hierarchy with keyword variations.
Short Paragraphs – 2‑4 sentences each.
Bullet Points & Numbered Lists – Boost skimmability.
Internal Links – Connect to 2‑3 related posts on your site (e.g., “5 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block”).
External Links – Cite authoritative sources.
Call‑to‑Action (CTA) – End with a prompt (download a checklist, sign up for a newsletter).

SEO Boost: Add a FAQ schema (structured data) using the questions in the final FAQ section. This often earns featured snippets.

5. When to Choose Surprise Over Familiarity

Sometimes the best approach is to pivot and write about a topic that genuinely excites you, even if it’s outside your core expertise. Consider this path when:

You’re experiencing burnout on a particular niche.
Your analytics show a decline in engagement for evergreen content.
You spot a trending keyword that aligns loosely with your brand but offers a fresh angle.

Hybrid Strategy: Write a “Beginner’s Guide” to the surprising topic, then sprinkle in expert insights from your main field to create a unique cross‑disciplinary piece. This can attract new audiences while retaining authority.

6. SEO Checklist for Expert Content

Item	Why It Matters
Target keyword in title (within first 60 characters)	Boosts click‑through rate (CTR).
Primary keyword in first 100 words	Signals relevance to search engines.
LSI keywords (e.g., “writing challenges,” “expert content creation”)	Improves semantic coverage.
Optimized images (alt‑text with keyword)	Increases image search traffic.
Internal linking (2‑3 links)	Enhances site architecture & page authority.
Outbound links to authoritative sites	Reinforces credibility.
Readability score (Flesch‑Kincaid > 60)	Improves user experience.
Mobile‑friendly layout	Google’s mobile‑first indexing.
Schema markup (FAQ)	Increases chance of rich results.
Social share buttons	Drives referral traffic.

7. Conclusion & Call‑to‑Action

Writing about what you already know can feel like navigating a maze of perfectionism, assumed knowledge, and fear of redundancy. Yet, by reframing your mindset, injecting storytelling, digging for fresh angles, and structuring for SEO, you can transform your expertise into magnetic, high‑ranking content.

Ready to turn your expertise into traffic‑generating copy?
Download our free “Expert to Engager” checklist and start publishing your next powerhouse article today!

8. Frequently Asked Questions

Question	Answer
Why does writing about familiar topics feel harder?	The “expert’s curse,” fear of redundancy, and perfectionism create mental blocks that stall the writing flow.
How can I avoid sounding pretentious when writing about my field?	Adopt a beginner’s mindset, use plain language, and pepper your piece with relatable anecdotes.
Is it better for SEO to write about trending topics or evergreen expertise?	A mix works best: evergreen content builds long‑term authority, while trending pieces capture short‑term traffic spikes.
How many times should I edit an expert article?	Aim for 3 passes: (1) Content & structure, (2) Clarity & readability, (3) SEO & final polish.
What’s the quickest way to add credibility to a familiar‑topic post?	Insert recent data, cite authoritative sources, and embed a visual (chart/infographic).

TL;DR

Familiar topics trigger psychological blocks that make writing feel tougher.
Reframe, story‑tell, find a unique angle, and back it with fresh data.
Follow the SEO checklist to turn expertise into searchable, shareable content.

Take the first step now: [Download the free “Expert to Engager” checklist] and watch your knowledge convert into clicks, leads, and lasting authority.

Happy writing!

…

If I only had one day to stop over in – Dublin – what would I do?

One Day in Dublin? There’s Only One Place to Start.

You have a single day. A fleeting stopover in a city with a thousand stories. You want it to be memorable, not a whirlwind of checklist tourism. You want to feel Dublin, not just see it.

Forget the rush. Forget trying to cram in ten sights. There is one anchor point that will give you the essence of the city—its history, its soul, its stunning beauty—and set the perfect tone for everything else you might discover.

That place is Trinity College Dublin. And more specifically, the Old Library and the Book of Kells.

Why This? It’s Not Just a Library.

Standing in the heart of the 16th-century college, you’re stepping into the very womb of Dublin’s intellectual and cultural identity. This is where Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett walked. But the true magic is the Long Room.

You walk through a hushed, majestic corridor. Two levels of dark oak bookshelves stretch 65 meters before you, holding over 200,000 of the library’s oldest volumes. The vaulted ceiling, the marble busts of philosophers, the scent of aged paper—it’s a scene of profound, cinematic beauty that feels both ancient and alive. It’s one of the most breathtaking rooms in the world, and it’s right here in the middle of a bustling city.

And at the very heart of it, the centrepiece: the Book of Kells. This isn’t just an old book. It’s a 9th-century masterpiece of insular art, a luminous gospel where every page is an explosion of intricate symbols, mythic beasts, and dazzling swirls of colour. Seeing it in person—the sheer artistry and devotion it represents—connects you to an Ireland of monks and scholars, a profound creative spirit that has endured through centuries.

How to Make That Day Unforgettable:

Go First Thing (Book Online!): Get your timed ticket for the Book of Kells exhibition and the Old Library for as soon as it opens (usually 9:30/10 AM). This is non-negotiable for a one-day visit. Do not wait in line. Book in advance on the Trinity College website.
Take Your Time (90 Minutes): Don’t rush. Read the panels explaining the Book of Kells’ history. Stand in the middle of the Long Room and just breathe. Find the oldest book in Ireland (the Book of Durrow). Let the awe sink in.
Wander the Grounds: After your library visit, stroll through the beautiful, tranquil Trinity College grounds. See the beautiful Campanile bell tower, the quieter Parliament Square, and the serene Fellows’ Square. It’s a peaceful, green oasis that feels worlds away from the city outside.
Let It Anchor Your Day: From here, you are perfectly positioned. The college borders Grafton Street (for shopping and buskers) and the Temple Bar area (for cobblestones, galleries, and a true taste of the city’s vibrant energy). Have your classic Irish coffee or a pint in a pub nearby, but you’ll do it with the weight and wonder of Irish history fresh in your mind.

The Real Secret:

This experience gives you context. Yes, you’ll see the Guinness Storehouse or the Guinness Storehouse, but you’ll understand the why. Dublin’s famously literary pub culture, its love of debate and storytelling, its resilience—it all grows from roots like those found in the Old Library. You’ll step out onto the street not just having seen a famous attraction, but having connected with the founding story of the city itself.

So, for your one precious day: Do not miss the Old Library. See the Book of Kells. Stand in the Long Room.

It’s the one place that turns a stopover into a story you’ll carry home. It’s the key that unlocks the rest of your day, and the real meaning of Dublin.

P.S. – Afterward, find a traditional pub with a roaring fire (like The Palace Bar on Fleet Street, a Trinity favourite). Order a simple half-pint of Guinness, sit quietly, and listen to the murmur of conversation. You’ll hear echoes of every writer, scholar, and ordinary Dubliner who ever walked out of those library doors. That’s your memorable day, complete.

In a word: Order

I gave the order to my assistant to order the supplies we needed in order to maintain stock levels.

Oh, yes, the word order is one of my favourites, because it can confuse the hell out of many people in its simplicity and yet complexity.

I gave the order, it’s what happens in the armed forces, and a lot of other places, but mostly we would associate it with organisations that have hierarchical authority.

The military, for one, cut orders, the means of sending one of its minions to another place, or to do a specific job.

Order supplies, well, just about anyone can order something from somewhere, usually on the internet, and sometimes require or are given an order number so it can be tracked.

In order to maintain, in order to get what I want, in order to get elected, this is just another way of using the word, with the aim of achieving something, though I’m sure there’s probably a better way of expressing these sentiments.

Law and order, well, doesn’t everyone want this, and doesn’t it always turn up in an election campaign, and seems to be the first thing sacrificed after the election. The thing is, no one can guarantee law and order.

There is the law and there is administering it. There is no order that comes with it, we just hope that order is maintained, and deplore the situation when it isn’t.

Perhaps in order to maintain law and order, we might need more police.

Then, of course, there is alphabetical order, and numerical order, where things can be designated from A to Z, like this challenge, or from 1 to 10, or more. We can sort words alphabetically, numbers numerically and data items by keys or an index.

This is naturally called a sort order.

Then there is my car, or bike, or washing machine, or mixmaster. They are currently in good working order, though that might not last.

And lastly, in deference to all those out there who are thinking of becoming dictators, it’s always possible, one day, there will be a new world order. They might actually be in their own particular order, whose intellect might be (?) of the highest order.

Surely that is one order too many.

‘What Sets Us Apart’ – A beta reader’s view

There’s something to be said for a story that starts like a James Bond movie, throwing you straight in the deep end, a perfect way of getting to know the main character, David, or is that Alistair?

A retired spy, well, not so much a spy as a retired errand boy, David’s rather wry description of his talents, and a woman that most men would give their left arm for, not exactly the ideal couple, but there is a spark in a meeting that may or may not have been a setup.

But as the story progressed, the question I kept asking myself was why he’d bother.

And, page after unrelenting page, you find out.

Susan is exactly the sort of woman to pique his interest. Then, inexplicably, she disappears. That might have been the end of it, but Prendergast, that shadowy enigma, David’s ex-boss who loves playing games with real people, gives him an ultimatum: find her or come back to work.

Nothing like an offer that’s a double-edged sword!

A dragon for a mother, a sister he didn’t know about, Susan’s BFF who is not what she seems or a friend indeed, and Susan’s father, who, up till David meets her, couldn’t be less interested, his nemesis proves to be the impossible dream, and he’s always just that one step behind.

When the rollercoaster finally came to a halt, and I could start breathing again, it was an ending that was completely unexpected.

I’ve been told there’s a sequel in the works.

Bring it on!

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The book can be purchased here: http://amzn.to/2Eryfth

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Thrills, Spills, and just a dash of Romance

One writer's experiences, and battles with words

Category: Creative Writing