Less is not more

I was just reading about a moonless night and thought about all those words ending in less. Somehow a lot of them don't work very well for me.

Am I alone in seeing a picture of a moon in my mind's eye when I read moonless and then having to purge that from my thoughts to get to the intended meaning? When I read

The moonless night was interrupted by a bright flash of light.

the first image that came to mind was a night scene bright with moonlight. Now if the author had written dark I would have been with him straight away. I have a similar problem with spotless which brings up a picture of spots for me, whereas immaculate doesn't. (I know it comes from macula = spot but I'm not fluent enough in Latin for that to be an issue for me.)

Dauntless doesn't have the same effect, presumably because daunt isn't a word I use regularly and when I do meet it it's mostly in the negative, as in undaunted.

Mostly, I think words ending in less are best avoided, especially if the alternative is shorter and more direct. What do you think?

The Language Problem

If you were to meet a sentient being on another planet, it's not very likely that they would be speaking English. Even on this planet it's not the language with the most native speakers. (According to Wikipedia it comes third.)

In science fiction there are a few well-tried ways to get around this problem, most of them involving hand waving.

1. Have some sort of universal translation device e.g. the Babel Fish


2. Have the traveller live in the alien culture and learn the language over an extended period of time e.g. Out of the Silent Planet


3. Have a reason why the language is like a dead earth language and take along an expert in that language e.g. Stargate


4. Have the aliens intercept our radio and tv signals and decode them, despite the fact that they aren't even compatible worldwide e.g. The Simpsons


5. Use maths and chemistry to start the communication. I'm not sure if you can get to war and peace like this.


6. Ignore the problem, have everyone speak English and hope that no one notices e.g. Star Trek

I have to admit that this last one is tempting although I find it unsatisfying.

If you were writing about someone meeting a totally new group of sentient beings, how would you get them to communicate?

Win a cuddly Cthulu

Halloween is on its way. For me, it's the Nano kick-off party and the chance to meet some of the other crazies who will be writing a novel in a month. For you, it could be the chance to win a cuddly Cthulu.

I would love to enter writtenwyrdd's competition but I have no aptitude at all for writing horror. Now if it was sci fi...

Slow typing

I cut my thumb last night when I was preparing dinner and I am having to use the wrong thumb for the space bar. I can't believe how slow that makes my typing so if I seem curt you know why. See how slow it is here.

I can't play the clarinet either for at least a week because of the bandage.

We didn't even get the dinner in the end because I burnt it while faffing around for plasters etc.

I'll be all healed up in time for Nano, though, so that's all right.

All grown up

Guess which cat brought in a live frog the other day?

Up till now, Bonnie's main prey has been moths, which she brings inside to eat. The other day I heard frantic mewing so I rushed to rescue my poor little cat from whatever was upsetting her, only to find that she'd trapped something alive under a desk. At first I thought it was a bird but no. I don't really like frogs but I managed to grab a cloth, throw it over the frog to get hold of it, and put it out into the garden. Bonnie took a while to realise it had gone and she was not pleased. I wonder if she would have eaten it.


My little babies aren't babies any more.

Writing love scenes

I wasn't going to have any love scenes in my Nano novel this year and I certainly wasn't having any same sex love. My Main Character Rhea is a woman with a young son and I had her pinned down as firmly heterosexual until Claire came along and fell in love with her. Something here must be fascinating me because I keep coming back to love between women. I was so sure this year I wasn't going to go there!

I'm not sure I'm going to write any love scenes as such, though. Mostly because I don't think I have the skills. As NightWings puts it:

love scenes are part of loving relationships - or can be. I've been struggling with those a bit. To be honest: I haven't been all that successful.

NightWings is a new blog that looks like it's going to honestly explore some sensitive areas. It's worth a look.

In a previous Nano I had two bedroom scenes: one was a pillow fight and the other was an argument. It's just that love scenes are so much easier to write badly than to write well.

Shop early for Christmas?

I really hate doing my Christmas shopping early but I'm signed up for NaNoWriMo again so I can write November off. I have three and a half weeks to get ahead of Christmas before the madness begins.

I'd much rather start writing now but then I'd miss the excitement of being part of the challenge. It's like my husband doing the London to Brighton Bike Ride - it's no fun doing it on your own.

So, is anyone else up for the challenge? I realise that you may be a "real" writer, someone who writes all year and has a hope of getting published. Maybe Nano would take you away from more important writing. If you're like me, though, a happy amateur, then come and join us. All you have to lose is your sanity. (I'm making a big assumption here.)

What I did on my holidays

Advice to holidaymakers: Do not go to Brittany out of season.

First Week

1. Stayed by the sea on a traffic island. We did have the beautiful view of the sea that was promised in the advertising pictures, only the owners had cutely forgotten to mention that the triangular apartment block had roads on all sides. Being at the point of the triangle, we had roads on two sides including right below our ground floor balcony. I wonder what the locals thought of my pyjamas.

2. Looked at the sea. There was a very cold wind so didn't go in. The heated outdoor pool was closed for two weeks' renovation.

3. Visited a Breton town on the only decent hot day when I might have gone in the sea. That was not my idea. I am now speaking to my Beloved again.

Second Week


We stayed in a farmhouse an hour's drive from anywhere interesting. It was a wonderful place with an old winding wooden staircase and a woodburning stove. There were horses and a lovely weimaraner dog to pet and chickens to watch. We had three days warm enough for us to swim in the outdoor pool and chat to the owners who live onsite. They were great people and we really enjoyed meeting them. If anyone fancies a country holiday in Brittany, have a look at the owner's website.

The local lake was shut for the season. Well, the lake was there but the boats weren't.

Not all the locals were friendly. We went into a bar to get a coffee and waited for the owner to appear. A couple of French people followed us in. When the owner appeared he asked "who was here first?" and when I said I was, he said "I shall serve you last." We left.

It took nearly an hour to get to Pont-Aven, which is a lovely town with a network of bridges over a river. It's full of art galleries and very pretty, so that was the highlight of our stay.



I didn't buy a clarinet. I did take it with me though and My Beloved and I had some good fun playing tunes together.

Where to find interesting book recommendations

I was looking up a favourite website to point a friend toward it and realised I had never put it on my blog. How could I not direct you towards the website that that put me onto Tanya Huff? Well, here it is.

GLBT Fantasy Fiction Resources

This website reviews science fiction and fantasy books that have a gay-friendly perspective, from the well-known to the obscure. There are also a number of articles about related topics. Readers are invited to submit their own reviews but there is a level of editorial input ensuring that the quality of the reviews is maintained.

The books reviewed include The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Orlando: A Biography by Virgina Woolf, and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. I read this last book a very long time ago and it seems to me that it does what good science fiction should do: it makes a wonderful story of a distant world, while questioning the way this world is.

Really intelligent science fiction these days surely has to include an openness to the various forms that human sexuality takes. There is not just a clear male/female divide; intersex conditions are unusual but they exist. And people are not swans. Although some of us make a lasting relationship with one person of the opposite sex others do not and prefer our own sex or multiple relationships or both.

Even if you don't usually read fantasy or sci fi, I would head over and have a look. It's a great place to broaden your horizons.

How to book a holiday

We still haven't had our summer holiday yet. I forgot how much colder it is in September and we're only going as far as Brittany. That's north France so not much warmer than it is here.

My brain fog is back. (I need to get the doctor to give me B12 weekly again because monthly doesn't seem to be enough.) This made booking the holiday interesting.

The original plan was for My Beloved, my Older Son, Older Son's Fiancée and me to travel out together to a gite with a heated outdoor pool for a week. Then MB and I would move to a different gite near the sea and OS and OSF would come back and cat sit. It meant booking three separate ferry crossings but I managed it. After all, what could go wrong?

1. I booked both places to stay for the same week.
2. When one of the owners agreed to change our booking I had to rebook every ferry crossing so that OS and OSF could join us partway through the holiday rather than go home partway through.
3. I forgot that if we travel on a ferry on Sunday overnight then we will arrive on Monday, not Sunday.
4. I forgot that if OS and OSF travel on a ferry on Saturday overnight then they will arrive on Sunday, not Saturday. (Yes, even after making that mistake once I managed to make it again.)
5. I've emailed the property owners so many times with the wrong details that I just hope we're all agreed as to who is arriving when.

I got MB to check the details and he says they are now correct. I won't be sure till we get there.

We'll be away from this Sunday until the 19th September.

(Edited to add link to definition of gite.)