Welcome to my Ceilidh!

 

Welcome to my Ceilidh

We writers are the ultimate tinkers. We constantly borrow and rearrange words, images, sentence constructions and whole styles just as the nineteenth-century tinker created implements, pots and pans and all manner of iron, silver and brass objects, often from recycled materials. 

It may surprise many, but the majority of twenty-first-century writers have simply tinkered with either Ernest Hemingway’s sentences, or, in the case of the more idiosyncratic, James Joyce’s stream of consciousness.  

Because these two writers set the benchmark for modern writing.

And every twenty-first-century blogger is not just simply redoing what Justin Hall first did with his personal tours of the web in 1994 [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Hall  ; we bloggers are also recreating an ancient tradition in a new way—the art of ceilidh…as my Irish and Scottish ancestors call it—of gathering together and telling stories by the new web-hearth.

• Blogs should be current
• Blogs should contain good research
• Blogs should be personable in style

 

 

Join my ceilidh.

 (Wendy McNeice is a writer, editor, inspirational speaker and tutor and a one-time history teacher and information adviser. Find more writing tips at www.scribeofspirit.com . Read her latest book As the Eagle Flies the King,based around the remarkable true story of the release of the Israelites from ancient Babylon by a Persian king. http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60604-339-4 . http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Flies-King-Wendy-McNeice/dp/1606043390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223864553&sr=8-1

Permission is granted to distribute this material provided the following statement appears on any distributed copy: © W. McNeice www.scribeofspirit.com

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Nov 30th Advent and the Media Release…

Today is the first day of Advent, and the origins may come as a surprise. The first mention of Advent in literature was in The History of the Franks  by St Gregory of Tours in 480, when St Perpetuus  made a proclamation that the people should fast three times a week in preparation for the feast of the coming of Christ. It is difficult to know whether this was enforcing a pre-existing custom into ecclesiastical law or whether it was instituting the new law. In any case, the custom seems to have Catholic roots.

THE ADVENT CALENDER was first printed in Germany in 1908. Hand-made advent calendars appeared in England first in 1851. During WW 11 the production of advent calendars with pictures was banned.

 

 

 

 

 

ADVENT…and the Media Release

As writers we have our own writing advent…our media release.

The elements of a good media release are principles we all need to know:-

The heading: Media Release

Complete contact details: Name, address, phone, web-link, email.

The basic facts…

Who, what, where, when and why

and a hook…

Something to grab the reader’s attention.

Yours must stand out from the multitude of media releases the press receive.

The best book I have seen on how to do a Media Release is So you want media coverage by A Frangi and M Sayer. http://www.amazon.com/So-You-Want-Media-Coverage/dp/0702233005/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227839311&sr=1-1

          But before you venture into this area, you should read

The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR by A & L Ries.            http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060081996/fwis-20

******Send a media release on a weekend or a Monday*******

Find more writing tips at www.scribeofspirit.com  . Permission is granted to distribute this material provided the following statement appears on any distributed copy: © W. McNeice www.scribeofspirit.com