I found the following information originally on Steve Thorn’s site. Thanks for sharing, Steve.

Nostradamus, Mother Shipton and now John Titor. Although two of these people claimed to forecast the future, one of them claims to be from the future.

The Story of John Titor is a strange one. He claims to be from 2036. He travelled back in time to November 2000. He suddenly appeared online and started to document his claims–answering questions and warning us of civil unrest in 2004-2005 and a big war in 2015. Then in March 2001 he said it was time to go home and he disappeared.

Some say that the creator of John Titor did it as a hoax, but it seems that he has pulled a lot of people into his circle and has left those people still trying to prove or disprove what he said.

Take a look for yourself and make up your own mind.

Yoohoo! At lunchtime I posted my first flash fiction submission. It’s on it’s way to That’s Life! Fast Fiction Magazine – a magazine filled with short snippets showing different views on life. It’s an established magazine in this country and the rates are good–extremely good, in fact.

I think I need to put a submission chart together. If this story comes back to me then I want to be able to send it back out within 48 hours.

Today I decided to have a bit of a clean out. It’s amazing how many copies of my manuscript I’ve accumulated over the years. The early versions brought a hot flush to my cheeks because I could plainly see the errors on each page. Not spelling errors, although there were a few of those too, but general writing errors.

They say writing cannot be learned, but I believe that’s a heap of hogwash. You can learn the craft and I have learned a lot over the years. Practice brings experience and knowledge, if you are persistent.

Anyway, I was talking about having a clean out. All those early versions have been collecting dust and cobwebs for years, so I wanted to discard them. Now that is an easy statement to make yet think about it. Do you drop your entire manuscript into a garbage bin and walk away? If you do, you’re nothing like me. I tore three complete manuscripts into pieces. Each time I discarded the torn paper, I dropped the paper in my left hand into one garbage bag and the paper in my right hand into another garbage bag.

I’m not taking any risks. When I’d finished, I still wasn’t entirely happy, so I took half the paper from each bag and put them in two more bags.

It gets worse.

One bag of paper was placed in the big bin which will be emptied into the Council truck tomorrow night. Each Monday, I will throw another bag out until all four bags have been disposed of.

Am I insane? What’s the likelihood of someone (especially a writer) waiting for my garbage to be thrown out just in case a manuscript was in there? Am I being paranoid?

Of course not, I’m being cautious and I’m doing something that will make it easier for me to sleep tonight because I won’t have to worry about some insane person sticking 800 sheets of A4 paper together (which has been torn to shreds) to steal my story. Besides, I’m a writer, I’m allowed to do strange things.

Here are Ten Reasons to Try Flash Fiction. It’s only a short article which uses common sense to explain what you should and shouldn’t do in this “genre” (I believe it’s been given this status now).

On Flash Writing is another article that I found interesting. After reading it I decided that I’m an “editor writer” and I think that accounts for the pace problem in my first piece of flash fiction. Have you tried writing at top speed? It’s hard, but I suppose we can train ourselves to do it.

A few days ago I mentioned that I’m trying my hand at flash fiction and that I had three stories outlined. One of those outlines is now a proper flash piece.

I needed a bit of encouragement with the piece though, as it’s not generally what I write, so I sent the story through to the AFWD Crit Group to see what the reaction would be.

The reaction was pleasing. Actually, it was inspiring. The women of the group said it touched them and that the words were powerful. The men had a problem with pacing, but could not deny the emotional side of the story. I agree with the pacing issue and will work on that.

The comments and suggestions given to me by these wonderful people will help me improve the story before I send it out. This one is definitely a “womens piece” so I will focus on women’s magazines to start with.

Due to recent events with my collaborative novel, I found myself searching the internet for easy to read (and understand) legal issue pages for writers.

Julie Kenner’s article on legal issues fits that description. Each section is short and to the point, with everyday examples to help settle the information into the brain.

I didn’t find the information I’m looking for there, but that’s beside the point.

Most wealthy men married when they were over 30. A son came into his inheritance on marriage, so parents often delayed the ceremony as long as possible. Women married earlier, usually when they were about 20, but were sometimes betrothed (promised in marriage) as young as seven.

For the rich, marriage was the alliance of two families. It usually started with a business meeting to discuss the dowry (in medieval times this was a payment made by the groom to the bride’s father). Representatives of the two families agreed on the terms of the contract with a handshake.

Only then did the couple meet.

There was then a meeting to read the contract, followed by the “ring day” (marriage ceremony) in the church porch. It was like a modern wedding service, except that the bride always promised to “obey”, and also to be “bonere and buxom” (pleasant and easy-going). Finally, the wife rode to her husband’s house on a white horse.

Poor people usually married at the church gate, althogh a promise – or even a rush ring tied around the girl’s finger – was sufficient. Witnesses threw grain and sawdust over the couple to wish them a prosperous marriage and then they celebrated with feasting and a riotous charivari (dance).

Having finished the rewrite of my novel, I’ve decided to spend a few weeks writing something different.

Flash fiction is ideal for submitting to magazines but I’ve decided that I won’t even try to write fantasy or SF flash; I’m going to write human interest flash stories. This will be like a holiday to me.

Finding a market for these stories will no doubt be just as difficult as any other story, but I intend to approach woman’s magazine with these ones. So that gives you an idea of what type of story I’ll be trying.

I have three stories plotted (roughly) and two underway. I started writing the first one, but the second one was stronger in my mind. It comes largely from my own experience but major details are completely different. However, the emotions are not.

I’m hoping the stories will touch people’s hearts and “speak” to them.

Only guild members were allowed to trade in the city. They could not work at night or undercharge. By these methods the guild kept production down and prices up. Members who failed to maintain high standards of workmanship were fined or expelled from their guild.

Women rarely became full guild members. Some guilds (for instance the barbers and the dyers) accepted women, and widows were allowed to practise their husbands’ trades, but most guilds tried to exclude them altogether. Women, nevertheless, worked as butchers, ironmongers, shoemakers, hot-food sellers, bookbinders, embroiderers and goldsmiths. Domestic activities such as silkmaking, spinning and brewing were exclusively female occupations.

Many guilds provided a welfare system. The Guild of Mercers (dealers in cloth) in London charged 6d. (6 pennies) a week and used the money to help poor members. Wealthy guilds started schools, ran retirement homes, paid for the funerals of poor guild members and arranged entertainments on holy days.

In some towns leading merchants formed an association called a merchant guild. The guild had a royal charter and took charge of the government of the town.

What follows are thoughts that have been whirling around in my head lately, and after much consideration I have decided to put those thoughts here so that writers thinking about entering a collaborative project have something to think about.

Obviously, I’m part of a collaborative work. My writing partner lives on the other side of the world and I’ve never actually met him but he was a part of my online writing group. He approached me about writing a fantasy novel together but it was not something I jumped into without thought.

The positive side – the story might be written, refined, and accepted for publication. This might be my foot in the door for my own work.

The negative side – he could pull a swifty and get the work published without me knowing. If I found out about anything like this, a lengthy court case would follow because I honestly could not rest otherwise.

There is a risk involved when writing with someone else. I’m usually not a risk taker but on this occasion the benefits lured me. Publication is my dream and I really didn’t want to kick myself in later years for not giving this a go.

However, there are other things to collaborative writing that I never considered. For instance, I have no control over the amount of time between chapters. This is very frustrating. It wouldn’t be so bad if the other person kept me informed (I’m a person who needs to know what’s happening) but he doesn’t. I send emails and he doesn’t reply. This is making me angry.

In 2003, I sent off a chapter and didn’t hear from him for 12 months. That’s right, 12 months. He then contacted me and said he’d been offered a contract for three of his own books and had to meet rewriting deadlines so our project was put on the back burner. That’s fine but why didn’t he let me know? Why did he leave me hanging for 12 months?

Six months ago we picked up where we left off. Again, communications have not been satisfactory and the chapters are taking too long to get to me. Now, I haven’t heard from him in over two months and again, my emails are not being answered.

My reaction to this:
I’m sick of the lack of communication and the long delay between chapters. I’m sick of receiving chapters so far apart that they mean nothing to me and I have to reread the manuscript to get back into the flow. This wouldn’t happen if he got his chapters back to me in a timely fashion. I’m finding the whole process stressful, and I don’t need stress in my life. Because of this, I am thinking of pulling out but what would happen then? The manuscript is three quarters of the way through, we were working steadily to the climax and the finale. If I gave this away now, then that puts an end to a great story. Or would it? What if he finishes it and gets it published without giving me the credit I deserve?

These are the thoughts whirling around in my mind. Doomed if I do, doomed if I don’t. I can’t make him write the chapters; and, getting angry is not good for my well being. I’m finding that my emails to him are starting to get curt and abrupt, which only makes things worse. My next email will probably spill over into nasty!

Do I cut my loses or do I struggle on? It wasn’t meant to be like this, and if you’re thinking of doing a collaborative piece, I’d be very careful. Don’t rush into anything, and set up rules beforehand. Better still…don’t do it!!!