Weather possibilities...

If you are in a dry part of the country/world today, lucky you. As I write the rain is continuing to fall and the wind is blowing. It's been a few very wet weeks where I am, with only the occasional day without the wet stuff dropping from the sky.

Seems if you mention the words 'drought' the dark clouds will arrive just to disagree.

So I thought I'd have a look and see what the weather was like in 1912, 1812 and 1712. Now as I don't have a time machine, I'm consulting the very interesting Agricultural Records A.D. 220-1977, by J.M Stratton (this is the 1978 second edition).

Obviously the cost of  wheat, barley and other commodities played a big part in the economy of the time, so records of prices were useful. In fact look at any microfilm of very old news-sheets and you'll see the price table for those goods that week.

If you lived in the country the weather often dictated plowing, sowing, and harvesting times.

Even nowdays I can look out the kitchen window at incoming clouds and know roughly when it's time to bring the drying washing in from the clothes line...

So 1712- a dry spring, especially during February-to Mid May (so that's different to now). Then hot weather until late June (that sounds normal for the UK summer) and then a wet autumn and winter...
But looking at the couple of years prior to 1712, there are some similarities to UK weather over this past couple of years.

Now 1812 was during the Napoleonic Wars- a wet year, which would obviously effect the eventual harvest badly- so prices would rise.
Apart from the fog in January in London, March had frosts and Scotland had mid-month blizzards (I think that may have happened this year in some areas). Rainy and cool during our two main summer holiday months-July and August. And included with the early winter, London had some October floods.

1912- the year of the Titanic disaster. Gales in January and March with a dry spell in between. April, unlike 2012, was dry. But the overcast and wet summer struck then too. A hot spell was followed by "excessive rain" over the counties in the east. 4 inches in 24 hours. After flooding in a few regions the rest of the year seems to have been standard, apart from a gale in Scotland on Christmas Eve that resulted in injuries.

When I think about it, there could be a number of stories just in some of the weather occurrences mentioned- pursuit through the London fog, someone suddenly homeless on that Scottish Christmas Eve.

So many possibilities just because of how the weather was...

News Round-Up - April

Just a few items you might want to follow-up... :-)

Novelicious Undiscovered - The Top 20

The twenty names and the titles of their entries are now posted on the Novelicious website, and starting on the 1st May, one story will feature every day, allowing readers to comment, but not vote-yet. That begins on the 5th of June.

It's reassuring to see that it's not going to be done by popularity vote, in a way that would enable multiple votes from those who have a lot of friends...You can only vote once and there will be a form to fill in.

Sympathies if you entered and didn't get into the shortlist- but with over 200 entries, choosing 20 must have been a tough task.


Grazia and Orange’s ‘First Chapter’ Competition

Seems the terms and conditions that were posted originally have since been expanded on.

They have also added the words "Entries in the incorrect format will not be considered." But there doesn't seem to be anything defining what their correct format is...

This addition is sure to mean inexperienced entrants being excluded. Adding details like this when a competition is underway is not right.


Flash Fiction Competitions

Details of more competitions have been added to the competition page of the National Flash Fiction Day website.
Just scroll down the page to read the latest competitions with closing dates in May or beyond.

And finally

Workshop

The Writing Romantic Fiction Workshop with Kate Walker at Nottingham Writers' Club on Saturday 19th May 10am to 4pm.

There are a handful of places left, so if you're interested click on the Workshop link above. The price for the day is a great deal less than many one day workshops charge, so take a look.