The White Boar's Head: Student Union Bar at the University of Milton North

[DumSpiroSpero]

Student discounts available on all varieties of Chateau Gisborne and Polish Cordial.

That pic loaded very slowly from top to bottom, Spiro - love how you could see he was smiling even though only his eyes had loaded.

My heart just melts when you see him smiling with his eyes! May just have to have a little lie-down - THUD!

Hi I started a thread about this but it got swamped. I find this place so hard to navigate around.

Some of you may recognise my name. I'm the author of The Gruinard Project and many other RA inspired fanfics. I recently received a message telling me that TGP was being discussed here. Now that was a surprise I'll tell you; my sexy spy story being discussed over nappy changes and mum and toddler groups lol.

Anyway I joined to see what you were all saying and to thank you for reading. I didn't recognise the names on here from other fan sites so I think your thoughts on it are new to me.

I wrote it a while ago now and I like to think it taught me a great deal about the art of writing. I appreciated the harsh comments about the grammer spelling and bad writing as much as the obvious liking of the story in general. It was after chapter six or seven in this story, thanks to some constructive crticism on the DF site that I realised I needed a hand with the grammer, spelling and punctuation. I had each subsquent chapter beta read. So I think it got better in that department as it progressed.

Anyway to those who have perserved past the poor grammer and spelling of the first few chapters thanks for reading.

Hi khandy, nice to hear from you! Yes, some of us do like our RA fanfic here - I think yours was one of the first I read and I really enjoyed it - definite escapism :) Are you still writing?

Can I ask how you heard about us, do you mind? We always think we are a little closed-off group here but we're obviously not :)

Hi I'm glad you liked it; chapter nine seems popular here I wonder why? lol. I was told by a friend that TGP was discussed all over the net so I googled it and you came up. I like to thank people who have read my stories so I popped in to say thanks. I did notice that it seemed an exclusive club so I did think twice about invading your privacy especially as some of the comments about about my writing were quite critical and people may never have intended me to see them. But I have broad shoulders and a thick skin and I want to learn from my mistakes so I thought what the heck.

As to my writing well yes I am. I have just finished turning my John Standring fanfic into an original novel and have just begun trying to get in published. I am also writing an original story called Degrees of Silence which is about a deaf woman and her troubled neighbours.

Not to mention two stories about RA characters. Absolution about John Porter and Passages in Time about John Thornton

Oh yes, Chapter 9 a definite favourite here :o

I am so sorry for any critical comments and I do hope you weren't upset :( We aren't an exclusive club here - new members always welcome! - but I often feel that, as it's just the few of us here and we are rather niche, that nobody else is aware of us so I'm surprised when people are, that's all!

Don't be sorry without criticism I can't improve.

Its funny I only wrote the sexy bits like I did because I was asked to by a reader on DF. Still with RA as a muse it wasn't hard to do especially because his portrayal of Lucas in series seven was so sexy.

Hi khandy! I just nearly fell off my seat when I saw your name pop up!

I loved TGP, and must admit it's one of the few fanfics I've read all of iykwim ?

I'm interested to see that you're looking at getting a John Standring fic published. I've written one myself which I was thinking about self-publishing on Kindle, but am a bit put off by potential copyright issues (although I understand that technically character copyright isn't recognised in the UK).

Are you also in the UK, if you don't mind my asking? For some reason I've always imagined you to be American.

Morning all!

Hi Khandy - It's nice to see you here and a timely reminder that our daft witterings intellectual thoughts are available to everyone online. I admit I was one of those who was put off the GP (it was my first and last foray into fanfic apart from Spiro's writing) by the terrible spelling and grammar and I am glad that you have been big enough to take our comments on the chin and move on with them. Please don't take this amiss, but I have to do a lot of writing and editing in my job so this is professional advice, so to speak. You could do an awful lot to help yourself if you simply used a spell-checker - it's very hard to proofread your own work (as my own spelling mistakes testify), so a spell-checker is worth its weight in gold.

Hello ladies. Roadworks still not reached our part yet so am on line for a bit longer.

Hi khandy from me too, and kudos to you for taking our harsh comments so bravely. I suppose it's a reminder that enthusiasm for telling a story is the main thing. It cannot be be kept down by technicalities, and those can always be fixed as you have so courageously done. I don't think I would have had the guts myself.

I hope you get your reward soon, in the form of a juicy contract for your novel.

As for such topics being discussed among the nappies etc., well, mummies like to remember they are women, too, and what better form of escapism than the one we have dicovered?

And I am delighted to be long, long past the nappy stage!

I have been a Domestic Goddess this morning - cleaned the bathroom (even the tiles, my least favourite job), reduced the ironing mountain to a molehill and done the laundry. Although it's such a I'm not sure when it'll get dry.

Righty-o. Off to the costermongers I go.

Good afternoon, I missed you all last night. I popped round to my neighbours for 5 minutes to ask her something and we ended up drinking an entire bottle of wine and I got in after midnight .

Hi Khandy, nice to 'meet' you. I'm another who was probably hyper critical of the spelling and grammar in TGP (sorry, it's the teacher in me) but I have to say, I love the story and have reread chapter 9 it a couple of times.

Right, must away again. The MiniDs social lives are ruling today then I have to finish the cake I was supposed to do last night but neglected in favour of getting drunk so I will hopefully be back later......

@ ladyD. Nice to see you had your priorities right last night!

I forgot to say how much i liked Spiro's Lucas pic. The way his mouth turns up at the corners has me just walking on air.

Someone else does it, too

Hi Ladies.

Firstly, thanks for the welcome.

Spiro, I have changed the characters names and the back story so the hero is no longer JS but Will Barnes to avoid the copyright issues. It was a 40,000 word fanfic but is now a 100,000 word novel. In the Bleak Mid Winter is featured on Wattpad as was TGP and both are popular so I decided to give it go as a "real writer" if you know what I mean. Where are your fanfics?

American? No I'm not American. I'm as English as they come. I work for the NHS as a specialist nurse. It is funny, because I have a severe/profound deafness I have no regional accent so people who meet me do not know where I come from but I've never been mistaken for being anything other than English on the net.

Maud, I think I developed a tough skin early on with my writing. I do have and use a spell checker now, but it doesn't help my "ed" disability. I have a habit of forgetting the ed of the ends of words. What I have found invaluable is the help of two beta readers who check for mistakes. My strengths in writing are the plot and character development but I do understand how mistakes with the grammer, punctuation and spelling annoy people.

Supermassive, I hope i get that contract as well.

LadyD, Chapter nine thats make up sex isn't it.

I can't remember if it's make-up sex or not (I think so) but Chapter 9 is 'deliberate go-slow' - not that I know it off by heart, or anything :o

I think it's all too easy to forget that some people do have trouble with spelling/grammar etc. - you would probably be critical of my dreadful maths skills! Anyway, I'm glad the criticism helped you but I am and sorry if I was catty about it.

I thought it was ITBMW you were talking about, khandy - so it's only John/Will in that really isn't it, with lots of original characters.

Mine's a straight 'sequel' with most of the original characters in it, so not an option (and not that long either!). As I understand it you can't copyright a character in the UK, but have pretty much decided against taking it any further now anyway.

Will PM you a link to my Wattpad page.

::dark glasses and hoodie firmly up:: blueeyes here!!

Maud is always so clever - she warned us that the walls are always listening!

Hello to the esteemed author in our midst - I have never read any fanfic so I will remain out of these discussions! Must venture that way eventually I suppose

In other news, SB has arrived for the Colonel's birthday. Is it very a leetle bad to watch it before I wrap it up???

Hope you all had/having good SatuRdAys?

Russian pony

No its not bad. Had I not been deaf I would have listened to my Mum's Geprgette Hayer audio books

RP, there is always a chance that the disc could be faulty and just think how sad the Colonel would be then. Perhaps you'd better check it, just to be on the safe side?

khandy, obviously it's not quite the same but the Heyer books are a great read, even without the lovely narRAtion.

Pass the twiglets it is the one thing I envy you can all hear that voice I can't really hear it very well at all

How's your eyesight, Khandy?

::collapses::

Maud it is good enough to enjoy the view.

Oh lawdy Miss Maudie. that pic is lethal.

As you know, I generally prefer to post pictures of the stern and brooding but totally lush Mr Thornton, but there is something about that one.

::collapses again onto the nylon carpet tiles from Cheapo Carpets A GoGo (Chernobyl branch)::

I'm sending a friend to keep you company while you're offline, Massive.

Oooh, how thoughtful of you, Maud.

He is pure unadulterated sex even without the stick rawther personable, is he not?