Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 7, Season XVII. This Alphaday is the halfway mark through this 17th Alpha season. It’s a good season, I think, with everybody fully involved in our shared passion for everything writerly. We left the old year last Alphaday, and we’re entering a new year this Alphaday with every intention of making it a productive and rewarding year. We count ourselves lucky that we communicate via email, not only because physical groups are hampered by Covid-19 restrictions, but also because we can be in close virtual contact with like-minded writers from anywhere in the world.
We haven’t been idle during the seasonal break. There was plenty to work on from our previous agenda and we’re eager to see what’s come of it and also, of course, to find out what’s next.
Our combined efforts have concocted a delightful collection of writerly treats and, as usual, I thank everyone for their willing help in coming up with this Alphaday’s agenda:
Alphaday 7, Season XVII agenda:
- This Bulletin from me
- The results of the tourist attraction interview from Linda
- The collated entries for the Christmas ghost story challenge from Morgen
- A call for entries to the Open Page 2nd edition, Season XVII from Sarah
- A Writers’ Reads prompt from Rick
- A call for Log contributions from Phil
How’s that for our first 2021 Alphaday? I reckon that’ll stimulate your writing muscles into action.
There’s no Alpha news to report and I sincerely hope that means you and yours are all safe from the effects of the nasty virus.
The general news is on the bleak side. May that soon come to an end! I spotted one item of corvid (not covid!) news that appealed to my imagination. Sadly, a raven called Merlina has disappeared from the unkindness (collective noun for a group of ravens) of ravens that live at the Tower of London. If they all disappear “the Crown will fall and Britain with it”. That’s a worrying thought in these post-Brexit days.
I remembered that another group of animals, the monkeys in Gibraltar, play a similar, legendary role in protecting British interests. If those monkeys, Barbary macaques and the only population of wild monkeys in Europe, disappear, then the British will no longer have control over Gibraltar. When Winston Churchill heard that only seven of them were left in 1944 he imported some from Morocco and Algeria; there are now about 300 of them divided into five troops (collective noun for a group of monkeys). Seeing that the border between Gibraltar and Spain remains a problem to be solved post-Brexit, and furthermore that the monkeys are vulnerable to viruses transmitted by humans, there’s cause for concern.
There’s also the elephant who packed his trunk … and off he went with a trumpety trump …
I thought I’d share these unusual legendary stories with you to avoid mentioning the intrusive, ubiquitous subjects of Covid-19, post-Brexit shambles etc.
Have a nice Alphaday.
Christine