{"id":1115,"date":"2022-04-28T09:52:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T08:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2022-04-28T09:52:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T08:52:49","slug":"season-xviii-alphaday-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/season-xviii-alphaday-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Season XVIII &#8211; Alphaday 12"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hi Alphas,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome to Alphaday 12, Season XVIII. As you know, the season is winding its way towards the end, but this Alphaday is still tightly packed with goodies. It\u2019s only when you look closely at the agenda that you\u2019ll spot the missing item: there\u2019s no new challenge brief. That means that between now and some time in September we\u2019ll be left to our own devices. Is that good or bad? I suppose it\u2019s good because we\u2019ll be able to concentrate fully on our personal writing; and bad, because we\u2019ll miss the interaction with others to egg us on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>September will come along in its own good time, and in the meantime we have plenty to do to finish this season in style and prepare for the next one, starting with today\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Alphaday 12, Season XVIII agenda:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>This Bulletin from me<\/li><li>The Open Page 3<sup>rd<\/sup> edition collation from Ros<\/li><li>Results and feedback for the \u2018thank you letter\u2019 challenge from Morgen<\/li><li>The Alpha Log 6 news from Phil<\/li><li>A Writers\u2019 Reads prompt from Suzanne<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can\u2019t complain, can you? This will keep you occupied for quite a while, methinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ll leave the <strong>Alpha news <\/strong>in Phil\u2019s able hands. Or rather to those who\u2019ve sent their latest news to Phil, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>general news <\/strong>this time steers very clear of the dreadful chaos the world has been flung into of late. In fact someone sent me a prompt for it, and as that\u2019s a novelty I thought I\u2019d take it up, especially as it\u2019s about our usage of words \u2013 a topic I can\u2019t resist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is an <em>easy peeler? <\/em>Apparently it\u2019s a citrus fruit that\u2019s easy to peel. Simple. The problem is that it replaces the exotic names of individual varieties in order to stress the one quality that matters to consumers. Gone are satsumas and tangerines; clementines and mandarins. Those names conjure up sweet perfumes and sunny juiciness in exotic settings. As for the easy peelers I\u2019d say they conjure up dry fruits with segments covered in thick skins. Citrus fruit for dummies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s the problem with the word <em>easy.<\/em> It has a sinister side to it. <em>Easy <\/em>means avoiding effort and difficulties. <em>The easy way out <\/em>often involves deceit, lies and dishonesty. The drug addict\u2019s easy way out is to continue the habit; the driver who hits a victim will run. Who knows what the depressed person who\u2019s hit rock bottom will choose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, it degrades the word it\u2019s applied to. Easy morals? An easy read? Forget the title of the book. You can hear it, see it, feel it when you say <em>The Wind in the Willows. <\/em>Call it an <em>easy read <\/em>and you\u2019ve lost the effect on the imagination. It insults the reader as well: reading for dummies. The <em>easy peeler <\/em>avoids the oily perfume that squirts on to you fingers and the bits that go under your nails as your mouth waters and your ears tingle with the sounds and the feel of tangerines and mandarins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>easy way out <\/em>for a writer who\u2019s stuck is to call it a writer\u2019s block. It makes you miserable. Put the effort in, do the research, live with your characters and make them laugh and cry. There\u2019s nothing easy about that, but then \u2013 the easy ride isn\u2019t always the one that gives you the thrills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Alphas, Welcome to Alphaday 12, Season XVIII. As you know, the season is winding its way towards the end, but this Alphaday is still tightly packed with goodies. It\u2019s only when&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alphaday-bulletins","tag-alphaday-bulletins-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}