Christmas Cake. Haven't really had a good one since Mom died (she made it every year).

Wrap gifts or use gift bags?

With the recent passing of Denny Laine, who co-wrote the song, this live cover of Paul McCartney & Wings' "Mull of Kintyre" by The Trews ft. the Pipes & Drums of the Royal Highland Fusilliers of Canada is timely. It's a lovely, fairly faithful rendition of a song I have loved since I first heard it on its initial release.

Ape strolls in, looks around, grunts. Grabs broom and gives the place a pass. Wipes down the furniture. Washes the coffee and tea pots along with the pitchers from the fridge. Gets a fire going.

How's things? We have some Nicaraguan dark roast from Las Chicas in the coffee pot. Teas du jour are Irish Breakfast and Russian Caravan. Pitchers in the fridge have fresh lemonade and iced tea. Kettle is ready with hot chocolate (lots of mini marshmallows) and other tea selections.

There. Back in shape.

Later, alligators.

Hi there. Sorry, this place has not exactly been top of mind of late. Been working away at writing for another site. Plus busy days in life and work. Will attempt to visit more regularly going forward but we shall see.

Thanks for covering, Red.

“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” - Isaac Asimov

Good evening! Ape here. Had plumbers in today to find and fix a leak in my shower stall. Hopefully it's all done. Now I need a ceiling repaired. 🙄

I'll put the kettle on for a green tea (sencha, the Japanese variety). There's plenty of hot water if someone wants something else.

Meditating on my next story. Been kind of focussed on a piece for another site but it nears completion (I think).

Mulled wine sounds nice. I like nog, too, but it's a bit rich for my blood and my friend's egg nog spoiled me for any others. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. (yes, rum was involved, why do you ask?)

Real or fake Christmas tree?

Boo!

No, I have not vanished. Just been kind of flailing around recently.

Nice to see you joining us in Inspirations, red. To be honest, what we really need is more people active on the site as a whole. We get a rush over from (redacted) every time there's a comp but they never stay. Guess we're not fun enough or something.

Hope all are well. Will try to be around more.

And 7 out of the top ten songs on that list were from Floor Jansen's debut solo album Paragon. No surprises there. I fell hard for her voice when I got into Nightwish and her first solo effort after 25 years in various bands is rock solid and full of the powerhouse vocals that are her trademark.

My favourite song off the album is, hands down, "Daydream".

And after nearly 6 months off recovering from her busy Spring and having a baby, Floor returns to the stage Friday night in Amsterdam with Anneke van Giersbergen opening and a guest appearance by Irene Jansen, Floor's sister and occasional singing partner.

Interesting video by Marcela Bovio explaining the origin of her album Through Your Eyes (2018).

Which produced a large number of the songs on my most-played list for 2023 on Amazon Music. It's an amazing album that I quite love. One of my favourite songs from the album.

Yeah I know someone through another site who is "de-cluttering". We need to go through the basement, which is basically our warehouse, eventually.

Getting on in the say but I will put on a pot of medium roast coffee and some Assam tea.

Kind of caught up in life and writing for other sites so nothing really happening for here right now.

At home. My mother was actually born on New Year's Eve so it was always a family night at home for her birthday and I guess the habit stuck. The only time I have been out for New Year's is if I am on vacation over the holiday, which has happened a couple times.

Healthy party tray (e.g. veggies) or hit the chips and dip?

Whoa, that is some seriously epic symphonic metal. Not a surprise to see Natalya working with them. She's always done a great job with symphonic metal covers. Apparently the album came out November 3 so I am off to Amazon Music, my streamer, to see if they have it.

Good morning!

I am brewing so fine Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from FireRoasted. Teas are Irish Breakfast and Duke of Earl. Fresh pitchers of lemonade and iced tea are in the fridge.

So Sara's new avatar reminded me of the famous Coca Cola polar bear ads.

Quote by DenimAngel

Oops sorry Scott ..

I'm a collector of the coca cola Christmas bears and I thought the polar bear drinking a coke was cute

You've reminded of something I could post in Anna's advertising thread.😊

And some more straight forward, old school heavy metal from metal legends Judas Priest. Rob Halford looks and sounds pretty good for a 72 year old who has been belting out heavy metal for something like 50 years.

Was watching the set by Visions of Atlantis, an Austrian symphonic metal band, at Bloodstock Open Air this year. Here's the set opener. There's another video with the full 42 minute performance. VoA has become a favourite of mine over the past couple years. Solid symphonic metal band with a pair of engaging lead singers, French Clementine Delauney (a favourite of mine in just about anything she does, if you scroll up this page to October 24, you can see her in the female metal supergroup Exit Eden) and Italian Michele Guaitioli.

Quote by jmcchesnie

Hello everyone, I am new here. I like to write poetry and short stories. I am working on a couple of children's stories at the moment. I look forward to being part of this community and reading everyone else's stories too.

Ooh, you and Sara (DenimAngel) will get along. She writes children's stories mostly on here. Nice to meet you and look forward to seeing you around. I see you found the coffee house already.

I am the resident gorilla, aka Scott, and I write mostly fantastical fare (horror and fantasy) with occasional forays into other genres. No children's stories that were specifically written as such, but many think my comp winning fantasy piece The Goddess Dances would be good for kids.

Quote by jmcchesnie

Hi all, I'm new here. It's mid afternoon and I'm on my last cup of chicory coffee mixed with a little oat milk. I'm trying to get the motivation to put Christmas decorations up, maybe sometime today it will happen. Cheers to all and have a great day!

Welcome. I haven't been motivated to put my decorations up in years. Kind of stopped when we were often on trips over the holidays and never picked it back up again when the pandemic kind of put a stop to that. Maybe this year. We'll see. I just ordered a new TV for the rec room so setting it up comes first.

Thanks for the setup, verbs.

And, hey, Sara, I saw that avatar out of context on the thread list and thought it was Da Bear. 🤣Very cute.

Ape is here.

Coffee is a Nicaraguan dark roast from Las Chicas. Teas are Russian Caravan and Monk's Blend. Cold beverages are refreshed. Hot chocolate and marshmallows are lookin' good.

Later, alligators.

Oh, check out and contribute to Verbal's new thread on quotes about writing. Should be a fun, interesting thread.

https://www.storiesspace.com/forum/tips-troubles-technique/quotes-about-writing

From a collection of Neil Gaiman quotes about writing.

"I think one of the great things about fiction is that it takes the chaos of life and feeds it back to one in a form that is emotionally satisfying."

"The story is an explosion. And you get to the end of it, and once it's done, then you get to walk around it and you get to look at the shrapnel and the damage it did. And you get to see who died. And you get to see how it worked."

The full collection is at https://www.writinganalytics.co/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CGrowing%20up%20is%20highly%20overrated,Just%20be%20an%20author.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CRule%20one%2C%20you%20have%20to,write%2C%20nothing%20will%20happen.%E2%80%9D

Quote by verbal
About to start writing a horror Western. Deeply weird.

I don't know if I am more intrigued by the "horror Western" part or the "deeply weird" part. 😊

So after an extended break including giving birth to her second child, Floor Jansen is getting back into action. She finished laying down vocal tracks for the next Nightwish album this week (per the band's drummer Kai Hahto) and has a major solo gig coming up in Amsterdam in two weeks. Supporting act, as for many of her other solo concerts, is fellow Dutch vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen.

Floor:

Anneke (song is from her old band The Gathering):

Kitchen witchcraft. You know I love it.

Well, it's the day after Black Friday. No name for that as far as I know, though I imagine shaking off a shopping hangover is involved.

To help with that, we've got some Deathwish Dark on. Also some English Breakfast and Duke of Earl teas. Fresh pitchers of iced tea and lemonade are also there, as are hot chocolate and mini-marshmallows.

Oh, and ape's been cooking.

Coffee and tea for you and me.

On this American Thanksgiving, I am thankful for those who cover for my sorry ape ass when I am not around.

In the coffee pot we have some dark roast Nicaraguan from Las Chicas.

Teas are Assam and Russian Caravan.

Pitchers are washed and refilled with iced tea and lemonade.

Hot chocolate and marshmallows are on standby.

Good morning and, for the Americans, Happy Thanksgiving!

(You missed Verb's post, eh?😊)

Verbs: I get out now and then in winter but mostly stay inside.

Meagan: Beach. I don't ski.

Just sunbathe on the beach or hit the water for surfing, paddleboarding, swimming, etc.?

Hey, Sharon. Nice to see you over here. Take care and get well. Good that you have family for support, at least.

And good morning to all!

New coffee supplier today. Hasbeans is a local outfit in my city. This is their Special Dark.

For teas, we have Canadian Breakfast and Russian Caravan.

Cold beverages are available as is hot chocolate and some other fine teas.

Have a good Sunday!