Why terrorism can't win

I, along with most of the rest of the world, was appalled by the Manchester terrorist attack. The terrorists can'e possibly win using these methods, and here I will try to explain why.

1. If their aim is to promote Islam, they are doing a very poor job. They are achieving the very opposite of that, and are turning people against one of the world's great religions. Many reasonable, peaceful Muslems are being targetted, as are mosques, and Islamophobia is getting much stronger. Extremism breeds extremism, so Muslims will be targetted more.
2. I am old enough to have had Parents, Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents who lived through WW2. They talked of that time, almost with fondness and nostalgia. This was because of the solidarity that encompassed the nation. The bombing of the cities and factories, and especially the bombing of Coventry Cathedral, drew people together. This is what I see happening everywhere atrocities are committed now. The French people, the German people, the American people after 9/11 and the Boston bombings, and we the British are all drawn together by this, far from what I think is intended, to disrupt, fragment and induce fear.
3. Then there is determination. Churchill said in his famous speech, when he said, 'We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.' The terrorists are stirring this determination in us all.
4. Britain is used to terrorism. IS seems to forget, or has never known, this. We had a long fight with the IRA when London was struck by bombs as were other cities in the country. The IRA did not succeed in 'winning' by making us surrender, and I can't see IS doing so either. In the end, the IRA negotiated a peace. Will IS? What is it they want exactly, anyway?
5. I cannot understand how anyone can think that Allah will be pleased at this slaughter. Surely, He would be better pleased at people being converted to His worship, rather than destroyed. If the aim is to get a Muslim world, then this is not the way to go about it. It brings the religion into disrepute. People will be all the more disinclined to embrace its tenets.

I'm sure there are other reasons why IS cannot succeed using terrorism, but I want to get this post out there. I will ammend it if I think of anything else.

Let's all pray for peace and the cessation of sucn violent attacks

Interview with Kimi from The Wolves of Vimar Series

I interviewed Kimi, Davrael's wife. You may remember I interviewed Davrael some time ago.. Here is what she told me.
Me: As you know, I have interviewed your husband,
Davrael. He told me something of the life on the Plains.
Perhaps you can tell me something about how you two met.

Kimi: Of course. It will be a pleasure. As you know, Davrael
is from a nomadic family. One of the Tribes. They travel the
Plains following and herding the horses that roam across
them.

Me: The horses are free then? Don't they belong to the tribe?

Kimi: Yes, each tribe calls particular herds their own, and
they brand them when young to show their ownership, but
most of them are wild and free. I am from the settlers. We
once roamed the Plains just like the Tribes, but our
ancestors decided to settle in order to have more control
over the breeding of our horses. They thought that they
could breed better animals that way.

Me: And did they?

Kimi (smiling): There are still arguments about that.

Me: How did you and Davrael meet then?

Kimi: One day I was out riding with my brothers when we were attacked by a group of Tribesmen.

Me: Was one of  them Davrael?

Kimi: Oh, no. It was an enemy tribe of the Swooping Hawks. They are called the Howling Coyotes. The Tribes have never liked the settled folk. They think we have abandoned tradition and the settled folk think that the nomads are primitive people, so there was no love lost between us. Anyway, my brothers tried to fight them off but there were too many of them and they took me with them. I think they wanted to marry me to one of their men. They did raid sometimes for both horses and women.

Me: Where did they take you?

Kimi: They took me to their camp several days away. It wasn't their main camp. In fact they had strayed into the territory of the Swooping Hawks. That was why the trouble began.

Me: Trouble?

Kimi: Yes. A band of Swooping Hawks came upon the camp and a battle began. I know little of that battle because I was tied up in a tent, but I could hear the noise--shouting and screaming. Then it suddenly went quiet. I heard a voice commanding the capture of all the horses and a search of the tents. After a while, a man came into my tent. I was petrified. He was an imposing-looking man, although not really handsome, with long hair held back by a braid around his head. What was the most terrifying, though, was the tattoo of a hawk on his face. I tried to hide, hoping he wouldn't see me and that I could somehow escape, but he was too observant and saw my little wriggles behind a bed. He lifted me out and said, 'What have we here then? A little mouse trying to escape the hawk?' He laughed at my frightened expression and continued, 'Well, it seems the hawk has caught the mouse after all.'

Me: This was Davrael I assume.

Kimi: Yes. He freed me of my bonds and told me that I would be well treated. He asked me where I had come from and what tribe I belonged to. I told him that I was not a tribeswoman and where my family were settled. He agreed to take me back to my family if I could assure him that they would pay in horses for my return. Coin has little meaning for the Tribes. They count their wealth in their horses and trade by barter, you see.

Me: Did you give him this assurance?

Kimi: Yes. I was confident that my father would pay him whatever he wanted.

Me: So he took you back to your family?

Kimi: Not immediately. Davrael and his men were out searching for some horses that they suspected that the Howling Coyotes had stolen. They were some of his best animals. Beautiful golden horses with silvery manes and tails they are. Come to think of it, their manes and tails are almost the colour of Randa's hair!

Me: Where did he take you?

Kimi: Well, I rode with them for quite a long time actually. Some of the horses had strayed a long way, and some had even been taken to the territory of the Howling Coyotes. There were a few battles, but eventually he got them all back. Every evening he would come into the tent he had said was to be mine and we would talk. Gradually I learned that he was not the fearsome warrior I had thought, but was, in fact, quite a gentle perso, although he could fight well when required. He was kind to me and I gradually began to fall in love with him. I was surprised when he told me that he reciprocated my feelings.

Me: There were problems though I understand.

Kimi: Yes. This is quite painful for me to relate. Davrael took me to his father and told him that he wanted to marry me, but his father flew into a rage and said that no son of his would marry a settler. We the went to my family. They were delighted to see me as  they had given me up for dead or worse. When Davrael and I eoldthem of our love, my father said that there was no possible way that he could allow it. He offered Davrael two of his best horses if he would go away and forget about me.

Me: He didn't, of course.

Kimi: No. We met in secret for a time, but then decided that it was impossible to live like that and so we decided to elope.

Me: You went to Grosmer then.

Kiki: Yes. We went to Grosmer. If all that had not happened, or if either of us had obeyed our fathers, then we would never have met Carthinal and the rest of the Wolves. I wonder what would have happened then?

Me: Thank you very much, Kimi.


If you want to find out more about Kimi and Davrael, you can buy The Wolf Pack by clicking on this link.

http://mybook.to/thewolfpack

Some tautological sayings

Tautology is using words that mean the same thing in a sentence, that do not add anything further. An example is 'widow woman'. I am going to talk about some tautological things that people say and write today.

So let's begin.

 I heard someone on the radio talk about a 'small, little...' Can you have anything little that's not small? I have heard this on several occasions. Never, though, a 'large, big...' that I can remember.
 'Reverse back' is another one frequently heard. Have you ever seen anyone reverse forwards? I haven't.
 'Repeat again.' Now this one can be used, but only if the thing has been said (or done) at least twice. Repeat means to do it again. The 'again' is in the word itself.
 One that irritates me, and is very frequently used these days is 'Various different...' Have you ever come across things that varied but were the same?
 'Fall down', although frequently used in everyday life, is none the less tautological. You can't 'fall up', so the 'down' is unnecessary. This is one that writers should watch out for.
 Close proximity. If it's in proximity, it's close!
 necessary requirement. If it's not necessary, it's not a requirement.
 PIN number. Since PIN stands for Personal Identification Number, saying PIN number is saying 'personal identification number number.'
 We see, in advertising, 'Your Free Gift' Well, if it's not free, it's not a gift, and if it's a gift, then obviously it's free.
 Thought to myself. Writers beware. Unless telepathic, you can only think to yourself. Telepaths are a very rare commodity, I think.

I would love to hear any others you can think of. I know there are so many. Please add comments in the comments box.

A review of The Key to Erebus by Emma V. Leech

I recently finished reading The Key to Erebus by Emma V.Leech. I really enjoyed the story.

Jehenne is a young girl who leaves Britain to go to live with her French Grandmother. When she arrives, everything seems normal at first, but gradually she is drawn into a world which she did not know existed. A world of elves, ghouls, vampires, fairies and others.

Her Grandmother is heavily involved in this world, and she sets about introducing Jehenne to all the mysterious and sometimes dangerous beings that inhabit it.

Jehenne finds she is in great danger from a renegade vampire who is seeking the mysterious Key to Erebus.

Jehenne finds the truth of the key is more frightening than she thought.

While I enjoyed the story immensely, I did find Emma Leech's punctuation a bit off-putting. She uses semicolons far too much, and frequently in places that were inappropriate, or where a comma or full stop would be a better choice. She also seems to be unsure of how to punctuate

Aspholessaria.

The journey continued. There were, as Trinelli expected, a number of times her healing skills were called upon. True to her word, Asphodel helped as much as she could. It was little enough, because the girl had not been trained in healing. She knew nothing at all. Not even the simplest remedies used by almost every housewife in the land.

She had been brought up as a privileged daughter of one of the ruling families of Quantissarillishon. Although only minor royalty, she had not had to work, The result was that she knew little of how life would be for most people. She was fascinated by Trinelli's healing, both the mundane and that which the goddess channelled through her priestess.

One day, after they had been travelling for a week, Asphodel asked Trinelli about her religion.
'Well,' began the other woman, 'What do you know about Sylissa?'

'Not much, really. We elves tend to worship Grillon, as the god of nature. We know a little of the others, but Grillon is our god, really.'

'Well, Sylissa is the god of Life and Healing. She is the twin sister of Kalhera, god of Death. They are like two sides of one coin. Sylissa's colour is white, as you can see from my robes, while Kalhera's is black.'

Asphodel settled down to listen as Trinelli told her about how Sylissa and Kalhera were the daughters of the Chief of the Gods, Kassilla and her consort, Zol the god of Knowledge and Learning. how each chose some aspect of life to be their jurisdiction.

Because she chose to aid those who were sick, occasionally there were disputes between the two sisters, if Kalhera thought Sylissa were denying death to people, but generally they were on good terms.
The clerics of Sylissa were the doctors and nurses of the world, but they did not rely wholly on the power of the god to cure sickness and injury. No, they learned other ways too, such as herbs, and manipulation. They could set broken bones, although sometimes they would call upon Sylissa to help.
Asphodel became fascinated by this and began to ask questions about the various herbs and other methods Trinelli used, She fould the rest of the journey passed quickly, especially as Trinelli sometimes gave her little things to do.

Just as they approached Bluehaven, Trinelli turned to Asphodel and said, 'You seem to have some aptitude for healing, you know. Have you ever thought of becoming a healer.'

Asphodel was amazed. The idea had never crossed her mind.

'I'm not sure I'd make a very good cleric,' she said.

'You don't have to. We have some lay people who help us. Why not come to the temple with me and see the Great Mother there. You can decide then what to do.'

So Asphodel went to see the Great Mother and decided to become a lay healer.

Soon that was not enough, and one night she dreamed of Sylissa.

'Come and join me,' the goddess told her. 'You have great potential. It's wasted here. Join my clerics.'

So after a year in Bluehaven, Asphodel joined the novices at the temple of Sylissa.

All went well during her first year as a novice. Mother Caldo, the Great Mother of the temple praised the young elf, saying she thought she had great potential, and could rise through the ranks quickly. Mother Caldo told Asphodel that she could probably become a Great Mother herself, such was her potential in healing.

'There's just one thing, though,' Mother Caldo said one day, in conversation with one of the archbishops. She sighed. 'The girl is lacking in discipline. Sometimes she seems to think she knows better than her superiors.'

One day, the Great Mother called together all the clerics of the church of Sylissa in Bluehaven. She stood in the pulpit of the temple and began to speak.

'As you all know,' she began, 'the annual meeting of all the Most Highs of all the religions was held recently in Asperilla on Holy Island. There, they decided that all the sickness and other problems that surround us are a punishment by the gods for the evil that we do.'

She looked at the paper before her before continuing.

'The consensus of this meeting was that we should try to eliminate evil from the world. The best way to do this, they said, is to refuse aid to those who perpetrate evil. The discussion, apparently, decided against the active persecution and killing, as this would make us as bad as them. The Most High of Sylissa, therefore, has decreed that we will not give aid or healing to such people.'

She shuffled her papers and left the pulpit. An astounded Asphodel followed her fellow novices from the temple deep in thought.

This cannot be right, she thought. Surely we are supposed to give healing to all comers, regardless of anything they might have done. At least, that's what I understood I was promising when I took my vows.

She listened to her friends talking, and they all seemed to think it was a good idea to eliminate evil in this way, and so she said nothing.