Have a waffle with Carol

[GillMathews]

Oh well done Noe That is impressive.It must be your turn for some of the good stuff.As a Bristolian friend of mine says.I'm dead chufted for you
Gill xx

[Carol Townsend]

Gill,
Thanks for being chufted for me!
I'm now looking at everything I've written and trying to condense my stories into 500 words each; not easy!
The only thing about the short humour site is that there doesn't seem to be a way for readers to leave comments, so I don't know what The Public at large think. Maybe that's just as well!

I was getting a bit paranoid and prima- donna-ish because no-one has commented on my last tale, about the dentist. Am I losing my touch or have I made everyone feel queasy?
As a nurse, I'm sure you're not queasy!
Love
Noe
xxx

[Gisela Grell]

Hi Carolnoe,

well done! You will get famous Im sure. About your dentist story... well I'm in the middle of a big dentical treatment and at the moment there is nothing funny about teeth for me. Lets talk about it in three weeks. When I finished and probably will be broke. There goes my next trip to Tobago in my dentist's pocket

Read your story about your grandma and the 'knickers' again on www.short-humor.org and still laughing.

Cheers
Gisela

[Jonathan Richards]

I was getting a bit paranoid and prima- donna-ish because no-one has commented on my last tale, about the dentist.

I've just caught up with several days of posts, and enjoyed the punctured dentist story, thank you. You could have made it gorier than that without bothering me!

Awaiting the next yarn with anticipation. Hmm. Five hundred words really isn't very much. It's hard to tell a simple joke in that much space, let alone give rein to your trademark style...

Jonathan

[Carol Townsend]

Thanks Jonathan, and Gisela,
I have another yarn brewing (or stewing); a mere 800 words so far!
I'm trying to condense my stories down; do you know, I've posted 17 on this site and only one was less than 500 words.
One I'd like to send to the Short Humour Site is" The Exploding Water Tank and The Scary Washing Machine," which I know was quite popular in certain quarters but it's 1044 words long! I'll have to do it in weekly instalments. Well, if it's good enough for Dickens....
Noe

[SandraK]

Hi Carol
Congratulations on your new venture I'm sure you will make it a great success - who knows where this may lead ....... As I posted early on Saturday, re Bills offer ,I didn't catch up until today. Anyway so pleased things are going so well. Take care Sandra

[Bill B]

Noe,

Congratulations on your becoming a "published author" Nan's Lost Knickers is one of your best tales. You have a real knack for painting a visual scene with words and I could picture myself there watching them flying in the breeze. Hopefully you will continue to post the complete unexpurgated versions in the "Waffle".

Bill poyap

[Tony G]

Yes, my congrats too sis. One thing though, make sure that you retain the copyright to all your writings. You may wish to use 'em in the future, say for a proper book. OK, so that's not happening right now but we never know what's round the corner.

Just thinking of your best interests. Don't want to discover your wonderful stories turning up under someone elses name.

The seas are full of sharks. But the sun is shining.

Love

Tony

[Carol Townsend]

Thanks Uncle Bill
My ramblings are getting longer and longer; the latest is 1024 words and it aint finished yet! I hope you have the stamina to continue reading them.
This really will not do. I told myself I'd Spring-clean and tidy the house (or is it decade-clean?); a difficult task when you live with three untidy people.
But, here I am, and I'm at work this afternoon, so not much is going to get done today...
See ya!
Noe
XXXX

[David Watkins]

Hi Noe,a touch of Tobagoitis,maybe????
David

[Carol Townsend]

The seas are full of sharks. But the sun is shining.

Bruv,
Spoken like a true hippy, Man!
I missed your post earlier; I think we were typing away simultaneously, but thanks for your wise advice. Naturally I don't have a clue what to do, and don't want (and can't afford )to get involved with lawyers. I suppose I'll have to google "how do I protect my copywright".
Remember folks, you saw it first on "My Tobago"!
Or should that be "The Twilight Zone"?
Yours in trepidation
Noe

[Carol Townsend]

Speaking of the Twilight Zone, you may have heard of the teachers' strike in the UK tomorrow.
As we are a different union, we teaching assistants (a.k.a "pondlife") will have to go in as usual.
I will hate it! The children won't be there, so the place will seem like the "Marie Celeste".
Normally there is always hustle and bustle; singing, musical instruments being played, teachers telling people off (ie the staff!) splashing from the hydrotherapy pool and tortured screams from the nurses room and physiotherapy gym. (joking!!!!)
The computer people will be updating records, while the rest of us will drink gallons of tea and coffee, and do old fashioned filing, and tidy up the school. And we still will only be allowed 29 minutes and 15 seconds for lunch. The day is going to drag, and I'll be more tired than usual through sheer boredom. What will the strike achieve? Nowt!
But maybe I can visit you brethren here!
See you soon
Noe
xxx
PS Happy St Georges Day, and Many Happy Returns to Will Shakespeare

[Tony G]

Hey Sis, it's dead easy. I used to write music and it is exactly the same process. Put your writings in an envelope and send them to yourself by registered mail so that the envelopes are clearly date-stamped and you have the registered receipt. Make sure that the envelopes are well sealed and obviously untampered with. Then just stash them all somewhere safe. That's all there is to it. If it ever came to the point where you had to take someone to court (unlikely) then the evidence is there in the unopened envelopes and could be opened in the presence of a judge. You could deposit your documents with a solicitor or bank but they would probably charge you a small fortune just for locking them in a cupboard.

Tony

[Tony G]

St George's day is it? He was the geezer that killed dragons with a long pointy stick wasn't he?

No wonder you don't see many dragons these days.

[Carol Townsend]

Bruv!
We are visiting the site simultaneously again.
Bless you, you are a genius! You wrote music? Of course you did. That would be entirely in keeping with your character.
Ahem, we don't have a printer
so I will have to send my stories to Himself to print at work. Don't tell anyone...

After all this surreal stuff that's been going on in the "Returning to Tobago" thread, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a dragon or two flying around...
Peace and Love man...

[SandraK]

Hi Carol
Hope today wasn't too awful, going to work is one thing but getting there and being bored witless is another. The stupid thing is striking won't make any damn difference. Having had to partly renege on the 10p tax fiasco ain't no way there will be any movement on this one.
Have you contacted Bill now ? And if so can we expect to see you there ? Couldn't believe it when I saw his holiday dates as I'd booked shortly before for 09 and 10 - obviously this weirdness has been going on longer than we thought !
Sandra

[Jonathan Richards]

I suppose I'll have to google "how do I protect my copyright".
Remember folks, you saw it first on "My Tobago"!
Or should that be "The Twilight Zone"?
Yours in trepidation
Noe

Hi Carol
First of all, I am not a lawyer, a mantra so common on internet forums it has an acronym all of its own that you see everywhere: IANAL.

You don't have to do anything to obtain a copyright in your original work; it's yours by, umm, right. You'll sometimes see formal statements by authors at the fronts of books asserting their right to be recognised as the copyright owner, but for short stories that's probably over the top.

Tony's advice is good; stories once out on the Internet may get a life of their own, and you can't always rely on your original publication site being there, provably unaltered, if someone lifts your Nan's Knickers (so to speak ) and you want them to stop.

I had a look at the terms on shorthumour.org.uk; they explicitly say that the copyright remains with the author, but by submitting in effect you give them a free licence to publish on the web site and republish in electronic or printed form. As a colleague of mine is wont to say "You either care, or you don't".

Jonathan

[Tony G]

Sis

These days you probably don't even need to have your writings printed out. You could burn them straight from the computer to a CD and send them to yourself.

Tony

[Carol Townsend]

Morning Jonathan and Tony,
Yes it is horribly early, but I don't sleem to sleep much these days, although I'm tired. I think it's the spring, stress, things on my mind, my age (midlife crisis and all that; reverse adolescence) but you don't want to hear that; you're men! Sorry.

OK pulled myself together.
Thanks chaps for thinking of me and trying to protect my interests. Yes I did read the small print on the Humour site. I don't mind them printing my stories as long as they're under my name. I will get them printed or enlist my son's help in putting them on disc, or both!

Sandra,
Boring day over! Never pushed so many bits of paper around before without achieving a thing!
Yes I have made contact with Bill, but no decision yet. Life is complicated ain't it?
See ya!
Noe

[Carol Townsend]

PS
Trying to reduce my stories down to 500 words each. "The Scary Washing Machine and the Exploding Water Tank";( 1044 words) splits nicely into two parts, but the washing machine part is 789 words. I've got it down to 632 words so far, but deleting all those words and sentences has been agony, like pulling teeth! I have kept the original un-divided version though, which I prefer.
Almost finished the latest epic-1294 words.
Will launch soon....