A Cake Anchor

In my book Disraeli Hall (plug plug) I invented a device called a Cake Anchor that the Victorians used to hold down the wonderfully light sponges they had at their elaborate afternoon teas - to stop them floating off to their ornate ceilings.  It was of no importance to the plot, just a self-indulgent detail that you can allow yourself in a novel, but not in a short story.

The point being that, as I struggled to get my large sackload of cakes to the Hall on Sunday, it occurred to me that I am not the sort of baker who would need a cake anchor in her kitchen - more a heavy duty cake crane.

IF I ever manage another novel, maybe I could invent a Cake Crane, for Victorian ladies who employed incompetent cooks in their stately homes?

Anyway it gives me an idea for a pic for this blog.  It can't be one of a cake anchor of course, as they have not actually been invented. So the pic above is yet another plug for my second book.

And talking of shameless self-promotion, I have another lovely review for Umbrellas of Hamelin, from a real author, who is also a fan of the short story.

She says:

The short story is a genre that has rather gone out of fashion which is a pity, as this collection demonstrates very well its strength as a medium of story telling. Sue Knight demonstrates skill across the range from the very short Talky Tin to the novella length Till They Dropped.

Talky Tin is the perfect short story, a piece of fiction that turns itself upside down at the end. The Martian Goes to a Party and Has a Nice Day is a wonderful example of 'making strange', as we look at our world through the eyes of a Martian visitor who is struggling with the social minefield of a party he can barely comprehend.

Klook and Plukey is a story that seems apparently gentle as two old schoolfriends meet again after a long time, but as with all good monologue-style narratives, the truth about the speaker gradually emerges, a truth that she seems barely able to recognise, but is all too clear to the reader.

Each of these stories is a gem. Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Umbrellas-Hamelin-Sue-Knight/dp/1914060555

I haven't as yet had a bad review. For which I am very grateful.  But that is probably because I don't sell that many books.  IF I ever become a best-seller, then things might be different. And I reckon the best thing to do, what I ought to do,  would be to take any criticism on board, and learn from it.

We have all got plenty to learn, no matter what age we are. And the Book of Revelation tells us that it will take a thousand years for the earth to be restored to the paradise it was always meant to be, and for obedient humankind to be restored to the life and perfection that our first parents so tragically threw away.

But the Bible also tells us that with Jehovah, our Creator, a thousand years is as a day.  And as I am already past - ("well past" I seem to hear Captain Butterfly murmuring from the kitchen where he is flying the coffee machine) - my three score years and ten, I know just how quickly even a hundred years will fly by.  The Thousand Years will go by so quickly - and so happily too. And then our real lives will begin. Our lives were meant to start in perfection, not be the struggle they are now.

I hope I am there to find out how wonderful it will be.  I hope we all are.