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  The problem of Susan: growing up? Susan Pevensie, a character in C.S. Lewis Narnia stories, has stirred up controversy on what it means to be grown up. https://khanya.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/the-problem-of-susan-growing-up/ #kidlit #childrensbooks #mglit #bookstodon

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  #PennedPossibilities 1161 Do you have any mythology around the afterlife in your universe? Since the universe of my stories is the one we all live in, it has the same mythology of the afterlife as that world. There is plenty of mythology in my stories, fro m various cultures, but since I do not dwell on the afterlife in my stories, few, if any of the instances have to do with the afterlife.

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  #PennedPossibilities 1160: Sunday Word Edition: Share something from your WIP pertaining to the word “feline.” I'm working on a second edition of my book "Of Wheels and Witches" so I suppose it counts as a WIP now. In several scenes characters are harassed by African wild cats under the control of (or at least in league with) witches, who are in turn being used by the Secret Police to watch and/or harass potential political dissidents. #writing #amwriting #WIP

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  Crisis teams being activated when someone is killed ondermynende.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/c... #counselling #psychotherapy

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  #WordWeavers 2026-10-23 What rule – legal, cultural, magical, social, or otherwise – does your MC regularly break? Tiffany, who is white, breaks the contemporary rules and conventions of apartheid in South Africa, by visiting black friends etc,

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  #WordWeavers 24.Which character would survive the longest if suddenly dropped into our world with no money or identification? In "Cross Purposes" four children are dropped into a strange country with no money or identification. They all survive, after various adventures, in part owing to the kindness of strangers, though one of the dangers they face is the malice of strangers. https://www.smashwords.com/books/1167919

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  Which country is causing the most bad things happen in the world? (Please boost for greater reach) #poll #polls #global #politics

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  Evangelicals and Hallowe'en https://khanya.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/evangelicals-and-halloween/ #Halloween #saints #occult

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  Evangelism versus proselytism https://khanya.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/evangelism-versus-proselytism/ #evangelism #proselytism #missiology

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  How many monsters have you seen? Notes from underground: A.N. Wilson: believer, unbeliever, believer https://methodius.blogspot.com/2009/07/wilson-believer-unbeliever-believer.html #monsters #atheism #Christianity

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  The debate on social media algorithms seems to be hotting up -- algorithms vs no algorithms? I use, fairly regularly, two plaforms that use algorithms -- Facebook and exTwitter -- and two that don't -- the Fediverse and BlueSky. And I am firmly on the fence. I think some algorithms are OK, and others not. Ones I don't like are those that suppress certain kinds of posts, not because of user preferences, but for perceived financial gain. Example: algorithms that show posts with links...

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  Makwerekwere https://khanya.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/makwerekwere/ #language #usage #xenophobia

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  Scary books for kids: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner https://ondermynende.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/the-weirdstone-of-brisingamen/ #kidlit #mglit #childrensbooks

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  Notes from underground: How social networks undermine community and promote extremism. https://methodius.blogspot.com/2024/03/how-social-networks-undermine-community.html #socialnetworks #communication #community

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  I asked Grok what it knew about my book "The Enchanted Grove", and this is what it said: The Enchanted Grove is a children's/young adult adventure novel by South African author Stephen Hayes. lulu.com Key DetailsISBN: 9781920707637 (ISBN-10: 1920707638) Format: Paperback (pocket-sized, about 4.25 x 7 inches / 108 x 175 mm), 247–248 pages Publisher: Self-published / Stephen Hayes (via Lulu) Publication Date: March 3, 2021 Language: English Genre: Children's f...

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  Fantasy? Magic realism? Historical novel? Adventure story? Perhaps a mixture of all of them, set in South Africa in the apartheid time, for kids aged 9-99. Should appeal to fans of "The Dark is Rising" sequence: "The Enchanted Grove" by Stephen Hayes. ISBN 978-1-920707-65-1 https://methodius.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-enchanted-grove.html #books #childrensbooks #kidlit #MGlit

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  "Cross Purposes" on Meet New Books. Find similar books to ones you already like https://meetnewbooks.com/new-exciting-book/1233/Cross-Purposes-Stephen-Hayes #AuthorsOnBookstodon #books #booklovers #readers #goodreads #readingcommunity #Bookish #BookRecommendations #BookSuggestions

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  How many books have you read this year? Me: 25 -- 2 nonfiction, 23 fiction Favourites: 89 Lewis, C.S. 1980. The Magician's Nephew. 85 Banville, John. 2005. The Sea. 83 Murdoch, Iris. 1980. The Sea, The Sea. 80 Barclay, Linwood. 2007. No Time for Goodbye. 79 Greene, Graham. 1970 [1960] A Burnt-Out Case. 77 Higgins, Colin. 1995 [1971] Harold and Maude. 75 Ellwood, Nuala. 2020. The House on the Lake. #bookstodon #reading #readingcommunity

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  #PennedPossibilities 1060. Tell us about a WIP that you want to finish but doubt you ever will. Mermoir of my time in Namibia, 1969-1972. I went to Namibia in July 1969, just after the South African government had taken over most of the functions of the Administration. Two years later the World Court said that South Africa had no right to administer the territory, and the Lutheran Churches, the largest Christian denominations, publicly supported it. I was deported from Namibia in March 1972, s...

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  Fiction writers, what do you use for your initial draft of a new story/novel? (Please boost for greater reach) #writing #writingcommunity #authors

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  #ScribesAndMakers July 3: We have some new people in the community. Re/Introduce yourself and tell us about your creative work. I am Stephen Hayes, South African author and Orthodox Church deacon. I've written three children's novels and one adult novel, and am working on a few more, and have also been writing about southern African history. My children's novels are set in the 1960s, and so are historical novels in a a sense, though they are also adventure stories an...

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  Can you drive a vehicle with a manual gearbox? #poll #cars #driving

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  #WordWeavers 3 For which characters do you come up with a backstory? Those for whom other characters in the current story need to know the backstory. For example in my book "Of Wheels and Witches" 11-year-old Jeffery Davidson goes to spent the school holidays as a paying guest on a farm because his parents are overseas. He meets the farm-owner's niece, 9-year-old Catherine, who is half-Russian, lives in England, and whose parents were killed in a plane crash. He lea...

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  TGIF on Friday 10 April 6:30 am South African time, 4:00 am UTC

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  #PennedPossibilities 985 — How long have you been writing or when did you start? Ever since I learned to write at the age of 5-6. My earliest efforts (some of which I still have somewhere) were fan fiction based on characters in my favourite books at the time, chief of which was "Choo-Choo: the little Engine that Ran Away". #writing #writingcommunity

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  #PennedPossibilities 986 #WritingCommunity Check-In time! How are you enjoying working on your WIP? Are things going the way you planned, or has the outline somehow changed along the way? I'm sort of stuck. I keep thinking I need to go back to the beginning of the story, and take a different turn somewhere along the way. But when I re-read, I think, no, that's not so bad, don't break off there, and so get back to the point where I'm stuck.

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  Notes from underground: The Other Inklings: interviews with scholars of the Oxford Inklings. https://methodius.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-other-inklings-interviews-with.html?spref=tw #literature #Inklings #bookreviews #bookstodon

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  Those who are bothered by the influence of AI and LLMs on literature might find this reassuring, or they might not. https://idiosophy.com/2023/04/poetic-diction-and-the-llms/ #literature #LLMs #AI #writingcommunity

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  Morning Prayer of the Last Elders of Optina -- many Orthodox Christians end their morning prayers with this: https://khanya.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/morning-prayer-of-the-last-elders-of-optina/ #prayer #prayers #Orthodox #Christian

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  I wrote this nearly 8 years ago, but when I read what many people write on social media, I think it needs to be repeated. Forward to the past: South Africa is back in 1985 https://khanya.wordpress.com/2018/07/17/forward-to-the-past-south-africa-is-back-in-1985/ #RSA #culture #racism