Robert Slack > Recent Status Updates

'[Cushla] A chuisle mo chroí: the pulse of my heart. ...
Poetry in a name.

'Izzy had the heart of a radical, but she had the experience of a fourteen-year-old living in the suburban Midwest.'....
.... p. 79 But things were set to change.

'... one of those outdoor-barbecue fireplaces, though nobody used them very much once it got so warm and began to rain every afternoon. ...
... Climate collapse has set in. How long have we got?

'Toast cannot be explained by any rational means.' ....
But it's very nice with marmalade

'The future of genetic genealogy remains bright: never in our history have our ancestors been able to speak to us so clearly.'. ...
... Let's hear what they have to say.

'What does the future hold?...
.... Well, the lid is coming off!

'One of the most common things many want to ask Ancestry matches to do is to transfer their results into FTDNA, MyHeritage or GEDMatch for access to segment data.'....
.... Ancestry has a very well populated DNA database but some tools are missing.

'Leaving a legacy Another reason to DNA test is to leave a legacy for your descendants. The way atDNA inheritance works means that older generations have more of our ancestors’ DNA than we do: parents have double, grandparents have triple and so on.'. ...
... For goodness sake, persuade older relatives to get DNA tested as a legacy they can hand down to later generations!

'She was born here, is bound deeply. Even if we leave – there are other forests to save, other wolves to return home, the trembling giant has been calling – a part of her will always belong here.'....
... Little One is deeply rooted, as we all are.

'‘My voice breaks. ‘Why aren’t we all angry? Why aren’t we furious, Duncan?’ ...
... Time to make a stand and search for change.

'I’m unlocking my front door when I hear it. The howl of a wolf. The first in these lands for hundreds of years.'....
... The wolves have returned.

'‘That’s the sound of wolves whispering.’'....
... A previously unknown sound

'We are the people killers, the children killers. We’re the monsters.’ ...
... Getting to the point, wolves are not the problem.

'and I speak more of the wolves because they are all I have left that isn’t rage.'. ...
... Restoring the natural order.

'‘The date of the Black Death,’ I said, ‘1348.'....
... The devastating pandemic of its day.

'To me, it proved that the past was living still, that we were all participants, all witnesses.' ...
... Multi-dimensional time.

'The swim, the long climb and the soporific Cornish air had done their trick.'....
... The air of Cornwall sapping energy of those at Kilmarth, as it also does in and Devon.

'I ran my eye down the rest. Number twenty-three was Roger Kylmerth. So it wasn’t hallucination -.....
... Evidence for the existence of the steward Roger.

'I had not awakened from some nostalgic dream when the vicar tapped me on the shoulder, but had passed from one living reality to another.'.....
... Actual not delusional time travel.

'... the telephone began to ring, sounding, in its insistency, like a summons from a lost, unwanted world. I let it ring. ...
... Wrenched back to modern times and not wanting to be there.

'On the page, only Miranda is missing, her chair taken by Dr. Eleven.'...
... Kirsten had given Clark one of the two Dr Eleven comics in her possession and he recognises one of the scenes; he is in the scene.

'“I’d thought I was the only one,” he said.'....
... There were others still 79!

'a life where the moments of emptiness and disappointment are minimal, where by her midthirties she feels competent and at last more or less at ease in the world,'.....
... And that's about the most one can reasonably expect, or so it seems.

'Mam used to tell me to look for the clues.'....
... They're everywhere.

'A diving cormorant, I strike out for the shore, wings back, feet kicking.'....
Franny, still swimming.

'‘Does it feel like a cage?’ My eyes prickle. ‘No,’ I say, and I feel that deep and terrible binding for what it is,'...
The agony and the ecstasy.

'‘I went there when I was eighteen thinking I’d find that homeplace.’ He shrugs, takes another drag. ‘Can’t find it anywhere.’'....
... Basil, to Franny, looking for a place he can call home.

Galway, Ireland...
'she’s never rightly understood the fascination, why they come here in droves to see this small windy stretch of land, where life is as plain as it comes. I don’t know how to answer her, except to agree that it is somewhat inexplicable, but has, I think, to do with music and stories and poetry and roots and family and belonging and curiosity.'....
... Margaret Bowen

'When will we know if this was a bad idea or not? Should we already know? Because now it feels good.'...
... Everything sounds so banal!