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Children reach adulthood fast which means it is important to start thinking about saving when they’re young. By saving from just £10 to £25 a month with Scottish Friendly’s Child Bond when they are young you could help them when they are older. Scenarios where this may prove invaluable may include helping to pay for university fees or making a payment to secure a first home.

You can invest in a tax-free savings plan for any child with a Scottish Friendly Child Bond. It’s tax-free since it’s a friendly society savings plan, and as such under present financial legislation it grows free of income or capital gains tax. It’s an ideal way for parents, grandparents, family members and friends to make a big financial difference when the little ones are older.

The Child Bond is a with-profits investment plan: It invests for long-term growth as well as an element of security, in stocks and shares, fixed interest funds and cash.

The invested amount grows by way of the addition of potential annual bonuses and at the relevant time when the bond becomes payable there’s a tax-free payout. The value of bonuses is dependent on how much profit we make and how it is distributed by us.
It must be realised that bonuses are not guaranteed.

The Child Bond lasts for a minimum of 10 yrs, but it is permissible to invest for longer if you like – perhaps to coincide with an 18th or 21st birthday. You can save either monthly, annually or with a lump sum payment.That is completely up to you. Do not forget that if the plan is cashed in before the end of the term, the amount the child will get back may be less than the amount paid in.

If you would like to choose the monthly option, you can commence saving from as little as £10 a month – up to a maximum of £25 per month. Or you can make yearly payments of up to £270 a year.

You can also pay all of the premiums in one go through our lump sum funding plan. If you invest the maximum permitted amount of £2,340 for a decade, this actually invests £270 a year into the Child Bond – a total of two thousand seven hundred pounds. The minimum lump sum of £1,040 will provide £120 a year for 10 years – a total of £1,200. This provides a route for you to take care of all your premiums at once and is something that is popular with grandparents who like the reassurance of knowing all premiums for the full term of the plan are taken care of.

Life cover is also included with this plan, so you should consider if this is suitable for your financial needs.

Does anyone remember Mood rings? Okay, so maybe I’m showing a little of my age but when I think about writing and setting the mood I can’t help remembering mood rings.

When I was a little girl, my aunt gave me a mood ring. It was huge! I would wear it every minute of the day, and relied on it to tell me my mood. I don’t remember at the moment what each color represented, but when the color changed I would announce to everyone what kind of mood I was in. That brings me to mood in writing. When you sit down to write that piece you are going to set a mood. Often our writing reflects our current mood, whether it’s whimsical, sorrowful, fearful, or maybe even a sense of purpose. It has a mood. We may start out in one mood, but because of character development, plot, theme or setting, another mood may take over.

Reminds me of driving home from work the other day. It had been a very stressful day, and I was a little overwhelmed. Turning the radio on while driving down the rural roads I found a soft tune and rolled down the windows. The melody was soothing, and the warm air blowing through my hair helped me simmer down. I faintly mumbled the words of the song, absorbing the scenery along my drive. My travel took me past wooded areas as well as fields full of swaying greenery. I extended my arm out the window, letting my arm softly ride the breeze with the sweet beat of the music. It wasn’t long before my mood changed. I was relaxed, completely at peace.

Within three minutes another song flowed through my speakers. A little rock ‘n’ roll energized me. My arm still extended outside the window, began surfing the wind like ocean waves. I bobbed my head with the beat, and belted out the verse. My speed picked up, as did my spirits. The soft, subtle fields became alive with stimulating feelings. I was driving the same road, but at that very moment the scenery took on a different meaning. It was invigorating.

My mood was altered several times during my drive because my emotions changed with each song. Can we do that to our readers? Definitely. We can begin with one mood and then bring our readers into another mood. Changing moods can be interesting. It also let’s the reader experience different emotions. Imagine if my drive had ended with a patrol car pulling me over. That would have set a totally different mood. Whether we change moods or stick to one mood we don’t want to come out and state the mood in our writing. We want the reader to ‘feel’ the mood instead of being told.

“Bob was happy when he read the good news.”

The reader knows he is happy because it’s plainly stated.

“Bob smiled reading the good news.”

The reader didn’t have to be told he was happy because he smiled conveying happiness.

“It was a dark spooky night.”

Plainly stated. The author could have set the scene better, creating a better sense of the mood. The author could have written about ‘ominous shadows’, ‘the shivers of fear’, or anything to set the stage for the reader to feel the mood of the story.

Those are just some simple examples. Expressing and changing moods in a story can be much more than a mere sentence. It’s all in the words you choose and how you present them to the reader. Don’t tell the reader the mood just let them feel it through your words.

New writers are always looking for a way to get their name and work into the public eye. Did you know that writing contests are a great way to do that? Writing contests can provide several advantages to writers. Winning a contest is a great way to get your name in print and in front of potential readers. It also provides you with professional credits for your writing portfolio, and prize rewards to increase your income.

But even just participating can get a new writer into a writing regiment. It helps to grow confidence and provides a new writer with practice, practice, practice.

No matter the reason for entering a writing contest, you should be realistic about your expectations. The odds of winning are not terrific, but there are ways of improving those odds and stacking them in your favor!

You should start with flair! A complicating situation or an unsolved problem makes the reader want to know how the story is going to turn out. If the first page – more specifically the first paragraph- doesn’t make the judges want to read more, you’re in trouble. Judges will generally weed out entries by discarding those where the first page does not compel them to read on.

Your story should stand out. A well written entry with originality is the best way to do that. Find an original angle or an unusual twist. Create offbeat characters, or use an unusual setting. The judges are looking for something new – not the same old storylines. They have to have a reason to notice your work.

Your characters have to be believable and authentic. Their dialogue should be relevant and it should move the story along. They should talk naturally and convincingly, not stilted and awkward. The beginning, middle, and end is a must. A clear central theme should be followed throughout the entire story. If you’re unable to define your theme in one sentence, rethink it!

A positive ending should be delivered. This doesn’t mean “happily ever after” (unless you’re writing romance, in which case “happily ever after” is almost a rule), or happy and upbeat, but if should be openly and plainly expressed and have a positive meaning to it.

Proofread! Before you submit your entry, you should proofread and check for errors in spelling, grammar, sentence and story construction. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, have someone else do it for you. Neatness is important. Your entry should identify you as professional and capable, no matter your publishing history.

Enter your story as soon as possible – well before the deadline. Many judges read entries as soon as they arrive and early submissions will certainly have them more engaged than entries that arrive after they have already read hundreds of other submissions.

Read submission guidelines extremely carefully and make sure your entry complies in every way. If your entry breaks rules set forth by the contest, it will not be looked at. Don’t put yourself in that position! Don’t make yourself lose before the story is even read!

Increase your odds of winning! If guidelines state that more than one entry is allowed, go for it! You’ll increase your odds of attracting a judge’s eye.

Contest judges are looking for stories that involve the reader. If you can make the reader laugh, think, or cry, odds are the judges will too. You could have a winner on your hands right now!

At some point along the way, most of us have used what are
commonly called “fill-in-the-blank” writing templates. We
might have used them to write a letter, format an essay, or
set-up a resume or CV.

You know what I’m talking about here. It’s those form letter
templates that you see in many writing texts and workbooks.

FILL-IN-THE-BLANK TEMPLATES

For example, in the case of a letter, a “fill-in-the-blank”
template would look something like this:

Dear [NAME OF RECIPIENT]:

This is to advise you that your probation period in the
position [POSITION NAME] expired on [DATE].

The [NAME OF REVIEW COMMITTEE] met on [DATE OF MEETING] and
determined that your probationary appointment was successful
and that you should be immediately appointed to [NAME OF
POSITION] [NAME OF ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT].

Accordingly, this is to inform you that effective [DATE OF
APPOINTMENT] you are officially appointed to the position
of [NAME OF POSITION] for an initial period of [NUMBER OF
YEARS/MONTHS]. Terms and conditions of your employment are
covered by [OFFICIAL CONTRACT NAME/NUMBER].

Would you please report as soon as possible to [NAME OF
OFFICIAL], [TITLE OF OFFICIAL] in the [OFFICIAL NAME OF
HR GROUP] so that the details of your appointment may be
properly documented.

Congratulations [NAME OF APPOINTEE]. All of us at [COMPANY
OR ORGANIZATION NAME] look forward to working with you in
the future.

Sincerely,

[NAME AND TITLE OF ORIGINATOR]

Although this “fill-in-the-blank” approach can work, it has
a number of shortcomings as follows:

DISADVANTAGES OF FILL-IN-THE-BLANK TEMPLATES

- Because of their generic nature, they tend to generalize
so much that they resemble a computer generated form letter.

- They don’t provide specific information on how a
professional would properly fill in the required information
[BLANKS].

- They don’t provide mental stimulation or show how a
professional might word the letter in a specific real-life
context.

- The content is typically watered down to try and cover
every possible situation.

- Thus, they are virtually useless for 98% of real-life
situations, since they lack real-life content.

REAL-LIFE TEMPLATES

On the other hand, here’s what a “real-life” template
would look like for a similar situation:

Dear Jessica:

This is to advise you that your probation period in the
position Customer Service Agent (Temporary) expired on
November 30, 2004.

The Staffing Review Committee met late last week and
determined that your probationary appointment was successful
and that you should be immediately appointed as Customer
Service Agent (Ongoing).

Accordingly, this is to inform you that effective December
1, 2004 you are officially appointed to the position of
Customer Service Agent in the Customer Support Group for
an initial period of 36 months. Terms and conditions of
your employment are covered by the Customer Service Group
Employment Agreement.

Would you please report as soon as possible to Jim Jackson,
Chief of Human Resources so that the details of your
appointment may be properly documented.

Congratulations Jessica! All of us here at MedWay Systems
Inc. look forward to continuing to work with you in the
future.

Sincerely,

Sharon Smithson
Manager, Customer Support Group

ADVANTAGES OF REAL-LIFE TEMPLATES

Clearly, the “model” that most of us would rather work
with, if we had to write a similar letter, is definitely
the second one, the “real-life” template.

You can relate to it. It talks about real-life people in
a real-life situation that you can identify with. And, you
get to see exactly how a professional worded it.

There are other advantages to “real-life” templates:

Fully-Formatted Final Versions

“Real-life” templates are fully-formatted as final documents
so that you can see exactly how they looked when they were
sent out in a “real-life” situation. They don’t look like
some kind of “draft” form letter.

Content With Value

Working with “real-life” templates, it is much easier to
adapt them to YOUR actual situations because they give you
visual and intellectual cues that you can relate to.

Naturally, when you see how a copywriter or consultant has
dealt with a “real-life” scenario, in terms of word choice,
context, and punctuation, it is much easier to adapt to the
real-life situation that you are writing for. In that way,
the actual content has value.

Easy To Work With

“Real-life” templates are just as easy to work with as other
templates. You simply load them into your word processing
program and edit and adjust them to fit your own specific
situation. Presto! You have a fully formatted real-life
letter ready to be printed and sent out in the mail.

You also have the comfort of knowing that what you are
sending has already been used in other “real-life”
situations.

Real-Life Content

With real-life templates, it is much easier to find an
adaptable “fit” for the situation you are writing for.
Not only do they give you the final format of a document,
their content provides an excellent real-life sample and
gives food-for-thought to assist you in the writing process.

SAMPLE REAL-LIFE TEMPLATES

For illustration purposes, many real-life letter
templates as well as real-life resume templates can be
found at my main Writing writing help Web site:

http://www.writinghelp-central.com

Now that you’ve checked those out, I ask you, would you
rather work from a “fill-in-the-blanks” generic template,
or a fully-formatted “real-life” template?

© 2005 by Shaun Fawcett

Shaun Fawcett, is webmaster of the popular writing help site
WritingHelp-Central.com. He is also the author of several
best selling “writing toolkit” eBooks. All of his eBooks and
his internationally acclaimed f-r-e-e course, “Tips and Tricks
For Writing Success” are available at his writing tools site:
http://www.writinghelptools.com

Formula 1 motor sport is really the height of go karting. It’s the professional formation of the sport in its entirety. Formula One is global phenomenon, a media business that rakes in millions & millions of $ each and every year from publicity, funding, and broadcast revenue channels. Expert drivers with a millionaire existence race these truly magnificent motor cars that are unmatched with hi-tech luxuries – everything from very hard to make lightweight casings that glide the machine to tires with unequalled grooving style that supplies the tremendous speed on the racing track. Find a comprehensive collection of F1 Galleries for you to enjoy.

There is at present no other sport that best epitomizes the saying “worldwide sport” like F1 racing. Particular countries are active contributors in hosting the Formula 1 motor sport spectacle – Malaysia for example, is a hot spot for motorsport (Fernando Alonso, a Spanish-born Formula 1 racing driver driving with Team Renault recently just won a Formula 1race there) & Italy plays an imperative role in designing and constructing 1st class, top-of-the-line cars. Competition is customary in Formula 1 – adding an edge of excitement with each & every zip of the curve and nitrous boost of the machine. Find great offers on sports equipment uk.

Formula 1 cars can be summed up in 2 words: hi-tech marvels. These shiny, low riding gems completing laps at speeds around one-hundred and ninety miles per hour consist of nothing more than just a chassis, an engine, and four wheels. For starters, the engine is placed behind the cockpit as opposed to road vehicles.

As reported by Xinhua, the official state news agency A Hong Kong man, found guilty of running a number of gambling Websites, was sentenced to eight years and fined 20 million yuan (2.9 million U.S. dollars) in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. The case, believed to be the country’s biggest online gambling case, involved about 8.68 billion yuan in wagered money and more than 278 million yuan in illegal profits, a source of the Yunnan High People’s Court said on Wednesday.

“Tam Chi-wai, a Hong Kong resident, set up a gambling house in Myanmar in 1999 and then started to develop an online betting network. More than 3,000 people used to work for the Tam’s gambling network, the news agency reported.

Why must online poker and gambling in general continue to be made illegal? Cases like this are happening all over the world, and as I have said many times, if governments would legalize online and offline poker and gambling, they could tax it and add a new stream of revenue. Who is against that?

While we all love to play online poker, we must never take our right to do so for granted, because we’re always one despotic politician or judge away from having it taken away. Poker players, we must remain ever vigilant!

If you don’t understand betting house games of chance, do please read on — A definition of a betting house is a structure that presents gambling. Clients are expected to test their luck by operating the slot-machines or trying out a slew of other pastimes of luck. Gambling saloon games normally include fully transparent balances included which maintain that the gaming hall holds on to dominion against the gaming fans.

Numerous betting saloon games can incite you into being habituated very rapidly. A case in point is the standard 1 armed bandit, a cash operated gadget with 3+ cylinders that circumvolve when an arm on its side is pushed. The appliance generally will compensate punters in accord with a series of pictures presented on the display of the contraption. Sadly, gaming hall pastimes put forward the delusion of control, thereby deluding the guest – the addressee is endowed options, but in actual fact these will never remove the customer’s overall handicap. This is induced by the gambling saloongambling house not paying out the entire wager as hoped for. This arrangement is often found in popular casino games like seven-card stud, craps, roulette or blackjack.

Seven card stud is really an immensely trendy casino game. The betting aficionados, religiously guarding their hidden cards, place their stakes in the pot which is paid out to the winning punter possessing the highest set of cards. (Obviously, the bluff can win as well.) Similar to stud poker, blackjack is also an immensely fashionable casino game. A substantial chunk of its notoriety is grounded in the mix of chance and craft & choice making, as well as a practice labeled “counting”. It is a skill in which betting devotees will significantly force the arm of chance of the game for their own good by both wagering and tactical actions corresponding with the cards dealt.

“Craps” is the name of yet another well known wagering game using the roll of two dice. Craps buffs place bets on the end result of one spin, or on a series of cycles on two dice. Contrary to blackjack, there is no realistic winner betting system players could capitalize on to boost the odds. Roulette is a celebrated casino based game of chance: a croupier twirls a roulette wheel which holds precisely thirtyseven (classical roulette) or precisely thirtyeight (American or Vegas roulette) distinctively tagged places in which a rolling ball will finally settle, marking the winning number Whenever a player wagers on a specific number which is successful i.e. they’ve got a lucky hand, the guaranteed premium is going to be thirty five to one, the bet itself is repaid. Accordingly in total it is multiplied by 36.

Please try to be emphatically on the watch though, for some of betting hall gambling pastimes can be exceedingly dependency forming. So many lives are reported to have been demolished due to reckless gambling + notwithstanding that it might be fun, please do aspire to not get carried away.

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Picture this scene.

Your hero is sitting in a bar. He’s thinking about things… life, death, taxes, the way he’s being chased by a serial killer… whatever.

While he thinks, he sips his beer/Jim Beam/wine/etc.

Sip.

He thinks some more.

Sip.

He makes a casual comment to the barperson.

Sip.

He looks over his shoulder and sees the killer in the doorway and beats a hasty retreat to the men’s.

Thank goodness. Because at least this means he leaves the darned drink behind!

Of course, the scene isn’t written in quite such a bare-bones form as the one you see above. But the reader gets bored anyway. The problem is, the author hasn’t made an effort to show the character doing something other than drinking. (Yes, I know that’s probably why he’s in the bar in the first place… but your job as the author is to think about what else he might be doing.)

Example

Tony sipped at his beer and thought about what to do next. The guy wasn’t going to give up; that much was obvious. How come he knew so much? Where Tony worked, his weekend routine, his sister’s address…

How the hell had he found out where Mandy lived? She’d only been there a month or so. He gulped down another mouthful of the beer. As though she hadn’t suffered enough. Now this.

Of course, if he knew all that, he probably knew that this was where Tony came to drink, too. He could be out there right now, watching.

It was an effort not to turn and look towards the door. Instead, he tilted the glass and let the liquid flow down his throat. If he was out there, let him make the next move.

He caught the barman’s eye, pointed a finger at the glass and nodded.

If Tony sits here for much longer without any action, we’re likely to watch while he sips the beer, swallows the beer, and gulps the beer. He’ll drain the glass; tilt the glass and stare into the amber depths; idly swish the liquid around in the glass… do I need go on?

We’ve all seen scenes like this. They seem to happen when people are:

• in a bar or club drinking

• in a restaurant eating

• in a kitchen making & drinking coffee or tea

If they are drinking, they continually sip/slurp/drink/drain glasses etc.

If they are in a restaurant, they “take a bite of” this and “spear another forkful” of that. You’ll read lines like “he took another bite”; “he ate some more steak”; “he drank some more wine” ad nauseam.

You’ll find characters drinking coffee, sipping it (again… a lot of sipping goes on in books); blowing on the coffee to cool it; stirring it; dropping lumps of sugar in it; adding cream or milk to it… until the reader feels like screaming “I KNOW HOW COFFEE IS MADE! I KNOW HOW TO DRINK IT TOO!”

You might be sitting there thinking: Well, so what? Isn’t it logical that people would eat when they go to a restaurant? Shouldn’t you show them having a drink?

Sure. That’s fair enough. But once you show them having a sip of wine or a forkful of chicken schnitzel, stop.

Take a mental look around. (No, not around you. Around the setting in which you’ve placed your characters.)

• Who else is there? What are they doing?

• What else is going on around the main character(s)?

• What mood is the main character in? How can you show this by actions other than eating or drinking?

• How might the conversation lead to other actions taken by the main character?

• Can you think of a twist that would lead to extra suspense or humour in a commonplace setting?

• Is the character uncomfortable for some reason, so this discomfort becomes the main focus of his/her attention? (e.g. tight new clothes, an unfamiliar pain or ache, a headache, an allergy to the other person’s perfume or aftershave?)

Once you start thinking, there are many, many other things that you can show your characters doing. Use them to your advantage.

The Restaurant Syndrome on Replay

It’s bad enough having one scene in which a character is continually sipping or ‘taking another bite’ of something. But when you have that character forever going to the same place to repeat the effort, the reader will be ready to lynch you.

• Do you have your characters continually talking over coffee?

• How many scenes are there in which you send your characters out to eat or drink?

Remember that most of us squeeze a lot into our days. We move around the house, we drive from A to B, we go shopping, take out the garbage and go to the movies.

We interact with our friends and families in many different ways. Next time you write a scene, try to steer away from the obvious. Look for details that will help you add depth to character, create humour or build suspense.

Not sure if you’re guilty of ‘the restaurant syndrome’?

Try this. Open up your word processor, access your story file and do a search for the following terms:

sip/sipped/drank/coffee/drink

ate/forkful/bite/food

If you come up with 156 instances of the word ‘drank’ or ’sipped’, you might be in trouble Time for a rewrite…

(c) Copyright Marg McAlister

Marg McAlister has published magazine articles, short stories, books for children, ezines, promotional material, sales letters and web content. She has written 5 distance education courses on writing, and her online help for writers is popular all over the world. Sign up for her regular writers’ tipsheet at http://www.writing4success.com/