Anna Jones Buttimore

According to Harold Camping of Family Radio Worldwide, the end of the world - the rapture, the apocalypse, whatever you like to call is - is scheduled for today. Darned if I'm finishing the washing up, then. Naturally this has raised much hilarity and skepticism, but it has also provoked some serious thought. For me, it raised two questions. How much do I believe in Prophecy, and if Rev. Camping is right, am I ready? Just to be contrary, I'll answer the second question first. Yes. I'd very much like to have my due fourscore years and ten of this very interesting and fun life, and I would like my children to experience rather more of what the world has to offer before they are caught up into eternal bliss, but on the whole it's been a great 42 years, and I am satisfied that I'm ready to meet Jesus with my head held high should it come to that. He and I are well-enough acquainted to be on first-name terms. So that leaves the issue of prophecy. Do I actually believe Re...

Okay, so I've finished my Magnum Opus Emon and the Emperor (120,000 words) and submitted it, and so it's time to get on with the next project. The question is, which one? I'm hoping you blog readers can help me to decide. Comment to vote! Share this blog so that I can get other opinions! I'm in a quandary and I need your help! Here are the proposed backliners: Finders Keepers [Romantic comedy for adult women] When Jen, Maralee, Amelia and Dolphin meet again at a school reunion they realise that, twenty-five years on, they are all still single. And so they decide to meet regularly to help each other navigate the perilous forty-something dating scene. But there's a twist - the first one of them to find a "keeper" will have her wedding paid for by the others. Through romantic blunder after dating disaster and hilarious misunderstanding, the women each come to understand more about themselves, and why they are looking for love. The Saved Sinner [Poignant and...

My eldest daughter watches LA Ink, Miami Ink and London Ink, programmes about tattoo studios, the people who go there to get tattooed, and the stories and reasons behind the designs they have inked indellibly onto their skin. It's a passably interesting programme - the stories are often touching and some of the artwork is stunning. I have two tattoos and have never recorded why I had them or what they mean. Until now. When I was 19 and a first-year University student I had this design tattooed onto my bac k at a small tattoo parlour near the railway bridge in Bangor. It's small - about the size of a 50p piece - and I often refer to it as a Sacred Heart, which is a Catholic symbol, even though I've never been Catholic. At the time it represented to me the love of Jesus as expressed in his willingness to die on the cross. Of course since I had it done I have joined a church which doesn't use the sign of the cross (or allow tattoos!), and for a while I considered having it...