Like a lot of writers, I have a day job so I don't have to live in a box eating my own toenails. I fit my writing in when I can, usually in the evenings. The idea of going on a writer's retreat is certainly appealing. But these retreats don't come cheap. So I started... Continue Reading →
The thin faced Drone is taking me to see The Big Guy. I’m not surprised. The day I arrived he’d told me The Big Guy was a fan of my work. I’m just happy to get away from the endless filing. We walk through the office. It’s the greyest place I’ve ever seen. The walls,... Continue Reading →
I've been away from the blogosphere recently due to moving to a lovely new home and not having any Internet. But now I'm back, with a slightly more personal post than usual, all about my new place. This is the first flat my boyfriend and I have bought (as opposed to rented) and having a... Continue Reading →
You long to press your forehead to the cold window pane and breathe, then trace a message of escape in reverse. Clutching your safety blanket, liquid for lost fingers, you wonder if another one could take all these cares away. Tied to your wrist, the silver string that leads to your distant whole, strains and... Continue Reading →
Today is a sad day. Writer Iain Banks announced he has terminal cancer and isn't expected to live beyond the end of the year. My previous post talked about my five favourite books and just nudging the outside of those is 'The Crow Road'. I adore this book, bought on a whim on a vague... Continue Reading →
This list is part of a much bigger one of 'books I can't live without', but I whittled it down to five because it's easier to build a blog post around it. Top (insert number here) lists are entirely objective of course, but I quite like them. So now, without further ado and in no particular... Continue Reading →
We took the car ferry across the glossy Sognefjord to the Norwegian Glacier Museum. Inside, three huge cocooning screens showed a film that flew us over the glaciers that spread over the country. Afterwards, it was only fitting that we visited a real glacier - or at least part of it. The Boyabreen arm of... Continue Reading →
'When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lighting or in rain?' 'Well you usually get all three together. I'd check the weather forecast.' Lynda, mother of the witches three, shrugged her hood off and glared at the young girl to her left. 'All right Miss smarty pants, put that phone down! Oh never mind.... Continue Reading →
The scratching became a tapping, that soon became a crying, I heard the voice inside me, in my bedroom down below. ‘Mice,’ said my mother, clucking, so my father got to trapping, and I waited for the screaming, in my bedroom down below. A doll found silent sitting, like the bride forever waiting, they called... Continue Reading →
William Shakespeare died 23 April 1616. He's buried in Stratford-Upon-Avon in Holy Trinity Church. William Shakespeare's grave, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK Some say he was the greatest writer who ever lived. Others say his works belong to other writers. Personally, I think he did write his plays, albeit with ideas from the players with whom he worked... Continue Reading →
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