For every writing problem you have, there is an answer. Not necessarily an easy answer that involves lamps and Genies but an answer nevertheless. We've all been there and done that when it comes to writing. So if you're struggling to write, here are four common things that can stop you from writing - and how... Continue Reading →
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eyeWho cheer when soldier lads march by,Sneak home and pray you'll never knowThe hell where youth and laughter go.”Suicide in Trenches, Siegfried Sassoon You'll find the grave of Siegfried Sassoon in the lovely small Somerset town of Mells. Sassoon is one of the most famous poets of the First World... Continue Reading →
Five years ago, I wrote a blog about stumbling upon Farringford, the home famous Victorian writer Lord Alfred Tennyson. Back then the house was a hotel with extra self-catering properties. Since then the house and grounds have been restored back to what it was when Tennyson and his family lived there. Unfortunately due to Covid... Continue Reading →
I remember the silence.Oh I know there must be sound as well.The care-worn carols and shop-cycled songs,the buzzing toys and once-again movies,cracker-blasts, popping corks and washed down arguments that linger. It's just as we walked, all of us,through the slicing darkand the houses,surrounded by firefly lights,waving Santas, snowmen and stars,and all the colours, seen and... Continue Reading →
This is not a thought. It is a spiked ball that rolls restless and pin-pricksdowneachvertebratill it lodgesand waits,for sleep, for sober, for silence, then pierces soone byone byonemore pour in. A dam breaks with neglect, so too this vessel,fit to burst. When it does there'll be no red flag,just a smoulder of regret and a... Continue Reading →
Writing competitions can be a fun way to hone your writing skills and, if you're lucky, get your work published. Plus they may also come with a financial reward - cha-ching! And whilst there's no magic winning formula I can share, here are a few practical bits of advice about entering. 1) Plan well You... Continue Reading →
Observe if you will the subject, the glass across her shows, a clear-cut image of the creature inside, the gluttonous stone-cold toad. See how it sits in the darkness, concealed in the subjects gut, with limbs of purple and emerald green, with eyes sewed firmly shut. You'll note from its mouth emerges, two protuberances of... Continue Reading →
You write so that when you fall, your descent will be arrested, by a silver net of words tied in knots onto the walls. And you ask, are they strong enough, tough enough, tall enough, what if they just break so that you crash into the floor? So you write and on you tie them... Continue Reading →
Today I felt a moment of sadness flicked in from nothing a moment given for the mourning of those who have no other I wondered whose loss I had been assigned who they had been before the trap closed whether they were always anonymous born and died with the light touch flying with dragging feet... Continue Reading →
You know I wouldn't go anywhere without saying goodbye. And I'm not. I'm here aren't I? There's no need to cry. I know you got scared, I'm sorry but leaving you is the last thing on my mind. I know I've been distant lately, work is just crazy. They've got me running all over the... Continue Reading →
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