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A Manifesto for Creative Liberation

As I sit here, in front of my screen, with the rain beating down outside, I feel a strong urge to register some reflection on my and all of our existences. The air is humid and slightly cold and there seems to be an energy in it - like a faint electric pulse. It's connecting everything. And even though I am tied to the mundane tasks of my job - writing code - which is something I have done for over 25 years now, I sense that there are epic and...

Danny Robins (2023) Into the Uncanny: A Real Life Investigation into the Paranormal, BBC books.

I’d déjà vu reading Into the Uncanny . I felt that I’d read it before. Then again, I often pick books up, read a bit and put them down again. Danny Robins admits to being one of the lucky ones. One of the chosen. He was kicking around doing nothing very much with his life and trying to write a play about ghosts. Like me, he’d spent lots of time reading books about paranormal phenomena. Testing themselves by trying to bend my spoon by rubbing...

Well Holiday Is Over

Well my holiday is over. Had to go to office today to get gloves for work and tell them why I was sick again. I'm sorry I had covid a week before my holiday. I still went to work before I went away so they can't say I made it up. I was on a half day tomorrow and now I am on all day. But I really don't mind. I will see a few people that I have not seen for a while. I do a different round now so I don't see these clients much anymore. They are...

Irvine Welsh (2024) Resolution

Resolution is the No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller. For most authors that would be a life-changing event. But Irvine Welsh is not like most authors. Or, rather, he is, in that he puts down words on a page, creates characters, such as former Detective Ray Lennox. Gives the the boy from a Leith housing scheme a girlfriend with a name that would have him smacking his lips and wanting a bite of Carmel, but still want her pudding. I know, terrible joke...

Qualitative Research Answers on Being Single over 40 as a lady

Chapter One - Write a very brief, publishable blurb on how you arrived at She, Over 40, Solo. These are the stories of the respondents to the questionnaire around being single over the age of 40 as a woman. Respondent 1: Donna, 44, Christian, who has 100% support from her family and has been single most of her life. I believe that sex was made for the intimacy of marriage. Most men (generally) want sex when dating, I blame the media for that,...

Story and Poem of the Month

Our Story and Poem of the Month for September - very kindly chosen by onemorething: Picks of the Month for September: Happy to be doing this as it approaches my favourite time of the year. Am wishing all a cosy and writing-filled Autumn. If you take an overview of the writing on this site over the course of a month, you can’t help but be struck by the sheer range of talent, story-telling and poeming, it’s a wonderful thing. So, thank you all for...

Douglas Skelton (2024) The Hollow Mountain.

‘A murder that wasn’t a murder.’ That’s the tagline. A Rebecca Connolly mystery. I don’t think I’ve read any other in this series. I was pretty sure I’d figured out who the murdered that wasn’t the murderer was. Like the Brexit result, I was wrong. Small margins. Leave or Remain? I voted to Leave England but remain in Europe. Most of Scotland voted for the latter, but not the former. Very few, then or now, voted in the Tories. The moron’s moron...

Another thing written

I have just uploaded another story and I am so proud that I am still writing. I am not bragging just expressing my excitement that I am still able to write. Do I dare try a small novel next or keep with my short stories and songs? Any advice would be appreciated. I hope everyone is doing okay. You guys are amazing and let no one tell you different.

Still Around

I know I have been quiet lately. I have just been on holiday for a while and not had any internet. I promise that even though I have been very busy visitng new places as well as old childhood memories, there has been a story written but its currently on paper and needs a little editing. Hopefully be on here tomorrow or sunday. As you may or may not know, I live in the uk up the nothern parts but it wasnt always so. I used to live a bit further...

Lionel Shriver (2024) Mania.

Lionel Shriver (2024) Mania. I read a wee bit of this book. Not for me. Mania is a conceit. Ostensibly it’s about the policing of language in an Orwellian sense and thereby the policing of thought and behaviour. No one can be called dumb. Everyone needs to practice being a snowflake. Right-wing media love that idea they’re fighting for something bigger than the moron’s moron Trump and his vile worldview. This is shown in the opening pages of ALT...

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