Blogs

Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson passed peacefully at home on Saturday, he was 88. Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose, nothing aint worth nothing, but its free. Feeling good was easy lord, good enough for me, good enough for me & Bobby McGee.

Janet Hunter (2024) The Islanders and the Orb

The Islanders and the Orb is a revised edition, extended by Calum MacLeod to cover the periods between 1995 and 2023. Hunter’s scholastic examination of the evolution of the Harris Tweed industry from the nineteenth century is enhanced by the afterword, which highlights its positive effect on the Islands. The new edition, like the old edition, is sponsored by the Harris Tweed Industry. You pay for what you get. ‘Tweel’ is defined in the Concise...

Happiness is a warm keyboard = I live to and love to write

Fall is in the air…but not here in sunny FLA., here it is summer, summer, summer all the time, every day and somedays I feel like I’m trapped in a spin off of ‘Ground Hog Day’. Except for when a hurricane blows through, then it's like an epic disaster movie. I know most people would love this sand and sun lifestyle and most days I do too, but a recent trip back to my home state of New York made me homesick for the seasonal changes I grew up with...

Taffy Brodesser-Akner (2019) Fleishman is in Trouble.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner (2019) Fleishman is in Trouble. Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman is in Trouble, is no trouble to read. It’s pretty much perfect. I’m pretty much tempted to leave it at that and let the book speak of itself. But I’ll say a bit more. No prologue. Just a one line invitation: ‘Summon your witnesses.’ Aeschylus. It begins at the beginning, of course, but in medias res , which is a fancy way of saying, in the middle of things...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

What a week it's been for prose! We have so many brilliant works in progress at the moment - thanks so much for sharing them here with us. My choices for this week's pick are as follows: Story of the Week goes to Jane Hyphen for On the Wind which is a wonderful quirky short, and Poem of the Week goes to Jennifer Skinner who has inspired us all with her brilliant depiction of fireflies. Do please read both if you haven't already - they come...

Oh No!

Well my week has turned a little weird. So doing well with the writing that I have started. All stories that I have done so far have been cherrypicked and it has given me such a confidence boost. My husband doesn't understand why I get so excited when I see the cherries. My little boy who is only 8 years old has covid. He doesn't seem to be too bad. He is a bit pale and has a runny nose but I am so worried about him as his mum. He has lots of...

Another Day

Another day has passed. I have not been able to write today as I have been working. Maybe I should explain what I do part time and what my husband does part time as we homeschool our son. My husband James does vinyl wrapping. Mostly furniture though he has done accent bits in our car. I am a community care assistant. My job is to help people stay in their own homes by caring for them. Personal care, food preparation and other simple home tasks...

Books on how to write books

Two thesauri, a tonne of dictionaries, Biographical Quotations, Modern English Usage, C. G. Jung's ' Archetypes and the collective unconscious ', Vogler's ' The Writer's Journey ', Will Storr with ' The Science of Storytelling ' and Brody's ' Save The Cat! Writes a novel '. It's all on my shelves and all remain unread. I see them there, all eager to tell me their secrets but it all seems too much like work. I can't get rid of them because that...

Genevieve Jagger (2024) Fragile Animals.

Jagger’s novel is about a poet, Noelle, having a meltdown over her second collection of poems. Being an outsider likely complicated Noelle’s life, considering she is around the same age as the author. (Jagger identifies as autistic and reveals she had been Catholic). A good match of world views with a vampire called Moses added. There are several kinds of coming-of-age novels. We have the traditional Bildungsroman . Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë...

Started but where now?

Well now I have written a piece in the first time for years. My son is older and doesn't need my constant attention. He can use his time wisely now and seems to demand less of mine. I love him and it makes me proud that he can use his own time and not need constant attention. I can focus again on my writing and ideas for writng. I loved the feeling of writng again. It made my anxiety go down and made me feel alittle more human. A bit more of a...

Pages