Thoughts about things I’ve written or read or heard or seen. An attempt to stay positive in a turbulent world.
Recent Articles
Rose Tremain wins Orange … HURRAH!
One hundred years ago a great friend told me about Rose Tremain’s short stories, and since then I haven’t stopped reading her work. She’s written at least two collections of short stories and ten novels and today, wonderful writer that she is, Rose Tremain has won the Orange Prize for Fiction with her tenth novel,...Continue reading→
Favourite authors, at a moment’s notice …
Simon at Stuck-in-a-Book tagged me for this meme, which began on Heather’s site, Errant Thoughts. Thank you , Simon … . 1. Who’s your all-time favourite author, and why? John Fowles because his use of language is astonishing, glorious, erudite and because it teaches me, without patronising, and because he creates worlds that I never...Continue reading→
Foot Planning
In the poem called ‘Words’ for Lucy in Don’t Let them Tell you How to Grieve, there are these lines: one foot in front of the otherand don’t forget to breathe They are the last lines in a poem which is full of the words of comfort that people send to a grieving person, and...Continue reading→
Don’t Let Them Tell You How To Grieve
I read about this extraordinarily beautiful, touching, poignant, funny, sad, life-affirming, illuminating, comforting and grief-understanding collection of poems by Gina Claye on dovegreyreader’s blog at the end of April. I ordered myself a couple of copies which arrived this morning. I know we all talk about essential books, but this one is quintessential. Buy it...Continue reading→
Lost in Translation … ?
I found a clever little widget over at Bookersatz which translates your blog for you. It’s called Altavista Babelfish Translator and you can see it over there on the right and down a bit. But because the title of my blog includes a neologism the translations are hilarious. In French MATs translate as NATTES (plaits...Continue reading→
RESEARCH, AND FICTION
It is an extraordinary thing (although obvious I’m sure to all except me) the way that research informs fiction and changes its direction. Several years ago, when I was writing a series of Just-Soesque short stories for children, I spent hours in the Zoological Society’s library because I wanted the anatomical details of the animals...Continue reading→
Planning a novel …
… is a strange and frustrating business, despite my colleague’s beautiful vine and wire analogy. My heart gives a little leap of excitement each time I think I’ve ‘got it’, only to find that what I thought I’d got won’t work, because something else comes to light as a result of what I thought I’d...Continue reading→
As easy as 123
Norm at normblog has tagged me for this … and because I’ve never been tagged before (I’m so easily flattered) and because my nearest book was not what I usually read but what I absolutely need (for research for my next novel) I thought I’d give it a go: 1. Pick up the nearest book2....Continue reading→
Telling ourselves into being
I found this: We tell ourselves into being, don’t we?… I think that is one of the great reasons for stories. I mean, we are the storytelling animal, there is no other creature on earth that tells itself stories in order to understand who it is. This is what we do, we’ve always done it,...Continue reading→
To plan or not to plan a novel?
That is the question. A writing colleague and I were talking the other day about whether we should or shouldn’t plan our novels. I said I felt as I’d heard Rose Tremain say she’d felt: that if she plans, the subsequent writing bores her and if the writing bores her, it will surely bore readers...Continue reading→
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