Authors Electric

I have tried not to worry too much about AI, and even to welcome it, in its place, since one of my sons has been working with it in some capacity and I still feel it has the potential to help with scientific and medical research projects and that kind of thing. I can't imagine that Copilot, on the other hand, will be a help with anything.  I didn't intend to have to wrestle with Copilot, but it has recently invaded my Word documents exactly like a virus, and one for which there isn't any kind of antidote or vaccine. I think this has happened as an unintended consequence of an upgrade I've made to my Microsoft Office setup in order that I can experiment with their new-fangled tool for creating online databases. I did this because I've volunteered for years in various roles in a local community organisation, and some issues have arisen that I feel can only be resolved with a database, and of course Microsoft have used this moment to stop including Access in the Office...

  The Curative Power of Art A Reading of  Art Cure  by Daisy Fancourt This book is proof if any were needed that an engagement with the arts is good for us. The Art that the author Daisy Fancourt refers to in it belongs to several different creative areas, such as music, dance, poetry and storytelling, and she has followed the first of these throughout her life as an accomplished piano player. In her prelude to the book, she says that behaviour connected to the arts can have a big influence on our health. For example: ‘If children engage with art workshops, choirs, book clubs, dance classes, drama groups or bands they are less likely to be lonely or develop behavioural problems…’ Nor is this book just a speculative account. Throughout it the author tells us about her engagement with specialist academic teams in areas of Psychobiology and Epidemiology, for which she is a Professor at UCL, researching how biological processes relate to human experience such as the emotions....

Here’s a quiz question for you.  Just about every new writer will, at some time or other, be advised to ‘murder your darlings’. By which is meant not bumping off your nearest and dearest to give you AT LAST a bit of peace and quiet to create… but exerting discipline over what you’re creating. If you have written a passage you’re particularly proud of, with elaborate, flowery images, elegant use of words – the best of fine writing, in short – then delete it. The chances are you’ve strayed into a self-conscious writerliness, in which pace and plot have been sacrificed to draw attention to your own beautiful prose, or (in my case) to set up a joke I’m desperate to squeeze into the story.  It doesn’t work. The narrative must come first. Every bit of scene setting or character depiction, every scrap of dialogue and, yes, every joke needs to further the plot. Writing should be like a clear pane of glass. Photo by Magda Ehlers: https://www.pexels.com/ photo/rustic-wooden-window-overl...

  Why has a wider knowledge become so narrow? Every time I teach a new literary text to a student, I am excited to share the context of its historical period with them. Understanding the social and historical background to a text can help to bring it to life, illustrating what motivated the author, what they rebelled against or were shaped by, whether they realised it or not. It is crucially important when studying older texts, like Shakespeare or Dickens, which can seem so remote from the lives of young people today, but it is also important to remember that events which happened in the 1980’s and 90’s might as well be medieval to a 15-year-old. Studying Willy Russell’s  Blood Brothers   requires an understanding of Thatcherism and the politics that shaped the decade in which she presided over No. 10. Knowing the background not only enriches understanding, but it also helps to present the authors as real people with real lives. Furthermore, it is part of the curriculum i...

You can find the Book DNA site here. It's a site that aims to put people who love reading and books in touch with other people who love reading and books. You can join as a reader and/or as a writer (since writers tend to be book-lovers and avid readers often write.) You can put forward your favourite books of a year, as I've done here  ...and Book DNA will make you a beautiful page to show off your choices. Or, if you join as an author, you can choose one of your own books, and then show-case five other books which you think will appeal to a similar readership, as I did here... At the beginning of this post and again at the end, I have the opportunity to mention my own book of ghost stories, Hauntings . This doesn't cost the writer anything except the time spent compiling their choice of books -- which, as always, is rather a pleasure. And I noticed a definite up-turn in the sales of my ghost stories after posting this.  The Book DNA site is building a community of reader...

This month I'm reading some non-fiction aimed at adult readers: The Spell of the Horse and its sequel The Spirit of the Horse . The author Pam Billinge offers Equine Assisted Therapy with her small herd of horses and ponies, which together with the associated Equine Assisted Learning are becoming more popular in the UK as beneficial therapies. Simply being around horses, it seems, works wonders for people, and with the guidance of a trained facilitator time spent with the herd can be as powerful as any conventional medicine. These two books combine Pam's personal equine journey with selected case studies (names and details changed to protect clients) to make an interesting and digestible read.  The Spell of the Horse The Spell of the Horse  begins with Pam bonding with a mare called Carabella on a riding holiday in Spain, and noticing how her own horse reacted when her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As the book progresses, we meet the various equines that have acc...