Authors Electric

Apparently I had an idea for this month’s post, inspired by fellow AE writer Peter Leyland’s thoughtful musings on how powerful poetry can be in evoking lost friendships and past times, Looking Forward, Looking Back . Unfortunately whatever it was, I’ve forgotten it. Perhaps my theme for his month should be amnesia.  New Year's resolutions... for others. Instead, as it is yet early in the year, I shall make some resolutions for 2025.  Oh no, not for me.  I wish to make them on behalf of journalists, editors, all kinds of writers and in fact, anybody who occasionally puts pen to paper. I have several targets in mind but they all boil down to one thing: please, all of you, write words as they are meant to be used, not how you think they should be. Honestly, no one actually speaks like that. Or at least, they used not to, before you blazed the trail.  Sorry for gifting you influenza. 1. GIVE. A perfectly nice, useful verb that has been with us since language began....

Getting published can be daunting. This post is written for every writer who has felt the sting of rejection and it about to give up. Maybe you have dreams of publishing an important novel, a trilogy of Sci-fi adventures or a heart wrenching memoir; but your efforts haven’t gotten very far. Did you ever think that perhaps your first book might be something different.  Sometimes you have to start small. A great place to begin is with shorter work.  I’ve always written poetry, but I seldom sent it to magazine. My poetry was private. For me poetry is a form of shorthand, a way to express and record my feelings for later reference. My poems are usually written in free verse.  Another type of short form writing I enjoy is flash. And when I think of flash, it has to be short, very short. I’ve published 50 -word stories, and 250-word stories and 700 -word stories. Much of my work is inspired by true life events and observations and thus is considered Creative Non Fiction (CNF). ...

I thought long and hard about what my subject would be this month. Not only does January contain ‘Blue Monday’, but I always turn a year older, and what with one thing and another in the world of politics, the threat to creativity from AI, and so many other things, there has been much to make a person miserable already.     So, I decided to bring a bit of positivity to you. Firstly, that birthday thing – getting older is a privilege not a curse. Let me instead turn to something which is important in our personal worlds: friendship. If we have just one friend we can rely on, we should be thankful. I have a few who have really stood the test of time – nearly 50 years, in fact. The picture above was taken when I was staying at Wainman House in Wisbech, a beautiful Georgian Mansion. Wisbech itself is not the most exciting of towns and it makes Ipswich look busy and full of shops, but the aim of the stay was for a group of friends to get to get together, all in the same place for t...

Civics assignment It's not easy being an American metropolis these days - besieged by neofascist nativist, hassled by hatemongers, lied about, loathed, baited while its people struggle to live up to challenging dreams of opportunity, freedom, enterprise, and cosmopolitanism. We urbanites visualize of our hometowns as centers of art, technology, education, science, architecture, and enterprise. Meanwhile, the Trump 2.0 demagogues recently returned to Washington DC have made us their convenient targets again, just as they did in 2016. Last time, they separated immigrant families and jailed children in detention camps. The cruelty was not accidental. It was the goal. This time Trump's goons are apparently taking special aim as U.S. schoolchildren. As if it's not enough that American kids and their teachers have been exposed to mass shootings for decades thanks to the political clout of right-wing gun fanatics and gun makers. Now, less than a month into Trump 2.0 our kids worry...

The Sterkarm Handshake     How did you get the idea for the Sterkarms?  I had no idea of writing anything remotely like it. Then I went on a walking holiday in the Scottish Borders. The guides kept saying, 'This is an old Reiver's trail,' or pointing to a tower and saying, 'That's an old Reiver's tower.' I was intrigued and bought George MacDonald Fraser's book, THE STEEL BONNETS , read it, and was absolutely fascinated. I got that feeling - 'I want to write about these people!'  The obvious thing was to write an historical novel, set in the reivers' time, but my gut-feeling said no to that. I felt that the present day had to be in the book too. So I played about with various ways of transferring characters from one time to another - the knock on the head and waking up in another century, the mystical time-slip, the dream. None of these ideas satisfied me. They all seemed too fussy, and all would involve the ...

In the run up to Christmas, I saw a great gift idea: a year of reading, consisting of one book per month, chosen specially for the recipient and wrapped in brown paper so that each monthly read remains a surprise. Instead, I got a cheque (always useful on an author's income) and a Lindt chocolate teddy bear (can't go wrong with chocolate, although so far I haven't had the heart to eat him so he's currently sitting on my mantelpiece awaiting his fate). But I still like the mystery book idea, so I decided to turn some of my Christmas money into a year of reading for myself. Each month, I'll buy a book appropriate for the time of year, chosen at random by browsing in a real shop... and since my post on Authors Electric is towards the end of the month, I'll aim to review it here. January yielded A Winter Wedding at Bletchley Park  by Molly Green, picked up in the Works sale for just £1. A Winter Wedding at Bletchley Park by Molly Green Bletchley Park has fascinated ...

I enjoy reading Brian Bilston’s poems on Facebook. One of my favourites is his Mnemonic , where the last line implies January goes on for ever and ever, amen. He has a point! January does drag. How is the New Year going so far ?   It took me a while to resume my usual writing routine after a lovely Christmas break but equally that gave me a “soft start”. January is when I book my place at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick , which is a major highlight of my year. It is held in August at The Hayes, Swanwick, Derbyshire. I enjoy a wide range of workshops and courses (with full board accommodation). Naturally I meet old friends, make new ones, and hear wonderful evening speakers. I’ve led courses here too. Booking Swanwick cheers me during the dark days of January. It matters to have something to look forward to writing wise, whether it is booking a conference, or knowing you will finish the first draft of a project by X date. (Seeing the finishing line is always a good enco...