Authors Electric

Probably due to my advanced age, assembling a memoir, among my  various writing projects, throws me back to a childhood that I remember in a time that now seems more like history than recollection.   Original "Hollywoodland" sign, 1938 I was a pup before television, computeers, the internet, the polio vaccine, jet airliners, the cold war, social media and nuclear weapons.  My boyhood memories blend with what my parents heard intently on our radio - a sleek, deco, maple-panelled, 1930s Philco cabinet in the living room that broadcast soap operas, the evening news, mysteries, variety shows and Franklin Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats."  My memories span from America's post-WW2 rise to international hegemony to its Trumpian self-immolation, timorously chronicled by the once-free news media in which I once earned my living. UT & father, 1942 As a bilingual boy, I remember air raid drills and hearing deep-voiced radio reports from chain-smoking Edward R. Murrow a...

I love the serendipity of allowing random books to arrive in my life from unexpected sources... this month's offering is a non-fiction title picked up from a stall at our local Apple Pie Fair. I went for a slice of the giant apple pie, and came home with rather more to digest than I'd bargained for! Machines That Think (New Scientist Instant Expert) 'Machines That Think' is part of a New Scientist series written by multiple human experts in the field. Subtitled 'Everything you need to know about the coming age of artificial intelligence', this book practically jumped into my hands. On checking the copyright page, I was rather disturbed to see that it was published in 2017, which is ancient history where technology and AIs are concerned. However, if you study the dawn of computing, it's clear these clever little programs have been around a lot longer than you'd think. The first chatbot (named Eliza, after Eliza Dolittle in the play 'Pygmalion') wa...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. I love using a wide variety of writing prompts. They’re great for triggering further ideas. Sometimes they’re enough for me to picture a potential character. Sometimes the prompt gives me a theme. Sometimes, especially with opening line prompts, I have a way into a story and I then create the best character to meet the needs of that prompt. I’m unlikely to have a character with their head in a book taking part in an action story, for example. (It’s not impossible but it’s unlikely I’d do it).  Writing to prompts regularly has helped me get used to writing to prompts set by anyone else. This is useful for competitions with set themes. It’s also handy for responding to writing exercises set by workshop leaders at events such as The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. I set prompts for the monthly Zoom meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group . I join in with the prompts on the night and, ...

The winner of the nationwide school magazine competition, 1960 I have just read Let’s do It: The authorised biography of Victoria Wood , by Jasper Rees. This is a long book, because it details just about everything she ever wrote and performed. And even though I’d heard and seen so much of it before, I still found myself laughing out loud at her extraordinary inventiveness and wit. Her work ethic was phenomenal – she often wrote all night to fulfil a deadline, but she also expected everyone else to be just as dedicated. Her dialogue had to be spoken exactly as she wrote it, no improvising, and she had a go at most forms of writing. She was a terrific musician, and played the trumpet as well as the piano. I think the most autobiographical sketch of all was the one about Chrissy, the 14-year-old schoolgirl who sets out to swim the channel. Her parents are interviewed about the forthcoming ordeal, and it is assumed they will be in the support boat – however, they’re planning on a day out,...

This has been a crazy week--words I say while knowing that many of you have had weeks as crazy...or worse. In the home stretch of my WIP these were the time crunches life threw me this week: --4-day siege on the phone and in person trying to renew my ADA van transport.  --5-hour trip to my hematologist for labs, a phlebotomy, and a consultation.  --Three trips to the YMCA to keep building my surgical leg strength and flexibility. --2 days sorting through old resumes dating back years, and arranging the relevant experience for positions as a cashier, a bookstore clerk, and a customer service rep. --1 day deciding which online resume builder to try and which template to use, then completing a cashiering resume.  --3 hours attempting to forward that resume to the UPS store that does all my printing and engaging in online chats. --Trip this morning to pick up the results. I don't complain. I bless my lucky stars that I'd completed a beta copy of my WIP's first 200 pages and a...

  On Monday I published “New Beginnings at Rosa’s” my first totally independent venture, when I managed the whole process, from formatting the ebook and paperback to designing the cover and uploading to Amazon myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t have offers from friends to help me along the way but I was determined to show myself that I could do it and one of the phrases that kept me going was   “Granny did it!” This dated from years ago when I used to take my granddaughter Maddy to nursery. She had one of those state of the art buggies with the slot in fastenings that are a total nightmare for any grandparent with even slightly arthritic fingers. The first challenge was always fastening her in, the second was releasing her when we arrived and then when we got home, if I was picking her up as well, there was the struggle to fold up said buggy so it could be put away under the stairs and not have to take up any room in their narrow hallway. Throughout the whole procedure, Mad...

  My sister is staying with me at the moment, and we went to see The Roses the other day, in the movie theater, which people don't seem to do as much, but which we especially like to do. My sister is eight years younger than me, did not go to college, but worked her way up in the field of TV production, chose to not have children, and has a long-time domestic partner because she's not into marriage. I could not wait to get married and have kids almost as much as I couldn't wait to go to college, have gotten a few degrees, in fact, I'd still like to be in college. I have one child through adoption because of infertility, and would love to have a thousand more if I had the means to do so. I put this out there, because our "takes" on life are often very different, and were very different on this film. I should also out myself and say I have a major crush on Benedict Cumberbatch since I first saw the Sherlock series. My sister does not, and she thought the Sherl...

  Twice, last week, people complimented me on having ‘written so many books’. It was kindly meant, but not true. There are a dozen of them – and they give me lasting pleasure – but that’s not much in ‘real writer’ terms. Where I have been additionally lucky is to work on other people’s books. Again, only in small numbers, but it is a very special privilege to have the permission to get close to someone else’s thoughts and words by publishing their book.   This month Golden Duck publishing is taking three new books to the Southampton Boat Show: Scapa Ferry is an account of sailing courage, wild weather and sheer hard work in wartime; The Tuesday Boys tells a tale of foster love, expressed through sailing. It’s a heart warmer that leaves questions: How much can you truly help another person by teaching something new? Does it make a lasting difference to show another way of life? Can you ever mend the damage caused by the rejection of a child?  Both these books are rep...

 We're big fans of Stacey Solomon and her programme 'Sort Your Life Out'. Stacey and her team go to people's houses who are in desperate need of decluttering their homes. My kids have threatened to put us forward for the show! So, we've started to go through our belongings - particularly toys - to see what we no longer need. Unfortunately, we don't have the big warehouse or Stacey's team to help us so we're not necessarily doing this the best way. We took lots of toys, games and books to a car boot sale last weekend and brought a lot back again! Putting some photos up on Facebook has allowed a few more things to go to good homes. My daughter has made good use of Vinted and sold a few bits. We've booked a charity collection next week and are getting bags and boxes ready to go. We're on a partial deadline as we're having a party with our neighbours soon so have to have a tidy downstairs at least! At the moment, we can't see the woods for th...

I’ve been editing my website/blog recently. I thought it was time to update pages, since I’ve recently retired, and maybe prune a lot of stuff before thinking about moving over to Wordpress, as blogger just gets more and more difficult to use. It looks like pruning might be easier than I thought since at least 50% of the links no longer work!  I don’t check this kind of thing regularly – maybe I should – but I admit to being surprised. Some of the links to bigger and more commercial sites are gone, and I’ve learned a huge lesson here to keep copies of blog posts as I suspect they are gone for good. I blogged on and off for several years for the Harrogate Crime Festival – and it was a good ten years ago, but I didn’t expect the whole online You’re Booked ‘community’ website to simply vanish without trace, especially since the festival is bigger than it used to be. Annoyingly, while I’d reposted on my website, I had only posted the first paragraph with a link to the full article el...

What did we do before that Chap NGT (Not Got Talent*) entered the room and answered our every question? I suppose there was Google… just how many times do we say… “Let’s Google that!” It’s common parlance, usually when watching something on TV. “What’s he been in?” “How old is Joan Collins now?” No body knows, or you are on your own, and Google becomes your best friend with every answer at your fingertips! Oh, how I pity the people of yesteryear before the internet was even thought of. Then again, maybe they didn’t need the answer to the question                 “Was he in an episode of Casualty? The one with the train crash.”** In the good old day you would reach for a trusted book. Printed matter cannot be questioned, it can be relied upon to provide good advice. Especially when said tome is called Everybody’s Best Friend. Edited by Harold Wheeler Hon.D,Litt, F.R.Hist.S (The man has so many le...