Authors Electric

 As writers we get inspired by all manner of things, an unfair incident we just need to write about to get it off our chest, a funny often self-deprecating story that is worth retelling to make our friends laugh or maybe a character we meet by chance and we decide to make up their backstory. Then there are the throw away lines, words uttered in conversation that ignite a spark and start our minds whirring. I’ve had two such instances this month that inspired some poetry. The first was “third row back with chocolate” you can read about that on my own blog here. The second was a conversation with friends I’ve known since sixth form. We were reminiscing about people we knew and one person wondered “whatever happened to Nigel?” We don’t know. As far as I’m aware he’s not on Facebook so how can we find out? Hiring a private investigator seems a little excessive. We can only ponder and take a guess and write a poem. But I admit I still never came up with a proper answer! ...

What do you think? What do you see? Last Saturday was a thrilling day for me. I was off to London, by myself, to meet lots of other Christian writers. It involved getting up at an unholy hour, after getting to bed late. I was trying to sort out hubby and kids for the following day, to make sure they’d all survive. So by six in the morning, I was safely installed on a comfortable coach, on my way to London. I was too restless to listen to an audiobook, listening to music instead. I kept dozing off, but when I woke up, the landscape was intriguing. I could see faint outlines of undulating hills, shrouded in mist. You could see the mist reaching out with long fingers, wrapping itself around a treetop that had been almost visible just before. I took several pictures, knowing it wouldn’t look like anything on my phone afterwards. There would be lorries, blurry cars and the hills would not stand out. I spotted some car headlights, tucked between two hills, no road in sight. Why? Who woul...