Authors Electric

I suppose it's a good idea to take a short break from writing from time to time, re-charge batteries and so on. Unfortunately, in my experience other things just rush in to fill up the space usually taken up by writing -- if I could work out what the scientific analogy for this was, I would cite it at this point. I suppose it has something to do with a vacuum. Unfortunately it's some time since I learned any basic science, although I am a sucker for popular science stories in newspapers and online, and despite most of my knowledge of dinosaurs being based on the 'Jurassic Park' movie franchise, I was fascinated recently to read about a man who has apparently worked out the exact sequence of events during the meteor strike that killed the dinosaurs. I wonder if it's better to carry on, always having a writing project in hand, just as I always have to have at least three unread books on my Kindle in case I become bored with one of them or want to read something i...

A good friend died just before Christmas. She was about 10 years older than me but still too young. She had cancer but it was still a shock. In the summer when I went back to Wales to see her, she seemed quite well. She had completed a course of chemotherapy and was walking 15 miles a day, writing and keeping up with her various social activities and her family. Now she is gone, and I will never again walk with her along the banks of the River Wye discussing books and publishing and putting the world to rights. Sue in Usk Before she died, Sue self-published a book set in the near future in the Welsh border country where she lived. She'd been writing it for several years but kept quiet about the story, most of our discussions being about how she might find a publisher. When she was diagnosed with cancer, she decided she couldn't wait any longer for publishers to say 'yes' and took the book to a local printer. After her death, her daughter kindly sent me a copy. ...