Authors Electric

I thought of calling this blog ‘Unusual sexual encounters’ to try to attract a few more punters, but on reflection…  It’s really about trying to capture a time in a particular place/ landscape. The idea was triggered by a recent challenge from the Hedgehog Press. They send out one a month and I usually manage a response, although I’ve never even been shortlisted for publication. Heigh ho. It just helps to have a nudge to my post-covid brain. I’ve written before about being inspired by landscapes, but the challenge gave me a different perspective – not so much inspiration as need to capture something   of the essence of that place, that time. Something to look back on, to invoke the same feelings as were felt then. If I had an ounce of artistic talent, I might have made a sketch – livelier and more personal than a photograph and from my own hand, but I have only words. The image from the Hedgehog Press’s challenge is of a dreary, grubby corridor reminiscent of a disused psych...

This month has seen the usual joyful preparations for World Book Day. I’m long out of it all now, but still in touch, in various ways, of the doings of younger colleagues – delightful photos and stories of happy and less happy school visits. I thought I might feel a pang or two, but no. Anticipation of a day in a school was always part-happy, part-angsty. I’ve had every kind of welcome from staff, from the top end of kind and courteous to offhand and downright rude on one or two occasions – and I see from other children’s writers that it is not uncommon. I’ve sat ignored in staff rooms and on one unforgettable occasion was accosted furiously with this: Her: ‘My sister writes stories.’ Me: ‘That’s great!’ Her: ‘Hers are VERY good’ (not-quite hidden message: not like the rubbish you write.) Me: ‘Have they been published?’ Her: (with raging contempt for me) ‘No.’ I remember thinking,   once or twice, ‘Good grief! These oafish people are teaching our children!’ ...