Authors Electric

Every month, to my surprise, I suddenly find I have this blog to write and I haven't got a clue. This month, what we writers laughingly call the pressure is even greater than usual, because I'm flying off to Berlin in a day or two, and I have other vital things to finish. Aw! It's me I feel sorry for… Sometimes, though, the suffering of other people is brought home with a bang. Julia Jones’s gruelling and frighteningly honest piece on the 9 th was a case in point. It was hard to read, and harder to digest. I left a comment because I wanted to show some solidarity, but I had not a clue what to say. Julia is wonderful, one of those people who makes one feel inadequate. I can only thank her for it. Good things can happen though. Northern Lights near Oldham Another terrific writer who has this effect on me is Mark Frankland - and he also runs a charity in Dumfries for victims of the military life. Not people who have been attacked or injured by the fo...

Deadlines – as Ann Evans was saying just a blink ago – doncha just love ‘em? Following the principle that there’s more to life than working, or even writing, I found myself this week towing a twenty foot sloop from the north to the south to launch and berth her with my brother-in-law near Portsmouth. The sun was shining, all was delight. Two days later, soaked, frozen, and exhausted, I noticed the date. It’s Friday evening now. I've just got home. You’ll be reading this, sensation seekers, within brief hours of me finishing it. Okay? I also came to realize that I’d put a day-specific post on my own blog – janneedle.com – last week, and the event I was talking about, and appearing in, had come and gone. One never knows if anyone reads these things, but if they do, I need to apologise. Or at least get rid of it, quickly. As quickly as the June weather put paid to my hopes of nautical bliss (suntan included). A third thing, now remembered, gnaws at me. I’ve ...