Authors Electric

 As I write this, it's the last day of June, and despite having signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo in July I feel I can relax for the first time in a while. This wasn't really what I expected when I retired from my day job! There are various reasons why June has been exceptionally busy. The first reason was a self-imposed one, and as usual, it is that I had given myself more writing deadlines than I should have done. I'd been working for some time on creating a coherent longer story out of five connected short stories I wrote during June 2021 as part of a short story challenge. During May I seemed to be nearing the end of this process and had published a mystery novel I'd also been working on, so I signed up both for July's Camp NaNoWriMo and for a new short story challenge this June. This entailed writing a short story every day based on a prompt that arrived by email at around lunchtime every day. It was a bit more flexible than last year's challenge, and occasional...

It’s not often that you’ll find me giving advice in a blog. Or indeed, anywhere. I know some stuff, but the longer I live, the more I realise that really, my sum of wisdom is as tiny as a grain of sparkling sand on a white, sun-drenched beach lapped by an azure ocean. (My goodness, you can tell I’m a writer. How about that for a poetic image?)   Anyway, today’s advice, such as it is, is this. Go to the library. As often as you can. And make sure you tell the librarians what a cracking job they’re doing. When eventually I ascend to the heavenly realms, I am reasonably sure that there will be a vast, well-stocked library somewhere about the place, with lots of cosy seating by sunny windows, good coffee, non-fattening cakes (it is heaven, after all) and perhaps some of the authors themselves ready for a nice long chat about their inspiration and their world view.   There are all kinds of libraries out there and last week I found out about one which I will probably never visit. ...

I wrote on Facebook yesterday (Sunday) that it was a strange day. We went out for a walk late morning – down and over the river and onto Whitegate Way – the old railway track-now-bridleway/footpath. Off onto another footpath and back down to the bridge again and home again. About 3-4 miles in total, I think. Things to note: large and spreading clumps of Japanese knotweed in the field and across the path; I’ve never actually seen it in-the-flesh so to speak and it really is a distinctive plant, isn’t it? In the afternoon, the weather was very still. It was more overcast, but the atmosphere was heavy and pensive. Not the thundery precursor to a storm, but more like the world was holding its breath, waiting, anticipating … something. I’m not sure what. I know I couldn’t settle to anything, and I just wanted whatever it was that was going to happen to just get on with it and happen. It hasn’t yet. Comments on Facebook  varied from lockdown-fever, through moon phases and p...