Authors Electric

First of all, thank you so much Griselda Hamway, for gifting me this date when I'd failed to blog on 20th. Our very much loved choir leader, Pauline, died recently. She’s had inoperable brain tumours. One afternoon soon after her diagnosis, I shared this poem with her.  CONSERVATION OF MATTER I am closer, now, to my after than I am to my before. This lively mass of atoms I now know as ‘me’, was here at the beginning; scattered after the Bang, then gathering, dispersing, re-grouping times out of mind, shapes out of imagining: Slime-mould, starlight, dormouse, willow tree, man, beast, parasite, building block, blade of grass, hover fly, china clay, drop in the ocean, grape-pip, earthworm, raincloud, prickle, soot – and when I break, dissolve, when I am no longer me – the atoms will re-form to be slime-mould, starlight, dormouse, willow tree? I wrote it to comfort myself and was so relieved and pleased that it comforted her too – and she asked me ...

  Karen Bush KAREN BUSH (aka Madwhippet) was a founder member of Authors Electric and, indeed, edited and produced some collections of short stories by our members, as well as posting many blogs for us.  Karen was also a member, as was I, of a small group of writer friends, all members of The Scattered Authors Society. We kept in regular touch via email and Zoom. At the start of May 2023, we met for our ‘first Tuesday of the month’ Zoom and there was Karen, chatting and joking, as usual, with her beloved whippet, Dulcie, curled up on the sofa beside her.      Extract from 'Dulcie's Diary ': Pffft ... I has a cut on my paw. I have had it hibiscrubbed and now I am guarding it to keep Muvva away with any other stinging stuff she might want to put on it. If it needs to be any cleaner I has a perfectly good tongue thank you! Now pass me the chicken to help me recover ...     A few days later, around mid-May, Karen mentioned some stomach upsets. The ...