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 ...

  I’ve just had a hissy fit on Facebook because – and it’s entirely my fault – I sent a poem off with my usual lack of hope, was amazed to find it (a) shortlisted, (b) up on a website and (c) to be published in a chapbook. The thing is, AFTER sending it off, I could see several things wrong with it. I never learn. However, the information had mentioned editing so I was hopeful that at least I could change the terrible last line. Nope. The Editor was happy with it as it was, except for one comma. Oh, and I’d also agreed to read it in an online showcase…Cringe!  My hissing and ranting – ‘I can’t read it!’ etc. resulted in several kind people encouraging me to read my updated version instead, and other people saying things like ‘but they like it, they must know what they’re talking about,’ and finally, ‘why don’t you trust them?’ Ah. That’s the thing. I’ve had bad and good encounters with editors over the years. Sometimes they have improved my work and sometimes they have mad...

I am a compulsive editor, especially of picture book texts which really have to be spot-on perfect, so from time to time I check over the ones that haven't flown, to find out why, and to see if they can be improved. If I haven't checked them for ages, I feel I'm coming at them from a different place - as a very picky reader. I was once passionate about the concept, but now I'm reading it cold, with all passion spent, and I can see its flaws, often glaring, but once upon a time I was in love with this story, so can it be rescued? At present I've been re-acquainting myself with my "Little Bad King", partly because it slots into current politics, which won't interest its intended age group one whit, except for the themes of fairness, greed, and nasty people getting their come-uppance in amusing ways, none of which is age exclusive. This is how it starts: SPREAD ONE. ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A LITTLE BAD KING. HE WAS MEAN. HE WAS GREEDY, AND ...

Many, many years ago, I was given this book by someone who knew I was a fan of Iris Murdoch's writing, which I once was. I remember being devastated by her diagnosis of Alzheimers from which she would eventually die. Somehow, it seems, I never read this one, because glancing through it, nothing was at all familiar. From time to time, I prune my book collection, but very incompetently, so I thought I would check out this one, especially as it was a lazy, hot Bank Holiday. My reactions to it were weird - it was like meeting someone I'd had a passionate affair with a very long time ago (this happened to me in real life, once, too, and it was a very uncomfortable experience as 1. age had not been kind to him, and 2. he had, astonishingly, considering his talent and intellect, become a born-again Christian on a rather pointless mission to save my soul.) Back to Iris, though (the film based on her life, "Iris", was heartbreaking.) The knight reminded me that I was ...