Authors Electric

" The more things change, the more they stay the same," French journalist  Alphonse Karr wrote in an 1849 column.  Change is a constant of life, usually by increments in culture and politics, occasionally accelerated. This is one of those times. Like most Americans, this past week my inamorata, the noted artist Eleanor Spiess-Ferris , and I watched seemingly earthshaking events unfold daily. July 2024 shifted .  It feels like 1968, a year of assassinations and upheaval that shaped our personal lives along with politics. Inspired by Don Delill o's masterful novel  Underworld  mingling characters' inner lives with the Cold War, I made the first six months of 1968 a protagonist in my memoirist novella, " Our Own Kind , " featured in my 2018 collection: " Sometimes Ridiculous ."     Eleanor and I are old enough to remember moments when we experienced political change as personal, not just as a spectator sport in Washington.  Karr's cynical quote...

This is the sixth episode in our monthly saga of power and incompetence   Becky had been watching the convoy of Land Rovers return from the bedroom window. The shooting party was deposited back at the house and made their way in to change for dinner. “They’re back,” she said, without turning. “Really? Crikey!” Teddy sprang out of bed, yanking his loudly striped pajamas back up as he stumbled his way out of the room. There would have been a time when the sheer slapstick of his exit would have made her laugh, but today it merely made her sigh. The joke had grown so old. She sat down at her dressing table and took a long look at herself in the mirror. Her phone buzzed on the glass surface beside her elbow. “Hi Darling,” she said once she had ascertained it was who she hoped. “Thanks for calling back.” “I gather you’ve got Teddy and his latest squeeze down for the weekend,” Phillipa said. Becky allowed a throaty chuckle to escape her. If anyone understood her predicament, i...

  Political Story-Telling by Bronwen Griffiths  Humans are natural story-tellers. Politicians know this too and through the ages have used story-telling to gain and hold on to power. Just as writers have to think carefully about their titles – which title will catch the public’s eye and perhaps result in better sales? – the politician and the newspaper also want to catch our eyes with their headlines and slogans. This is nothing new but with social media it’s easier for politicians to speak directly to voters.    Pithy phrases such as ‘Make America Great Again’ or ‘Taking Back Control’ and ‘Oven Ready Deal’ (Brexit) pit one community against another. The story is that one side has been betrayed and the politician will be the saviour. It’s the old, old story of vanquishing the monster. For the right-wing the enemy is the ‘metropolitan elite,’ ‘the woolly liberals,’ the ‘woke.’ For the left it’s the rich and powerful. However, as Robert Shrimsley points out in his anal...

The 21st of May, one month to freedom (or so our rulers say). Three full lockdowns, two stolen years to stop us all from dying (or so our rulers feared). A single day equals fifty-three million  masks in landfill, as many unseen smiles and muffled protests (that our rulers suppressed). Enjoy your new normal! Six people in a soggy bubble drinking alfresco from takeaway cups, fully vacc'ed yet tracked and traced (our rulers say just in case). While behind locked doors, the lonely seek solace from Facebook friends never met and scammers they don't suspect, conspiring to explain what makes zero sense in this infinite emergency. Five virus deaths today (subject to change). Statistics are fantastic! Mightier than words when used on the innumerate to frighten and control (as our rulers well know). One month to unlocking when the truth will hit the fan. Might need to open more slowly, find a positive spin for economic meltdown, negative interest rates, a million new variants, mental he...

On March 28, 2017, Audbible release Ode to Broken Things as an audiobook, but before that, they sent me a link to an excerpt on SoundCloud . Ode to Broken Things is my debut novel. Like a jealous Mum, I wanted the book to stride into this new audio world with intelligent self-conviction but I definitely did not want it adopted by a mentor so fabulous that it would forget its roots and my vision. So the first time I listened to Ode To Broken Things— if it can be called “listening” –   was in the shower, with the sound partially drowned by cascading waters. Okay. So I am a writer who NEVER reads her books once they are published. When I am called upon at literary or talks to read excerpts, I discover cringe-worthy writing hiding in the recesses of my beloved passages. I am glad that excellent editors comb through my writing, because when I am done with edits, all I do is binge-watch Hallmark movies and Bollywood escapism for weeks, completely disengaging my brain until...