Authors Electric

The Silly Season is upon us. Indeed, some might say it began early this year... but that’s enough about the state of the UK government.  Since the heatwave has filled my mind with thistledown, this will be a post all about trivia. Verbal trivia, that is. Specifically, some of the proverbial metaphors we pepper our speech with every day (see what I did there?).  Recently, when describing a sudden realisation I’d had to a friend, I used the phrase, ‘the scales fell from my eyes.’  I like that image. My friend knew exactly what I meant.  Fish scales. Odd to have them covering your eyes. Photo by Engin Akyurt: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ close-up-of-fish-scales-with-natural-texture-33654489/ It was only, some time later, it occurred to me to wonder… what did I mean? Scales? Eyes? Why would there be scales on my eyes in the first place, and what kind of scales? Fish scales? Piano scales? A weighing machine?  These kitchen scales would give 'heavy-eyed' a whole new ...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. I love using a wide variety of writing prompts. They’re great for triggering further ideas. Sometimes they’re enough for me to picture a potential character. Sometimes the prompt gives me a theme. Sometimes, especially with opening line prompts, I have a way into a story and I then create the best character to meet the needs of that prompt. I’m unlikely to have a character with their head in a book taking part in an action story, for example. (It’s not impossible but it’s unlikely I’d do it).  Writing to prompts regularly has helped me get used to writing to prompts set by anyone else. This is useful for competitions with set themes. It’s also handy for responding to writing exercises set by workshop leaders at events such as The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. I set prompts for the monthly Zoom meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group . I join in with the prompts on the night and, ...

Warning: spider picture below!  I’m fascinated by spiders and love this time of year as  they're everywhere hanging in the middle of their webs.  I'd heard reports  the fantastic wasp spider, which is a new arrival to our shores (1920s) had  been seen in a new area, so off I went. Sadly I wasn't as lucky as I've been in previous years, when I'd managed to see some and take some photographs.  One of these previous photographs I'd used as the front cover for my Anansi the Trickster Spider stories. Now, while I was  researching Anansi I discovered a few proverbs that related to the skills spiders have in forecasting the weather.  As I haven’t had an excuse to use these and feel they’re relevant to this time of year I thought I’d share some of them with you. “Spider webs in the air, or on the grass and trees, foretell much fair weather.” From: ‘The Husbandman’s Practice or Prognostication for ever, with the Shepherd’s Perp...