Authors Electric

I wrote something here about my work in progress, a kind of alternate history mystery, a few months ago, and it is still in progress today.  This is not because it's ridiculously long - nothing I write will ever exceed about 80,000 words, and ideally I like to wrap everything up way before that - but because in more or less every chapter there is something I need to research, and the things I imagine I need to research have now descended to a level of fine detail that is actually anathema to someone like me. When I studied history, some years ago now, I realised I didn't want to know any of the detail, as I was very much more interested in broad generalities - the great sweeping movements of history, not where the Duke of Wellington had his hair trimmed (I leave that kind of thing to Georgette Heyer). Of course there is no escape from some of the fine detail when you're writing a novel, and when researching almost anything it's often by building up the layers of detail ...

 I've probably posted here before about trains, a topic close to my heart as well as yet another reason to be annoyed with 2020, as this must be the first year I can remember when I haven't travelled by train at least once. To make up for the train shortfall in real life, I've watched more or less every railway documentary I can find on television during the year. My absolute favourite is actually not about real trains at all. It's the Great Model Railway Challenge, which sadly doesn't seem to have taken place recently, probably because it's a team event and more or less impossible to do while you're applying social distancing rules. But who could resist railway layouts that included the Glenfinnan Viaduct, or a multi-level structure in which trains had to drive into various futuristic elevators in order to access the next level? However, as I realised while watching grown men panicking because their model freight train had derailed again, not entirely unexp...

Recently my inamorata and I took a train from Chicago down to Springfield, the Illinois state capital (not the Simpsons' Springfield). It's about four hours each way through harvested, stubbled Midwest cornfields, clusters of giant wind turbines and riparian woods splendid with fall colors. We traveled downstate overnight to attend the grand opening of the Illinois State Museum 's Oct 26- Feb 16 show honouring her artwork over the past four decades -  " Daphne's Sister ," an Eleanor Spiess-Ferris retrospective displaying scores of her surreal, post-imagist, narrative paintings, drawings, and other works. On the train to Springfield The well-attended opening more than lived up to expectations, with works displayed dramatically by noted collagist Doug Stapleton , the state museum's Associate Curator, tracing a forty-year evolution of her other-worldly creations exploring nature, emotions and the feminine form. The show's introduction notes: ...

In a few days’ time, I’ll be setting off southwards for a few days with family. Having been born in Surrey in the south of England, but lived for more than two decades in Yorkshire in the north, this is a journey I undertake several times a year. My parents still live in the house where I grew up, and my sister and her (rapidly increasing) family live half an hour away, so it’s easy to kill lots of birds with one stone, so to speak. This time I’ll be meeting a new addition to the family so there’s plenty to look forward to. Not an East Coast train - the Flying Scotsman visits Haworth Just a couple of years ago there were two options for the journey – either my partner would drive us down, or I would take the train (with or without my own children in tow). With ever-rising train fares in the UK, the latter sometimes seemed an expensive luxury – until I began writing again a dozen years ago, and discovered that the two hours spent in the ‘quiet carriage’ was the perfect opportu...

Row17 [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons ]. This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Row17 and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.   Aberdeen, Stonehaven, Montrose, Arbroath, Dundee, Leuchars, Cupar, Ladybank, Markinch, Kircaldy, Inverkeithing, Edinburgh Haymarket, Edinburgh Waverley, Dunbar, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alnmouth, Morpeth, Newcastle, Chester-le-Street, Durham, Darlington, York, Doncaster [or Leeds, Wakefield Westgate], Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, Burton-on-Trent, Tamworth, Water Orton, Birmingham New Street, Cheltenham Spa, Gloucester, Bristol Parkway, Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton, Tiverton Parkway, Exeter St David’s, Dawlish, Teignmouth, Newton Abbott, Totnes, Plymouth, Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, St Erth, Penzance. You may recognise these as the stopping poi...