Authors Electric

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Okay, hands up, I buy books all year round. Just have to, right? But we are rapidly approaching the major book buying season of the year. Naturally I will have a list (and by the time this goes out I may be putting the finishing touches to it, ready to present to my loved ones. I am, at least, easy to buy for). I was wondering though whether you’ve found buying books for others fraught with difficulties. Do you ask them so they know what’s coming or surprise them with your choices? I do the former because I love being asked to make a selection myself but I understand the latter. My son loves reading political history across many eras so must ask him what he wants to avoid the duplicate book scenario. Has a book you’ve been given proved to be an unexpected choice for you? I spent decades focusing on reading fiction and that will always be my major love. In recent times, I’ve discovered the joys of non-fiction. This ha...

 A warning to those of a squeamish disposition – a fair amount of this deals with the vagaries of the alimentary canal…   I wonder whether, like me, you get most of your present-day information these days from Casualty and similar programmes? Where no member of staff has a trouble-free relationship, and they routinely find themselves involved in/with car crashes/fires/explosions or psychopaths. Or else they’re addicted to alcohol, gambling or prescription meds. And what of writing medical dramas in the past? I can remember the days when I was told to shut up and not to make a fuss in the last stages of labour, and you needed your husband’s signature to have an intrauterine device fitted. When consultants ignored you and just talked rather condescendingly to the nurse. When my mother simply didn’t believe that my female Polish relatives could be proper doctors. Call the Midwife seems a bit cosy, really. I never saw the same one twice, and always had to wait for hours to see...

  Definition: Laptop hoboes tap into free Wi-Fi at coffeeshops or restaurants, commandeering tables with power outlets and sometimes parking for hours on end.                                                                     ***** There is no truth to the rumor that author Julia Jones has said she'd rather die than be a laptop hobo in any MacDonald's or Starbucks. But we can imagine the aversion of AE's most elegant writer to the thought of writing that way. On the other hand, Wendy H Jones plugs in anywhere when on the road--a trait she shares with such great vagabonds as the late Jan Needle and Hunter S Thompson. It's a well-known fact around the globe that Wendy was born wearing vagabond shoes. I admire the works of both Joneses. But, as a longtime hobo who loves to work in cafes, I share Wendy's penchant for ...

  On Thursday at the clinic where Mike goes to have his leg bandaged, the student nurse asked if we were ready for Christmas. Having just had Halloween this was somewhat of a shock, exacerbated by the fact that the season of Santa, reindeer, turkey and stockings was very far from my thoughts. Most of my energy is directed to the next challenge in our lives as we prepare to sell our four bedroom house and downsize. Apart from this the weather and more particularly the state of the garden make it hard to think that in a few weeks’ time we will be in the depths of winter. It’s true we have had a few cold days, and some apocalyptic rain, but in spite of that,   the roses are out, the grass is still growing, the camellia is showing its buds and the busy lizzies have only just died away, while the nasturtiums are having a second lease of life. If the recent gusts of wind hadn’t striped the some of the trees of their leaves, looking outside the window when the sun is shining, it wo...

  I live in the USA. Here it is NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month). *sigh* I never make NANOWRIMO work for me. And that bums me out, because it is a thing formed to help people finish their novels, and Finish Your Damn Novel! is the phrase I coined when I formed my first writing workshop, because many people need support to finish a book, and I was hoping that hosting a group would give that support to me, as well as the members in it. But NANOWRIMO is never something I can get excited about because it is in November. I have been a college adjunct professor for a gazillion years. This means that, in November, I have literally hundreds of students who are trying to get their writing done and in to me to read and grade. Or needing me to help them get their writing together. Or, often, needing me to help them get their college app essays ready. When you're a full-time professor in the USA in the writing department your teaching load is +/- four classes/semester, for about eight...

This blog post is going to start with a whinge about KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). Then it’s going to tell a proper tale of courage. Both are connected by My Ship is So Small , Ann Davison’s account of her solo Atlantic crossing.  She’d left Plymouth on May 18 1952 frightened stiff, alone on her 23’ yacht Felicity Ann . ‘I wondered why I had let a dream run away with me. Why, for heaven’s sake, why?’ Ann had told the press that she'd be heading for Madeira but stopped at Douarnenez, Vigo, Gibraltar, Casablanca, Las Palmas, Dominica (and other Caribbean Islands) and Nassau. Then she had followed the Intracoastal Waterway to her final destination.  Ann and her small ship arrived in New York seventy years ago this month (November 1953) She was the first woman to have sailed alone across the Atlantic.  I wanted to mark the occasion. Simon Kiln, Ann’s closest surviving relative agreed. He and his sisters gave their permission for Golden Duck to publish a new edition of My Sh...

It’s been a busy few weeks for me. We’ve bought a house (and a car, as the old one was getting rather past it) and had all the attendant fun that goes with that. Still, at least I’m settled now. It’s had an impact on my writing, for obvious reasons – from not having the time or energy after a full day at work and then messing around for a couple of hours with boxes (and sheesh, I didn’t realise just how many books we actually own), to practicalities such as not having internet set up or secured,. As a wee reward, I treated myself to a trip to the opera (Rossini, the Barber of Seville) on World Opera Day. Wonderful staging, and the cast was stellar. A thoroughly good time was had. But it got me thinking on the way home, just how many parallels could be drawn between writing and opera (or, I suppose, other sorts of show or TV programmes). There was a wonderful phrase I heard (or read – it was a long time ago) that said good writing made it easy to suspend your disbelief and fill in ...