Blogs

Our Story and Poem of the Month for August, very kindly chosen by Jane Hyphen

"Invention... can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself." - Mary Shelley

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0030fhy/monkey-man There was a time in Holywood when men were men. They had to smoke like a steam engine leaving the station. Drink like there was no tomorrow and break enough hearts to keep the tabloids busy inventing new kinds of innuendo. Some of them were singers, crooners or dancers. They had to shoot straight and have the innate ability to gallop away on any old horse when needed. Which brings me to...

BPL was not amused. The whole point of having a Bus Pass was to avoid hiking anywhere. But a goal is a goal and while BPL could procrastinate for Scotland, she was also a stickler for a goal. It was in this stickleback frame of mind that BPL picked up Bus Pass, (who was moved to tears), donned stout walking shoes, and set off to find the shortest hike possible, preferably with a coffee shop somewhere en route. Thomas Hardy hike* seemed to fit...

Fahrenheit 451 (1953) was a political novel in much the same way as George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Ray Bradbury’s most well-known novel was incendiary. Brave even, when all around were losing their heads over the perceived threat of the red menace and McCarthyism stoked the flames in the mass media, and was rewarded by even more attention and status in the media McCarthyites fed stories to. You wonder what either writer would have made of the...

Is it possible that swapping the places of two basket chairs in the kitchen, much like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings on the other side of the world, could cause bigger changes than solely the aesthetic? Chair move started a ripple effect. Recycling jam jars out of a cupboard, making space for items that were plonked on the kitchen counter, has had a similar renewing effect. Am all organised. That’s a lie. The kitchen counters are cleared...

Found myself choked with tears mid-chat in the local gorgeous crap-you-don’t-need shop; smells so good, reminds me of happy hippy teen-days. That’s not why I was choked with tears, or perhaps it was; the aromatherapeutic scent reminding me of younger, dafter, more hope-filled times. Anyway, the lovely owner gave me a hug and mentioned she had a new herbal capsule which was good for overwhelm, anxiety and general not wanting to leave the...

https://murderone.ie/ This October, I will be joining fellow authors for " READINGS IN THE STUDIO (to book see the Murder one website) Acclaimed authors Bryan J. Mason (There Are No Happy Endings) , James Murphy (Farset Investigations Belfast) and Karen Fitzgibbon (Tell the Truth) take to the stage to share readings from their latest work— whether it’s sharp dialogue, lyrical prose, or unforgettable characters, each writer brings a unique...

Holy Ghost is ‘A Virgil Flowers Novel’. That may be meaningless. As it was to me. Although being brought up a Catholic, I know who the Holy Ghost is, or was, or ever will be. And I know who Stephen King is. When the cover gives a Stephen King blurb: ‘One of the greatest novelists of all time’, you’ve got to look, even though you know hokum when you hear it. I know now who Virgil Flowers is. John Sandford has written around 30 books. Many with...