Blogs

I was reminded today that, this time last year saw the podcast debut of Josiah and Archibald! It was really interesting, from my point of view, because this was the first time that they had been brought to life and interpreted by anyone other than me. I thought it worked out pretty well, but have a listen and see what you think Yorick Radio - A Dubious Undertaking

Start Writing Fiction – Free Online Course through the Open University So you wanna be a writer? Well, I do. I imagine you do as well or you wouldn’t be reading this. Everyone comes at creative writing from different angles, for different reasons and with different backgrounds in terms of prior learning. Not everyone has been through university and earned a degree in creative writing. I certainly haven’t (even if my son has). Having been back at...

I've been going back over some of the stories I've written from the point of view of the dogs at my daughter's care farm. I think the approach of Christmas has made me a bit sentimental! This is a bit of a sad one.This story is from the Christmas after one of the dogs (Packham) had sadly passed away, leaving India on her own and before the arrival of Rohan, the puppy. I always hoped this would get more attention than it actually did: https://www...

I bore myself with my obsessive compulsion to endlessly create word puns in the worst dad joke way that leaves me groaning before I have even shared them, and yet they keep coming. This morning for instance I was considering grandiose titles of books and with a few letter changes diminishing their power. Tern of the Sentry - An old guard officer who had tamed a sea bird, and together, they would defend the gates of the palace. The Gapes of Roth...

Chapter Five – If you don’t have children, do you feel like it has impacted you emotionally &/ psychologically? If so, how? These are the stories of some respondents to a questionnaire around being single over the age of 40 as a woman. Donna, Not sure how to answer this one. I've been a preschool teacher most of my life, and hear all about the struggles with children, especially the financial implications. So, in my circumstances, I don't...

Samantha Harvey’s 136 pages novella, Orbital , won the Booker Prize 2024. It was whittled down from 150 books. I’d picked it up before her fifth novel sold millions and started reading it. But then put it down, largely unread. Hmmm, I thought, pop. David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust has already covered this, Starman , circa 1969 and the moon landing. ‘Hear I am floating in a tin can. Far above the sea. Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do...