Blogs

You see, being a fantasist can be a problem. Unless you write. In which case it can be a good thing. Maybe. It means you might not sleep too much. You might fall out with people who used to like you – before you started going crazy. You might have a little trouble holding down a job – although I still try. I’ve held down jobs through worse. And anyway, there’s always the outside chance you’ll get noticed and someone will start making some money...

Not sure what I am again. I often wonder what I’d be, if push came to shove. Is it out of date and old-fashioned to talk about class? About where I came from? Where I am now? Is it still class? I don’t know. Maybe it’s about education. Life-chances and all that. I look around here, at the people around the supermarket and see a lack of both. Are they working class? I don’t think they are anymore. And some of the people I deal with now. The other...

I’d this great idea for a film. Get Sir Sean Connery to play a hard-nosed cop, training an elite group to take down Al Capone. They’re set to get him on a technicality. Al Capone fails to pay his taxes. Prime Minister David Cameron phones Sir Sean. ‘We’re ready to cut a deal. We’ve put the frighteners on Al. He’s ready to play ball and cut a deal.’ ‘What’s he offering?’ asks Sir Sean. ‘A quarter bottle of Glenfiddich,’ says our Prime Minister. ‘...

ABCtaler John Giffard ( http://www.abctales.com/user/john-giffard ) has written one of the poems in this new anthology. Heroes, 100 Poems from the New Generation of War Poets. Edited by John Jeffries. This book is exactly as described in the title. It contained 100 poems covering various aspects of war. A large number of submissions were made in response to a call for poems for inclusion. A selection panel of 4, each individually rated all those...

Dear all, Last night my account clicked over 100,000 reads. My writing mate, D, and I have some passionate discussions about "reads", "hits " and the near-obsession that can develop - checking from the confines of Trap 1 in the toilet at work to keep up with developments. D's got a point I suppose. Maybe I'm comparing with a time when all my scribbles ended up going no further than a pile of old battered note books in a dusty pile under the bed...

As many of you know by now, Laurie Avadis (better known here as lavadis ) is one of three ABC authors currently crowdfunding the publication of a novel on Unbound. Unbound works by having readers put forward the capital for the books they want to read to fund their publication - and Ex is halfway to publication. But Laurie still needs a few more pledges to put the book he wrote here on ABCtales into bookshops and onto your bookcases - so we'd...

Jon Robson has the kind of job I covet, he meets Noel Edmonds -- and other strange folk doing strange things. Deal or No Deal Jon - you come and live in Dalmuir for a week and I’ll try Seattle? Who can forget the pretext of Bill and the Ufo was that angels disguised themselves as aliens and went to live in Faifley because nobody would bother them when living there? Well, me for starters and I wrote it. Aliens are only aliens when you have to...

My friend is off in mid-Italy being led around the cultural highs and lows - monuments, facades, horsemeat and offal. No doubt with a glass or three of the local wine. I'm counting down the weeks to bed-bugs, blessings and blisters on the Camino de Santiago. I hope I'll witness the resurrection of my Spanish - lately rendered dumb. The work-life balance has become a write (and play) - sleep balance. I've taken to falling asleep on the train...

The most likeable film I have seen for ages! Boyhood takes six year old Ellar Coltrane through his fictional Texan life until his first day in college. The project took 12 years to make, the actors reunite every few years to grow older and go through their relationship changes and housemoves. Ethan Hawke as the hippy musician divorced dad who grows more serious and settles down with the daughter of Bible bashing farmers is particularly real-...

So then, friends and assorted great minds, lovers of the Arts, intelligentsia... The thought just crossed my mind while trimming my beard that my favourite piece of music might be a big lovely fractal (or similar). Is this possible? Is there such a book as "What Maths is Really Telling You" (but your teachers couldn't explain)? Was Beethoven describing God (was he Catholic?), or the universe (or protestant?) seen through the eyes of scientists...