A link to my poetry, published today in the UK, with thanks to Ink Pantry.
Reading
Something old is renewed
You can never experience your own writing in the same way readers can. Writers know their own story, are often unaware of their usual or unusual foibles, and read what they want imagined, not what they put on the page. So they see the wood for the trees. Unless you write something and completely forget … Continue reading Something old is renewed
Uses of enchantment
I have Bruno Bettelheim's book Uses of Enchantment, somewhere. Yet I'm less interested in Freudian readings of myth and fairy tales than other types of interpretation. But that's not the point of this. I was reading how selling is the art of story telling, (in a Medium piece here) but earlier I'd been looking for a … Continue reading Uses of enchantment
Rereading’s good medicine
I confess to being the kind of reader who will stop and never return to a novel if it's not to my taste or standards. I couldn't even really begin Cloud Atlas. Apart from a missing page, I just didn't get it and it didn't draw me in. On the other hand, I did go … Continue reading Rereading’s good medicine
Review: Eyewitness Mythology
First published in 1999 and updated last year, DK's Eyewitness Mythology is but one of a number of Eyewitness books for children/youth about literature, animals, weather and other natural phenomena, historical events and aspects of science. I am not in their target audience but I am interested in how myths and the people they belong … Continue reading Review: Eyewitness Mythology
Patchwork heart
You won't be surprised if you learned I have a collector's tendency. A bit. Not in a massively life cramplingly problematic hoarding way, yet I do keep things. Maybe it's because stuff is comforting, like when I was a child. My room in one house was barely wider than my bed, in which was stuffed … Continue reading Patchwork heart
Stories/Literacy
This week a response to a video on reading. Kids with books are good, and I'm a big fan of books and always have been. I want to make that clear. Kate Forsyth is an interesting writer and she has much of value to say about writing practice but a recent video has put me … Continue reading Stories/Literacy
Genre-trification
This year I graduated with an MA in Writing and Literature. Throughout, the emphasis in the writing components was upon 'literature'. We could only use aspects of genre or sneak them sideways into our short stories or essays. However, I'm over artificially constructed barriers. Surely there is nothing unliterary with the works of China Mieville or Ursula Le … Continue reading Genre-trification
On Being a Writer and a Reader
Been working on the thesis and it's nearing completion. I am both hopeful of and dreading the outcome. What it is forcing me to be is to be a writer and a reader. Mostly you'll say this is easy, writers and readers share things in common, like language, and perhaps a love of and ability to … Continue reading On Being a Writer and a Reader
First words of a green eyed girl
This is a story and the story is mine. It may explain why I’m interested in telling stories. It may even explain the title of this blog and why there were certain people in the world who once thought I could never have had a blog or a story published, or perhaps even a job. It's why … Continue reading First words of a green eyed girl
Writing Bec 