Much like a paddling duck, writing things are happening, but the effort is mainly invisible, below the surface, or not very exciting, but again, like a duck, I am slowly getting somewhere. Firstly, I have just had an article published on the blog of global publishing platform Submittable about the craft of writing flash novellas. … Continue reading Calloo, callay, publishing day
writing
Writing things in motion
This is a quick note to mention writing things are in motion. I have an article for the Submittable blog coming out this week, and a tiny morsel of flash fiction has been accepted for publication in issue 20 of Speculative 66 which is out the week after. These events are very welcome. These are … Continue reading Writing things in motion
Perfect just what I was searching for!
It's the time, once more, to render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Caesar can have these back: kindly crafted words of praise from anonymous accounts seeding spam everywhere they tread across the internet. Much like this: I am lucky that I observed this blog, precisely the right information that I was looking for! Or … Continue reading Perfect just what I was searching for!
Feeling the love
Valentine's Day has never been a significant date, except as a historical curiosity featuring long dead martyrs. I'm not going all woe is me either: if your beloved requires a commercialised saint's day as a reminder to up the romance, your romance might be a bit past revivification. Or not. I am definitely not an … Continue reading Feeling the love
Sisyphean writing update
Over December and January I properly perused my flash fiction file, collated a bunch of little narratives, then re-edited the lot as one document. Then I found a couple of opportunities and frantically tried to shape this cobbled together thing into a flash novella. Before sending it off, it needed something extra, so I tore … Continue reading Sisyphean writing update
Posting poetry
I'm taking part in a month long Post-it Note Poetry exercise (#PINP19) on Instagram over February (organised by @Soullyrical). I'm taking part because too often I'm a bystander. Also, after all this time, I know inspiration works better with restraints, and a bunch of discipline, rather than the panic that infinite space induces. A Post-it … Continue reading Posting poetry
Review relief
Last year (2018) was personally and professionally challenging in a variety of un-fun ways. The things I expected to be doing I didn't get to do, while other things happened that I never imagined would. Then again, in terms of creative writing, I believe I produced some of my best flash fiction so far, however, … Continue reading Review relief
Refinding my words
One of my friends asked me towards the end of last year to find my words, if I could, and use them for solace, and sense and wonder. It turns out I couldn't and for that I'm sorry. Amongst other things, I am full of other people's words and stories and books and ideas. They … Continue reading Refinding my words
Challenge detected
Ages ago I signed up for a local library writing group run by Sian Prior (author of Shy). Since it was over subscribed I consistently missed each meeting, except the last one, which I did attend. It turns out this writing group delivered nothing I hadn't already heard, however some of the resources and handouts … Continue reading Challenge detected
What the hell am I doing here
A few months a discussion in a University of Iowa writing MOOC caught my attention. I didn’t contribute, because I was late to the exchange, and anyway, I felt a bit like an anthropologist, observing people around the world express their ideas about what they were learning. This particular discussion was about how cultures might … Continue reading What the hell am I doing here
