Since my original post (appended below) I have now completed 30 stages (from a revised 60) of my journey since ‘leaving’ Land’s End, cycling some 747km. Progress was a little slower in December than previously, but I hope to ramp it up again during Q1’22. In a virtual sense, therefore, I am now just about… Read More Sound body, sound mind – another update
I am delighted to announce that I have a new book out today. Neither fiction nor poetry, “Shrapnel from a Writing Life” isn’t easily categorised. Here’s an excerpt from the blurb: “Shrapnel from a Writing Life” is not a conventional book. It is neither fiction nor poetry, though it contains elements of both; nor is… Read More Published today: “Shrapnel from a Writing Life”
Jan and the team at Writers’ Retreats UK have their next three-day event scheduled for the 11th February 2022 in the northern Lake District, not far from the Scottish border, and I am delighted to have been invited as a guest in order to run some workshops and offer a little ad-hoc mentoring as and… Read More Writers’ Retreat – The Lake District, February
I am delighted to announce that I have a new book coming out in January. Neither fiction nor poetry, “Shrapnel from a Writing Life” isn’t easily categorised. Here’s an excerpt from the blurb: “Shrapnel from a Writing Life” is not a conventional book. It is neither fiction nor poetry, though it contains elements of both;… Read More New book out in January!
Drawing Breath at the National Trust Her voice carries. No full stops she is all conjunctions: ‘but’ and ‘so’ and ‘yet’ and ‘and’. Sixty-five years of catching up to do chasing herself through unpunctuated sentences. And then the crows come to pick at crumbs from the cheese scone taken an age to eat, minor mouthfuls… Read More Drawing Breath at the National Trust
I suspect just about everyone who attends a Writers’ retreat uncovers a nugget of some kind. Often these priceless finds will be unearthed through informal interaction with other attendees, conversations over dinner, sharing writing experiences – or even experiences of life. At my first retreat four years ago (at Garsdale Retreat in North Yorkshire), my… Read More Writing Retreats: panning for gold…
The first time I enrolled on a writing retreat I ended up getting the inspiration for – and writing the initial short story of – my collection “Degrees of Separation“. Next week I am enthusiastically anticipating my second retreat and hope for a similarly productive outcome! Once more I go into the week with questions… Read More Writing Retreat – mk. 2
Since my original post (appended below) I have now completed 12 stages of my journey since ‘leaving’ Land’s End, cycling some 330km. In a virtual sense, I have now reached Cheddar. Nearly out of the West Country! I have decided to cycle the length of the UK – Land’s End to John o’Groats – on… Read More Sound body, sound mind – an update
I have always enjoyed reading my work aloud ever since my first experience of doing so when I was in my early twenties. Historically, being able to read to an audience usually requires an ‘event’ of some kind – such as a book festival – and then an invitation to do so. One of things… Read More Always happy to read
Yesterday evening I attended the marque event of Ripon’s fourth Poetry Festival, a reading by the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage. Being slightly ambivalent to Armitage’s work, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Without any introduction, Armitage started by reading “Thank you for waiting” – and immediately had the audience in fits of laughter. The… Read More Watching Simon Armitage read…
Although it was not that long ago I reflected on the challenge of having ‘too much free time’ to work on literary projects (see my ‘dreams‘ post), it has been a while since I offered any kind of update on what I’m actually writing. It’s odd how your perspective can change week-to-week; how one day… Read More A quick look in the rear-view mirror…
Simon’s Armitage’s collection “Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic” is something of a smorgasbord in terms of theme, style, even seriousness. It could easily offer ‘something for everybody’, as the saying goes. What struck me most of all was a sense that I wasn’t reading poetry as much as reviewing ‘product’. Everything in this collection was commissioned,… Read More “Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic”
I’m currently reading Simon Armitage’s Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic and I came across this: each new poem never anything less than a written plea for the next. from “Émigré” This is, of course, spot on. For those of us blessed – or plagued (you choose!) – with the compulsion to write, there is always this… Read More A written plea for the next…
If you’re a parent and a driver, the chances are the title of this post will resonate. Remember those long journeys – and probably not-so-long ones – when the chant from the kids in the back at some stage invariably migrated to “Are we there yet?”… Journeys of this nature – from A to B,… Read More Are we there yet?
I have decided to cycle the length of the UK – Land’s End to John o’Groats – on my exercise bike. Over 1,500 km split across 57 ‘stages’. Okay, so there are no uphills – but there are no downhills either! It seemed like a good idea: keep fit, have a challenge to aim for,… Read More Sound body, sound mind..?
It seems lots of people are deserting WordPress for Substack, lured by the notion of creating ‘newsletters’ that people will pay to receive. That and knowing they’ll be rubbing virtual shoulders with famous names and literary goliaths – and the fact that Substack is currently ‘free’. So is it a good move? It’s tempting, of… Read More Substack: Nirvana or the Emperor’s New Clothes?
The Binding of the Sea would the tide never stop coming in inching ever higher as the months passed there were only two roads out each burdened with over-familiarity all novelty quagmire-sunk as if the peninsula had capitulated and the sea invaded the land going further afield they sought pubs in out-of-the-way locations explorers for… Read More The Binding of the Sea
There is an immediacy about childhood. We are impatient, fickle; we want today’s new thing, an ice cream, to go to the park. And we always want them now. For young children, tomorrow simply doesn’t exist. Then things change. School does that to us. It introduces us to “school days”, “weekends”, “holidays”; eventually it becomes… Read More Short-term, long-term, short-term; the Shifting Horizons of our lives
If you’re like me, there will be music you listen to which reflects your mood – particularly at the extremes. Right now The Cure’s “Galore” is blasting out of my stereo, one of my ‘go to’ albums when I’m in a really good mood. Today the weather’s great, I went for a run first thing,… Read More Music: the barometer of your Happy Place?
I was getting tired of being spammed by people using my website’s Contact page to do so. Something had to be done. So I added a checkbox that needed to be ticked in order for the contact form to be successfully sent. I thought this might filter out any automated messaging – and maybe help… Read More Think you’re secure with a WordPress ‘Contact’ page?
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