A message to Lisa
Sometimes the comments I get humble me. Dear Lee,I am only on chapter 20 but i love this book so far. I never want to put it down. I can’t...
Writing advice to a younger self
Eminently sensible advice from a favourite blogger, Matthew Cheney. I particularly suggest you follow the link to Sue Erikson Bloland’s ‘Fame: The Power and Cost of a Fantasy’.
Quince quest
I’ve decided that the only sane reason to blog is a greater glut of pumpkins, apples, and medlars than words. In my search for something besides jelly to make from...
My Booker
So here I go boasting again, but this time it’s with all sorts of good intentions. Teens don’t read? And don’t read long fiction online? Here’s a comment I received...
Cybernation
Most of you will have noticed that I’ve lost interest in blogging for the moment, partly because there are just too many words out there, and partly just because. The...
‘All the new beginnings…’
Yesterday a writer with whom I’ve corresponded occasionally ended his email by wishing me best of luck for my writing. Perhaps this is just a polite American formula – it’s...
Autumn days
My internet connection has been down a lot, so I’ve been gardening – so much more satisfying, in many ways, than browsing. Look at the company I’d have missed. And...
In front of the library
Yesterday I watched a woman of indeterminate age rebuke passersby in front of the main library. Her skin the colour of cheap whiskey, she screeched only one word – ‘joke’....
Marilynne Robinson interviewed in The Paris Review
Marilynne Robinson is one of few writers I’d love (well, more accurately, consent) to take a class with: I try to make writers actually see what they have written, where...
In the beginning
is this paragraph from Greg Egan’s Schild’s Ladder: In the beginning was a graph, more like diamond than graphite. Every node in this graph was tetravalent: connected by four edges...
A strategy for survival
One of the things I most regret – and we tend to regret most deeply the things we haven’t done – is not talking as an adult to my schizophrenic...
Struggling with honesty
One of the things I’d like to come to terms with if I continue blogging is lack of honesty. There’s a lot I don’t say, or say openly, because it’s...