Skeleton Architecture

In these days of social media, we're sending less letters to each other.  But not to worry.  We're keeping the Royal Mail alive delivering our online shopping. Thanks to Dave and Neil for this pic of teenage me Teenage me wrote a lot of letters.  I wrote poetry too.  It was all rather heartfelt I'm afraid. Desperately worried about talking to actual human beings, and hiding all my fear in a shroud of Goth, I put an advert in Raw magazine for penpals. I suspect some of the people who responded weren't looking for penpals. Anyhow, I ended up writing to lots of young men, most of whom were not in prison.  It was brilliant.   Most of them sent me compilation tapes (not that that ages me at all), and pictures of themselves.  There was one who sent a picture of himself in a tent, wearing a sleeping bag.  All long hair and cheeky monkey.  There was one who said he'd pop round when he got out of prison - my Mum wasn't keen.  The...

I've been having a clear out, getting rid of stuff we no longer need now the little girl is nearly four. One of the things that has gone is lots of board books.  You know, all the 'That's not my...' books, the cute animal books with fluffy bits and so on.  We're left with only five, and they've survived the cull because they're pure dead brilliant. I thought I'd tell you about them in case you were looking for a present for a baby or toddler that will be appreciated by the whole family. The books are in no particular order, and most of them can be bought in several formats.  You may well have come across them already, but if not do check them out. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle A fantastically simple and colourful book which is so old that I remember it from my own childhood.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar has different sizes of pages, which help children to understand about numbers, and it also teaches days of the week and healthy ...

I went on a writing day today.  It's nice to be able to devote the whole day to it, although I wish more writing had been involved, and less talking. My small notebook.  And some wine, because it's Friday. The woman leading it said that writing a letter is an act of creation (which I've heard in a few places recently), and that if we want to write other stuff, then we should buy some nice stationery and have a small notebook to carry around at all times and a big notebook for when we really want to concentrate on writing. Meh. I do have a small notebook.  I use it when I haven't got wifi, or when I'm with people who might think it's rude of me to start doing stuff on my 'phone in front of them.  Stuff that gets written in the notebook sometimes makes it out into other formats. Sometimes it doesn't. I don't have a big notebook.  I have a folder, with lots of random bits of paper shoved in it. If I'm doing proper writing (check me ...

I love me a book with a map at the front.   I love reading, and I especially love fantasy stories because you can get really into the telling of tales, without all the faffing around with fact-checking.  I read plenty of stories that are in the real world too (I'm reading the incredibly good story 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' by Kate Atkinson at the moment, and would highly recommend it), but it really annoys me when you get too much focus on where something is happening, and of course, all places have a lot of baggage both in the writer's, and our own imaginations.  I find Ian Rankin particularly maddening on this front.  Edinburgh is a bigger character in his books than is Rebus. Creating a made-up place enables the writer to create their own place-baggage, and also to create religion, social mores, societal structures and so on and so on and so on. All books need research, but the nature of fantasy books is different - the writer creates a world, and...

I've come across a few other blogs recently which have audio for the poems they share, which I absolutely love, because to me it gives a much better idea of the feel of the poem, so I thought I'd give it a go myself. I'm trying to do more spoken word stuff, sharing my poetry with an audience, which is daunting, but all good I'm hoping. I thought I'd start with this one, a previous version of which got me second place in a local poetry competition (I'm still hoping to get the trophy one day).  This did actually happen to me, although some names have been changed to protect the 'innocent', or possibly just to rhyme. This is very much BETA, so do let me know if it doesn't work! If it does work, and you fancy a go, this is from Vocaroo . If it doesn't work, you should get it here . Circles - A Poem about Google+                                   I've been Google+ing a while now, ...

A book group is a good excuse for a regular meetup with friends.  It can be all about the book if you like, but it can also be an opportunity for wine and nibbles, and a bit of a giggle.  Oh, and the book too. Some of the lovely ladies from my previous book group in rainy town.  With wine :-) Poor loves, I made them read Game of Thrones! Of course, book groups are not for everybody.  If you're looking for a regular meetup with friends, to share an interest, you could set up a crafting group (although wine and nibbles don't work so well at that).  I've also got friends who go to the cinema on a regular basis. Personally, I like a read, and I love to go to the cinema, so my idea would be a book/film club - maybe a book a month and a film night from time to time too. So how to start a book group? First of all ask your friends if there is already a book group that anyone's in.  Or head down to your local library and see if there is a book group alr...

I've just, last night, finished reading The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber.  I'm hoping this means I'll be able to sleep more as it was hard to put down in places! It was recommended to me by a beautiful and interesting woman I met in a park in Leeds. While our respective children played happily we chatted about the joys of photography and writing. I told her about a character in a story I'm writing who seems inclined to be a murderous whore, and she told me to read this book. I'm glad she did, because it's a good story, which leaves you wanting more and sympathising with all the flawed characters. The writing is also lovely, especially in the beginning of the book, which is nothing short of fantastic (although Patrick Rothfuss keeps the prize for best first line ever). Apparently this was adapted for TV. Did you see it? Have you read it?  If you have read it, could you please answer a question for me? Why did Sugar choose to enter the hous...