Sometimes I lock into the research side of things and lose sight of writing. Even the most seemingly trivial of facts warrants a quick check, then I’m following a trail, like breadcrumbs in reverse, seeking the origin. Are authors chronic researchers who like to write on the side? Does it give purpose to amount of […]
“Don’t bunch them together… spread them out… different colours, mix them up a bit. Don’t hang the big ones at the top…..” My instructions to a six year old on how to dress a Christmas tree seemed to fall on deaf ears. Whenever she turned away from the tree, I took the opportunity to re-jig […]
I played in a concert last night. No, concert isn’t the right word. Far too grand. A small performance to an even smaller audience. Did it matter? Not really. I enjoyed the coming together with my fellow musicians and hearing all our hard work successfully performed. Audience size doesn’t matter, one person, a thousand, the […]
I like to bake. It is the only form of cookery I enjoy and happen upon spontaneously. I’m not talking British Bake Off standards here, just a woman who likes to mix ingredients and watch the concoction rise in the tin or dish. Cakes are a feature of our household and having young kids, these […]
It is Armistice Day. Poppy day. The amazing installation at the Tower of London has caught the imagination of the country. 888,246 ceramic red poppies ‘planted’ in the moat of the fortress, each representing a British fatality. That’s a huge number of men (and women too) whose lives ceased to existed in the battlefields. […]
I’m not a photographer. I own a basic camera with a simple zoom and little else. I snap, rather than take photographs. A point and click kind of person. In the early 1990s I started a subscription to the National Geographic. I love the wildlife photos – the exotic scenes of distant lands. I cut […]
Now and again, those name your favourite whatever posts crops up on Facebook. I ignore them, or brush aside a request to list such things as my favourite colour, TV show, food, film, book, etc. What is a favourite? By definition, it is something preferred to all others of the same kind. Kind of what? […]
I’ve been stuck on the Dunstanburgh chapter of my book for some time. I love the castle, the bleakness, the scale of the ruins, the view out to sea, the harsh chill of the wind, the sense of a haunting presence. The closer something is to your heart, the harder it becomes to write it […]
I had a tinkle on the keys. Not these ones, but the piano kind. I would love to play more often, but with my husband working at home, the time is limited and I prefer to play in an empty house. I play. I don’t practise, no repeating of tricky passages until I get it […]
I woke this morning to a dark room. The first of the autumn. It heralds the change in seasons when the working day begins before daylight dawns. With it came rain, heavy, gutter overflowing downpour. What a wonderful September we’ve just had and don’t I just know it now, staring out into the gloom. The […]
The Quiet Writer 