Tuesday 31 March 2020

Life in the Time of Corona

All our thoughts, and lives, are currently full of Covid 19,  not to be confused with 19 large, intelligent, black birds, that's corvid 19 or a murder of crows.

I've not come to terms with the effects of the pandemic, I can't yet write about something so immediate and so close to home. Trouble is, I'm having difficulty concentrating on writing about anything else as well and there's an article I really need to get on with.

I have already begun writing about disasters. A short story about flooding in Yorkshire and the beginning of a story about the effects of climate change, also involving flooding.

I'll put the Yorkshire story here soon.

Friday 6 March 2020

New Header Photo

Street art is very transient, this vanished a couple of years ago...

Thursday 5 March 2020

Good writing week...

I mean, I've had a good writing week, a good fortnight actually!  Two short stories tackled and an article for publication.

Completed the first short story which had its first/second draft last month, inspired by combining two stories on the morning's news.  The news is so often depressing, but two stories rang some creative bells for me. Terrible films  of flooded homes were immediately followed by the appearance of Alison Cronin, founder of Monkey World primate rescue in Dorset, with her appeal for people to never buy marmosets as pets. Marmosets are tiny monkeys, sentient creatures which need specialist care and should never be kept in small cages in peoples living rooms. So my story evolved, about a woman who had marmosets in her living room, and had to save them when her home was flooded.

The second story is part way through but I'm a bit stumped for now. It came from a writers' group prompt - write a story 2-3,000 words, containing at least six of the following:-


Wizard of Oz,  John Lennon,  Death Valley,  an accountant,     27degreees C,     a Dalek.

Blackpool Tower,   the Sun newspaper,  Gollum and the song,  “I dreamed a dream.”

I continued with the theme of flooding, and have managed to get in eight of the required elements, while creating an apocalyptic scenario with galloping global warming, plus two good characters. What I now need is an actual plot line for the characters to follow.  It will come.... I hope!

The article is about the Local Marine Conservation Zone. It's a fascinating subject which I really enjoyed researching. Should soon be published online and maybe in the local press.