Part of the secret of absorbing fiction is to make it vivid. After all, you’re more likely to remember that you’re just watching a TV programme if you see it on a black and white portable instead of a wide-screen colour TV. As writers, we don’t have colours and screens to work with, we only have words. And words or phrases the reader has seen a million times before get…
More on the Gastric Flu
I’m over the worst of the stomach upset, but I still have flat batteries and occasional shivers and dizziness. I’ll be giving yoga a miss tonight, although I’ll probably do a little on my own, at home. Specifically, I’ll be doing the pose called Shavasana or Savasana, which means “The Corpse”. Photo: wikipedia
Interruptions
I plan to write a lot more fiction, and to blog about the art of writing fiction, and what happens? Gastric flu. I did at least get some research done into the history of knickers for a short story. Queen Victoria wore open-crotch drawers, with a 50-inch (127 cm) waistline. She was only 5ft (1.52 m) tall. Normal service will be resumed shortly. Coming soon: How to make your fiction…
Mazo Farmer’s Market
Mazo has a farmer’s market. Most of the stalls sell fruit and veg, but there are a few selling things like organic bread, flowers, or hand-made biscuits. This week there’s a second-hand stall run by school kids, raising money for the end-of-school-year trip. My son’s favourite stall crushes sugar cane through a small mangle, and sells the juice. You can had a tumbler of cane juice, orange juice or mixed…
Barack the Builder
I keep saying I need to spend more time playing with Photoshop. Well, I just did. It’s not perfect, but it was fun and I learned a lot. As to the politics, I think he’s inherited a mind-boggling mess, but then he’s already done six impossible things before breakfast. For a start, if you’d asked me six months ago, I’d have said the USA was overdue for a black president,…
Last Night’s Big Loser
In my opinion, last night’s biggest loser wasn’t McCain or Sarah Palin. It was Osama bin Laden. His whole strategy is to persuade moderate Muslims that the USA is out to get them, and their only chance of safety is with al Qaeda. For the last eight years, that’s been easy. George Bush spent most of his time driving them straight into bin Laden’s arms. John McCain’s an OK guy,…