Category: Story
-
When snow is light, fluffy, pretty . . .
The snowfall was off and on last night, and the flakes began to fall again late this morning. It’ll put folks off the resumed LING Lunch, perhaps, but for those of us who know a bit more about the trials and tribulations of snow, this soft and gentle fall could only be pretty and pleasing.…
-
History as grist for story . . .
Long ago, when we were young(er!), we visited Sicily several times, falling in love with the island. On one of our holiday adventures, we persevered and actually found the mausoleum, high up on Mt Venere above Caselmola, where the doughty Florence Trevelyan reached her last resting place. Not many tourists, we figured, actually make that…
-
The joy of 50 words . . .
I’ve got so much work to do today, all on my keyboard. I’m behind in most of my writing tasks. But I was given a fillip of joy yesterday evening, and early this morning I think I’ve managed to finesse my 500 word short story with the grace of an additional 50. The task was…
-
Delight of a new story
It’s been a while, it feels like, since I tried to create a story out of nothing but my imagination. And yesterday was no exception, because in fact the reality of the lived experience was still so vivid that I could re-create it from real life, and cast it into story mode. So I did.…
-
The joy of research
I’ve been embarked on a short story in historical fiction mode that’s taken me back to Viking times. Every Canadian knows, or should know, about the early voyages of Leif the Lucky and Eric the Red, as they explored the coast of the new country they called Vinland. An excavation at l’Anse aux Meadows, on…
-
The big picture . . .
Funerals are one particular point at which we stop, look back, and consider a life. The obituary is a condensed recitation of the deceased’s odyssey, and in my experience these small and intimate biographies, declaimed from the lectern above the casket, can convey surprising breadth and understanding of where the beloved has come from, how…
-
I was with Gudrid and Agnar yesterday . . .
It was Read a Book Day on the 6th September, recognised internationally as a day in which we should all curl up with a good book. I was delighted to have timed my completion of The Sea Road for this significant date in the calendar. I’m reading through Margaret Elphinstone’s bookshelf in a chronological order…
-
Rewards of a hillside amble
I was beginning to think that it was nearly impossible to capture, succinctly, something of the intense purplish-blue of the bluebell woods in full bloom. But then the sun, dappling out between huge puffy white clouds, created a sensational spotlight, leaving the bank of bluebells before us in immediate shade. So it was worth the…
-
Can pretend joys become real ones?
When lonely Geppetto carved out a wooden boy to keep him company, he didn’t realise that the magic of creation might reveal a hidden side. But perhaps his effort was an early manifestation of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, the work of imagining a better way, rather than letting the negative ruminations overwhelm. I do not like…
-
A task completed . . .
In this blog I celebrated, nearly a month ago now, the completion of the first draft of my manuscript, Daughters of Eden, which had turned out to be the bona fide finale of the science/climate fiction series I’ve been working on for the past three years. Today I’m celebrating the completion of the packaging side.…
Roads to Joy 