The Hodgepodge, a writer’s journal
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Week One – May Gibbs, Creative Time Fellowship
It’s the beginning of the second week of my Creative Time May Gibbs Fellowship in Brisbane and I feel as though I’m living in three time zones – the present, in which I’m a little homesick, my own past and the World War II years, the time in which the book is set. So far ...
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News and a mini-review, Cold Pastoral by Rebecca Dunham.
First, the news – I’m delighted to have been placed fourth in the Kent and Sussex Poetry Society Open Poetry Competition. I picked up the flyer in the library in Glasgow and brought it all the way home, where I stuck it on my blackboard. First competition entered this year and I’m totally chuffed! My ...
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Books read
I thought I’d just better list the books I’ve read this year. It’s a good time to do it because in a week or so I’ll be preparing for a new class, ‘The Curate, the Valet and the Queen Bee’ – on Barbara Pym, P. G. Wodehouse and E. F Benson. So: Philip Pullman, La ...
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Riddle me this…
Recently at a writer’s lunch, someone asked everyone at the table if they felt they were – and I can’t remember the absolutely correct word that was used – but whether or not they felt they were somehow destined to be writers. One of the people present turned to me and said, ‘You told me ...
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Art, Anxiety and a Long Walk – a review of sorts.
this is where they all sing the first daylight whether or not there is anyone listening from, ‘The Laughing Thrush’ – W. S. Merwin, The Shadow of Sirius. For Christmas last year, a colleague gave me a copy of Kyo Maclear’s beautiful collection of – notes? observations? meditations? Birds Art Life Death; A field guide ...
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Discipline
I don’t even like the word. It reminds me of boarding school, or unspeakable things done in grubby rooms, or, alternatively, yogi masters dressed in pristine white seated in uncomfortable positions. It is not appealing. However, the word has been on my mind. Discipline – call it structure or practice, if those words convey a ...
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Mini-review – The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo, 2014
When I was at the very start of my writing apprenticeship, I bought heaps and heaps of books about writing. I’d use them as writing workshops and work through the exercises diligently. I still sometimes do this – it’s a great help when I’m stuck with a piece of current writing or want to change ...
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Making a Creative Life
Recently a photo of a semi-frozen Scottish loch popped up on my Insta post with a small caption about living more simply and pulling back from commitments. The photograph noted that she and her partner had had a difficult couple of years, so in 2018, they were both trying to take Fridays off. Fridays were ...
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My Reader’s Journal continued
A couple of people have asked me how I’m recording what I read this year – do I just make some notes or is it more structured? What I’ve decided to do is a reader’s report on each book. I’m using the same format as reader’s reports I’ve received as a writer and the format ...
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A Writer’s Masterclass
I used to be a fast, gulp-it-down, voracious reader. I’d read one book and at the book’s end, be already reaching for the next like a chain smoker. When I worked in our second-hand bookshop in my teens and early twenties, I’d practically snarl at customers who dared interrupt my engrossed reading. Much later, I ...