Today, the shortest day of the year, is National Short Story Day. Here are a few links for story fans: • The official National Short Story Day website includes a wonderful long list of classic and modern short story recommendations from authors, including their reasons for choosing them, as well as story readings and events news. This year … [Read more...]
Archives for 2013
A sketchnote: the evolution of an idea
I've always used doodles, drawings and diagrams as part of my note-taking process, but after discovering sketchnotes / visual note-taking through Sacha Chua's blog, I've started illustrating my notes much more deliberately, and legibly, with the intention of making them something I can share. Here's a sketchnote from this week, which I've tidied … [Read more...]
The question that ‘What Does The Fox Say?’ really asks
Have you seen What Does The Fox Say? yet? If not, here it is - you'll need to have experienced it before we begin to deconstruct it. After watching it a few times over the last week with my kids, it's become obvious that within the inane chatterings and costume-play, the singer Ylvis - our protagonist - is actually asking an important … [Read more...]
My Nan’s pumpkin pie recipe
My kids really got excited about carving pumpkins this year (you'll see from the photo that they went for a Minecraft theme). So I bought three, one of which was a real whopper. It meant we had a lot of pumpkin flesh to eat. Nearly 5 lbs of the stuff in fact. While looking for pumpkin pie recipes, I discovered that my mum still had my nan's … [Read more...]
Writing tools I can’t live without #3: Scrivener
I'm always looking for new tools that make the writing process simpler, more effective or more fun, and Scrivener does all of these things. After reading a recommendation a couple of years ago, I saw that you can get a free 30-day trial of Scrivener and gave it a go. Now I write just about all of my fiction on it. Scrivener is an incredibly … [Read more...]
A cemetery reading and a weekend workshop with WordFactory
Next month I'll be doing two gigs for the awesome WordFactory: On Friday 8 November at 7pm, I will be reading at Hauntings: Ghost Stories at Earlsfield Cemetery, alongside Stella Duffy, Tania Hershman and Alex Preston. Can't wait. It's going to be spooktacular. Tickets are £10 if booked before 31st October, £12 in advance, and £15 on the … [Read more...]
The opposite of Glee
Naomi and I sat through the Finn Hudson memorial episode of Glee last night in pieces. Boy it was agony to watch. Did you see it? It was a uniquely weird reality-fiction crossover, and I can't think of another example quite like it right now (it's 2:30am - I'm going through another spell of insomnia, so my brain is not up to full operating … [Read more...]
Daleks at the BBC National Short Story Awards
Until last week, I'd never been to BBC Broadcasting House, but it was somewhere I'd always wanted to go. So I was excited when the invite to the BBC National Short Story Award prizegiving dropped through my letterbox and I saw that the event had moved from its traditional home at the Freeword Centre to the BBC Radio Theatre. And the Beeb didn't … [Read more...]