Experiences I did not expect (nor foresee): attending an abruptly-rescheduled wedding as one of two witnesses.

I have mentally planned out things to write. But life has been exceptionally busy and exhausting -- my thoughts have become outdated before I’ve sat down to write them. Circumstances have changed so quickly and dramatically: the news, the ( Read more... )

World’s on fire. Literally or metaphorically, or so it seems. Nothing’s burning yet in my corner of the world but the forecast is for one of the hottest days of the year ( Read more... )

I can’t say that I have been very successful at adhering to my writing goals so far this month, but I’m not going to be disappointed with myself over it. December gets crazy ( Read more... )

I’m not good at writing about things ending. I’ve kept diaries when I’ve travelled and not written about the final days. And now it’s December 2019 and I still haven’t written about my job which ended nearly a year ago ( Read more... )

I've never done NaNoWriMo before. So often November has been busy and stressful -- exams, assignments, job applications, reports, projects, etc -- making it a really terrible time to throw myself into writing a novel ( Read more... )

Earlier this year I was involved in a production of The Sound of MusicI had watched the film at least twice (and I definitely knew some of the songs years and years before I ever saw the film, either due to general cultural osmosis or because we had them on a cassette), but I had never seen a production of the musical before ( Read more... )

I’ve been thinking again about book reviews and star ratings after I saw a snippet of a Twitter discussion in which YA authors were expressing irritation with reviews that are along the lines of “I probably would have loved this as a teenager and given it 5 stars. But I think I may be too old for it, so...2 stars.”

( I don’t know where I’m going with this. It’s all subjective. Readers are allowed to have subjective reactions to the books they read and to rate books however the heck they feel like, and authors are allowed to be grumpy about it. )

Sometimes before bed or when I’m out walking, I make lists in my head. Songs with a month of the year in the title, songs with the word “rain” in the lyrics, books with a character called Rose, books with a specific trope… etc ( Read more... )

I felt like reading more fiction set during WWI and WWII, so I had a look on LibraryThing. And felt overwhelmed. So many titles I hadn’t ever heard of! So many possibilities! I had a look at the reviews and didn’t feel able to judge from others’ opinions, whether positive or negative, whether a particular book might appeal to me ( Read more... )

I’ve realised something that should perhaps have been obvious to me earlier: my readiness to rewatch a film (or TV series) depends a lot on how aesthetically pleasing I find it ( Read more... )