Anything Worth Doing
Advice in the form of pithy little statements is—and has to be—of a general nature, not applicable across the board. I know that logically, but some sayings are so deeply ingrained they might as well be encoded in my DNA.…
Category Rant
Noise on busy streets
A while ago I was doing research on online movements and my friend Elaine (wonderful writer & person) described posting on social media as shouting things on a busy high street. There might be a sense that you’re talking to…
Falling into our verjaardagskalender
The ongoing isolation heightens emotions I'd know how to handle at other times. The whole thing feels like being a teenager again, with that sense that something is fighting to the surface of you and your body isn't big enough to hold it.
Grief for the past, hope for the future
Constant sadness isn't an option, but on the day the UK formally leaves the EU I think I can allow myself to feel it. I am what smug twitter commenters with the overall demeanour of Nelson from the Simpsons call a Remoaner. They tell us to face facts: we lost. The people voted. Men without compassion or integrity won—and now I have to see their glowing, victorious faces everywhere.
Out of Time
A character can leave their home, their loved ones... but they can also leave the time they know, whether they spend years in stasis or walk into a mushroom circle to be transported three-hundred years into the future. That's what I mean by "out of time": a character leaves behind the world they know, and suddenly they're somewhere temporally separated from all the things they care about.
Writing with and without depression
Today my husband told me he was tired of seeing the otter on my front page. Putting aside the fact that people should never be tired of seeing cute otters, he did have a point: this blog has been gathering…
The Hunger Games post
For a while now I’ve been promising the amazing Ingrid that I’d write “that post” about the Hunger Games. You know—the one that compares the books to the movies and finds the movies wanting. Until Mockingjay Pt 2 came out,…