Memento Vitae is a creative writing project I have been working on in one form or another since early 2019. It became a part of my website in June 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Memento Vitae project is an exploration through pictures, poems and prose of how we attach memories to
It Feels “Write”.
This piece about living with chronic pain was first published on The Mighty in 2018, but it seems to have disappeared. As it’s still very relevant, but not something I often tend to discuss at length, it feels right to republish it here, with some minor updates/edits. As always, when writing a personal piece, I
Good Things Come to Those Who Keep Going
The last time I made a blog post was at the start of May, and I will be the first to admit it wasn’t an entirely “good” post. I was feeling glum and overworked and struggling to find ways to prioritise my time. I had even decided I was going to take a step back
Winding Down for Winter
Well now, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought and I keep hopping over the fence and changing my decision, but the time has come to make a choice. Put simply: Writing isn’t making me happy any more. Or rather, to be more accurate, trying to make writing fiction a career choice isn’t making
Resting Book Face Reviews – MATRYOSHKA by Penny Jones
The most wonderful thing about Penny Jones' writing is it is impossible to pigeonhole her into any specific genre box. While her stories do often have recurring themes, she approaches each one with a fresh angle of attack every time. She is never predictable nor does she rely on tropes, her characters are as likeable as they are often horrible, and her prose has a delicious, dark beauty to it where dreadful events are described in layers of lyrical narration.
Life After Lockdown — A Year On
I turned forty-one last year in the middle of lockdown, alert level 4, and it was one of the best birthdays I’d ever had...
Notebooks
Writing in a new notebook feels like a strange parallel to your life. The first page, of course, will always be the best; the cleanest and neatest, the one with the most promise.
Evolution of an Idea — Craft & Design
Sometimes I get ideas for things from totally random places, other times they come from things I have seen or read or heard. I want to share with you the process of one of my recent ideas – just to show how long it can take from my having the original idea for a piece, until it becomes real.
So You Think You Want To Be A Writer?
A dear friend of mine who has been writing since the 1980s once told me that there are no rules when it comes to writing. "A writer only writes for themselves and does their best to create the books they want to read."
Short Story – Long Drop
Short story – Long Drop. Offered for consideration for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2021, category of Short Story.