Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! (And my bot visitors!) Finished The Red Palace again today. How many times have I finished it since I last wrote that I’d finished it here? Not sure. It has been two full editorial passes and a rewritten ending, at least. I’ve done those recently. I want to …
Continue reading The Red Palace: What it is and who it’s for. Today’s version, anyway!
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I was chatting with a friend recently, about writing, and genre, and realized something. I write (mildly to moderately) literary fiction in fantasy clothing. Don’t get me wrong, I love fantasy, I live and breathe it, it is, as the kids used to say, my jam. But. When …
I finished The Red Palace (TRP) again today. How many times does a writer finish a book? A lot, in my experience. But I’ve only done this a few times. The attributionless experiment is over, who says what is now clear. More than that, revisions and rewrites have been included, small excisions, small elaborations. I …
Continue reading Finishing again, new tools acquired for next time.
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I’m back, in a time of war. Of course, on this green earth it is always a time of war. Always. And every New Year we listen to Imagine, and every New Year it seems an impossible dream. Some years more obviously than others. Another war. More children …
Continue reading Absentee action and the challenge of illogic.
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Stayed up too late last night. Lingering fatigue. Alice in Borderland season one. I normally do not go for mystery box constructed stories, but after watching 2046 recently and remembering my love of Asian cinema in my youth (Hong Kong 80s cinema, Chinese 5th wave and Kurosawa plus …
Continue reading The Triumph of Acceptance over Sabotage, and Updates on my Media Consumption
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Progress. Never as much as you want. Always motivated when I need to go to bed. It is January. I’m not dieting, just trying not to eat as much. I am doing the basic rehab exercises for my knee(s) every day. 30 years in nursing (I’m counting my …
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Here we are at the end of 2025! It has been a year, as they say. A writing retrospective. I published my third novel this year, which pleases me no end. Having three novels to my name does make me feel much more established as a writer. I …
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! My collage assembly plus extras has gained some momentum, so I am making good progress. There has in the process of doing this work been an ever-growing sense of unease. I’ve come to a conclusion or two about where it was coming from, and what to do about …
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I watched an interesting video on why folk do not read self-published fantasy. You can watch it here. I get the concerns of readers. I understand the option offered by published works, and the great undiscovered fantasies of the past, of around the world. There’s a lot there …
Continue reading An Unexpected Path to Literary Freedom. (Spoiler Alert – it’s Obscurity!)
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Writing is about belief. Belief in yourself, that you have something worthwhile to say, and the ability to express it well enough that other minds, hearts, people, could be touched by the words you have put to paper. Your thoughts, your emotions, become glyphs to be viewed and …
Continue reading Riffing on belief in writing, and a confused relationship with whales.
