Finished off the first review of the novel. Conclusions: Next steps: Onward!

[Read more →]

For whatever reason, the first 3 months of 2023 have been the months of reading non-fiction, though a couple of memorable novels did end up on my ereader. NON-FICTION Below the Edge of Darkness, Edith Widder. Another fascinating book about life in the ocean, this one focusing on creatures that inhabit the zone between light […]

[Read more →]

I’ve now ignored the shitty first draft for about 2 months so it’s time to start the less shitty (let’s hope) second draft. I’m starting with some suggestions from Matt Bell’s book REFUSE TO BE DONE for my revision process – but I’m quite sure I’m going to draw the line at writing the book […]

[Read more →]

While the Witch Novel is marinating (i.e. I printed off all 299 pages but have not looked at them AT ALL), I’ve turned my attention to my other project, The Glass World Thing. This is the project that started as a fluffy modern romance, switched gears to become a historical fiction supernatural thing (possibly not […]

[Read more →]

A year or two ago I read the book BEING YOU: The New Science of Consciousness by Anil Seth, who has the daunting title of professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. It’s a fascinating book that I’d highly recommend, though I certainly can’t claim I understood all of it. Dr. […]

[Read more →]

https://www.arteflamenco.com/flamenco-fragments And here’s the link to the next video. I do indeed get to flip my skirt around a lot during my portion of the dance. We’re already planning our next one, which will likely be a few verses of the sevillanas folk dance – unless we get distracted by some shiny new piece. That […]

[Read more →]

After the latest flamenco video session, we did our usual selfies and photos routine. Jonathan said “flip your skirt” – so I did.

[Read more →]

Last Monday, sitting in Balzac’s Coffee Shop on Market Street across from Gemma Files, I finished the shitty first draft of the the Witch Novel. Cue the celebratory noisemakers and confetti. (Sadly, there was no champagne for me as I’m doing dry January.) I know shitty first drafts are the thing but I struggle with […]

[Read more →]

Just before Christmas, I worked on a second video with two other students from the Arte Flamenco school. They both look fabulous and me, well, I did ok. It’s nerve-wracking in a different way than live performance is, especially if you’re going after two other performers. We’re aiming to get a third one done by […]

[Read more →]

This year’s total, give or take, was 126 (not counting some rereads and some physical books for which I can’t use the library’s lending history as a substitute for my lousy memory). Of these, 60% were fiction and 40% non-fiction. My favourites for the year as listed below. FICTION Strong-minded Old (and oldish) Women, mostly […]

[Read more →]