In the days following The End, a lot of people learned the value of what they’d lost. Law, order, social niceties, even electricity – all gone. Those disenfranchised by the old system turned feral, and formed the Riot Boys. The police, overrun and overworked, just gave up. It got worse. Even death offered no eternal […]
What writers can take from Django Unchained
I finally got to see Django Unchained at the weekend, a film I’d been looking forward to for a long time since a) I love Westerns, b) I like Tarantino and c) I love Leo DiCaprio. My review is over on my film blog, but I had a few thoughts about what writers could take […]
National Novel Reading Month
John Wiswell has reminded me that National Novel Reading Month begins on February 1st. It’s quite simple – you choose a classic you’ve never read, read it in February, and then talk about it. As I’m looking at the Gothic as part of my PhD thesis, I think it only right that I choose a […]
#FridayFlash – The Dreamcatcher
Theophilius Hopgood sat at his desk, the quill in his hand poised above a parchment strip. He peered through his glasses at the small glass bottle on the shelf of the desk. Tiny blue particles drifted to and fro, disturbing the pale green mist inside the vial. Hopgood dipped the quill into the ink and […]
#FridayFlash – Polaroids
Angela hated having her photo taken. Will dated her for sixteen months, and didn’t capture a single image. He’d tried taken them when she slept, and even then she’d turn at the last moment, leaving only a blurred shadow on the camera. Even her online profile photo was a caricature she’d drawn herself on rainy […]
Improving productivity
I’m quite a fan of the Brain Pickings blog, and last week they featured this animated video about the science of productivity, from AsapSCIENCE. The main points raised by the video are; Willpower can be depleted, so simply convincing yourself to ‘try harder’ won’t work; Starting a project is the biggest barrier to actually […]
