Words Unlimited

Holiday Time

Away for the rest of August, I'll be back at the end of the month with Book of the Month. I wonder which I'll choose from the pile I'm taking away? It's a mixture of fiction, poetry and nature writing.

If you're new to Words Unlimited there are plenty of Author Interviews to browse through -  novelists, poets, YA writers. Among them: Andrea Levy, Evie Wyld, Ross Raisin, Amy Sackville, Suzanne Joinson, Louise Doughty, Simon Mawer, Amanda Dalton, Anne-Marie Ffye, Michelle Lovric. Put a name into the search facility or click on the tab above and keep scrolling.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with sights and sounds of the British seaside. Happy Holidays!

 

Unlock The Flow

Sea Gazing

As often as I can I get away to the Suffolk coast to walk, swim and write. Nothing starts the writing day better than staring into the sea. I took this on my phone a couple of weeks ago. Of course, it's no substitute for the real thing, but when stuck in busy London playing this is a good way to clear the mind before plunging back into my characters's lives.

  

Bug's Life

Red Blue Yellow

A Building On My Brain

Writing and Water

In between attending the talks on the Taking The Waters weekend, I took time out to experience the real thing. Increasingly, I'm using my phone camera as a visual notebook. That weekend I wanted to record different states of water -  textures, the way the changing light plays on the surface.

Though I’ve written a novel about the way water can shape a life, and several watery poems, for me, water means more than subject matter. Proximity to it has become part of my writing process. I try to take regular breaks by the sea or walks by a river. Perhaps something to do with having been born by the sea ...

I won't write directly about these images but, like jottings in my notebook, they'll tune me into something that stirred as my attention was held by the water.

Being by water steadies the gaze, invites a different quality of attention, a stilling of the busy, city, mind. Something about being by water stirs the soup of the unconscious. So much more seems to float up after a period of staring out.