The Creative Identity

Try This

The aim of art is to give life form. –Proverb– Remember that Aspiring Author's Journal I already mentioned? I found a prompt in it that is just too good not to share, especially for those of us who love to combine writing with drawing. I am finally, finally getting to the stage of compiling the journal I've always wanted to leaf through and I may well use today's suggestion to kick off in style. Take out your pencils and colours and use them to bring to life any of the words below: Love Friendship Sorrow Violence Read more →

Frothy Tales

Yesterday I waded through pages and pages of editing. So determined was I to get it all done (which I did not), that I unshackled myself from my house, and drove to Knutsford, where I sat in the local Costa Coffee (now that Starbee has closed, I should say) until early afternoon. As I was there it occurred to me that I had forgotten something, but what could it be? The toothpaste uncapped? The GHD on? None of these things dear reader, I had forgotten to post at my digs. I suspect that, deep down, I am just like everyone else; I may like January, but I don't find it that easy to return to a schedule until I hit February (it's quite symptomatic that I started this site almost a year ago in... February). Too frazzled to consider further writing at 10 pm, when I stopped the editing, I still unearthed a tiny little book that my sitting at Costa had inspired me to seek out. We hear it all the time, don't we? Short story collections don't sell, that's why there are so few around. Well, when I recorded a podcast with Nik for the eCourse, we talked about this very issue: collections do sell when they are published. If readers aren't given the opportunity to buy them, then of course they don't sell. One of my favourite is Frothy Tales by Davey Spens. It would be, wouldn't it? They say that we spend one third of our... Read more →

Women, Work and The Art of Savoir Faire

I would like to start my year here by talking about a book that has absolutely nothing to do with the creative process, but I have decided to do so in order to indulge myself a little. Do you know Mireille Guiliano? You probably do if you’ve been anywhere near a bookshop since 2005. She is the author of the best-selling French Women Don’t Get Fat which was quickly followed by French Women for All Seasons and then by The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook. By the time I got the cookbook early last year I concluded that Mireille was very much like Bret Easten Ellis and Richard Dawkins: she too had made her fortune by re-writing the same book three times over. For all of their immense truths about image and eating, the message at the core of the French Women books is simply to cut your portion sizes and eat everything you want (also known as, everything in moderation, including moderation). Having a strong cultural connection with France has helped me immensely not to balloon out of all decent proportions, but I must tell you that, when I read that Mireille considers a breakfast of three almonds and two bites of cheese as adequate and that she would never eat one of those terrible New York cupcakes with a pound of icing on top, even I, as a fan of hers, ended up rolling my eyes. I have eaten a couple of those cupcakes she refers to... Read more →