Category: Food for thought
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Ghost Hunting – Do you believe?
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“At first cock-crow the ghosts must go Back to their quiet graves below” Theodosia Garrison Ghost-hunting, aka paranormal investigation, is big business these days. There have been a variety of these engagements filmed for television – I’ll even admit to watching a handful myself. I’m not sure what it is that…
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The world is getting stranger
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Writers and other artists are not happy with the advent of AI. Not because we’re seriously worried about losing our jobs, but because we feel that nothing can or should replace the inspiration and heart of a human touch. So you can imagine the reaction when the organizers of the…
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August mindset reboot
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An abbreviated post, as I’m somewhat under the weather today. Feels like a bit of a bug, so I’m doing R&R. Precooked ham with an easy potato salad and green beans for dinner, and a nice cup of tea afterward. August has always been a time of the year to…
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Strange writer research
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“You’re researching what?” “Well,” I said to hubby, “I have this idea stuck in my head about the librarians on the archive planet of Jebeha being lizard-like.” He shrugged. He’s used to the weird things that come out of my brain. Why lizards? I don’t know — I just go…
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The salty path of veracity
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Tis the season for publishing debacles, apparently. Just a few weeks ago the story broke that a list of great books for summer reading, published by major newspapers, contained books that didn’t actually exist. The writer had used AI to do the research, and it had made things up. This…
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Thick fun in the summertime
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I read an article recently that piqued my interest. It seems there’s a very recent trend to dive into “big, thick books” this summer, and the writer dissected why that might be. And since I write big, thick books, I thought about my own attraction to that type of novel.…
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Sometimes humanity restores your faith in it
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This post is a day late because my main laptop has refused to boot up again – it’s going back to the shop tomorrow. I’m working on an older, slower laptop, but at least I have the backup. So this story is a short one: Yesterday I stupidly left a…
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Next stop: the Twilight Zone!
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You’re traveling through another dimension – a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s a signpost up ahead: your next stop: the Twilight Zone! Fiction writers love to play with the ‘what if’ scenario.…
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Libraries and Third Spaces
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During the first COVID lockdowns, when you couldn’t walk around a neighbourhood without people crossing the street to avoid you, I found myself gravitating to our local botanic garden. I drove by one day, just escaping the four walls of our home for a little while, and found the parking…
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Rosemary: cook, remember and ward off the Plague
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One of the things I love the most about December is its fragrances, of fresh evergreens in the house, bay or pine scented candles, good food on the stove and in the oven – and on the table. One of the things I love the least about winter as it…