Hmm. It’s been a strange and disquieting week down in Devon.
As you know, I’ve spent years immersed in the arguments and theories around medical ethics. I’ve also been my mother’s nominated proxy for medical matters for five years, during which time I’ve steered her safely through a number of decisions relating to her health and [...]
Wow! I’m so impressed by the skill of some writers. Amazing imagination, incredible ability to hold strands of plots together and weave them into a coherent pattern, stunning empathy with characters experiencing life’s challenges, facility with words that takes me deep into the world they’ve created.
I’m particularly thinking today of Peter James whose Dead Tomorrow [...]
Well, what an amazing beginning to the year 2010!
Temperatures up here have sunk to minus thirteen – minus sixteen a bit further north. It’s snowed every day except one for three weeks now. We’ve slipped and slithered to a few events – the ones that weren’t cancelled – but the roads have been deadly. [...]
Have you noticed? My blog has a brand new name: VelvetEthics. I’m rather pleased with it, I must confess. Big thanks to my website designer for her skill and for patient tweaking.
So, it’s Christmas Eve. I’ve been immersed in the editing of Remember Remember this week – a brain-splitting session with my courageous editor on [...]
Are you crammed full with festive feelings? Singing as you drape the tinsel?
Or are you struggling to remember where you put the list of freezer-foods you absolutely must buy before Aunt Maud descends in five-and-a-quarter hours time? Or going crazy with wee Tommy’s repeated demands to know how many times he’s got to clean his [...]
Thursday: blog-day. I try to listen to Question Time on Thursdays too so if I haven’t posted my blog by then, the sight of David Dimbleby prompts me.
But this week I’ll be far away visiting my disabled mother, so I’m leaving a message for DJ to post on my behalf. If you’re reading this, [...]
‘The worst floods in a thousand years …’ ‘… biblical proportions …’ My heart goes out to those poor souls in areas devastated by the torrential rains of the last week. Lives lost, livelihoods in tatters, cherished possessions washed away, homes not only uninhabitable but uninsurable, unsellable … misery writ large. Puts the inconvenience of [...]
How’s your mental stability this week? Mine’s been seriously under scrutiny, I can tell you.
It’s all this reading. And not just any old reading; almost all of it novels that feature Alzheimer’s – otherwise known as ‘the competition’. Day after day, night after night. Mammoth stints, made possible by lots of knitting. I don’t [...]
The subject of suicide (assisted or otherwise) just won’t – pardon the pun – lie down and die. Even in a week where I’ve discovered internet sites devoted to book reviews, (eg. www.dovegreyreader.co.uk and www.meandmybigmouth.typepad.com) had a phonecall out of the blue from Angela Rippon’s agent, and had a big breakthrough for the next book, [...]
Wahey!! Good news to report this week. The cover for my next book, Remember Remember, has been designed. And I love it.
Just in passing I should say that I’m extremely fortunate in having a publisher who believes in the author having a say in production. They don’t all.
It’s a jaded aphorism: ‘Never judge a [...]