Hello! Oh my Goddess! I was going to knock up a quick, bullet blog to get you up to speed. But. It all got too messy. Too much to say. Too much to consolidate. So. I’m devoting this post to the Scribbles Masterclass because, hey, this is what we do at girl and duck. We…
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Sometimes, weird shit happens when you write books and stories. Actually. Scrub that. Replace sometimes with all the time. When we write stories we tap into our subconscious. But, I believe we also tap into the collective unconscious. In my opinion, the collective unconscious informs and fuels the imagination. I see the imagination as a…
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I texted my friend, today. Why do I get so much pleasure out of cooking corned beef? No reply required. My apologies if you’re vegan or vego. But. Corned beef! I use Stephanie Alexander’s recipe. I love poking the cloves down into the onions. Chopping the carrots, real rough. And the celery. Tossing in the…
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You might recall, dear reader, that I am having a Depth Year. A Depth Year can be many things. For me, 2019 is a Low Buy Depth Year. The aim is to bring as few new and shiny things into my life and to go deep with and appreciate all that I already have. In…
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I was talking to my spiritual counsellor the other night. She’s in the UK. We meet via Skype. We talk fast. There’s always a lot to say. I’m in transition. Have been for a few years. Slowly but surely, I’m moving from one stage of life, love and passions, into a new stage of life,…
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Lately, a stream of brilliant questions have come my way for this year’s season of Q and Q Friday. Thank you!! Among them, one about poetry has stuck with me. In fact, I think it came in late last year. I’ve been mulling it over ever since. A beautiful, thoughtful and unexpected question. What does poetry…
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My Depth Year is about noticing the everyday and acknowledging what goes on. This afternoon in the space of ten minutes, I saved a lizard from drowning in my watering can, buried a dead bird in the fairy garden and planted a row of black hollyhocks at the foot of a fallen mulberry tree. So…
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Here’s Part Three of the trilogy, my love! Talk about a saga. Let’s start with This Writing Life. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly! The Good Truly Tan: Baffled! (that’s book seven) came out in October (in paperback and in audio). The series continues to delight old fans and gather new recruits. This year…
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My Spiritual Journey. A bit convoluted for a blog post. So. Before I go too far back, say, right back to when I was eight and used to sit in church admiring a photo of Jesus on the wall at the end of the pew (yes, I thought it was a photo—an assumption that rested…
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Remember that song by The Waterboys? The Whole of the Moon. ‘You know how it feels to get too high, too far, too soon… Whatevs I’m dickin’ around. Here are three backstory problems as I see them: 1 Too much backstory Are you trying to tell your reader too much, too soon? Are your opening scenes…
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