I can’t recall when I first heard of Florence Foster Jenkins; I do know it was Beth Massie who started a fan club for her on Facebook at some point and Cortney Skinner who designed badges for the club (you can’t have a club without badges!) — a treasured possession of mine. The Wikipedia precís…
Category: creativity
Keeping Abreast of the Fabulous
All right, even I am having difficulty at times keeping up with all the news, so if I repeat something here, it just means you’re paying attention, well done, here’s a cookie! Soon I have to leave the glories of Alba for the um, gories? of Albany. Alas. Which means I have to figure out…
Re-Imagining the Olympics
The 2012 Olympics are over. If you weren’t in the UK you might not have been aware of just how transformative these two weeks were. That I’m even talking about it is evidence enough. Like many of my geek and writer friends I’ve often found myself in the position of fighting against the popular attention…
The Maltman
Happy birthday to my big brother, Steve! Wandering the Howff again, trolling for material I suppose as always. That’s what I do all the time. You know that by now, don’t you? That’s what writers do: absorb everything and turn it sideways and fit it into stories. You have to turn it slant, as Emily…
Writer Wednesday: Post Card Fiction Prizes
Making your mark in the world can be a tenuous thing; as long as the good will of others holds up or their indifference doesn’t take over, you stand the chances of being forgotten within your lifetime. You may find fame and fortune, but the odds are against it. So don’t be depressed by that!…
Tuesday’s Overlooked A/V: What is Creativity?
Sculpture by David Batchelor at the McManus Rabbit, rabbit! First of May and sumer is icumen in, lhude sing cucu! If you’re out protesting in the streets, I hope you’re enjoying a fine day. My film today is a bit of an odd choice, truly in the spirit of the “overlooked” like no other I’ve…
Love and Theft
“I’m not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound…” “Floater” by Bob Dylan I’ll have some lovely photos from the trip to Connemara up soon, but there’s something else I need to deal with first. This week has been a head shaking one in several ways that’s ended up leaving me with a couple…
Over at the League
I have a post up over at the Women’s League of Ale Drinkers today on Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. It’s a fascinating book on why people who can synthesize information across borders of various kinds, find the narrative hooks and figure out what people really want and…
Seeking Crafty Women
Hey, Vicky tells me we’re getting some great submissions for the inaugural issue of the Journal for the Women’s League of Ale Drinkers, but we haven’t got much in the way of crafty things. There’s still plenty of room for lovely photos of your crafty projects: knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, sculpture, food — the possibilities are…
BitchBuzz: Hate Cute
My latest column: Mainstream Media Realize RomComs Hate Women Suddenly everyone in the media seems to have noticed what women have been talking about for years: how rom-coms seem to really hate on women. The high profile story is Maureen Dowd’s back-and-froth with social historian Sam Wasson about “Why romantic comedies now reek.” It’s a…