Climacteric NOUN 1 A critical period or event ‘the first major climacteric in 21st-Century poetry’ 2 Medicine The period in life when fertility and sexual are in decline (in women). ‘most women do not experience significant psychological problems at the climacteric’ 3 Botany The ripening period of certain fruits such as apples, involving increased metabolism […]
Writing: seeking satisfaction
Previously, I’d imagined Writer’s block was an empty loft. Nothing there but pigeon shit and echoes It’s not though. It is stuffed, rammed, jammed and bloody well bunged up. Like a colon after Christmas. Too much feasting on the fabulous Bingeing. Masticating and swallowing. Until All at once Immobile, There’s belly ache and belching. […]
Postcards from the hedge
Between the frothy sea edge and the jaunty awning of the cafe, there are people. Hot, flat people in tidy rows. Roasting and snoozing. Close enough to smell them but shut my eyes and I’m all alone. That’s when the idea struck me. Too lizardy idle to take a photo, could I just think about […]
100 days of blogging
Or yet another attempt to get into gear… I’ve been wrestling with my blog lately. Oddly, I’ve allowed all sorts of irrelevant nonsense (feeding children, vanquishing squalor) to get in the way. And this has made me sad. Not the fed children or the less horrid house, but that it doesn’t matter how hard you […]
Things I’ve learned from completing an MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow
That’s it. My life is my own again. I’m an ordinary person rather than a mature student. Last week I handed in the final portfolio of my course and, rather than elation and a heady end-of-terminess, I felt a bit flat, slightly sad and, even, a little empty. It would be very tempting to dive […]