Sunday 10 April 2011

A Promise of Summer

Hopefully the week-end weather is a sign of things to come.  At least hold out for all the upcoming Bank Holidays.  Please!

Though it is a distraction from writing for those of us who pass over pen and paper in preference of the keyboard.  It's not easy to see the screen when the sun is blazing down.  I did manage to get around this last year by rigging up a parasol over the outside table - though this invariable leads to brown legs, white face syndrome.  I suppose there has to be some compromise - can't have it all.  Better perhaps to stick to early morning or late evening writing sessions and treat the sun in the manner to which it has become accustomed; paddling pools, barbecues and litres of after sun!

I've been reading 'The Craft of Fiction: How to become a Novelist,' by Jonathan Falla this week.  It's just been released by Aber Publishing (ISBN:978-1-84285-104-3) and i found it very useful for identifying areas for improvement in my own work.  It covers off Character, Plotting, Narrative structure, Landscape, Dialogue, etc,etc, and there is also a good section on editing.  Well worth a look (albeit another distraction!).  I've also put up a link to Jonathan Falla's website for anyone who is interested.

Finally, i did promise to put up my final entry into the Microfiction competition.  Again, it wasn't a winner, but hey-ho that's the game.



Dangerous Liaison

Without shoes she was stealthy.  Out into the early morning dew she crept, leaving her lover to dream of Parisian nylons.  She’d left those behind too.  A lasting memento for him.

She checked her watch and wound it forward one hour.  She imagined him waking; basking in the glow of the previous night’s passion; preparing his story for the boys.  She smiled.  Uniforms were smart, but they didn’t make men clever.

She opened the briefcase, just to be sure, and ran her finger across the Ministry of Defence document marked ‘Top Secret.’

All’s fair in love and war, she thought.

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