Sandman, Angst and Change

I just stumbled into an excellent critique of Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’, here at Grand Hotel Abyss. My soft spot for teh Sandman stories is pretty well catalogued, but I found a whole bundle of insights i this essay that I now thinking through with fascination. What makes it a superb work of literature is theContinue reading “Sandman, Angst and Change”

Holy Cow…where did all these books come from?

Its been ages since I updated my progress working through the infinite pile of books beside my bed, so here goes a brief round-up of the last three months. Firstly, I read something like 120 short stories in various states of completition at Clarion. They were the greatest leaning resource for me as a writerContinue reading “Holy Cow…where did all these books come from?”

Clarion: Graduating Class of 2008

So today I graduated Clarion. WWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!! It has been a long, hard six weeks. So long. So hard. They don’t tell you how much hard work Claron is going to be when they let you in. I heard the words ‘Bootcamp for writers’ and thought..pfaff…all day every day to just read and write stories. EeezyContinue reading “Clarion: Graduating Class of 2008”

What do you want?

And who are you? Yesterday the Clarion group sat in a semi-circle around Neil Gaiman and listened to him talk about story. The light was shining so brightly everone was glowing. I have photos, I may share them. Neil talked about want, specificaly what characters want and using knowledge of that to make a storyContinue reading “What do you want?”

Aber Reads

The locals call Aberystwyth, the almost capital of Wales, simply Aber. It makes sense, its a mouthfull of constanants. Its an odd almost capital. Twelve thousands residents, seven thousands students. Some tourists and caravan parks. More than a few hippies and a sprinkling of writers, if you can seperate the two. I like it. IContinue reading “Aber Reads”