wordswordswords

The words have moved!

alisonwriting — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:07:55 +0000

My blog can now be found on the WORDS in ACTION website. Do sign up for RSS feeds and stay in touch! Watch out for a new egg frying challenge – coming soon.

Last seen…

alisonwriting — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:47:46 +0000

…too long ago! Resurfacing yet again to let you know that Frying an Egg is cooking again.

I finally read Day by A.L. Kennedy – guttingly wonderful. I’d put it off because it covers territory I’ve been trying to explore for years. When I finished I was sorely tempted to give up on the ground that she is the real deal! I know that great writing should inspire and not discourage but I gave way temporarily.

She uses words so well, not necessarily ‘big words’ but put together in new and surprising ways. She inhabits the main character so completely I can only imagine what it must have been like to live through writing this book.

Get cracking

alisonwriting — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:16:32 +0000

Just alerting folk to the resurrection of Frying an Egg, the instant writing blog. That’s all folks!

Reading

alisonwriting — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:02:15 +0000

I’ve so enjoyed reading The Delivery Room by Sylvia Brownrigg. The title refers to the nickname given to the consulting room of a psychotherapist. Hard to sum up and I don’t want to pre-empt the enjoyment of anyone who decides to read it. But it deals with love, grief, parent-child relationships, motherhood and is set at the time of the war in the former Yugoslavia. Not a cheery little summer read then? Well no, but the seriousness is handled by such a fine writer (new to me) that it offers the satisfaction that comes when experience is shaped into a beautifully made work of literary art.

Passionate about Poetry

alisonwriting — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:43:08 +0000

I’ve just watched Gryff Rhys Jones getting passionate about poetry in the BBC2 documentary ‘Why Poetry Matters‘. He covered a wide range of stuff in a direct, gutsy way, his genuine passion positively burning as he steered a course through the familar and the less familiar. He wasn’t the only one getting fired up. Nicolas Hytner was practically jumping off the screen with enthusiasm for iambic pentameter. Reminded me of the days when I marched around a classroom demonstrating the rhythm. It was so not a dumbing down of the subject and actually embodied its point about poetry being visceral as well as intellectual. Catch it on iplayer if you can!

books books books

alisonwriting — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:45:47 +0000

Well, here I am again. Life got in the way so here’s yet another try at keeping this going! I’m inspired by a trip to the London Book Fair where I met my publisher for the first time, having had only virtual contact till then. Also met Jo Parfitt a fellow author who has tweeted kindly about ‘How to Stop Flogging a Dead Horse’. We are agreed that our books complement each other. A Career in your Suitcase is her guide for expats and their spouses/partners who want to find rewarding work in the country they find themselves in. And if that ain’t you, then ‘Find Your Passion – 20 Tips and 20 Tasks for finding work that makes your spirit soar’ is well worth buying.

STOP PRESS I’ve just clicked through to Jo’s blog in order to link it to this. How’s this for synchronicity – she has posted a blog today about our meeting. Yes, we agreed to support each other but we had no plan to blog about this today!

A friend recently said that I seem to read a lot. Not true, I just talk a lot about the books I do read! I’m so grateful for the other friend (I have two!) who sent me a new copy of the book I began when staying with her. It was so special, I couldn’t bear to take it from her shelves. I’ve now finished ‘Gilead’ by Marilynne Robinson, an astonishing piece of writing encompassing love, death, father-son relationships, grace, forgiveness… big topics but all with such a gentle touch told in the form of an extended letter from a dying preacher to the young son of his old age. Every page holds a pearl of wisdom – and none contains such a cliche.

In another vein but also set in rural America, is Moo by Jane Smiley, a hilarious and very clever satire on academia. In this case, as the title suggests, the university is specialises in agronomy.

Do let me know what you’re reading!

Other people’s words

alisonwriting — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:18:33 +0000

A friend asked me if I’d read a half hour play she has written. ‘Don’t miss me and hit the wall, if you wish to criticise it. I trust you!’ she said. It proved to be a gripping read so it wasn’t a problem to offer a few suggestions when I could honestly say I liked it. She’s taken the comments on board and agreed with most of them. Often we are too close to a text to spot awkward phrases or ambiguities, so it’s great to have trusted peers to run stuff past. I appreciate the folk who do the same service for me.

It makes it easier too if you know that the other person is committed to excellence – in fact it’s essential. The friend in question is a visual artist, so well used to the joys and trials of the creative process. I think that’s part of what makes it possible to critique other people’s words and work – knowing that there’s a shared value about the nature of the endeavour.

Words?

alisonwriting — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:02:16 +0000

Words matter to me – obviously - so I find it challenging to be reminded of their limitations. Not only do I think in words, I think in conversations, entire dialogues carrying on in my head. Others think more pictorially. Presumably to those folk, an icon or diagram communicates its meaning directly whereas I have to translate all but the simplest visual image into words.

Eckhart Tolle says that when we attach a word to something we are ‘covering up a mystery with a label’ because everything is ultimately unknowable. Well, something to think about on today’s train journey .

Joining it all up

alisonwriting — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:20:36 +0000

Just as I start to get the hang of one piece of e-stuff, another load comes along! No, I don’t tag or twitter and I Flickr only very occasionally. I do have a newsletterthat relates more directly to WORDS in ACTION, my consultancy business. That’s supposed to link up to this blog, to articles I put on the web and to my publisher’s website and that’s before you take account of all the social and business networking sites. I’ve forgotten half the sites I’m signed up to and as for passwords! Don’t go there.

I am determined to streamline this and choose what’s most useful to me. Let’s hear it for Occam’s Razor (entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity).

So today, if you click through to my website, you can sign up for my newsletter. Or have a look at FryanEgg. That’s as joined up as it’s getting for now!

Post Valentine

alisonwriting — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:05:10 +0000

I tried. I felt obliged to accept my own challenge on FryinganEgg so I wrote 8 lines of doggerel which the world will be spared from reading! I addressed the planet and it turned out sentimental and a bit pious. Cynicism is too easy, sincerity sounds cheap unless it’s very very well expressed. Not in that space today!

Never mind – will issue another challenge before the week’s out and perhaps that will tempt some egg fryers old and new to have a go!

Meantime here’s a view from the island where I live and work, taken last week on a cold but clear and sunny day.

Clear skies in February