Where were you?

I was at home after spending the morning at Albrighton Writers. I switched the television to watch some detective drama and then I switched channels because I thought it was a movie - one I didn't want to watch.

And then I realised....

No it wasn't a movie, it was happening, it was real, it was horrific and I remember sitting on the sofa and crying.

One disaster after another, the twin towers, the airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon, it was like rapid gunfire, bang, bang, bang and suddenly thousands of lives were lost. And, despite living in a village in Shropshire, I was frightened, I was very frightened. I wanted my family home there and then because I didn't know where or when it was going to end.

But then I looked out of the window. My street was just the same, my normality was intact and I knew my family were safe. It was then I thanked God but....

On another street in a different country peoples' normality had changed forever. Someone was doing the same as me, looking out of the window and seeing the world change. Someone saw people plunging to their deaths,  someone saw flames that they knew incinerated flesh and blood, perhaps even their own flesh and blood, their partners, their family perhaps even the only person they had in the world who loved them.

Images were flashed across the world of terror, peoples' lives changing forever and I watched in the comfort of my own home and wept.

Ten years on, those images are as real today as they were they then. Ten years on, we must never forget. Ten years on, I'm at home and my family are safe but still I'll remember and yes I shall weep.

It's the simple things in life

I saw this on facebook and just had to post it.

The Writer's ABC Checklist: Avoid this writing scam

The Writer's ABC Checklist: Avoid this writing scam: Janice from Blackburn sent in a question that seems to be coming up more frequently recently – and it’s a worrying trend. She writes: I ...

Saturday's Workshop with Mike Smith

What a joy, not only the venue, the leader but also my lovely friend Di Perry was there too. Sadly though we were the only two but for us, sounding very selfish, it was fantastic. We had time to sit and talk, discuss different aspects of writing and also to share our own thoughts and opinions.

Mike Smith who writes under the name of Brindley Hallam Dennis led the workshop. Why he uses that name is quite a story but it's not place to tell it but bless him for sharing it as well as sharing with us his love not only of writing but of words too.

Picture Credit - Diane Perry

We started where everything starts at the beginning - looking at different openings which set the scene and introduced us to the characters. It also showed how even in the first paragraph the writer using words, descriptions can set the time the story is set in without always having to tell you. My favourite example given was from 'The Tailor of Gloucester' by Beatrix Potter.

In the time of swords and periwigs and full-skirted coats with flowered lappets - when genlemen wore ruffles and gold-lace waistcoats of paduasoy and taffeta - there lived a tailor in Gloucester.'


Isn't that beautiful? You can visualise the setting, the time and yet she only uses so very few words. Something definitely to aspire to as a writer.

We then looked at location. To be honest I don't often think of location when I'm writing because I don't find it so important, as a rule, unless the story is set in a specific place or I identify certain buildings etc, within the story. But what I did find interesting was how thinking of a location can focus your mind on a story itself. A different way of working and one I'll try.

Style was next on the list. We all know how we have an individual style and mine, at times can be more individual than most but as writers I think we all can write in different styles, depending on what we're writing about. The most important to me is the use of language, a modern, contemporary piece is written in a different language say to something set fifty years ago.

The exercises we did were fun. We had to write a beginning to a short story and it proved that Di and I have different styles but in both cases, it's amazing what comes out when you're asked just to sit and write. I love that challenge, write on the spot my brain works in a different way and often I surprise myself as to what comes out.

I had a really fantastic day and it was so lovely to be able to sit down and talk about writing to share with others, instead of being a lonely writer hiding under the stairs.

Maybe we'll meet up with Mike again when he comes back to Shropshire - I do hope so.