What follows was intended as a competition entry, but they wanted 1000 words and there wasn’t any more to say. I like to practise ’emotional economy’. The master of that is Colm Toibin, by the way. ‘My Writing Day’ or ‘What I did yesterday’ I lived other people’s lives, mainly. The lives of my imagined ... Read More
Am I alone in muttering ‘Aw shucks!’ and turning pinkish when WordPress tells me that another blogger considers my little unpublished short story or a few random reflections about writing to be ‘pretty awesome’? Couldn’t they just say the kind person ‘liked’ what I wrote? Certainly when I ‘like’ or start to follow, it may ... Read More
Found this unpublished and rather strange little story and thought it might brighten up my rather earnest blog. A Tale of Tails The famous surgeon Mr ‘Snippy’ Maloney was to be best man at his brother’s wedding. He went to Moss Bros to be measured up for a morning suit. There was a sad-faced rat ... Read More
When I first moved to Oxford in 1975 I was amused when my elderly neighbours called me ‘my duck.’ I haven’t heard that recently. I love these regional variations and I’m sorry they are dying out. My parents lived in Cornwall and a colleague who visited there was so delighted with the Cornish habit of ... Read More
When I was a social worker listening closely was a big part of my job and I’m sure that has helped me to write believable dialogue. What one deduces from what other people say is another matter, I think. Some of my musings on this have informed my novel ‘Timed Out’. In the passage quoted ... Read More
Here’s a trick my mind plays. I’ve just seen the film ‘Brooklyn’. I loved it – wonderful acting, perfect dialogue (screenplay by Nick Hornby), beautiful to look at. As we went in, I told my friend that the Colm Toibin novel is one of my favourites and so I wouldn’t be wondering what Eilis would ... Read More
Like ‘Brief Encounter 2012’, this story concerns internet dating but has nothing whatsoever to do with my protagonist in ‘Timed Out’. It was first published in ‘Click to Click: Tales of Internet Dating‘, also edited by me. And it was greeted with enthusiasm by a small company planning to produce a short film … but ... Read More
Jane Lambert in Timed Out , my first novel, does internet dating. But there the resemblance ends. Brief Encounter 2012 From Click to Click: Tales of Internet Dating, ed Barbara Lorna Hudson, Kindle e-book, 2012. A railway station isn’t like an airport. A few meeters and greeters, but not so much exuberance, fewer demonstrations of ... Read More
I’ve just read a news story about a personal shopper who, in a fit of jealousy, destroyed her boyfriend’s (ex-boyfriend’s, surely?) expensive clothes. The female protagonist in my second novel is a personal shopper and I know better than to have her behave like that – personal shoppers have too much respect for expensive clothes ... Read More
