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Showing posts from June, 2020

It's Nice to Be Liked...

Darcia Helle, Top 100 Amazon reviewer, likes my book! 😊  She asked me if I could write a little paragraph explaining the inspiration behind writing it; I have done so and she has kindly posted it to her Instagram.  Darcia Helle Instagram - the Disposable

Taking a Long, Hard Look

As anyone who has read my work must realise, I have very strong views on life being fair. It really matters to me that everyone has the same opportunities and chances in life, that no one be pushed down or denied on the grounds of their birth and social standing like my Disposables are, or discriminated against for the way they look or chose to live, like Dullard. I think that everyone deserves a fair shot at living or getting themselves the life they want, regardless of who they are. But the world itself doesn’t help there. Because, she says as she dusts off her old cultural studies brain cells from her long ago Geography degree, the culture in which one grows up materially affects what every person within it considers “normal”. Viewpoints on what is acceptable and what isn’t, on what society should be and, more importantly, everyone’s place in it are ingrained into its inhabitants from a very young age without most people even realising. And so it can be that persons in one cul...

The Joys of the Self-Promoting Introvert

I think it’s fair to say – marketing? Not my strong suit. I’m doing my best. Honestly, I am. If anyone out there is actually reading this, it’s possible I’m not even doing too badly. But the trouble is, I’m just too me for it. I’m British. Old School British. Not for me the desperate yearning to wander round in a bikini on Love Island (trust me, it would be deeply traumatic for all concerned!) or to warble forth upon some TV talent fest with all eyes fixed upon me, trying to decide if I will sink back into obscurity or grace the pages of the gossip magazines forever more. No, I’m British in the sense that jumping up and down and shouting “Look at me and the wonderful thing I’ve created!” fills me with a deep and existential embarrassment to the fullest extent of my soul. It’s like a spiritual cringe. I just can’t praise my own work. It feels wrong at a fundamental level to be so horribly immodest as to suggest that something I’ve made might not be too bad. Oh, I can joke a...