I am very pleased to welcome you to my web-site.
This main page contains my various musings, regular updates, and occasional poetry and prose. My other pages contain information about the freelance services I offer, my writing, publications, and a special individual called Mickey Bosco. My non-fiction work is precise, professional, observant. My fiction work is quite the opposite: irreverant, gritty, no-holds-barred.
You can follow me on Twitter here.
You’ve seen Aliens, right? Probably James Cameron‘s best film? Arguably the best horror film of all time. Maybe even the best SF film of all time. There’s the scene near the end where the mother computer is calling out how long there is left to reach minimum safe distance from the blast site. That’s what the last few days before a dissertation or thesis deadline sound like.
“You have 10 days to reach minimum safe word count.”
Oh feck! I’ll catch up tomorrow.
“You have 9 days to reach minimum safe word count.”
I’ll do a couple of words, put in a spurt towards the end, etc., etc..
I’m pleased to announce, though, that with just under a week left, I have now “reached minimum safe word count!!!”
The word count requirement for my creative dissertation (my Mickey Bosco sequel novel) was between 20,000 and 30,000. I now have reached 21,500. And the best part is that it is the beginning of a novel, so it’s not like I have to wrap anything up nice and neatly. All I have to ensure is that I leave my novel beginning on a knife edge… that great lead turns out to be bogus, but… there is one little revelation that makes the reader go… ah! I plan to stop at around 24 to 25,000, but the pressure is now off.
I’m pleased with how the sequel is turning out. Only thing is, after submission date, I have to drop it and go back to finish the first novel, which by the way is now smaller in word count than the sequel. How bizarre is that?!
Everything, when
Taken in isolation,
Has little meaning.
My first haiku in a long while. It’s a good habit to be in, to create a finished piece of work frequently. Remember, now, that “everything” has 4 syllables, not 3. Ev-er-ee-thing, not ev-ree-thing.
To make up for a recent dearth of daily haikus, here are 4 that I wrote in quick succession…
All of a sudden,
Hurtling from the deep jungle
Was a silverback.
Without any thought,
I wrote that lovely haiku
To amuse myself.
The glare on my screen
Makes it very hard to read
What I am writing.
Less than five minutes
To write four random haikus
Isn’t bad at all.
Confused state of mind
Makes it hard to write this verse;
This will have to do.
The sure-footed sheep stand steadfast against
The elements that test them, torment them,
And plunder their will; yet they stand so still
With weather-woollen coats that protect them.
Oft-cooked fats and oils
Stink the air, catch in my throat,
Make it hard to breathe.
Fans whir without cease,
Heats the room to boiling point,
But it helps me write!
Lawnmower mumbles,
Grass shaven, weeds beheaded,
Trimmings composted.
Chocolate muffins:
Cocoa, flour, eggs, milk, and
Vanilla essence.
