Nicky Bond's Blog, page 29

Writing on the Wall...

My copy from Uni.
Still on my shelf, slightly
yellowed with time.

In - Kurt Vonnegut's semi-autobiographical novel of the firebombing of Dresden - Vonnegut describes how he organised his story.

"I used my daughter's crayons, a different color for each main character. One end of the wallpaper was the beginning of the story, and the other end was the end, and then there was the middle part which was the middle. And the blue line met the red line and then the yellow line, and the yello...

Up with the Beauticians!

I mean, there was probably more than
 two. But there's only two in my head
now I've come to write it all down.The past week has contained two stand-out moments that prompted an extreme reaction from me. Just two? Well, two that spring to mind now. Two unrelated incidents about the same issue. Two that caused completely opposing emotions. So, yeah. Two. Let's break them down.
Firstly, I saw a tweet from an unknown woman. I shouldn't have paid it any attention, but I did. It got under my skin. In a ...

Quick Wit's a Drag...

There was a story in the New York Post last week that got some attention online. The headline was . My timeline was full of tweets from people sharing the news story, all with a similar perspective. 'No one would commission that', 'I'd be told my pitch was too far-fetched', or, 'It's the perfect meet-cute!', were typical comments. It has to be said the majority of my timeline are writers and creatives so I smiled along at...

One Day I'll See the Wood...

OK folks, it's book update time. You're joking. Not another one? Please insert your inner In the editing chair, not seeing the wood.
(To be fair it WAS a hot day.)

Back on March 2nd, I wrote . I say definitive guide, but it was mainly a ranty howl about how horrific a time I was having. Feel free to refresh yourself by clicking the link above, or alternatively catch up in my TLDR bullet points below. Basica...

Drawing a Line...

A selection of past blogs
that cover 'all this'.

Looking back over this blog since March, it seems I've written about 'the current state of the world' eleven times. Eleven! Blimey, I'm sorry. I usually try to mix things up more than that. Some weeks it's a book update, others it's a pithy look at a news item, and then there are those weeks when I just throw in a recipe. (AKA 'busy as frig' or 'can't be arsed' weeks.) Yet since March 16th when I wrote about the pointlessness of panic buying loo rol...

Hey Baby, Welcome to your Imagination...

Sometime during the last ice age (November 2016 to be precise) about naming characters. In it, I confidently asserted that the only good reason to procreate, was so the child in question could wear hats with ears. Hats with ears are the only reason to have a kid. I still stand by that. Timeless wisdom you can etch in stone, as old as the hills. Buy why go so far back in the dusty blog files to remind the world of that particular gem? Well, I've found another reason to justify pas...

Always There and I Didn't Know It...

[image error] The world may be in disarray but here we are, chugging on regardless. about how I dealt with the early part of lockdown, when my head imploded with the unknownness of it all. Now, with the constant rolling news of awfulness, I'm looking for bursts of escapism. Utterly joyful and whimsical flights of fancy that provide sporadic respite and balm from real life. With this in mind, there's something marvellous I've discovered. Except I didn't discover it at all. It was under my...

The Rightful Discomfort of White Privilege...

Last week I wrote about my anger over the Dominic Cummings story. I'm still angry. About all the little things that contributed to it, preceded it, or have followed from it. I'm angry at the government's incompetence at handling the Coronavirus pandemic. I'm angry at Brexit and that no one in power will admit the country is in desperate need of an extension to the transition period. I'm angry at the political game-playing by Rhys-Mogg, in his forcing only the well and physically-able MPs to queu...

Where To Put My Anger?...

Anger. It's a tricky one. Sometimes the gut-rise of indignation is enough to motivate change. Rubbish romances, flaky friends, joyless jobs - anger is the positive kick you need to make a choice for the better. But it can also be destructive. It raises blood pressure, can cause physical and mental ill-health and can turn in on itself. The anger becomes misdirected towards the person that feels it in the first place. Like I said, it's a tricky one.

On March 23rd, I wrote that it was a good idea to...

Quizzing Closure...

Here's Kenneth Branagh telling me to
 dream big in my quest for tricky
 questions. TBH, I really wanted a GIF
 of Ken saying 'I'll devise thee brave 
punishments'' from Much Ado About 
Nothing, but the GIF site let me down. 
But, as the saying goes, a not-so-relevant
 bit of Ken is better than no Ken at all.Well here it is. The morning after the night before. If you read last week's post, you'll remember I was tasked with creating the Sunday night family quiz. This was to be the time when my parents, s...