Nicky Bond's Blog, page 39

That's Numberwang!

I've been thinking about the number one hundred a lot recently. You? No? Oh.

According to my research - the reason for which I'll get to in a sec - Tony Hart was paid £100 for the ship design on the Blue Peter badge, there are over 100 million people in China with the surname Li, and in Bangladesh, 100 mangoes is a traditional unit of measurement. Those facts and more, can be found here in this article. (When I said 'research' I really meant I'd Googled 'Facts About 100' and clicked on the fi...

The Lost Joy of Smash Hits...

I know I moan about being on my phone too much, and wishing my concentration span could last the length of a Marple without checking Twitter, but if the Internet disappeared, I'd be lost. 

It's not just the mundane stuff: the online shopping, the news reading, the messaging friends and family. It's the cultural stuff too. Last week was Madonna's 60th birthday. I knew it was imminent from the tweets of several women I follow, all of whom - quite rightly in hindsight - recognised something...

Outdoor Theatre and a Marksies Picnic...

What's that? You want me to tell you about my love of Shakespeare? Well if you insist, of course I will. Get yourself a cuppa and pull up a chair.

Doing what I do best.The thing with Shakespeare is, even if you watch for pleasure, it’s easy to have no clue what’s going on. When I see a production, it’s because it’s a play I've studied. I’ve seen multiple versions of The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but never once got through a reading or viewing of Corialanus -...

The Universal Mysteries of Being Ten...

Remember 1988? It was the year the Liberal Democrats formed, the year that £1 notes stopped being legal tender, and the year the National Curriculum and league tables were introduced into education. Funny old year. I don't remember all that, of course. I was ten. I'd have probably seen brief snippets of news, and possibly heard about the education changes when my parent's teacher-mates came round for summer holiday drinks. But those Wikipedia-searched news items are not what pop into my head...

Consider This a Naming Ceremony...

I'll do my best to keep this brief. I know I ramble on at times but I've got exciting news. Yes, keep reading because shit’s gonna get real.
After fourteen months of full-on writing, plus a previous six-months of character creation and plot planning, I'm happy to reveal my new book has… A NAME.
Exciting times, yes? Well, keep reading because in the teeniest of moments, I'm going to share that name with you. But first, let me explain the delay.
When I wrote  Carry the Beautiful , I knew the ti...

A Calming Yin to a Stressful Yang...

Blimey, it's been a busy few weeks for news, hasn't it? Sometime ago, I wrote that I was going to try and use my phone less, in a bid to aid my sanity. But that didn't take into account the fact the world was going to implode. Night after night I scroll through madness, reading every hot take I can on the Helsinki summit, electoral fraud, Brexit, and the rise of fascism. Sleep has not been that easy of late. 
The obvious thing to do is put my phone down, close Twitter and listen to whale...

It Nearly Came Home...

They think it's all over. It is now. Yeah, I'm sorry, but if there's ever an appropriate time to read that sentence, it's the morning after the World Cup final. Back on 18th June - the morning of the first England match - I wrote that I was feeling a general indifference to this tournament. But blimey, that changed over time. Once England got going, and I was showered in the Southgate charisma, I was glued to it all. It was my first full-throttled unabashed enjoyment of international men's fo...

Climb Every (Writing) Mountain...

This week I had a bit of a panic. I got a sudden sinking feeling in my stomach, where I found myself saying, 'Oh shit,' to no one in particular. I'm fine now, but I had to calmly talk myself back from the potential drama it could have been.
Let me set the scene. Over the course of writing My Next Book (that's a placeholder BTW - title TBC) I've avoided reading anything fictional with a similar style. Books that are conversational and ...

An Elevator in a Skyscraper Works Best...

Just one of many things myself 
and Mariah Carey have in common.Here's something I've learnt over the last few years - I'm terrible at pitching. No, not lobbing a ball about in a field! I mean pitching. Pitching an idea. Summarising a writing project in as exciting a way as possible so that anyone listening can't help but make a mental note to 'check it out' at their earliest convenience. Pitching. I'd be useless on Dragon's Den, no matter how revolutionary an idea I'd invented. I just ca...

Queer Eye For the Snarky Food Lover...

The Fab Five - Kamaro, Antoni, 
Tan, Bobby and Jonathan Queer Eye is back! Wooohoo! Netflix's rebooted makeover show has returned for a second series. You've either seen it or you haven't, but worry not. This blog is not about Queer Eye in its own right. If it's all a mystery to you, don't panic. There's a couple of paragraphs to get through before we move on and I get to my point. But seriously, if you haven't seen it and you have a Netflix account, do yourself a favour and give...