Ian Gouge's Blog, page 27

Yesterday & Today: 19th July

For what seems like the first time in ages, I actually managed to work on three different things yesterday. I started with New Contexts: 5 and began reading through long-listed pieces to decide whether they would go in the anthology or not. Expecting it to be difficult, the process proved surprisingly easy, with me struggling … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 19th July →

Yesterday & Today: 18th July

Day 200 of consecutive posts – and thoughts about immortality! Yesterday saw me finally complete the first read-through of pieces submitted to New Contexts: 5. 25% have been immediately selected, with 35% in the ‘long-list’ pile to be re-read and a binary ‘in or out’ decision made on those. So, pretty much on-track to finish … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 18th July →

Yesterday & Today: 17th July

Well, yesterday I finally managed to do two things in the same day again! I’m nearly through reading all the prose pieces submitted to New Contexts: 5 and I did a little work on ‘Z’. Neither are particularly earth-shattering, but I’ll settle for it. Now Wimbledon’s finished I may get through the rest of the … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 17th July →

Yesterday & Today: 16th July

One of those happy accidents yesterday. A few years ago I went through a short phase of writing 100-word flash fiction stories. There was one I remembered but, when I tried to find it on my computer about a month ago, I came up empty handed. I was sorting and packing my notebooks yesterday when, … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 16th July →

Yesterday & Today: 15th July

Whether it is partly because I managed so little work yesterday, or the fact that I know the next five weeks will be relatively unexciting in terms of my writing work (until after the house move), but I’m actually thinking of calling a halt to “yesterday and today” in advance of the year end. Let’s … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 15th July →

“The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”

The 2022 Booker Prize Winner probably isn’t really my usual cup of tea – although having said that, from a certain angle, Karunatilaka’s book does resemble Haruki Murakami (one of my favourite authors). “The Seven Moons” is, I suppose, ‘fantasy’ of the gentlest kind, even if there is a rawness and violence about it. What … Continue reading “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” →

Yesterday & Today: 14th July

Just about the only writing-related thing I did yesterday was to start reading the prose submissions for New Contexts: 5. I suspect it’s going to take me longer than I thought to get through these… And then I have to cycle back and revisit all the items I put in my ‘long-list’ in order to … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 14th July →

Yesterday & Today: 13th July

I forgot to mention in yesterday‘s post that I would be attending my last Ripon Writers’ Group meeting in the evening. Given we are going to be very busy packing etc. it seemed to make sense to settle on a defined last day as Chair. The meeting was dedicated to the adjudication of our ‘Writing … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 13th July →

Yesterday & Today: 12th July

Thanks to two meetings, yesterday was one of my busiest for a while. Both sessions proved true to form. ‘Write-on Ripon’ offered a variety of style and talent against a largely common theme – as well as a somewhat heated debate about the nature of Artificial Intelligence and ‘consciousness’ (prompted by someone reading a ‘poem’ … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 12th July →

Yesterday & Today: 11th July

A relatively light day yesterday which saw me run through all the ‘R’ and most of the ‘S’ poetry submissions for New Contexts: 5. In terms of subject and style, the spectrum of work is as wide as ever; I never know what I’m going to get when I open a document to read! It’s … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 11th July →