Category Archives: creative writing

Unknown's avatar

Writing Once Upon a Time

by

birdboy-susan-lee-kerrFascinating. I asked in Facebook if I dare re-tell a fairy/folk tale in my new novel, and a whole bevy of friends from widely varied walks of life urged me:  Yes!  They are witness to the eternal appeal of fairytales (or more correctly folktales) and it was great encouragement to embarking on the writing journey. I’m delighted to discover #folklorethursday on Twitter, yet more witness.

Thing is, the novel is also a crime story, but with no gore, so really it’s more of a mystery… with some police procedure and the main character sucked in to being an amateur detective. She’s a story-telling therapist. This brings in archetypes, so I get to treat myself to my shelves of Jung, Joseph Campbell, hero’s journey… as well as Grimm, Jane Yolen, Marina Warner and more.

A Body of Knowledge is set in Chiswick. Great fun to see the place where I live through my character’s eyes and sensibilities. So now you are on the writing journey with me as I blog on about the everyday struggles of writing a novel. The fellow pictured here is Birdren Boy, one of my sculptural papiermache pieces. He’s on a quest. So am I. Are you?

 

Unknown's avatar

Writing and gin

by

The joys of being a local author. Not sure what great grandfather Ephraim M (click here) would say, but he is coming with me to the start of the Chiswick Book Festival. And you can come too, if you can get to Waterstones, London W4 on Wednesday 14 Sept, 7-9 pm. The idea, organised by The Chiswick Calendar, is lubricated by Sipsmith, our local ginnery. Lots of local authors, loads of local readers, meet, mingle, and chatter.

the-young-ephraim-m-epstein

The Chiswick Calendar by the way is doing wonders for the local creatives — vid-interviews with local authors, local photographers, local artists, whole galleries-ful. Plus of course weekly handsome newsletter of what’s on. And great daily local photos. Have a look Here.

Unknown's avatar

Writing and teaching it

by

2016-09-01 12.27.42

List six objects you remember from childhood… Life Listing exercise, a great starter-off. To see the whole of it, click here for the link to my teachingcreativewriting blog. It features a termly freebie class exercise from the Matrix book, and an archive of others.

Yes, September! Back-to-school, back to planning creative writing classes. Pleased to say that the paperback full of exercises & ideas is now half-price, £7.00. The e-version is even less. Get writing, get planning.

 

Click here for Creative Writing: the Matrix paperback available only in UK. Or click here for Creative Writing: the Quick Matrix ebook version of selected goodies from the print book, available worldwide.

Unknown's avatar

Writing locally

by

Strolling around in summerly bliss imbibing local sights. This stone sculpture I love, on someone’s lawn for all to see.  At the moment I’m thinking it could be an image of inner creativity. Wish I knew the sculptor’s name. My new novel is set right here where I live; makes me hyper alert to my surroundings.2016-08-06 16.12.13

There’s going to be a whole mass of public creativity at a mingle of Local Authors at Waterstones W4 on Wednesday 14 September 7-9 pm. I’ve got to polish up a 1 minute wowzer for the occasion, and so do all the other local authors. It’s going to be a pitch-off! Or a pitch slam? It’s a kick-off to the Chiswick Book Festival featuring some local and many national authors. Click here for The Chiswick Calendar freebie local authors evening and here to connect with the book fest.

Unknown's avatar

Writing a book giveaway

by

… and figuring out how to get a Goodreads widget onto this blogsite. A) easy-peasy and fun, especially when you want to give a book (two books!) away to Goodreads’ huge bunch of avid readers. B) help!

So, you’ll just have to go to Goodreads to look for yourself. It has an author page, and of course a page on the book in question (The Extraordinary Dr Epstein). And if you are a writer and/or a reader and you don’t know Goodreads you are missing out on a very good thing. To go there, click here.   

Unknown's avatar

Writing tweets

by

Joined Twitter-world two weeks ago after years of resistance. Surprise, it’s really fun! And hones your writing/thinking skills. How best to hook interest when I’m trying to build excitement in the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Lissa (because it features in a chapter of my Dr Epstein book)? And do it in even less than the famed 140 characters, because the link to a url takes space if you want to feature your blogsite. [Thank you Sue of PageturnerPR for the tip on shortening urls using Bitly]

Nautilus Bird, Susan Lee Kerr

Nautilus Bird, Susan Lee Kerr

So the writing/thinking is one thing. And then as a recipient of tweets I’ve learned I can follow lots of history-minded, even military-minded tweeters, to say ‘look at this’. Probably you know about this already?? In theory I did, but in actuality when @thehistoryguy, Dan Snow no less, tweets back a like or someone even retweets it — ooo it feels like somebody is listening. Yes, yes, a lot like Facebook, but faster. Not that I’ll stick with militaries for long, as that’s not my personal thing. When this chapter is done I’ll ease up, maybe start tweeting haiku and creative writing thoughts.  And tweeting to the #amwriting people. And following fav authors. Publishers. Genres. And art. And I wonder if papiermache is there. And…

…of course, it’s a great time-user. But fast, fun and stimulating. Still learning. I will see if I can put a Twitter thingy on this site. Oh; seems to work the other way, YOU can share THIS via your  Twitter, but if you’ve read this far, you are not on Twitter yet. You might be able to peek if you click here but might be you have to actually join ’em to see ’em. See, I told you I was still learning. So tweet-tweet, here’s a bird I made earlier, just for fun. Looks more like squawking than tweeting?

 

Unknown's avatar

Writing crime

by

2016-06-11 09.05.16 2016-06-11 16.44.38 2016-06-11 08.35.48 What a useful day! Police, forensics, pathologists, barristers, dna, footwear, fibres, spatter analysis… real life crimes and creatively imagined and solved ones — by Paula Hawkins of Girl on a Train, no less. There she is reading the end of her crime story with compere Peter Gutteridge — we took part in it throughout the day. It all happened at Northumbria University in Newcastle, a conference for writers and readers.

Put on by New Writers North, I was lucky to spot it in my NAWE newsletter a couple months back, so I even got the early bird rate. There were agents, editors and some one-to-one sessions available too. But I was there for facts and procedures, and came away with gold. Like the fibres that might be on my victim’s clothes. And that, yes, telecoms forensics can trace a received text back to source — but it will take longer if it’s in another country. And of course, I still have more questions, but I got a good lead for those from DC Holmes (first name was NOT Sherlock).

Researching — plus a long train ride each way — is a great aid to hatching and plotting. Do it! Then there’s the writing part…

2016-06-11 08.34.00

Unknown's avatar

Writing and talking

by
corset

corset

Writing from Life —  Fascinating ancestor? Fantastic life experience? How do you tell the story? Decision paths, sources and insights into weaving together fact, memories and imagination. That’s the talk I’m prepping for a little group this week. Actually I’m making it a sort of show-and-tell. Wednesday 1st June 2016, 1 pm, Cambrian Community Centre, Richmond TW10 6SN. Free. As a writer, interesting to go back and select six artifacts from my research on The Extraordinary Dr Epstein to illustrate my points. They are: family photograph, maps (NYC 1850), images of places (NYC City Hall 1850), images of historical context (Battle of Lissa), images of objects (a lancet and a corset), archive material (an obit information form 1913).

Hmmm, the combination of lancet and corset might conjure up a dramatic story or poem in some fertile imaginations. Analyse that! Anyone in the neighborhood is welcome to drop by; tea’s provided too.