For me, painting is like storytelling; another medium to creatively put down thoughts. I started painting years ago, then when we bought our current house and white-washed the walls, I saw blank canvasses I was driven to fill. As with my first book, Return of the Mantra, thoughts born from time spent in Sudan and South Africa would feature in those canvasses.
Tag: Return of the Mantra
Storytellers
There’s a reason why people in the UK obsess about the weather, when all four seasons can happen in one day. Conversations often feature words like nippy, overcast, drizzling… and end with dismayed comments like, ‘I’ve got washing on the line,’ or optimistic comments like, ‘it’s turned out nice again’. So after weeks of an uncommon and persistent heatwave, variable weather is back on the agenda.
Balance
It’s been a busy few months amid an unusual heatwave. Long sunny days are a great excuse to get out and about and enjoy the delights of your local area. I often think people’s tendency to explore gets saved for when they’re away on holiday, but what about the treasures on our own doorsteps? For me that’s Devon, and while we haven’t actually ‘been away’, we have made a point of having holiday days.
Diversity in Fiction
It’s the Monday after a gloriously sunny weekend spent at the Exeter Respect Festival: a fabulous event to celebrate our diverse communities. Among live music, singing, and spoken word, the park is filled with a bustling array of stalls, food, and campaigns. Whether you want to sample authentic Syrian cuisine, be amazed by flamenco dancers, or shop for handicrafts from all corners of the world… Exeter Respect carries the message, ‘all different, all equal’.
The Big Launch
I often think of writing as tapping into that introverted side of yourself. Time spanning hours, days, months and years are spent alone, with your own head for company, creating worlds, characters, themes and plots that will ultimately blend into your story. And all the while that story sits in the comfort of your carved out niche, told only to you and your nearest and dearest.
Always Thinking
I once saw a picture of an imagined futuristic image of how people would evolve; how they’d look in years to come judging by human behaviour. Essentially it involved alarmingly long fingers, a deeply curved spine, and a seriously overweight body – a future born from sitting hunched over a screen, typing. When I thought of my daily life, much of it sitting at a computer, it got me thinking – I have to get out more!
Getting Crafty
It’s a matter of opinion, but I was fairly amazed with what could be accomplished with coffee, masking tape, toilet paper, paint, glue, tinfoil and a batman mask.The fate of the natural world of Shendi is controversial, as history turned to legend and myth. Which story you believe depends on where your loyalties lie: with the old ways or with the King. It was the question I pondered as I prepared my two relics, straight out of the book
Return of the Mantra
It is years in the making, this creature called the debut novel; a creature that has lived safely hidden within the walls of my writing room. For long enough it followed the plan I laid out, until it started to take on a life of its own.
Full Circle?
So I was visiting my mum a few weeks ago, and showed her some photos from a friend’s Facebook account.
‘Her photos are taking up all the space on your phone,’ she said, with a note of annoyance.
