Monday 7 July 2014

Delusion is what keeps us going.

Delusion is what keeps us going - Terence Blacker

Today in The Society of Authors I read a fab article by Terence Blacker on how sometimes the your greatest eery as a writer is your everyday self. Although he does go on to point out that your everyday self is also a help! The sentence which caught my eye is what I have used to open my blog because it struck a cord with me and I am sure it is something all authors identify with.

It has been a fair while since I last blogged. I had a holiday in Kefalonia which was fab. A perfect place to unwind and forget about the world. I even switched off from plotting my next novel. Instead I managed to catch up on some reading. I was slightly disappointed by my selection. I read:

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain which was excellent. My only excellent choice. It tells the story of Ernest Hemmingway's first wife. Behind every great man then is a woman and this is her story. It is well worth the read! It also reminds me that I must read some Hemmingway.

The Light Between Oceans - M L Steadman- I read such good reviews I think I imagined this to be a life changing book. I think I'm going to stop reading reviews from now on! It was an okay read. What would you do if you were desperate for a baby and one washes up next to your remote lighthouse? It makes you think but it didn't keep me gripped and was quite predictable.

At the bottom of the pile was The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones. It was like reading an episode of Downton Abby- Which I would quite enjoy but it just didn't interest me and finally The Silent Tide by Rachel Hoar. It was a pleasant read but I can't say I would recommend it!

So all in all not great on the reading front, but I ticked a few off my list. I feel like a right negative nancy with all these not so great reviews. I think half the problem is that when I read such good reviews for a book I expect so much more out of it. I suppose thats another reason to get some bad reviews for your book - it really evens it out.

The grammar course is going… well I wouldn't say well. I have kind of stumbled but I am sure to get back on it. I really need to get to the punctuation bit and move on from the modal auxiliaries, but I suppose I need to learn the basics first.

Anyway a bit of a boring blog post today but I will be back with tales on how my current WIP is going!