. . . creative on the web since 2009
I admire the scraped nape and vaseline-smooth
shining hair on senoritas dressed for toros
young girls bright as jewels
incandesce in flamenco dress
gorgeous enough to catch the eye of any matador
but he yearns only for time enough to … Read more ...
We’re all looking for ways to get more people reading our work aren’t we? I never hear anything from anyone who has seen my site on WordPress’ Reader. But I came across Bloglovin’ via a friend who has a very … Read more ...
Every Monday between 2PM and 5PM on Fylde Coast Radio I play a variety of tunes on my internet radio show “The Music Box”. You can listen on your PC your laptop, or on a Smart Speaker.
If you have … Read more ...
Hey it’s Springtime!
A lovely day brought out lots of visitors to the town. I felt I should go and draw. The windmill shouldn’t be too challenging I thought! You can see how wrong I was.
I hid in a … Read more ...
In Part 7 we travelled from Barcelona to Almería city. Now read on…
Our Airbnb hostess negotiated a taxi trip from Almeria city to the pueblo blanco of Rodalquilar for €50. The price seemed a bit steep but … Read more ...
In September 2018 after a phone chat / interview, I had an on-air broadcasting trial with Don. He’s a manager at Fylde Coast Radio a local community radio station. I joined the station as an unpaid music presenter. Although it’s … Read more ...
In Part 6 we travelled by train at speeds of up to 295 kilometres per hour through snow, then sunshine and palm trees. Now read on …
When you’ve landed in a place the challenge … Read more ...
I dimly remember that in Part 5, we’d arrived in Paris’ Gare du Nord rail station from Dieppe, via Rouen on a super swish very fast TGV train.
Everything seemed exciting to me – the transfer to … Read more ...
The Rolling Stones, truly legendary rock musicians, played a gig on 5 June 2018 and I was there in a humungous crowd. This is my review of this tumultuous event.
… we had two and half … Read more ...
In Part 4 we’d arrived in the port of Dieppe on the DFDS / Transmanche ferry to get the train to Paris on our journey to Spain.
The walk from the terminal into town is pretty … Read more ...
Previously in my Pet Friendly post I explained how year after year the UK winter got me down. I needed some winter sun. However during the planning of the trip I crazily decided to get a dog for company. I … Read more ...
Arthur Ransome & Captain Flint’s Trunk by Christina Hardyment
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve probably read all of the Swallows and Amazons books in my time.
Although it’s not possible to confirm EXACTLY how many I’ve read, as … Read more ...
A one-off recording I made with my iPhone of creatives in action at a local writing group meeting. We’d meet every week to chat about all things creative and occasionally do some writing! We were too good not to put … Read more ...
It was a hot day and I wanted to be outside relaxing in the fresh air, but I’ve always got to be doing something! I think that’s how many of us are nowadays. Sometimes you have to force yourself to … Read more ...
In my last post The fly in the ointment I told you that in the middle of planning to escape the UK winter I’d rather stupidly bought a long-haired Chihuahua. I’d also decided I wasn’t able to drive … Read more ...
In my first post about escaping the worst part of the year in the UK, Winter Blues I told you a little fly had fallen into the ointment. Well actually it wasn’t a fly, it turned … Read more ...
In my latter years I’ve become more unhappy with the effect of winter on my state of mind and have yearned for an escape… This is the first post about my get away from UK winter blues. I’m hoping it’ll … Read more ...
Here’s a sketch made on another grey, cold UK day. Having climbed over a fence, I managed to sit on a plastic bench to draw, believing less people would walk immediately behind me. I’m still very shy about drawing in … Read more ...
Well the drawing lessons have been running for a few weeks now but I’ve been unhappy with my output from them. Maybe it was time to get out from the classroom into the great outdoors and draw what I wanted … Read more ...
I started attending a “Drawing for Beginners” evening class at a local college. The 1st lesson wasn’t what I was expecting, but was really enjoyable because I was actually doing some drawing again. After completing the usual admin … Read more ...
At a meet-up I had 20 minutes to write something based on the word ‘empire‘,so I turned to my trusty Rory Story Cubes app while the other writers chatted. I ‘rolled’ 4 cubes on my phone to act … Read more ...
For a birthday my wife bought me a couple of lessons with an excellent local artist. He paints in watercolours and oils and sketches. I enjoyed these two lessons so much I had a further two.
Peter spends lots of … Read more ...
Read about round robin story writing here. To do it you need to be in a room with or connected online maybe, to a bunch of other writers. A round robin starts when everyone involved writes down a random … Read more ...
I wrote this piece of flash fiction after I’d been given, what we writers call ‘a prompt’. A writing prompt is a word or phrase that is intended to stimulate a story of some type or a poem. The prompt … Read more ...
Steve got a writing toolkit for Christmas, so we each took one of its’ emery boards containing a prompt, and started writing. He interrupted us every 5 minutes with another line which we used to change the direction of our … Read more ...
We visited Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum where I shot some video on my iPhone, and when I got home, I edited it into a short film using iMovie.
As well as using iMovie on your iPhone, you … Read more ...
On Facebook, Writers and Artists Yearbook posted “Writing exercise time: write a short paragraph to accompany this image.” Here’s one I wrote…… Read more ...
‘Opening the wardrobe door’ was a recent writing prompt I was given. Quick as a flash fiction writer, I came up with this… … Read more ...
Ernest Hemingway, I love you for everything you ever wrote..
but don’t worry… it’s love in a big, manly, bear hug type of a way. I’m gratified but ashamed all at once, because even though I haven’t read it all … Read more ...
The runes were cast and these are what the gods came back with – a black cat, a lightning bolt, a light bulb, an eye, a question, a footprint, an abacus, a compass and a magic wand – see the … Read more ...
Reading and writing have always been easier for me than ‘rithmetic, so that’s why this isn’t a blog about numbers. Mathematicians see beauty in equations but I never could understand them. Instead I write stories and poems, make the occasional … Read more ...
Watch my video while listening to my poem, “For Your Pleasure”, written following an exhibition I went to by Vik Muniz at CAC Malaga, in Oct 2012.
Vik Muniz is a Brazilian artist who co-opted people, who live on a … Read more ...
The rain was falling in rivulets down the windows by the time the car pulled up outside the police station.
Redundantly Jacobs intoned “We have arrived madam”.
The family’s faithful retainer opened and held the car door for me. The … Read more ...
I wrote a couple of ‘small but perfectly formed’ poems…The first is my take on an ‘echo’ poem, where the prompt was ‘edge’. Typically oblique, I made U2’s guitarist, the Edge, (aka David Howell Evans) the subject…… Read more ...
It was getting very late and everyone was dispirited after the last announcement given personally by the nervous station master who had since retired to his snug office with the small but bright fire in the grate.
“Unfortunately due to … Read more ...
Here’s something I wrote based on a ‘throw’ of 5 Rory Story Cubes
The sky has turned dark over the course of the afternoon, and threatens me with a soaking. I’m looking forward to finishing my daytime vigil. … Read more ...
More photographic prompts er… “prompted” me to combine 2 snaps into a quick sci-fi 70’s pastiche. Simples!
… Read more ...I woke from a dreamful sleep, feeling very peaceful. My remembrance of the previous evening was quite different. That had been horrifyingly painful,
At a writers meeting, we wrote a piece based on the “interruptions” game. Lauren gave us a starting prompt, and each of us did a piece of free writing. Every few minutes Lauren interrupted us with another prompt until the … Read more ...
At our writing group we started to write a Cento. Lauren brought a great many poetry books by poets such as Eaven Boland, Dylan Thomas, John Fuller, Bob Dylan! Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, … Read more ...
This poem is about one of my cats… … Read more ...
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Those are the names of our cats. I said are, and that’s true. They are the names of our cats, it’s just that one of them isn’t our cat anymore.… Read more ...
… Read more ...Recently, after making a donation, my wife brought home a book of comic strips from a charity table at work. It was “The Calvin And Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book” by Bill Watterson, commemorating his own comic strip, which was pretty
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The only creativity act I’ve managed since my last post, “Streets of Fire”, has been some Tweets to try to Win Tickets for the Wordpool Gala Evening in Blackpool on 2 July 2014.… Read more ...
… Read more ...A picture of a boy and a miner freshly out of the mine inspired me to write this piece of flash fiction…
Steve Wilson
(no relation!) published another of his brilliant books “The Element of Death” which I’m currently reading. Steve’s tale gave me an idea for a title. … Read more ...
… Read more ...Lauren brought in 6 paintings to inspire. The one that “spoke” to me was “Rooms by the Sea” painted in 1951 by Edward Hopper. Who knows where the connections come from which our brains make? The light coming in through
… Read more ...Here’s a conversation between two people in completely different worlds…
… Read more ...I wrote this piece when my friend Lauren brought in another yet another great idea – write some flash fiction. She gave us the idea that a little boy was in bed, meant to go to sleep, but he couldn’t,
Writer’s block I call it. It’s my block of flats I’m talking about though. Where I live. Get it? I’m full of stuff like that y’know. Should have been a writer myself but well I can’t always perform. Not enough … Read more ...
… Read more ...Don’t deny you always wanted to write like Conan Doyle? Me too. So I gave it a go.
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It was a beautiful night as I drove North Ventura Avenue in my hired Neon. No air con and it was the hottest. Empty streets, but the sound of a party, way off. A scrawny dog jumped out of … Read more ...
… Read more ...Haiku is a Japanese form of short poetry. A traditional haiku consist of 17 syllables, in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 syllables respectively. Here’s one I wrote in 2010. Short, but sweet?
… Read more ...I wrote this when I got a homework request for something biographical in a college class. It was inspired by a BBC 2 Timewatch programme I watched about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
Admittedly both were killers, but anyone’s death,
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My poem “En Ronda” below, was inspired by a photograph of a giant covering, on a building undergoing reconstruction which I saw in September 2007, in Ronda, Andalucia, Southern Spain. The huge photograph on the awning depicted a group … Read more ...
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… Read more ...Ash crisis over? Sadly it looks likely, as confirmation of our homeward flight comes through from the airline. This eruption story update is now available!
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I’m on holiday, and you can read all about it…
I’ve struggled out of the creaking bed, bladder full to bursting point at some god-forsaken hour. I checked the time prior … Read more ...
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… Read more ...We spent some time on Hadrian’s Wall taking part in its’ illumination, commemorating the 1600th anniversary since the Romans left Britain. I wrote about it. (Well, I would, wouldn’t I?)
Here’s an extract from the first story in what is slowly becoming a whimsical series about clerics in Gibraltar… No! Stick with it… You’ll like it 🙂
The sound was everywhere and he could not get away from it. Perhaps … Read more ...
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… Read more ...I wrote a light-hearted look at somewhere I have a lot of affection for … Gibraltar! Already this is nostalgia, as a lot of things have changed since 2007 when I worked there for 6 months.
It was an electrical storm of biblical proportions, the newsreader had said. … Read more ...
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_raw_html]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[/vc_raw_html][vc_column_text]A few years ago some friends and I made a nostalgic return to some old haunts. We visited places that have changed names since our heyday. But to us they will always be the Ramsden Arms, the Criterion, the Victorian … Read more ...
As soon as Honey Dale woke up, Steve Taylor’s face swam into view. It was a waking nightmare. She stopped herself from screaming as memories flooded back. In spite of the occasional nightmare, Honey knew everything was so much better … Read more ...
… Read more ...As part of an exercise in characterisation, the men in my class were asked to write a piece about a woman, and the ladies were to write about a man. Examples given to us were from Alan Bennett’s “A Chip
I read and enjoyed for a second time, Death and the Sun, A Matador’s Season in the Heart of Spain.
As the book’s description says:-
“Is it an immoral spectacle or a metaphor of life? Bullfighting never fails to provoke … Read more ...
… Read more ...Some of my friends in Gibraltar noticed the site was down. I’m happy to report it’s back online again. Thanks Roy and Sylvie!
… Read more ...Wikipedia describes concrete, pattern, or shape poetry as … “poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme, and
This story was inspired by my sometime tutor’s Bichon Frise dog. It’s a dirty job but someone had to write it…… Read more ...
… Read more ...Recently in my creative writing class we carried out an exercise, adding to the beginning or end of a fragment of text we’d been given by our tutor. I was excited by the start of the story and piggybacked my
… Read more ...This was one of the first pieces of ‘flash fiction’ I ever wrote. I wrote it at the first Creative Writing class I attended in 2009. Amongst other prompts the tutor brought in a smooth khaki coloured rock, and told
… Read more ...If this sonnet is one of the worst you’ve ever read I apologise. I think the premise is fine, but the execution is poor. When I wrote this in 2009 I was pleased with it but I now look back