When the spirits dance, you have to dodge out of the way and cover your head so they don’t hiss sharp into your ears or quick-grab your tongue. Mostly though, you have to keep your eyes open … Lascaux Flash Competition, March 6th 2013. Also in FlashFlood, April 19th, 2013. 245 words Continue reading ‘All the Birthdays’ – audio
‘In the walls of buildings, between the splinters of wood and the specks of brick dust, souls huddle and stretch by turns, waiting for their time to come. The Breathing of Souls In the walls of buildings, between the splinters of wood and the specks of brick dust, souls trapped by the circumstance of material change, huddle and stretch by turns; making space to breathe, wearing down the solid things that keep them there, and waiting for their time to come. When it does and when, in the physical world liquids harden and become unyielding; in the metaphysical, the warp and … Continue reading The Breathing of Souls
From the recycler: ‘No Arrests in 2039′ Every Day Fiction, 7th September 2011. A bit of SF here but with some extraordinary science in the offing that makes it a chilling possibility. 851 words Continue reading ‘No Arrests in 2039’
From the re-cycler ; ‘Lovely Girls’ is a story about the life of a young woman in an institution for people with learning disabilities. Amy watches the door; that grimy, finger-stained, gobbed-on portal to fleeting respite from the chronic stink that makes her eyes water. First published by The Other Room Journal, it moved to Scribd when TORJ ceased operating. 1999 words. Continue reading ‘Lovely Girls’
UPDATE I’ve just received this link to Que Mai’s readings at the Lannan Foundation this March (2015) When we talk about poets writing from the heart, it’s because we feel their integrity. When I say that Que Mai’s writing hands you her heart and lets you hold it, still beating and bleeding, while she tells her stories, it’s because she keeps nothing back and she trusts us to attend. And you do have to attend, especially if you are coming to this with a Western ear, because the language is more musical, the metaphors more earthy, and the characters and … Continue reading Book review: The Secret of Hoa Sen by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
A bit of a giggle from the recycler: Moonrise, Every Day Fiction, January 2011. Inspired by the unfortunate experience of a friend. It’s fiction, really it is. Continue reading ‘Moonrise’
I was not sure where to put this because the content is entertainment but the central point is honesty and how far deception can be taken in order to preserve a conceit. In the end, after Facebook, I put it both here and there. In the UK, ‘Strictly‘ comprises two shows – the contest night when all the participants dance and the public vote is collected, and the results show at which the dance-off between the bottom two pairs takes place. The first show goes out on Saturday night and the second goes out on the Sunday when we are … Continue reading ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ – time to end the pretence?
I was not sure where to put this because the content is entertainment but the central point is honesty and how far deception can be taken in order to preserve a conceit. In the end, after Facebook, I put it both here and there. In the UK, ‘Strictly‘ comprises two shows – the contest night when all the participants dance and the public vote is collected, and the results show at which the dance-off between the bottom two pairs takes place. The first show goes out on Saturday night and the second goes out on the Sunday when we are … Continue reading ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ – time to end the pretence?
Forgot to say I’d graduated. Rather chuffed. Continue reading Mastering things
Originally posted on informationrightsandwrongs:
UPDATE: 31 October It appears Samaritans have silently tweaked their FAQs (so the text near the foot of this post no longer appears). They now say tweets will only be retained by the app for seven (as opposed to thirty) days, and have removed the words saying the app will retain a “Count of flags against a Twitter Users Friends ID”. Joe Ferns said on Twitter that the inclusion of this in the original FAQs was “a throw back to a stage of the development where that was being considered”. Samaritans also say “The only people who will be able… Continue reading Samaritans Radar – serious privacy concerns raised
Dr Suzanne Conboy-Hill 