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Inspiring blog. Allegedly. Between sneezes. AKA in which I show technical inepitude.





I was nominated for an award. Wooo! Go me, and all that there (I think lots of people have been nominated, but that’s neither here nor there), and I was nominated by Millymollymo here at:


Who is a tremendous writer, with a great blog that I’ve just spent half an hour reading instead of doing this, and a terrific support to so many of us out there. Some people just have the lot….

One of the things I was asked to do was talk about three inspiring things this week (hence why I’m blogging after promising I wouldn’t). I have to be honest, this is a challenge because, frankly, I’ve spent most of this week with a flu and haven’t been my usual sparkling inspired self. In fact, for inspiration it was something of a nadir. But! The cloud has lifted (ish – read for that, I’ve just had a snooze) and thoughts have occurred. Hurray! I doubt any of this will be new or startling but here goes:


Inspriring thing one:

Meeting people. Really, meeting people. Not nodding and moving on, but listening and thinking and talking. I went to the theatre last night. Okay I was sneezing and coughing and not the person anyone was volunteering to sit beside but I had the tickets and I was going to be miserable no matter where I went. In this case, row R at the Grand Opera House. The show was great. I’ll use bits of it here and there, how the lights caught the dry ice just so, the rapt quiet of the theatre, the distraction of the caption machine…  

The theatre was quiet. We shifted around seats. We made sure tall people weren’t in front of us. We shared sweets. We talked about the show to others around us and why we were there, and who we were with. Someone made the comment that once the door to the theatre closed they didn’t care where they were, and a lightbulb went off and somewhere, sometime, a story will exist to explain that comment, which puts the magic of the theatre in one single, sublime sentence. And I’ll enjoy the moment of capturing it and remember the night it was said, and who was there: what they were wearing, who they were with, the lights around them, the sharp-vanilla smell of the tendrils of dry ice. Without the people, there’s only one part of the scene.

Inspiring thing two:

Reading. In my case, this week, that’s reading some stuff I really liked (Zafon, again, just so lovely to get lost in) and some stuff I didn’t so much (The Lost Fleet – not character driven enough for me.)

I’ll take something from both of them. From Zafon the use of description, the deft way with language. From Campbell, the sci fi imagery, the crisp military command. They’ll all get added to my writer’s toolbox and get mashed up and turned into my voice, not their’s, and it will make things rounder and stronger, because sometimes, frankly, a writer has to cheat. I’ve never been in the military in my life, my character’s a commander-in-chief. One of us has to make it believeable and, I’m afraid, that’s my job ( I should fire him).

Inspiring thing three:

Plants. It’s that time of the year. I have chillies on my windowsill and sunny nasturiums and flirty sweet pea. I have seed packets in my box, tantalising me. Winter is, if not over, receeding and just as I drew inspiration from it, from the soft grey days and white crispness, so as the spring comes I take notice of it. In fact, taking notice reminds me of a verse I once knew, about looking above and below, and left and right, and finding beauty in everything, even if it’s just the cracked lines of the crazy-paving.

This week, I’ve been lazy and tired and snuffly. I’ve done a fair bit of watching out the window, and lazing, and waiting for sneezes. We forget the quiet inspirations – like that after only two days my nasturiums are softening, and want to be. That we all just want to be.

I hope that all made sense. I’m still a bit fuggy.

And then, some blogs I like. And it’s really just an I like list, and ones I return to:


And thanks again to Millymollymo! And to those nominated, you need to thank me, pop the award in a blog, write about three inspiring things, and nominate others by leaving a comment in their blog as to why and a copy of the award (except, for me, Teresa’s comments were off, so she’ll have to accept a virtual reward…) And for the copy of the award, it didn’t work. I’m not an inspiring webster evidently.

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