Tag Archives: 30 day photo challenge

Day 2: a picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

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Well, I’ve been close to a lot of people, some of them longer than I’ve known my dear wife, but she is without doubt the one I am currently closest to, and that should last a lifetime even if other friendships fade away.

So really, she is the only one I can include in today’s picture.


That said, I have included the top of Middle Godson’s head just to show that we are looking at something and not just demurely casting our eyes downward. He’s on my Facebook friend list and I’ll be interested to see if he remembers where this was taken …

30 day photo challenge – day 1

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Here’s the rules:

And so here’s the picture for Dee Wurn, me (last summer in Gothenburg) with ten facts (presumably about myself).

  1. According to Chinese astrology I am a snake dominated by wood. I don’t believe a word of it, which is typical of us Aquarians.
  2. I’m a Belfast child, though you might have difficulty believing this if we ever met.
  3. Of my father’s three best mates in his early army days, two were selected as my godfathers and the third became a multi-millionaire. Nice call, Dad.
  4. My first school was Hampton Dene primary school, Hereford.
  5. My first professional sale was “Digital Cats Come Out Tonight”, to the anthology Digital Dreams, ed. David V. Barrett, 1991.
  6. 1 September this year will be my decimal birthday – 17,000 days!
  7. My grandfather fought at Kohima, of which fact I am dead proud.
  8. If there can be too much chocolate in my life, I have yet to reach that stage.
  9. I have never met the Queen, the Pope or the President of the USA. I have however shaken hands with Richard Dawkins and have a dedicated copy of Tom Baker’s autobiography.
  10. I am a Christian.

Day 11: a picture of something you hate

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AAAGGGHH!

I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate people using the fact that I’m a writer to start conversations. I know, I know, they’re just trying to make small talk, they’re not really interested in the answer, it’s all part of the glorious round of social interaction … but fer crying out loud, if you want small talk, talk about the weather.

I will gladly talk about my writing to an audience likely to understand the subtexts. Someone in the know will probably ask “what are you writing on” or “what is your current project”, which is very different. That has scope for a meaningful answer.

But this … this, quite innocently (I understand that, which is why I don’t thump them) suggests something that means so much to me is but a dilettante hobby. The questions are so clueless, so utterly without understanding of the basic facts; our starting points are so far apart there can be no hope for reconciliation within the context of small talk.

“Are you still writing?” Why, yes. Are you still breathing? The answer is ALWAYS. Why can’t you get that into your head?

“How’s the writing?” Fine, thanks. How’s the marriage?

“Have you written any more books?” This is the one that so gets me. Would you ask an architect if he’s built any more houses? A mother if she’s had any more babies … since you saw her last week? In the popular imagination, books just slide out like wet concrete off a trowel, at about the same rate as Ernie Wise churned out plays. There is no conception that if you asked this question last week and ask it again today then chances are good that nothing will have changed. It takes time to write a book.

Rant over. For now.