Imposter Experience? Embrace It.

Writers all over the world talk about Imposter Syndrome*, that feeling your success is undeserved and that one day the world will collectively blink, take a good long look at you and realise you are some kind of fraud. It’s … Continue reading

Another Year of micro-Loans

This year I continued making micro-loans to people all around the world through Kiva. Although it wasn’t as easy as in previous years I still managed to grow my fund – plus birthday and Christmas contributions from friends and family … Continue reading

Old Boots Like New

I get a lot of pleasure from refurbishing old things, bringing them back to life and making them usable again. When Gaie told me she was considering throwing away her old white leather boots I wasn’t sure what I could … Continue reading

A Universal Language – Trousers!

It struck me recently that there is a word of near comprehensive application and functionality, and that word is ‘Trousers’. It’s a lovely auditory word, the kind that is a pleasure to say under almost all circumstances. It can be … Continue reading

Charity, micro-Finance, lending not giving.

I don’t often talk about what I do for charity because I believe giving and helping isn’t about you, it’s about them. This time I’m going to because I’m pleased with what I’ve achieved and I feel like I’ve done … Continue reading

Working from Home; Walking to Work

Last week I decided to start walking to work. It’s already done me a lot of good. Let me explain – I work from home. Up until last week my commute was nothing more than the distance between the bedroom … Continue reading

Bucket List – Baptised by Neptune

I have this joke in my author bio that my first girlfriend was a mermaid. It’s true in a way, she was Marina from Gerry Anderson’s Stingray, and I was seven years old. She was rescued from slavery in Triton’s … Continue reading

Et in Arcadia…

Just lying there last night, at the end of the day, mind idling in neutral, I think of a scene, a situation. It’s not from any piece of work, not from anything I’m working on or plan to do: An … Continue reading

Fiction and Climate Change

I’ve just finished reviewing Tony White’s riveting novel Shackleton’s Man Goes North for Arc magazine, a novel about the past, present, and future of climate change. One thing he’s interested in is seeing how we can predict what the future … Continue reading

Here Comes Christmas

When I was young Christmas was, well – it was Christmas! The closer it came the more excited I got. I just couldn’t wait. As a small child tucked up in bed, wriggly with excitement and too excited to sleep, … Continue reading