Pages

Thursday 26 November 2015

The Write Advice 075: VAL McDERMID


I go to my office at nine and start by revising the previous day's work, which propels me into the next bit.  I tend to go to sleep planning the next chapter, so I usually know where I'm going.  I write in twenty minute bursts, interspersed with emails, phonecalls, cups of coffee, plus three longer breaks for meals and watching single episodes of whatever boxed set I've got on the go at the time, currently Homicide: Life on the Street.  In between I keep writing; even in the shower I'm still thinking about it.

Mslexia: For Women Who Write


 

Use the link below to visit the website of Scottish journalist, playwright and bestselling crime novelist VAL McDERMID:

 

http://www.valmcdermid.com/

 

 

You might also enjoy:

 
The Write Advice 069: NICCI GERRARD

 
The Write Advice 052: SARAH WATERS

 
The Write Advice 056: JOYCE CAROL OATES

Thursday 19 November 2015

Words for the Music 004: RICHARD THOMPSON


RICHARD THOMPSON
c 1974

 


THE POOR DITCHING BOY
RICHARD THOMPSON
From the 1972 Island/Universal LP  
Henry The Human Fly






THE POOR DITCHING BOY


Was there ever a winter so cold and so sad
The river too weary to flood
The storming wind cut through to my skin
But she cut through to my blood

I was looking for trouble to tangle my line
But trouble came looking for me
I knew I was standing on treacherous ground
I was sinking too fast to run free

With her scheming, idle ways
She left me poor enough
The storming wind cut through to my skin
But she cut through to my blood

I would not be asking, I would not be seen
A-beggin' on mountain or hill 
But I'm ready and blind with my hands tied behind
I've neither a mind nor a will

With her scheming, idle ways
She left me poor enough
The storming wind cut through to my skin
But she cut through to my blood

It's bitter the need of the poor ditching boy
He'll always believe what they say
They'll tell him it's hard to be honest and true
Does he mind if he doesn't get paid?

With her scheming, idle ways
She left me poor enough
The storming wind cut through to my skin
But she cut through to my blood




Words and Music 
© 1972 Richard Thompson







The Songwriter:  The following biographical statement is taken from Wikipedia.  [It is re-posted here for information purposes only and, like the material posted above, remains its author's exclusive copyright-protected intellectual property.]


Richard John Thompson OBE (born 3 April 1949) is a British songwriter, guitarist and recording and performing musician.

 

Thompson was awarded the Orville H. Gibson award for best acoustic guitar player in 1991. Similarly, his songwriting has earned him an Ivor Novello Award and, in 2006, a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio.

 

Artists who have recorded Thompson's compositions include such diverse talents as Del McCoury, REM, Bonnie Raitt, Christy Moore, David Gilmour, Mary Black, Elvis Costello, Marshall Crenshaw, The Corrs, Sandy Denny, June Tabor, Joel Fafard, Maria McKee, Shawn Colvin, Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy, Nanci Griffith, Graham Parker, Jefferson Starship, The Pointer Sisters, Maura O'Connell, Los Lobos, John Doe, Greg Brown, Bob Mould, Barbara Manning, Loudon Wainwright III, The Futureheads, Jeff Lang, Dinosaur Jr, David Byrne, and The Blind Boys of Alabama.

 

Thompson made his début as a recording artist as a member of Fairport Convention in September 1967. He continues to write and record new material regularly and frequently performs live throughout the world. Thompson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music.  On 5 July 2011, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Aberdeen.  His latest LP Still was released in June 2015.



 

Use the link below to visit the website of British songwriter and guitarist RICHARD THOMPSON:
 


 

Special thanks to everyone who takes the time to upload music to YouTube.  Your efforts are appreciated by music lovers everywhere. 

 
You might also enjoy:
 
 

Thursday 12 November 2015

The Write Advice 074: STEWART O'NAN


I always think that if I write well enough, the people in my books –– the world of those books –– will somehow survive.  In time the shoddy and trendy work will fall away and the good books will rise to the top.  It’s not reputation that matters, since reputations are regularly pumped up by self-serving agents and publicists and booksellers, by the star machinery of Random House and The New Yorker; what matters is what the author has achieved in the work, on the page.  Once it’s between covers, they can’t take it away from you; they have to acknowledge its worth.  As a writer, I have to believe that.

'The Lost World of Richard Yates' 

[The Boston Review, October/November 1999]


 

Use the link below to visit the website of North American writer STEWART O'NAN:

 

http://stewart-onan.com/

 

 

You might also enjoy:

 
The Write Advice 057: RICHARD YATES

 
The Write Advice 046: RICHARD BAUSCH

 
The Write Advice 007: GLENDA ADAMS

Thursday 5 November 2015

Think About It 007: LOUIS-FERDINAND CÉLINE


As long as we’re young, we manage to find causes for the stoniest indifference, the most blatant caddishness, we put them down to emotional eccentricity or some sort of romantic inexperience.  But later on, when life shows us just how much cunning, and cruelty, and malice are required just to keep the body at ninety-eight-point-six [fahrenheit], we catch on, we know the score, we begin to understand just how much swinishness it takes to make up a past.  Just take a look at yourself and the degrees of rottenness you’ve come to.  There’s no mystery about it, no more room for fairy tales; if you’ve lived this long, it’s because you’ve squashed any poetry you had in you.  Life is keeping body and soul together.

 

Journey to The End of The Night (1932, translated by RALPH MANHEIM 1983)

 

 

See below for original French text




 

Use the link below to read a brief 2013 post about controversial French novelist LOUIS-FERDINAND CÉLINE:

 

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-gentler-cline

 

 

You might also enjoy:

 
The Write Advice 003: LOUIS-FERDINAND CÉLINE

 
Think About It 005: SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

 
Think About It 004: KURT VONNEGUT




 

 

Pendant la jeunesse, les plus arides indifférences, les plus cynique mufleries, on arrive à leur trouver des excuses de lubies passionnelles et puis je ne sais quels signes d'un inexpert romantisme.  Mais plus tard, quand la vie vous a bien montré tout ce qu'elle peut exiger de cautèle, de cruauté, de malice pour être seulement entretenue tant bien que mal à 37 degrés [centigrade], on se rend compte, on est fixé, bien placé, pour comprendre toutes les saloperies que contient un passé.  Il suffit en tout et pour tout de se contempler scrupuleusement soi-même et ce qu'on est devenu en fait d'immondice.  Plus de mystère, plus de niaiserie, on a bouffé toute sa poésie puisqu'on a vécu jusque-là.  Des haricots, la vie.

Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932)