Yann Martel goes into the void. The author of Life of Pi considers the genesis of his novel: I wandered around Bombay in a state of interior bleakness.
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Spain is hoping to recognise its authoritarian past officially. After months of haggling, and fierce opposition from conservatives, the ruling Socialists have introduced a bill that condemns Franco’s dictatorship and honours his victims.
The Law of Historic Memory condemns Franco’s actions during the civil war , and his 40-year dictatorship. The bill declares arbitrary sentences handed down by military courts set up by Franco “unjust” and “illegitimate”. This will enable victims or their families to seek redress through the courts for executions, exile and persecution never before challenged.
The law was stalled for months, and might have died had the government not made concessions to win majority support at the last moment. Another week, and it would have run out of parliamentary time.
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A global study of abortion rates indicates that those requiring a termination will find a way of doing it whether abortion is legal or not. In countries where it is illegal the abortion rate is almost the same as in countries where the practice is carried out within the law. But complications and the death rate begin to soar when it is made illegal.
The Bush administration’s multibillion-dollar campaign against H.I.V./AIDS in Africa has directed money to programs that promote abstinence before marriage, and to condoms only as a last resort. It has prohibited the use of American money to support overseas family planning groups that provide abortions or promote abortion as a method of family planning.
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A character blog is a blog written in the voice of a fictional narrator, of which there are several examples currently on the internet.
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs is one, another is the more recent Bono’s Blog (Saving the world one song at a time). Neither of these blogs are written by the person [...]
Therefore he no more troubled the pool of silence
But put on mask and cloak,
Strung a guitar
And moved among the folk.
Dancing they cried,
‘Ah, how our sober islands
Are gay again, since this blind lyrical tramp
Invaded the Fair!’
Under the last dead lamp
When all the dancers and masks had gone inside
His cold stare
Returned to its true task, interrogation of [...]
Why something goes into a writer’s notebook is fairly obvious. The notebook is there to replace memory. Memory is fragile and in any case it’s creative. A notebook on the other hand is not at all fragile. It’s a recording device. You have the thought, or you come across a group of words or an [...]
On her blog, Writing, Life and the Universe, Angela Young tells us about a seminar she attended in the UK with Mark Thornton, where the subject matter, for authors, is how to sell your book to the independent bookshops. Mark’s course, entitled, Shelf Secrets, runs over a single day and is presented at Mostly [...]
Kim of Kimbooktu is putting together a list of blogs concerned with books. The resulting page will list “bookish web blogs” available on the internet, in alphabetical order. You will be able to search the list by entering CTRL+F. If you know of a bookish link that is not listed on her site, please let [...]
What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
Each story begins for me with an initial premise; a body found on the border, a born again ex-con, a gold mine in the Donegal hills. The premise will float about in my head for a while, during which time I build the layers around it; [...]
What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
For me the creation of a text begins with a bloodbath and usually ends in a dazed, resentful silence.
Texts are merely the literal expression of the ideas we generate. My head is usually full of ideas, of wild notions and fantastic tales I [...]
What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
Far too much mystique surrounds the Writer, as if she (in my case) were some sort of demigod who, with the proper offerings, can be induced to hand down a Sacred Text. In fact, it’s all very simple, a process that anyone with an IQ of [...]
What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
For me, there is an element of the pursuit of the origin of the golden eggs in the analysis of the creative process of poetry. Much of it is mysterious, seemingly self-generating & self-impelling, & I am hesitant about examining the mechanics by which it comes [...]
