The Week - #2
Round-up of all the cool things (and not-so-cool things)
Welcome to my weekly round-up of all things consumed and created (apart from food and drink). I set a reminder on my phone so I wouldn’t forget to post this weekend, and then stared at the reminder for ages trying to remember what the heck ‘Write The Week meant! So welcome to my brain, and here we go…
Writing
Another slow and frustrating week, but there has been small edit progress, so I’ll take that. My concentration span seems decimated at the moment.
On the plus side, I have started an uncanny short story with a killer first line, so now I’m waiting for the rest of it to come…
Books I’m Reading / Books I’ve Read
This book! Wow. Beautifully short, so direct-in-your-veins, I adored this and need to read more like it. A house full of saints, angels and insects, things in the walls, under the beds, but really it’s the women and their rage and vengeance that eats away at them. A real call-to-arms against violent men and the injustices of the class system. I cannot believe this is a debut. Woodworm by Layla Martinez.
Now onto my bookclub read for this month - White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi. Spooky season is in full-flow. I’m a few pages in and Helen’s prose is pretty stunning. High hopes for this one.
Books I’ve Bought (Because BUYING and READING are two separate hobbies)
I’ve bought the Blight Harbor series by Lora Senf after listening to Lora talk about horror for children on the excellent Talking Scared podcast. I am in complete agreement that horror definitely has a place for children - it’s an important way to make sense of the world. And surely at least one of my children has inherited my love of all things dark and scary? This is one of those Christmas presents that will serve both the children and myself - that’s a thing, right?
TV and Film
A personal one for me this week - I watched DNA Journey on ITV, where we saw the actor, John Simm, discovering that his father was in fact not his biological father. After a close writing friend suggested I take an Ancestry DNA test because ‘the results are fascinating’, I unexpectedly found the dad I never knew existed. This has been a year of getting to know him (he lives five minutes from me!), and my two lovely half-sisters. When I saw this episode advertised, I messaged my dad and we texted throughout, pointing out the similarities, laughing, and truly life can be so bizarre. I felt every emotion that John Simm did, and I have said this many times now - Ancestry DNA has a lot to answer for! I would suggest only taking a test if you are prepared for what it might throw up, but also, you will never be truly prepared for what it might throw up. Happily, my test brought only good things.
And, of course, I’ve jumped on the Nobody Wants This bandwagon. Binged almost the entire series in one afternoon because it’s completely watchable and completely relatable. The ICK? YES! Many a relationship has been instantly ended by this unknown and usually completely surprising thing that presents itself to you - may I present Exhibit A, the guy who came to stay for a few days, but I sent him home after just one day because I couldn’t stand the trainers he was wearing. They truly gave me the ICK. I truly thought that Noah was condemned to the bin because nobody has ever returned from my ICKs. But also, a moment of appreciation for how beautifully Adam Brody has aged, like a fine wine, curly hair and all.
I made an attempt to watch a horror movie called Cobweb. It started great, noises in the wall, spooky house, parents who never wake when heir kids are screaming in the night. Tick, tick, tick. But then the loving, caring parents in one scene suddenly opened up a dark and spooky basement where they were going to put their son as punishment, and I felt cheated and lied to! So that was the end of that stupid movie.
Podcasts
This week saw the conclusion of Elizabeth Day’s How to Write a Book podcast. Twelve weeks of brilliant writing advice from agent Nelle Andrew, author Sara Collins, and publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove. What I really loved about this podcast was the true love of storytelling they all have, very inspiring and very honest. For anyone starting out, this is a great resource. You can listen to all episodes here.
Until next week. Happy consuming and creating! x