I’ve just signed up for NaNoWriMo. For what, you say? For National Novel Writing Month. The intention is to write a novel in one month (specifically, in November). My first novel took several years (and far too many revisions) to get into shape, and after several months work I’m only about a quarter way through […]
Taking the Plunge
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 29 October 2006 0
‘Can Ya See What It Is Yet?’
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 3 October 2006 0
A while back at the day job (actually a morning job at a local marine engineering firm) one of the engineers asked me how many words I was likely to produce when I went home to write that afternoon. I had to tell him that it doesn’t work like that, at least not for me. […]
Confessions of a Pessimistic Megalomaniac
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 17 August 2006 0
I have to confess that this summer hasn’t been as productive as I’d hoped, writing wise. This is partly due to the recent impossibly hot weather (now resolved into a more normal British summer of grey, cool and sometimes wet), partly due to a certain disillusionment at my lack of recent story sales, and partly […]
An act of moral cowardice? Discuss
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 9 July 2006 0
This week I didn’t ask a question which I should have. The person I should have asked is one of my American cousins who was over for a holiday. I have a lot of American cousins: my father was one of seven children, and most of his siblings followed the Irish dream of a better […]
Music and Words
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 20 May 2006 0
Most writers work in silence. Even the only notable exception I know of, Stephen King, apparently plays loud thrashy music only as a kind of ‘white noise’, not as something he listens to. Several writers I know say they can’t write at all if music is playing. I, however, need music. I write in a […]
Cabin Fever
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 24 February 2006 0
I’ve decided that having started to blog, I may as well continue, though at a much reduced rate. About once a month should be enough at the moment. Getting home wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it might be. We arrived at Heathrow just before a cold January dawn, but had a warm taxi waiting. […]
Big Trip – Last Post
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 23 January 2006 0
Much as I’d like to tell you about the last three days which I spent at an Indonesian beach resort, I’m typing this at Singapore Airport, with only a few minutes until we board the plane back to London, so to take my mind off the fact that the Big Trip is almost over, I’ll just […]
Lion City
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 20 January 2006 0
Leaving aside the Shopping Incident (see previous blog entry), I think I like Singapore. Not like as in ‘want to live here’ but I’m certainly impressed by it as a city. My condescending western assumptions had painted the place as something like Lima – high rise privilege cheek by jowl with conscience-jolting poverty, but it’s […]
The World’s Most Expensive Jet-Lag Cure
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 17 January 2006 0
I must confess to being a little remiss in my blogging duties as I near the end of the Big Trip. Our stay in Fiordland seems like weeks ago now, and, looking at the calendar, I see that in fact it was. After Fiordland we spent a couple of days in the Catlins, the laid-back bit at […]
NZ Wildlife part 5 (The clue’s in the name)
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 12 January 2006 0
I like woodland. Call it woods, forest or bush, I love places with complex, chaotic ecosystems including lots of trees. Perhaps the most complex (and exotic) woods are rainforests. But the problem with your classic rainforest is that it tends to be hot, humid and full of bugs. However, New Zealand’s rainforest, largely confined to the cooler […]