Thoughts and words

Inspiration from discovering a new author - Patrick Hamilton

At first, The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton (below) does not appear to be a novel about war. Appearances notwithstanding, it is a novel about WW2 but the war is revealed from a different perspective. The year is 1943, but there are no descriptions of combat, of troop movements,... Read more →

Inspiration from music - don't forget to smile

Sometimes a piece of music strikes a chord - if I may put it that way. This morning, on a whim, I played extracts from the operetta Das Land des Laechelns or, in English, The Land of smiles. Written by Franz Lehar, it was first performed in 1929. The operetta... Read more →

Writers are different, aren't they?

One day, one hot and sunny day, when Roddy was 6 years old and learning to read, write and spell at school, the bailiffs came and dismantled his life forever. Later in his career, when he had already written several novels, Roddy understood it was not the bailiffs who had... Read more →

Love, hate, family and jealousy - so why not sickness?

... as a theme for a book, I mean. After all, we - the out-patients of a rehabilitation clinic near Frankfurt - enter the world of the sick every day. It is a place of crutches, swollen knees, massage, of sport, hip replacements and herniated discs. It is a world... Read more →

Inspiration from struggle

A willingness to struggle against the odds and a belief that what you are doing is the right thing for you to do are characteristics that this blogger admires in people in general and in writers in particular. Take JK Rowling, for example. Unless, the story is simply image-creation, it... Read more →

Inspiration from the last breath...

I wonder if I can do this. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, sooner or later, ultimately and in the long run, all things come to an end: youth, our school days, relationships, holidays, books and, indeed, life itself. We writers may well choose... Read more →

Inspiration while walking in the memory of the forest.

Walking is an activity that needs little conscious effort and, therefore, enables the mind to wander off in all sorts of directions. And some of these directions involve the walker's mind freely dipping in and out of the past, the present, his/her senses and related associations. The first time I... Read more →

Inspiration through bodily functions - at the hospital

One of the walking wounded would describe my position during a recent stay in the local hospital and, as such, I was able to observe the workings of the doctors and nurses. They turned up in jeans and pullovers - just the sort of people with whom one might have... Read more →