Blog: Mel's Muse

A Painful Post Mortem - Couldn't Put This Book Down

I’m not normally a reader; however, I could not put this book down. I felt privileged . . . This is an honest account of the difficulties that are all too often encountered behind the scenes. Thank you . . . For those of you have not read it, I strongly encourage you to...

Posted at 15:00pm on 25th August 2008

The How-to Of Creative Writing - Part Two - Theme

CREATIVE WRITING PROJECT

How did you get on last week? Did you find the list of prompts helpful - i.e. considering a modern take on a Bible story or a nursery rhyme as inspiration? I hope you've got plenty of ideas milling around in your mind. Keep a note of them...

Posted at 18:14pm on 23rd August 2008

New York Times Comments On Rick Warren's Forum

SHOULD POLITICS AND RELIGION MIX?

Should politics and religion mix? This is the question which is vexing the readers of the New York Times – and probably many more of the population.

REV RICK WARREN’S FORUM

An article by the columnist William Kristol, titled Showdown at Saddleback, was what prompted the dispute. It seems that Rev. Rick...

Posted at 11:47am on 21st August 2008

The How-to Of Creative Writing - Part One - Ideas For Plot

TRIED & TESTED TECHNIQUES

Last week I posted a blog about beginning a series on writing a book. The introduction was titled The How-to of Writing a Novel, but I've now decided that the series might be better titled The How-to of Creative Writing. In last week's post, I suggested that...

Posted at 19:13pm on 16th August 2008

1 Comment

Reading Between The Lines

Related topics:
Books & Reading
The Isolation Of Being Unable To Read CAN’T READ, CAN’T WRITE

Did anybody watch the UK’s Channel 4’s Can’t Read, Can’t Write series? It focused on people from different backgrounds and ages: the young mother who was unable to help with her children’s homework, the labourer who longed to improve his job prospects,...

Posted at 14:41pm on 15th August 2008

Reeling In The Royalties - A Dangerous Weakness?

Well, what did you think of that for a piece of audacious publicity? I read it several times, trying to stem a rising tide of envy with a modicum of magnanimity – and still didn’t see beyond the obvious.

I’m referring to the 93 year old lady who has just published her first book. Good...

Posted at 08:47am on 13th August 2008

The How-to Of Writing A Novel - Introduction

HOW TO WRITE A BOOK. OR NOT?

One of the flattering, if potentially fatal, aspects of being an author is that other people want you to read their manuscripts. It isn't always that they want to know how to write a book. They have, they tell you, already done so. It's...

Posted at 17:06pm on 10th August 2008

Bring Words Of Hope - By Blogging

Revised 26th November, 2009

The article that follows was written in August 2008 when I had been blogging for little more than three weeks. For reasons which I’ll explain later (see below) I thought it worth adding to. But first, the article as it was:

A RAY OF HOPE FOR A PERFECTIONIST

Please bear with me. I’ve been...

Posted at 18:16pm on 7th August 2008

Does My Bum Look Big In This? (or That Wretched F-word Again)

A fortnight ago I wrote that legislation against the use of certain words (like Chav) is ludicrous and went on to quote from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. “It’s not the word that’s at fault,” I said. “What’s...

Posted at 09:07am on 4th August 2008

Drugs & Human Rights - The God Of The Era

Click for related post: Parent Power = Kids' Confidence

I wonder how this generation of policy-makers will go down in history? Human Rights, it seems, is the god of the era. It certainly takes precedence over any sort of morality. And common sense? Well that's out of the window.

I refer to...

Posted at 10:23am on 1st August 2008

Page 51 of 54