I go to my office at nine and start by revising the previous day's work, which propels me into the next bit. I tend to go to sleep planning the next chapter, so I usually know where I'm going. I write in twenty minute bursts, interspersed with emails, phonecalls, cups of coffee, plus three longer breaks for meals and watching single episodes of whatever boxed set I've got on the go at the time, currently Homicide: Life on the Street. In between I keep writing; even in the shower I'm still thinking about it.
Mslexia: For Women Who Write
Use the link below to visit the website of Scottish journalist, playwright and bestselling crime novelist VAL McDERMID:
The Songwriter: The following biographical statement is taken from Wikipedia. [It is re-posted here for information purposes only and, like the material posted above, remains its author's exclusive copyright-protected intellectual property.]
Richard John Thompson OBE (born 3 April 1949) is a British songwriter, guitarist and recording and performing musician.
Thompson was awarded the Orville H. Gibson award for best acoustic guitar player in 1991. Similarly, his songwriting has earned him an Ivor Novello Award and, in 2006, a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio.
Artists who have recorded Thompson's compositions include such diverse talents as Del McCoury, REM, Bonnie Raitt, Christy Moore, David Gilmour, Mary Black, Elvis Costello, Marshall Crenshaw, The Corrs, Sandy Denny, June Tabor, Joel Fafard, Maria McKee, Shawn Colvin, Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy, Nanci Griffith, Graham Parker, Jefferson Starship, The Pointer Sisters, Maura O'Connell, Los Lobos, John Doe, Greg Brown, Bob Mould, Barbara Manning, Loudon Wainwright III, The Futureheads, Jeff Lang, Dinosaur Jr, David Byrne, and The Blind Boys of Alabama.
Thompson made his début as a recording artist as a member of Fairport Convention in September 1967. He continues to write and record new material regularly and frequently performs live throughout the world. Thompson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music. On 5 July 2011, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Aberdeen. His latest LP Still was released in June 2015.
Use the link below to visit the website of British songwriter and guitarist RICHARD THOMPSON:
I always think that if I write well enough, the people in my books –– the world of those books –– will somehow survive. In time the shoddy and trendy work will fall away and the good books will rise to the top. It’s not reputation that matters, since reputations are regularly pumped up by self-serving agents and publicists and booksellers, by the star machinery of Random House and The New Yorker; what matters is what the author has achieved in the work, on the page. Once it’s between covers, they can’t take it away from you; they have to acknowledge its worth. As a writer, I have to believe that.
'The Lost World of Richard Yates'
[The Boston Review, October/November 1999]
Use the link below to visit the website of North American writer STEWART O'NAN:
As long as we’re young, we manage to find causes for the stoniest indifference, the most blatant caddishness, we put them down to emotional eccentricity or some sort of romantic inexperience. But later on, when life shows us just how much cunning, and cruelty, and malice are required just to keep the body at ninety-eight-point-six [fahrenheit], we catch on, we know the score, we begin to understand just how much swinishness it takes to make up a past. Just take a look at yourself and the degrees of rottenness you’ve come to. There’s no mystery about it, no more room for fairy tales; if you’ve lived this long, it’s because you’ve squashed any poetry you had in you. Life is keeping body and soul together.
Journey to The End of The Night (1932, translated by RALPH MANHEIM 1983)
See below for original French text
Use the link below to read a brief 2013 post about controversial French novelist LOUIS-FERDINAND CÉLINE:
Pendant
la jeunesse, les plus arides indifférences, les plus cynique mufleries,
on arrive à leur trouver des excuses de lubies passionnelles et puis je
ne sais quels signes d'un inexpert romantisme. Mais plus tard, quand
la vie vous a bien montré tout ce qu'elle peut exiger de cautèle, de
cruauté, de malice pour être seulement entretenue tant bien que mal à
37 degrés [centigrade], on se rend compte, on est fixé, bien placé, pour comprendre
toutes les saloperies que contient un passé. Il suffit en tout et pour
tout de se contempler scrupuleusement soi-même et ce qu'on est devenu en fait d'immondice. Plus de mystère, plus de
niaiserie, on a bouffé toute sa poésie puisqu'on a vécu jusque-là. Des
haricots, la vie.
