For matters of national security....

I have this exercise for students in Writers' Gym which is:

For matters of national security, an undercover spy has to impersonate you in your everyday life. Write instructions. (1000 words)

When I first set the exercise, I chortled to myself. I was so pleased, in fact, I stopped and had a wee lap-of-honor coffee.
Because, to be honest with you, one of the greatest bonuses in teaching people anything, is that you can set them lessons you don't entirely have to do yourself.  ....read more

Truth Be Told

I was out walking Arthur this weekend, and a neighbor stopped me to introduce their relative.

"You're Craig Ferguson's sister." said the relative.

"Hello. Yes, I am," I replied, "Though I find it's more convenient to operate under the name of Lynn."

Not particularly interested in this information, he continued. "I have a Craig Ferguson story."    ....read more

The Dangers of Children’s Literature

We read all sorts of bedtime stories to the kids when they were younger: the Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's child, even the slightly dodgy, and astonishingly award winning- "Rasta Mouse and Da Bag O Bling", but the one that always sticks in my mind, is "Small Brown Dog's Bad Remembering day."

I don't know where we got it, - I suspect it was a gift. It seemed inoffensive enough - the story of a little brown dog who was having a bad remembering day.
Turned out though, when I read it, the small brown dog couldn't just not remember stuff, he couldn't remember his name. So, he spent the entirety of the book, wandering around asking all the other dogs in the neighborhood, if they could help him work out who he was.
Most of the other dogs don't know his name, but they do know stuff like he likes chasing squirrels, and jumping in puddles, and eventually after recognizing all the things that make him who he is, the small dog remembers his own name.

After the first read I said to Mark that the small brown dog was frankly a black-out drunk and should be taken off the reading repertoire. But as with most things, ...read more