It’s a cliche to say it, but being a new adult is hard. For the last eighteen years, my life has been divided up into education and not-education. Everything was always temporary: I was at school, or I was at home, and sooner or later that would reverse and I’d be at home, or I’d be at school. When I was at uni, the year was divided into term time and non-term time, and I knew that wherever I was…
One of the things I learned during A-Level English Literature that I hadn’t come across before was the idea of different readings of a text. I mean, I think I’d been doing it unconsciously already, but the terminology hadn’t crossed my path. I didn’t know you could do a ‘feminist reading’ of a text, let alone a ‘queer reading’. I didn’t know it was legitimate to look at material through a certain lens and see what it uncovered, and discovering…
Recently, I’ve been thinking about the nature of LGBTQ+ literature. It was prompted somewhat by the recent controversy over the treatment of Lexa in The 100, and the resurgence of posts by bloggers I follow about the ‘Bury Your Gays’ (or ‘Bury Your Queers’ — I’ve seen both used, and tend to opt for that because I find it a bit more inclusive, although I know some people aren’t comfortable with the term) trope. My friend Engie’s post No More…
I almost forgot about today’s Poem-mas post, and then when I remembered it was already getting late, but I’m not above staying up late due to an arbitrary commitment I made to the internet and which absolutely nobody will notice if I miss, so here I am. HELLO INTERNET. YOUR TASK FOR 2016 IS TO PERSUADE ME TO GET A LIFE. Anyway, after some dissertation funtimes this afternoon followed by a nap I didn’t really mean to take, I’m in…
I actually remembered about my Teens Can Write Too! post this month, although that isn’t saying much. (It seems like hardly any time since my last one, which I suppose it is.) I spent quite a lot of yesterday thinking about how I would fill the prompt, and realised it’s a very difficult one for me to tackle. This month we’re being asked to write a letter to a fictional couple, so I’ve been wondering who to write about. Then…
Is this — could this be — is this a post that isn’t about books? Ha. Nope, it’s not. Get used to it, because I like talking about books. Recently, Engie @ Musings From Neville’s Navel convinced me to read the Skulduggery Pleasant series. Well, I’m not entirely sure if she convinced me directly, but she certainly wrote a number of blog posts encouraging people to do so, and whether or not she directed these comments at me personally, I…
I feel like I should have some kind of tag or content warning here: ahoy, personal post about Me and My Life and Things That Happened In It. But I guess that’s most of the posts on this blog, so you should be used to it by now. I’m not even sure why I’m telling you this. I think it’s because it’s something I would have found helpful to hear a few months ago, and I’m hoping that it will…
Hey, guess what? I’m a massive fail, and didn’t realise Monday was my time to post my contribution to the Teens Can Write Too! blog chain until Friday, and then I’d already posted, so it’s going up now. My apologies. I’m a useless human being. I know. “What’s one thing you wish you knew when you started writing?” Oh man. There are so many things I wish I’d known. Can I just write myself, like, a list? No, I’m always…
Today, we’re going to travel in time. Our time machine is the book Lament by Maggie Stiefvater. Go on, pick it up. It’s right there. Pick it up, open it, and breathe in that smell. That’s it. We’re back. Let’s have a look at what we can see. October 2009 Look — it’s me! I’m thirteen years old. I’m in year nine at school, finally leaving behind my frustrating form group who were always getting put in class detentions to…
I used to be a plot-based writer. I mean, I cared about my characters, sometimes I cried over them, but on the whole they were plot points. Their lives were defined by the direction of the plot. Their relationships existed because they caused events to happen, or were caused by other events. Their interactions revolved around plot. And that is, to an extent, true of all characters. Since getting involved with fandom, however, I’ve realised that there’s more to it…