Characters, not writers, create books. Characters start as your children and become your teachers. Best-sellers evolve from knowing how to create characters.
Read More »Chloe Thurlow
Landmines, Princess Diana, and the Danger of First Glances
The 1999 Ottawa Convention banning landmines has been ratified by 161 nations, including every country in Europe. Noticeable by its omission is the United States, as well as Russia, China, India, and Pakistan.
Read More »The Border Fence: Walls Torn Down and a Sense of Infinity
In spite of there being 20,000 U.S. border guards, the most at any time in U.S. history, the number of crossings remains unchanged.
Read More »Comparisons Make Everything Look Smaller
When we compare ourselves to others, the tendency to seek out their faults leads us to examine our own, and we end up doubly dissatisfied.
Read More »Charlie Chaplin, ‘House of Cards,’ and Bertolt Brecht’s Alienation Effect
Brecht's Alienation Effect took a different course after Hitler's rise to power. Spacey’s political drama is less about politics than about cold-blooded personal ambition.
Read More »Insects as Food – Raw, Cooked or Dipped in Chocolate?
Insects are free, high in protein and, when you think about it, no weirder nutritionally than oysters, eels, frog’s legs, blowfish, pig’s trotters, sheep’s eyes, or blood sausage.
Read More »Edible Underwear – ‘Do You Want To Eat My Knickers?’
I wasn’t aware that men needed a whiff of chemicals, but the combination of women’s undergarments and the macho motions of the kitchen clearly lends itself to the small screen’s appetite for exotic foods spiced with a sizzling dash of sex.
Read More »What Are You Writing?
Writers are worker ants, always labouring, often without pay, for the good of the nest: the planet we all share. All writing is political.
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