Stop obsessing?

# "You are lost in your own glory, you are believing your own story..." # - Cake

I've been reminiscing a lot about years gone by in 2008 (the reasons for which I'll make properly clear in a couple of posts' time), but in particular this month I'm recalling an undergrad study I took on around the time I first got into serious fiction writing which looked at the idea of "obsession" being used in Modern American TV comedy, (focusing on Friends, Fraiser and Seinfeld). In those days, I was already studying a uni module on TV comedy in Britain and this theme had emerged in UK sitcoms too... But looking at it from my perspective now as a general writer of fiction, the theme of obsession is actually one which has peppered my creative tales in the ten years since I've begun my writing life too...

Read More

It's been a good run...

# "I'm an anchor on the line of a clock that tells the time
that is running out on you" # - Counting Crows

I'll be recovering for most of this month I suspect from one of the greatest things I've ever done in my life so far... a 13.1 mile half-marathon called the Great North Run here in the UK... It's been one of those events in the local calendar and popular imagination that I've grown up with in Newcastle when around the same time every year, close to the end of summer, literally thousands of people from all over the country (and the world) descend on our city and most main roads are closed off to make way for what's become known as the biggest half-marathon in the world...

Read More