Author: deborahb
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Water and dust
Apparently California is in the middle of a drought. Not as bad as the Australian one, apparently: we are increasingly unable to grow rice. This is a logical conclusion I hadn’t really considered. Unable to grow rice? What the. Then again, perhaps we’ll be able to grow rice in the Arctic soon enough. Water is…
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More or less human
When Michael Jackson died, I was surprised as hell. It didn’t occur to me he’d die. It didn’t occur to me, I realised, that he was still alive. I thought, ‘This has reminded me Michael Jackson was human.’ But when the old footage started rolling over & over, the footage of the all-singing-all-dancing Michael Jackson,…
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Ninety per cent
The window is replaced, the excitement has died down, I still can’t find anything missing from the house after last week’s uninvited visit. But now we have a motion-sensitive light over our backyard & a locksmith scheduled to make our internal door even more steadfast than it proved to be last week. (What a great…
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Bad pennies
Much excitement at chateau deborahb this morning, but not the good kind. Turns out we had a break-in last night while we were sleeping. And before anyone feels TOO sorry for me, I have to confess that all I lost was a window (400 bucks, thank you very much) & whatever peace of mind I…
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Visual inspiration: Apply within
A good, long chat today with author rcdaniells about the importance of visual inspiration. Oddly, I don’t hear a lot of writers talking about visual influences though I suspect it’s more prevalent than a lot of people make out. Plenty of people talk about the importance of music, ‘what music do you listen to while…
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Economical writing
Reading today about John Cheever: He wrote stories in his underpants, not to wear out his clothes. — Morris Lurie, The Big Issue, #331, 16-29 June, 2009 Which is the kind of detail that grabs your attention. “No one, absolutely no one, share his life with him.” This is Federico, Cheever’s younger son. “There was…
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Drawing outside the lines
I’m often not a fan of subversive art, finding its teenaged narcissism unattractive. I make an exception for this guy, though. There’s just too much nutty good humour to Banksy’s art. Described as a ‘covert graffiti artist’, the true identity of Banksy is unknown. (Instantly my mind rushed to the conclusion that it’s a consortium.…
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It’s a spaceship!
My favourite Twitter buddy & source of inspiration? New Scientist. Yesterday they were looking at clouds. Some amazing images there. No wonder we believe in the supernatural. If the world can create ‘accidental’ images like this, it’s very confusing…
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Booked
In my (new & ongoing) obsession with book production, I’m interested to find out about this publishing house via Jeff VanderMeer’s blog: Write Bloody Publishing. They proclaim: “We are proud of our unique style by utilizing modern painters, photographers and rock album designers for all our book cover art.” Of course, they publish only American…
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The week already feels long
Somewhere around the beginning of June I wondered why I was still receiving the poets.org April Poem-a-Day emails. Not that I’m complaining. I love getting a new poem every day. And today it was revealed: in honour of the poets.org 75th anniversary, this year the website sent SEVENTY-FIVE poems! My quote-a-day emails, however, from a…