About my Writing

Firstly I would like to say that I write because that is what I love to do.  I seek not fame or fortune through my stories, I do however, hope in small small way that the people who have been kind enough to read  my bloggings, (is that the correct term for what is posted here?) anyway, I hope they have enjoyed reading them as much as I have enjoyed writing them.  If not, then no one is forcing them to read on or call again.

The way I write, meaning the kind of language I write in, is typically UK Southern English.  OK, it isn't UK Southern English in the style of say Stephen Fry (he was actually born in the US and imported) or even that of Nigel Barker, (he, on the other hand, was born in the UK and exported) their accents are more upper class Estuary English.  Mine is Surrey/Dorset bog standard colloquial English, but I do try to smarten it up.  I do not use long complicated words in my everyday speech, so I can not see the need to use them when I write.  If a reader feels cheated by the lack of words much longer and more complex than, say, the word 'marmalade' then perhaps he/she ought to be reading something more academic and not my work.  I firmly believe that most people would much rather follow the story line without reaching for the dictionary every five minutes.  

Some of my characters do use profanities, they swear, and some of them swear like troopers.  That is simply because that is what the ordinary man, or woman, on the street does, it forms part of ordinary day to day living.  (Perhaps where you live no one ever swears, not even the mildest 'darn' is heard to pass their lips,  if so, I would like to visit, it sounds exceptional!)  Although having said that, I believe that in all my stories printed here and elsewhere I have only permitted a character to use the 'F' word once, and if you read the story, "Burden's Close," it's on this site somewhere, you will see that there was no other expletive he could have used under the rather strange circumstances.   I NEVER, NEVER, use the 'C' word, it is course and disgusting and will never have a place in my writings.

I do have barriers, borders, that I have set.  Either because I have no wish to go down that road, or I simply can't go down that road.  I will firstly deal with graphic sexual scenes.  Of course I mention sex, that too is part of normal every day life.  But I have never felt the compulsion to write on as to what happens in those moments after  the hero has swept the heroine up in his arms and carried her off to the bedroom.  I always have him heeling the door shut behind him.  This should tell the reader two things, a) you're not invited to watch, and b) I have been widowed so long that, quite frankly, I've forgotten how it goes!  This in no way prevents the reader from using his/her own imagination to fill in the gaps though,  and for younger more active readers, as already explained in b), you will in all likelihood be able to make a better job of it than I.

Graphic violence, of any kind, I can not do.  It is not something easily explained, all I can do in the attempt is to use a load of 'perhaps's.'  Perhaps it is because I am not, and never have been a violent person,  I have never even harboured violent thoughts about another, for what ever reason.  Perhaps it is because I feel the need to describe the actual crime is unnecessary because I am well able to go on and give an account of forensic findings, be they either autopsies, diverse injuries found on living victims, or the results of rape test kits. Perhaps for me extreme violence is true horror, it happens in the real world outside of fiction, and perhaps I feel that my readers could do with a break from the graphic blow-by-blow details that can be both seen and read about in the media.

So, if you really can't do without the count the limbs and divide by two sex scenes, or improbable amounts of gushing blood and tumbling guts, along with other viscous tissues dribbling, spurting, or sloshing all over the pages of your chosen read, then there are lots of excellent authors out there that, I am told, will do an admirable job at providing you with such, I am not one of them.

In conclusion, I am well aware that my stories have been called imaginative at best, and nice or pleasant at worst.  I can only go back to the beginning of this particular write and once more state that I write because that is what I love to do.  I write for my pleasure and no one else's.  If you wish to metaphorically hop on board for the ride, then I welcome you to do so, if not then you will have to stand in the queue and wait for for another bus.