Shores of Night

One of the arguably many things that's off about the 'net is the way it acts as an amplifier for the nastier parts of the human psyche. No matter what sites we visit it is almost a given that the content will in some way boost negative feelings, even if trends of looking at pictures of fluffy kittens being adorable are strong and stable. This seems to be strongest on sites where users can leave comments, principally news sites, where it seems as if almost anything can produce vigorous responses, and many of these are what might be termed 'unhelpful'. Arguments and flame wars grow up over the most innocuous comments; articles are torn apart. Truisms are repeated, often without pausing to check if they actually are true. There are quite a few subjects that gather ire, Israel and Palestine, Atheism and Christianity, and anything to do with sexism, feminism or the rights of either sex. And the comments they produce will largely simply echo 'truisms'. This seems ...

It's been a while since I posted anything on here, owing to a few factors, ranging from the end of my MA, some turmoil in my life and the realisation that I have 'takes on too much' as a character flaw. So, aside from working there's been a bit of reassessment and working out where I go from here. It felt great to hand in my Final Project, I'm just getting over the sense of having nothing I need to do (mostly because I'm aware how false that is; there's lots to be getting on with). It also feels strange to have finished the course, I can say hand on heart that the last two years have been the most interesting and gratifying of my adult life, bar things like getting married and adopting the cats. I've learnt a lot and feel that now, with work and luck, I can actually send things out to agents with confidence. The Goth travel book, Dark Adapted Eye is out doing the rounds and I'm working on a collection of female focused sword and sorcery short sto...