A Year of Writing: Days 221-230

Day 221 of #ayearofwriting and I am keeping my promise to submit work rather than let it sit there. Two weeks in and I have submitted three stories, all different ones, to three different magazines. The question today is how do you deal with your submissions?

Day 222 of #ayearofwriting and a question for those who use laptops or computers etc. What do you have your wallpaper to inspire you? This is one of my heroes, Frida Kahlo, most of us don’t know but she was largely forgotten as a painter until she was rediscovered by the Feminist movement. She is a great role model for women and disabled alike. She kept on going no matter what life threw at her, and the art work is raw and beautiful. Funnily enough, I think writers look for iconography in their craft, talismans to keep them going and Frida is mine.

Day 223 of #ayearofwriting and I have a paradox in my story, an eight-four year old woman who needs a carer, a survivor of Hiroshima, but she is not a ghost, she has the body of a thirty-something. Is this why she is a lock in? What is her secret. Sometimes you can take Miss Havisham and twist it all on its head. I have no idea where this is going but I liked the image of an overtly sexual person that is untouchable.

Day 224 of #ayearofwriting and has Japanese culture become a trope of SF. If we consider stylisation long before Bladerunner, you can see Japanese influence and Japanese SF is often more shocking than Western. Is it simply a case that the events of August all those years ago bore into a world psyche as Japan as the future? The atomic bomb gave birth to a new age, it is the destroyer of worlds including traditional pulp fiction. Japan has given us the cheap chip and much more. We all carry the new age in our bones as strontium 90, the residue of an atomic bomb, Chernobyl laid down in our DNA. Even the shape of the cloud is distinctly like the tree of life laid down in Eastern cultures. Though we think the threat of a nuclear war fades, it has already happened in all those tests, we all carry the bomb. Maybe that is why when we look at Japanese culture it resonates with us, a sense of guilt laid down in our narrow.

Day 225=229 of #ayearofwriting

Day 230 of #ayearofwriting and I apologise for not posting this week. The reason is simple and sad. The boy in the photo is my Dad and he died yesterday aged 76. So, please give me a little time.