Author: Morton S. Gray

My latest production, Pendle Cottage, which is the working title for my Nanowrimo novel, involves a fair amount of witchcraft, herbal remedies and poison. I was a bit disconcerted to find the research books I wanted to buy filed under a big notice ‘Witchcraft’ in Waterstones. I stood there hoping no one would recognise me.… Continue reading Burned at the Stake

Has anyone else discovered David Whyte? Ellie Swoop and I first met him at Ledbury Poetry Festival in 2008. He is an inspirational poet. During his performance, in which he read his poetry in a very different way, he captivated us both. He reads his poems very slowly to give you time to digest them and… Continue reading Discovering David Whyte

I think that I have now proved to myself, by taking part in Nanowrimo, that I can write around 2000 words a day towards a novel fairly easily. My big question is – how do I do all of the other things I need to do in the day too? Serious writers must be superhuman… Continue reading The Big Question

I went to my writing class today. The tutor passed round three envelopes and we had to take a piece of paper from each. I got ‘milkman’, ‘hotel’ and ‘bottle of perfume’. It never ceases to amaze me what my brain makes of some of these exercises. Here I was trying to write everything in… Continue reading Writing Class Exercise

I finally gave in to some new characters. They appeared in my head and demanded that I try Nanowrimo. For those who don’t know, Nanowrimo is an annual writing challenge held in November. The idea is that participants write a 50,000 word novel during the month. It isn’t a competition, rather a personal achievement. See… Continue reading What Fun

We had seven days in Rome over half term. It wasn’t exactly planned, as little one’s passport only arrived on the Monday before! He loved flying. There was me with usual nerves, he was sat cross-legged on his seat and talking non-stop. It helped that hubbie used his air miles and we had Club class… Continue reading Rome

A quick post, as my head doesn’t seem to have got back from Rome even if my body has! We had a good week. It was very tiring as we walked miles. The weather was very kind. We even saw the Pope and the Popemobile. I’ll post some photos over the next few days. Congratulations… Continue reading Back From Rome and Some Competitions

I love growing my own fruit and veg, even if it is time consuming watering the plants. This is the third year running we’ve grown tomatoes on the patio and we had a bumper crop. We tried broad beans, but only got one meal’s worth. My purple broccoli have mainly succumbed to the cabbage white… Continue reading Home Grown

Or should that say – A history of MY reading part 2 – 2009? I give below a review of books I read in 2009. Binchy, Maeve – Heart and Soul, Orion, 2009, ISBN: 1409102319 Clara Casey has more than enough on her plate. Her daughters Adi and Linda were no problem at all during… Continue reading History of Reading – Part 2

My son’s school hosted a performance by The Pearl of Africa choir on Friday night. The choir are on a fund raising tour to support 3,000 Ugandan orphans and destitute children in eight schools and nine orphanages. Each choir member comes from a background that we can’t even imagine. Many are orphans to AIDS and… Continue reading Humbling Experience