Writing - International Women's Day

 March 8th is International Women's Day. The international situation, regarding Iran and the behaviour of American President Donald J. Trump, is probably of more importance than usual today. It seems to me MAGA's attitude towards women is a step backwards into the Victorian era. In fact, it is quite sad that in the 21^st century, we have taken a huge step backwards. 

There are many seriously clever women in the world today, and have been throughout time. The insecurity of men keeping women in the background goes back centuries. However, it will no longer work; information is now much more readily available at a moment’s notice. With the advent of the internet and mobile phones, and even in the most repressed societies, mobile phones are available, whether the powers in charge like that situation or not. This is true for all nations, all cultures and all races around the world. Sadly, the current situation in the world is being created by old white men. Women make better leaders. 

Toni Morrison published her first novel in 1970 at the age of 39. The book, “The Bluest Eye,” unflinchingly explored themes of gender and internalised racism, setting Morrison on a prolific literary course that would ultimately earn the American author a Nobel Prize in literature in 1993. 

Born the youngest of three children in Decatur, Alabama, Mae Jemison was a student of science before going on to serve as a medical officer in the Peace Corps and establish her own practice as a doctor. Inspired by the Apollo moon trips but discouraged by the lack of female astronauts, Jemison pivoted careers and, in 1987, applied to NASA.

Out of more than 2,000 applicants, Jemison was selected to train at Kennedy Space Centre. On Sept. 12, 1992, Jemison boarded the space shuttle "Endeavour", and along with six other astronauts, she orbited the Earth. Her trip to space landed Jemison in the history books as the first Black woman in space.

Just two of a plethora of women who have had significant influence in the world. 

God Bless 

Poetry Thursday 134 - Precious Words

 The Trump administration, MAGA, is convinced they are doing God's work. They are entitled to their opinion. After this week's attack on Iran I felt this poem/prayer was relevant. 

God is in the Rain

 

When we pray to God looking to the skies

we see the clouds before our eyes,

and as we pray to God we ask questions

for ourselves and others, for His suggestions,

on how to live each and every day

and keep illness, fear and trouble at bay.

 

When we pray to God looking to the skies

we see endless expanse before our eyes,

and as we pray to God we confess our sins

looking for the peace His forgiveness brings

to our aching souls and tortured lives,

bringing gentleness that we may survive.

 

When we pray to God looking to the skies

we see the sun before our eyes,

and as we pray to God we give our vow

to live as He would expect from now

so that the world will be a better place

for us and the rest of the human race.

 

When we pray to God looking to the skies

we see drops of rain before our eyes,

but as we pray to God we fail to see

the extent and infinite care that He

lavishes on us time and again,

as frequently as every drop of rain.

© David L Atkinson November 2014 

God Bless 

Writing - Dare to be different

When I started writing in 2011, it never occurred to me that eventually I would start being concerned about writing to a formula.  In fact, being concerned about writing to a formula is one of the reasons why I stopped writing novels.

 Now I’m not saying that becoming formulaic in your writing is a bad thing, particularly if you've attracted an audience, because the audience may well be attracted to the style and the repeated actions that you include in stories. 

Just take, for instance, the way Poirot stories end with the collection together of the witnesses/suspects in this tale so that the detective Hercule Poirot can name the perpetrators. The writer of the TV series set in the Caribbean, Death in Paradise, has actually employed a similar conclusion for each episode.

If you are fortunate enough to have gathered the following it may be because of the security that your writing formula has generated in their minds, so not altogether a bad thing. However, I found that writing to a formula can also make you lazy, and even as the writer, it can become boring, and so I gave up writing novels A while ago now.

That doesn’t mean to say I would never go back to it, but I would actually quite like to do something a little different. So enjoy your writing and even enjoy your success with whatever formula, if you have a formula you use, but keep your mind open to alternatives. I did break away from the Steele formula after 5 stories and wrote Cessation. 

Get Cessation from Amazon. 

 

 God Bless 

 

Poetry Thursday 133 - Charligos

 Thomas Malthus: Though his work predated the 1834 Poor Act, his Malthusian population theories argued that poor relief encouraged population growth and laziness. This encouraged the attitude that the poor are a different species. Bring on the oligarchs. 

Charligos

 

I don’t know what the ceiling  is,

I shudder as the feeling is

  higher than my  earnings is

 I am a different species

 

 Got me reaching for marmalade jar

 reaching for Pooh’s honey bar

 rated by someone who sells a car

 I am a different species

 

Don’t be fooled by their speed of talk,

or how they choreograph their walk,

on the ocean like a bobbing cork,

they are the different species.

 

No human ability to empathise,

or generous capacity to sympathise, 

only of wealth do they fantasise,

they are the different species.

 

Their raison d’etre to amass gilt,

fully committed to the hilt,

without a momentary feeling of guilt,

on stealing from lower species.

 

Time to curtail their rampant greed,

the rest of us have a greater need,

time to corral the demon’s seed,

in a place for that species.

©David L Atkinson February 2026 

God Bless 

Writing - Current Affairs

 Do you ever feel that sometimes you could do with a collapsible soap box available to you when you come across an issue that winds you up? You could just do with getting onto the soapbox and spouting  your opinions about the issue. As a writer, you have the ideal platform. 

There are a couple of ways in which you can broadcast your feelings from your metaphorical soapbox when you’re writing. You can actually write the whole story, weaving the current affairs issue into the narrative. This could involve your characters taking positions that you identify with yourself. Or you can insert relevant paragraphs that express your opinions literally. In Richard Osman’s The Impossible Fortune, he uses the latter strategy very effectively.

As I have written about on many previous occasions, it is your duty as a writer to produce some commentary on current affairs. It certainly fits into the category of writing from where you're at, and as such, you are providing information for future historical reference.

 

In fact, it can also be a great deal of fun to indulge oneself in this type of exercise. (Unless you live in Russia.) In fact, some such commentary remains relevant almost 200 years since published. Try Dickens writings in the 1840's and more recently 1984 by Orwell, which have attitudes reflected in what is going on in the USA currently. 

God Bless 

 

 

Poetry Thursday 132 - Raining

 What a soggy start to the new year. 

Raining

 

Opened the curtains and saw the rain,

everyday soaking the soggy

 brain,

in spite of praying once again,

no change on the weather train.

  

Pouring down on gardens and fields,

dripping everywhere that isn’t sealed,

running in gutters and down the windshield,

pooling on roads and even in hayfields.

 

Oh when will this soggy pattern end,

enough to drive me round the bend,

when will gentle spring portend,

and add some warm and dry to the trend.

 

Change we need is on the way,

there is a little more brightness every day,

 looking forward to a first spring ray,

and the urge to go out and play.

 

Opened the curtains again today,

met with a vista of uninterrupted grey,

is there more rain on the way,

no surprise holidays taken far away.

©David L Atkinson February 2026

To the weather 

God Bless 

Writing - Tech stuff

 One of the factors that may ‘age’ your work is the technology you refer to in your work. It may be made more obvious when stories are transferred to screens. Even reading can pick up old tech, which may jar in the mind of your customer.

 

If you are writing an historical story, then the technology becomes secondary, but if you are writing about recent history, say the 1980s, then objects such as phones are very different from what we see today. There were no smartphones and the mobiles were the size of bricks and prohibitively expensive.

Cars may also be time-sensitive.  Even if you are writing in the present time, stay up-to-date. When I was writing Steele , as part of my preparation, I researched vehicles and weaponry and kept that document for the whole series of books, updating as was necessary. The exercise highlighted the capability of the weapons, which provided relevant background for the narrative. Similarly, vehicle performance and tech can provide an interesting  background that will appeal to some sections of your readership. 

This may seem unimportant but it is inclusive for some, and for those less driven by details, may skip a paragraph. The bones of your story are important because it demonstrates to the reader that you care enough to look after the details. 

Similarly, empathising with the action you are describing can introduce accurate realism, thus clothing the bones and giving your audience information on which to pin their own knowledge and imagination. The example I often use is the magazine capacity of handguns. When I began writing Steele, the biggest magazines only held 12 – 15 cartridges. By the time I finished the last book, there was a Glock with a magazine for many more bullets. 

If I were writing about nowadays, there would have to be an electric vehicle in there somewhere, and obviously AI, but updated in comparison to ‘Hal’ in 2001 A Space Odyssey.

In fact, writing the tech stuff I enjoyed greatly. Each to their own.

 

God bless