Why Mr Glover Doesn't Need Facebook

When writer and broadcaster Richard Glover wrote a column about his 20 favourite Facebook faux pas, his last point ruffled the feathers. “Posting a link to your own work…as if I’d ever do something as egocentric as that.”

Mr Glover doesn’t need Facebook. He has a longstanding gig on ABC radio, a weekly newspaper column, eight published books and a well-stocked website. Other writers are not so well established. For them, Facebook and Twitter are occupational necessities.

Food Stuff

The other day a tiny bird usually perched on top of a most sensitive literary radar flew down and sat on my shoulder. "Tweet tweet": have you heard about the latest literary sensation? No, not the smutty one. This little birdie is channelling a seriously influential publishing fat cat and apparently his novel is a winner. I’ve only read the first chapter so far. This evocative tome sets every bodily sense jigging. I can see the film. I can suggest actors. I can imagine awards ceremony sometime. Because the book's all about food and food stories are always winners.

Leonard

The Serious Writing Course (TSWC) is over. Now that I don't have to beg for Tuesday night soup and sourdough from the cafe with no food or convene with the lovely group of similarly conflicted-when -it-comes-to-writing souls, I have to make do with my man. I shove his greatest hits into the CD socket, place the headset over the ears and turn up the volume. It will be Him who gets me to the end of this book from now on, not Tuesday nights at TSWC. Anthem, Dance Me to the End of Love, Show Me the Place...

But first, let me recall for a moment, the best concert ever:-

The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Blog

Someone should have told me never to mess with the settings of a blog late at night, when tired and fraught after The Serious Writing Course (TSWC). When my head is filled with the possibilities of writing, but the pages remain blank as the pause continues. And so I find myself writing on a blog which, at the moment, is visible only to myself. I don't know whether I'll see this little piece when I post. So, here goes...I will test the internet waters and see if my toes freeze and fall off. Back in a tic...

Tomato Sauce

The perfect tomato sauce is like the perfect novel. Ask readers and writers about their favourite book and they might say it is all about form and content. The perfect combination of ingredients, structured and balanced with enough flavour to make you wail for more and experience a kind of sadness when it’s finished. Like the offspring who took the latest Harry Potter doorstopper to bed for the entire weekend and after she'd finished, refused to get out of bed because of the sadness she felt, so too for penne coated in the perfect tomato sauce with a light dust of shaved parmesan casting a textured golden hue. Devoured quickly, the bowl wiped clean with a crispy crust of ciabatta; it's a beautiful story, not just dinner. You’ve loved it and you feel kind of sad when it's over.