De-blog

Another CV / character profile from the  Hiding Behind The Couch series . Profiles posted so far: Kris Johansson Charlie Davenport Sean Tierney Jess Lambert Dan Jeffries Eleanor Davenport Hiding Behind The Couch  is an ongoing series about a group of friends—‘The Circle’ (the original main characters in the series), which has expanded and changed over time to include the ‘extended circle’ (additional main characters, below the circle on the right). Today’s featured character is Krissi, who isn’t one of The Circle, or even the extended circle, but she’s been around as long as they’ve been ‘a thing’. Krissi is Shaunna’s daughter and Kris’s stepdaughter (Circle: The Next Generation?). She turns twenty-one during Season One ( Hiding Behind The Couch ). You can find both the writing and suggested reading order for the series on this page:  deb248211.blogspot.co.uk/p/hiding-behind-couch.html Krissi Johansson Name: Krissi Johansson Eyes: Brown Hair: B...

Title: The Descent of Man Author: Grayson Perry Publisher: Allen Lane Published: 20th October, 2016 ISBN: 9780241236277 Blurb: Grayson Perry has been thinking about masculinity - what it is, how it operates, why little boys are thought to be made of slugs and snails - since he was a boy. Now, in this funny and necessary book, he turns round to look at men with a clear eye and ask, what sort of men would make the world a better place, for everyone? What would happen if we rethought the old, macho, outdated version of manhood, and embraced a different idea of what makes a man? Apart from giving up the coronary-inducing stress of always being 'right' and the vast new wardrobe options, the real benefit might be that a newly fitted masculinity will allow men to have better relationships - and that's happiness, right? Grayson Perry admits he's not immune from the stereotypes himself - as the psychoanalysts say, 'if you spot it, you've got it' - and h...

WIPpet numbers for 25th October, 2017: 25 sentences from Tabula Rasa WIPpet Context: Another snippet from Tabula Rasa  (Gray Fisher #2). I'm into the final quarter of the novel, and I’m still not entirely convinced I’ve nailed the ‘crime’ element. Hey-ho. This novel follows on from The WAG and The Scoundrel , featuring two former undercover police officers, Gray Fisher and Rob Simpson-Stone. Their investigations relate to white-collar crimes (fraud, embezzlement, etc.), and there are also romantic relationship story arcs (however, not between Gray—who is gay, and Rob—who is straight). This WIPpet snippet follows on from previous snippets . Rob is with his grown-up niece, Lois; they’re spending the afternoon together, at the park. Amber is Lois’s younger sister. * * * * * “D’you remember the last time we did this?” Lois asked. Rob nodded. He remembered it vividly, but he stayed quiet, hoping she’d tell the tale. “You were home on leave… I used to loved that—s...

Pyjamas. Pajamas. Does Cat even wear pyjamas? More likely a silk chemise. Hmm... OK, so here's the thing. Or half the thing, because I don't want to go off on a Josh tangent (but figured I'd get away with mentioning him). I write a series, and I've been writing it for a long time. In fact, next week marks the ten-year anniversary of when I began writing the first novel, and that date coincides (almost - one day difference) with the release of what is nominally the last story in A.M. Leibowitz's 'Faithfully Yours' series. Which is a pretty cool coincidence. Except for the 'nominally the last story' part. *sniffle* There's a lot more to that coincidence - how I got lucky enough to read A.M. Leibowitz's books...before release mwahahaha, and the parallels between Josh and Cat, who are not at all similar in personality, beliefs etc. but what each means to his author...and so on. I should probably mention for anyone who doesn't k...

Well, author Emily Alter wins the prize for the fastest time of getting me from 'the MC seems like a nice guy' to 'what the hell is he doing?!' :D Emily's a new-to-me author of LGBT+ fiction and fellow psychologist, and we met via the QSF group on Facebook . I'm currently reading Emily's recent release, Who Loves You ; I'm a couple of chapters in and enjoying it very much so far. Kudos to the author for delving straight into mental health - realistically and, I think, respectfully. I've had a few encounters similar to Ben's. Very well captured. Also, Julian sounds like an awesome dude - cheese, mushrooms and anchovies in sandwiches. I think Julian and I could make beautiful suppers together. OK, back to it. I'm about to meet Claude! I think they're non-binary. (Yay!) Guess I'll find out soon enough. I'll do the full review once I've finished it, although I'm a slow reader with a lot of books on the go, so it migh...

Another CV / character profile from the  Hiding Behind The Couch series . Profiles posted so far: Kris Johansson Charlie Davenport Sean Tierney Jess Lambert Dan Jeffries Hiding Behind The Couch  is an ongoing series about a group of friends—‘The Circle’ (the original main characters in the series), which has expanded and changed over time to include the ‘extended circle’ (additional main characters, below the circle on the right). This week, it’s Eleanor’s turn. To shorthand the preamble, here’s Josh’s description of Eleanor: ‘She’s a complete and utter control freak, unbelievably bossy, constantly in need of attention, demanding…my best friend, whom I love dearly.’ I will also add to this that Eleanor was diagnosed with bulimia in her teens; however, this is only abstractly touched on in the excerpts below. Eleanor features in Beginnings and Seasons One–Seven, with some brief appearances in some of the character/festive special novellas. You can find b...

WIPpet numbers for 18th October, 2017: (18x10)/17=11(rounded to a whole number) paragraphs from Tabula Rasa WIPpet Context: Another snippet from Tabula Rasa  (Gray Fisher #2). I'm into the final quarter of the novel, and I’m still not entirely convinced I’ve nailed the ‘crime’ element. Hey-ho. This novel follows on from The WAG and The Scoundrel , featuring two former undercover police officers, Gray Fisher and Rob Simpson-Stone. Their investigations relate to white-collar crimes (fraud, embezzlement, etc.), and there are also romantic relationship story arcs (however, not between Gray—who is gay, and Rob—who is straight). This WIPpet snippet follows on from previous snippets . Rob’s with his grown-up niece, Lois; they’re spending the afternoon together. Lu (Lucas) is Rob’s son; Amber is Lois’s younger sister. * * * * * While they hadn’t consciously made the decision to go to the park, they ended up there anyway, bypassing the playground, which was teeming wi...

Another CV / character profile from the  Hiding Behind The Couch series . Profiles posted so far: Kris Johansson Charlie Davenport Sean Tierney Jess Lambert Hiding Behind The Couch  is an ongoing series about a group of friends—‘The Circle’ (the original main characters in the series), which has expanded and changed over time to include the ‘extended circle’ (additional main characters, below the circle on the right). This week, Dan’s up. The image above is my Daz 3D character representations—put together to help me visualise the characters waaay back when I didn’t know them so well. From left to right: Dan, Andy, Mike. Dan is the youngest of the three Jeffries brothers, a businessman and a bit straight-laced. It’s crazy to think when I first set fingers to keyboard to write Book One, my intention was for Josh and Dan to be the two main characters. Beyond that, I had no plan, but apparently, they did. They brought all of their mates along. You can find both...