It's stormy here on this island

Today on the Isle of Cumbrae where I live, I woke up to this -

And this....

Makes us realise just how small we all are.

Is there such a thing as method writing?

With method acting, actors try and create the same emotions in themselves as their characters feel. I try to do the same with my writing.

For instance
- if I have a character who is trapped and starving, I try to pretend I feel the same way. I will write that part whilst I'm hungry even if it means not eating anything for the rest of the day.

- if my character is thirsty, even if I  need a drink I won't take one.

- if they're scared I will try to go back to a time in my life when I was also scared. I will go to that place in my head and try and recreate it. How did I feel, what was the helplessness like, what range of emotions did I go through, did the fear have a smell, a taste? How did my mind and my body react to it?

- if they're cold, then I will be cold. We're in this together - me and the character I've created, so why should I sit in comfort whilst they suffer? 

The Versatile blogger award - Thanks Carol

Many thanks to Carol for passing on the Versatile Blogger Award.  In line with tradition, I'm listing 7 (Hopefully) interesting things about myself. 

1-I love zombie movies. The gorier the better and am working on a zombie novel. The weird thing is I'm a vegetarian and can think of nothing worse than being a zombie. 

2-I thought I'd hit it big when I invented a football themed boardgame when I was 19. The company loved it and were talking enough money for me to buy a flat, but then they went bust.

3-I have recently discovered Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer books and I absolutely love them. His dialogue is so wonderful you don't need loads of speech tags.

4-My biggest regret in life was not getting to interview Hurricane Higgins the snooker player. I had an interview set up via his agent (this is over ten years ago, now) when he did one of his famous walkabouts and couldn't be found.

5-I live in Scotland (on an island called the Isle of Cumbrae) and think its the most beautiful country in the world. I would never leave it to live anywhere else. I have nightmares of dying outside my beloved country and not being able to get home. I also love my country's sense of humour. We laugh at everything.

6-I used to work in a pyschiatric hospital laundry. One day a colleague found a scalpel in a doctor's coat and sliced off her finger.

7-I love the gory books that Shaun Hutson writes. Books like Slugs and Relics. His books have very little characterisation, but boy do they entertain. That to me should be the one thing books should be - entertaining.