Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 March 2023

Ignoring Bill

 

Could easily be this bus too! 


In some life I'll go to Italy. I'll ignore Bill

But not set foot on the Appian, nor the seven hills,

and make no attempt to see the rich, coffered ceilings -

treat all the cities with the same indifferent feeling,


walk lightly on some nondescript shoreline untouched by

history or magnificence or art. Not bother my

head with shapes of cuisine, what roads are made of, what's home,

compare my comfort zones and this strange coastline of foam,


no, none of that touristy fretting. Instead I'd wear

each day like a daisy behind my ear. From the air

pluck an hour floating down like a feather rinsed in light

and stick it golden in my cap. No bus stops in sight,


I'd ask directions off some farmhand, neither of us

speaking the other's tongue. He'd still get me to the bus. 



~^~^~^~^~


Well, obviously the thing about cats and nine lives hasn't finished buzzing round my bonnet yet. I was reading Billy Collins - one of my many comfort zones, the particular poem is linked in the first line if you're interested. So, naturally. One can dream of being light hearted. Light hearted is a comfort zone too.


The heart is especially in need of lightening and comfort right now. Even as I aspire to run off on some footloose n fancy free trip to unknown bits of the Med, I am in actual fact on my way to Cal quite unscheduled, accompanying hubby on a crisis management mission. 


The offspring was here from NC for the spring break last week, within my helicoptering orbit for a brief time so that was made the most of...those skills were specially shined up for the occasion. That's the good news. The bad news is that the news never stops going bad, never mind how well the month starts off...And so we're going to Cal. We're back in Fiji early April and hopefully I'll be in better control of blogging and time away from blogging by then. Fingers, toes and all limbs crossed. However, the weight on ye olde heart is likely to remain off the charts for the foreseeable future.


I was planning on signing up to the theme reveal at the A-Z last week but thought better of it as I've no idea what my March will end up like. I know I am at the A-Z in April, this is my tenth year running and I am determined to complete the challenge...we shall see. I've got my theme loosely worked out, I'm delving deeper into Aspects of Fiji. Like last year but I was hoping a bit less frazzled, less haphazard and more interesting because it'd not be based on my personal experience alone. Less one sided is what I'm trying to say. A slightly more objective lens now that I've spent a year over here. My usual cultural thumbnails, if you've read the other A-Z posts here you'll know what I mean. But frazzled is the flavour of this decade...I think the universe has given me enough signs for me to write it off as a train wreck


Not sure if I'll be able to post from India...probably too much going on, but if I can I will. Till then, keep well. See you soon. 


Sunday, 6 December 2015

Guess my Guest? Talk about Gothic Tales. And Tuscan Moons.


Guess who I am saying 'namaste' to today right here? Denise Covey! Who co-hosts Write...Edit...Publish  and needs no introduction. I've known her for many, many Moons, since the infancy of my blogging days. A blogger, teacher, and author whose varied works I admire and enjoy hugely, Denise straddles across several genres, contemporary romance and paranormal, travel writing and self-help and chick-lit. Today she is talking about Gothic novels and the making of her paranormal romance, Under the Tuscan Moon.  All yours, Denise, take it away -





I love writing contemporary romance, but I also like to dabble in the paranormal. If  you're not familiar with paranormal romance, it’s a combination of romantic fiction and speculative fiction. Paranormal romance’s focus is on romantic love, but it includes elements beyond the range of scientific explanation. It blends together themes from the speculative fiction genres of fantasy, science fiction and horror. 

In my first paranormal novella, Under the Tuscan Moon, I have combined these elements with a heavy dose of the Gothic I so love.