What’s Up?

Well hello there. Here in the UK it’s Good Friday. This morning I went halfsies on not one but three kinds of hot cross bun (lemon, berry, and dark chocolate.) Then walked it off on the beach—aka watched the dogs who were chasing their balls and racing around, and considered which one I’d most like to steal. (A nine year-old labradoodle named Jason was the top contender.)

I did not take pictures of this.

But here’s one of me trying to act nonchalant last week, in the hope that these horses would come and sniff me.

One other non-animal related thing I must tell you…

I had hiccups the other night. My husband had seen on TikTok that you can stop hiccups by putting your finger in your ear. It sounds spurious, but it worked! We were both shocked. If this TikTok wisdom works for you too, let me know.

Comedy Craft / Story Fiending

You know how there’s cinema verité?:

A style of filmmaking characterized by realistic, typically documentary films which avoid artificiality and artistic effect and are generally made with simple equipment.

Well, this is the quote sharing version of that….

I can sympathise though if you started to get eye strain and a headache from trying to decipher my handwriting, and will both type up the last part of the quote and continue it.

‘To put it another way: having gone about as high up Hemingway Mountain as I could go, having realized that even at my best I could only ever hope to be an acolyte up there, resolving never again to commit the sin of being imitative, I stumbled back down into the valley and came upon a little shit-hill labeled “Saunders Mountain.”

“Hmm,” I thought. “It’s so little. And it’s a shit-hill.”

Then again, that was my name on it.

This is a big moment for any artist (this moment of combined triumph and disappointment), when we have to decide whether to accept a work of art that we have to admit we weren’t in control of as we made it and of which we’re not entirely sure we approve. It is less, less than we wanted it to be, and yet it’s more, too—it’s small and a bit pathetic, judged against the work of the great masters, but there it is, all ours.’

- George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

Aaaah George. A Booker Prize winning MacArthur Genius, who is also such a funny comfort.

What does your creative hill look like?

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The Flip

I found that George Saunders quote when I pulled one of my notebooks off the shelf and flipped to the back page.

I found this photograph just now flipping through a file on my laptop…

I don’t expect all my days and files to be full of shiny things. But in the flipbook of life, I do want to be able to flip, stop and say…oooooh, that’s fun or interesting to me! That 100 times over, rather than a scroll that fills me with doom.

What’s in your flipbook of a life/notebook/shelf/brain?

Stash: things I love

I love them.

Dare Bears:

I did finally watch the film, Sunlight—written and directed by Nina Conti. I loved some of the scenes, but it didn’t quite work for me as a whole.

Having seen two of her live shows though, I still massively admire her brilliance. So original, and such a clear voice.

And so interesting to me to watch her continued deconstruction and expansion of ‘ventriloquism’ and the character of Monk. Daring in the best way.

I love this quote from Nina:

‘I could never be on stage on my own. But puppets can say things that humans can't say.’ - Nina Conti

A Dare Monkey for sure.

Who’s daring in their creative work, and inspires you?

Here’s to a month of mucho writing and creating!

Until next time,

PS: Thanks for reading my Seriously Ridiculous letter. All feedback is welcome, as I only want to do this if it’s useful or fun for you to read. You can hit reply and it will wing its way to me.

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