charles barrow's writing

I've been posting photos under the title 'Sparking Ideas' and the images are beginning to work, to earn their keep. Only this morning I was writing a scene that mentions a statue shrouded in swags of ivy. This is a meld of two images, the first the one of the tendrils of ivy encroaching on the stone eagle (posted previously), and the second this one here, shrouded statues. I'll continue to post further pictures and hope I find inspiration in them. The photo is the author's own.

This gravestone, in the shape of an open book, was only about two foot wide. So, small for a head stone and it's sinking into the ground. Photo is the author's own.

A trip to a grave yard last week produced this photo and the one above. I especially liked this one because of the proximity of the tree and the gravestone. I've heard tell that in the far, long past a person would be buried with an acorn clutched in their hand so that an oak tree would grow out of the heart of them. Photo is the author's own.

I was doing a review of character names in The Stolen Days of John Mann and in The Darkening Days of John Mann. I've made that sound like a very complicated admin task involving a database, or at the very least a spreadsheet, but actually I have all my character names written in columns on a sheet of A4, pinned to the wall above my writing desk. Very low-tech. I had just written in a new, young female character, she'll enter stage right, say her few lines and then exit and probably never be heard from again. But still, I wanted to give her a decent name, and more importantly I didn't want to repeat one I may have used for another minor character. I have a cast of thousands now and can't keep track, hence the name list. Anyway, as I scanned through that list I realised, with a jolt, that I haven't used, discarded, or stored away a single name that has more than two syllables in it. And I don't know why that should be either. But it's odd isn't it? I fel