charles barrow's writing

I had to be very patient and sit very still in order to get this Jackdaw to come close. I like a Jackdaw. They are strutting little characters. I  like their silvery cap and black face. Plus they have pale grey eyes which sometimes look blue in certain lights. In my current John Mann story (the one still in progress) I do have a character called Jack but not Jackdaw as I thought that was too on the nose. Photo is the author's own

I didn't enjoy my recent moaning posts and today I'm happy to post on an upbeat note. I traded in my Apple products for Samsung, phone and tablet, and all is right in my blogging world again. And to prove the point I am uploading a photo, because I can, because it's now easy to do.  I like this photo a lot, and I'm proud of it. This is a Black-headed Gull and it looks as though I must have been 300 feet in the air, flying alongside it, but I was standing at the end of Yarmouth Pier. I have more seagull photos which I'll post. Bird pictures sit well within the world of John Mann. Photo is the author's own.

I may not have had a great visit to Stonehenge, see below, but I did get this photo of a Rook. It's out of focus of course, you wouldn't expect anything else from me, but I'm pleased with this. This is the closest I've got to a bird yet. The rooks are everywhere at Stonehenge, in all the fields and skies around, but oddly none settled on the monument itself, that I saw. Perhaps there's an ancient bylaw prohibiting it. I wonder if there is a myth surrounding the rooks at the henge, like there is for the ravens at the Tower of London? Anyway, I was pleased to get a snap of a rook in particular because I've named a character Rook in Book 3  of John Mann's story. He's a ruffian. I bet a rook could take care of itself in a bust up. Photo is the author's own

I listened to poet and author Frances Leviston talking on Radio 4's Front Row about her short story 'Broderie Anglaise'. It was nominated for the BBC National Short Story Award. She mentioned that she used the term broderie anglaise (the name for a needlework technique) as a 'place holder', a term she dropped into a sentence as she was writing so as not to stop the flow of words, fully intending to return and replace it with a different, more considered one. But, as it turned out, when she returned she realised she'd got it exactly right first time, so much so that she used it as the name for her story. My ears pricked up when I heard this. I've used place holders many times in my writing, doing exactly what Frances did, just dropping a similar, an associated, an 'almost the right word' word into a sentence when I can't think of the perfect one and don't want to pause or I'll grind to a halt. Usually, as I read back through what I...

I just had to write a book blurb, a short summary of the plot of The Darkening Days of John Mann for its download page at Smashwords. I had to summarise the whole story in a nutshell, I hoped for a coconut, I got a pecan. 400 characters was all I was allowed and by the time I had pointed out that this was the second story in a series I had very little room left for manoeuvre. It doesn't help that I insist on such long titles. Thank heaven then for all those precis exercises in English lessons at school. Here is what I arrived at; Part 2 of All The Days of John Mann. Continues the story that began in The Stolen Days of John Mann. Choke survivor John Mann and ally Gunnar continue their search for David through a land ravaged by the fatal virus. While Dr Russell's hunt for Mann bears fruit, an unseen net tightens around them. Danger, betrayal and death are the common coin, Mann's ability to kill or cure is the ultimate prize. A grand total of 399 characters. I might tr...

Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight. An immense and unusual brick building. A big inspiration for the Abbey where John Mann hides out after his escape from captivity, and where he finally enters the priesthood.

I love this image - The Shining Path by Kit Boyd. There is a sense of adventure and hope ingrained in it. A journey along a moonlit path, a journey into the night certainly, but not a dark night. It's evocative images like this that help me to conjure the world that John Mann walks through. I hope to post some more images that inspire me.