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...

I started writing this post, in draft, way back in January. After several posts in the closing months of last year detailing the progress of Book 2, The Darkening Days of John Mann, I suddenly leapt to a post declaring it finished and published without me having said anything about the very last part of that process. That is what the bulk of those January scribblings were concerned with, so rather than let them die a quiet death I post them here now.  I published The Darkening Days of John Mann on 26th December 2014. I self-published it in ebook format, on Smashwords.com and was very happy to see it ship quickly to Barnes and Noble. I'm thinking though that I could have chosen a better time of year to launch it, and wonder if its impact wasn't blunted by putting it out at Christmas. At the time I just chose a moment when I had a bit of breathing space in the mad dash that is the festive season. Two weeks prior to launch day I had drawn up a list of some 20 tasks I needed to...

I always carry a notebook with me wherever I go. Sometimes more than one. And I'm getting much better at noting down ideas, thoughts, street names (currently), descriptions; anything really that I think I may use later or which just sparks ideas for future (or current) stories.  I've now taken to carrying a camera with me too and taking snaps of things that fire my imagination. And my pictures are 'snaps'. I make no grand claims for them. I've never had a good eye for a photograph. I've been uploading a few here, you may have noticed, and will continue to do so. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, well, as a writer I can't bring myself to agree wholesale with that but I do find a photograph is  a handy way to capture an idea.

Great texture and detail on this feather. Seagull? Magpie? I'm sure someone will set me straight. Photo is author's own.