charles barrow's writing

Ok, so, my autumn reading is organised. Being October, the month of Halloween and all things spooky and dead (I guess), I've loaded up with Stephen King books. I've written before about how I used to be a fan in the early days (both his and mine) and devoured titles like Carrie, Salem's Lot, and Pet Semetary but then drifted away to other genres and authors, but have recently returned. And I've become an admirer once again. I suspect people sneer at his writerly skills because he's so popular (and popular can't be quality can it?) and prolific. But he is a really good writer...which is why he is so popular. I loved 11.22.63 and Joyland. And his book On Writing (part biog and part 'How To Write') is a great read with untold amounts of advice and tips on writing and how he pursues the craft. I heartily recommend that to any aspiring authors. So, anyway, I picked up a few of King's titles and will be enjoying them as the evening's draw in and the ...

I love autumn. I know many people find it melancholic, marking the end of summer as it does, but I love its sights, colours, sounds, and smells. It always lifts my spirits. I've been having a hard time of it lately. I've been struggling with depression and anxiety, brought on by a torrid time at work.  My writing has fallen by the wayside over the last months, and I've not been able to summon the energy to do much about it.  But autumn has been working its magic and I find myself slowly resurfacing and feeling interest in my surroundings and with a sense of urgency about the future. Below are a few of the images that I've been posting to Twitter, on the theme of autumnal. I suppose taking these, and other, photos has been my creative outlet while I've been incapable of writing anything. Photos are the author's own.

A fantastic charity shop find. Pulp Fiction - The Crimefighters. Edited by Otto Penzler, introduction by Harlan Coben. It cost me only 75p, an embarrassingly small amount for such a treasure. It includes stories by such masters of the genre as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and many other writers that are new to me. The cover alone sold it to me, never mind the promise of the stories it contains. It conjures Bogey and Bacall, James Cagney, Edward G Robinson, Gloria Grahame; all dressed in black, harsh white lighting throwing deep shadows across the walls, snarky dialogue delivered through thick clouds of cigarette smoke, to the soundtrack of squealing tyres, and the sharp crack of gunshots. And then it's edited by a guy called Otto, who in the movie would be played by Sydney Greenstreet. I'm kicking around ideas for short stories at the moment, so reading this is research. Honestly, I am working here.

I took this picture 15 years ago. I was walking home from work, along my usual route, and I saw this piece of graffiti, which had appeared overnight, and it stopped me in my tracks. I remember it made me feel uncomfortable to linger in front of it, I felt like a voyeur witnessing the miserable end of someone's relationship, and I felt very guilty taking this photo and freeze framing their pain and despair. It is such a personal message to Theresa from the wo/man who wrote it and yet it's been very publicly declared. All these years later this kind of thing would pop up in someone's Twitter feed, but back then graffiti was about the only option for posting a message to reach an audience. Although the graffiti appeared on a wall only two minutes away from where I lived at the time, I had no idea who the people involved were. I have to assume that Theresa lived nearby and would walk past this wall on a regular basis, perhaps this is even the wall of her house, otherwise what...

I didn’t turn up here at all in July. I was absent from many things in July. The day job took a toll through June, and July saw the train come off the tracks. There was no multi-carriage pile up, thankfully, but many weeks have been spent in a siding while repair work has been carried out. But, enough of this train wreck analogy. My health took a nosedive. My physical health (a nasty chest infection) and my mental health too. Stress, anxiety, panic attacks. Not a good state of mind to take into a busy working environment, not that I had much choice in the matter, mind. So, I also took myself off to a doctor and asked to go back on medication, again. It’s been a few years since I had need to take anti-depressants and I seemed to be doing really well, but that’s the thing about mental health issues, they can ambush you at any time. It really doesn’t take much of a real-life issue to nudge you back over the line into illness. So I don’t suppose I’ll ever be able to say, ‘That’s me fixed,...

Today is the last day of my fifties. Tomorrow I'll blow out sixty candles on my cake, as I enter a new decade. So I've been doing an inventory of the last ten years. This taking stock is something I'm prone to do on a New Year's Eve usually, I mull over the previous 364 days and count up my high points, my high days and holidays amidst the humdrum, just to prove to myself that I do manage to achieve goals that I set out to reach, that I do join in and contribute, that I don't spend my entire life plugged into Netflix, it just mostly seems that way. Obviously, with a decade to consider, there is a lot more road in the rearview mirror, but don't worry I'm not going to rehash it all here. Suffice to say, there was a big change of location and career, some of those sought after highs, and some low points; neither more, nor less than you might expect really. I also formulated a plan for my future, which is a novelty for me. But the thing that stands out, the th...

Really happy to announce that my books are finally available to buy as ebooks on Amazon.co.uk About four years ago I set out, with a plan, to write some books and get them published on Amazon. It's been a long road to get to this point, with lots of ups/downs/caffeine/tantrums/midnight oil burning/fist pumping etc but I finally got here, to this red letter day.