Author Archives: H.M. Goodchild
Detecting folk songs
One of my favourite authors is Dorothy L. Sayers. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve reread or simply revisited her detective novels, even though I’ve known whodunit in each of them for years. Her best known books … Continue reading
Some thoughts on writing, revisited
I wrote the following about eighteen months ago in reaction to a lot of the advice to writers I’d seen posted here and there about the internet. It started as a rant but I managed to tone it down by the … Continue reading
Imacah’s song
There are several songs in After the Ruin. Like the map, they’re there to give the impression of a world that is rather larger than the story between the covers of the book. The book was inspired by ballads so it felt … Continue reading
As I am, so shall you be (villanelle)
I know this blog has wandered a long way from folk songs and from fantasy. I’m still listening to the former and blocked on the latter. Now, and for the foreseeable future, I’ll be posting the odd (very odd?) poem here, when I … Continue reading
Pantoum: All the time there is
The prompt for this was a composite photo of many different clock faces. I can’t find the picture now (note to self: save things!) but you all know what a clock looks like! All the time there is All the … Continue reading
Ill winds are blowing
Two triolets Both say much the same thing because I wrote the first and then turned it into the second to fit the character limit for twitter. 1) Ill winds are blowing Out of the west Certainties going Ill winds are … Continue reading
Love in folk songs
I’ve been listening to Nic Jones (great man; his set at Towersey a few years ago is one of the highlights of my musical experience) and, well, after an evening in the company of Annachie Gordon and a Bonny Light … Continue reading
Twitter poems
A few poems, written whilst I was away over New Year. Most were posted first on Twitter (micropoetry is, for me, the best thing about Twitter) and thus written quickly, reflecting the medium. Curlews Curlews take flight Beyond the stone … Continue reading
An end, maybe a beginning?
I’d like to say everything has sorted itself out, writing-wise, since my last post but I can’t, because it hasn’t. I’m in no part closer to finding the spark missing from my manuscript. Something has changed, however, as a result of a couple … Continue reading
Writer, eclipsed.
I started this villanelle ages back – so long back I can’t quite recall when, except that it was the last time there was a partial lunar eclipse visible in this part of the world. That’s pretty clear from the … Continue reading
