Most Turbulent of Times,

For once the turbulence to which the title refers is not a violent or speedy change within my life which has prevented all writing from occurring, though it would be true to say that everything has been exceedingly fast paced for a while and shows no sign of letting up any time in the not too distant future, but the simple fact is that we are living in such turbulent times politically and socially that the world has felt like it is hurting towards a situation where my novel could become reality at an all too alarming rate. 

Though I have always paid attention to what is going on in the world, I have never had to be so aware as I do these days. My current job gives me a fuller enthusiasm to keep a finger on the pulse of current events because what is happening, whether it be within the media or in politics itself, can have a great effect. 

I have never wanted to turn this blog into a rant about my political opinion and in the last few weeks there have been several times where I truly believed that any attempt to post anything, even if it were just funny anecdotes about my sweet little dog, it would have inevitably turned into such. 

The difficulty is partly how saturated the media has become with negativity and I readily accept that this has not just been the last few weeks, however I believe that it has worsened, and this has lead to something more troubling to me. Somehow, this has made everybody an expert in politics which makes it very difficult to go back to place where you feel at home and switch off from it all whilst you spend time playing with your dog, who loves you so much that he is still staring at the bus stop where he and your mother left you a week previously, eagerly awaiting your return. My dog honestly reminds me of Stitch, though that is partly due to the amount of times I have to say "Hey, get that out of your mouth!" 

Sweet little thing that he is, he spends a lot of time trying to put everything that isn't his dog food into his mouth, though if you were to offer him treats during his little hunger strike over not wanting to eat dog food (he'd been on boiled chicken and rice for a few days after a poorly tummy) he would almost bite your hand off. 

The unfortunate thing about having him around, and believe me the pros outweigh the cons tenfold, is that if there is anything on your knee, be it netbook or newspaper, that is suddenly considered prime real estate in his eyes, so the item must be moved so that the canine hot water bottle may take up being a lap dog. 

I can't really say I am complaining though. I love that little fur ball. Here's to hoping that the world calms down some and normal life and writing can resume. Catch you later.

Why I Don't Write About Politics (Well, Not Very Often Anyway),

I've seemed to have the writing bug all day today and it seems such a shame to waste it. 

Recently I've written a couple of things about sharing and over-sharing and how I know that my opinions will be made obvious even if I don't want them to because the space between the lines in my books is very readable. It's not an issue, per se, but there's a good reason that I don't explicitly write about my political opinion or large pieces about controversial current affairs and that is quite simply because I don't need the hassle.

If someone doesn't like my novels, there's not much I can do about that and it's each to their own. I don't understand people's love of certain writers, big one being George Orwell - I mean, yes, 1984 is an amazing novel for what it predicts but it's a bit of a dull read and if I ever think about reading Down and Out in Paris and London again I have friends that know I will need to be sectioned post haste because once was truly bad enough - but when you start weighing in on these issues, and it can be anything and I'm not going to provide examples because even that would get me into trouble, people start throwing around words like it's their right to label you and tell you your opinion is wrong because it doesn't match with theirs. I like to point out, if I ever get into these conversations face to face, we're not playing a game of snap. You can't just announce you're right and expect to mount some ivory pedestal and not have to defend your arguments, and by that same logic, I would have to defend my views. 

I'm not saying that I can't defend my views - far from it actually, I have a degree in being argumentative (no, really, it's Philosophy and Ethics...) - I just know the internet. Everything gets distorted and there are always sides and, oh, I just can't be bothered with it. So, for now, at least, anyway, I'm keeping out of it. I will write what I write influenced by life, but I'm not getting involved with the drama. Or rather, see if I can get away from it.