[Stockholm, Sweden, November 2017 by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 10th December 2017]
London, August 2017
Don’t forget, if you sign up to my newsletter you’ll get four free ebooks, plus a new short story collection later this year. CLICK HERE to get started. [London, August 2017 by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 2nd September 2017]
Images from a Writing Retreat (2014)
All of these photos came from the Stanley Hotel Horror Writers retreat I attended a couple of weeks ago. Hard to believe it’s already been two weeks. Creepy Stanley Hotel The Last Day Creepy Corridor Outside My Room A great little bookshop in Grand Lake Black Canyon Creek at Estes Park My Writing Space for the Trip I had a great time at the retreat and it’s a great location so I’ve already booked my spot for next year. [“Images from a Writing Retreat (2014)” by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 8th November 2014]
Photo – Junkanoo Dancer
I took this photo of one of the dancers in a Junkanoo band at The Bahamas Marathon in January of this year. [Photo – Junkanoo Dancer by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 16th April 2014]
Photo – Cyberman
[Photo – Cyberman by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 29th March 2014]
Don’t Lose Your Soul
Wise words from the streets of Seattle. [Don’t Lose Your Soul by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 16th March 2014]
Clouds, Wheels and Broken Guitars (and a Dalek)
My wife and I went to Seattle for the first time last week. It was just a brief trip and the weather wasn’t great but we enjoyed it. For various reasons, we flew down, despite the fact that it’s only a couple of hours to drive, which was an odd experience. The flight time is only about half an hour which means it takes longer to get through customs than actually fly and there’s barely enough time to unbuckle your seatbelt at cruising altitude before it’s time to start descending again. Still, it was more relaxing than driving and I got to do some writing in the waiting lounge going out and on the way back. We arrived Thursday afternoon. It was cool and overcast but dry. As the weather forecast was predicting lots of rain for the rest of the weekend we decided to head straight to the Space Needle. A combination of the weather, high winds and the fact that part of the needle was supposed to be closed meant there wasn’t a lot of people around so we got to do a couple of loops around the walkway and have a drink and a slice of cake without … Read More
Five Things I Learned Last Week
Happy March. Here’s some things I learned last week. I’m doing revision wrong. One of my favourite sessions at last weekend’s WANACon virtual writing conference was Gabriela Periera and Julie Duffy’s Simple System to Rock Your Revisions. It made me realise I’ve been mixing up character, structural and line edits. That’s not a smart thing to do because the the broad edits will change so much that the lines you’re editing may well change. Do character and structural edits first. Shero is a word. People use it. Where to get images for this blog. WANACommons is a collection of photos that can be safely used on blogs as long as you give credit. There are some really nice photos, like this Squirrel from tdthread. Posting a Gratuitous Kitten Picture gets hits. I like Meg Myers’ Music. Thanks to John Scalzi I bought both of Meg Myers albums and I really like them. Particularly these songs : When I first heard Tennessee I labelled it as one I was likely to skip over but then I listened to it in the car on the way to work and fell in love with the lyrics. [Five Things I Learned Last Week by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset … Read More
Gratuitous Kitten Picture
When we arrived at the Melia Hotel in Nassau we met several cats. They were a little bit skittish but looked very healthy. The next morning we realised why. One of the Melia restaurants is a buffet, breakfast and dinner, which means there are a constant stream of visitors sitting outside who are more than happy to grab a bit of extra sushi or stake or bacon for the cats (not to mention the remnants of meals dropped by any babies that happen to be staying in the hotel). Every morning we’d see them wandering around outside and every morning they’d find a few cat-friendly people to feed them. This is Bob (that may not be his actual name) and I’m pretty sure his job was to break down people’s defences by staring longingly at their food. [Gratuitous Kitten Picture by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 26th February 2014]
Canada – February 2014 – Ice
Canada can be a very cold country but Vancouver has a pretty mild climate, it’s very similar to England really. But this February we hit some of the lowest temperatures we’ve seen since we got here (< -10C). Not too cold to go out or anything crazy like that, and we’ve only had a few cm of snow but it was cold enough that even locals were commenting on it. The photograph above is of the cliffs along the seawall at Burrard Inlet. It rains a lot in Vancouver and water drains into the sea from the forest above. The cold temperatures went on long enough that the water froze, creating these walls of ice and some fantastic icicles. It only lasted a couple of days and we’re back to rain now but it was very impressive while it lasted. [Canada – February 2014 – Ice by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 20th February 2014]