I was stopped in my tracks today by this humble sentence about a character’s eyes from Jodi Picoult’s The Book of Two Ways:

 

“They made me think of the heart of a glacier, of how, even when you touch dry ice with your bare skin, you cannot let go even if you try.”(p.18)

 

Egyptian hieroglyphs

She’d already won me over at this stage with her depictions of Egyptian hieroglyphs and history and references to IndianaJones. What I love about this sentence is the sensory and emotional experience. I’m sick of reading she/he had green or grey eyes when the majority of people have brown, followed by blue (in certain cultural contexts). So blue eyes, check, while avoiding the cliche’s of a lake, the sky, etc. Double check! We instead get treated to ice reflecting the sky in its centre in a form of a glacier. Making me feel the character’s cold disinterest in me.

Word choice

Then she choses the word ‘dry’ reinforcing this lack of life, and yet ‘with your bare skin’ brings to mind the sensual. Exactly. The women is describing an ex-lover. Thus, being stuck to the ice (‘you cannot let go’) is more about tongue and lolly freeze. We are transported to a place of shivery recognition of the attraction she is describing. It wasn’t a mistake Picoult used ‘heart’ after all. She does not want to become unstuck from this man. As a reader, I assume at this point as I haven’t read further, the story will bring them into contact once more. No spoilers here. Combined, physical, emotional and narrative connections work together in one simple sentence. Doesn’t feel so simple after all now, does it?

 Continued reading …

Okay, excuse me, I have to go and read some more …

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Harry Ricketts came to share his poetry on Warwick campus today. I am nine months into the PhD and enjoying taking the opportunity to hear creatives speak. It’s not all just sociology and science lectures! Though, I love popping into different departments for guest speakers.

The poet

Harry Ricketts is best known for his biography Strange Meetings on WW1 soldiers who wrote poetry. Fascinated by their creations as they recovered from the traumatic events they had witnessed.

Poet and biography Harry Ricketts was at Warwick University on Tuesday 27th December to talk about his new book Strange Meetings. As he talked about the process of writing the book I was struck by how much fiction and nonfiction intertwine in their techniques and challenges. Writing involves thinking about perspective. And there are many angles this could take. Framing a book with real meetings between a select number of war poets is an intriguing idea and the book reads very well.

Harry Ricketts’ talk

The highpoint for me was hearing the poem Quarantine Island. A strange choice perhaps, but the following words reminded me of this strange process called a PhD.

‘There will be days of sudden calm,
nights when stars burn into your head.
World turns strange and yet the same.’

It was fascinating to have a chat with him afterwards about the process of writing as I hope to use poetry in some form in my creative piece. Folktales often have rhymes and lines of poetry within them, and I’d like to experiment with this in modern fairy tales.

Emma’s creative writing

Here’s a little sample of some of my writing in A Friendship of Thistles.

‘Hector!’ Heather flings her sleeves wide open – the Scottish-wide ban on household visits be damned – a piece of her heart has returned to her. Small flecks of rain speckle Hector’s glasses and raincoat, though not enough to dampen her woollen dress. ‘Where’s Fran?’

Hector’s shoulders stiffen. ‘Fran threw me out.’

Buy it here!

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