June 2017 – Jack Sanger

A great film needs a great writer

I added this to my diary Latest News at www.chronometerpublications.me just now. And it fits here as well. Had a two hour walk today down the mountain to Vernet Les Bains, once the home of Rudyard Kipling. The eye held up ok in the heat. Thought about a clutch of films I have seen this… Know More
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On The Road Again! And another short story

Thanks to Canned Heat and a bit of Kerouac for the title which sees me writing this in Millau – the place of the greatest bridge this side of St Peter’s Gates. As The Latest News window mentioned ( www.chronometerpublications.me ) we were in an Auvergne B&B last night. The host, Francois, appears to have… Know More
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Empathy and Reality

I was struck, after my two hours plus fully conscious operation for a detached retina (gory details in Latest News: www.chronometerpublications.me), how doctors must inflict pain to do their business. Also that, in the main, they will have little idea of the depth and variety of pain that a patient suffers. The best they can… Know More
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Writer as Medium

The joy in writing what you could never have known to be true until afterwards is both spellbinding and uplifting. During the ten years of Azimuth’s emergence from my unconscious I learned to leave control over the destiny of the narrative to my imagination. What transpired was occasionally quite spooky. Characters with strange lineage, implements… Know More
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Life Imitating Art

This is going to be brief because my eye hurts! But it has resonances. I wrote Azimuth over a ten year period and regard it as my legacy. It is a strange book, both an adventure story and an agnostic’s search for enlightenment. Much of it was written in a divine effluvia, a semi- unbridled… Know More
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Mind Muscle

The mind is a strange sleight of hand trick of the brain (to mix metaphors), without which it cannot exist. Damage the brain and the mind is impaired. Nevertheless, we differentiate them so that the mind becomes the subject and the brain becomes the object in their relationship. The mind represents the driver and the… Know More
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All writing is fantasy

These blogs are shoehorned into travel. I am now in England after days in Cahors, Chartres and Calais. Whether they are stylish and durable footwear is another thing. I tweeted the title of this piece this morning @profjacksanger because I was taken by the notion that whatever I have executed as a writer, whether in… Know More
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Writers and Jung

In the deepest well of the writer’s imagination is all the good and evil of the universe. In this we must be adherents of Carl Jung. In many of my preceding blogs about the art of writing (should that really be the psychology of writing?) I am taken with what that Jung proposes: there is… Know More
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The Writer is Revealed

Writing is meditation. The page is a mirror. Khayyam’s moving finger traces our changing features as we age. We write ourselves into knowledge. All of our history comes into play. Not only what we think we remember but also what we don’t know we remember. In Azimuth the assassin comes from east of Samarkand along… Know More
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Sci Fi Fo Fum, here comes the blood of a future man

Writing a short sci fi novella this last month was a pleasure. (Sex: Future Imperfecti). Pure imagination. No research save for the years of reading that no doubt helped to shape it. Twist ending. Voila. Here’s a snippet, taken after a rather visceral opening, an account of a player’s death in a game simulation: He… Know More
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