The lovely liminal spaces of Birkbeck University.

Who is ready to explore fairy traditions?

I sure do hope this survey of Cornwall from 1602 is still up to date.

From Nick Darke's The Body Trying to capture the Cornish accent in words is pretty impossible but Darke is about as good as it gets. I reference him a lot in my thesis. The representation of dialect is always a bit of a minefield

I am in one of *those* hotel rooms. You know the ones with a painting of a naval battle.

The current comp titles for my Cornish Fantasy book.

A chilly day for a PhD supervision.

Do they Gandalf?

My MCDM Draw Steel books arrived! I must now pour over every page like Gandalf that one time.

I understand the creative impulse to say no to all the lines in the writing sand, to genre and convention. But I think these definitions do matter, tradition, form, expections, archetype, and structure all have value even if it is to just be aware of them so they can be subverted.

I've had this flash drive for around ten years. It contains my BA, my MA, and my ongoing PhD, all the bits of novel I am part way through, every poem and short story. I leave it plugged in constantly and it gets quite warm. I regularly have stress dreams that something happens to it.

I find a floor based conga line the best method of organisation. Much better than the pile or vertical stack

One benefit of studying folklore is the absolutely gorgeous books.

More books to feed the Lovecraftian horror that is my PhD. Rebecca Solnit for writing on place/psychogeography and Tzvetan Todorov for defining The Fantastic.

I'm forever intrigued by that one book series you read at the right time growing up. The books that get you into reading and you return to over and over again. For me, it wasn't Harry Potter or Percy Jackson or Lord of the Rings or Eragon it was The Borribles.

Watching the Pirate Queen at the Minack theatre. Not a half bad view for a show.

You don't see many hotels with bibles still in them.

This week, on not understanding what I'm reading, we have Orality and Literacy by Walter J. Ong

When you go so deep into folklore theory it basically becomes maths.

I look like I'm working if nothing else.

It arrived!

The first book I shall be reading for pure pleasure since starting my PhD. #TheDevils

I spoke at my first conference today! Someone even asked a question and everything. I also need a haircut badly.

The lineup for my first ever conference! Feeling very much like a baby academic. Hopefully, no one asks me any questions and discovers I'm a fraud.

I pulled double duty and managed 1000 words yesterday so I could go on a very long walk from Farnham to Guilford today. Sore feet but filled with new ways to describe sore feet.

Seeing those soulless GPT Ghibli generations all over the Internet this morning.....

The next batch of PhD reading, this time focusing on some theory.

Red sky at night... something something... I'm wearing tights.

First books to make me cry when I first read them at 11. I reread the series every few years and still cry at the end.

I shall live on a diet of exclusively large steak pasties until my PhD is finished.