What's it all about, then?

I have posted a number of pieces of my writing, all written fairly recently. They are sketches, attempts to capture a mood or explorations of different 'voices'.

Since August 2007, I have returned to my preoccupation about how best to write about the psychology of Neanderthal people, who became extinct in Europe about 30 000 years ago. Each posting is a short 'reflection' on the subject, followed by a short piece of writing trying to capture the essence of Neanderthal thinking. The prologue to my novel is presented for the first time.

'Persephone' and 'The hanged man' were written in the summer of 2005 and try to explore mythical worlds from feminine and masculine perspectives. 'The Guy Fawkes man' was written at the New Year 2006 and explored a recurrent dream in which I was sitting in a dingy room looking at a faded rose garden through smeared grimy windows. 'Ping...' tries to explore the irrational world of a rational person. It was written during Easter 2007.

'burned...' was written in November 2006 for a dear friend who is living with and conquering breast cancer. I wanted to get some of the emotional intensity that Candas Jane Dorsey got into her story "Time is the School in Which We Learn, Time is the Fire in Which We Burn." Of all of the stories here, this is the one that is most personal to me, because I wanted it to become a powerful force for good.

'dazed and confused...' is a narrative, diary, style of writing. I find it quite challenging to write in the first person voice. I tend to write quickly and then edit hard over a long period of time. I wouldn't say that any of the pieces here are finished. They may yet develop a life of their own in coming months.