I enjoyed this. And I've got a copy of The Waves Burn Bright, which I somehow stumbled across a few years ago in Glasgow before finally getting to know Aberdeen through my student son. It gave me an insight into that huge tragedy that had previously, I'm afraid, been just a huge news story to me.
The Only Gaijin in the Village is in my sight on my shelf as I write this. I felt for you in missing out on the buzz and success of its publication. So many of missed so much. I was going to have been at your Glasgow event!
To me you are a success. Those published books that exist, even the ones that existed in bookshops, the stocks that do gallingly are no more.
You have created stories that only you could, that nobody could have read otherwise. I think that's all the success any of us can achieve, to create a particular something that nobody else has, whether a garden or a drawing or a novel, a child, a happy pet, a jumper, a piece of music .... Though few of us will be Paul McCartney even in his Wings era.
What a great talk for young people. Your uni should print it in a pamphlet as a graduation gift to their students. Hope you got some good feedback from them. Some lines will for sure have stuck in their heads and will re-emerge at critical moments to help them through.
Great speech! I’ve been thinking about what success looks like a lot recently. For me it’s writing the best book I can - the rest seems more to do with chance than success. Although who wouldn’t love to publish a critically acclaimed novel and win a major award …
A good one! I remember giving a (extremely hungover) best man's speech that went fine but less well than I had hoped. I was disappointed in myself because I give so many speeches without difficulty, yet this important one had slipped the net. Of course, it was partly the importance of it that had increased the difficulty level (alongside, perhaps, the hangover). But your approach helps- the more I can just be me doing my own speech, the better I'm going to feel about it.
I enjoyed this. And I've got a copy of The Waves Burn Bright, which I somehow stumbled across a few years ago in Glasgow before finally getting to know Aberdeen through my student son. It gave me an insight into that huge tragedy that had previously, I'm afraid, been just a huge news story to me.
The Only Gaijin in the Village is in my sight on my shelf as I write this. I felt for you in missing out on the buzz and success of its publication. So many of missed so much. I was going to have been at your Glasgow event!
To me you are a success. Those published books that exist, even the ones that existed in bookshops, the stocks that do gallingly are no more.
You have created stories that only you could, that nobody could have read otherwise. I think that's all the success any of us can achieve, to create a particular something that nobody else has, whether a garden or a drawing or a novel, a child, a happy pet, a jumper, a piece of music .... Though few of us will be Paul McCartney even in his Wings era.
What a great talk for young people. Your uni should print it in a pamphlet as a graduation gift to their students. Hope you got some good feedback from them. Some lines will for sure have stuck in their heads and will re-emerge at critical moments to help them through.
Great speech! I’ve been thinking about what success looks like a lot recently. For me it’s writing the best book I can - the rest seems more to do with chance than success. Although who wouldn’t love to publish a critically acclaimed novel and win a major award …
A good one! I remember giving a (extremely hungover) best man's speech that went fine but less well than I had hoped. I was disappointed in myself because I give so many speeches without difficulty, yet this important one had slipped the net. Of course, it was partly the importance of it that had increased the difficulty level (alongside, perhaps, the hangover). But your approach helps- the more I can just be me doing my own speech, the better I'm going to feel about it.