Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Malorie Blackman

Before Chimamanda and Zadie, they were there, like Rosa Guy, and Mildred T Taylor and Connie Briscoe, telling stories that moved me, that felt like home.

But Walker, Morrison and Blackman also did various things to make me want to write.

Alice Walker said, I read somewhere, and I’m massively paraphrasing here, that writers write because they have something stuck inside that sits uncomfortably until they get it out.  They write because they have to.  Sounds like me.

Toni Morrison showed me that writing is an art form, and there are geniuses, and people that somehow manage to pay the bills and that was no bad thing, but I should be able to tell the difference.  But then she also said if I can’t find the stories I want to read, I should write them myself.  Sounds like me.

When my mum came home with Hacker by Malorie Blackman, when I was a kid in the 90s and computers were still something to be awed by – on those occasions you were able to get near one – I connected instantly.  Her heroine, a black girl from London who uses computers to prove her dad’s innocence, was an ordinary black girl turned superhero, and was from London, like me.

Summer’s officially over and I’ve not travelled abroad, but have seen another side to Martinique.  I also wasn’t ‘home’ much, so I reckon I can crank out at least one short note based on the adventure.  5 Reasons To Make Your Caribbean Accomodation A Hospital is coming soon.

Til then 🙂

In Praise of Sunsets

Sunset Koh Chang, Thailand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you’re a romantic who grew up in a Euro-centric culture, you’ve probably heard the expression ‘into the sunset’ on more than one occasion.  To walk, run, ride or drive into the sunset denotes a closing, a happy ending, and hope for the future.  More than one film has closed on a sunset, and many more fairy stories.  But personally, I never really ‘got’ them.  Apart from that iconic moment in Grease 2 when he finally gets the girl and they ride off into the sunset of course…that was classic.  I changed somewhat, when at the end of a week spent slaving away at a national park’s snake exhibit in Phuket, Thailand back in the day, a kindly lady offered to take me to Sunset Point.  She thought it would be a travesty for me to leave Phuket without seeing it.  I was more tempted by the possibility of finally getting out of the park.

What I saw however, blew my mind.  There’s a reason why they call it Sunset Point.  It’s no doubt the place Jay-Z refers to in ‘Can I get a…’  A decade later I can still see in my mind’s eye the panoramic view of the horizon, the endless sky and the most colourful sunset I’ve ever seen.