books – Page 11 – EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 27

Our greenhouse full of tomatoes is starting to bear fruit. I go out every morning now, checking to see if the little sweethearts will detatch neatly from the vine, or if they need a little longer. The scent on my fingers as I dig and pull is amazing: heady, heavy, dense and bright all at once. I’m growing four different varieties, including a dark purple plant called Chocolate Cherry which is a flavour bomb. Wish I could say the same for the cucumbers, which are all flower and nothing for the salad bowl. Blame the weird weather.

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 26

Lurgy central at Swipe Manor this week. Probably a viral load delivered while being amongst crowds of people in That London. Oh well, a price worth paying for a great weekend—Diamond League athletics, an incredible meal at The Ivy in Canary Wharf (don’t listen to the haters, the Ivy Collection does great, affordable food with lovely service) and, although we didn’t Barbieheimer, it was cheering to see all the pink-clad youth out in force at the Vue in Westfield Stratford. Let’s hope the actors and writers can get the studios back around the table before this rare green shoot of growth chokes out.

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 25

A short one this week. TLC and I are off to That London for a significantly-adjacent anniversary treat. The Gods of Transit were kind and stalled a potential tube strike on the day itself. Hail to The Gods of Transit, may their fast lanes be ever free-flowing.

Anyhoo. Join NYT restaurant critic Pete Wells for lunch, get a little worried about fish and chips and yes, we have items pertaining to Barbieheimer. Finger firmly on pulse, yo.

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 24

I’m writing this on a rainy Friday afternoon in July. It’s damp and cool, and the garden is so lush with the heavy dose of sun and water it’s received that it’s almost sagging with the weight of life. I could spin this into gloom—‘I too feel the weight of life on my shoulders’—but no-one needs that jive on the weekend. We’re off to see loved ones and celebrate being here and alive and able to dance and sing, even if it is in the rain. I hope you all get a dose of that feeling this week.

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 23

I joined Threads this week, along with, at the last count, 70 million other people. It’s kinda fascinating to see a new social media vector take off quite so quickly. Sign up is incredibly easy (which helps the speed of adoption), and it’s a lot of fun being around a lot of new folks, all finding their feet at the same time. I guess it shows how sick a lot of us have got with Twitter.

What sort of place will Threads be? Well, that largely depends on us. The keyword a lot of the app-runners are using is kindness. We as users have to facilitate that in our interactions. Resist the temptation to yell at complete strangers if they say something we don’t agree with. It takes a tiny bit more effort to be nice—but it’s worth that few seconds of thought. Take your thumbs off the keyboard momentarily and think. If you wouldn’t say it to someone in a pub, don’t say it on the socials. Trust me, we’ll all have a much better time of it.

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 22

The family member I mentioned last week is out of hospital and on the road to recovery. Relief is not the word to describe the way I feel. I know there will be more of this stuff down the line—age has an inevitable end point, and you can’t expect the things and people you love to be around forever. But for now, at least, I can enjoy the reprieve and let the world spin on as normal.

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 21

Slightly nervous this week as a beloved family member goes into hospital. I’m assured all is going well but still, yannow, a guy worries. I’ll try not to let the fear of mortality and the ever-ticking clock that counts the seconds of our lives get in the way of a cheery discourse.

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 20

Watching the starry-eyed press coverage of Apple’s Vision Pro AR headset this week, I wonder how anyone who isn’t a tech journalist or a fanboy could possibly see any merit in owning the thing. Yes, there are some incredible technical innovations on display. But no-one seems to be asking fundamental questions about its use in the real world. I know we’re a long way off seeing Vision Pro on sale but I believe a lot of work needs to be done to persuade folks to lock themselves behind a pane of glass, however attractively designed.

I’ll have more on this next week. It’s starting to make me quite angry. Anyhoo, how are you? Slap on your hat and sunscreen and let’s dig in!

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 19

I’m trying to spread The Swipe into different distribution vectors (hello to any new readers coming in from Tumblr, Mastodon and LinkedIn) so introductions are in order if this is your first visit to Excuses And Half Truths and The Swipe.

Hello there. I’m Rob Wickings, a writer and dweeb based in England’s largest town, Reading. The blog in which this newsletter is based has been running in some form for 15 years, but the current weekly ‘diary, links and a song to finish’ format comes out of lockdown. What can I say, it keeps me busy.

Expect the content to skew towards thoughts on creativity, communication and language, with a spot focus on art, culture and food. Oh, and I’ll wibble on about my garden a lot. If you want to know more about my novels and anthologies, check out the link in the sidebar. Hope to see you every Saturday.

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 18

You’ve probably noticed I bang on a lot about the garden in the weekly preamble. It’s not just because I have had an epiphany at the feet of Saint Montague of Don and have become an acolyte in the ways of compost and seed rotation. There are clear benefits to the life of a writer in spending time in the garden. Exercise is good for the soul, and the mental peace it engenders can settle the questions I have about a plot point or character quirk. I’m certainly not the only writer to see the similarity in what happens through the seasons and the creation of an artwork. Austin Kleon, for example, is on the money when he compares writing to the old gardening truism of Sleep, Creep, Leap. If nothing else, it’s a creative act TLC and I enjoy together out in the fresh air and greenery, which has to be a good thing, right?

This week: a couple of drinks, some positive thinking on AI and considerations on the concept of penguin.

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.