Like all boring, old-school, heterosexual-coupling-based family units, I have the expected two sides of my extended tribe. I have my mother’s and my father’s sides of the family, who I have grown up observing, engaging, absorbing, cringing at, appreciating, being horrified by and loving throughout my life. Most family issues, or even harmless ticks, come […]
Writing advice has changed over the centuries. In the beginning, which I’m arbitrarily choosing to be the invention of the modern novel, the audience was select and unusually literate. Writing advice at the time was very much about quality and the effect on the discerning reader. Let’s face it, when literacy is not a close-to-universal […]
I had a very disturbing vision last night. In a deep reverie between consciousness and sleep I was abruptly transported into the cavernous interiors of the latest largest mall in town, Dubai Mall, which I recently visited. There on the obscene Olympic-size ice rink, bathed in the shifting neon glow of the giant LED screen […]