This is the 5th part of the Berlin Life series and the 3rd on the gay scene. I promised it some time ago, then forgot to post it. Sorry!
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Cold showers and broken tablets – But not from 50 Shades.
Goddesses rule! after a feisty fightback. Connie Grimshaw gets herself in a mess, by playing sex-games in book 1 of Goddesses. She gets herself out again by fighting the bad boys in book 2. Here is an excerpt, where she and her lover try to work through an Aubrey Beardsley moment. They play Venus andContinue reading “Cold showers and broken tablets – But not from 50 Shades.”
Keeping sane – lockdown trauma
The news is full articles about increased suicide rates. (France24 – lead article). I decided to act. Around 30 years ago, I wrote a novella on the impact of poverty and isolation on mental health. After a thorough revision I asked beta reader friend for an opinion. She has come back from addiction, prostitution andContinue reading “Keeping sane – lockdown trauma”
Breweries, Supermarket Shelves and Marketing Deception?
Lift the fog of deception This is quite a controversial title, but I don’t expect to get sued. I’ve just seen an advert on Instagram for an IPA (India pale ale), which showed a picture of a brown beer. I’ve seen a stout with an OG of 1040. I have bought a porter, so sweetContinue reading “Breweries, Supermarket Shelves and Marketing Deception?”
Let life be a game! Gustav Meyrink and Covid
Time to reflect on a monotony of days, repeating a pattern as never before in my lifetime. Here is a bit of unpretentious light verse, to cheer the day. It should be read as quickly as possible. I apologise in advance for any rhymes that offend the modernists,but any creativity is good for the soul.Continue reading “Let life be a game! Gustav Meyrink and Covid”
Grandad smokes pot. Shuffling words for lost men.
Grandad smokes pot – three words, but how much information do they impart? I found seven meanings to ponder: a man who is old has children who have children he smokes forbidden substances Here’s my memory of my father’s step-father. He should have smoked pot, when crippled with arthritis, after a life of work, tooContinue reading “Grandad smokes pot. Shuffling words for lost men.”
Clive’s Beer blog – January-No. 1
I’m going to tell you how to become a lockdown brewer, with a small space at your disposal and a hardware or DIY store in your town.
Berlin Lives 4. Gay times reveal our fears. Part 2
More angst at the VLP. How does one navigate other people’s sexuality? Why don’t they feel the need to hide it?
Something to stop you falling asleep this Christmas
A story that centres on a young woman’s struggle to free herself from the sex industry.
Black humour and thrills to put you behind the sofa.
Amazing Women
Alice Wickham of New London Writers wrote –
Beer writer and New London Writers blogger, Clive La Pensée, made a name for himself writing about craft-beer brewing. Critics put The Historical Companion to House-Brewing in the ten best beer books ever written. That was back in 1990. Brewers have told him that his beer books contributed to the craft-ale revival we now witness. In order to sidestep the demands of the publishing industry, he created one of the first Indie Publishers – Montag Publications. Five beer books on, he decided to crack the fiction-writing genre. He turned down requests from CAMRA for further books and started writing his first thriller – The Last Stop. It plays in Berlin, currently among the most vibrant of European cities, and is a tale of underdogs fighting back. The Last Stop explores the moral dilemma of exploitation. If the exploited defend themselves, can the end ever justify the means, if the means are illegal? The main protagonist is Maria, an innocent from Poland, embroiled in the Berlin sex industry. She can only survive by fighting back. Short term, her tactic works but once she is on their radar, the chase is on. She recruits Jack, the artless retired tax inspector from sleepy Leamington Spa, thought he was on holiday. The Last Stop is a compulsive page-turner and despite the difficult subject matter it is filled with crackling good humour. Clive believes there has to be a philosophy behind dabbling in literature, art, film etc. Art for art’s sake is not his thing. His reason for writing is the desire to expose exploitation and repression. ‘Only when we cease to abuse and subjugate others, can we be free ourselves.’ The Last Stop – 322 pages.
