The Literate Kitty

Ask any writer what their biggest fear is, and they might say it’s no one reading their work. (Well, that, or forgetting to hit “save”, then experiencing a catastrophic power outage or random computer shutdown. That’s definitely another big one.)  If you asked what plagues them most often, though, chances are, it’s gonna be writer’s block. The muse disappearing. Being stuck. No matter what they call it, every writer goes through it… and it totally sucks.  Most of us try to find inspiration, somewhere, somehow. Or we put the writing aside, to let our thoughts (hopefully) percolate. Maybe we start working on something else, entirely. Or, one can go a very, very different route… as does the protagonist in David Bell’s gripping thriller, Kill All Your Darlings. _______________ Connor Nye is an English professor on the fast track at a small college, when tragedy strikes: his wife and son are killed, leaving him alone and adrift.  He manages to keep it together eno...

  "They laugh at me because I'm different. I laugh at them because they’re all the same."                                              ~Kurt Cobain Although these words aren’t uttered until the final episode of the first season, the idea is a poignant leitmotif which runs throughout the French series, Astrid , from the very start… and I couldn’t be more enchanted. This show is an absolute delight. Astrid, streaming on PBS via Amazon Available to stream on PBS, Astrid (or Astrid et Raphaëlle , in its native French—no idea why they decided to drop the other name, stateside) is another fine police procedural/detective program from Walter Presents… but there’s so much more to it than just that .  On paper, Astrid might seem not so different from a host of other cop shows over the years. It features an odd couple: the messy, loud det...