Lesley Iwanejko
I am research scientist and lecturer in genetics at the University of Liverpool. In addition to science I enjoy writing and reading poetry, playing golf and opera singing.
Location Crosby, Liverpool
Activity
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I'm with you on the wine and chocolate. I too tend to be a bit low on the protein front and will try to make mre of an effort when thinking about my menus for the week. i live mostly alone as my husband works away ad it is difficult thinking of things to cook for one. Sorry to hear about your fractures. I hope you stay well.
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I can concur with that Kathleen :-)
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I've never heard of the fodmaps diet, I'll suggest it to my daughter.
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I don't eat meat and am fussy about fish, especially if they are boney or strong tasting so don't eat them. But do eat most of the other things. I was surprised how much protein there is in sesame seeds. Sadly I hate the taste of them so that's no good. I have had a vitamin D definiciency so should really take more care over my diet. My end of year...
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I hope not!
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No suggestions Elaine but is sounds very painful.
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I had issues with my knees a long time ago and prefer breaststroke so I use a float, one of those that you hold beteen your legs. It helps you swim without using your legs.
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Yes it is musculoskeletal.
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I am sorry this happening to you both a such a young age. Perhaps the GP could suggest non-surgical interventions? I hope things improve.
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I am so sorry to hear what has happened to you Melinda. I hope you find a way to ease the pain and get more active.
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I think mental health issues associated with ageing are overlooked. It must also be very difficult for everyone to have your father in a home but, as in thhis case, there is no choice for many families.
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I'm very sorry to hear how you are suffering, I hope you get the help you need soon and get back up those mountains.
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Sorry to hear about this Cyane. I wonder if yoga is any good for you, its something you can do at home. I can empathise with you on motivation but once you get going it is easy to continue. Are there any activities in a park near you? In my local park they have yoga sessions so you get to meet other people.
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Wow Marion that is incredible! Well done. Hopefully you'll get some ideas next week.
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You are correct Annie, many factors involved. Hopefully you'll have chance to find out more about what effects, if any, supplements have on the musculoskeletal system in week 3. I only take supplements when prescribed due to low levels e.g. I have B12 injections every 3 months and earlier this year had a course of vitamin D. Not only do many supplements not...
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That's not a good way to learn Sharon but it is easy when we feel healthy to not be able to imagine what will happen to us in the future. I hope your pain is subsiding.
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I glad you are recovering well Juliet. very unfortunate to need a hip replacement at such a young age. I'm also sorry to hear you have other musculoskeletal problems, it can have a huge impact on quality of life. I hope your new diet and exercise regime will improve your mobility and reduce the pain.
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Wow, I am absolutely amazed at what a fit and healthy group you all are, especially our older students, you are incredible and an example of how lifestyle improves health. I hope you are enjoying reading about everyone's healthy lifestyles. Yoga and Pilates seem to feature very highly, I like yoga but not tried Pilates so might give it a go .
Personally...
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Jo Emmerson
I wonder if you could try interviewing your character - pretend their own a magazine show. Then edit into the correct tense etc?
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Those are some good questions Ostara. I will have athink which suits this lady best. I like the idea of her being frustrated in her disability, I will explore that I think.
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Sophie Doyle
This made me smile :-)
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It would, I have an image of the jogger, perhaps with head phones on, or just just lost in thought, oblivious to their surroundings.
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How about web of perspiration, or something else which keeps in with the spider theme?
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I like the imagery, it would be good if you could think of an alternative to "ran" it sounds quite a ferocius environment but your just out on a gentle jog.
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I agree Emma, the start of the phrase does not imply lifeless, in fact the opposite. if you remove lifeless it makes it sounds even more of an agressive storm. I also wonder if there is a mismatch between heartless and toddler (although toddlers sometimes can be quite scary). Is there another metaphore which more closely matches with heartless and talons? ...
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Amanda McMahon
Just start, even if a word, phrase.
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Youre right Tom, I actually had that in first and in sort of disappeared, I'll put it back in.
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I tried the remember activity but it was too personal for me, and I quickly ended up writing things about me which i didn't want to do, and remembering things I have moved away from. I won't be using this as a tool myself but I can see how it might work and perhaps if I could put myself into the memories and stories of my characters it would be good way to...
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I agree, put them in the cupboard for a rainy day, you never know when they might come in handy.
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
***a couple of explettives***
Brian said “I’m not staying in this madhouse anymore. If they think they can treat me like this, 3 years, 3 fucking years, you’d think they’d know if they wanted me by now! It’s ridiculous, what do I need to do? I jump over one set of their bloody barriers, what do they do? They put another fucking set, twice as high, in my...
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I keep going back to my rich but disabled old lady in the airport. She is with someone, who is that. Where are they going? What do they think of each other? How come she is so wealthy, was it awlays the case for her? What is wrong with her health? Was she always fat or is that something that has come with age? How does she feel about herself, her...
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Gill Corden
I'm not an experienced writer, I suspect few of us are. If you've got lots of characters that brilliant. Just write about each character, don't try to get them to relate to each other or put them into a context. Use them a bit like a larder, put them away untilyou think, I know I'll add a spoonful of that here, that will soice it up a bit.
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I think research is a really useful tool - you find new words and phrases; also if you get a detail wrong someone will notice but get a tiny detail correct and it can make the piece. I've not thought before about planning the length and structure of a piece (in creative writing at least). That is a good idea, I use it when writing scientific papers and it...
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I like the image, it sounds like they are crocheting the clouds.
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
Slowly, but purposefully, the retreating tide de-stressed the beach at the end of the long, hot Bank holiday weekend. Strong, cool, fingers kneaded the sand, deftly untangled matted locks of seaweed and smoothed away the, recently abandoned, sandcastle-scars.
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I like the image of swallowing the buildings but having consumed at the end is perhaps not needed, it seems repetetive. I wonder you are using eating as the metaphore you could add something like ...until every morsel of them had cleared from view... just a thought
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I described a wealthy but disabled old lady in my character sketch. I used a lottle of visual descriptions but it may have been more powerpul if I had also described the clamour of the packed airport around her stillness and the scent of her expensive perfume mingled with the smells of harassed passnegers and spilt beer. It might have evoked an even more...
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Yes but if you include the detail at first you can edit later and leave the interesting bits and adding the edited bits later.
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I think you are giving too much away about the character too quickly e.g. she was a hippy and no-make up (of course) and the details of the place and people in there distract from the centre piece, the character - I wonder if you start with your ssentence which begins "She was a no-nonsense dresser..." you could perhas then develop her but without the info on...
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I realise I have too tend to rush and as a consequence leave out the details. I mentioned wasps in my paragraph about places to write but did not evoke how anying they are - the sound they make, how they feel when they land on you etc. I also talked bout noises a lot but failed to mention other senses such as smell, touch, taste - if I slowed down and...
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Your bad writing experience sounds like my good one. We must be opposites.
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
My husband is trying to be quiet, he has his headphones on but I can still hear the tiny high-pitched noises of the commentators and the music from the adverts occasionally seeping out of the edges AND he his clicking his nails as he nervously waits for his team to score – grrr. The inevitable sudden cheer when they do score makes me jump so much I think I’ve...
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to susan miller
I don't like to see to do things either Susan, I need to know I have space to write. I also like a buzz around me.
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to sarah newman
I can concur re the cakes :-)
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
It’s only 10 in the morning and yet the Place de la Constitution car park is already full and the tour bus has to spew it’s load of excited selfie-taking Japanese tourists directly onto the opposite pavement, directly in front of the cathedral entrance. It is a little too noisy here, so I look over the wall of the casemates to spy a space in the Petrusse...
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I didn't fancy any of these ideas. I need to have finished my chores, be in a nice environment - by the sea perhaps but not too quiet, I quite like the background nois, stops me from being distracted with doors banging, so quite often I'm in a local cafe drinking nice chinese tea or in the park with the noise of children playing.
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Lesley Iwanejko
I did :-) well guess Elizabeth.
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Thank you Judith, that means a lot to me.
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Sounds like an excellent idea to me Geoff.
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Lauren Guy
Yes, I like that Lauren.
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
My lady in the airport I could have used more insight into the character of the person looking at her, their opinions on her. How she made them feel.
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I loved the use of smell. I don't think you need to tell us what you decude or that he needs a shower. Leave it to our imagination perhaps, at least at first. Perhaps he isn't really talking to anyone on the phone? Why does he smell? Perhaps he is living on the street and has got some posh mans hand me downs from the hsotel, just pretending to be posh for...
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
Squashed into the narrow, utilitarian, airport wheelchair she was much fatter than him. Although she only had one extra chin it dwarfed the original and wrapped around her neck, like one of those braces placed on the victims of car accidents as they are being lifted from the wreckage. There was no space for a necklace but her long flabby earlobes sported...
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I work in a factual world. I'm a scientist and creativity is essential for that role but barely recognised. Scientific writing aims to be objective with ideas supported by evidence. I enjoy that type of writing but I also make up stroies and images in myhead. I am a great fan of Alan Bennet and his Talking Heads series. i used to work in the leath service...
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I can empathise with thoughts of "it just happened". No conciouss decision. I used to write stories at school but then serious stuff like families, relationships, career took over. I then started writing poetrry when I was in a very bad place physically, emotionally and mentally. It developed taking me to some interesting places and meeting new people but...
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I didn't include enough details, especially smells and sounds which could have made things more real, the sound of the traffic, the chatter in the cafe, smell of coffee, smell of the bus and bust stop. The smells people have. I need to concentrate on these other sneses.
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Yes, I find myself earwiggin others conversations on the bus, in the street etc, fanscinating.
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I like how you have joined up the two stoies.
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
The twenty-something, mousy brown-haired, bespectacled, slightly Asian-looking girl sits quietly at the bus stop. Her dainty white hands, gently rest upon the blue, neatly packed, but clearly used, sleeping bag on her lap. Although she has a scarf loosely draped around her neck she certainly isn’t dressed for camping. She appears oblivious to the...
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
B is sitting in the café, frantically writing every tiny detail in a small red notebook. Every calculation and fact is carefully checked, noted and checked again. Her, presumably normally curly jet-black hair, is chemically straightened and tied back into a neat but stylish pony tail, with just a small loose length falling free to frame her delicate but...
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Lauren Guy
I like the second paragraph, would have been good if you could have described the distinct aroma. Smell is very evocative and has the power to transport. e.g. the comfortingly sweet cimmamon and ginger aroma of their yuletide latte? perhaps?
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to patricia harris
Ah :-) fooled.
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Douglas Mize
I like that idea
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Leila Williams
Me too, I love it :-)
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I travelled back from Europe last week, we had cto check in very early due to security issues so hours of people watching in the airport. It was useful because people were there for such a long time I could take a very detailed look at them, their wrinkles, clothes, jewellry, mannerisms interactions with fellow travellers. Often we don't get such a long time...
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
I thought there was some interesting sentences which stood out in many of the posts. Perhaps experimenting with the order adds interest as many (myself included) were inn strcit chronoloigcal order.
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Mary Walsh
Makes me want to read more.
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to patricia harris
If only we could stop the world :-) I like to idea :-) I think your physical description of yourself is fiction, if it was true perhaps you woud use additional words e.g. boringly average build, neat short blonde hair which frames my ...
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Lesley Iwanejko replied to Elizabeth Arthur
I don't think you'd leave your dog barking so I'm guessing the last is fiction :-) I think the truth in the first part is that your house overlooks a wood. I like your description of the young amn walking through the wood but I wonder if we need more details of him, or is too early in the story? :-)
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
Standing in the middle of the traffic island he didn’t look at all like your usual high vis, green-unformed, council gardener. Apart from his age, his slim, athletic physique, wind-tanned skin, matted deadlocks, outlandish trousers and friendly demeanour were more reminiscent of the chatty young climbers she’d met in Pete’s Café in Llanberis last summer.
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Lesley Iwanejko made a comment
The stall-holders and shoppers bustled silently by, oblivious of her secret scrutiny. On this cold dank November morning she had to use a scrunched up tissue to clear a little peep whole in the condensation, which trickled down the greasy café window; making her observations slightly harder to conceal than she would have normally liked. Still, it didn’t take...
