Serendipity’s a funny thing. Sometimes it seems you force it to happen by an act of willpower. If you get obsessed enough, then all of a sudden you see things everywhere related to that obsession. On the day before I sent out the email to the 26 fruits to start this harvest, my daughter Jessie sent me the Franz Ferdinand song “Katherine, kiss me”.
It’s rather lovely but Jessie wanted me to listen for the blackberry reference that comes halfway through. Then that evening I went to see Woody Allen’s latest film Vicky Cristina Barcelona and there in the middle was a picnic scene with blackberries.
Over the next couple of days I was getting replies from writers I’d invited to be fruits. And it soon became obvious that this is rich material for metaphors and jokes. Martin Lee asked “What do you call a basket of fruit gags? A punnet.”
All this, one fruit leading to another, just seemed meant to be. Everywhere I turned there was something else about fruit, rich pickings. I’m always intrigued by making connections and I love it all the more when you don’t know where the connections are taking you. And that’s really what I’m hoping for. When I started this I didn’t really know where I was heading but I just thought it seemed likely to be interesting.
We’ll see. If nothing else it will be – for me at least – a different way to mark the arrival of a new book. And for the 26 fruits I hope it will be a bit of harmless fun that might occasionally make you smile or even discover something new about your own writing. Join in – let there be fruit. And I’ll be writing on this blog as regularly as I can manage.
