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vanessa musson

rank: 5708

Last week's position: 5717

first registered 07.01.10

last online 240 days ago

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about me

I am a freelance market research consultant, with a background in marketing and languages - French and German. I specialise in industrial product areas, and much of my work is overseas.

I won a few prizes for poetry and short stories as a child and young adult, but my interest in creative writing got submerged in the hurly-burly of work until 2002, when I was approached by the Managing Editor of a business magazine, then called "Profit". He thought that this very 'hurly-burly' - namely the extraordinary and ludicrous scrapes I get into on my foreign business trips - might provide a rich seam of material for a series of humorous columns.

I contributed to the magazine for seven years, and with my former editor's backing am seeking publication of my articles in a collected format.

The articles uploaded here represent just over half my output to date - c20,000 words in total.


Additionally, I have been fascinated by the world of perfume for the past two years, and last year started a blog dedicated to that interest, which is gathering momentum - mostly amongst "fumeheads" like me!

You may email me at: v.musson@tiscali.co.uk
Or follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/flittersniffer

NB Hat is not my own - comedy moment at a wedding....!

OWING TO WORK AND OTHER WRITING COMMITMENTS I AM AFRAID I SHAN'T BE ABLE TO DEVOTE MUCH TIME TO AUTHONOMY, AND WILL BE CHECKING IN ON A MUCH MORE SPORADIC BASIS. I WOULD QUITE UNDERSTAND IF THIS PUTS PEOPLE OFF FROM BACKING AND/OR COMMENTING ON MY BOOK, AND HAVE COME TO TERMS PSYCHOLOGICALLY WITH THE ONGOING PROSPECT OF FORMATION-FLYING RED ARROWS....

favourite books

John Fowles, The Magus
E M Forster, A Passage To India
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Jane Austen (any!)
Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
Donna Tartt, The Secret History
Jody Shields, The Fig Eater
Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
Lionel Shriver, We Need To Talk About Kevin
Barbara Trapido, Juggling
Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman
Alain Fournier, Le Grand Meaulnes
Hermann Hesse, Narziss & Goldmund
Patrick Süskind, Perfume
Luca Turin & Tania Sanchez, Perfumes The Guide

my websites

http://bonkersaboutperfume.blogspot.com/    

HarperCollins is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Self-publish with CreateSpace

my books

Banana In The Briefcase

Vanessa Musson

The bizarrely improbable yet real life escapades of a globetrotting market researcher. "If anything can go wrong, it just did".


When I tell people I am a market researcher, they invariably assume I am one of those people who accost you in the high street, wielding a clip board. In fact, my work - mostly in industrial product sectors - has taken me to building sites underground, to mines on mountain tops, sheds at the bottom of fields, prestigious high rise offices, labs and workshops, factory floors and even a moving tractor - in short, anywhere BUT the high street...

Over 20 years, I have carried out research studies on a host of offbeat products, from blind rivets to detrenching grapnels, and transponders for gliders to curved shower doors. My work is decidedly "left field", and the articles uploaded so far - to be grouped ultimately under broader chapter headings such as Navigation, Technology, Security, Hotels, Food, Language etc - portray this curious world I inhabit and my battles against adversity in its myriad, shape-shifting forms.

As a colleague once observed: "Weird stuff happens to you."

 

my friends

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latest

fatema wrote 26 days ago

Please back ache in my heart, thanks.

micksands wrote 124 days ago

Gourmet spam SPLIT - an actor with multiple personality disorder b....

ndayery wrote 197 days ago

(rafica_4ndaye@yahoo.com) My name is rafica i saw your profile toda....

ndaye wrote 231 days ago

(rafica_4ndaye@yahoo.com) My name is rafica i saw your profile toda....

bigmouth wrote 240 days ago

Hi Vanessa, I think the short pithy chapters work fine, and you co....

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my comments

latest

I wrote 477 days ago

I immediately warmed to your book for its early reference to the desolate landscape of Belgium. I have been to my namesake Belgian village, and it is a dour, dispiriting little place. But anyway, this is a solid, strong piece of writing, which reminded me of Zola's Germinal. Backed. Vanessa ... view book

I wrote 556 days ago

David Found your book on Timothy F J's shelf and am so delighted I did, as it is absolutely the sort of humorous writing I enjoy! As the partner of an aging blues/jazz/rock musician (who supported Status Quo on their December tour last year, as it happens : - ) ) I can relate to so much of what ... view book

I wrote 564 days ago

Thanks, Lara - I have moved Ch 3 to Ch 2 to open the book with more of a bang. I do have some other chapters - which I had not uploaded in the selection you saw - which have more of the immediacy to the Hurricane story. Strictly speaking, all the chapters involve "after-the-event reporting", b... view book

I wrote 573 days ago

Well, this is decidedly odd, but compelling... Your road sign reminded me of the one I saw in Florida advertising a vasectomy clinic, which nearly had me swerving into the verge: "DIAL-1-800-SNIP". I loved the title "Meeting of Suspicious Minds", being a sucker for a good pun! I would have l... view book

I wrote 576 days ago

Re Chs 1-4: Superbly crafted work of literary fiction/horror - Jonathan Franzen meets Aldous Huxley and Ridley Scott! My hand literally flew to my throat when the kestrel landed on the woman's chest, and the casually shocking contrast contained in the sentence "Kelly had just selected a blue tenni... view book

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