200KM!

I started the year with my usual plan of running the Reading half marathon, with half an eye on a sub 2 hour time.  As usual, the best laid plans of mice and men took priority and my traditional training schedule of a long run at the weekend with 2 sessions on the cross-trainer or doing circuits stepped into the breach.

Reading was wet; It was the type of wet which usually sees me staying firmly indoors and choosing not to go for a run. The type of wet where you're permanently in a shower and remain resolutely damp all the way round. It didn't stop the crowds and one highlight is always the steel band somewhere around the back of the Oracle. The last 3miles is always the longest, longer still when everything's soaked and your trainers have absorbed several puddles along the way. Once again, the Camel overtook me.

Later in the year saw us on holiday in Florida. This included a few days aboard the Disney Dream. I thought my main running opportunities would be in the gym on a treadmill so I took my indoor shoes: a pair of Vibram five fingers. Pip and I discovered the running deck when we were exploring the ship so, while we were moored at Nassau, I had a 4 mile run around the deck. This was followed up with the Castaway Cay 5K - I turned up bleary eyed, expecting the invitation to go for a run to be a fairly informal jog around Castaway Cay. I didn't expect to receive a running number and an exhortation to buy a pin and a t-shirt after the race; well, it's Disney, maybe I did expect the shop just by the finish line. I'm not sure if this link will work, but here goes anyway: http://nikeplus.nike.com/plus/places/#/MyRoutes/26.082981037105686/-77.5450531745152/15

November saw me pull a team together for the three molehills. My original team pulled out at the last minute (something to do with being on holiday). Thanks to the power of social media, I managed to find two willing friends to join me on my visit to Denbies. Three legs, each up and down a different hill/ part of a hill on the North Downs. Box Hill was mine: over the stepping stones, up the very steep climb, a slip in the mud at the top and a long ascent down. On a clear day, the views are amazing. This wasn't a clear day...




We were in a very fast field, team Make Mine a Chardonnay, nobly finished last.




I'm not running Reading this year. I'm going to participate in the inaugural Surrey Half Marathon. Target time? I'll let you know...

The Law of Averages: 6,000 words

So, I previously posted about my 10,000 word start on a novel.  Do I say much about it yet? No, I'll keep under wraps for now.  I was aiming for another 10,000 words in August but realised that if I'm setting the story in an alternate reality, I needed to spend some time on world creation and setting.

2,000 words later.  It's not much when you look at July's 10,000 but it's 2,000 words which will hopefully assist in production of the next 10,000.  I've outlined my ideas for another chapter and spent some time sketching out key aspects of the version of reality which provides the backdrop, and out of which the plot will develop.

One key aspect of the setting, and one which isn't covered in the OU handbook, is that of timeline.  Even if your narrative only covers a single day, you still need to place that day within the context of others, it does not occur in a vacuum.  I don't think I've fully settled on a convincing timeline of events.  There are various political events, historical events and a war which provide context to the setting.  That timeline won't necessarily be expounded upon within the story but I need to have a firm grasp on events gone before in order for the actual narrative to take shape.

There is an additional challenge in that creating an alternate reality, I am trying to graft that alternate reality onto real historical events.  Currently, I think my timeline is much longer than the one onto which I'm trying to graft my alternate reality.

There is research I need to do on the history of early computing and in particular, the Babbage machine.  As yet, I don't know whether I need this knowledge as part of the plot, it might just be for context and to assist in this alternate world-view.  Any recommended reading?

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Val McDermid: Wire in the Blood; the Retribution

Having read these back to back last week, I felt they deserved a mention.  I sometimes marvel at how much the girls enjoy reading; once Boo's lost in a book, the only place you'll be able to find her is once she's got to the end.  She's spent most of the summer reading Lemony Snickett's series of unfortunate events.  There's 13 books, I don't know whether each book chronicles just one event.  Plus she's been engrossed in the local library summer reading challenge.  

Having downloaded and read Wire in the Blood, I was trying to find which Tony Hill/ Carol Jordan book to read next.  As the Retribution follows the escape of the Wire in the Blood's killer from jail and the subsequent series of unfortunate, but premeditated events, it made perfect sense.  (The pricing helped but maybe that's for another post)

There must be something about being on Summer holiday as I last read a couple of her Tony Hill/ Carol Jordan books last summer.  Wire in the Blood is good.  You find out fairly early on, whodunnit, but there's two parallel crimes being investigated. This is a structure which is used in the Retribution, I can't remember whether it's used in any other of her books.

I preferred the Wire in the Blood.  The Retribution was a good sequel but I wouldn't recommend it as a stand alone read.  We are reacquainted with the killer from Wire in the Blood, he's out of jail and out for revenge.  In fairness, the ending comes as a complete surprise.

One criticism is that the use of new technology as a way of contrasting how time has passed too obvious and there are a couple of moments where it is a little too contrived.  Before the first murders, the killer is viewing his quarry via hidden cameras and over an Internet connection.  I found it hard to believe that his 3G connection would be that reliable up in the Yorkshire Dales.  Secondly, there is a moment when someone is given details of the killer's residence but the development is too new for his Satnav to pick up.  That I can understand.  What I don't understand in these days of smartphones is why he doesn't just look on Google maps to find it.  Maybe that particular character doesn't have a smartphone.

There are useful references back to other episodes in the other books, it helps make the characters believable and you have faith in their fallibility.  However, it does also mean that the book doesn't stand up on its own.  

Interestingly, I've realised that my favourite (only) crime writers are female: Val McDermid, PD James and Agatha Christie.  Is it just that I haven't read any male crime writers, or is there something about their writing styles wch I prefer?

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Give me seven years and I'll give you the novel

So I've spent the last month participating in Campnanowrimo.  The premise is simple: you set a target and write.  The default target for the month is 50,000 words, I decided to move the goal posts to 30,000 and finally 10,000.  In the end I was a little short of 10,000 but I had 9,500 words of story with a strong feel for where it will go.

Having spent the past year doing an OU module on creative writing, it was good to be able to put what I've learned into practice.  I've not written that many words on one particular story so that's a first for a start.  I'm minded to continue into August and aim for another 10,000.

There's many different ways of skinning a cat:

10,000 words a month = 326 words a day

32 train journeys to and from work in a month (2 a day in 16 days) = 313 words per train journey = 626 words a day

9 evenings when Mr S is away = 1,111 words an evening

9 weekend days in August = 1,111 per day

Theoretically: 32 train journeys plus 9 evenings plus 9 weekend days = 30,000 words in a month.  Put like that (although a need a whizzy app and some graphics knowledge to turn it into an infographic) 10,000 words is a third of what I could theoretically write.  In fact, there's a bank holiday and I have a week's annual leave, giving me another 6 weekend days.  That's another 6,666 words (somehow fitting as Mr S is off to see Iron Maiden this weekend).  That and a stag do he's going to are another 2 evenings to write: 2,222 words.  So that's another 8,888 words - approaching 40,000 now!  

Now in reality, we will be out on day trips at the weekend, or at home building cardboard castles with the girls.  Then there's time spent exercising (ideally 1 run, 2 circuits sessions and some yoga), time spent doing paperwork and other domestic activities.  Additionally we are chicken-sitting for two sets of neighbours over the next few weeks.  Oh and of course time [wasted] on Facebook, Candy crush and general internet browsing, reading of books and writing this blog.

Then there's the writing process.  I'm tending to find it easier to write in longhand and then type up in the evening.  It's more comfortable than typing reams on the iPad and helps with the process of creative refinement.  

But what it boils down to is that there is time to write 10,000 words in a month. Joseph Heller took 7 years to write Catch 22.  Now my attempt at a pre-draft is nowhere near Catch 22's league of sheer geniusness but let's assume that Catch 22 is 50,000 words.  That's 7,143 words a year. Infographic anyone?

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Avoid the Passive Voice with Zombies

Avoid the Passive Voice with Zombies

Useful resource, trying to work out where to save this in order to refer back to it.  Where else?  Blog!

Under Construction...

A steampunk adventure in 31 days...

Game of Thrones: the re-read

I have just completed a re-read of Game of Thrones. Series 3 has recently been broadcast in the UK, we don't have cable or satellite (an advantage or disadvantage of owning a listed property, depending on your perspective), so it's been amusing to see various references via social media to the events as they unfold.

When I last read the book, I posted my commentsand one of my main complaints was about the religions and how they sprout up like mushrooms. They tend to appear as a new contender for power is introduced and on a second re-read, they perhaps sit within the story more neatly.

My only criticism this time is that the present narrative is sometimes overtaken by past narrative. In book 5, certain characters consistently spend their time remembering events from 15 years ago and the plot advances more slowly as a consequence. I say criticism but it's an observation. Given the sudden appearance of characters, there is a certain need to provide their back story. A story is like a tapestry: you can see the threads which make up the front but without the criss-crossing tangle of threads on the back, there'd be no picture.

I have thoughts about where things might go but I don't want to give too much away: greyscale zombies v wights anyone? Unlikely but it was a thought that crossed my mind.

There was a meme doing the rounds recently about why George RR Martin isn't on twitter (think how many characters have been killed off so far...) I think on my next re-read, I will have to do a death count. Even after a second read I am in a state of denial over the demise of some of my favourite characters, I won't say who...On the death of some characters however, one has a feeling of resignation, a thought of "oh well, they've served their purpose".

It's called the Game of Thrones, but who is moving the pieces? There are a few puppet-masters but whose bidding do they serve?

I won't re-read now until book six is out, so no more blogs on Game of Thrones until then...


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Mini!

Having found some pictures of my previous mini and admiring how shiny it looked, here's a scan - having messed around with the Picassa options!

Curry (musings on the back of a takeaway menu)

Come, don't hurry or harry, for hurray, it's Curry night!
Karma is yours, in creamy Korma
But first the pappadums, prickly pickles and pakora

Selecting the sides, too much dhal makes it dull
Bhaji: Brindal or Bhindi, Okra or Aubergine?
Rice now, or nan, not too much now for I
may slump into sleep, pilau for my pillow,
Pad ghum or party?

(pad ghum: Bengali expression describing carb-induced sleepiness after too much rice!)


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2013: the first post is away!

I was surprised when looking back through last years' posts that there were only just over ten, I thought I'd been more regular in my witterings. I suspect there's posts I meant to write but didn't get round to doing so.

This first post probably falls into that category. Back in September I took up crochet. Since then I've been crocheting my little socks off (perhaps I need to make a new pair?)

My first creations were the little monster Amigurumi which I'd mentioned in a previous post.



Once I had the hang of following a pattern (the secret is to keep counting), I made a mascot for Boo's first Netball match:




Followed by some Hello Kitty Witches. These took me longer than Halloween but the girls liked them nonetheless.

By now, it was time to start making Christmas decorations, I'm not sure why these pictures have come out smaller.







Next mission is a blanket for my Nan's 93rd birthday. It's made up of 9 granny squares sewn together. I've nearly finished the second one, fortunately I've managed to speed up so it may yet happen by mid-February...

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Game of Thrones

So I've just finished the fifth book of George RR Martin's "Game of Thrones". There are now so many different viewpoints that you can go a whole book without a particular character appearing. I've also had one scene appear from two different narratives. It jarred at first because some of the aspects which, at the time of the scene, were unknown to two characters who appeared in that same scene when narrated from a different characters perspective. I probably need to re-read the two accounts side-by-side! Fortunately this doesn't happen too often otherwise I'd have to accuse Mr Martin of padding!

I am apparently going to have to wait a while before book six appears. With long epic series there is always the concern that the author will die before the book is complete. I might start going to medieval re-enactments in order to start researching ready to line myself up as a ghost-writer! Of course I'm being flippant :)

In all seriousness, the series falls squarely into medieval fantasy. It is clearly influenced by accounts of medieval Britain and the various plots, sub-plots, family feuds and invasions. The magic systems are more subtle than in other fantasy series. There are hints at them and hints at lost magic.

Religion plays a fairly key part in the series. It's a little confusing though. For the first book or two there are two religions: the old gods and the seven (probably inspired by shift in religions from paganism to Christianity. The Red god is introduced quite suddenly. Other religions are introduced as we are introduced to the people who follow them but Rhllor and the "red religion" appears from nowhere. Again, it is a part of the series I should re-read.

I say religion plays a key part but I don't think there is a single religious festival within the series. When I think back to Wheel of Time and how it opens with Beltane/ Beltain, this seems to be a glaring omission. It serves to mark the passage of time.

Overall, this is an impressive achievement and one I shall enjoy re-reading.


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Hooked on Crochet!

I've been learning to crochet. Inspiration struck when I bought Mr S a Star Wars craft book. Among the patchwork quilt made from Star Wars t-shirts and the Hans Solo in "soaponite" there was an R2D2 beanie hat. Not knowing the least bit about how to crochet but liking how it looks, I invested in a couple of books, dug out a crochet hook from the bottom of the sewing basket and a ball of wool.
Here are my first attempts.








I've found YouTube indispensable as I can see how it's meant to take shape and look and here are my latest attempts: squares for little blankets for the girls' bears.




And the finished blankets. They were originally going to be 9 squares but the girls thought that an extra 3 squares would guard against chilly toes.




Snuggly bears! The sewing together wasn't too bad either. Not sure how long a full sized blanket would take.
These are going to be my next project:
http://blog.bernat.com/2012/09/13/guest-blogger-craft-is-cools-allison-hoffman-monster-
http://craftyiscool.blogspot.co.uk/
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The Strangers Child - Alan Hollinghurst

I've just finished this. It was an impulse buy from the Amazon Kindle Store. Good but not great. One you want to continue to read to get it finished but like "In the Line of Beauty" no great affinity or sympathy with any of the characters.

It spans about a century and is divided into five parts. At first I thought it was going to be like Atonement but the first part is perhaps more akin to Maurice: gauche, upper middle class family, all of whom fall for the upper class boy. Set before the first world war.

Part two skips to the 1920s and the eve of the General Strike.
The next two parts are set in the late sixties and seventies respectively, topped off with a jump forwards to 2008ish.

It paints a picture of Britain during those times but the biographer's pursuit of the truth about his subject never quite takes off. It hints at the history of homosexuality and the law but doesn't quite get there. The speculation in later years over whether one of the characters had affairs with his male friends is of limited interest to the reader because we have already been told about them.

Somehow the book never quite takes off, I don't particularly warm to any of the characters and while I enjoy the gradually changing Britain he depicts, I don't take any great message away from the book.

Worth a read but not the best book I will read this year.

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The Peculiar Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

This was a Christmas present (thanks R!) but it's taken a while to sit down and read it. Overall, I would say it was worth waiting for. A fairly easy read, it follows a family in California from the perspective of the younger child, who is just turning 9 when the book starts.

The book opens with the narrator's and her mum has made a lemon cake. When the narrator bites into the cake she tastes sorrow [what else] to the extent that she can not eat the cake her mother has prepared.

It soon transpires that the narrator can taste the emotions of whoever it is who has prepared the food.

Ultimately this is an account of an all-American family and how it tenuously hangs together through the Son's brilliance and benign madness, the mother's affair with a co-worker at the carpentry co-operative where she takes up work and the constant un-changing father. There is also a slightly senile grandmother living some distance away and who repeatedly sends furniture/ the contents of her house to them.

The narrator's peculiar gift wavers between being at the forefront of the story and sometimes more of sub-point. At one point, the story is more about the son but I don't recall that we ever see the narrator taste anything he has prepared.


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Fever of the Bone, Val McDermid

This is the first of Val McDermid's books which I have read. A few years ago we watched the Wire in the Blood series and grew to like it it. I prefer my crime dramas to be gripping/ edge of the seat thrillers rather than something which serves as wallpaper viewing - i.e. it's there but it doesn't really engage brain.

Having seen several episodes and therefore having an appreciation of the characters, it didn't matter that I was not starting with the first book. I won't give too much away but the book follows a series of murders, some in Bradfield and a couple in neighbouring constabularies. The victims meet their killer in Internet chatrooms and lured to their end.

The book hints at various characters' past and refers back to previous stories. Enough information is given that you don't need to have read the books in sequence but enough is kept back that you want to go and read the previous books.

My only criticism is that the killer's ability to track down the targeted individuals is not explained. The killer is able to identify the victims' parents and this is accounted for in the narrative but there seems to be a missing connection in how the killer then pin points the specific victims while in the chatrooms. There is a geographic explanation but no more.

Other than that, and if anyone can point to the time within the story when that particular conundrum is breached, please let me know!


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Skagboys

So I have just finished Skagboys by Irvine Welsh. It's a precursor, I'm not sure I'd call it a prequel, to Trainspotting. I haven't read Trainspotting for years, probably not since before the film came out but it follows a similar narrative style and uses a Scottish dialect,although there was some language which reminded me of a Clockwork Orange. The characters all tend to tell their story which means that the jump from different characters between chapters can take a bit of working out to determine who is narrating the chapter.

One review I read commented on Welsh's tendency to to rework the same characters and the same story.

It charts Renton's descent into heroin addiction, from promising student at Aberdeen accompanying his father on Miner's Strike rallies, to it taking over his entire life, to the extent that he ditches his girlfriend to spend more time with it.

Familiar characters such as Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie are also introduced. Other characters are also brought into the picture and their lives all connect, all seemingly to ultimately connect to the two individuals who work in the pharmaceutical factory which is the source of all their woe.

Although the book is set within Thatcher's 80s, the story never quite goes so far to fully pin the blame for Scotland's heroin epidemic on Thatcherite Britain and the closing of the docks, mines and other sources of employment for the working class man. It's there as a theme and touched upon but it doesn't go so far as to say it outright.

Similarly, the story never quite deals with the question of individual responsibility. No-one forced Renton to have his first hit and his spiral into addiction takes time, there's a significant period during which he is not an addict.

Towards the end of the book a few of the characters are in Rehab and one of the people running the rehab programme observes that so long as he doesn't catch aids or overdose, Renton will grow out of his addiction. This basically indicates that Renton is an angry young man full of angst and hormones and he'll get over it all.

Sex, but not love, feature strongly in the book. It's a fine line Welsh treads and perhaps strays over, between gratuitous and simply reflecting that it is regarded as both commodity and means of escapism as much as it becomes a trap. I don't know that I would call the book misogynous but the female characters are really bit players, becoming victims of their own circumstances rather than taking control of their own destiny. Perhaps that is true of the male characters too.

So overall, worth a read. I plan to re-read it, once I've finished Trainspotting.

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Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

Tuesday was a rainy day so an ideal day for hiding indoors, reading and playing on the Wii. I recently downloaded Irvine Welsh's "Skagboys" - precursor to Trainspotting so I've started that.

After lunch we headed onto the beach for a stroll, rewarded by views of a rainbow. The picture below shows the Harbour later in the day.




The evening saw a trip to the local curry house, girls enjoyed an egg curry, accompanied by the school bears :)

Wednesday was much more sunny so we decided to take the steam train to Dunster. On Wednesday there is a coach connection from the station to he castle so we took advantage of this. We arrived in Dunster just in time for lunch. There is no shortage of tea rooms and we headed for the Chocolatieria for sandwiches, milkshakes and hot chocolate. My hot chocolate comprised warm milk and a chunk of chocolate to mix in - delicious!




We spent the afternoon exploring the castle accompanied by Boo reading the guide, and enjoying the outdoor climbing and play area.

Thursday was another rainy day so we headed to Quince Honey Farm. The girls enjoyed the indoor play area there. Once we dragged them away, we could look around the beekeeping area: very impressive collection of hives which you could look at without any risk of agitating the bees of getting stung! Definitely worth a visit.


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Fossil Hunting

I mentioned in my earlier post that the tide goes out a long way to reveal rocks to clamber, pools to splash in and seaweed to soften your fall when you slip!

The Watchett area is known for its fossils, and we have been keeping eyes peeled looking out for ammonites. Boo and I went clambering over the rocks on our first day here and found a couple. On our next day all four of us went clambering, this time with shoes on: my toe shoes (aka Vibram fivefingers) have been v handy for climbing!

Our previous day's exploring meant we knew which types of rock to look on for the ammonites. We found lots of great examples:





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Our Jubilee Holiday

So here we are in Watchett on the North Somerset coast. After a very busy Friday helping out at the school Jubilee celebrations and packing, we drove down to the South West with much of the rest of the country.

Despite all the traffic, we still arrived on schedule, just in time for high tide and lots of clambering on the rocks.

Our cottage is upside down with the bedrooms on the ground floor and living area on the first floor so we can enjoy the views from the decking.




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Finished!

Since October, I have studying with the Open university, the Arts Past and Present (aka AA100). Yesterday saw the submission of my final assignment: a 2000 word essay on sacred space, tourism and pilgrimage. I'm now feeling a little Demob happy to say the least!

I've looked at OU courses now and again over the past few years and they came up again when I was looking at creative writing courses and distance learning. Anyway, on return from our holiday to the US, I decided to have another look and then book! The recommendation from the OU is to study a level 1 course first. Although I have studied at university level before, I decided to follow their recommendation and signed up for AA100.

I'm glad I did as its got me used to the OU way of doing things and the use of online and electronic resources. My previous degree was in the early 90s when the most technologically advanced students has electronic typewriters, most of which are probably now museum pieces! Referencing for those essays involved underlining all the cases and I don't think we ever had a word count to stick to.

AA100 has such a broad range of topics covered as well and you study subjects you might not otherwise consider reading about. We have covered the following:

Cleopatra
Cezanne
Faraday
The Dalai Llama
Stalin

Poetry
Shostakovich
The Reformation
Pugin's Architecture
Benin Bronzes
Cultural resources and exemptions

General overview of philosophy including philosophical conceptions of leisure
The Experience Machine
Sacred space and pilgrimage
Roman concepts of leisure
The seaside

There's been more of a social element than I was expecting. It didn't
really cross my mind when I signed up that 100s of other people would also be studying this course, from all walks of life and all stages of life. The online world has made this very accessible, augmented by tutorials, a day school and a trip to the British Museum organised by my tutor.

So with four months until my next course, A215 (creative writing), I can read all those books which have been piling up, finish Lego Batman and start Lego Harry Potter, oh and I expect there will be a holiday or two...

What's interesting looking back over this blog is that I've not blogged about the course that much. I suspect that the fear of plagiarism has reined me in. That and the fact that the blog would probably have ended up being a page of popplets...




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