I am just about to reach (what I’m thinking of as) the magical number of words in my novel. That number is 40,000. For some reason it holds mystical connotations for me, maybe I’m thinking in these terms because I am writing a fairy tale for adults.
The total goal is 60,000 so that’s 2/3 of the way through. Up until now the most I have ever managed is 20,000 and none of it linear. I skipped around and wrote the set pieces I found easiest at the time. This one however is nearly 40,000 of continuing story.
It’s been a hard road. Not the least finding time to work when visitors and other commitments have taken me away from writing it and then I’ve had to endure a week or so of staring at the computer screen and writing one word an hour before I’ve got into the flow of it.
Over the past 6 weeks I have thought of nothing else. It’s been a fragile process during which I have read only children’s books and watched children’s films and watched no television whatsoever. Well maybe I will occasionally watch strictly come dancing. The reason for his is I’m easily distracted. I would really rather be reading than writing. I suffer from the most appalling book lust. I devour books as if I might be able to read everything before I die. So I’ve hidden myself from temptation and it’s worked really well.
Only thing is now that I’m in the last third I have a feeling the total will be more than 60,000 but I’m going to ignore that for now. I am trying to coincide my finishing with the arrival of Christmas. That way I can take some time off and all the books I have wanted to read have been saved up on my Amazon wish list and my partner will buy them all for me as Christmas presents and I can hermit for a couple of weeks and read, read, read.
I've been reading writers websites and they all say the same thing the important thing is to be there at your desk everyday. And I have. and it's worked...so far. fingers crossed.
It all feels like a sacrifice well worth making for the achievement of finishing a whole novel and gaining my masters. Would I do it again? If I got the chance yes I would, in a second.
Monday 19 November 2007
Wednesday 7 November 2007
New Earth
Well it has finally happened they have maybe found a new planet and it is feasible that one of its moons could conceivably support life. Nothing definite yet you understand and the fact that it is 41 light years away and we don’t have anywhere near the technology to travel those distances I don’t suppose anyone will be in a hurry to pack.
What a coincidence that this has occurred just after Jeanette Winterson has published her wonderful yet frightening new novel The Stone Gods. Talk about timing eh?
I can almost hear the world’s politicians heave a collective sigh of relief. Well at least it’s possible that we will have found somewhere else to run and hide on if our planet goes tits up, as I have an eery feeling it will before much longer. Maybe not in my life time but soon enough. Anytime is too soon.
Winterson’s novel explores what it would be like if we reached a global situation where the only future left would be to set off and inhabit another planet. Of course the reason this would come into being is because we’ve pretty much destroyed the planet we are living on. Would we learn from our mistakes? Would we rape, pillage and burn a New Earth?
Well I won’t give away the ending but I certainly know what I think.
Now I’m nowhere near an expert on these matters and would never conceive of trying to argue a scientific point but I can’t help think; if we developed the technology required to travel those distances what damage could that do to the Earth? Look at the damage we have been told that aeroplanes have caused.
Can we be trusted with what’s out there? Are we reliable enough to take care and nurture what we may find however different or similar it may be?
What a coincidence that this has occurred just after Jeanette Winterson has published her wonderful yet frightening new novel The Stone Gods. Talk about timing eh?
I can almost hear the world’s politicians heave a collective sigh of relief. Well at least it’s possible that we will have found somewhere else to run and hide on if our planet goes tits up, as I have an eery feeling it will before much longer. Maybe not in my life time but soon enough. Anytime is too soon.
Winterson’s novel explores what it would be like if we reached a global situation where the only future left would be to set off and inhabit another planet. Of course the reason this would come into being is because we’ve pretty much destroyed the planet we are living on. Would we learn from our mistakes? Would we rape, pillage and burn a New Earth?
Well I won’t give away the ending but I certainly know what I think.
Now I’m nowhere near an expert on these matters and would never conceive of trying to argue a scientific point but I can’t help think; if we developed the technology required to travel those distances what damage could that do to the Earth? Look at the damage we have been told that aeroplanes have caused.
Can we be trusted with what’s out there? Are we reliable enough to take care and nurture what we may find however different or similar it may be?
Tuesday 6 November 2007
Food Glorious Food
A friend informed me recently that I live in the cheapest small town in the country.
I have bored her rigid over the past two months with news of my delightful bargain fodder.
No it is not, as you might imagine, because I have moved to a place filled with Icelands, Lidl or Aldi in fact it is quite the opposite.
For the past three years I have never lived further away than a three minute walk to my nearby Sainsbury. It has become something of a shock to those I know that I now have no idea where my nearest orange logo’d supermarket is.
Instead I have discovered the wonders of the local butcher, baker and candlestick maker. Scrap the last one and replace it with Grocer.
Hibberts’ butchers make the best homemade sausages this side of Clitheroe. In fact although not as much in the way of choice they are certainly on a par taste wise as Cowmans famous sausage shop and for me since it’s only a two minute walk from the house and not an hour’s drive you can’t complain. I shall be making sausages braised in red wine for dinner tonight. Their tomato and basil sausages (£2 a pound) fried gently then floured will be joined with half a pound of shallots from the grocers two handfuls of mushrooms and half a bottle of red wine. Seasoned thoroughly I don’t like to be shy with pepper and herbs although I have yet to figure out the point of the bay leaf , I always put one in though just in case it has secret powers I don’t know about. It takes an hour and a half to simmer in a casserole on the hob and the result is fabulous. The best onion gravy you’ll have in your life (well I think so anyway)
Since it’s sausage it has to go with mash so again from the grocers Cheshire potatotes (with dirt still on which of course I wash off) cooked and mashed with whole grain mustard, parmesan cheese and a handful of chopped spring onions. What more could you ask for on a cold November evening.
I’m loving the food here and I’m loving that it is the highest quality (sausages are homemade on site as is everything else) and none of it comes plasticized as it does in the supermarket and to top it all off it’s cheap as chips. The whole thing sans wine comes to about £4 and feeds at least four and it keeps well in the fridge too.
I am beginning to disturb myself by how much I think about food.
Yet surprisingly am eating less than I have done in years.
Quality over quantity, bring it on!!!
I have bored her rigid over the past two months with news of my delightful bargain fodder.
No it is not, as you might imagine, because I have moved to a place filled with Icelands, Lidl or Aldi in fact it is quite the opposite.
For the past three years I have never lived further away than a three minute walk to my nearby Sainsbury. It has become something of a shock to those I know that I now have no idea where my nearest orange logo’d supermarket is.
Instead I have discovered the wonders of the local butcher, baker and candlestick maker. Scrap the last one and replace it with Grocer.
Hibberts’ butchers make the best homemade sausages this side of Clitheroe. In fact although not as much in the way of choice they are certainly on a par taste wise as Cowmans famous sausage shop and for me since it’s only a two minute walk from the house and not an hour’s drive you can’t complain. I shall be making sausages braised in red wine for dinner tonight. Their tomato and basil sausages (£2 a pound) fried gently then floured will be joined with half a pound of shallots from the grocers two handfuls of mushrooms and half a bottle of red wine. Seasoned thoroughly I don’t like to be shy with pepper and herbs although I have yet to figure out the point of the bay leaf , I always put one in though just in case it has secret powers I don’t know about. It takes an hour and a half to simmer in a casserole on the hob and the result is fabulous. The best onion gravy you’ll have in your life (well I think so anyway)
Since it’s sausage it has to go with mash so again from the grocers Cheshire potatotes (with dirt still on which of course I wash off) cooked and mashed with whole grain mustard, parmesan cheese and a handful of chopped spring onions. What more could you ask for on a cold November evening.
I’m loving the food here and I’m loving that it is the highest quality (sausages are homemade on site as is everything else) and none of it comes plasticized as it does in the supermarket and to top it all off it’s cheap as chips. The whole thing sans wine comes to about £4 and feeds at least four and it keeps well in the fridge too.
I am beginning to disturb myself by how much I think about food.
Yet surprisingly am eating less than I have done in years.
Quality over quantity, bring it on!!!
Monday 5 November 2007
Making the most of it
It would appear that winter has finally arrived.
I like this time of year. I can put the fire on and curl up early at night with a good book . The rain and the cold means that for the next five months or so i can stay in without accusations of being boring.
Right now th wind is howling outside and the rain is starting to spatter the windows. The dog has been walked, the leaves have been raked and there is a beef casserole in the oven. For the rest of the day i have nothing to do but write.
I would much prefer to be teaching but the job market being what it is in this area means there is little chance of that in the forseeable future so i might as well make the most of this quiet time. And I have been. I have been writing and cooking and baking and feel as if i've been sucked into an Enid Blyton book of my own design.
Am I bored? Occasionally.
it seems to me though that we rarely get lots of time to do the things we love so I'm cramming in everything I won't have time to do when I am finally working again.
I hope to finish my novel and I'm half way through so that's a good sign and I intend to make everyones Christmas presents this year for financial and creative reasons.
For all of you at work and thinking about the cold journey home and then having to get up in the morning when it's dark I'm sure you're a little jealous and I won't rub it in but i'm jealous to. I miss having somewhere to go each day and I hope it isn't for much longer.
I like this time of year. I can put the fire on and curl up early at night with a good book . The rain and the cold means that for the next five months or so i can stay in without accusations of being boring.
Right now th wind is howling outside and the rain is starting to spatter the windows. The dog has been walked, the leaves have been raked and there is a beef casserole in the oven. For the rest of the day i have nothing to do but write.
I would much prefer to be teaching but the job market being what it is in this area means there is little chance of that in the forseeable future so i might as well make the most of this quiet time. And I have been. I have been writing and cooking and baking and feel as if i've been sucked into an Enid Blyton book of my own design.
Am I bored? Occasionally.
it seems to me though that we rarely get lots of time to do the things we love so I'm cramming in everything I won't have time to do when I am finally working again.
I hope to finish my novel and I'm half way through so that's a good sign and I intend to make everyones Christmas presents this year for financial and creative reasons.
For all of you at work and thinking about the cold journey home and then having to get up in the morning when it's dark I'm sure you're a little jealous and I won't rub it in but i'm jealous to. I miss having somewhere to go each day and I hope it isn't for much longer.
Thursday 6 September 2007
No Broadband
From the age of four all I ever wanted to do was run from the quiet towns I lived and live it up in the big city. A little clichéd I know; the stuff of rags to riches stories. I have to admit I never quite got my hands on the riches. But I did make to the city, London and Manchester but the latter being less than twenty miles away from the village I grew up in it never seemed to count. Less than twenty miles to the nearest city and it staggered me to know that most people from up my way and the surrounding towns and villages never ventured there.
Anyway I digress. So I made it to the city and I lived it large to cut a long story short. The quintessential gay city boy. The thought of ever returning to a quiet life petrified me. That was until a few years ago when the lives of Tom and Barbara Good began to look inspiring almost fateful. I began to dream about growing my own vegetables and flowers and buying Eggs and Milk from the farmers themselves. I have a very romantic and idyllic view of the country. Too much time reading Joanne Harris and the like. See my overall dream now is to retire to France do up my own farm house yada yada yada.
In reality the isolation would probably drive me mad so we, my partner and I, decided to take it a step at a time so we are moving to a village in Lancashire where we are near enough to the city in case it gets too much and near enough to greenery to see if it drives me crazy.
So far it isn’t looking good I have to wait for a week before I get broadband. There is no television ariel and I have had to pay an extortionate amount of money to have a phone line put in. I wouldn’t mind but it’s a new build property and it’s still only 30 minutes from Manchester by train.
As you can tell now I've posted I finally have broadband yippppppeeee
Anyway I digress. So I made it to the city and I lived it large to cut a long story short. The quintessential gay city boy. The thought of ever returning to a quiet life petrified me. That was until a few years ago when the lives of Tom and Barbara Good began to look inspiring almost fateful. I began to dream about growing my own vegetables and flowers and buying Eggs and Milk from the farmers themselves. I have a very romantic and idyllic view of the country. Too much time reading Joanne Harris and the like. See my overall dream now is to retire to France do up my own farm house yada yada yada.
In reality the isolation would probably drive me mad so we, my partner and I, decided to take it a step at a time so we are moving to a village in Lancashire where we are near enough to the city in case it gets too much and near enough to greenery to see if it drives me crazy.
So far it isn’t looking good I have to wait for a week before I get broadband. There is no television ariel and I have had to pay an extortionate amount of money to have a phone line put in. I wouldn’t mind but it’s a new build property and it’s still only 30 minutes from Manchester by train.
As you can tell now I've posted I finally have broadband yippppppeeee
Monday 20 August 2007
Why?
Why is is that, even though, the CV has been around for some time it is still necessary to fill in an application form? Not only do we have to fill it in it must be done in ink. Since purchasing my first computer i have to say that my hand writing has got progressively worse along with my speeling. Did you see what I did there?
Come to think of it why does blogger make you type an capital I using the shift key. WOrd does it automatically. I find it a little annoying.
Anyway today my puppy did three wees on the mat and one poo. I have only had her for a week and this has been the best toilet training day so far. Fair enough for two wees and the poo i spotted her squating away from the mat and hurriedly shifted her. The final wee was done entirely on her own. She's a special girl and i have had no mopping up to do. (see there's that i thing again and it looks os untidy)
Well goodbye for now
Come to think of it why does blogger make you type an capital I using the shift key. WOrd does it automatically. I find it a little annoying.
Anyway today my puppy did three wees on the mat and one poo. I have only had her for a week and this has been the best toilet training day so far. Fair enough for two wees and the poo i spotted her squating away from the mat and hurriedly shifted her. The final wee was done entirely on her own. She's a special girl and i have had no mopping up to do. (see there's that i thing again and it looks os untidy)
Well goodbye for now
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