My current book which I'm on the verge of finishing: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
My niece sent me this one as we do find our tastes in books coincide sometimes - she sends me things she's really liked and vice versa. She waxed most lyrical over this and it is, as several reviewers have said, a sweet story. Thing is, do I like sweet? Glancing over my recent reads I seem to go for less than happy endings but this is a refreshing change. Yes, now and again I do like sweet. Even if the heroine, Juliet, is deeply annoying and most of the Islanders sound and act identical, even if there is the standard temperamental child, Kit, who I wanted to push off the cliff and even if her mother, Elizabeth, is unreasonably courageous. In spite of all this, and the less than brilliant writing, the authors know how to spin a tale - lots of tales because the individual recollections of the Guernsey Islanders suffering German occupation in the war are what made the book compelling reading.
It's set out in letters. No chapters or anything like that and it's not a form I'd think of as workable (as a child I used to skip people's letters to each other in books as boring and irrelevant) but it works here. I've ended up knowing a little about the German occupation although I have to be careful because apparently the Guernsey in the book is not the one some Islanders would recognise. But I liked it. I'm even starting to like Juliet and had to skip to the last page to check that she was going to end up marrying the right man - yes, it's that kind of book, but it has to be. It has to have a good ending. I'm not there yet but I know it will be.
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loganberrybunny and which I got from huskyteer. Here are the rules:Create a Spotify playlist containing exactly 100 songs. There are no limits on genres, content, length etc. Instrumentals are fine. However, you may only choose one song per artist, and one artist per song.
I love Spotify (it's free!) but I've only used it to play something I fancy hearing or that someone has recommended. Thanks to technical help from kind hearted
huskyteer I have at last compiled this playlist of 100 songs. It's hard to choose! It's just today's list! And here's just some of the things I couldn't have:Any Beatles
Kate Bush, Running Up That Hill
John Lennon, Jealous Guy
Bill Oddie, Harry Krishna
Alexei Sayle, Hello John, Got a New Motor?
Sonny and Cher, I Got You Babe
The Eagles, Desperado
The Move
The Roches, Bad For Me
Mike Sarne, Come Outside
The Teddy Bears, To Know, Know, Know Him
Richard Thompson, See My Friends
Leroy van Dyke, Walk On By
Mireille Mathieu, La Dernière Valse
( list )
- Mood:musical
Originally published at tansyrr.com. You can comment here or there.
Almost there, almost there. You can tell when a group full of people have been doing NaNo too long, because the following seems hilariously funny:
- I always said they should make a reality TV show of Clarion, but what about NaNoWriMo?
- You could totally do that.
- Give twelve lucky people a chance to live in a big house with unlimited writing time and space, away from their real lives, the only down side is that they all have to produce 50,000 words, and obviously they’d all go insane. Screened live 24 hours on the web.
- Can there be a Big Brother style voice that gives them annoying writing exercises and tips like ‘write a scene with a robot zombie’?
- Does the winner get published? No matter how bad their book is?
- Ha, people would buy it anyway
- NaNoWriMo the Series: 30 Days, No Excuses
- Give them everything that writers say they need: hardware, time and space to do nothing but write, separation from jobs and family
- People would kill to get in there
- There would have to be catering, really good catering
- Do we vote people out?
(quick vote in room decides no voting people out)
- We want them to have to stay until the bitter end
- Maybe we evict them all as soon as they hit 50K
- So what, you end up with thousands of people watching an empty house with one person typing
- I’d watch that!
- Put all the books up on Lulu.com and they can all be published!
- Did you know that the average number of copies sold of a self-published book is 47? Or was it 9…
(conversation is derailed in order to discuss Harlequin Horizons)
Me: Okay the bad news is I’ve been here half an hour and written nothing, the good news is I know what I’m blogging about tonight.
EDIT: I totally forgot to include the part of the conversation where celebrities tape encouraging messages and writing tips to be beamed into the house – and Nathan Fillion opens buttons on his shirt to encourage high wordcounts (writers who don’t meet their day’s target are sent to the naughty room so as not to see Nathan opening the button on his shirt)
- so the house is only open to women and gay guys?
- no, but if straight men aren’t inspired by Nathan Fillion they will just have to dig deeper and use the experience of watching another man undress in their fiction. Grist for the mill! Grist for the mill!
EDIT EDIT: I also forgot the part where someone pointed out that there is always one who managed to complete NaNo in the first 3 days and I announced this was no longer a theoretical exercise and had become a murder mystery waiting to be written…
( Spoilers for End of Time )
- Mood:
wondering...
I have lots of lovely yarn.
Boycie's melanoma never came back.
I have a job that I like with lovely workmates.
Books! (I got sent some AMAZING vintage American Agatha Christies in a swap this week. Truly wonderful, I was almost embarrassed to receive them, but no so embarassed I'd send 'em back!)
Curry, food of the gods. Or is that cheese? (Note to self, try cheddar in curry sauce...)
Tea
None of you expect me to use the phone.
It has stopped raining :)
So I went to the Enid Blyton talk on Tuesday, with a friend. To be honest, I wouldn't have bothered if it hadn't been for Enid Blyton's strong local connections. Viv is a real Blyton enthusiast who's been collecting her books since reading Mr Galliano's Circus as a child. Now, she knows all Blyton's Dorset locations, has opened the Ginger Pop shop in Corfe Castle village and has a new venture, Eileen Soper’s Illustrated Worlds down on Poole Quay.
There was no need for Viv to say a great deal about Blyton's life as it turned out everyone there had watched the BBC4 programme (and everyone had an opinion). Things I learned: the Mary Mouse strip books were written in the 1940s to make use of publishers' offcuts which would otherwise have been wasted at a time of paper shortages; Blyton's nature knowledge was so good that she became associated with the Warne 'Wayside and Woodland' series.
For a book collector, the slides of cover designs were slightly disappointing. I'm not a Blyton collector, probably only have about a dozen of her books to Viv's hundreds but I do have a full set of original Malory Towers hardbacks with the weird but so distinctive ilustrations by Stanley Lloyd. Only one of mine has a dustwrapper, alas, but I don't think I could enjoy the books in any other format. Unfortunately, these original books are now very expensive, in spite of the large number of reprints.
I'm certainly planning a trip to the Eileen Soper gallery next summer when it's open again. For people who can't wait, the web is simply heaving with Blyton information! I was hoping to post a picture I love, which shows Enid Blyton with Richmal Crompton and Malcolm Saville at a theatre. It's printed in Barbara Stoney's biography, which I no longer have. While searching in vain I found this fun Children’s Literature Quiz. Have a go!
Originally published at tansyrr.com. You can comment here or there.
A random shopping trip earlier in the week resulted in an abridged copy of The Jungle Book – and even more unusually, Raeli has been happy to listen to it three nights in a row. I’m enjoying it, because it’s so oddly relevant to what I’m writing right now. Also, I’ve never actually read the thing. There’s beautiful language going on even in this abridged copy – I may have to get hold of the real thing for inspirational purposes. I mean, it’s a book about a panther, wolves, a bear, a lion, a snake, a boy… animal politics, oh yeah. Very appropriate.
Speaking of inspiration, I’ve been getting the urge to podcast again (it’s weird, it’s like baking, the desire comes over me in November every year and washes away again by February). ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
girliejones has given me permission to do a full podcast version of Siren Beat, and I’ve been plotting it out in my head, ready to start playing once NaNo releases me from its maw. I’d also love to do one next year of early chapters of P&M, but that depends on lots of factors like time, energy, and whether the publisher is supportive of the concept.
So far my work on the project has entirely composed of me searching for Creative Commons music tracks. Possibly my brain melted a while back and I failed to notice. Music good.
Oooh speaking of music being good, did everyone else get that a film like Whip It would also have a great soundtrack that would be available on itunes? This obvious fact did not sink in for me until today when I started reading Derby Girl, the book that Whip It was based on and found myself listening to the soundtrack from Juno at the same time… anyway, long story short, I have new writing music, hooray!
It also occurs to me that by the time we reach book 3, my love triangle has turned into a love polygon. So glad I don’t have to think about the third act until, you know, April or so. Maybe I’ll have figured out how to resolve it by then.
I had a lovely ego boost today, when my editor at Voyager sent me the text for their 2010 catalogue, so I could check it over for errors. This wasn’t the blurb text that I’ve actually been part of creating, but the text to sell the book to booksellers and – wow, it’s kind of amazing to see your own book all blurbed up and fancy. Also to hear other people describe it, when it’s only existed in your own head for so long.
Mentioned to my honey that they were emphasising the romance elements of the story and he said ‘Duh,’ which made me laugh.
In other news, I started practicing for my annual ‘let’s cook experimental things at Christmas and ooh, catering for a vegetarian this year’ phase by teaching myself to make stuffed eggplant and hurling said eggplants at the Thursday night Horde (6 adults, 5 kids, always need vegetarian, gluten & dairy free options). The breadcrumb, herb and cheese stuffing was awesome. The gluten & dairy free mushroom-and-goat-feta one was less so, but I think it was because they didn’t cook as long – I extra-cooked what didn’t get eaten and reheated it for my lunch today and it was so yum. I forsee many eggplants in my future. I’ve never cooked one before because I was all scared, but they are beautiful and now I can be brave.
Now I’m craving eggplant. Mmmm.
I asked what I could do to help prevent things getting worse. He wanted to put me back on the drug that made me sick last time, telling me it was a great drug with few side effects, and was annoyed whan I refused. That particular drug is not a preventer. He also asked how much alcohol I was consuming - sigh. I should have seen that one coming. It was the same old 'you don't have gall stones, the second most common cause of pancreatitis is too much alcohol, are you sure that you're being accurate with your estimations of how much you're drinking?' He showed me the referral letter he wrote - it says 'drinks minimally'. I have to go back in 6 weeks and depending on what the surgeon says, they'll organise another scan then if the reccomendation is 'watch and wait' (fingers crossed).
I'm still so frustrated - all this is based on scans that are 3 months old. I obviously needed this opinion 3 months ago, which (the potential surgery) is what was recommended at discharge in July. I missed out on cheap airfares for Camp because I couldn't risk booking them in case I was in the hospital having an operation. I looked up this other sort of cyst (which the 2nd scan report says is more likely I have) - 60% turn pre-malignant or malignant if >3cm. Mine is 3.2 x 2.8 x 3cm. That's scary, but the list of complications from the surgery is equally daunting.
yesterday's word count - 484
John and I recommend which books the discerning listener should be gifting to their loved ones this year. Glenn looks at the Aussie films of 2009, we have an exclusive interview with comedian Judith Lucy about the meaning of "success", and our special Crimes Against Pop presenter is an ex-soap star who was once in a band. I don't want to jinx that, but I can tell you if he was testing his microphone he might say "Check, 1, 2". He'll be bringing in a mighty organ.
Listen to the show live on Joy 94.9 between 12-2pm (Melbourne time) or stream it live from the website!
If you miss it the podcast will go up in a week or so. :)
And for the rest of us - have a happy day too. In solidarity with our American cousins, let's spend a moment today to be thankful for something too.
Today I'm thankful for my big, noisy family, for our ability to show unrestrained affection to one another, for spending some time together to celebrate Richard's birthday, and for getting to spend more time with Jess and Callan.
Originally published at tansyrr.com. You can comment here or there.
As some of you know, I’ve gone a touch insane about football (soccer to Americans and Australians) thanks to my attachment to Arsenal and Premier League over the last year and a bit. While I do love our boys, something that has been getting to me more and more is the marginalisation and invisibility of women’s football. I have complained about the lack of coverage, in the media and in the presentation of games on TV, and the overwhelming assumption that no one is going to be interested. I’m interested! And not just because, you know, Arsenal Ladies rocks. So far my support has been fairly limited. I follow the Guardian news feed for women’s football in the UK, I keep an eye out for news stories elsewhere, and I’ve even started taking an interest in Australian soccer!
The trouble with living in Tasmania is that we don’t have a state team (the same is true for Aussie Rules) which means if you want to barrack for a team you have to choose them for some other reason. But, hey. My team is Arsenal and I’m pretty sure I’ve never even been to their area of London before. I’m not even sure where it is. I’d have to look at a map. And I have been so busy being obsessed with all things Arsenal that I haven’t got around to thinking about or choosing an Aussie team. I told myself that, you know, I’d wait until there was some women’s soccer before I got interested in the more local stuff. Or until my daughter gets on her own team.
But as it turns out, the Australian women’s “pro” W-League (I’m sure you can imagine why it’s in inverted commas, and has nothing to do with whether or not the players have a professional attitude) is going strong in its second season and I was delighted beyond all reason when it turned out the ABC was screening some W-League games on Saturday afternoons. So I decided to choose a team.
( Read the rest of this entry » )
Photo of the Camera
The weather was so lovely at lunchtime today that I couldn't resist taking a few tourist shots. Looking for the quirky and unusual is more my style, but it would be silly to ignore all the obvious beauty around me. Especially when I get a clear shot like this!
But today, I'm seriously in love with the ACT Government due to this headline - ACT win fight on gay wedding laws
I see now that I need to get an icon for when I want to be wildly celebratory! Or at least a pic of Adam Lambert. In the meantime, I will use virtual tarts to indicate how absolutely fucking stoked I am about these laws.
COME ON VICTORIA! The relationship register in Melbourne is a terrific start, but the next step is well overdue!
Several nights ago, I dreamed I took him to get his ear pierced and then I gave him a diamond stud for his birthday, so last night I asked him if that was what he'd like for a present. He turned me down. He said he was thinking of getting a tattoo, but I don't want to give him that for his birthday. He thinks he'd like a gold chain instead. We'll go shopping for it one day next week.
Finished another WiP from 2007 this morning. It was almost done. I ended up deleting some of it, then wrote some more so I wouldn't actually have a negative word count!
Alas I will be interstate or at other events for most of this run, but I *will* be going to The Hunger on Sunday 13th December. It's actually the only one of the films on that week that I haven't seen, so it works out well.
If any of you guys want to join me, that would be superdooper terrific! It might be best to buy tickets in advance, as some films are selling out. There's a bar upstairs, and deckchairs, and the Rooftop is generally a good time.
I will also be tweeting the evening, to one degree or another, and blogging it later, as part of my campaign to flood the interwebs with vampire related nonsense. Heh heh heh.
So. It's not a great, deep, work. As Mr. Fothergill himself says, in his Preface, the book "makes no pretensions to be a work of original scholarship; it is based upon printed sources, most of which are well known and readily available". What it is, is (again in the author's words), "a gallery of pictures" of some of Horace Walpole's friends. Each chapter covers a different category of Walpole's friends (the political set, the antiquarians, etc.) and discusses two or three people belonging to that set; providing brief biography, relationship to Walpole, and so forth. It all adds up to an immensely readable book, with extracts from people's letters and diaries, some sly fun-poking, a lot of background... And a bibliography that I'll be mining soon! There were some friends I'd have liked to have seen more about - Sir Horace Mann, for instance - but a book about Horry's friends was always going to have to leave some out, and I did get more about Mann than I knew before. Overall, a good book, and one I'm glad I bought.
In other book news, I have finally found a modern author of Regency romances who knows the difference between service à la russe and service à la française. Admittedly, she doesn't appear to have much clue about exactly how either worked, nor about when either was in vogue, but she gets points for trying, at least, since few of her colleagues ever do.
Heart of oak
No poem today, although I am rather earwormed by 'Heart of oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men'. I'm not at all sure it is an oak tree, though - I can recognise trees from their leaves, but this one is completely bare now so I have no idea what it is!
Today I broke a rule and bought a magazine after walking up to the post in the sunshine. Five minutes in the shop and it was raining again when I came out. So, I indulged in Country Living, it was very disappointing compared with their usual Christmas issues and a complete waste of money. I just wanted a Christmas nudge!
thelondonpauper has put up his tree already. NO! Too early! Yet I'm slightly jealous. Usually a stickler for not being too early, this year for some reason I can't wait for it to be time to put up the lights and play Christmas music. Perhaps it's the weather, or the fact that last year I couldn't think about anything except moving.This afternoon I drove up to the garden centre in search of inspiration. Well! ( mad ideas )
- Mood:
cold
Today - finished a WiP, wrote 2 drabbles, added some more to a different WiP for a grand total of 1,138
Grand total = 6,881
#3 son turns 21 tomorrow.
Page Summary
- biskybat : (no subject) [+0]
- callmemadam : The Your 100 (Almost) Best Tunes Meme [+6]
- cassiphone : 30 Days, No Excuses [+9]
- katherine_b : Interesting... [+53]
- white_hart : Photo of the day, 27 November [+5]
- mimmimmim : Being thankful [+1]
- callmemadam : Enid Blyton's Dorset [+6]
- cassiphone : It’s a Jungle Out There [+6]
- mandy_kay43 : (no subject) [+2]
- narrelle : The Outland Institute today [+1]
- narrelle : Happy Thanksgiving, US peeps! [+0]
- cassiphone : Kicking Ball and Taking Names [+4]
- white_hart : Photo of the day, 26 November [+3]
- narrelle : Canberra, you don't suck so much after all!! [+9]
- mandy_kay43 : Happy 21st birthday, son [+0]
- narrelle : Who wants to see The Hunger with me? [+2]
- dorianegray : (no subject) [+5]
- white_hart : Photo of the day, 25 November [+7]
- callmemadam : Knitted dinners and other bonkers notions [+13]
- mandy_kay43 : (no subject) [+0]