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Monday, October 31, 2005
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Knitting my thoughts
I have started knitting. Something very straight forward. It is exactly the kind of activity that Dorothea Brande noted as a release for thoughts. Very helpful. I have an idea now of how this novel might go. And I might get this knitted item finished too! But I am still sweating.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Word meter
I have a meter now to count my words: That number one represents my working title. I haven't started writing yet! That would be cheating. I don't even have a plot.
Update..I've changed the number to 0 to see if it is working! 'Tis
Update..I've changed the number to 0 to see if it is working! 'Tis
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Counting down
Nov. 1 looms. I have a working title "Footprints" I don't know what this means exactly except it has something to do with ancestors leaving their mark on present generations.
Carl Hiassen and Flush
Random House has a contest inspired by Carl Hiaasen's book Flush ( a children's book) I've read some of his books and like some of them ( although not the last one I read) but unfortunately the contest is only open to people between the ages of 8 and 25! Maybe I could get my daughter to write something. She could win a trip to Florida. And the contest doesn't end til 31 Dec. so she'd have lots of time.
Monday, October 24, 2005
A matter of taste
As with tea-so books.
Our book circle considered McCall Smith's The Full Cupboard of Life and several found it wanting. They thought it too light hearted "considering the terrible situation" of Aids in Africa. They thought the author's "tongue in cheek style" was somewhat disrespectful to Africans. Most, however, appreciated the simple, humourous style with the buried complexity and the great respect and dignity the author gave his characters. These were people he knew, having spent much time with people like them in Botswana and South Africa.
I had some beaded pins which were made by ladies in Zimbabwe which I had bought on spec. The money goes to help Aids victims in Africa. One of the ladies bought one off me. They were able to take a look at some video clips of Pete's Pond (unfortunately the live wildcam was down again that day). Some of them were brave enough to try the bush tea. That too was a matter of taste and not universally approved. I like it though and won't have any trouble gettting through the packet.
Our book circle considered McCall Smith's The Full Cupboard of Life and several found it wanting. They thought it too light hearted "considering the terrible situation" of Aids in Africa. They thought the author's "tongue in cheek style" was somewhat disrespectful to Africans. Most, however, appreciated the simple, humourous style with the buried complexity and the great respect and dignity the author gave his characters. These were people he knew, having spent much time with people like them in Botswana and South Africa.
I had some beaded pins which were made by ladies in Zimbabwe which I had bought on spec. The money goes to help Aids victims in Africa. One of the ladies bought one off me. They were able to take a look at some video clips of Pete's Pond (unfortunately the live wildcam was down again that day). Some of them were brave enough to try the bush tea. That too was a matter of taste and not universally approved. I like it though and won't have any trouble gettting through the packet.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Offline
Oh dear. Pete's Pond's livecam is offline again. Oh well we will just have to look at the video clips when my book group comes in this afternoon. We are having red bush tea to contemplate Mma Ramwotse.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Pete's Pond Botswana
The Wild cam I referred to in my last post was down but now is back and the site says it will be extended into December. Take a look. And a hat-tip again to JAR for the ref.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Botswana
Our next book for our book circle discussion is The Full Cupboard of Life set in Botswana. Thanks to a reference by my blogging friend (we exchange comments! Thank you JAR!) I have found this wonderful, wonderful website where one can eavesdrop on animals in Botswana.
The first time I went to the site to look, it was dark there, about 7pm Botswana time, and there was a storm-you could hear the thunder rolling in the background. I thought, how marvelous. The sounds alone take you there. Then wonder of wonder a small elephant came strolling into view. Absolutely thrilling.
It should be a great source of discussion for the group if some of our members can look in on it first and for those that can't ( because they aren't on line or haven't the right plug ins) I can have the site up and they can take a look at it when we meet.
At Pete's Pond webcam in Botswana
UPDATE_ Since I wrote this but before I posted it unfortunately the camera has gone off line. That storm I think did it as it was the same day. Anyway..it does still show some video from the archives.
The first time I went to the site to look, it was dark there, about 7pm Botswana time, and there was a storm-you could hear the thunder rolling in the background. I thought, how marvelous. The sounds alone take you there. Then wonder of wonder a small elephant came strolling into view. Absolutely thrilling.
It should be a great source of discussion for the group if some of our members can look in on it first and for those that can't ( because they aren't on line or haven't the right plug ins) I can have the site up and they can take a look at it when we meet.
At Pete's Pond webcam in Botswana
UPDATE_ Since I wrote this but before I posted it unfortunately the camera has gone off line. That storm I think did it as it was the same day. Anyway..it does still show some video from the archives.
NaNoWriMo
Okay, I've done it. Signed as a participant in National Novel Writing Month at Nanowrimo
So I have to write 50,000 words in the month of November starting, like, midnight of Oct. 31! Can I do it? Well, my last challenge was to write a short story in 24 hours and I did that so I am hoping I will succeed at this challenge too.
I'm excited , I'm nervous and I haven't a crazy clue in my head about even what genre this novel will be but, well, it doesn't have to be good, it doesn't have to even make sense. Since my main problem is writing anything over about 2-3 K words I am hoping this will break the length barrier for me.
Wish me luck won't you?
Friday, September 30, 2005
I love this book
The one I am reading that is -Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I think it is not for everyone but it is definitely my kind of book. The humour is subtle, almost hidden, so light you might miss it. I find it hard to describe. It is like a shadow that flits in and out of the narrative. I find the writing to be similar to books written in the 1800's and I expect the author meant to have this effect. She succeeds very well. Mr Norell is revivng magic in England but he is very jealous of his position. Jonathan Strange is another magician of talent who becomes his protege but it appears that the student might outdo the teacher (they eventually they have a falling out). A synopsis, however lengthy, couldn't give you as much of the flavour of the book as can an excerpt. So I will copy a segment -abridged slightly- from about the middle of the book at a point in the story where Jonathan Strange is helping Wellington fight Napoleon.
Strange was in some anxiety lest Mr,. Norrell get to hear of the magic he had done at the ruined church at Flores de Avila . He made no comment of it in his own letters and he begged Lord Wellington to leave it out of his dispatches.
Oh, very well” said his lordship. Lord Wellington was not in any case particularly fond of writing about magic. He disliked having to deal with anything he did not understand extremely well. “But it will do very little good,” he pointed out. “Every man that has written a letter home in the last five days will have given his friends a very full account of it.”
“I know, “ said Strange, uncomfortably, “but the men always exaggerate what I do and perhaps by the time people in England have made allowances for the usual embellishments it will not appear so very remarkable. They will merely imagine that I healed some Neapolitans that were wounded or something of that sort.”
The raising of the seventeen dead Neapolitans was a good example of the sort of problem faced by Strange in the latter half of the war. Like the Ministers before him, Lord Wellington was becoming more accustomed to using magic to achieve his ends and he demanded increasingly elaborate spells from his magician. However, unlike the Ministers, Wellington had very little time or inclination for listening to long explanations of why a thing was not possible. After all he regularly demanded the impossible of his engineers, his generals and his officers and he saw no reason to make an exception of his magician.....
In the early summer of 1813 Strange again performed a sort of magic that had not been done since the days of the Raven King: he moved a river...The new position of the river so baffled the French that several French companies when ordered to march north, went in entirely the wrong direction so convinced were they that the direction away from the river must be north....Lord Wellington later remarked cheerfully to General Picton that there was nothing so wearing for troops and horses as constant marching about and that in future he thought it would be better to keep them all standing still while Mr. Strange moved Spain about like a carpet beneath them. Meanwhile the Spanish Regency Council in Cadiz became rather alarmed at this development and began to wonder whether, when they regained their country from the French, they would recognize it.They complained to the Foreign Secretary ( which many people thought ungrateful). The Foreign Secretary persuaded Strange to write the Regency Council a letter promising that after the war he would replace the river in its original position...
pp 334 335
Strange was in some anxiety lest Mr,. Norrell get to hear of the magic he had done at the ruined church at Flores de Avila . He made no comment of it in his own letters and he begged Lord Wellington to leave it out of his dispatches.
Oh, very well” said his lordship. Lord Wellington was not in any case particularly fond of writing about magic. He disliked having to deal with anything he did not understand extremely well. “But it will do very little good,” he pointed out. “Every man that has written a letter home in the last five days will have given his friends a very full account of it.”
“I know, “ said Strange, uncomfortably, “but the men always exaggerate what I do and perhaps by the time people in England have made allowances for the usual embellishments it will not appear so very remarkable. They will merely imagine that I healed some Neapolitans that were wounded or something of that sort.”
The raising of the seventeen dead Neapolitans was a good example of the sort of problem faced by Strange in the latter half of the war. Like the Ministers before him, Lord Wellington was becoming more accustomed to using magic to achieve his ends and he demanded increasingly elaborate spells from his magician. However, unlike the Ministers, Wellington had very little time or inclination for listening to long explanations of why a thing was not possible. After all he regularly demanded the impossible of his engineers, his generals and his officers and he saw no reason to make an exception of his magician.....
In the early summer of 1813 Strange again performed a sort of magic that had not been done since the days of the Raven King: he moved a river...The new position of the river so baffled the French that several French companies when ordered to march north, went in entirely the wrong direction so convinced were they that the direction away from the river must be north....Lord Wellington later remarked cheerfully to General Picton that there was nothing so wearing for troops and horses as constant marching about and that in future he thought it would be better to keep them all standing still while Mr. Strange moved Spain about like a carpet beneath them. Meanwhile the Spanish Regency Council in Cadiz became rather alarmed at this development and began to wonder whether, when they regained their country from the French, they would recognize it.They complained to the Foreign Secretary ( which many people thought ungrateful). The Foreign Secretary persuaded Strange to write the Regency Council a letter promising that after the war he would replace the river in its original position...
pp 334 335
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Friday, September 16, 2005
comments
I have been getting comment spam so I have had to delete some of the comments on some of my posts.
I have changed my settings to set up obstacles to these so and so people who use blogs for their own purposes. Commenters will have to use word verification to post a comment. This repetition of a randomly generated word requires a human and should stop those who use automatic means to spam the blog. If that doesn't work I will have to switch it to allow only registered users to comment. I have had this problem on my other blogs too and it is extremely annoying.
I have changed my settings to set up obstacles to these so and so people who use blogs for their own purposes. Commenters will have to use word verification to post a comment. This repetition of a randomly generated word requires a human and should stop those who use automatic means to spam the blog. If that doesn't work I will have to switch it to allow only registered users to comment. I have had this problem on my other blogs too and it is extremely annoying.
Sons of Fortune disowned
My book circle absolutely panned Sons of Fortune. Whew! They do have taste. I didn't bother to finish the book which gave me a way out of being scathing. I think I am rather known for being negative or picky about our books. I always seem to find some little thing to complain about, even if I generally like the book. About books I dislike I can be, well, rather withering in my criticism. But in this case the book was so bad that saying what I truly thought of the book would be cruel to the person who suggested it. But I didn't want to be dishonest either and not be as critical as I felt so my answer was not to read the book!
No one liked it, even the Archer fans, saying it was not up to even his standard. I tried to read one of Archer's books before and couldn't get into it so I don't know what his best is. Kane (Cain?) and Abel was mentioned.
Another of our members didn't get around to reading it and we all suggested she not waste her time with it. That's pretty bad.
Our next book, as suggested by one of our members, is The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith I have read it but that is okay as I am only half way through Jonathan Strange and Mr.Norrell. Someone thought there wouldn't be enough to discuss. It is a short book but if the members read the series we can discuss all of them and they are deceptively simple. There is a lot of thought in them and I think a lot we can pull out with some reflection and contemplation.
No one liked it, even the Archer fans, saying it was not up to even his standard. I tried to read one of Archer's books before and couldn't get into it so I don't know what his best is. Kane (Cain?) and Abel was mentioned.
Another of our members didn't get around to reading it and we all suggested she not waste her time with it. That's pretty bad.
Our next book, as suggested by one of our members, is The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith I have read it but that is okay as I am only half way through Jonathan Strange and Mr.Norrell. Someone thought there wouldn't be enough to discuss. It is a short book but if the members read the series we can discuss all of them and they are deceptively simple. There is a lot of thought in them and I think a lot we can pull out with some reflection and contemplation.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Book store
I have added to my stack of books to read having spent an hour or so in Chapters today. Looked for Margaret Drabble's The Red Queen but they didn't have it in stock. Did find the Lynne Truss Treasury which was on my wish list and after much musing I picked up Penelope Lively's The Photograph and Adultery by Richard B. Wright, the latter because it is likely to be on our book circle list. I am still working through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. It is a thick book in more ways than one. I still haven't done more than dip into The Jane Austen Book Club so I have a lot of reading on my plate. Now that Sept. is here I am hoping I will have time for it all. As for writing, the drought continues.
Friday, September 02, 2005
Haiku
Our writing group met in Aug. and the theme for next meeting is either "new beginnings" or haiku. I tried a haiku today on Katrina. These are my poor first efforts.
Flood, famine, looting
Victims sitting and waiting
Test of a nation
Water, death, rubble
Angry eyes, waiting asking
When are you coming ?
Flood, famine, looting
Victims sitting and waiting
Test of a nation
Water, death, rubble
Angry eyes, waiting asking
When are you coming ?
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Franked
I am sure that Margaret Atwood's aunt, who used to be in my writing circle, would be shocked and "not amused" to find herself the subject of an article in Frank magazine. Not that it said anything outrageous, just what she left to whom in her will. I'm sure her neice neither expected nor needed a bequest.
Strange & Norrell strange
I am finding Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell a very odd book but I love it. I find it humorous in the most sinuous way. The author Susanna Clarke has her tongue firmly planted in her cheek I think. I haven't tired of it as I thought I might and so have not really delved into the Jane Austen Book Club. But Strange & Norrell is 782 pages and I know I won't be able to get through it without pause.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Strange, Norrel & Austen
Well I have cast my reading lot with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark, a huge book but intriguing in the extreme and as a relief from that if need be The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. Should be an interesting combination and should keep me busy well into the Fall because it will probably mean I will have to re-read some Jane Austen too and I like any excuse to do that.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
What now?
I have finished Master Georgie. I trifle disappointed in the ending but only because it wasn't happy or satisfying not because it wasn't well written. I am casting around for another book and haven't picked anything yet although I have a stack waiting. I will go through them and see what appeals.
In writing I am doing zip except my blogs....and I am doing a project for my family which is interesting: transcribing a memoir written by my great grandmother about her childhood 1874-1879 or so. Fascinating. An era and lifestyle that is so familiar ( from books) but so alien in that it is far removed from ours.
In writing I am doing zip except my blogs....and I am doing a project for my family which is interesting: transcribing a memoir written by my great grandmother about her childhood 1874-1879 or so. Fascinating. An era and lifestyle that is so familiar ( from books) but so alien in that it is far removed from ours.
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