Category Archives: Writing

Progress on my fantasy themed novel.

Catch Up, Writing

Catch Up

hawthorn blossom
Another week gone by. It’s been very productive for me as I swing into my new non-procrastinational ways. I have made the bed every day for a whole week now. I came back from walking the dog this morning and saw it – the blankets laid back to air – and I almost walked away to stoke up the computer. I actually ‘heard’ the thought in my head “leave it until after” but I squashed it flat! (As I remarked in a comment in the last ‘catch up’: one of the library books about breaking habits said that a person who makes the bed each morning is more likely to do their other daily tasks. I need all the prompts I can get.)

I’ve walked the dog each day but my treadmilling has been brief. Bit of discomfort in the hip joints and various other places. I think it’s from my increased activity.  So, I decided to give it a few more days, while I wonder if it’s procrastination.

My ‘school-work’ is all on target. I have four courses at the moment, with a quiz  and an assignment due before I go to bed on Wednesday. I’m really learning a lot on the Climate Change course, and it is great to have unbiased lectures, instead of turning my nose up at hysterical newspaper reports and the blogs that accuse people of being grandchild killers. While climate change is real, the outcome and timeframe isn’t certain.

Began today: Towards Scottish Independence?… (The University of Edinburgh);
and this one begins overnight: Introduction to Computational Arts (State University of New York).

The Learning How to Learn course is repeating on Coursera, and I highly recommend it to everyone. I have to do a project about it, and I’m taking the blogging format option, of course.  I’m doing the Effective Writing class again in a few weeks – the MOOC I flunked. It’ll be a breeze now, armed with all my new learning techniques.

Speaking of writing – I have outlined my novel. Only to the extent that I know what I need to do to finish it, structure wise and word count. I’m aiming for the 120,000 word target again. With what I have, it will take that to finish. I’ll write a fair few of the 89,000 words again, since I’m changing the story. I haven’t actually gone over the scenes yet with the changes, but I did mind-mapping yesterday and that was productive: the story a bit clearer in my head now. I’m giving myself to the 1st September to write-up the  changes on the printed scenes – then it’s head down and writing.

The deadline to finish the draft is 5th October, my sister’s birthday. My novel is dedicated to Carol, and comes from her advice to me a week or so before she died: follow your dream. Having that date as my deadline is really empowering. I have to write romance in it for her, too. She devoured Mills & Boon, I couldn’t stand them. I was more a Western girl, then, and even the bit of romance in those was too much.

Now, I’ll grab the phone and hope I have taken a decent photo of the hawthorn flowering, this morning. Yesterday, white blossom was everywhere. Astonished, I hadn’t noticed the day before. Must have happened overnight. (Did you notice the bee? One in the featured photo and the one below.)

Bee on Hawthorn Blossom

Bee on Hawthorn Blossom

Take care. Thanks for visiting my blog and being part of my community. You’re appreciated. ❤

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Trees, Writing

Grevillea – & – A Tidbit From My Novel.

The Grevillea bush is in full bloom and I try to catch sight of the honeyeaters as I walk by. Unfortunately, they are too quick to fly off as I approach. Maybe if I left the dog at home … but that would defeat the purpose.

Roadside Grevillea

Roadside Grevillea

Now, I’ve decided to share  the opening dialogue from my novel, only because I’ve already revealed this on my other blog (the online learning journey one). When I found myself without sentences for a writing task, I snatched words I had prepared earlier.

Being Fantasy, I know it will not appeal to some! A mere tidbit.

 

“You’re sure, absolutely sure, no one else knows about this?” the wizard asked, peering at his informant in the gloom.

The elderly dragon-rider leaned into his green dragon, slipped a hand inside his leathers and absent-mindedly scratched while he thought. He nodded slowly.

“It would be all over town, if anyone else knew,” he said, flicking the fingers of his free hand towards the Tower.

“I suppose.” The wizard sounded unconvinced.

“My dragon will tell you the same thing.” The dragon-rider thumped the ribs behind him. “We’ve not spoken of it to anyone. Once word gets out, you can’t keep something like this quiet,” he insisted.

The wizard and the dragon locked eyes. The wizard looked away first.

[All grammar and verb use corrections gratefully received!]

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Book Review

M-R’s book: And Then Like My Dreams.

Margaret Rose Stringer is one of the first bloggers I chose to ‘follow’. Right away I loved her blogging style and eventually I discovered she had written a book – she is not shy about self-promotion. While others set up their author platform and follow the guidelines about being too pushy, Margaret Rose (aka M-R) goes ahead and does what she likes and says what she thinks.

atlmd

In fact, on her website, she has changed the tagline of her novel back from the publisher’s A Memoir to her own original pre-publication tag of Still and Moving Pictures, so don’t get confused if you should decide to get hold of a copy for yourself.

I must have said something sensible during a comment on one of her posts because – I am unable to fathom why – M-R added my blog to the 30 days/ 30 blogs challenge she had set herself, resulting in an unsurpassed spike in my stats.  Her action was stunning to me because she is the most awful snob when it comes to intelligence.

I had already picked up on that before I decided to buy her book.  In it, I discovered her obstinate refusal to suffer fools has led to some interesting asides in her memoir.

M-R writes honestly and intimately about her soul mate and husband – Charles ‘Chic’ Stringer – one of the Australian film industry’s most respected stillsmen. She speaks of their 31 years together, and remains determined to do all she can to keep her husband’s memory alive. He remains the other half of herself.

But I found this story more than the sum of her relationship with Chic. We get to see inside M-R, herself, as she reveals her first 31 years. She speaks disarmingly of abandonment, love, death, and how her mind works, often not in her favour.

M-R’s closing words: of the day after seeing Chic on TV, shooting stills for Grundy’s, in a movie about ABBA in Australia.

Three all-too-brief times I saw him in the mêlée surrounding the Swedes – always with one of his cameras in his hands, looking for a position in the ongoing madness.
There was no grief; only unutterable joy at the sight of him – young, beautiful, professional …
He was the most exciting person I have ever known.

I found ‘And Then Like My Dreams’ honest, funny, revealing, passionate, even slightly shocking, but always entertaining. I smiled, I cried, I was appalled, my mouth dropped open, I giggled, I cried again and thought surely my heart would break for these two people I have never met.

Above all, I was entertained.

And Then Like My Dreams. A Memoir

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