Haircut

I went to have a trim today and came out…

…a brunette.

Oh, To Be Welsh

I sat at my computer and just goggled. (That’s right, “goggled”, not “googled”!)

Garden Fun

We had one of those March weekends where the boys get the sandpit open and ask for the pool and don’t believe me when I say it might snow tomorrow.

Of course, I don’t really believe it either and I start casting a critical eye on the garden. I have Plans. They have not come to fruition yet, and might not this year, but I decided to make a start, by neatening up my existing flower beds. It was good exercise and it kept me out in the daylight longer than normal, and I was in a great mood for the rest of the day. Coincidence?

By the next day, of course, it was cold and rainy (as you’ll see in the pictures, along with the wonderful clay soil. Note to self: must get compost soon.)

Anyhoo, it’s not very impressive but, just for my own records, here’s what I did:

Gave the bed around the buddleia a real edge

Edged last year’s newest bed. This one has a large purple plant in it that was my birthday present last year from a friend. I’m not sure if it’ll come back, but I’m hopeful.

Edged and tidied up the bed by the porch. This one has daffodils and tulips making their way up. It’s probably going to help the tulips that, this year, they won’t be in the shade of a large pear tree by the time they try to bloom. In fact, it’ll be interesting to see what the lack of the aforementioned large tree does to the rest of the front garden…

I also cut back my butterfly bush quite dramatically. I really like cutting and slashing and digging and ripping up. I get a bit overwhelmed when all the plants start to grow. I need to embrace ‘pinching’ and ‘pruning’ and ‘thinning’ more.

There’s lots more to do, but it’s been quite wet since then, and there’s not point breaking my tools in the cement-like clay when there’s plenty more spring to come.

Working Writers – Scalzi and The Big Idea

I really like reading interviews with writers about how they sat down and wrote their latest book/story etc.

I don’t so much like interviews where the interviewer gets all “I want to win a creative-non-fiction writing award so let me describe the sound of the gravel crunching under my feet as I walk up the path to the writer’s secluded retreat on the campus of some university where they scratch out a meager living writing the kind of prose that makes the average person smack themselves on the forehead and say ‘I’m not buying that!’”

So I tend to like inteviews BY writers with working writers who are churning out book after book, story after story, publishing them, moving on, interacting with their fans and other people in their space.

I also like what is known as ‘genre’ fiction: mysteries, sci-fi, historical fiction, more mysteries.

So I suppose it should come as no shock that I was pleased to find The Big Idea column on John Scalzi’s site where he interviews other writers about how they wrote their latest book. (Scalzi is a Hugo Award winning writer, amongst other things, and a popular blogger).

I suspect this is his way of sidestepping the first question writers always get asked (“Where do you get your ideas?”). He asks other writers to answer the question, and they do. Because it’s being asked by another writer and not a lazy journalist, what you get are thoughtful answers in story form (not a brush-off like “I get them from the idea subscription service in Ohio”, a line that most successful writers have a version of, up their sleeves).

And these people are real people who have had all kinds of jobs and have had to fit their writing in around them.

Just what I need to hear.

Sci-Fi is now SyFy

Sci Fi network is rebranding itself as “SyFy”

The head dude said,

“When we tested this new name, the thing that we got back from our 18-to-34 techno-savvy crowd, which is quite a lot of our audience, is actually this is how you’d text it,” Mr. Howe said. “It made us feel much cooler, much more cutting-edge, much more hip,”

And then in a display of tragic hiplessness, he continued,

“Which was kind of bang-on what we wanted to achieve communication-wise.”

Great! Soopah!

The Angriest Stoplight

I really enjoyed this short story.

(Warning: there is Language. Bad language. And also very good language.)

I love a good short story. And I foam at the mouth when I read a bad one: one of those ones that goes on and on and says nothing and entertains-you-not and leaves you wondering why in the world you bothered reading it.

This is not one of those.

Writing Challenges

Had some ideas for an entertaining blog entry last night, but when I sat down to write this morning, it all came out flat.

So far this morning I’ve stumbled down to the kitchen, stood blinking in the darkness wondering where I was and what I was doing, grabbed two cups and some milk, made coffee, put sausages on to cook, showered, dressed, coached Boy1 through getting dressed, talked about a book with him, fed two boys both sausages and cereal, taken them to school, talked to Boy2’s teacher, nodded and smiled at lots of parents and children, listened to a news story about Bernie Madoff and his victims followed by a wildly inapproprate tale of a 3rd grade snack Ponzi scheme (way to trivialize, NPR), had a couple of lectures about my various shortcomings (some internal, some external), discussed plans for the day, talked about strategies for keeping Boy1 out of Big Trouble, made more coffee, made herbal tea and, in the midst of that tried to sit down and write.

I know it’s not much in comparison to some people’s mornings but I list this as an illustration to myself that I actually had have quite a lot running through this little brain of mine this morning. Maybe I should get off it’s back and stop berating it for not immediately being able to jump back into that funny place it was in last night after it had had some theta waves from repetitive household duties, and a whole day to reflect on things.

[Hmm. I heard an article on the radio about a study that showed how few things our brains can be asked to hold before we start to exhibit signs of stress, which affects memory and other functions. Here's an article, although not the one I was thinking of.]

I know that one day (if I’m spared, as the wee old ladies used to say) I’ll be able to wake up and grab a pen and start writing straight away, and no-one will demand anything of me. I know that I’ll be able to stay up all night writing if the mood takes me to start at 11 PM (which it often does) with no need to drag myself out of bed at 7 and cook sausages. And this will suit my writing self very nicely.

But, considering all the things that will have to change in my life to get me to that point, I’m not in much of a rush to get there.

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So, when do you feel most creative? And does it fit in with your current lifestyle?

Part of the Problem

This morning I was reading reflections by a favourite writer of mine. I know what she looks like and it has, occasionally, crossed my mind to envy her slim stature.

In the piece I read this morning she was talking about inexplicable, abberant behaviour and she compared it to,

“…hauling off and eating a whole pan of brownies when you would usually just eat an apple.”

Yes, she’s acknowledging that everyone has those moments.

But it occurred to me that ‘just eating an apple’ is never the default behaviour for me!

I might remind myself to eat an apple instead of a whole pan of brownies and then feel virtuous (and unsatisfied), but ‘just eating an apple’ is SOOOOooo not the norm.

This might be part of my problem. What do you think?

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Open Letter to the Authors’ Guild re: Text To Speech on the Kindle 2

I read that, in response to your complaint, Amazon is preparing to give authors and publishers the choice of whether to offer their books with text-to-speech.

Fine.

But I’m writing to ask you to encourage your members to tell their publishers to say ‘yes’.

I understand the contract issues and the rights issues. I understand the ’slippery slope’ argument.

From my own experience I say: I love to read. I sometimes buy audio books, but I really love to read. In fact I hate to stop reading. With the text-to-speech function, I don’t have to. I’m getting through books faster than ever because I no longer have to put them down when I cook dinner; do dishes; drive to pick up my pre-schooler…etc. etc. I’m already buying more books because of this.

I would not buy the audio book of every printed book I buy. You are losing not sales and it is not decreasing demand for audio books (yet, yes, I know you’re arguing for the future. I’m arguing for people like me who will always want to read the majority of their books).

Please encourage your members to think of this as a ‘value added’ feature for readers, rather than a competitor to their audio book rights. Please encourage them to say ‘yes’. Please encourage them to give this a chance. If it does turn out to be A Bad Thing, then you have your clause from Amazon. But please let your members know this could be an exciting new technology that readers might (or might not) love. Let us find out.

In addition, please consider my friend, a mother of two young boys, who has been losing her sight for years now. I am taking my Kindle over to ‘meet’ her this week. I know she’s going to be excited about the variable text size (Large Print doesn’t have its own license, does it?), and thrilled by the text-to-speech. She might have bought one and become a reader again, but now I’m not so sure, since I can’t guarantee her that all the titles will be available.

Thank you for all the work you do to protect the livelihoods of the authors who add so much to my life. Now, go and assure them there are honest readers out there who just want to squeeze a little more reading time out of each day! (And you could refer them to Neil Gaiman’s experiment where his publisher offered “American Gods” free at their website and saw a resultant jump in sales as people used the freebie as a ‘try before you buy’. Giving readers choices and flexibility and freedom can be a good thing).

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Hi-Tech Snow Day

My six year old and my almost-four year old are lying, one in the top bunk one int he bottom, sending messages to each other on two Nintendo DSs.

The eldest drew a head and sent it to his brother, who added a body and sent it back….

Remember when we used to do that with, er, paper?

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I just heard this shout,

“Mum, can you come and read the messages I’m sending to G? He can’t read it when I send him long sentence. I don’t think he knows about the silent ‘e’!”