Talking about writing ~ always a good idea, not least in the company of someone who is passionate about her craft. Collette is a poet, I write prose, we are good friends. Daring to be different (& frankly, exhibiting bravery above & beyond) we settled in at The Mustard Seed, our local Christian cafe. They have armchairs if you prefer low slung rather than upright with lace table cloths, an excellent cup of tea & a great deal of holy literature, tastefully displayed.

An odd looking woman, who I think was the owner, sat in a corner knitting something beige. She was accompanied by a beady eye & I strongly suspect, was listening to our conversation. Since it ranged from WIT politics, sexual politics (we both have massive issues around pole dancing) creative writing, learning to love ones characters to queer theory as a worthwhile subject for a dissertation & humous, no doubt she had a great deal to share with her colleagues once we left.

We mostly talked about writing. It was good to take a break from the act & discuss the art. And to realise that the essence of writing is the same, regardless of the discipline. An afternoon in Collette's company is as good as it gets.

I've submitted my short story.

Who knew? Milton Keynes is a so~called 'new town,' one of several created in the 1960s to relieve housing congestion in London. There was some suspicion that they didn't in fact exist. They were so bland & artificial, people who 'escaped' would grimace if you asked about life in MK & declare it too painful to discuss.

Yesterday, I had a phone call. Yep. From someone in MK ~ my loyal lieutenant has emerged from between the worlds, fit as a butcher's dog & with little more than a dead phone to concern him. Deep joy! Sometimes the magic works. I shook my finger at his smiley face yesterday morning, declared it neither big nor clever & demanded to know, what was occurin', as we say in Wales. And when I lit the candle, I'd done so with a little more intention than usual...

Catching up was grand. And then, after all the rain & clouds & wind & absolutely No Moon At All, when I went into the kitchen to make tea this morning, there She was! Glorious & shiny like the best gift in the world! Thank you, Ma'am, on every level!

Okay, the weather has now gone completely mad. A three minute, manic downpour (stair rod job) followed by a burst of wind & now, it's gone freakishly quiet. I don't think I care that much! All is well ~ Lady M can relax & stick the eye of newt back in the pouch...

The Moon was officially full a 7.30 this morning. This being so, my devotional eye was turned to the sky late last night. And lo... surprise, surprise, it was raining. The sky was heavy & no Moon shone. It was ever thus. I was awake this morning around half six ~ still raining, fell back into a dreamless sleep for another hour & woke just before 7.30. Still raining & by then the sky was uniformly grey. It has a tarnished silver tinge now but the rain drops trickle down the window like sluggish tears.

I've said it before, I know, but I do wonder if there's a party going on each month ~ some celestial Luna dance~off & She gets to go. Mere mortals must wait for Her to come home, with the milk, & report. Sigh... I honestly can't remember the last time I saw the Moon on the full. And what's the betting it will be clear as a bell tonight?

In other news... It's 9.25 ~ give a girl a break!

One of the most important requirements for any writer is the ability to self~edit. Understanding that less is almost always more, for instance is a challenge. Writers by nature, are precious about their work; reluctant to cross out so much as a comma. Appreciating how important it is to recognise superfluous words & eliminate them in order to strengthen the writing is a skill. Unless we can afford the services of a professional editor, most of us rely on friends; not always a good idea.

My friends insist my shopping lists are worthy of being short listed for the Mann Booker Prize, as indeed they ought. They are my friends. It's their job. But seriously (as no writer worth her ink will ever say...) having a friend on hand brave enough to offer an objective critique is invaluable. Once I'd 'finished' the short story I asked a friend of mine to take a look. To my delight, she quite literally deconstructed it! (You may well gasp. I was genuinely pleased, but I did need a lie down...)

Considered, intelligent & informed editing is too valuable a gift to ignore. We are under no obligation to take criticism on board, but if someone is prepared to take time out & be what my friend called an 'observer' it makes sense to take notice. I await her opinion of the revised draft with interest. And with two other readers lined up, I shall either be on my way to a good story, or phoning for a taxi...

Yesterday I was in Aberystwyth. I nipped into Waterstone's for a couple of books ~ gifts for daughter & granddaughter. It was Monday quiet & for a while I chatted with one of the assistants who recognises me since I'm a fairly regular customer. Purely on a whim, I asked her if the shop ever sold self~published books.

'Oh yes, if they're by local authors & have a Welsh theme.' I was just about to type, to cut a long story short, but in fact, the rest of the conversation was pretty succinct. All I have to do is turn up with a box of books & the relevant paper work, agree not to supply to other branches of Waterstone's & accept a sale or return agreement. Job done. It looks as if The Gift of Weaving will be in Waterstone's for the Christmas trade.

In other news, I've had some extremely useful feedback from one of my readers. Were The Window a regular short story, I already know I could flesh it out & make it pretty interesting. As it is, implementing the suggestions, virtually all of which are excellent, will play havoc with the word count & will tax me. I aim to have a go however ~ writers are fools if they do not take note of wise advice.

At 6.30 this morning, the sky was pink. Three hours later it resembles tarnished silver & is decidedly wintry. It's cold too but it is December. First day of ~ do hope the advent calender for the LG's arrived on time. Chocolate free which will please Mummy & Daddy.

I also bought a new DVD player.

ps: LJ spell check wants to spell Aberystwyth as Abreast.

Created from the junk shop that is my mind...

1. Where do you see yourself in five years time?
Performing on Strictly Come Dancing with James Jordan as my partner. Still living here & a publishing deal for Finding Blodeuwedd would be nice...

2. How many mirrors are in your home?
Thirteen! I know, how vain does that make me? I like how mirrors reflect space.

3. If you could have one original & famous painting in your home, which one would it be?
The Magic Circle by John William Waterhouse.

4. Do you celebrate Christmas or the Solstice or both?
The Solstice. I hibernate at Christmas with DVD's, The Radio Times, a pile of books, chocolate & plenty of healthy food; a bottle of Amaretto & one of Stolichnaya vodka.

5. Have you ever seen 'River Dance' live?
No, only on television & I''d love to see a live show. Irish step dancing has long fascinated me ~ I love the pace & the skill. And it's Irish...

Having typed the last word, I checked the word count and it was 750 exactly. In the first instance I was reluctant to edit it, for the obvious reason. I sensed I would be tempted by more rather than less. Seven hundred & fifty words is the length of an average letter to me.

In fact, it was easier than I imagined & although I sense I can make it better, for the moment I'm just pleased to have written it.

The short story has never particularly tempted me. In my view, it's a difficult form & I believe, is considered so by writer's of distinction. In the past, I've had ideas which could possibly be made into short stories but essentially, I need a broader canvas ~ I like descriptive writing. Having to create a sense of place, suggest personalities, appearance & feelings, & reduce the whole to a few words, has proved an interesting challenge.

Blackbirds are squatting the silver birch. No doubt my crow will return to evict them as some point. She doesn't seem to care for sharing.

Oh yes indeedy ~ who said LJ discouraged real friends! Thank you blessed_oak. It's Saturday morning & outside all is calm. Small birds sit in the maple, silver~grey clouds move imperceptibly across the sky.

The plan is to work on the short story. Lying in the bath this morning I realised I have the ending; if I get that down, I'll be able to work out how many words are left with which flesh out the rest.

Clever.

Forgive me dear reader, for banging on about how marvellous life is post~upgrade. As if my magic, all my fonts have reappeared in Word. I am reunited with Papyrus & Harrington. I may faint with joy. (Harrington & Papyrus: Attorneys at Law ~ I can do American...) Meanwhile, if anyone knows how to download an extra colour palette into Hotmail plus a nice selection of fonts therein, I may turn out to be your slave forever...

Working on the short story for Wales Women's National Coalition anthology entry. The working title is The Window. 750 words is a challenge ~ I'm 570 in & still not sure I can say what I want to in the allotment word count. For the rest, I've been playing with stuff ~ it took me two goes before I could load the printer software for instance, which Loz had missed. I keep losing my Tiscali connection & seem to have lost the easy access function in Start for reconnecting. Have to go back to the desk top each time. Hey ho... 'tis wrinkles & I'll sort it eventually.

And, big scary moment when I tried to upload one of my precious icons & the icon folder had vanished! Goodness only knows how it happened but after a wee look, I found it in My Music! Cyberspace is funny old place.

ps: Later... The connect function simply reappeared! I did nothing. Marvellous. Now all I need to do is work out why, for weeks now, whenever I log onto 'Post an Entry' my page appears in HTML. It doesn't matter, I can simply change it, but the default option has always been Rich Text, so why the change?

I click, it asks, 'How high?' My PC is restored to me & it's working like a dream. Loz reckons I have enough memory to store the National Library of Wales. The bill was twenty quid less than the quote. How cool is that? And I took my car over to John because there's a horrible vibrating noise coming from the exhaust pipe. He did that lying on the floor under the jacked~up car thing adjusting something for ten minutes, before emerging with a grin & no bill at all! Job done!

Neither Loz nor John must ever be allowed to leave town. I do not know how we will achieve this, but achieve it we must .

Cyberspace is now my servant!

All I have to do is take in the tower & all the software applications ~ he'll do the rest. (And anything I haven't got, he'll sort.) 'I'm shutting at 1 o'clock tomorrow so I'll have a play with your pc if you like.' *Happy Chappy Smile*

Way to go! Loz is so gloriously cheerful & I swear if you cut him, he'd bleed computer confidence.

So, I shall be offline tomorrow, & probably Thursday. Hopefully, when I return it will be faster than the proverbial speeding bullet. This is the perfect opportunity to peruse the manuscript & play with the words on paper as opposed to a screen.

Reiki was excellent ~ Yolanda was huggy & lovely & smiley & listeny & talky. And Carol likes brie after all ~ who knew?

Missing you already!

It is only the knowledge that my PC is up for some intensive care that keeps me, this morning, from serious brain damage. Head/Desk anyone? Really hard? In the end, it was so slow, I turned the whole bang shoot off & started again. Mercifully, that seems to have done the trick. Sort of...

Writing is scattered & unfocused ~ I'm not worried, just irritated that I've lost a little of my momentum. Perhaps this morning's Reiki session followed by an overdue visit to see Yolanda will work some magic.

I found a poem I have loved for a long time, seen pinned up on the walls of friends' & feel is worth sharing.

( Read more... )

Not quite, but with the prospect of having to take my computer to the shop any day now I must focus on the Backing Up. Since I'm paranoid about losing a particular file of precious letters, I'm in the process of copying them to a document. They're emails & I'm getting conflicting advice & information about how likely emails are to disappear when an upgrade takes place. I'm taking no chances ~ once it's done I can save it all to a memory stick &/or a disc & stop worrying.

And get back to the writing ~ this middle sequence is proving a challenge but I have approx 1,000 words so far. It''s random & bitty ~ the essentials are there, I just have to flesh it out & make it into something pleasing.

In other news, the calm before another storm? Possibly...

This morning it might be possible to count the remaining leaves on the maple. It sounded busy out there last night. The wind has dropped a little this morning but the sky remains boisterous. A trio of blackbirds make it look easy ~ bright-beaked & sleek of wing, they move on the branches with the brisk breeze, beady eyes alert for a juicy breakfast.

The line of the hill across the horizon is now complete. My view is returned to me & I'm sitting here feeling slightly dreamy, wondering what the day will bring. I woke at silly o'clock but I'm still seduced by early nights & a good read. This morning I set the Woolf biography aside in favour of Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger ~ feel in need of a shot of fiction.

Yesterday's word count was small ~ only 500, but that's okay ~ they are words I like. I took an hour out for lunch with Debbie ~ her essays are flowing & like me, writing is her lover. We have decided not to fight over her!

Now that a policeman has died, having been swept away by floodwater, I do not mean to be flippant. PC Bill Barker was directing motorists off a bridge & almost certainly saved their lives when the bridge collapsed. His body has been recovered.

After yesterday's sunny interval we are back to storms, heavy rain & growling skies. The flooding is shocking & my heart goes out to those whose lives have been devastated. However, the weather isn't 'bad' ~ it's challenging & for some, traumatic, but I can't accept that Nature is inherently malign. It's seasonal; the seasons are changing & we are largely responsible. We have to find ways of adapting to new weather patterns otherwise ordinary life, regardless of floods & tragedy, will be miserable for everyone.

In other news, I wrote about 500 words yesterday ~ it's still random & requires shape, but the idea is rooted now & I'm enjoying the challege of this almost abstract concept for the middle sequence of the story.

And I've begun the mammoth task of copying some dearly beloved letters (in email files) to hard copy. The letters in question are too precious to risk losing. I worry about losing emails when my PC gets upgraded next week. Everything else has been saved onto memory sticks & I suppose I ought to back it all up on disk too.

The morning is still ~ it is my mind that runs wild! I was awake early & so was the sky. Pale & gently pink. The plan was to get up (after the obligatory pot of tea & half an hour with Julia Briggs & VW's Inner Life.) My muse had other ideas. This central sequence exercises me & I lay propped on the pillows scribbling like a spider on serious drugs. I have pages of notes & think I've nailed the essence of it.

Sitting here in my PJ's wanting only to transcribe the scribble & get it onto a file. Looking out, I see there really is a silver lining, if not embroidering every cloud, at least the ones outside my window. And the birds are flying again, rather than hitching a lift on the wind because, if you can't beat it, you may as well join it.

For less than half the price of a mid-range laptop I can update my PC to 'kick~ass' speed, with more memory than Methuselah & a 500GB hard drive. This is actually true. I took the original specifications for my five~year old system into our local computer shop & after a short consultation, my new best friend came up with a juicy list & a total price that includes his labour.

I am beyond delirious! And it looks as if I may be able to drop it off next Wednesday & have it back by Thursday. The only reason I have to wait until next week is because the lightening storms have knocked out lots of systems & MNBF is rather busy.

I am loving this weather! Wild winds & stormy skies, leaves whirling like a myriad dervishes (dervi?) But I do appreciate that for those who are flooded (commiserations heleninwales) it's depressing. The fact that I prefer winter to summer sets me apart, but I really do. Dark nights, wild storms, soft lights, shadows & couches piled with cushions. Early to bed, my pashmina & too many books to count.

I'll stop now...