RAKE WEIRD TEAM

I've failed at the 'being a better blogger' already, right?

What have I been up to?

I have been writing. I've done 10,000 odd words of novel and 1,500 odd of non fiction book. 

I've had some migraines; raced about Bangkok looking for pink computer covers for Daughter (it had to be pink; HOW many malls? I found it at Fortune.) I've tried to have a life too. I've attended book club and a coffee morning so that I remember how to socialise and today I've been back to Wood Street with my friend K. She needed some furniture and I needed wanted some letters. Daughter and I wasted quite some time making anagrams with my new letters.

Now if you'll excuse me I've 500 words left to do today.

Here are my wooden letters:

Happy New Year

We saw it in at home, playing games and watching Harry Potter (and the Order of the Phoenix) until 11.55 and then we went out onto our Bangkok balcony and watched several displays of fireworks. I love living in a city.

I’m going to gloss over the ‘what I have achieved in 2011’ round up we’re seeing all over the blogosphere because the answer is ‘precious little’ and I’m feeling pretty blah about it.

A few weeks ago I signed up for Sally Quilford’s 1000 words a day for a hundred days. It started this morning. Of course I had to trick myself into writing. I set the clock for one hour and wrote and I just continued until I’d written the 1000 words. Why isn’t it always that easy?

This year I am going to get this novel into a shape I am happy with if it kills me. (It might.)

I’ve given up wheat, meat and sweet(s).

And I’m going to have a better blogging year.

What I read in 2011

Taunting the Dead by Mel Sherratt

Tears and Laughter and Happy Ever After by many talented writers!

Daughters-in-law by Joanna Trollope

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath*

The Association of Foreign Spouses by Marilyn Heward Mills

Hens Dancing by Raffaella Barker

Home for Christmas by Cally Taylor

The Devil's Music by Jane Rusbridge

Disgrace by J M Coetzee

The Extra Large Medium by Helen Slavin

Tender by Mark Illis

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Write To Be Published by Nicola Morgan

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday*

The Point of Rescue by Sophie Hannah

TigerLily's Orchids by Ruth Rendell

Hurry Up and Wait by Isabel Ashdown

Below Stairs by Margaret Powell

A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French

Bombsites and Lollipops by Jacky Hyams

The Beauty Chorus by Kate Lord Brown

When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

And The Band Played On by Christopher Ward

West End Girls by Barbara Tate

Getting Away With It by Julie Cohen

The Novel in the Viola by Natasha Solomons

The Art of Losing by Rebecca Connell

Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

The London Train by Tessa Hadley

Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson

Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones*

Janice Gentle Gets Sexy by Mavis Cheek

Sex and Stravinsky by Barbara Trapido

Blame My Brain by Nicola Morgan

Naked by David Sedaris*

Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty

Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin

Bestseller by Alessandro Gallenzi

Told in Silence by Rebecca Connell

Days of Grace by Catherine Hall

The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay*

Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard

Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown

The Blasphemer by Nigel Farndale

Orchid Fever by Eric Hansen*

You Don't Have to be Good by Sabrina Broadbent

Crow Stone by Jenni Mills

Not So Perfect by Nik Perring

Mousetrapped: A Year and a Bit in Orlando by Catherine Ryan Howard

Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

The Ghost Lover by Gillian Greenwood

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams

*Book Club choices

Ten years in the planning...

For about ten years I’ve been thinking about writing a non-fiction book – not any old non-fiction book obviously, I had an idea for a specific one. It’s a dangerously long time to leave my ‘brilliant’ idea in my head because it could evaporate or someone else could be writing and publishing it. But in my case they haven’t (that I’ve discovered) at least not with the angle that I have on it.

So as I’ve put my novel aside for a time (actually, my the novel has put itself aside; it quite insisted. It refused to cooperate with my plans for it.) And I have started, seriously, to plan my non-fiction book. Ten years thinking is probably long enough.

I am eminently qualified for this project which, let’s be honest is a miracle. I am qualified - with my two useless but enjoyable degrees - for precious little.

So that could be where I am when I’m not blogging: listening to Radio 4 and working on this new/ancient project.

‘Stick to the roads; steer clear of the moors.’ Part Two

I was led to believe that Moniack Mhor would be basic but comfortable. I found it considerably more than basic and every bit as comfortable. It used to be a farm stead but to me the stone walls, dark wood floors combined with an arched mirror brought simple chapels to mind. Maybe it was the passion for writing and reading that I found inside. It was filled with books and posters and had soft, comfortable sofas where the attendees accumulated during the first afternoon over mugs of tea and glasses of wine.

These first hours are always a little odd. We went round and around our incomplete group checking out each other’s names. 

Gillian Philip and Erica Munro, our tutors, both local (ish) arrived to join us. The Director of Moniack Mhor gave us a talk on the building and the ethos of Arvon in so far as it affected us. Students are expected to cook (in teams of four) one evening meal during their stay. The menu and all ingredients are provided. Lunches and breakfasts are on a ‘help yourself’ arrangement, which means there is also a ‘tidy up after yourself’ deal. There are always people who do more than their share, as well as those who do less than their share. I suspect this can be a source of tension in some groups.

Classes were held in the morning and one-to-one sessions in the afternoon. Every evening something was planned, usually readings: our own work, an author’s work we admire, our tutors’ work etc. On the Wednesday night we had a visit from literary agent Geraldine Cooke.

My aim for the week was to dive into my manuscript and work out the new and improved structure; what needs to go where to tell the best story? I didn’t exactly achieve that but did accomplish something else. Back in March of this year I couldn’t see how to edit or what to cut but now I can. I’ve lost the fear for the mess that will ensue once I start moving bits of story around. And I got some faith back – this might sound mad – I believe that I will know in spite of the muddle what needs to be moved. I believe in my intuition again. I have it; I just need to listen.

There are so many wonderful things about Arvon courses: the dedicated time to write, to think about writing, to spend time with other writers and the experts – the tutors and the guests – who will answer all those questions that you have but haven’t known who to ask.

I’ve come away determined. I’m going to finish my novel and start subbing it to agents. I’ve got an idea for a radio play and I’m going to prepare and sub an idea for a non-fiction book I’ve been contemplating for several years.