Going with the Flow

You know those mornings when you are rushing to get out and have every minute planned? I got the car out of the garage today and came in to find a little boy in tears at the bottom of the stairs. ‘My head hurts.’

You go through the usual scenarios. Is there something he doesn’t want to do at school? Has he a temperature? Today it was 101! Administer Calpol, get him back to bed, put car away and replan day.

I’m much better these days at going with the flow. In my younger days I would get very het up, these days I ask the question – ‘what am I meant to be doing today instead?’

So far I’ve succeeded in the displacement activities of cleaning football boots and dusting downstairs. Little one (now up and feeling better!) has just taken my collection of crystals out of their bowl so that I can clean it. I’ve installed my laptop in the lounge, little one on the settee with a blanket, so will I be writing? What do you think?

An Interview about Reading Habits with my Mother!

My Mom is nearly 80. She always has a book on the go and so I decided to so some research and ask her a few questions about her reading habits.

  

 Mom in her late teens.

 Were you encouraged to read as a child?

When I was at school and the air raid siren went off, we all trouped out to the playground and filed into the air raid shelter. It was on these occasions that I remember learning my alphabet. I must have been five or six and we chanted the letters to pass the time.

My father and grandmother were avid readers. It was my job to fetch their books from the library. I can remember going down the road to the private library, first on my scooter and then on my precious bike (they were difficult to come by in the war). I had to get Biggles books for my father. My Grandma always insisted that I read the last few pages of books I selected for her. I could only bring them home if they had a happy ending. My library habit was established and I am a staunch supporter of my local library which I visit every week.

What sort of books do you read?

These days I get through at least two books a week. I always used to stick to authors I knew, such as Audrey Howard and Dick Francis. I think I’ve read more books by Dick Francis than he’s written!

Since Morton has been writing and, consequently, reading widely, I have been reading all sorts of books which she passes on to me. This has made me much more adventurous and now I look for new authors in all sorts of genres.

What makes a good book?

I like books with a puzzle, such as detective stories. They have to have a good story and keep me guessing. The first few pages have to intrigue me and not give away the plot.

Thank you Mom.

Mom is likely to be published before me as she has written a large proportion of her memoirs. Following the recent death of my stepfather, she is about to begin the story of the last twenty years she shared with him.

She has promised to proof read my novels, but I will admit to being a bit daunted in the face of her experienced eye!

My Top Twelve Books from 2012

I haven’t read as many books this year, but I think that may have something to do with the fact that I have been writing and editing more. Or is the fact I’ve been tired and only managed a few pages before going to sleep?

I record comments about the books I read and then I rate them on two scales – writing technique and plot. The scores out of five for each of these are combined to give an overall total.

As the final days of 2012 roll over and the book I am reading at the moment will be rated in 2013, I thought that I would share with you the twelve books I have read which scored 8 or over.

A Lifetime Burning – Linda Gillard
Rowley Regis: A History – Edward Chatham
Renovation, Renovation, Renovation – Nell Dixon
Kissing Mr Wrong – Sarah Duncan
The Ballroom Class – Lucy Dillon
Please Don’t Stop the Music – Jane Lovering
Peaches For Monsieur Le Cure – Joanne Harris (10 points)
The Silent Touch of Shadows – Christina Courtenay
Written in the Stars – Serenity Woods
Time’s Echo – Pamela Hartshorne
Thursdays in the Park – Hilary Boyd (10 points)
River of Destiny – Barbara Erskine (10 points)

Thought I'd also share The Kissing Patch. It was in one of the arcades in Birmingham. the patch was on the floor and hanging above was a piece of mistletoe. The poem around the edge is lovely. Let's hope someone got a special kiss.

 

Happy New Year to everyone. Let’s hope 2012 is a good one.

Please share your favourite book of 2012 below.

Sad Times

Sorry I’ve been quiet lately. Family events took over. My dear step-father went into hospital in October for a cancer operation. After three hospital stays and traumatic times at home, he finally died in hospital on 8 December. I was with him up until an hour before he died.

The funeral was yesterday. It was lovely. He would have loved meeting all of the people there. Along with his daughter, I stood and talked about my memories of him. He had been part of my life for twenty-two years. I’m still not quite sure how I did it, as I was very emotional.

Somehow in the middle of all this I managed to complete my NaNoWriMo challenge, writing 50,000 words in November. 

(The River Severn close to Mom and Step-dad's home - a view he would have seen daily)

Now it is time to turn my thoughts to Christmas and making sure that my mother is okay. It must be hard losing two husbands, but at least she had great men as her partners.

Sorry if this is a sad post, I’ll come back soon with some of my favourite books in 2012. I hope everyone is having a great run up to Christmas.

In Nanoworld

I’m living in nanoworld at the moment. I’m working on my latest manuscript “Written in the Coffee” and taking part in the annual NaNoWriMo challenge – National Novel Writing Month 2012. This means that I need to find constant stimulation for my plot and novel content.

 

As I drive my son to school, I am paying particular attention to the season changes so that it can be recreated in my book. I might notice a distinctive car and wonder whether my hero or heroine could drive it. I squirrel away colours, shapes, smells and the feelings they produce, so that I can write them down, often whilst still parked outside school.

My coffee in the supermarket becomes a research trip. The whole book is based around a café and the coffee, so I study my latte and I watch out for characters. I notice how people move, the expressions which cross their faces. I may even record snippets of dialogue I overhear. All to feed Nano.

If I am stuck with my plot, I resort to picking up random magazines in the supermarket. Turning to a page, I find a headline I can write from and off I go writing today’s 1,670 target words.

These stimulants are particularly important as I reach the inevitable stage in the manuscript where I am convinced that it is all rubbish and that no one would ever want to read it. I valiantly attempt to write through the doubt, hoping for a breakthrough.

At just over 21,000 words written this month (I already have 30,000 words on this story), I love my characters – Tobias, the failed architect, turned chocolatier and Becky, the psychic barista, but my plot has huge holes and leaps of faith.

At least I made myself laugh today. When I re-read what I had just typed, I had spelled wellies with an “i” instead of the “e”.

 

A little snippet from “Written in the Coffee”:-

Tobias was sat up still wrapped in the blankets.

She smiled at him. ‘Did you sleep well?’

‘Not bad, but I think I’ve cricked my neck.’

He moved his head in a circle and winced.

Becky tried not to look at the hairs on his chest, revealed when the blankets fell away.

‘You should have slept in the spare bed upstairs. It would have been much more comfortable.’

‘I needed to be downstairs. Just in case you had any unwanted visitors in the night.

‘My guard dog?’

‘Knight in shining armour please.’

Becky giggled. As far as she could ascertain he was only wearing his underpants. Her mind wandered off to what knights actually wore under their armour.

 

See if you can help me keep typing by telling me how you get through the periods of doubt with your manuscript?

A Poem for Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day

 

How would I feel if it were you?

My lovely healthy strong young son.

Yet if times were different

You would have no doubt gone

To foreign fields of death and pain.

Grown up quickly, become a man.

Seen things no sane person should have seen.

While I spent my time wondering if you were safe.

Knitting socks, raising funds,

Letting them melt my garden gate.

Dreading every letter or telegram.

I can cry at just the thought of it.

What if you had not come back?

No body to bury, no grave to tend.

Grieving but secretly not believing

My flesh and blood was really gone.

My precious one, my only son.

 

 

© Morton Gray

United by Remembrance

Walking down the road today, it was lovely to see how many people were wearing poppies. There were a fair number of cars and lorries sporting them too. It struck me that so many people from so many different walks of life are united by the simple act of buying and wearing a poppy.

One of my main pastimes is tracing family trees. In my own tree, both of my grandfathers were in reserved occupations for the second world war, but my own personal roll of honour includes:-

First World War

Alfred Beddows born 1881. 14^th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Died 22 April 1918 the Somme. Buried Bouzincourt Ridge Cemetery, Somme, France.

 

 

Second World War

Cyril Hall born 1923. Mess Room Boy, SS Empire Airman (Merchant Navy). Died 21 September 1940. The ship was torpedoed by a U boat and sank. Thirty-three of the thirty-seven crew died, including Cyril, who was just 17.

So I would ask you to wear your poppy with pride.