Loving Our Libraries

It's been hard to miss the hoo har generated by Terry Dreary's recent comments that libraries are a 'Victorian institution' and have no place in today's digital age.

I don't know if he had any idea of the furore that his pronouncements would kick up, but I don't think that such speeches by any author are helpful when we are battling to keep our libraries open. Everyone is entitled to their opinion - and my opinion is that everyone is entitled to access to a library.

Mr Dreary has been fortunate enough to make a lot of money, and as such, is probably more than able to buy any book that takes his fancy. Most of us are not in this position and as such, rely on our libraries to access to reads that we may not otherwise be able to enjoy. Not to mention their use in relaxation and research.

Author Matt Haig wrote a great piece in the Guardian about his love of libraries. I don't know whether Mr Dreary has read it, or whether he'd be swayed by it. Possibly not. I and many others, however, most certainly agree.

Catching up...

It was quite a busy week for me, with one thing and another. I took a walk on Monday morning, taking advantage of a dry day which made me feel good at getting some exercise, provided the opportunity for people watching and inspiration, and just helped get the brain unclogged, as a good walk can.

Getting some fresh air

 

I finally got the contract back this week, so we are back up and running on the research front so that's taking up some time, but in a good way. I'm still fairly nervous about the book, but I don't think that's an unusual thing - I've yet to meet a writer who isn't worrying about their current/past/future project! I'm making notes aplenty, and although I was going to put the notes directly onto the computer, and did in fact start that way, it's turned out to be easier to write them in a notebook which will get transcribed in with the rest as and when. This way I can just grab the research info, notebook and pencil and go. Like anything, it's finding what works best at a certain time for you.

 

I keep thinking about my novels. I miss them, and really want to get back to them. I've also come up with another couple of ideas over the past few weeks which are just bubbling about and fermenting in my brain at present. They're not ready to be written down, even in note form at the moment, but are firm enough not to be forgotten. They're well and truly stuck there now which is good. I'm not sure how they're going to progress but that's all part of the brewing-in-the-brain stage. And that's fine for now. I really want to get a long completed one edited and ready for submission. It's just finding the time to do everything at the moment. I don't think my brain will cope with working on both projects at the same time right at the moment. Perhaps when it gets to the actual writing bit, I might be able to switch between. Has anyone else had any experience of this - do you find it easy to switch between different forms of writing?

 

Unfortunately I had a fibromyalgia flare up on Wednesday which lasted a few days and put a bit of a spanner in the works, but it's something I just have to accept and work around as and when I can.

 

Back to the research now...

First Impressions

I love Jane Austen. It's no secret. I wonder what else she would have written, had she lived longer. And what would have happened had she not changed her mind over that marriage proposal after all. It's quite possible - and fairly likely - she wouldn't have written anything at all. Can you imagine?!

I know I'm a bit late with all this, as Pride & Prejudice's birthday was last week, but life happens so there we go. But there's been an awful lot written about this most favourite of novels, so I'm not going to add to everything that's already been printed other than to say, 'It's fabulous and I love it!'.

My post this week is more to ask as to how many copies you tend to have of your favourite novels? I'm actually rather a fan of 'Persuasion' and may even dare to consider it as my favourite of them all. Whilst Mr Darcy is delightful, Captain Wentworth is rather a sweetheart (Rupert Penry-Jones' portrayal of him in the adaptation hasn't hurt this perception, I'm not going to lie!).

And last week, I was jolly spoiled to be treated to a copy of this wonderful book in the 'Everyman Library' binding. I adore these bindings, although I do prefer the older ones when they were just black and white, rather than the picture ones they put on them now. But that aside, it's the actual binding that make these books a delight. There's just something so enjoyable about turning the pages in these hardbacks, that it enhances the read even more. It's my third copy of 'Persuasion' - but does that matter? And what I would like to say is that I adore my hubby for not saying 'but you already have that one...twice!'. In fact, he bought it for me, knowing I've been looking for it for a while. He understands that it's not just about 'a book'. It's an experience.

I was also happy that when I mentioned it was my third copy to the sales assistant, he gave me a smile and the kind of look that says 'I understand', which made me fairly sure it wasn't just me.

Is it just me? I'd love to hear how many copies you have of your favourites!

Fun With Worms!

And no, that's not a typo. For fans of the much missed, and comic marvel, Ronnie Barker, he had a character to was often getting his 'worms muddled'.

Today's post is a recommendation for a fun game involving words. If anyone gets 'Writing Magazine' you may have already discovered it, as this is the only place I've seen an advert for it, and even that was only once I believe. It seems to be a well kept secret.

The game is called 'Le Cardo', and it's basically a sort of scrabble with words. You have a pack of cards, each of which has a short word on it, such as 'under', 'back', 'drive', etc. Each player takes seven cards and you have to make two word phrases, in a grid, with those cards. You can go as many times as you can make a word, until you run out of options and it's then the next person's go. You then pick up as many cards as you need from the deck to get back up to your seven. Each card has a number on it, and you total up the score for each word you made and keep a tally. Whoever has the highest score at the end, when the cards are gone, wins.

I don't know if I've explained it very well, but I really do recommend it. We've had a lovely time playing it and it helps stretch the old brain, but not too hard, which is what we like (well, I do anyway!).

 

At the moment, I've only seen it at Amazon but some independents may stock it. Here's a link in case you fancy having a go yourself.

It's a great way to while away the odd hour, and being the size of a pack of cards, easy to take with you on holiday for those rainy moments! And all the while, exercising your brain and helping you keep thinking of worms!

Research On Hold and Reading

Well, the project I was working on has (hopefully) temporarily been put on hold as I wait for the contract to come through. It's later than expected and I'm wary of putting a whole lot of time into something, only to find that when it comes to the crunch, there's no deal.

I've found myself in this situation once before, and I really don't want to end up there again. Hopefully things will come together very soon and I can get back on with the project. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I've been thinking about e-books. I read an interesting post from Carol recently, which mentioned the fact that you can download a sample of the book onto your kindle, or kobo or whatever to get a taste. I've done this myself in the past, although I still haven't got around to reading it yet! I'd rather forgotten about this useful aspect of e-books.

Sometimes in a bookshop you can read a bit, and decided immediately whether it's grabbing you or not but having the luxury of reading a sample in the comfort of your own home (or wherever you are travelling with your trusty reader!) does come in useful. You can get more of a feel for the book when you've got a bigger sample to try. The other benefit is that you can try authors you might not normally gravitate towards in a book shop. For free! And of course, should you find that you can't wait to read on, with a few buttons pressed, the whole book is sat there waiting for you.

I have to admit the ease with which e-books can be purchased is both useful and possibly dangerous. Impulse buying has a free reign in these situations I find!

As mentioned, I do have an e-reader but I'm not a great user of it - at the moment. I love the feel of a 'real' book in my hands. I love going to library and coming out with a little pile of goodies to start working through and I would absolutely hate to see the demise of the real book, the bookshop or libraries. Any loss of these would be tragic. But I can see the advantages and it's useful to be reminded of some of them from time to time.

Researching Tip

I'm in the process of researching for a project and I've been trying to think of the best way - for me - to collate all the info. Whilst reading up, I might come across something that should go in one chapter, and then immediately something else that should go in a different one. I had thought about one of those tabbed Project Notebook type things that places like Smiths sell, but I didn't really want to be handwriting all my notes.

So I've come up with a solution that I hope is going to work for me. For the moment, I'm just bunging various sentences, copies of report findings, and all the other goodies in a Word document, with a small gap between each item. When I'm done with each source, I will then print out the document in draft, and go through it, and slicing it into the separate bits of info. Then, with the aid of a trusty glue stick, I'll paste these onto some loose leaf papers I have and put them into a binder which is already separated into the chapter headings.

Well, that's the idea anyway. I'll report back later to let you know how (or if!) it's working.

Any thoughts?

Happy writing!

How Do You Cope With Christmas and Writing?

Quick question for the festive season - what do you all do when it comes to Christmas and writing? Do you just accept that with guests and visiting others, and a general propensity to over eat and then subsequently snooze at unusual times, that writing will take a back seat for a few days whilst you spend some quality and (hopefully!) peaceful, joyous times with family and friends? Or do you still endeavour to cram some in, even if that's at 2am when everyone else has gone to bed (or is still playing rather vile shoot-em-ups on a games console?) And if you don't manage to get some writing in, do you feel guilty about it?

 

 

I'd love to hear your views on this, and any tips you may have for squeezing writing in, and squeezing the guilt out when you just don't have the time or opportunity.

 

In the meantime, Merry Christmas!