and not yet broken into the voucher my dearly beloved gave me for Christmas ...
Good, eh?
Monday, 31 December 2012
Top ten books of 2012
Never until this year have I kept track of what I'm reading
- thank Goodreads for that - and I'm not a Top Ten sort of person - but
yesterday my younger son sent me his Top Ten and it was easy enough to select,
from the 127 read so far, the twenty I'd awarded five stars.
Duplicates of all but one author were eliminated, as were books read for the
second time (Angla Carter's 'Love', Iain Banks 'Espedair Street', Ian
Rankin).
All were memorable except for Sarah Moss's 'Waking' which, from my review, I was impressed with at the time but cannot now recall - obviously I need to re-read that one.
What is left is in no particular order, but is surprising insofar as there are not that many crime fiction there - most of them fell into the four star category, which totalled forty-seven.
All were memorable except for Sarah Moss's 'Waking' which, from my review, I was impressed with at the time but cannot now recall - obviously I need to re-read that one.
What is left is in no particular order, but is surprising insofar as there are not that many crime fiction there - most of them fell into the four star category, which totalled forty-seven.
Denise Mina Garnethill
Louise Welsh The Bullet Trick
Angela Carter
Heroes and villains
Jose Carlos Somoza The
Art of murder
Michael Robotham Shatter
Sarah Hall How to paint a dead man
Cormac McCarthy No
country for old men
Stuart MacBride Birthdays
for the dead
Cormac McCarthy Blood
Meridian
Douglas Coupland Eleanor
Rigby
Friday, 28 December 2012
Christmas eve ...
Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast, pebble beach in black and tan and
skies of palest blue and silver-grey, the sea slip-liquid putty with
edging of crocheted lace, ever re-patterning itself. Regent Cottage
itself blood-orange brick, white paint and door matched to the sky.
Julia has rented it to allow us a family holiday close to but not
inconveniencing the family at Blacksmith’s Cottage - three small
children take up a surprising amount of space.And yesterday they came here to tea - up and down the narrow stairs, the youngest very perilously, not yet understanding gravity (which also threatened the safety of the floor-standing wine) but of course we had already cleared many of the too-intrusive, other person’s taste (and much too twee) ornaments out of the way, putting them on a high shelf above the stairs.
Tomorrow we go from here to theirs, for a full-on family Christmas
[A response to T10's prompt of 'ornaments on a shelf'']
Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Pet hate
Headline over a small story in today's paper: "Great-granny in a hood makes Tesco jumpy"
- she was sixty-nine for goodness' sake - not the aged crone the words automatically conjure up!!!
- she was sixty-nine for goodness' sake - not the aged crone the words automatically conjure up!!!
Monday, 17 December 2012
Back story and Stuart MacBride
In real life I'm one of those over-earnest people who fears being misunderstood, especially by people whose opinion I value or expect to value. So it's not surprising that I made sure that in my fourth Bridie and Sean novel I felt the need to ensure that the reader knows all he needs to to 'get' who they are and (briefly) what has happened so far. The first chapter of 'Making good' wrote itself, full of impact and ending on a brilliant page turner. Chapter two was inserted partly to add variety and delay the 'reveal' signalled in chapter one, partly to provide what I felt to be required back story. Reading it was, despite my best efforts, despite changing as much as was feasible into dialogue, liking to digest an uncooked suet pudding and when I found myself skipping it when re-reading I knew I had to find a different way of doing this.
Stuart MacBride doesn't do back story.
In Len Wanner's first volume of 'The Crime Interviews'* in which best-selling authors talk about writing crime fiction, MacBride says of his first Logan McRae novel: "I didn't want it to read like the first novel of a series. I wanted it to read as if it had appeared in the middle of a series. I loathe back story in all its myriad forms."
I've just finished reading his 'Birthdays for the dead' ; a stand-alone novel which has Ash Henderson as the first person main character. Aged forty-five, he has led a helluva full and complex life, knows lots of people, at all levels. None of this, or the relationships referred to in the first chapter, are spelt out, and I have to make and remake assumptions as the story goes on, exactly as you do in real life.
Within a short time I found myself deeply envious of not only Ash but other characters - where does MacBride find them? How does he portray them so vividly? And that is what I need to do next - re-read, try not to get caught up too much in the headlong rush of the story, and try and spot how and then to transfer the skills to my writing.
*Wanner, Len (2012-02-28). The Crime Interviews Volume One: Best-selling Authors Talk About Writing Crime Fiction (Kindle Locations 879-880). Blasted Heath. Kindle Edition.
Stuart MacBride doesn't do back story.
In Len Wanner's first volume of 'The Crime Interviews'* in which best-selling authors talk about writing crime fiction, MacBride says of his first Logan McRae novel: "I didn't want it to read like the first novel of a series. I wanted it to read as if it had appeared in the middle of a series. I loathe back story in all its myriad forms."
I've just finished reading his 'Birthdays for the dead' ; a stand-alone novel which has Ash Henderson as the first person main character. Aged forty-five, he has led a helluva full and complex life, knows lots of people, at all levels. None of this, or the relationships referred to in the first chapter, are spelt out, and I have to make and remake assumptions as the story goes on, exactly as you do in real life.
Within a short time I found myself deeply envious of not only Ash but other characters - where does MacBride find them? How does he portray them so vividly? And that is what I need to do next - re-read, try not to get caught up too much in the headlong rush of the story, and try and spot how and then to transfer the skills to my writing.
*Wanner, Len (2012-02-28). The Crime Interviews Volume One: Best-selling Authors Talk About Writing Crime Fiction (Kindle Locations 879-880). Blasted Heath. Kindle Edition.
Thursday, 13 December 2012
Thinking Ten - 'Toasted thoughts'
Bedsocks and hot water bottles, that rubbery smell,
how hot they were when you first got into bed, how her mother had said
not to hold them between your thighs because they gave you chilblains
(or blotchy skin, she could never remember.) And also, whenever they
stayed at Granny’s house, toast, done over the fire with a long-handled
toasting fork. Granny had two of them and used to let her and her
sister hold one each, always saying, ‘Don’t tell on me, your mother’d
have a fit if she knew, though she used to do it herself often enough.’
Becky knew that her mother didn’t care what she and Elspeth did these days, so long as they were out of her way at the weekends. It had been all right at the beginning, when Paul first used to come to the house, he always said ‘I like seeing the girls, you don’t need to send them away,’ but ever since that night last Christmas, when it had snowed, soon after one of the bottom panes in the window got smashed when she’d forgotten to latch it, and in the night the snow blew all over her pillow and she had woken up and cried and Mummy hadn’t heard her but Paul had and had come in to sort her out, finding her another pillow and sticking a carrier bag over the gap, Mummy had been sending them to Granny’s to stay at the weekend.
On Thursdays at T10 the prompts need to be used to denote a change in plot, today's prompts were:
a cold night and a broken/leaky window. This, as with so many T10 pieces was begun before I knew where it would end.
Becky knew that her mother didn’t care what she and Elspeth did these days, so long as they were out of her way at the weekends. It had been all right at the beginning, when Paul first used to come to the house, he always said ‘I like seeing the girls, you don’t need to send them away,’ but ever since that night last Christmas, when it had snowed, soon after one of the bottom panes in the window got smashed when she’d forgotten to latch it, and in the night the snow blew all over her pillow and she had woken up and cried and Mummy hadn’t heard her but Paul had and had come in to sort her out, finding her another pillow and sticking a carrier bag over the gap, Mummy had been sending them to Granny’s to stay at the weekend.
On Thursdays at T10 the prompts need to be used to denote a change in plot, today's prompts were:
a cold night and a broken/leaky window. This, as with so many T10 pieces was begun before I knew where it would end.
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Sarah Hall - Goodreads review
Haweswater by Sarah HallMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Strictly speaking I would have awarded half a star less, but for its strength and ability to ensnare me it deserved the extra.
I'd come to this after several well-writ, fast-paced, dialogue-heavy detective novels; the slow and rich descriptions took some adjusting to but the strength of the characters and of the developing love affair was irresistible, the inevitability of the end compelling, the pain real. Superb.
I picked up, from a charity shop in Sedbergh, Hall's 'How to paint a dead man' (How could I not!) and was enthralled; this is the third one of hers I have read, all very different, but equally vividly, addictively-written.
View all my reviews
Monday, 10 December 2012
Thinking Ten is back again!!
After a few weeks hiatus, when Life and it's myriad challenges got in the way of its hitherto smooth and enthusiastic operation by Travis, Kerry Logan has volunteered to resurrect Thinking Ten.
Since 2010, previous to which I could write efficiently and grammatically but had done nothing in the way of creative writing, I have relied on three different sites to develop and hone those writing skills: Six Sentences was the first, leading me from surprise that so much could be said with (apparently) so few resources to the making of many good friends, several of whom I have met at various gatherings in America (another first for me)
Thinking Ten requires a different approach.
Themed prompt words: On Location (Monday), Take It Away (Tuesday), Words, Inc. (Wednesday), Plot Thickens (Thursday), The Friday Times (Friday)
Canvas (Saturday), Capstone (Sunday) each spur a quick thought of a subject and then a frantic ten minutes trying to get the beginning middle and end mapped out. It IS worth sticking to the rules, because that's the challenge of it, but there is then the opportunity to edit and tidy, thus avoiding embarrassment.
And I have found a third, equally and immensely valuable, site to be Phil Ambler's Friday Prediction where the challenge is to write just one hundred words which incorporate three prompt words and require writing in the 'genres of horror, fantasy or science fiction', none of which I could do, or was interested in doing, to begin with but the stretching of imagination allied to the very limited word count - and there's a week in which to hone it - has proved extremely beneficial, as well as, with 'The blacksmith's wife' a lot of fun, (not to mention the enjoyment to be had from reading all the other posts.)
Since 2010, previous to which I could write efficiently and grammatically but had done nothing in the way of creative writing, I have relied on three different sites to develop and hone those writing skills: Six Sentences was the first, leading me from surprise that so much could be said with (apparently) so few resources to the making of many good friends, several of whom I have met at various gatherings in America (another first for me)
Thinking Ten requires a different approach.
Themed prompt words: On Location (Monday), Take It Away (Tuesday), Words, Inc. (Wednesday), Plot Thickens (Thursday), The Friday Times (Friday)
Canvas (Saturday), Capstone (Sunday) each spur a quick thought of a subject and then a frantic ten minutes trying to get the beginning middle and end mapped out. It IS worth sticking to the rules, because that's the challenge of it, but there is then the opportunity to edit and tidy, thus avoiding embarrassment.
And I have found a third, equally and immensely valuable, site to be Phil Ambler's Friday Prediction where the challenge is to write just one hundred words which incorporate three prompt words and require writing in the 'genres of horror, fantasy or science fiction', none of which I could do, or was interested in doing, to begin with but the stretching of imagination allied to the very limited word count - and there's a week in which to hone it - has proved extremely beneficial, as well as, with 'The blacksmith's wife' a lot of fun, (not to mention the enjoyment to be had from reading all the other posts.)
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