Life
The New Year is well under way; no snowdrops yet but the hazel catkins are beginning to swell and today I saw some of the reddish female flowers on hazel trees in Hampton wood, my local nature reserve. Spring is still some way off but at least it's on the horizon.
I'm just getting round to reading the biggest of my Christmas books: Britannia's Daughters: The Life and Times of Diplomatic Wives by Katie Hickman, daughter of one of those ambassador's wives. The book is beautifully illustrated and enjoyable to read although my hair stands on end when reading about the trials and tribulations some of these women had just travelling to their destination, let alone dealing with what awaited them once they arrived. It reminds me to read again Passenger to Teheran by Vita Sackville-West when she accompanied her husband, Nigel Nicholson, to Teheran in the 1920's.
Writing
I re-read Mystery in Morocco prior to starting work on it again (one of this year's goals - others can be seen on my writing blog). It's been about a year since I looked at the novel. Leaving it that long meant I saw lots of things which could be changed - for the better.
Have started Lesson 20 for HTRYN on my short story set in Scotland. The lesson after this one is the last in the course - the type in. And then I'll be looking for readers!
Showing posts with label Mystery in Morocco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mystery in Morocco. Show all posts
Sunday, 8 January 2012
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Sunday Summary
Life
Our old oven is on its way out, so we spent some time this week looking for a replacement. The variety of ovens available is bewilderingly large, and we found ourselves beguiled by the high-end space-age ovens. They can even be turned on while you're still at work by sending an email to the oven! As the price is sky-high we reluctantly abandoned these awesome machines; but there's still a lot to choose from. It will be after Christmas before we get an oven so I hope the old one keeps going - or we might be outside barbequing the turkey on Christmas Day :)
Emily Casey and her post about cooking a new reicipe (eggs benedict) inspired me to make something different, so I tried panna cotta. I first had this desert a couple of years ago while on holiday. It was gloriously creamy, with a subtle flavour of vanilla, served with raspberries.
My first effort was a disaster. Too much gelatin set the cream so solid it could have bounced off the floor! The second try gave a soft just-set cream, and the raspberry sauce was a tangy foil for the richness of the pannacotta. It really cheered me up :)
Writing
I'm half-way through Lesson 19 and feel excited by the way this lesson increases awareness of words. What a difference changing a single word can make to the meaning of a sentence or phrase. It's slow going but satisfying, and exciting.
Mystery in Morocco, my first and still seriously flawed novel, has been in my thoughts again. Yay! I spent a couple of hours working through and identifying what the problems were. Amazingly I've solved two serious plot problems. Even more amazingly, I achieved this by making only small changes to the plot! There are still some serious problems to work on but I feel encouraged by finding solutions which won't require major rewriting.
Our old oven is on its way out, so we spent some time this week looking for a replacement. The variety of ovens available is bewilderingly large, and we found ourselves beguiled by the high-end space-age ovens. They can even be turned on while you're still at work by sending an email to the oven! As the price is sky-high we reluctantly abandoned these awesome machines; but there's still a lot to choose from. It will be after Christmas before we get an oven so I hope the old one keeps going - or we might be outside barbequing the turkey on Christmas Day :)
Emily Casey and her post about cooking a new reicipe (eggs benedict) inspired me to make something different, so I tried panna cotta. I first had this desert a couple of years ago while on holiday. It was gloriously creamy, with a subtle flavour of vanilla, served with raspberries.
My first effort was a disaster. Too much gelatin set the cream so solid it could have bounced off the floor! The second try gave a soft just-set cream, and the raspberry sauce was a tangy foil for the richness of the pannacotta. It really cheered me up :)
Writing
I'm half-way through Lesson 19 and feel excited by the way this lesson increases awareness of words. What a difference changing a single word can make to the meaning of a sentence or phrase. It's slow going but satisfying, and exciting.
Mystery in Morocco, my first and still seriously flawed novel, has been in my thoughts again. Yay! I spent a couple of hours working through and identifying what the problems were. Amazingly I've solved two serious plot problems. Even more amazingly, I achieved this by making only small changes to the plot! There are still some serious problems to work on but I feel encouraged by finding solutions which won't require major rewriting.
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
HTRYN
Mystery in Morocco
I'm picking up Mystery in Morocco again. I feel good about it and have read through the rewritten scenes (not many). There are a lot of new scenes to add so I'll take it through HTRYN again. Holly's message comes back to comfort me: the first time is the worst.
The Challenge
As seen on Rabia's website: 500 words a day or bust!
So I've agreed to run with her on that one. Not all my words will be new ones because it's Lesson 17 rewrite; there will be a lot of new ones though, so I think it will count :)
Holly's Motivation Mini-Course
It started off easily and has become more and more intensive. Five exercises and I'm on the last one, working out my goals and working out what needs doing for them.
This was something I could do so well at work but transferring those skills to home and to writing has not worked very well.
NaNoWriMo
After doing 50,000 words I did no writing during the first two weeks of December. I have 13 scenes which are well structured and will make up part of a book. "Time to Go" is a fantasy set in the first century AD in Wales, and is about time travel, magic and a tangle of human relationships.
Very different from last year when I sketched out a whole book in 50,000 words and then spent the next 8 months pulling it apart and trying to work out where the scenes were :)
It's December and the year is about to turn. What have you got planned for 2011?
I'm picking up Mystery in Morocco again. I feel good about it and have read through the rewritten scenes (not many). There are a lot of new scenes to add so I'll take it through HTRYN again. Holly's message comes back to comfort me: the first time is the worst.
The Challenge
As seen on Rabia's website: 500 words a day or bust!
So I've agreed to run with her on that one. Not all my words will be new ones because it's Lesson 17 rewrite; there will be a lot of new ones though, so I think it will count :)
Holly's Motivation Mini-Course
It started off easily and has become more and more intensive. Five exercises and I'm on the last one, working out my goals and working out what needs doing for them.
This was something I could do so well at work but transferring those skills to home and to writing has not worked very well.
NaNoWriMo
After doing 50,000 words I did no writing during the first two weeks of December. I have 13 scenes which are well structured and will make up part of a book. "Time to Go" is a fantasy set in the first century AD in Wales, and is about time travel, magic and a tangle of human relationships.
Very different from last year when I sketched out a whole book in 50,000 words and then spent the next 8 months pulling it apart and trying to work out where the scenes were :)
It's December and the year is about to turn. What have you got planned for 2011?
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