May 2007 - Posts
I am still reading 'Zuleika Dobson'. It seems to me to be not very good. Pretty girl goes to Oxford, all the undergraduates fall in love with her, she rejects them, they all commit suicide. She then considers visiting Cambridge. A plot that thin could only be sustained by really good writing and Oscar Wilde it is not. I am, however, also reading 'Aspects of the Novel' for the second time. Now that is worth the effort.
I fired off one of my bottom drawer stories to a competition at the weekend. I started with about six waiting for suitable homes. This is the only one left unsold and the competition seemed just right. So we now have a three month wait for the result. I'm writing no more stories at present being on the last leg of 'Horse Painters' (I hope). It will be a close thing whether I finish before I run out of steam or run out of steam before I finish.
This week I was at a lecture by Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate, Professor and general good egg. He was speaking at the University of Cambridge in one of its more shambolic lecture theatres. The problem of numerous inane questions at the end of a perfectly clear and well presented talk was solved by the 'reception afterwards' ploy. This ensures that everybody is so keen to hit the Bulgarian plonk that no questions are asked, or in this case just one. This method should be adopted at all public presentations. I shall read Andrew Motion's latest book, which sounds very good. I just need it to be published in paperback and reach Oxfam.
One thing leads to another. My local paper shop ran out of the 'TLS' so I bought the 'London Book Review' instead. In it was a piece on E.M. Forster's 'Aspects of the Novel,' which I bought. This encouraged me to read Max Beerbohm's 'Zuleika Dobson', which so far isn't very good. Maybe I should have gone somewhere else for the 'TLS' and saved my money.
I have now written more than twenty thousand words of my book. That makes about half way as, fortunately, it is for eight to twelve year olds and should not be too long. It puts projected completion in about September, if I can keep up the early morning writing in my sleep regime. Until now I have been happily proceeding along the plot outline, but suddenly a new twist has appeared all by itself and I am not sure where it is leading me.
I have discovered that YouTube does not only have dodgy videos of pole dancing babes. It also has clips of talks and interviews by authors. So far I have traced Alan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Joan Didion, Alice Munro and a lot of people unknown to me. But the greatest joy, the jewel in the crown, is the priceless Diana Gabaldon. Her clips Parts 1, 2 and 3 will cheer you up enormously. Do have a look.
I have had a story accepted for Short Story Radio, a new virtual radio station. The story, 'Natasha' is about an artist. The editor Googled his name, then emailed me to check that he was not real. I am trying to convince myself that he was taken in by my brilliant characterization and not just doing a standard anti sue check. Anyway an actor will be recording the story shortly and it will be broadcast in June or July. It is all rather scary. What if it sounds terrible? I suppose I blame the actor.
Last week I was flipping through the British Library facsimile of the 'Bedford Hours'. A magnificent copy of a five hundred page original produced in the fifteenth century. It even has a reproduction fifteenth century binding and the pages feel like vellum. It can be yours for just £7000. I am delighted to reveal, however, that easy payments are available.
I also discovered that a new Conservation Building is to be opened at the rear of the British Library. Sadly the architect chosen was not the architect who did such a good job with the library. Drawings suggest that it is designed in the good old Science Park Style, thus ensuring that the project will have the build quality of a nineteen sixties Skoda and will fall apart in twenty years.
My little children's story 'Black Cat Blues' appears in the April edition (just out) of Dimdima Magazine. The illustrations are hilarious. The last of the three stories commissioned, 'Well Spotted' will appear in June, unfortunately not illustrated by the same artist, who is on maternity leave.
Hooks are the first few lines of a book. They are supposed to catch the reader's attention and suck him into the story. 'Call me Ishmael', 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,' 'Last night I dreamed I went to Manderlay again,' and good old 'I had a farm in Africa.' They are not easy to write. I rather think a major sex scene on page ten is a good idea, if appropriate, as people often skip the first few pages. This was sadly missing in 'Harry Potter'.
Then there are chapter endings, we need to make the reader want to move on to the next chapter, which may well have a hook at the beginning just to cheer things up a bit. So we lurch from hooks to page turners to hooks and try to make the bits in the middle interesting as well. It all makes life rather difficult.
I'm slightly struggling with 'Horse Painters'. The great confrontation and death on a glacier is now in the bag and things are calming down a bit towards the final circles of the plot. But there has to be a couple more bits of excitement and that is proving difficult. And it was all going so well.