My Mate's Blog-It Challenge

I have a friend (yes, only one, naturally) called Josie.
Josie has some dealings (not the legal type) with a group of people
who she's been helping to develop their writing skills.

Cretan creativity with a satellite dish

She set them a Blog-It Challenge, to write a blog about anything that they wished to express. (No themes imposed, see, liberty is all). They could do their expressing in any form they liked - story, poem, article. The blogs could be written using any style of language - informative, persuasive, entertaining.

I'd like to read those blogs when they've done them, says me to my mate.

You can, she says.

(I hope the dialogue's not getting too deep)

I wouldn't mind posting a couple of the best ones on my blog, says I.

You can, says she.

Anyhows, the blogs are now written. My mate Josie tells me that she's proper chuffed with the results; that she's proud of those people.

I'm looking forward to reading them (the blogs). Not that far forward because as soon as I post this post, I'm off to access those blogs and choose a couple that I'd like to share with you.

My guests and I will see you in a wee while. (That's Scottish for 'at some point soon'. Don't think I haven't been paying attention in Aberdeen.)

Meander Roller-Coaster

In a favourite bay-side restaurant in Elounda, Crete

So, since February 2012 I’ve been much into meandering. I’ve done a lot. Did I say A LOT …. ?

Snorkelling in Elounda Bay in Crete, drinking (please, no more) in the nearby fishing village, rooftop Thai restaurants; a wedding in the Old Chapel in Ross-on-Wye, mammoth family reunion at the Chase Hotel; Fountains Abbey & Water Gardens, Ripon Cathedral and its signpost of dreams …

a stay in the old blacksmithery of a Yorkshire farmhouse; Greek day at St Gregory’s, sensology at Milestones and the Shrubberies, both special schools in Gloucestershire; fireworks on the beach in Tenby; Victorian markets on a canal-side; Jamie Oliver’s Italian Restaurant and Union Square in Aberdeen; a road trip along the coastal road through Northumberland; new life in the forms of Isobelle and Eva; 

ten weeks in Moreton-in-the-Marsh, with wicked humour supplied by the chaps and chapesses at the Fire Service College; car picnics in random locations (you have to find your dinner somewhere); the greatest cheesy chips in the world (don’t think I don’t have style) in the courtyard of the Swan Inn; 

views from the fifth floor of the Alexandra Warehouse; a residential international conference, fun and laughter with the Germans and the French; promenades on the north-east coast; cocktails in the afternoon in Swindon; an invitation to play rugby at Marlow Referral Centre (not happening, I’m more of a cheerleader); reiki in a Buddhist lightship; 

white wine on the terrace of the Inn on the Wye; what-shall-I-choose-today from the Chef’s Specials at the Farmer’s Boy; salmon and talk of multi-national bell ringing at the Blue Elephant; a carousel of charity fundraising events; the set up of a pop-up social enterprise co-operative; playing the didgeridoo; bullocks wandering in a spring orchard, swathed in morning mist; the horseshoe bend of the Severn, all seasons; bike tracks in Somerset; the miniature adventure playground at CSMA (Civil Service Motoring Association) in Whitemead Park; 

herons and hawks and a random white owl; photo opportunities in the bluebell woods; tall Americanos at the Oasis Café; the air instrument orchestration of How To Be A Rock God; first ever visits to traveller sites (eye-opening dispelling of myths) and bonding with the showmen of Gloucestershire and their families …

It’s been a roller-coaster.

Too immersed in the meandering to tell you all about it as it happened. Soz for that.

It will all inspire and inform the writing. A gathering of people and places and incidences.

Emergent tales.

More anon.

Private And Peaceful Spies

We leave the building with two of them, one isn't enough.
The building is the Victorian Rolls Hall in Monmouth, South Wales, which the Rolls family (of Royce fame) gifted in 1988 to the people of Monmouth market town, for them to use as a lecture hall and theatre.
The Rolls Hall has for many years housed the local public library. 'Spies' is a novel by Michael Frayn, and 'Private and Peaceful' is a novel by Michael Morpurgo.
'We' are the Page Turners, a small - but incredibly noisy - reading club who meet once a month in the library's meeting room.
Because the Page Turners are such prolific readers, we swiftly moved from borrowing one book per month (finished in a relative five minutes) to two.
Last month we read Mark Twain's 'The Diary of Adam and Eve' (generally loved and enjoyed) and Jonathen Franzen's 'The Corrections' (nothing at all general about the response here; very mixed responses, which made for lively discussion).
But something odd has happened with this month's reading fare. Order out of chaos.
As a group we have rejected any sort of leadership structure - we don't take turns being in charge of the session, we have no nominated chairperson. We just all pitch in with what we want to, when we want to. It's fun, and creates the type of unpredictable and spontaneous experience that I relish.
Our choosing of which books to read is also quite random.  For example, we chose Murray Bail's 'Eucalyptus' because a couple of our members had lived in Australia; and we chose  'Silence of the Grave' by Arnaldur Indridason, because some of us liked the rhythm of the author's name.

So how come random selection has given us in one sitting (as it were), a side-by-side perspective on childhood in relation to Britain's two world wars?  The main character in Morpurgo's book is reflecting on his rural early family life, narrating from the First World War battlefields. Frayn's tale is of two boys looking out for spies during the Second World War.

The potential resonance between these two tales is adding extra anticipation to my reading pleasure.
Having said that, only one of the books (the fulfilled predicted pleasure that was Adam and Eve's diaries)  that I've read so far with the Page Turners have been what I expected them to be (which is one of the reasons why I'm enjoying belonging to the group).  So ...
I'll let you know how it goes.
Have you been a member of a reading club? How did you choose your reading? Did you have any odd co-incidences? Unexpected pleasures or displeasures?

Who am I thanking?

Thank you for the music ... cue for a song. But I've been pondering. Who am I thanking?

Ancient peoples making random harmonious sounds, that's music. But for me to pick up a piece of sheet music and be learning to sing it (I've joined a choir), or play on the new digital piano that Santa brought, there has to be musical written language - notation.
Who thought originally of doing this?
(I'm reminded of the joke about milking a cow - who was the person to think 'what a good idea, we'll pull at that critter's udders').
And visually and structurally, with staves and bar lines and dotty notes, written music follows the same rules whether I'm reading the music for 'when the saints go marching in' or a piece of Mozart. So do all nationalities, with all their different languages (Greek, Japanese, Swahili?) all start learning notation with the 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour' mnemonic?
Hmmmm ...
Any answers or insights anybody?

Making The Most Of

A writer-friend recommended the following article, and now I'm recommending it to any of you writerlies who want to hear some good suggestions on how to make the most of the research and early draftings you do towards finished pieces.

'Tis interesting and useful.
If you enjoy it, if you'd like me to include further blog links here in my own blog, let me know.

http://hopeclark.blogspot.com/2011/10/writer-is-multi-talented-multi.html

More haste, less hash

Okie dokie,
that twitter address for my good self is @Fibenson1.
See, this is what you get when you dash, an unnecessary desire for hash.
Let this be a lesson (to me)

Busy Bee

Buzz, buzz ...
It's been a hectic few writerly months.
My epublished Hang On A Minute! - on Amazon for Kindle UK & USA - has sales nicely trickling in, I've written two children's books that I'm merrily revising-and-hawking, revising-and-hawking, I'm almost finished the anthology Through The Skylight - humour & travel, and I've started to write a supernatural thriller (ooooo, spoooky!).
I'm gaining much from LinkedIn sub-group discussions and I've switched from PC to Mac (actuarlly I'm ambidexterously using both at the moment until I get the full hang of the Mac-machine, having fun).
And I've started to tweet - I cannot tell you how perfectly the Twitter concept suits my butterfly modus operandi .... oh, I just did. I'm at ... hache fibenson1 (hmmm, where's the hash key on the mac keyboard .. must find out ...)
What you up to, followers??