Janet C. Smith's Blog, page 8

Murder mysteries. Podcast murder mysteries. Play detective. murder mystery.

Podcast murder mysteries seem much in vogue at the moment. If you fancy playing detective, try 'Murder on the Catwalk' made during the pandemic by Southwell Theatre Club. It's free to listen to on Soundcloud on the link below. Lasts for one hour. Enjoy! Solve!

https://soundcloud.com/user-791744720...

Pet Hate: The Misery of The Blank Page.

Pet hate - the blank page: There are at least two angles from which to view the blank page. View 1: It's a clean sheet, physically and metaphorically, and the possibilities of which words to put on it are endless. Well, not quite endless, unless one makes up words, like Shakespeare. Apparently 'The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use (and 47,156 obsolete words).' View 2: It's depressing. There's nothing there!

Some writers have a story planned out in their heads, or plotted in hundred of pieces of paper, before writing down one word. Whole novels were constructed inside Agatha Christie's head whilst washing up.

A famous writer described searching for a story, as a bit like being an archaeologist, scraping painstakingly away at the sand, until a shape of something reveals itself.

I'm presently having a dreary time scraping the sand. Scrape, scrap, delete, scrape, scrap, crap, scrape, version 2, back to version 1, scrape. Should this come before this, or that before that? Cut and paste. Scrape. What next? Oh the misery of the blank page!

Shakespeare by the way is credited with inventing 1,700 words.

The Story Reading Ape. Three cheers for Chris Graham.

Today I'm guest author on Chris Graham aka the Story Reading Ape's blog. It's quite exciting. The link went live at 01.00. A bit like a rocket launch. I suppose I could have done a countdown. Chris as well as being a writer, provides a platform for other writers to say their two-pence worth; that's an expression; the platform is free. It's a jolly nice, kind and generous thing to do, and I say three cheers for Chris. Here is the link to his page. There's all kinds of interesting and useful info, articles, thoughts and writers resources. https://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/ab...

Books and stuff

There are books that one reads all the way through, and there are books that one begins, and while enjoying , suddenly feel as if one has had enough of. Two travelogue type books, Alan Partridge's 'Nomad' and Clare Balding's 'Walking Home: My Family & Other Rambles' came into this category for me. 'Nomad' is hugely funny, but I got a bit tired of the many diversions and asides. 'Walking Home' is interesting, but a little beige. If I was stuck on a train on a long journey, and they were the only books, I would probably read them cover to cover. What started out as a slow grab, has become my all consuming night read. It's 'The Penguin Lessons' by Tom Mitchell, about his time as a young schoolmaster in Argentina, living with a penguin he'd rescued from an oil soaked beach in Uruguay. It's full of interesting detail about the country during the era of Peron, and a penguin named Juan Salvado. Enchanting.

Chronicles Volume 1 by Bob Dylan.

I've just read volume one of Bob Dylan's autobiography 'Chronicles' . Not the kind of book I'd normally pick up, having a lethargic interest in music. But I was startled and enthralled by the freshness and originality of his prose; not a wasted word. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 for 'having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition', my eyebrows raised. Now I understand. I'm going to order Volume Two!

An amazing new discovery!

After all these years, I've discovered I'd interpreted the Robert Burns poem quite wrongly! How many times have we all sung it, not really knowing what it means? Conga-ing around a room or hall or street, and then stopping at the stroke of midnight, joining in bellowing out 'Auld Lang Syne', I'd always vaguely thought it was to do with not losing touch with the people I was conga-ing with, and didn't know from Adam. Perhaps we had become lifelong friends by sharing in this old ceremony, a bit like getting married? But no! It's actually about two friends spending childhood hours together, paddling in the stream, picking daisies, running around the hills. Parted by time and distance, they each take a goodwill drink of ale, remembering the old times. Generally it applies to all old friends not present. In Gaelic, Auld Lang Syne translates literally as 'Old Long Since'. You live and learn.

The Worlds End.

Just had lunch at a pub called The Worlds End, which made us smile (ruefully). Actually it was very nice, and just the thing before an asteroid or the plague (got it) or zombie invasion hits us. I think any of those would hardly caused a raised eyebrow nowadays. Anyway, wishing you all a Happy Christmas, and a Healthy and Happy 2022!

'GRITTA AND THE WITCHES OF OLAVLAND' PAPERBACK

A nice box arrived last week, well not so much a nice box, the box was pretty average, but a box suitable for purpose. In it were copies of my new paperback, 'Gritta and the Witches of Olavland', which I'm delighted with, and by the way would make very good Christmas pressies. But back to the box; like all good boxes, it contained a surprise, which although surprised, I was at the same time baffled. As well as my new paperbacks, there were six books obviously intended for someone else. The book titles were also surprising, in that they were as dissimilar to each other as a Christmas pudding to a stick of celery, ranging from Universal Medical Care to Tales of the Grotesque, which hopefully have no connection. If the owner isn't located I'll take them to a charity bookshop, after having a little peep. Arthur Machen (1863) and L.A. Lewis 1899-1966) are names of two of the authors, both writing in the mystic, supernatural and horror genre. 'The Great God Pan' by the former, being described by Stephen King, as 'Maybe the best (horror story) in the English language. The latter, a
squadron leader and veteran of two world wars, flew Sopwith Camels during WW1 and Hurricanes during WW11, and must have experienced plenty of horror.

The Goblins Who Stole Christmas

At a Charles Dickens reading yesterday, I heard the story, said to be the precursor of his 'A Christmas Carol'. It has the intriguing title, 'The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton'. The sexton, one Gabriel Grubb, is as miserable a curmudgeon as Scrooge is later. One night whilst gravedigging, Grubb is kidnapped by goblins, treated to miserable visions, and kicked roundly into the bargain. Set free he is a changed and better man, and disappears to another part of the country to start afresh. His disappearance from his old village sets off rumours that he has been abducted by goblins. I prefer 'A Christmas Carol, but the similarities are striking. I think many authors have an idea that they haven't quite worked through at first writing, and write a second novel or piece when their initial idea has firmed up. Thomas Hardy's 'A Pair of Blue Eyes' is said to be the precursor to his 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles.' I've just begun a stage adaptation of 'A Pair of Blue Eyes'. I think the title won't do for the adaptation - and yet it says a lot of what the book is about - beauty, innocence, perceived morality, cultural norms, hypocrisy, vengeance, dual gender standards, the destruction of a human being. Hmmm.

Treasure Island etc

I'm off to see a local panto 'Treasure Island'. How I loved reading this classic. The works of some Victorian authors haven't time travelled well, but Robert Louis Stevenson reads as fresh today as then. What a lot he packed into his short life (he died of TB aged 45), stories, adventure. Did you know he's even credited with inventing the sleeping bag in 1848. It was 6 foot square with 'green waterproof cart cloth without and blue sheep fur within'. It was probably in readiness for his journeyings in the mountains of south west France the following year. He wrote about it in 'Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes'. I can thoroughly recommend.