Keris Stainton's Blog, page 30

Weekend in Wigtown

I was thrilled to be invited to attend the Wigtown Book Festival this year. Or rather, the teen part of the festival: WTF (Wigtown, the Festival – I like what they did there). I didn’t actually know very much about it before I went – I didn’t actually even know where Wigtown was – but I set off from Preston on Saturday to get the train to Lockerbie. It was an absolutely gorgeous journey, through beautiful countryside. The sun was shining, I had a pile of books and a coffee and I felt very lucky.

Through the train window

I got to Lockerbie at 6.30. I’d been told that someone would pick me up and it was about an hour’s drive to Wigtown. There’d been a misunderstanding and no one picked me up. After I phoned, the organisers arranged for a taxi to get me, but it didn’t arrive until 7.30 and the driver told me Wigtown was two hours away. It was dark. My phone was almost out of charge. Two hours in a car in the dark with nothing to do. Oy. I did try to do some work on my book (in my head) and I did actually think of something that I then had to scrawl in the back of the book I’d been reading, in case I forgot it (fortunately it is actually legible) and then I had a little snooze.

Oh and the lovely author Karen McCombie had contacted me to say she was in Wigtown too and would I like to have dinner? She’d booked the table for 8.45 and so I had to reserve a smidge of energy in my phone so that I could contact Karen. Last orders at the restaurant were at 9, so Karen even texted me the menu, so she could order on my behalf. It turned out the taxi driver had exaggerated the journey and I think I arrived at the restaurant pretty much dead on 8.45. Karen is LOVELY and it was great after such a journey to sit down, eat ham hock (or “hammock” as Karen had texted ), drink wine and talk and talk and talk.

After dinner, it was time to find the place I was staying. I knew I was staying with a local resident, only I didn’t know who. I’d been told that the details would be left at the restaurant for me, but when I came to leave found that they hadn’t (actually they had, they’d just been missed – it was really busy). So lovely Geri from ReadingLasses did a bit of ringing round and then, when she couldn’t find anyone to take me in, suggested I stay at her house. How lovely is that? It turned out, though, that my hosts (Sandra and Alan) were at the ceilidh with lots of other book festival people and so Geri dropped me there.

At the ceilidh, I got a very warm and apologetic welcome from Anne (the event organiser) – and a glass of wine from Anne’s husband – and then sat down to watch the dancing. It was so much fun to watch that I almost got up and joined in (but I didn’t have a partner). I laughed out loud, drank my wine and thought… I’m in the middle of Scotland at a ceilidh with strangers. Huh. I love those times when you find yourself somewhere completely unexpected and it’s ace. I did get up at the end, for Auld Lang Syne. Then I was introduced to Sandra and Alan (and two friends whose names I’m afraid I’ve forgotten) and we all went back to Sandra and Alan’s house, where we proceeded to stay up until 2.30, drinking tea and talking about travelling and politics.

I was woken up by bright sunshine and hopped – okay, staggered – out of bed to take a photo. Look!

Sandra and Alan made a fantastic cooked breakfast (and we talked and talked some more) and then Alan dropped me at the County Building to meet Karen again.

Karen and I went for a walk and stumbled upon an art gallery that turned out to be showing the Edinburgh Book Sculptures on tour. I you haven’t heard about the sculptures, go here and read right to the end. They are so beautiful and I was thrilled that I got to see them in real life. (Thanks, Karen!)

We went for a coffee in the Writers’ Retreat in The Bookshop, which was very fancy and would’ve been a fabulous place to have lunch… if not for that huge cooked breakfast and then on to my event, where I met some lovely girls, including the amazing and talented Zoe Bestel, who I’ve been Twitter friends with for a while. It was really informal and chatty and I so enjoyed it. Would love to get the chance to go back next year, so I really hope they enjoyed it too.

Me and Zoe. (That’ll teach me to go out with wet hair.)

After the event, I was driven back to Lockerbie station, along with an author named Lari Don. We talked – from children’s books to JK Rowling to balancing writing with promotion to feminism to politics –  the entire way. It was great.

Thank you so much to Anne, Zoe, Christie and everyone involved in the Wigtown and WTF festivals for inviting me, to Geri for offering to take me in and driving me around, to Sandra and Anne for the bed, breakfast and fabulous conversation, to David for driving us to Lockerbie, and to Karen and Lari for even more fabulous conversation.

The theme of this weekend was definitely conversation, which makes sense for a book festival, no?

A(nother) weekend in Liverpool

Yes, yet another visit to Harry’s Favourite Hotel in the World™. This time we went for this. I thought it would be fun for the boys to see and take part in a World Record. They weren’t that impressed – David had to try to sing with Joe’s hands over his mouth “Stop SINGING, Daddy!” – but I’m pretty sure they’ll be excited to actually see the record in the book (although it’ll be next year’s now, won’t it? They’ll have forgotten by then…). I enjoyed it anyway.

In the evening we went to Space Night at the World Museum (it’s on again this Friday, if you’re nearby and fancy it. We would highly recommend it). We’ve been to the museum before and it’s brilliant. We hadn’t realised the museum was actually closed, apart from the Planetarium, but that actually made it even more special – we had to knock on the door and then were escorted up to the Planetarium, where a show was just about to start.

I don’t know which show it was, but it was absolutely amazing. Detailed close-up views of planets and then we zoomed out until our solar system looked like a star… out more to see the Milky Way… out more until the Milky Way looked like a star and out and out and out… until I said, “I’m scared” to David. When we left, Harry said, “I’m not going to think about that.” I don’t blame him.

We were also shown the path that the two Voyager probes are on. Yes, on. Did you know they were still out there? Still going? Cos I had no freaking idea. But then I didn’t know Uranus had rings. They obviously hadn’t found the rings when I was at school. In olden times. So, yes, the Voyagers are still trucking on and are, um, quite far away. Voyager 1 is apparently close to entering interstellar space and becoming the first manmade object to leave the Solar System. Hold me.

Where’s his other hand, hmm?

Possibly because he was also freaked out by what Spinal Tap referred to as “too much fucking perspective” – or more likely because he’s 3 – Joe decided that the Planetarium was the perfect place to say “Smell my finger” and stick his finger up my nose. The finger that had clearly, mere moments earlier, been stuck elsewhere. He laughed so much at my response that I had to shush him – I’d already had to shush him repeatedly for asking what were, yes, insightful questions, like “Is Mars our planet, Mama?” but that really should have waited until after the bit-in-the-dark-with-other-people-where-we-need-to-be-really-quiet – and then, when shushing didn’t work, threaten to chuck him out. To which his response was a loud and plaintive “Oh PWEASE don’t frow me out, Mama!” Yeah, okay. I didn’t. And he shut up. Mostly.

After the show, we made badges and then went on the balcony to look at the telescopes. We would have been able to look through the telescopes, but it was cloudy. Pah. Still, it was a top night. Oh and Liverpool looked really pretty in the dark.

{The title of this post reminded me of when Five Star went street. I miss Five Star.}

52 Books: The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling

I don’t need to say much about this one, do I?

I really enjoyed it, but I can’t say it’s a fun read. I’ve only read one review (before I started the book – I just couldn’t resist) and it called the ending “bleak” and, well, it really, really is. In fact, the whole book is pretty damn bleak, but also extremely readable.

The characterisation is excellent and though the writing can be a bit cliched at times (a river ‘like a silver ribbon’ made me wince a bit), it had me gripped. But if you’re going to read it, heed my warning: as you approach the end of the book, get yourself a glass of something strong. Or a cup of very sweet tea. You’ll need it.

Changing my life with Wunderlist. Sort of.

I’ve been meaning to blog about this for ages and was prompted to get on with it by a chat with my friend Siobhan on Twitter yesterday.

I’ve always been a fan of the To Do list. Some days I’m so addled in the morning that I find myself writing “Keris breakfast. Harry breakfast. Joe breakfast. Keris dressed. Harry dressed. Joe dressed” for the joy of ticking them off. And okay, yes, to remind me what absolutely has to be done when I find myself standing in the kitchen, making another cup of tea, staring into space (or at Twitter).

For ages I had a running To Do list on my desktop with a list of everything I needed to do during the week. Then I separated it into days and shuffled them about accordingly.

But then my friend Erin mentioned Wunderlist and, well, it’s been a revelation. The great thing about it is that it’s multi-platform, so you can sync your To Do lists via various tech wotnots (technical term). I use it on my desktop and email to it from my BlackBerry. There is a BlackBerry app, but I haven’t downloaded it yet, because downloading apps on the BlackBerry usually ends with me throwing my phone against the wall, yelling, “OHMYGODWHYDIDN’TIGETANiPHONE?!”

So. That’s the general gubbins. Here comes the science bit. Here’s how I use it. I have a list for every day. And onto the daily list I put, you know, stuff I need to do every day: Bea, UKYA, my blog, write 1000 words, check my in-tray, etc. I’ve also added housework. I know. So Monday has ‘tidy/clean office’, Tuesday ‘tidy/clean lounge’, Wednesday ‘tidy/clean kitchen’. You get the drift. I’ve added cleaning to my To Do list before, of course I have, but for some reason, this time it’s actually working. I seem to have tricked my brain that if it’s on my Wunderlist, it must be done. It’s amazing. We’ve been in this house for 8 years next month and, honestly, this is the first time I could actually describe it as clean.*

* Apart from the kitchen floor. If anyone knows of a quick and easy way to clean a kitchen floor then please tell me. Our kitchen is absolutely tiny, the floor is almost always rotten, but I just can’t bring myself to clean it.

What’s better than mushrooms on toast?

Mushrooms and mozzarella on toast!

I saw this on Pinterest on a blog in a foreign language, but I figured I didn’t need a recipe in order to add mozzarella, so I just threw it in the pan. It didn’t melt as much as I would have liked, but it was still delish.

I’d asked Joe if he wanted me to make him some and he said no. But then kept coming over to ask for more and more and more. When I told him to clear off, he said, “I can’t! It’s too YUMMY!” It was, too.

Homeschooling Harry: social skills

A jar of oil was his only friend…

When I first started telling people about homeschooling, they would inevitably ask, “What about friends?” And I always wanted to say, well, what about them? Harry has friends at school, but he’s never really wanted to socialise with them outside of school. Much in the way that, in many of the jobs I did over the years, I didn’t want to socialise with my colleagues. (When I quit a job, no one ever asked me ‘What about your friends?’ although when I told Harry the other day that David is moving to a new office, he asked, ‘Will he miss his mates?’)

The thing about school is a lot of the time you’re only really socialising with people of the same age, backgrounds and interests. Harry pretty much stuck with the same two friends for the past four years. I remember once asking him if he ever played with a particular kid and Harry said, “No. He’s into football.” The boys who liked football all played together all the time. (I recently did a school visit and was really shocked to be faced with a table of Asian girls, a table of “clever” white girls, a table of “not so clever” white girls and a table of boys. Because I live in a pretty mixed town – albeit one of the most segregated in the country – I asked friends about it and they said it was exactly the same when they went to school.) With homeschooling, we’ll be out and about meeting different people of different ages and interests. I say we will be because for now Harry’s still pretty shy, so while I’m meeting different people, he’s mostly observing me meeting them.

The other thing I’ve noticed when my friends with school-age children have asked ‘what about friends’ and we start discussing it, it’s not long before they’re telling me about the children their child is scared of or doesn’t like or has a problem with or has been bullied by. So maybe the answer to ‘what about friends?’ is ‘what about bullying?’ (Do people assume I took Harry out of school because he was being bullied? It’s the first thing a couple of family members have asked. He wasn’t.)

Also, don’t we all know plenty of people with poor social skills who went to traditional school? It didn’t do David any good (sorry, David). It didn’t do me any good either. Primary school was fine, as far as I remember, but some of my strongest memories from secondary school are of being “blanked” or being scared of one particular girl (who later went to prison, apparently), of pretending to be someone I wasn’t to try to fit in, of never quite knowing what the cool thing was that it was acceptable to like. The other night I told David about how a girl in my class had seen me in a record shop and asked me what I’d bought. I’d bought Duran Duran’s A View to a Kill on white vinyl and in a gatefold sleeve so I wasn’t worried. That had to be cool, right? (At the time, I mean, not now, obviously.) (Although it totally still is.) She laughed her head off and asked why I hadn’t bought Suddenly by Billy Ocean. I really hadn’t seen that coming.

And, yes, I know I’m projecting. It was one of the things I worried about the most when we were making this decision. But I don’t know that there’s any way around that. Of course our own experiences are going to influence us when we make decisions, aren’t they?

Although David agrees with me about the above (possibly not about my assessment of his own social skills, but come on, love, you didn’t speak to me at all for the first year we knew each other and you had to get drunk to get off with me!) (Wait. I don’t come out of that very well either.), I had to assure him that I would try really hard to arrange “play dates” for Harry once he’d finished school. And I have. His best friend comes for tea every Tuesday and whenever Harry’s mentioned another kid, I’ve invited them round too. I’ve started to feel a little bit weird about it – like Harry’s sitting at home like a prince and various children are being brought in to entertain him. I wonder if he thinks it’s a bit weird too since this morning he said he didn’t want any friends coming round anymore. He’s since changed his mind (for now), but it worried me. I’m trying to trust that Harry knows what he wants and will tell me if he’s lonely or feels like he’s missing out or whatever (I have asked him if he wants to go back to school – he doesn’t), but if he does decide he really doesn’t want to see any friends anymore, could I be okay with that? I really don’t know.

(Penelope Trunk is characteristically down to earth about it - not everyone wants to be social and isn’t that okay?)

I’ve added a ‘recommended reading‘ page under ‘Unschooling‘ on the menu, if anyone’s interested in the books I’ve read so far and whatever I’m currently reading on the subject.

Spectator to your own life

“The more you document your own life, the more you check in, you tweet, the more you post photos of what you did last night, the more you do all of this stuff, or even in my case, the more you listen for little lines of dialogue that can make their way into stories, the more you photograph moments, in a way, the more you start to step out of those moments, and if you do that too much, you become a spectator to your own life.”

- Jonathan Harris

I read this a while ago and I’ve thought of it a lot since. It’s something I’m definitely trying to be more aware of – I noticed it recently when I was sorting some photos and deleted a couple that I didn’t want anyone else to see… and then I realised that no one else has to see them, they don’t have to be posted to Flickr or Facebook or Twitter. Duh.

A quote from Jonathan Harris’ CreativeMornings talk.

{via Swissmiss}

The not so secret story

Lovely Jim of the YA Contemporary blog asked me to contribute a guest post and I decided to share the synopsis for what I had hoped would be the third book in the “Hearts” series, Rebecca Hearts Paris.

You can read all about it here.

How gorgeous is this print? It’s by TypePlace on Etsy and I think I’m going to have to buy myself one. I often wonder what it would be like to live in London and have the ever-present temptation of being able to hop on a train to Paris. Good job it wasn’t available when I lived there.

52 Books: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Jenny Lawson writes online as The Bloggess. I haven’t read many of her posts, but this book was recommended to me by quite a few people so I bought it to take on holiday. Yes, in July. I’ve only just got around to reading it.

I really enjoyed it. It made me laugh out loud a lot, but I think it probably made me make a “WTF?!” face even more (but maybe it wouldn’t have done had I been reading her blog). There are some very weird stories in here. But in a good way. Mostly.

Friday favourites

I would have loved to have seen this “river” of books in Melbourne (via @EMTeenFiction)

Love this, particularly “Cookiecopia”: Sesame Street does The Hunger Games, Dr Who, The Newsroom and more… (via @tweeter_anita)

Retronaut is an amazing site and I keep saying I’m going to take a week off just to explore it. These photos of the construction of the Empire State Building are fantastic.

And this seems like it should be from Retronaut, but it’s actually the Los Angeles Times: The Academy Awards through the years (via @jillmansell ages ago)

The most sensible thing I’ve read about The Casual Vacancy (and writing for children in general): Y’know, for kids (via @Melissa_Maria)