Stuart Aken's Blog, page 280

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Machete

Image via Wikipedia
Machete: noun - a broad, heavy knife or cutlass,used as a tool or weapon.
'You'll need more than amachete to cut a way through that jungle; there's no discernible path formiles.'
'Swinging the macheteswiftly around his head, he sliced down and took off his victim's right arm.'

#NaNoWriMo Progress, Day 12 = 52959 words total

NaNoWriMo sets a challenge of 50,000 words, so I've hit that target today, with an extra 4,937 words taking me to a grand total of 52,959. As my personal target is 120,000, I'm about 44% into that.
But it's not all about word counting, of course. My characters are taking me on a fun and exciting journey, with many events and hitches along the way. The humour continues, as does the thrill element. I just hope both elements will gel well once I've finished the editing, which will start a few weeks after I've finished the first draft. I prefer to leave the new creation for a few weeks to mature, so I can return to it with a more or less fresh mind and therefore see the faults more easily.
I'm enjoying this challenge and the book still feels good to me. I'm growing rather too fond of a couple of the characters, so the direction may well change before I get to the end. I love having a vague idea of the ending but allowing the characters to do their own things and direct the story where they want it to go. Sometimes they fight, of course, but, as in life, the strongest usually wins; but not always: Sometimes it's the cleverest one who gets their own way. And sometimes the feminine wiles can influence me as well. But, as long as I keep my theme in mind all the time, I won't let them take me too far off track.

The picture is derived through the website Wordle - http://www.wordle.net/
Try it, it's great fun.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Labour of Sisyphus

Image via Wikipedia
Labour of Sisyphus: KingSisyphus, a noted ancient Greek trickster, was made to roll a huge boulder up asteep hill, but before he could reach the summit, the rock always rolled backdown, and he had to begin again. The exasperating nature of this punishment wasvisited on King Sisyphus because of his arrogant belief that his clevernesssurpassed that of Zeus. The king of the gods, Zeus, therefore demonstrated hisown cleverness by forcing Sisyphus to labour for eternity at this pointlesstask. It's an interestingillustration of the ancient Greek's attitude to deities and might even explainto some extent the peculiar attitude held by some modern religious groups aboutthe nature of their particular gods.As a result of this myth,pointless or interminable tasks are often described as Sisyphean.
'When Julie announced herdetermination to turn her four acres of wilderness into a modern garden withnot a weed in sight, Terrence laughed and told her she'd set herself a Labourof Sisyphus.'

#NaNoWriMo Progress, Day 11 = 48,022 words

Further strides made toward my personal target of 120,000 words in the month. Of course, the official NaNoWriMo target of 50,000 words has almost been reached to day with an extra 5,307 words taking the total to 48,022. That's an average of 4,365 per day, which is considered pretty good going.
But all this is meaningless if the words written are garbage. I don't kid myself that the completed first draft will be even readable, let alone publishable. But, after editing, I think I'll have a pretty good story that will keep your interest as a reader and make you laugh, cry, burst with outrage, cheer with agreement and feel the need to take your partner somewhere private for a while. But, most of all, I hope it will make you laugh.
For now, I'm in need of a rest after the effort of the day.

Pic: Just a pretty avenue of tress I came upon during a recent holiday in Dorset.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Kangaroo

Image via Wikipedia
Kangaroo: noun - a herbivorous marsupial mammal ofthe family Macropodidae, from Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, havingsmall front limbs, powerful hind legs and long feet, which allow it to leapgreat distances, using its long tail for balance; an Australian representingthe nation in sport; in Britain, a parliamentary closure by which someamendments are selected for discussion and others excluded; also used incombinations, such as 'Kangaroo Court', a derogatory term for bad justice.
The word, Kangaroo, isderived from a Guugu Yimithirr word 'gangurru', which refers to grey kangaroos.The story about how the kangaroo got its English name isn't true; it's an urbanmyth. The story goes that "kangaroo" was an aboriginal word for"I don't understand you." and Captain Cook, exploring the area andcoming upon the animal, asked a local what it was called. The local said'gangurru ', and Cook is supposed to have wrongly assumed it was the name ofthe creature. In fact, the aboriginalreally was providing the name of the creature, as the linguist, John B.Haviland, has subsequently shown in his research with the Guugu Yimithirrpeople.
'No matter how theyconstructed the fences around the vast ranch, there was nothing they could doto exclude the kangaroos.'
'When it became publicknowledge that Gordon, a well-known eccentric, had been accused of molesting asmall child, the local macho men formed a kangaroo court and decided he must beguilty, so they set fire to his house whilst he was sleeping there.'
11 Nov 2011 - ArmisticeDay: at 11:11:11:11, in the UK, there will be two minute's silence to commemoratethe fallen of many conflicts. No doubt, some numerologist somewhere will makemore of this coincidence than it merits, and, in so doing, detract from themain purpose of the event.
For a reading of the evocative and moving 'In Flanders Field' go to  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15691951

#NaNoWriMo Progress, Day 10 = 42715 words

Image via WikipediaSo we continue, but, with a virus infection digging in to my chest, a little less active today. But, with the challenge still active and motivating, I managed another 3,901 words today, taking my NaNoWriMo total to 42,715. That's still an average of 4,271 per day, so still on target to hit 120,000 by the end of the month.
Hopefully, I'll be better rested after finishing early tonight and will get a bit more done tomorrow.
Lots happening now, with death, torture and cheating all in evidence. Hey, I thought this was supposed to be a comedy thriller? Well, yes; but there has to be some 'thrilling' part to counter the comedy. Don't want the readers exhausting themselves or dying with laughter, do we?

110 Author Interviews Revisited

Unfair to single out one author, so have a squirrel instead.Listed below are the namesof all 110 authors I've interviewed on this blog. A click on the author's namewill take you to the interview on the blog. They're listed in order ofappearance and one or two may appear twice, because they've come back for more.The views expressed are varying and quite illuminating. I've decided to end thisparticular series at this point. Once I've completed the novel I'm currentlywriting for the NaNoWriMo challenge, I intend to start a new series ofinterviews based entirely on writers whose work I've read and enjoyed.These will be more targeted, with questions set specifically for the authorconcerned. This series has been all about comparison of one writer withanother. The coming series I intend to be more specifically about eachindividual writer. Watch this space.
Avril Field-Taylor  PennyGrubb  J.FJenkins  Linda Acaster  KarenWolfe  Madeleine McDonald  KathleenMcKenna  Gwen Morrison  RichardJay Parker  Sasha Petrova  StevenJensen StaceyDanson  CatherineChisnall  John Pearson  SharonDwyer  Jake Webber  SibelHodge NickQuantrill  SarahBarnard LilaMunro  JRussell Rose BethAnn Buehler  NeilWhite Valmore Daniels  KristalMcKerrington LindaSwift  ClaudeBouchard  Danielle Thorn  P.J.Dean Toni V. Sweeney, aka Icy Snow Blackstone  MargaretBlake  J.B.Hendricks  MoniqueMartin Karen Cantwell  DavidPerlmutter  Rodolfo Pena  AndyFrankham-Allen TraceyAlley  PhillipChen Edward Wright  LorraineSears L.M.Pruitt  L.Anne Carrington Patricia Rockwell  M.J.Webb DerekJ. Canyon GeoffreyThorne  SueAnn Jackson J.E.Taylor  K.J. Rigby  VictoriaRoder Jesse S. Greever  CatherineCondie  Paul Rudd  LakishaSpletzer   LynFuchs   LauraB. Gshwandtner TerryIrvin  RuthWheeler Joanne Kerzmann  AlanNayes  Charlene Wilson  AlanNaylor  Poppet ChristaPolkinhorn  P.I. Barrington  TommyTaylor Wayne Gerard Trotman  SylviaL. Ramsey WayneZurl  ShielaStewart  Jean Fullerton ElenaDorothy BowmanDewey W. Dempsey RonnieDauber  Zoe Winters R.S.Charles  LesleyCookman  PatriciaMitchell Lapidus Kristie Leigh Maguire   ElizabethC. Mock  Gary Hoover HelmyParlente Kasuma  Valerie Douglas ChrisHambleton  BoydLemon  IanAlexander Lucinda Brant LindaAcaster  Anonymous Indian DeniseVarrico  Stuart Aken  SusanMoody  Lynda Hilburn  PandoraPoikilos  Prue Batten  Kay Springsteen  LindaSwift  MarkeeAnderson  Adrian Dawson   KarenPokras Toz WilliamHorwood   Sandra McLeod Humphrey  Jeff Horton  StephenL. Brayton  Sarah Baethge  FaithMortimer   JeannieWalker ClaudiaCulmone
There is no significance to the colours, I was merely trying to break up the otherwise dull presentation of these many links.On 7th July, Iinterviewed myself here (an odd concept, perhaps, but the reasons will be clearif you visit it). I've enjoyed theinterviews, in spite of the time and effort needed to produce them. I hopethey've proved useful to readers, writers and the authors concerned. My thanksgo to all who contributed to this series and those who've made the effort tomake comments on the interviews.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Jackstraw

Image by stuartaken via Flickr
Jackstraw: noun - someone without substance, worth,or consideration; used in plural for a set of straws or other thin strips, in agame where they are thrown in a pile, and each must be picked up withoutdisturbing any other; this game; a jot or whit.
'The MP for the northerncity exposed himself as a jackstraw when, confronted by a call for his supporton a delicate matter, he avoided any involvement by claiming to be sick.'

#NaNoWriMo progress, Day 9 = 38814 total words

The NaNoWriMo challenge continues apace. My half day at the office today, and Valerie is unwell with a nasty virus infection, so I'm doing more about the house, so she can recover as quickly as possible.
3,700 words today, in two session, taking the total to 38,814. This means I'm averaging 4,312 words per day, which is slightly higher than my target of 4,000 to reach my estimate of 120,000 for the first draft of the novel. Although this is a comedy thriller, today's session included some pretty nasty happenings for our hero and left him with more mountains to climb to reach his destination. But he's a game bloke, and I've no doubt he'll find ways to get over the many obstacles in his way, unless, of course, it seems more in keeping with events, to have him fail. We'll just have to wait until I finish the book to see what happens.

Pic: I'm a bit fed up of the same old pics for these NaNoWriMo posts, so I thought I'd stick in a few landscapes; This one is from the coast path to Durdle Door in Dorset, taken on our recent holiday.

Book Depository - 24 hours of offers

Book Depository, who deliver books to most of the world with free postage, are running a day of offers. Here's the link if you'd like to explore it.