Stuart Aken's Blog, page 315

Writing; a Little Progress

It's been a long day. Yesterday was Valerie's birthday, so I did no writing, choosing to spend my time with her instead. Tomorrow will be a full day at work, followed by my evening with my writing group. So, I managed only 400 words tonight. But I have also written the review posted below this post, so not an entirely lazy evening.
There's a long weekend coming up, with Easter and it's bank holiday in the offing. That should allow me to get some serious writing done; I certainly hope so.

I'd be interested in your opinions: especially those of you who read fantasy: How important is the map of the imagined land to you as a reader? I know I find it at least interesting and sometimes vital. What are your thoughts?

Another local picture for your delight.

Shatter, The Children of Man, by Elizabeth C. Mock, Reviewed.

I read Shatter, the Children of Man, on my Kindle and enjoyed the experience. The story, with its weaving of different coloured threads of magic into an illuminating fabric, deals largely with human relations. A fantasy, it demonstrates how this sometimes maligned genre can make serious points under the guise of entertainment. The characters, an aspect of supreme importance to me in reading, shine and live, because Elizabeth C. Mock has invested them all with credible motivations and human emotions. There is much intrigue and a great deal of mystery in the novel. As part of a series, the rest of which I have not read, it clearly deals with issues beyond the scope of this single volume, but it works well as a stand-alone book. Nevertheless, I shall be interested to read the sequel, which is due out shortly. I started this book in order to refresh my interest in the fantasy genre and it has turned out to be a good choice (my thanks to Goodreads members who advised the title). It does suffer from the common errors of the self-published eBook, in that there are quite a few minor grammatical, spelling and syntactical faults that a professional editor would hopefully have detected. However, these are not serious enough to detract from the reading experience. Also, as an eBook, it was unable to give me the necessary map a print book would undoubtedly have provided. However, this may simply be either a problem with Kindle or due to me being unable to access the map that appeared in a very tiny version in the details about the book.The story, which I will not précis here (read the blurb and available excerpts if you want a synopsis), is full of twists and turns, all of which are character driven. It is the depth of characterisation that lifts this book above the ordinary and makes it so readable. The pacing is excellent, with just enough peaceful passages to allow the reader to catch his breath before being plunged into the next phase of action. It is a page turner but one with depth. A read I definitely enjoyed and a writer to whom I shall return.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Gabija

Image via Wikipedia
Gabija is one of my occasional god items. (sometimes known as Gabieta or Gabeta) she's a goddess of fire and hearth in Lithuanian myth. Considered to protect home and family and provide happiness and fertility. A shape-shifter, Gabija can appear as a stork, cat, rooster, or a woman in red. Her fire is respected and cared for, often fed with offerings of bread and salt. Fire was laid to bed and women covered charcoal with ashes overnight to stop the fire wandering. Clean water might be left near the hearth so that Gabija could wash herself. Myth suggests an ill fate for any who offended Gabija by spitting, urinating or stamping on fire, with an angry Gabija taking a walk and burning the house of the offender. 

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Fabric

Image via Wikipedia
Fabric: noun - construction or design of a building, an animal's body, a vehicle, etc.; a building in which work or manufacture is carried on, a factory; a frame, basic structure of a building; type of construction or formation, texture; manufactured textile, woven, knitted, or felted material; a material made of chemically bonded fibres; the structural material of something, woven tissue or fibre of a textile.
'The earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, damaged the fabric of the cathedral to such an extent that part or all of the building would have to be rebuilt.'
'Whilst Jenny was happy to use man made fabric for her dress, she always wanted natural fabric, like cotton, for underwear in touch with her skin.' 

Writing Progressing

Up early again this morning and managed to complete the last of the new character profiles I needed to progress the writing. Completed 1,200 words before breakfast, which we consumed whilst watching the start of the London marathon. It's always an inspiration, with so many ordinary people doing extraordinary things, mostly for charity and even the celebrities turning out for good causes. Elle McPherson looks as good as ever on her exercise regime and even Will Young put in a creditable performance, amongst others, such as Matthew Pinsent. As a rule, I tend to dismiss celebrities, but in this event they do seem to do some real good.
Later, we took a lovely 4 mile walk with my wife in bright sunshine and warm weather. Had to rest on our return, of course - it's an essential for me. After lunch, I returned to the fantasy novel and continued with Ch21, which now runs to page 208 and has 2740 words, so not a bad day's work.
I've stuck a few more photos on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/stuart.k.allison and one of the pics I took this morning is reproduced here; a small copse surrounded by oil seed rape just off the road to Little Driffield.
For those of you who enjoy language, my Daily Word Spot is just that, a post each day with a new word defined. I'd welcome your comments on this and on any of the other stuff on this blog.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Eagle

Image via Wikipedia
Eagle: noun - A large diurnal bird of prey of the family Accipitridae, (golden eagle, harpy eagle, fish eagle, sea eagle, bald eagle); a representation of an eagle as an ensign in the Roman imperial army; a lectern made as an eagle; the Aquila constellation; a US gold coin worth ten dollars; in golf, a hole made in two strokes less than par; eagle-eyed, having keen sight.
'Tiger Woods made his eagle at the par 5 look effortless.'
'After diving swiftly into the water, the sea eagle caught a salmon and emerged with it clutched in its fearsome talons.'

Writing: Some Real Words Put Down at Last

An early start saw me completing the character profiles, so I now have 8 new characters to get to know. It's been handy that I have had other things prevent me actually continuing with the narrative as it's given me a little more time to know the new people in my story. I'll need to do just one more, as a new event has meant that one of the female characters will return to her home and a man will take her place on the journey that will form one of the three story threads of this volume.
I've managed to write more of Ch20 and complete that at page 201, with a total of 4372 words in that section.
Today, I've also prepared a new interview for the blog along with some more of the Word Spot items. Had a short walk with Valerie. Saw Kate off on the train to Coventry, where she and her friend will stay until her friend's family whisk them off to Turkey for a week on Monday. Oh, and the new characters caused me to examine and modify the spreadsheet I use for a timeline. I'd moved the files containing the character profiles, so the hyperlinks from the spreadsheet to the profiles no longer worked. I've restored them as it is really helpful to have a central place from which I can check on the characteristics of any given person in the story whenever I need to. It's so easy to change a character's eye colour, height or even gender! This is especially the case when you're trying to keep tabs on 61 named characters.
So, that's me done for now. I think I've earned a drop of the red stuff and a relaxing evening with my wife. Even if I haven't earned it, it's what I'm going to do!

The picture, topical as it is, was taken on a walk at a local beauty spot (South Landing at Flamborough) a year ago.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: A while or Awhile

Image via Wikipedia
A while: noun phrase – 'The bathing beauties in their bikinis had to wait for a while until they heard the results of the contest from the judges.'
Awhile: adverb – 'After the celebrations, the politicians who'd lost the election remained awhile, hoping the press pack would have dispersed before they emerged.'

Writing - A Bit Done

It would have been great to report that I had finished the character studies and written a couple of thousand words, but....  Early this morning, the new printer arrived. I have spent much of the day installing that on my own desk computer and the laptop. It took longer than it should because I wanted to make sure I got it right first time. The print quality from the laser is brilliant. I bought a Brother in the end and it is a good machine and promises to produce some good work for me.
My keyboard, a wireless device, suddenly decided to devour the batteries without any warning, so I had to go and buy some new ones. Got some rechargeables at the same time so I won't be caught out again. That trip to town took out some of the day, as did my visit to the loft to store some boxes. Also recharged my Kindle. The battery has lasted 6 weeks or so and I've read five books on it in that time, so it looks to be doing well.
Still suffering the CFS, so plenty of rests today.
But, to the writing: I completed another of the new male characters, so just the 3 ladies to do now. And I've prepared more posts for the blog, so not a complete waste in writing terms.

The picture is a little further from home this time; a clifftop scene about 80 miles north of home, near a tiny place called Port Mulgrave.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Dabog

Image via Wikipedia
Dabog: noun – another of the occasional 'god' entries. This is the name of a Slavonic sun god (worshipped in the Balkans and south Russia). As with so many pre-Christian deities, this one, after Christianisation, was changed into a diabolic entity. So, a god with positive aspects for the former pagans was changed to a figure representing evil by the Christian authorities who were trying to impose their own beliefs on the people. So, nothing new there, then.