David L. Atkinson's Blog, page 94

Writing - The varied portfolio

My collection of books represents a variety of social comment, political criticism and action to be attractive to a variety of readers.
My 10 books as of December 2014
Steele   My hero was created post recession and so has no concept of how 'good' things were pre-2008. In 'I Have To Get It Right' when he began to flex his muscles he was working in an accountant's office. Then after the Gurentai took him under their wing and removed all of his financial worries, it was justice that was his major concern. He did become involved in international relations in 'The 51st State' but it was for the maintenance of a respectful distance between countries, rather than economic reasons. His trips into the USA had repercussions which can be read about in 'The Biter Bit' but then by the time things began to change in 2011 and the recession was really biting, Steele was trying to make sense of the state of the nation in 'A Changed Reality' and coming up against some really nasty people taking advantage of the shortage of money. By the time the USA are out of their recession Steele's steps are still being dogged by an unknown enemy from the same country. In 'Inceptus' we also find out more about what makes the man tick. The most recent Steele book 'Castled' where Steele is once again at risk from unseen enemies. It would seem that he has become quite recession proof!
The most recent addition to the Steele family is Earth plc in which our hero is concerned with political and emotional issues in this crime fighting adventure.
All books are available in paperback or ebook through Amazon, Smashwords and all good book shop websites.


Cessation This is a dystopian story that hinges directly on the state of the nation as a result of fiscal mismanagement. Having said that it is more a story of human relations, privations, love and loss.

Poetry - there are also two thin collections of poetry available solely through Amazon.

The Musings of a Confused Mind 

and

Words from the Raindrops 

God Bless

Writing - Tied to a genre?

I've written about being influenced by outside opinions from many different points of view but today this is purely from the writers viewpoint.
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From a purely personal position I don't know which genre I fit into which is a bit of a problem when it comes to publishing as I'm always asked for that category. I usually opt for adventure or mystery, and occasionally crime. The reason I struggle with this aspect of publishing is because as an old reactionary, I find the biggest turn off to any situation is when someone tries to categorise what you are or what you do. I become full of righteous indignation and storm on at length about 'who the hell are you to tell me what I write' or words to that effect depending on situation.

Let me explain. Categorisation is limiting. It pushes you and your work into a box which could then discourage potential readers from even looking at what you've done. I'm sure some critics and reviewers would even try and categorise Charles Dickens when in fact he wrote many different types of stories, to me he was the archetypal example of writing from where you're at. You hear people talking about their likes and dislikes and I can picture them in bookshops avoiding the shelves named as YA Fiction, or Murder Mystery, or Historical, depending upon what they see as their taste. 
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My reading experiences are wide and varied and quite often are the result of advice or suggestions from friends or colleagues. This has led me to read Young Adult fiction, Historical fiction and even Booker prize winners (with varying opinions). I discovered writers such as Bernard Cornwell, Ben Aaronovitch, Philip Pullman and more, which if I'd categorised my own tastes I probably would never have read. Not all of these excursions have been successful but all have been interesting.

So what sort of books do I write? I picture Cessation because it is atypical. Cessation is a dystopian story with elements of adventure, crime, murder and more. It is also, indirectly, a commentary on the energy industry and the way that group of corporations hold ordinary folk to ransom. I feel that it is entertaining because of the feedback received one piece which said that the book would make a great TV series.


The reason I started with that novel was because I don't want to be categorised as a crime writer, or a writer of adventure stories or anything else for that matter. The fact that I have written 7 novels based around the character Patrick A Steele, the most recent above, doesn't mean that he has a stock set of responses and resembles James Bond or Inspector Morse. When I write there is often some aspect of current affairs involved, there are often deaths, travel is featured and some side swipes at big business and politics and much more. So where would you fit that type of story?
If you are a writer or just thinking about diving into that imaginary world from which you may never escape, don't put limits on yourself by self-categorisation, there are enough folk out there that will do that for you. Write as you feel suits your personal writing drive and let your stories develop and grow as they will.
Ruth Rendell
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In your mind spare a thought for Ruth Rendell. She is a prolific writer having produced 60+ books mostly centred on crime and the character Inspector Wexford (played on TV by the late George Baker). The lady is 84 years of age and has recently had a severe stroke and is being looked after in hospital.
God Bless

Poetry Thursday 143 - Rupert and Winter arrived.

Today's poetry blog is about arrivals, two in fact, my grandson Rupert and winter.
It would have been highly unlikely of me not to signal the arrival of my first blood related grandson. The difficulty with such a salutation is quality. You want to do the best for your family and so although this sonnet is 'complete' I may re-visit and make changes.

Rupert
A child is born into a familya loving cradle of safety and worth.The basis for a life, long and happy,great celebrations for a baby’s birth.He will learn and grow at a rapid pace,parents astounded by learning hunger.The newest member of the human race,what will Rupert’s future bring I wonder?How will he see his own place in the world?What great skills will be developed in him? Pleasure will be with successes unfurled,and happiness generated within.
God bless his safe arrival among us.For Rupert let joy and love be boundless.© David L Atkinson January 2015

This next poem, in rhyming couplets, follows yesterdays blog on the pathetic attitude of the media towards the onset of winter.
 
So it is Winter
The air is clear and cold,Earth is crusted with frost,the senses are sparking ten-foldand summer’s comfort is lost.
No more long days of sun,but brief snaps amid endless night.Put away warmth and water funand don thick clothes against winter’s bite.
Bright crisp mornings and bell clear air,put a spring in the step of the users.Naked trees’ fingers stretched out in prayerwishing for when the season alters.
Nature desires the change of temper,renewal of life requires the icy spark.Frigid winter has the answerthe waiting world’s great patriarch.
So stop bemoaning cold’s privations,to others it is blessed relief,enjoy chilled earth’s ministrationswallow in the season’s ephemeral mischief.© David L Atkinson January 2015

God Bless

Writing - So its winter!

You have to laugh really. Here we are in January and the media are broadcasting weather forecasts and the presenters are complaining its cold, or wet or there's the possibility of snow. Come on people its Winter.
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So what comes along with winter? Well the major factors are the shorter days and the increased distance from the sun. Some people suffer from S.A.D. which I consider a load of b.....ks. The truth of the matter is that some folk don't like winter and because they haven't the mental wherewithal to accept the seasons and all that means they are awarded a syndrome.
So let's look at what is good about winter.
Well there is Christmas and all the brightness that holds. Enough said.

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Then there is the beauty. Okay the days are shorter and scenes like the one above don't last as long but shouldn't we anticipate them and enjoy scenic beauty. If you want a project to put some joy into winter take photographs. Make a winter album.



There is drama. I know its another photograph but you don't have to take the camera everywhere, but it is good to experience the power of nature. I believe that seeing and observing the power of the weather helps us humans, with an over-inflated impression of our place on earth, become more realistic as to our place on this planet.



There is sensation. I know many people, me included at times, who whine about feeling cold, but it is a sensation experienced and tells us we're alive. The feeling of battering your way against the wind or watching a particularly intense period of rain, which you can do from your home, is an assault on your senses that can't be ignored. It also needs to be remembered that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So if you arrive home from being in extremes of weather there is pleasure to be had from pampering yourself on your return.



There is entertainment. When it is warm and sunny we may feel brighter and more relaxed, however if we have things that amuse but are indoors, we can feel guilty partaking and not enjoying the sun. Our entertainments are what help us remain happy and we shouldn't feel guilty when enjoying them. Winter enables us to do so when we are engaging in indoor activities with sound of the weather battering our dwellings while we're warm and cosy inside.

I could go on and refer to sounds, optimism, more sleep, but the fact is, as I said at the start, we live in a country that has seasons. I say thank goodness for that because if it was continually warm and sunny some folk would find something to moan about. 



I suppose the message is enjoy each day for what it brings and be thankful that you're alive to enjoy it. 

God Bless

One Pot Recipe - Galician Fish Pie

Another recipe from Clarissa Dickson-Wright's book One Pot Cooking
Galician Fish Pie
This meal cost me more than expected because I didn't own a pestle and mortar. Of course I didn't have to buy one but decided that the one example available in the supermarket was irresistible. I have no good reasons for saying that other than it is made from granite and probably the heaviest piece of kitchen equipment that I own. It just feels significant.
The reason for buying it was to facilitate the crushing of 24 blanched almonds to a paste which is then cooked with tomatoes, onions and so on.
Galician Fish Pie served with peas
The cod that I used for the fish layers was also quite expensive £5 but it served three meals. In my opinion it was well worth it as the flavours were delightful. The recipe would work with almost any firm white fish.
The recipe is available on the TAB at the top of this page.
God Bless

First Sentences

In writing about freedom of speech and Bulwer-Lytton's much used quote 'the sword is mightier than the pen', I discovered that he was famous for an other line.

[image error]Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Over the years of being taught story writing at school, and in turn teaching the same, there is a much used 'don't do' instruction that resonates. It is to do with first lines and one of the taboo openings is from a 1830 novel written by E Bulwer-Lytton.
'It was a dark and stormy night' 
You could do worse and perhaps I have. In all honesty I believe that it isn't as much the first sentence as the first page. If someone is giving up reading a story after one sentence then they weren't that interested anyway but on the other hand, if after a page they have lost interest then fair enough.
My opening lines
'Ever since I was at primary school there were indications of character traits that would shape my life.'
'Walking home from the pub is not pleasurable anymore from two main view points.'
'I gazed across the pillow at the girl sharing my bed - Detective Inspector Kathryn Best.'
'What on earth was the world coming to?'
'Having often heard the rain in Ireland variously described as 'soft' and 'warm' I now had evidence of what was meant by that.'
'"So will you then?" asked Naomi.'
'The warm, early morning, spring sun edged its way through the gaps in the vertical blinds and shone malevolently on the highly polished mahogany table in the executive boardroom of the energy company.'
'It was bright.'
A collection that some critics would dismiss out of hand and which others may find the odd good example but in fact all served their own purpose. The first seven are from the Steele novels and the last one from Cessation. There aren't any of them which I wouldn't think about changing but in fact they are what they are for better or worse.

I spent some time looking at first lines of famous authors. Charles Dickens in two of his books 'Barnaby Rudge' and 'A Tale of Two Cities' opened both with a sentence that was a paragraph long. E M Forster with dialogue and John Wyndham with something fairly normal in 'The Day of the Triffids'. The bottom line seems to me to be that there are no rules for first sentences which if you consider it is logical. If there was a standard then all budding writers would produce openings that were broadly speaking identical. 
Surely each opening must have its own individual character according to what comes next. I'm not an anarchist, rather an old reactionary, but why insist on rules that stifle creativity? When writing my openings I usually have a pretty good idea of where the first 6 chapters are going and write the first sentence accordingly.
God Bless

10 things we didn't know last week

One thing I definitely didn't know until today 10/01/2015 was the identity of my grandson.
Rupert Thomas Kelly 10/01/2015
He was born to my daughter in the early hours of this morning.
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1. Lions enjoy chewing discarded Christmas trees.
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2. Barack Obama calls David Cameron "bro".


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3. Benedict Cumberbatch and King Richard III are third cousins, 16 times removed.

He was excellent in 'The Imitation Game'
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4. Parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, upstate New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and nearly all of Maine and Minnesota were colder than Mars on Thursday.


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5. There is little international trade in onions - about 90% are consumed in their country of origin.


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6. Islamic State levies a 50% tax rate.


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7. The virus behind the common cold is much happier in a cold nose.


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8. Justin Bieber supports Everton.

Poor Everton
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9. Half of the world's pigs live in China.


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10. The Queen once gave former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond a successful horse racing tip.


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God Bless

Pen is mightier than the sword - Voltaire

On this day when the French Charlie Hebdo incident persists I felt that it was important to stress the importance of free speech.

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The English words "The pen is mightier than the sword" were first written by novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839, in his historical play Cardinal Richelieu.
Richelieu, chief minister to King Louis XIII, discovers a plot to kill him, but as a priest he is unable to take up arms against his enemies.
His page, Francois, points out: But now, at your command are other weapons, my good Lord.
Richelieu agrees: The pen is mightier than the sword... Take away the sword; States can be saved without it!

By the 1840s the phrase was commonplace.



The French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher said these words over 250 years ago and what he said then hasn't aged in the slightest in the light of the attack on Charlie Hebdo. 
In 1766 in Abbeville in northern France a young man was found guilty of religious crime.
The young nobleman named Lefebvre de la Barre was found guilty of blasphemy. The charges against him were numerous - that he had defecated on a crucifix, spat on religious images, and refused to remove his hat as a Church procession went past.These crimes, together with the vandalising of a wooden cross on the main bridge of Abbeville, were sufficient to see him sentenced to death. Once La Barre's tongue had been cut out and his head chopped off, his mortal remains were burned by the public executioner, and dumped into the river Somme. Mingled among the ashes were those of a book that had been found in La Barre's study, and consigned to the flames alongside his corpse - the Philosophical Dictionary of the notorious philosopher, Voltaire.Voltaire himself, informed of his reader's fate, was appalled. "Superstition," he declared from his refuge in Switzerland, "sets the whole world in flames."
[image error]BastilleVoltaire was an outspoken critic of the catholic church and government which led to many exiles and imprisonments and it was while spending 11 months in the Bastille that he wrote Oedipe which made his name. He mostly spoke out against religious intolerance and supported the idea of freedom of thought.


I think the above cartoon says it all. If you write then ensure you write about Charlie Hebdo or at least freedom of speech. It is interesting that the brothers have been quoted as being prepared to die as martyrs. Perhaps they are expecting to have 72 virgins in attendance, well remember boys not all virgins are female!God Bless

What gets you through the day?

I was reading Starr Sackstein's blog this morning in admiration. She speaks of quotes that help her get through the day and I have often heard of others who have some kind of mantra or 'hero' who help us keep our heads above water. It made me feel unusual in that I have few such crutches to help me get through the day other than my religion. I do have some quotes that I will share with you as they may help in some measure.
[image error]Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens is one of my personal heroes. He was not from a privileged background, his father was often in debtors prison and Charles wrote to help make money to clear his father's debts. Dickens was criticised for his grammatical errors and yet his stories live on almost 200 years later. He seems to have had quite a caustic wit and I reproduce some of his quotes.
Accidents will occur in the best regulated families. 
Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort.
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.
When you consider the modern world these are very appropriate tenets.
In my upbringing I was often warned against the vagaries of people by my parents and so have never been one for worshipping idols - 'they have feet of clay'. Hence the lack of personal heroes. However, there are a couple of biblical stories that I find supportive.
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I find this prayer, attributed to St Francis, to be so freeing when fraught situations arise between people. It is true that sometimes you cannot 'win' if you like and so shrug your shoulders and walk away.

The 'Footsteps' story is similarly supportive when depression has struck in the past. I include the final section.

"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."
[image error]Starr Sackstein
Starr Sackstein produces some other interesting quotes,
“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde 
“It requires less character to discover the faults in others than does it to tolerate them.” – J.Petit Senn
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein
There are many more on Starr's website.
http://starrsackstein.com/

Finding the quotes, people, passages or arts that support you is a valuable exercise in self-reflection.
God Bless

Poetry Thursday 142 - Another beginning

An alternative way of regarding the New Year which came to me as I was falling asleep the other evening.


Another beginning
It all starts againbut the celebrations are now over.Like pushing a toy yacht from the shorenow it’s up to you to take overand drive onwards to the future.The waters are an uncharted plainand you are the wild rover.
You believe you have the helm,that you decide the directionbut the winds blow and currents tugand you struggle to hold the perceptionof where you think you’re headed.Suddenly fear shakes your realmand you have to manage that interjection.
When you can see the other shorethis leg of the journey is almost done,celebrate once again, arrange the party stuff,have a single night of fun.Drink until you've had enough,for tomorrow it all begins again. You must go for years more until at last your life is gone.© David L Atkinson January 2015