A little more menace to this version?
Monday 23 January 2012
Saturday 21 January 2012
Wild Sunday
Woke at half past six. It's wild and windy and dark outside. I'm up at this hour on a Sunday morning as the slot given for delivery of a bed is between seven and half past ten. I'll get a text warning beforehand.
The road is quiet. Lights are on in two upstairs rooms at the house diagonally opposite. The rest of the houses sleep. It's a strangely satisfying feeling being awake when no-one else is. I've already started putting files back on shelves and lamps are on, tea is made. The house is in chaos for this bed, but it's a new year and it's good to sort through, discard, re-find, keep, store, reject.
I hope they don't arrive until nearly half ten. It's wonderful being in this cocoon. Only Sushi, the little white cat is leaping about.
The road is quiet. Lights are on in two upstairs rooms at the house diagonally opposite. The rest of the houses sleep. It's a strangely satisfying feeling being awake when no-one else is. I've already started putting files back on shelves and lamps are on, tea is made. The house is in chaos for this bed, but it's a new year and it's good to sort through, discard, re-find, keep, store, reject.
I hope they don't arrive until nearly half ten. It's wonderful being in this cocoon. Only Sushi, the little white cat is leaping about.
Monday 16 January 2012
Erosion on Amazon
A new formatted version went up today..this is it!
Working on a final edit of Leaving Coty for that to go up too.
Working on a final edit of Leaving Coty for that to go up too.
Friday 13 January 2012
Erosion on Kindle
Uploaded Erosion (novel) a few minutes ago onto Amazon Kindle. Excited and nervous as the formatting seems intangible until it actually appears. Will it have worked successfully, will it look as I hope it will? I don't have a kindle so haven't a clue how it will look.
And pricing it!! Not like pricing a book. A hard copy of all my work.I looked at a few on line, thought, well, mine's not a best seller...so went for mid-range. Strange, £2.70...the price of a book? How on earth does anyone make a living? Write lots of books and get film rights. And a proper job.
So. Erosion, you've heard me speak about it before, but here is the synopsis as it will appear:
During her first storm swept night in a run-down chalet park on the North Yorkshire coast, a terrified Lizzie Juniper witnesses a building's rumbling collapse into the sea. Unable to save its inhabitants, she watches in horror as an old couple and their teetering home crash into the pounding waves hundreds of feet below.
The next day, the few remaining residents are given seven days to vacate their chalets yet it seems strange they are in no rush to leave...
Lizzie soon finds out there are worse things than an eroding coastline and that everyone has a choice about their future and when you have nothing left to lose, that choice can be surprisingly liberating.
November 5th approaches with a run of unusually warm days. A firework display is poised to ignite, a smuggler's tunnel is reopened and Lizzie discovers no-one is as they at first seem.
Erosion is about more than a subsiding cliff face; it is about the disappearance of a way of life and the discovery that people living on the edge can make extraordinary choices.
Phew. Breathe.
Doing the 'Right' Thing
'The Bridges of Madison County' was on the TV late last night. I started watching it, I'd seen it years before, and had to watch until the end even though I knew what happened.
It's the dilemma. What do you do? Like Elsa in Casablanca, she wanted to stay with Rick, but is married to someone who needs her and who inspires others. To continue with this, he needs Elsa. Rick tells her to go. She doesn't want to, but she knows the 'right' thing to do is go with her husband.
In 'The Bridges of Madison County' we see Clint Eastwood outside those long, wooden American bridges photographing them. We see Meryl Streep inside, walking along, peering out.
This is the visual hint. He is free to roam and she is trapped by circumstances and convention.
They love each other. He tells her that 'this kind of certainty comes once in a lifetime.'
He tells her that observing animals in Africa he saw that there is no imposed morality, it's just the way it is. This reminds me of the female character in 'The Lost Steps.' The male protagonist comes from the 'civilised' world which makes him feel that loving someone isn't enough. He goes back home and realises that that is all that really matters.
Maybe we realise this too late in life. For the lucky ones, who we, seeking success in our careers, wherever, gently ridicule, they realise early on that this is all that is important. Our 'society' does not value this as highly as it deserves if it truly only comes once in a lifetime.
But then there is duty. For Meryl Streep's character it is duty to her husband, children and maintaining that security and way of life so that their lives aren't wrecked.
She would be selfish to leave and risk destroying this stable life that will make them stable adults, wouldn't she?
They last see each other in town, waiting at the traffic lights, in the pouring rain, he in his pickup truck and she sitting beside her husband in their truck which is behind his. He hangs a cross on his rear view mirror, she watches from behind, her hand on the door handle. The traffic lights change to green. He doesn't pull away...
Does she make the 'right' choice?
It's the dilemma. What do you do? Like Elsa in Casablanca, she wanted to stay with Rick, but is married to someone who needs her and who inspires others. To continue with this, he needs Elsa. Rick tells her to go. She doesn't want to, but she knows the 'right' thing to do is go with her husband.
In 'The Bridges of Madison County' we see Clint Eastwood outside those long, wooden American bridges photographing them. We see Meryl Streep inside, walking along, peering out.
This is the visual hint. He is free to roam and she is trapped by circumstances and convention.
They love each other. He tells her that 'this kind of certainty comes once in a lifetime.'
He tells her that observing animals in Africa he saw that there is no imposed morality, it's just the way it is. This reminds me of the female character in 'The Lost Steps.' The male protagonist comes from the 'civilised' world which makes him feel that loving someone isn't enough. He goes back home and realises that that is all that really matters.
Maybe we realise this too late in life. For the lucky ones, who we, seeking success in our careers, wherever, gently ridicule, they realise early on that this is all that is important. Our 'society' does not value this as highly as it deserves if it truly only comes once in a lifetime.
But then there is duty. For Meryl Streep's character it is duty to her husband, children and maintaining that security and way of life so that their lives aren't wrecked.
She would be selfish to leave and risk destroying this stable life that will make them stable adults, wouldn't she?
They last see each other in town, waiting at the traffic lights, in the pouring rain, he in his pickup truck and she sitting beside her husband in their truck which is behind his. He hangs a cross on his rear view mirror, she watches from behind, her hand on the door handle. The traffic lights change to green. He doesn't pull away...
Does she make the 'right' choice?
Tuesday 10 January 2012
Somewhere On The Way
A friend sent this to me and it seems appropriate:
Somewhere On The Way
I wanted to say a lot of things:
I wanted to say how often lately
Your bright image has wandered through
The dark rooms of my mind:
I wanted to say how good it is
To wake up every morning
Knowing that the day contains
Something that is you.
I wanted to say a lot of things:
I wanted to talk about
The changing colour of moments,
The silent secret language
Of bodies making love.
I wanted to say that you
Are always only as far from me
As thoughts are from thinking.
I wanted to say I love you
In fourteen foreign languages
But most of all (most
Difficult of all) in English.
I wanted to say a lot of things.
But they all seem to have lost themselves
Somewhere on the way. And now I'm here
There's nothing I can say except
Hello, and Yes, I'd like some coffee, and
What shall we find to talk about
Before the night burns out?
(Peter Roche)
Somewhere On The Way
I wanted to say a lot of things:
I wanted to say how often lately
Your bright image has wandered through
The dark rooms of my mind:
I wanted to say how good it is
To wake up every morning
Knowing that the day contains
Something that is you.
I wanted to say a lot of things:
I wanted to talk about
The changing colour of moments,
The silent secret language
Of bodies making love.
I wanted to say that you
Are always only as far from me
As thoughts are from thinking.
I wanted to say I love you
In fourteen foreign languages
But most of all (most
Difficult of all) in English.
I wanted to say a lot of things.
But they all seem to have lost themselves
Somewhere on the way. And now I'm here
There's nothing I can say except
Hello, and Yes, I'd like some coffee, and
What shall we find to talk about
Before the night burns out?
(Peter Roche)
Monday 9 January 2012
The Year Ahead
Need to work out some really good coping strategies for this year. Think keeping a sense of humour will be high on the list, keeping things in perspective, prioritising, and making the most of time out.
Otherwise I'll panic and that's not a pretty sight.
Otherwise I'll panic and that's not a pretty sight.
Monday 2 January 2012
New Year's Thoughts
These are five top regrets of those who are dying, but they are applicable at any stage of our life, the earlier the better:
1) Have the courage to live the life I want to live, not the one others want me to live.
2) Make time for friends.
3) Work less so that I don't miss out on time with loved ones.
4) Let myself be happy. It is a choice.
5) Have the courage to express my feeling.
1) Have the courage to live the life I want to live, not the one others want me to live.
2) Make time for friends.
3) Work less so that I don't miss out on time with loved ones.
4) Let myself be happy. It is a choice.
5) Have the courage to express my feeling.
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