Thank you.
Showing posts with label Arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arts. Show all posts
Monday, 14 January 2013
A Few Words of Explanation for Regulars
Thank you.
Monday, 10 December 2012
The Concept of the Goddess, by Sandra Billington & Miranda Green, Reviewed.
The blurb on the back of this book suggests it’s ‘a scholarly
yet highly readable study of the place of the goddess in past and present
belief systems and mythologies’. As a convinced agnostic and casual student of
history and myth, I thought it would be a useful book to augment my knowledge
of these subjects. I was, unfortunately, disappointed.
The book is mainly an annotated list of references to other
works with the occasional piece of narrative inserted to reduce the boredom: a
trick that doesn’t work, by the way. Scholarly, it no doubt is. But highly
readable it most certainly ain’t! It came across to me as a series of pieces by
writers desperate to illustrate how well-read they are. It, perhaps, doesn’t
help that there are various references and asides in untranslated Latin and
some Scandinavian language I’m unable to identify, since I speak none of that
collection of tongues.
Perhaps the book is intended as an introductory text for
university students studying mythology; I could envisage it having a place in
such course material. But, for the general reader, it appears dense,
uninformative in those areas of most interest, self-congratulatory, obtuse and
often plain boring.
I found myself skipping the frequent, not to say,
innumerable, references in a vain attempt to find some meat. I rarely
discovered anything more than the leavings of a dog-chavelled bone. In fact, I
learned almost nothing, discovered very little that I didn’t already know from
former reading around the subject.
I suspect you’ll deduce from the foregoing that I was
unimpressed. You will be correct, Watson. I cannot, in all honesty, recommend
the book.
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Featured on Goodreads.
Those who are regular visitors will know of my enthusiasm for a large-membership reading community on the web: Goodreads is an excellent site for writers to interact with readers, for readers to chat about their favourite books, read reviews, gain recommendations, and, in fact, join in almost any activity you can imagine that deals with the world of books. It is, in short, a book-lovers' paradise. If you're not already a member, I urge you to join this community.
But, just for good measure, it turns out one of my books is featured there at present. Ten Tales for Tomorrow is an anthology of dark speculative fiction, which has earned praise from those who've read and reviewed it. You'll find more details, and buying links, on the Published Work page of the blog.
Sunday, 25 November 2012
Do You Work Best in Chaos or Control?
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| Stones on the beach at Flamborough |
Do you work well in clutter? Does it really matter to you if the desk is
covered in piles of manuscripts, notes to remind you, a document stand
overflowing with ‘things to do’? Is it no problem for you to step over those
things you’re planning to sort out every time you enter the room?
On the other hand, do you have to have a tidy desk, with everything in
its place and nothing outstanding. Is that box of odds and sods already sorted
for sale on Ebay or ready for the local charity shop? Or does such a box never
exist in your life because you always clear these things as they come along? Is
your inbox only ever the place where new emails live for the short while it
takes you to deal with them? Are you obsessive about the places your things are
located, ensuring everything is always exactly where you want it?
I lie somewhere in between these two extremes of chaos and obsessive
tidiness.
For a number of reasons, with which I won’t bore you, I’ve had to allow
certain irritations to build up over the last few weeks. It’s always a question
of priorities. But I do find it difficult to be creative and disciplined in my
writing habits when the desk has a pile of correspondence awaiting attention,
the inbox has over 100 emails I need to explore further, the room I use as a
study is crowded with objects that need some attention before I can either sell
them or recycle them via the local Help the Aged shop.
So, on Wednesday afternoon, when I arrived home from the half week I
spend at an office in order to supplement my earnings from writing, I decided
enough was enough. It was time for a serious bout of deck-clearing. I want to
get on with the fantasy trilogy I’m writing, and all these interruptions are
getting in the way. The only solution is to deal with them.
So far, I’ve reduced the inbox to 13, and 12 of those are required for
future action I can’t actually take at the moment. I’ve updated the Writing
Contests page on this blog and therefore removed from the desk the pile of
magazines, leaflets and other printed matter I consult for this task. I’ve
restored my daughter’s old computer to a working state, which took some 10
hours of attention, reformatting and re-installing of software, so I can see if
that will sell on Ebay. Along the way,
I’ve dealt with all new emails (I get around 70 a day), posted a couple of
items on the blog, kept up to date with Pinterest and Twitter and Facebook and
LinkedIn, all of which are social sites I use to keep in touch with readers.
But, as a happily married man who wishes to remain so, I’ve also spent some
real quality time with my wife, who is a great support to my writing activity.
An earlier post on here describes our
day in Hull to see the Da Vinci drawings and watch the latest Bond film.
And we also managed a longish walk along the local cliffs near Flamborough. I
love the sea and find it refreshes my spirit. Took some pictures along the way,
which I’ll add to the albums I
have on Facebook when time allows.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, the lesson of the last few days has
been that I work better without clutter. And, if I’m able to keep it at bay,
I’ll get a lot more writing done. So, I’ve found my ideal working situation.
Have you found yours, or are you continually in a state where you’re either
fighting against a chaos over which you have no control, or are you so busy
keeping everything tidy that you have no real time to do what matters most; you
writing?
There you go. I’ve even found time to write and post this piece on the
blog. So, here’s your challenge: if you’re not already working in your ideal
environment, do something about it and sort it out so you can work in your
optimum way and actually get that writing done.
Good luck, and have fun!
Thursday, 22 November 2012
What Do You Love/Hate About Traditional Publishers?
Way back, in
the fogs of the ancient past, when men were apes and women were damned glad to
be fleet of foot, traditional publishers took on a role in the world of books.
They sought out and nurtured talent. They actively encouraged good writers.
They sold their authors’ books. It was a dream world, where writers could
actually spend their time writing, learning technique, coming to grips with the
process of telling stories, unburdened by the constant need to expose
themselves to their public like some lurid music hall act.
Way back then,
the publisher took on the tasks of marketing and sales, jobs requiring entirely
different skill sets from those needed to produce creative fiction. Sales
people are a breed. They are driven by money and the idea of reward. Creative
people are artists, driven by the need to express themselves and living in hope
that someone somewhere might enjoy their output sufficiently to pass a positive
comment and maybe even recommend it to a friend. Publishers organised the
production of the book; engaging and paying for skilled cover artists to draw attention
to the work, hiring editors to iron out inconsistencies and grammatical errors,
choosing the font most suitable for the text, taking a pride in turning the
creative work into a marketable product. Publishers negotiated with booksellers
and others in the book trade to get the volumes on the shelves of stores and
libraries. They produced publicity material and arranged for signings and,
sometimes, tours by their authors.
All this
activity released authors from the need to worry about a side of writing mostly
foreign to the creative nature. It allowed writers to spend time actually
learning their craft and developing into practitioners with insight, depth and
experience. Their writers grew in talent and value to their readers. The
authors were protected from day to day anxieties regarding deadlines and targets
and sales list positions. They could actually get on with the job of writing;
the role for which they were best fitted.
Of course,
there were downsides, for both writers and publishers. Occasionally a publisher
would encourage a promising prospect only to discover either a lack of real
talent or a lack of discipline, which resulted in the one-book author or the
procrastinator who promised but never actually delivered. For the writer, there
were restrictions in genre. Publishers would light on the first novel and then
drive the writer along the same route time and time again, trying to turn their
protégée into some sort of word machine churning out endless versions of the
same, once-successful book until both the writer and his readers became disenchanted
with the whole business. Readers then turned to some other talent whilst the
writer went off to be a plumber or park warden instead.
We have reached
a stage in publishing today where the potential for a better deal for all is
possible. Because it costs almost nothing to produce an ebook, financial risk
for publishers regarding that first novel is no longer relevant. The only
potential loss involves their time. The monetary layout is negligible and there
is no concern for overheads with a warehouse full of unsold books. The
publisher can devote time and effort to marketing the books and, should the
ebook prove successful, can then produce a POD, again at little cost, but with
the confidence that the book is likely to sell well. This is a win/win situation
for publisher and author. The writer is spared the time-consuming and
destructive work of marketing and can get on with the actual creation of a
really good book. And the publisher can return to the role of nurturing mentor
and guide, taking care of those tasks most authors find so onerous; i.e.
marketing and sales.
So, why are so
few publishers doing this? Why are so many locked into the recent cycle of
backing pointless celebrity with huge advances only to lose these enormous sums
when the product fails the first test of quality? I suspect it’s because
publishers, along with most other businesses, are now run by bean counters
rather than by those with imagination, flair and taste. As long as money is
seen as the only worthwhile outcome for publishing, traditional publishers will
continue to fail and decline. Once they start to understand and return to their
original role of mentor and protector of talent, there is a strong possibility
that they will flourish as never before. I just hope they discover this fact
before I’m too old and decrepit to benefit from such services.
As always, I
value your thoughts. Please comment freely and pass on this piece to as many of
your writing/reading friends as you can.
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Fusion, by Fantastic Books Publishing, Reviewed.
This collection of 25 science fiction and fantasy tales represents
the cream of the entries for a short story contest run by Fantastic Books. The
stories included are the contest winners plus a couple from professional
writers, invited by the organisers. 10% of sales receipts will go to cancer charities.
Anthologies are sometimes patchy affairs, but not this one.
The quality of the writing is pretty consistent and all the stories are well
told (I must add here that I contributed one of the tales). But consistency doesn’t
mean similarity. There’s great variety here. Some humour, some darkness and something
for younger readers. All speculative fiction, the stories entertain, amuse,
inspire and make the reader think.
There are characters of every sort lurking in this selection
and plots to suit all tastes. This is a collection you can read at one sitting,
as I did, or dip into for those short breaks over coffee, when a longer piece
must be interrupted. I enjoyed all the stories but I don’t intend to describe
them in this short review. All are different and all demonstrate the
imaginative power of their creators, the skill of these writers as storytellers.
I thoroughly recommend the book to all who love their fiction with a twist of
the unexpected.
To buy for Kindle through Amazon UK, click here.
To buy for Kindle through Amazon USA, click here.
To buy for all ebook formats through Smashwords, click here.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Useful Tips on Writing Good English (Especially for Students)
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| Testtakingstudent (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
http://www2.hull.ac.uk/student/studyadvice/studyskillsresources/studyguides.aspx
Good luck with your writing.
Saturday, 27 October 2012
Five Finger Exercise, a Play by Peter Shaffer, Reviewed
First
performed in 1958, this is a play of its time. I’m not sure the modern
generation would understand the subtleties of the upper middle class family and
its seething social and class tensions. The addition of the German tutor as a
fulcrum for change, so short a time after the war, would nowadays not have the
power and relevance it must have had for an audience of the day. Of course,
those of my own generation, and earlier, would appreciate these factors, but
whether the play could be enjoyed by a younger audience is open to debate.
In the
written text, there’s an ambiguity surrounding the relationship between the
tutor and the son that could hint at homosexuality. But the resolution of this in
performance would be dependent on the actors playing those parts and the
direction they were given, and I’m still unable to decide whether their attempt
at friendship is platonic or subconsciously sexual.
Employing a
girl developing into early womanhood as the object of the young tutor’s
teaching, enclosed, as they are, in a tight and intimate setting, would now be
seen through different eyes. In fifties England, paedophilia was a taboo subject
and one not considered for public exposure or discussion as it now is. Again,
the playwright may have had ulterior motives and may have been adding a layer
of complexity to the plot by suggesting a sexual longing on behalf of the
daughter. Certainly she develops a crush on her tutor, and this, once perceived
by the mother, is a cause for the older woman’s jealousy, since she also
fancies herself in love with the young man. But the crush may have been
intended as no more than the sort of puppy love displayed by young girls for
objects of devotion, without the sexual connotation it would inevitably acquire
for today’s audience.
The
relationship between the businessman father and the social climbing mother with
artistic pretentions is almost clichéd, though here it is rescued from that
fate by making the woman of French origin. The tensions formed by her sensitivity
and his pragmatism, especially as these pertain to the raising of the son, are
classic in their portrayal. The fight about his education at university,
studying English Literature, instead of taking the route of practical
apprenticeship in his father’s furniture business, is so well drawn that it may
well be based on the author’s own experience. I don’t know whether that’s the
case, however. This sort of conflict, where the mother wants her son raised to
appreciate the finer things in life and the father wants him to be moulded into
his own image in order to carry on the business, is a fairly common element of
fiction and drama or the era.
This is a
play about class war, the then prevalent theme of the war between the sexes,
prejudice regarding nationality, and the ever-present conflict between those
who make money and those who merely spend it. Whether it would work for a
contemporary audience I couldn’t say. Certainly, however, if it were to be
performed locally, I’d attend. As a study of the times, this is an excellent
example of drama, and, given the pedigree of the creator, is as well
written as you’d expect. I enjoyed it.
Thursday, 25 October 2012
Does it Matter if the Words Are Not Right?
This might seem an odd question from a writer. I was prompted to ask by a
fit of annoyance over poor language used by a journalist on television. She was
reporting on a local news item and used the expression, ‘This problem is, of
course, very unique to…’ and went on to ask her interviewee just ‘how unique’
he felt the issue was.
So what? Well, ‘unique’ is an absolute. There are no degrees of
uniqueness. Something is either unique or not; it can’t be partially unique,
very unique or, indeed, almost unique. We have other words to express such
things. ‘Rare’, comes to mind, as do ‘uncommon’ and ‘scarce’. Because rarity is
an elastic concept, we can use qualifiers with impunity. It’s fine to discuss
degrees of scarcity, that degree dependent on the amount by which the object
under discussion veers from the commonplace.
If we begin to use absolutes in such a way, we diminish their real power
in describing an event or quality. If I say that a woman conveys a ‘unique
beauty’ I paint a picture of someone who is singular, incomparable. If, on the
other hand, I describe her as a ‘rare beauty’, then I put her in a class along
with others; the number contained in that class can be defined more or less by
using qualifiers such as ‘very rare’, ‘unusually rare’, ‘moderately rare’, etc.
So, in the ‘unique’ case, the reader is clear that the person described has no
equal. In the ‘rare’ case, we know that there are others, though not a great
number, who are comparable. It’s a fine distinction, but one worth retaining, I
think.
In another example of poor journalism, one increasingly repeated these
days, I heard a reporter talking about how ‘…there are less people involved in…’,
when, of course, he should have said, ‘...there are fewer people involved in…’. This is a slightly different matter, however.
The use of less or fewer always provides the information that a smaller number
is involved than the comparison. Whilst the use of the correct word is
preferable, it doesn’t actually alter the basic idea being communicated. So,
whilst I find the usage lazy and inaccurate, I can reluctantly accept its
adoption because meaning isn’t changed when the error occurs.
This, then, is my question: If meaning is maintained, does it really
matter if the wrong word is used to convey that meaning?
Are we concerned about correct usage simply for the sake of correct
usage? Or is our concern, as writers, more to do with style, perhaps? Does wrong
usage, whilst acceptable to many non-writers, merely illustrate a lack of care,
education, or intelligence to those of us who write?
Language is primarily a means of communicating ideas. So, if those ideas
are expressed without confusion in spite of wrong usage, does that incorrect
usage really matter?
I pride myself on knowing correct usage, most of the time, but do my
readers care, or even notice when such errors occur? As a writer, I feel duty
bound to utilise the many fine shades of meaning possible within the English
language. I feel that allowing such distinction to be eroded by ignorance,
carelessness or expedience is a step along the road toward ultimate confusion
and bedlam, as fine discriminations disappear under a carpet of banality. The
poet in me abhors such laziness. But, apart from other poets and writers, do my
readers care? That’s what I ask you. And I welcome your responses.
Sunday, 21 October 2012
The Viscount and the Witch, by Michael J. Sullivan, Reviewed
This short story, from the author’s fantasy series,
Riyria Revelations, came to me via my Kindle as a free read. It features a
couple of characters from the series but can be read as a separate tale, which
is just as well, since I haven’t read any of the previous work by this author.
There’s almost no backstory detailing the fantasy
world in which the story takes place and the details of the characters are
cleverly woven into the fabric of the tale itself. I have a built in prejudice
against stories in which thieves are the stars, feeling that glorification of thievery
is not a good idea. But I accept that the thieves of most fantasy works are in
that situation as a consequence of the society in which they dwell rather than
as a matter of real choice, and I’m aware that there’s quite a body of work by
a number of authors revolving around guilds of thieves.
This piece is well written and the characters are
well drawn. I particularly like the Viscount, with his resigned air. The author
has managed to convey the idea of a different world and time without actually
describing the setting in great detail. It’s more a feeling derived from the
interaction of the characters and the circumstances in which they find themselves.
I enjoyed Royce, with his irritation, patience and worldliness that allows him
to seem other than he is. Hadrian’s name was a little distracting for me, because
of the association with the historical character, but the character was real
enough and, once I understood we were not being told about the Roman Emperor, I
was able to get on with him a lot better.
There’s humour in the story, which is told with a
touch of ‘tongue in cheek’ that raises it above the level of many fantasy
works. The author’s familiarity with, and clear love of, his characters comes
across in the telling of the story and lends it some authenticity.
I enjoyed this brief insight into the world of
Riyria and may well be tempted to investigate further (once I’ve read the 150
other titles lying unread on my shelves!). If you like fantasy or have an urge
to try it, you could do worse than give this short piece a go.
Friday, 19 October 2012
The Millionaire’s Nanny, by Carol Grace, Reviewed.
I read this, as a free read, on my Kindle. It’s
clearly a romance written with a female readership in mind, but that rarely
stops me from reading. What matters is a combination of the quality of the
writing and my interest in the characters. The story will generally interest me
regardless of subject matter, since I’m interested in the interaction of
characters and how they deal with the objects strewn in their paths by the
author.
This is a love story involving the relationship
between the millionaire of the title, who, by the way, doesn’t act like a
normal wealthy man, and the nanny sent to look after his 6 year old son. The
separation that caused the need for the nanny, the fact that said nanny has
been sent in error to the wrong place, the man’s initial response to an attractive
woman when he was expecting an older matron and is currently trying to get over
the mess of separation, and the nanny’s recent loss of her own babies and the
breakdown of her previous relationship all mingle to form the body of the
story.
Misunderstandings roll in thick and fast, sometimes
just a tad unbelievable, but acceptable due to the quality of the character
building. There are some awkward changes of viewpoint, which can throw the
reader when inserted more or less randomly. There is a suggestion, no more than
that, of authorial morality, which explains some of the attitudes of the
protagonists to their relationship but which I felt might sit a little uneasily
with modern readers.
This is a gentle love story with no erotic content but
an underlying sexual tension that works well. You could happily let your
spinster aunt read this; there’s nothing to offend here. But, having said that,
it isn’t anodyne; there’s courage and conviction, along with plenty of incident
in a plot that gently wanders rather than twists and turns. It’s by no means a ‘page-turner’,
but it jogs along comfortably at a pace that suits the material and style of
the story.
I have to admit that I enjoyed the book and happily
recommend it to those who enjoy their romance without eroticism or violence. It’s
a charming ‘feel-good’ novel.
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