It is done.
Squidge's Scribbles has officially moved to
https://www.katherinehetzel.com/
Please pop over to my new website, which is the new permanent home of my blog about all things to do with life and writing.
See you over there, fellow Scribblers!
To all the wonderful followers and readers of the Scribbles,
Thank you SO much for travelling with me so far in my blogging journey here at the Scribbles. I know there are a lot of you who drop by, so I hope you will stick with me when I say that, very shortly, the Scribbles are moving home.
In future, they will be on my new website!
I will post a link here as soon as it goes live, so you can link into it easily. The blog will still be known as Squidge's Scribbles, but you'll access via the website instead of here. Blogspot has served me well for a little over 8 years, but it's time for something different. Something that gives you the whole package of me as an author, not just my musings on life and writing.
Watch this space!
Well, it was actually yesterday (the 12th), but today a box of books arrived on my doorstep, so it feels like today!
You can now purchase the third story in the Chronicles of Issraya series from any good physical or digital bookshop, or contact me if you'd like a signed copy.
Oh...and of course every newly published author coordinates their clothes to their book cover, don't they...?
No?
Just me, then?
OK... *winky face*
Tilda #3 has a cover!
And publication looks like being the 12th October, so keep your eyes peeled if you want to get your hands on a copy!
Tilda and the other mages of Ring Isle have a problem. What exactly did you do with dark power tainted silviron? It wasn’t a situation that any mage in the long line of Issrayan powermages had ever had to face before.
The mages decide to bury the small metal box in the turbulent waters of the Merjan Straits between the inner and outer seas of Merjan and Kradlock. Tilda accompanies Kamen, the aging Mage of Kradlock to fulfil the task and to help him decide his successor.
As Tilda soon discovers, the famous Hanging Rock, the city of cliffs full of cavern homes markets, the honeycomb tunnels full of bones, and the mortal remains of Kradlock’s powermages will test her abilities and her right to be called the Mage of Merjan.
I might have seemed a bit quiet on the Scribbles recently, but that doesn't mean that things aren't busy behind the scenes!
To give you an idea of what's been going on;
* I've been working with the lovely Chris at The House Agency, because he's creating a new website for me which will enable me to have the Scribbles, book info, sales links, anthology links etc all in one place. Sneaky little preview...
* I've also been working on Tilda #4 and finally have the shape of the whole story under my belt, though there's still work to do to build it up.
* I've knitted myself a top which included lace and knitting-in-the-round (something I've not done before and which made a change from socks!)
And...
* I've been preparing for the Middleway Words online Book Festival!
This has included creating short videos about my books, which you can view on the festival YouTube channel; getting to know my 'Tete-a-tete' author, Marilyn L Rice; researching other book people because I'm hosting them in the closing panel; and organising a 'Creative Writing for Children' session.
The festival exists to promote authors and other book-related industries to book lovers in the Midlands, so there's lots to sink your teeth into - and it's all FREE. You just need to book a ticket via Eventbrite to allow you access to any of the programmed sessions.
Here's the timing of each session in the programme, but there are lots more details and information to be found as to who is appearing when on the Middleway Words facebook page and YouTube channel - including the videos many authors have created to tell you about themselves and/or their books.
Writing for Children. 4pm on Monday 6th - note, it's an interactive 45 minute session for children (and other budding authors) to find out about me and have a go at plotting out their own story using one of my favourite prompts, not a 'How to Write Children's Stories' session, which you might think from the title. All Scribblers welcome!
Tete-a-tete. 2pm on Wednesday 8th, with Marilyn L Rice. 45 mins of us chatting to each other about books and life for you to be a fly on the wall for! (And ask questions if you have any). There are all sorts of people in the other tete-a-tetes, so do check the information links above to see which take your fancy.
Closing panel. 11am on Saturday 11th. I am so excited about this - I get to ask questions of some of the people who aren't necessarily authors but who help to bring books alive; a storyteller (which is a totally different skill to writing a story. I know, I've tried it!), an illustrator and a translator.
Other sessions include an opening by Kit de Waal; information about all aspects of writing; libraries; writing session for adults; and a poetry showcase from students at Wolverhampton University.
SO - the festival starts tomorrow and runs until the 11th. It's completely free, so what are you waiting for? Hope to see at least some of you Scribblers there - and if not, I believe you'll be able to access the sessions afterwards!
This is likely to be a long post - I've been rather busy of late, so grab a cuppa and settle yourself down for a long overdue update.
First, I went to my first ever book festival!
I've never been to one before, but as it was the Newark Book Festival, and relatively close to home - plus I'd had the offer to share a stall in the Festival Literature Village with a fellow SoA author, Marilyn Pemberton - I decided to give it a shot.
I made a few investments especially for this event...I bought a repurposed standing banner which had been painted in blackboard paint, and spent a pleasant afternoon setting out the lettering to list my name and all my books.
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| The lettering is in different coloured chalks, but it doesn't show up too well on the photo |
I bought a SumUp contactless card reader, because I wasn't sure how comfortable people would be dealing with cash in these covid times. (As it happened, the card reader paid for itself over the weekend, and most of my sales were card, not cash)
The final thing I did was get some postcards printed - I managed to mess it up several times, but with the help of the lovely staff at the Printroom in town, I got sorted.
Newark itself is a lovely place, and we (Marilyn and I) were on a stall in the marketplace for both days. We were really proud of how the stall looked, and received several compliments about it.
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| The banner certainly showed up in situ! |
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| Our shared first day stall |
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| My side of it! |
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| Day 2 stall - different spot in the marketplace |
The weirdest thing was being able to talk to so many people, after steering clear of busy places for so long. And yet it was lovely to chat to fellow authors, to readers, to passers-by who were just having a mooch, and then to boogie along to the music provided by The Business. (Lots of 80's covers - I was in my element!)
These kind of events aren't solely about sales though - yes, I sold some books, but it was the conversations and contacts made that are almost more important. On the Sunday, our stall backed onto that of a lovely lady, Shagufta Khan, who was selling the most exquisite book of poetry. We had quite a chat about life and writing, and she went away from the day feeling inspired after a time of writer's block.
So after two days standing on a market stall, you'd think I was ready for a rest...nope.
The day after, I was in Walsall, at the Joseph Leckie Academy, where I'd been invited to give a workshop to a class of Year 7's. I was nervous, mainly because there were a lot of covid cases in schools at that time, but with mask at the ready and a safe distance between moi and pupils, it didn't feel too bad when I was there. And here's a laugh for you; a lot of schools now have an electronic signing-in system, which takes your photo on the day. Now, I'm not tall - you know that. But when this is your third attempt, even standing on tiptoe...!
I took along my paint chips and what's in the bottle story activities, and the students worked really hard at coming up with story ideas. There were some corkers...
In the bottle were: butterfly wings (who would be so cruel?!), dragon's breath, captured as fire that fell from the sky; shadows of people that travelled through time; phoenix tears; an amulat that held the heart of both fae and human worlds; a magic flower, which, when someone sang its song, it glowed and healed whoever touched it.
Had a bit of trouble getting out of the school at the end of the session though, because I didn't realise that the staff were used to double parking, so I'd been blocked in. Felt awful having to drag a member of staff out of her lesson - I did apologise profusely!
To finish off the visit, I met up with an old university friend, who lives in Walsall, and we had lunch together. In a pub! With no masks! Again, it felt very strange after being used to taking so many precautions, but it was lovely to spend a couple of hours catching up and setting the world to rights.
I was cream-crackered on Tuesday after three busy days, a fact my body made me all too aware of by landing me with a migraine as soon as I woke up. Spent most of the day in bed...Ugh.
And then, Squidge's Guide to Super Stories was published on the Wednesday! Woo-hoo! So if you know any budding young author who'd like a fun yet informative read which will help them with their own writing, do point them in my direction.
I've also been working hard on Tilda #4, trying to twist that one into shape. What's interesting is that for a long time I was really struggling to make headway with it, because I'd written myself - and Tilda - into a corner and couldn't see a way out of it. After lots of thinking and working out, I'm glad to say I not only have a much better direction for Tilda #4, I also have a strong outline for Tilda #5 which gives - I hope - an absolutely amazing twist to the Chronicles of Issraya series and finishes it off rather well. I'll keep you posted on that front - #5 is having to sit and stew while I polish up #4.
I'm also going to be involved in the Middleway Words - The Midlands Book Festival, an online festival taking place the first full week of September, which is going to showcase authors from the Midlands, and will include sessions for writers and readers. There will be interviews with authors and videos of authors introducing themselves and their books. There's such a wealth of talent in the Midlands, so if you want to get involved or attend the festival, keep an eye on their facebook page.
You know how much I love my competitions!
Well, if you come to see me in The Literature Village at the Newark Book Festival on the 10th or 11th July, there will be a chance to win an e-version of Super Stories if you find a gold pencil in my Pick-a-Pencil game (50p to have a go!)
But if you're not going to be anywhere near Newark that weekend, then here's another competition anyone can enter.
As Super Stories is all about...writing Super Stories...then to enter, I'd like you to write a very short story (between 500 and 1000 words long) using one of my favourite and most-used prompts - Three Things.
If you'd like to enter, simply pick three of the following objects, and write them into a story. Interpret them as you wish - for example, the police car could be a toy, like the one shown in the photo, or real; it's entirely up to you.
Once you've written your story, email it to me as an attachment with a message title 'Super Stories Competition Entry'. Only put your name and age (if under 18) in the body of the message, and please tell me which three objects you chose. I'll then print out the stories and judge them anonymously. Closing date - midnight 31st July.
The winner will receive a signed copy of Super Stories and some of my favourite writing prompts. Two runner-uppers will receive a signed copy of the book. Fingers crossed, they will be announced - and maybe even read out - when I hold an online launch for Super Stories, most likely in August.
So get scribbling! And spread the word to other writers or budding authors you know...
It looks as though Super Stories is going to be published a little later than we hoped, sometime in July instead of June...but...
We have a cover! Ta-dah!
This is my first non-fiction book, and although the cover has been designed for me, the artwork it uses is mine!
To celebrate the upcoming publication, I'm launching a competition, too, but more of that over the weekend...
And if you know any budding authors who'd like a fun read that will also help to improve their writing, Super Stories will be available to pre-order soon.
If you've followed the Scribbles for a while, you'll know that every year in June, round about my birthday, I go to the Fine Art Degree Show at Loughborough Uni. Of course, there wasn't one last year because of covid, but I was delighted to see the show advertised again this year.
Obviously there were covid restrictions in place, which meant you had to book a time slot to attend, follow the one way systems, and read QR codes if you wanted to find out more about the individual artists, but it was SO nice to see what had been created by the very talented students after a year away.
It's difficult to credit the individual artists, as I only realised about the QR codes quite late on in my wanderings, so I hope they will forgive me for not saying who they are.
I wondered whether there would be a darkness to this year's show, following the pandemic, but was pleasantly surprised at the amount of colour and light on display. So...as usual, here are some of the things that really caught my eye. All the photos are from my phone this time, so I'm not sure how well they will show the pieces. Seeing a photo is never quite the same as seeing the real thing, but it'll give you an idea of what I found particularly interesting.
Delighted to announce that my short story, Cirque de la Vie, has been placed as a runner up in the Retreat West quarterly circus themed competition!
Part of my prize was to have the story professionally recorded by a voice artist...and I have to say it's flippin' awesome! There are all sorts of background noises that add to the atmosphere of the story. You can listen to it here:
It was a story that came to me all at once. I wanted to include various circus performers or acts, and I had in my head 'the circus of life' as a working title. But which characters or acts to link to which aspects of life?
As is the way with stories, it combines fiction with life in places - I loved the Bat Out of Hell musical; I was a lumbering lump when pregnant with Squidgeling T, and that really is what the midwife said to me when he was born!
If you want to see what the judge had to say about it - or read the story rather than listen to it - you can find it here.
I recently met up with old schoolfriend and fellow author, Mark R Brandon. Ever since we made contact again after 40-odd years, we've been supporting each other in our writing and often end up chatting about plotting/editing/publication.
Mark has inspired me to market myself more effectively (exciting things happening soon!) and has also been patient enough to listen to my current problems writing Tilda #4.
On this occasion, over tea and lemon drizzle cake, while trying to explain why I was so frustrated with the current WIP, Mark said several things that really stuck with me and helped me to see a way ahead.
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| Lemon Drizzle Cake and lots of writing chat over a cuppa |
If you've been reading the Scribbles for a while, you'll know I have written in the past about various workshops I've attended on plotting, and how difficult I find following structures - even though they make perfect sense to me. Mark is my complete opposite - he thrives on having the structure to follow.
One of my main issues with Tilda #4 is that it is the penultimate in her series; I know where she's come from in the three books up to this point, and I know where she's going to finish in the fifth. Although I have lots of ideas I want to include in #4, I have this voice at the back of my head, telling me I've got to make this particular book work hard to become the successful link I need it to be, and something about what I've created to date just isn't achieving that.
As a result, I've become frustrated and - dare I say it? - bored with writing this particular story.
And Mark 's initial response - pretty blunt - was that if I was bored writing this story, it was going to bore the readers, too.
True.
We delved into why I might be bored a bit more, and in doing so, he suggested I apply a five-act structure approach across the five books; that helped to explain why I was in a slump with #4, as without giving too much of the plot away, my antagonist isn't present enough to give the required build up of conflict this story needs. The fact that I have stuck to Tilda's POV in these stories was also limiting me...
As Mark reminded me, 'you are the god of the universe you have created'. I could do anything I wanted in it, including using multiple POVs when it's not something I've done - yet - in this series. (If you've read StarMark, you'll know it's something I have done before though. There were at least three POVs in that...)
He threw a few ideas my way, (when you read Tilda #4 eventually, the credit for the crab scene is entirely his!) and I threw a few back at him, and when he'd gone, I sat and wrote solidly for three-quarters of an hour, because suddenly, I could see how I could change Tilda #4 to give it the conflict it needed AND lead into the finale in Tilda #5.
All I need to do now is print out 'I am the god of my own universe' and leave it somewhere prominent to remind me of the thing I tell people during my author talks whenever I sit down to write more Tilda; it's your story, you tell it how you want to, and you make whatever you want to happen, happen.
I need to listen to my own advice!
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| Image from Flash Gordon Returns! My big blonde crush The Times |
On this site, I've often posted short stories that have come about as a result of a writing prompt. (The 'Free Fiction' page will take you to a list of links if you've not read any of them before.)
I've always called them 'flash fiction' as they are quick to read - though not necessarily to write - and most of them have a definite beginning, middle and end as you'd expect from any story.
I entered a piece into a flash competition recently - it's been longlisted and I'm waiting to hear whether it gets any further - so I must be doing something right? But I have to admit that, when I read competition-winning flash, my confidence in my ability to write it usually takes a nosedive.
Does it sound awful to say that I don't understand some of these winning entries? I read one recently that appeared - to me - to be a random putting-together of unrelated sentences. I had no idea what the story was. It felt as though the author was trying to be really 'literary' and in doing so, the story (whatever it was) was hidden so deeply in the prose that I couldn't find it. It had been shortlisted with others - the majority of which I found equally as confusing to make sense of.
Now I'm certainly not dissing flash fiction as a form; there is very definitely an art to writing a story in very few words that still has impact and takes the reader on a journey. I actually enjoy the challenge of condensing the essence of a story into 500, 250, 100, even 50, words. Every single word needs to earn its place, there needs to be a story although it may not be slap-you-in-the-face obvious, and the ending often lies rather more open-ended than you'd get in a novel, hinting at possibilities rather than drawing a definite line under the action. It's very, VERY different to writing a novel.
I'm no expert, either - though there are plenty of other authors who are.
When I do compare my own flash pieces to those of other authors - especially to those that are long- or short-listed - most of the time mine feel too simple. I'm not sure how they could ever stand out in a field of poetic prose and deeply hidden plot. I mean, I realise I must've caught the judges' eye for some reason to have been longlisted with the current piece, but it's still on the surface a very simply written story. I can tell you that I think it's good, because it's clever in its structure, but the language is simple and there's no attempt to hide the story as it moves through from start to finish.
Of course in any competition, however good your piece is, it needs to connect with the reader/judge. If it doesn't - for whatever reason - then you probably won't be placed. Sometimes, you get lucky, other times not.
I think I'm coming round to the idea that I have to write flash in the way I can, not in the way I can't - that I essentially have to keep in mind the voice I want the piece to have, and that my natural style leads to a simpler prose compared to other authors. I need to embrace that I am a different kind of author. And I musn't try too hard to be something I'm not, making sure to work to my strengths rather than focusing on my perceived weaknesses.
Then, when I read the flash of others and perhaps don't understand their particular nuances, I have to remind myself to stop making comparisons. I need to accept that each author knows what they were aiming to achieve, and sometimes the reader/judge will get it, sometimes they won't. Either way, it's probably less a reflection on the author and more on me as the reader.
I'll keep writing flash of course - it keeps the old brain ticking over with new ideas - and submitting to competitions, but only if the piece feels really, really good to me.
I've been having an interesting conversation in a writing community about writing rules and quotes from famous writers that could be taken as rules.
You know the kind of thing I mean... 'You will only be able to write well if you write in exactly the same way that I (insert name of author) do.'
I'm being somewhat facetious here, because of course no one would ever be that blatant. But authors sometimes fall into the trap of believing that because they have achieved good writing in one particular way, then of course if someone else wrote in the same way, they're bound to produce good writing too.
In fact, I did a quick search under 'writing rules' and you'd be AMAZED at how many rules there apparently are... Take a look for yourself if you have half a mo.
Whenever I see these kind of quotes or rules, and I have an opportunity to comment on them, I often do! Mainly because, in my experience of working with fledgeling authors of all ages, there is a tendency for new writers to take all these 'rules' to heart. And quite quickly, they come to believe that if they aren't doing what they're being told to do, well, they'll never be a writer, will they? This can drastically affect a fragile confidence, and put undue pressure on someone when they are still very much learning about writing and themselves as writers.
I'm not saying that there isn't value in some - if not all - of these 'rules'. You are bound to improve if you write regularly, for example. Using adjectives and adverbs sparingly is sometimes a good thing. Taking the time to edit a story after it's 'finished' is good practice.
I could go on...
What's important is that you look at the rules and pick the ones that work for you. Take writing regularly; I have writer friends who write every day, without fail. I don't - I'm a fits and starts writer, who tries to keep the non-writing time to a minimum. I have writer friends who write in silence to avoid distraction, whereas I like to write with songs I can sing along to. (Current music of choice - eighties electronic anthems). Some writer friends use a three act structure to plan their plot before writing anything - I think planning is a great idea, I'm just not very good at sticking to a formal planning method.
Authors are many and varied in their processes, and their individual 'rules' are as many and varied as the stories they write.
If you ask me for help with your writing, I'll try hard not to give you 'rules'. I'll give you advice, sure. And I'll always be honest in sharing what works for me, and what doesn't - because even though it doesn't work for me, it might for you. It's up to you to find what works for you. What is an essential self-imposed 'rule' that will help you to write productively, as opposed to working to a 'rule' imposed by someone else that ends up getting you tied up in knots?
I'm not known for my poetry. I have written poems, but they tend to be ones that rhyme because I find it relatively easy to write to a rhythm, but I've never really understood or appreciated haikus or sonnets or other formal poetic forms.
That said, I do occasionally dabble.
The first time I was published, I'd won a limerick competition (and £50!) in a writing magazine. It went something like...
A young lady who felt fashion keenly
Tried on a new-fangled bikini
With two bits of string,
Some knots and a ring
The thing would've baffled Houdini!
I did write some poetry - actually, it's probably more accurate to say I wrote rhymes - in one of my Granny Rainbow stories about the Poetic Postman. And I've sometimes put new words to familiar hymn tunes for Christmas services. But I don't write much 'proper' poetry - the stuff that is deep and meaningful, that makes a connection with the listener.
But you might remember in my last post that I said I'd decided to try a bit more poetry after attending a poetry session at the online Writing East Midlands Conference. Well, last weekend, I got the opportunity. I attended States of Independence Day Online, an event usually held at De Montfort University in Leicester, where independent publishers, authors and booksellers get together. (The last time I went, I met an agent who took me on for a short while, having seen StarMark) The programme was a mix of live discussion panels on Zoom, and pre-recorded readings and workshops on YouTube.
One of the workshops was by Maria Taylor, a poet who also happens to be a neighbour of mine. She gave three very different writing prompts and read some of her own poetry to show how the themes of 'routine', 'ghosts' and 'the great outdoors' could be interpreted.
So I had a go.
Here's the one I was most proud of - which I wrote it out and pushed it through Maria's door to say thank you for such a great session.
Homemade wine
As I drink my homemade fruit wines -
the blood red-black of mighty fine blackberry,
the rosy tint of red gooseberry,
the dryness of next-door's plum,
the sharpness of raspberry -
you are with me in every sip.
Your wines were pea-pod white, carrot, and parsnip,
tastes I never got to sample before you went,
because of my age.
I could only watch the bottles being taken
from the darkness of an under-stairs cupboard,
to be opened by grieving uncles,
who raised a toast
to the maker of the vintages
who was beyond drinking them by then.
This conference, organised by Writing East Midlands in partnership with Lincoln University, should have happened last year - twice. I was booked on it... As with many things last year, it was postponed - twice - and took place finally last week, online, over the course of four days.
Now, I've been to other writing conferences in the past in person, so I wasn't quite sure how an online one would work. Most of the fun of a conference comes from networking with lots of other like-minded people and talking about all things 'writing'. How would an online conference achieve that?
I needn't have worried.
#WEMCONF21 used a classroom system - collaborate - which although it is primarily a lecture delivery system, still allowed sufficient interaction between presenters and made good use of the chat facility for attendees to ask questions and interact with other. (And we did that a lot!) Moderators did a brilliant job of reminding delegates before each session how to get the best out of it (turn your video and microphone off, and refresh if you lose the presenter!) and of helping when problems arose during the sessions, though these were few and far between. It felt really well organised and controlled.
The striking thing for me about this conference generally is that topic-wise, it did not focus solely on the craft or a route to publication, as conferences I've attended by other providers sometimes have. It did cover some of these aspects, but it also gave presentations on things like creative citizenship (how do you/can you use your art to create change?), on opening up creative writing opportunities for writers with impairments, on how to apply for grants to enable you to further your own writing practice or deliver social projects and on the power of poetry. It was a much wider programme than I think I've ever experienced.
There was also much more diversity apparent in the choice of presenters. Yes, there were some 'big names', but there were also names I wasn't familiar with and am now inspired to look up.
The overall feeling I got was that this was a conference for writers of all types, not just writers who want to know how to be published or how to improve their craft. The latter is well supported by WEM's many different courses and mentoring schemes, so I suppose in some ways, it didn't need to be covered in the conference as much.
I really enjoyed all the sessions I attended and came away with much food for thought.
Just outside my lounge window, I have a very old winter jasmine bush growing against the kitchen wall. It's dense, about a foot to eighteen inches thick, and this year - I have a robin nesting in it!
We've tried to catch some of her activity on our birdcam, but for some reason we can't seem to capture the robin as she (apparently only the females build the nests) dives in and out of the bush, about two feet away from the window.
It's been brilliant to watch; she started off with beakfuls of leaves, and over the last two days we've seen her switch to moss, and now she's found either some hair or very fine grass. She approaches the bush along the fence, gets to a certain point, and watches for a while. Presumably to make sure no-one's nearby. Then she darts into a slightly more open bit of the jasmine, where I can see her hopping along the branches to the nest. Then out pops a little red head and chest, she has a quick look round, and then she drops to the floor and flies off to the nearby buddleia.
One thing I noticed is that she seems to spend a fair bit of time gathering, but doesn't appear to work the material she gathers into the nest at that point; it's almost as though, having gathered the moss or hair, she chucks it into the nest to sort out later! Perhaps she gathers it while she finds it, then sets about making it part of the nest proper when she's gathered enough to work with?
I've also seen her mate feeding her - something I never realised happened until I caught him offering her what looked like a green caterpillar this morning. I had to look it up, because I couldn't understand why an adult bird, that I knew was nest-building, would need feeding.
Looking forward very much to watching what happens from here on in...and maybe, just maybe, getting a few pictures if we're very, very lucky.
In the meantime, here's some dodgy phonecam footage instead... (excuse my washing hanging on the line behind!)
Last October, our cat, Timmy, died.
Since then, we've noticed rather more birds in the garden, and I've strung feeders round the garden and put out mealworms and seeds regularly. We also put up a couple of bird boxes on the wall of the tree house.
So far, we've seen an overwintering blackcap (male); a pair of grey wagtails (which are actually mostly yellow); a pair of wrens; several robins; blue tits; coal tits; sparrows; great tits; blackbirds; and the ever-present pigeon.
There seemed to be lots of blue tit activity around the bird boxes - they seem to like one more than the other, perhaps because it's a natural log-fronted one, and the birds will poke their heads inside the hole, checking out whether or not this des-res will be what they need this spring.
Mr Squidge rather enjoys watching them. So much so, he bought himself a birdcam. Not one that goes inside the birdbox, but a motion-activated trail cam. As a result, we now have several locations around the garden where poles have appeared as camera mounts, and regular 'what's on the camera?' sessions where we see what - if anything - we've caught on film.
One thing we noticed from the videos and still pictures is that the robins are distinctly different in appearance. One has a white patch to the left of his/her red chest, the other has a white patch to the right. A third has a white patch on their wing. The lilac tree station is preferred by the flock of sparrows which roost in next-door's holly tree, but can only be filmed on a still day.
Anyway, here for your enjoyment, a couple of clips from the bird table... I may well become a Twitcher in time...
In just the last week, I've seen pictures of two things that could have come straight from Tilda's world.
The first is this amazing picture, posted by a friend of mine 'Down-under'.
Ronnie does tours of her local area, and this is a shot of the ruins of a guest house - Chateau Napier, in Leura - which was destroyed in bushfire, 1957.
But I looked at it and - assuming you've read Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt - I saw the doorway in the forest that I'd imagined and written about. Admittedly, my invented doorway also has a door within it, but it was exactly how I imagined the setting...
The second time Tilda's world came into sharp focus was when the National Trust magazine dropped through my letterbox. Mr Squidge was flicking through and I nearly jumped out of my chair when I saw this inside;
Now, I don't know about you, but my first thought was - Lady Duska! Pergatt's colour is green, and the dress is covered in gemstones...
I read the article about this dress and, it's even more impressive than gems - all those glittery 'gems' are the wing cases of irridescent beetles. And it was made for a theatre production of Macbeth - this is Lady Macbeth's gown.
I do so love it, when you find something real that could fit so well into the fantasy... Don't you?
When you read the next line, imagine you're playing a trumpet.
Pom-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-paaaar!
Delighted to let you know that I have publication dates for not one, but TWO books.
Squidge's Guide to Super Stories (and how to be a better writer) is set to be published in June. It will, I hope, give anyone who wants to start writing the confidence to get going, and show those who are already writing some of the things they can do to become an even better writer.
On top of that, Tilda's third adventure - Tilda and the Tombs of Kradlock - will be published in August!
I'll update you as and when I get more information, because there will be online (probably) launches for both, and I'm already racking my brain for competition ideas.
I am one VERY excited Squidge.
Watch this space!
I don't usually post book reviews on the Scribbles, cos I never feel I'm very good at them. I do post over on Goodreads, but my reviews tend to be quite short - definitely not the 'here's the whole premise for the story, plus everything good the author did/n't do, and what I thought of it' variety.
Don't get me wrong - I admire reviewers who write that kind of thing about books. I've been on the receiving end of some really lovely ones myself, like this one for StarMark, or this one for Kingstone, and I really appreciate them. But I find writing that kind of thing myself quite hard. I tend to stick at what I liked about a particular story, or how it made me feel.
(Plus, as a writer, it's hard to read a book without being overly critical of what you're reading. If I find a book that I get lost in, then kudos to its author!)
Last weekend, I did A LOT of reading. I wasn't very well. Nothing covid-related, I hasten to add, but the fatigue kept me in bed for two days and all I could manage for most of that time was pressing the next page button on my aged kindle. I know, I know, ebooks...but I couldn't bear to hold the weight of a physical book, so kindle seemed like the best option.
Thought I'd share with you what I read, cos there were some absolute corkers.
Atmospheric Icelandic mystery. Beautifully descriptive, to the point where the land is as much of a character as the people.
An almost ninety-year old in an Antarctic penguin research station? Sounds far fetched, but when you meet the redoubtable Granny V, you'll believe anything is possible. Laugh-out-loud funny, yet also very poignant in places.
Another fun one; Queen Elizabeth II, a behind the scenes sleuth? Again, beautiful voice for her Maj, so much so I pictured Olivia Colman in The Crown all the way through. Kept me laughing.
This one is a children's novel, up for review on the Everybody's Reviewing blog. (That's a local review site - the StarMark and Kingstone reviews I mentioned earlier were posted there) As a child of the 60's, growing up in the 70's, there was a lot of this that resonated with me.
You can read my review for Marmalade Skies by following the link, and any of my Goodreads reviews here.
So what's next? Well, after watching the Netflix series Bridgerton (the duke...swoon!) I've also started reading the first of the Bridgerton books - The Duke and I. Can it possibly be as steamy as the TV adaptation...? I'll keep you posted.
I've realised that I'm perhaps a rare breed - I'm a social writer.
That doesn't mean I like to write in a roomful of people. I still have to be alone pretty much of the time, scribbling in notebooks or tapping away on the laptop to actually get words and ideas down and work out what's going to happen to Tilda while she's in Nargan (Book number 4 of the series - making slow but steady progress).
What it does mean - for me at any rate - is that actually, I think what I enjoy most about calling myself a writer is having the opportunity to talk about writing and books and helping people with their writing, based on my own experiences.
Now, as we all know, the coronavirus restrictions have prevented much of that kind of opportunity from happening; it affects the everyday, not just writing. I haven't been into the school library to talk books with students since last March, haven't been into any schools to do a creative writing day, and I miss my little writing group with all the different prompts we used to challenge ourselves with.
There have been moments of interaction of course - the virtual zoom launch for Tilda and the Mines of Pergatt, for example. Dropping off signed copies of the paperback to local readers or the Post Office for another. But on the whole, my motivation to write, on my own and within my own four walls because there are simply no other options for venue in a covid-riddled world, simply isn't as strong when I don't have the opportunities to interact with other writers and readers.
It's made me wonder what I like more - writing stories, or meeting the people who read what I've written or who I might be able to help?
Thing is, I wouldn't have one without the other, would I?
So on that note, I'd best get back to Tilda. I left her in a coach, on the way to Nargan...
Now where did I put my pen?
