A little bit of flash...The Midsummer Madness

Wrote this for the 'Midsummer Madness' themed monthly competition in the Den of Writers...it was chosen as winner. (I get to set July's challenge now).

Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you, 'cos I'm rather proud of this one. It's less than 400 words.

The Midsummer Madness

“Are ye well prepared?”

Aliz nods, her eyes wide and dark in her face. “I soaked the rope in rosemary water like ye said, an’ the pegs were whittled fresh from holly.”

“Good. And the other?”

“I have it.”

No tremor in her voice. Will she remain as unaffected if she is forced to use it?

“Good.” I tap my finger on my top lip and glance around the clearing. Have I missed anything? The symbol is marked on the floor with white flour, thick black candles stand at each of its points, the jug is filled with rosewater… “Let’s get on, then.”

Aliz sprinkles the rosewater and the scent of summer blooms hang heavy in the air, masking the rancid stench of fear.

The earth is warm through my shirt when I lay within the floured sign. I keep silent as the still-damp ropes bite into my wrists and ankles, their aroma sharp and cutting against that of the roses. The ground vibrates under me as the pegs are hammered in and the other ends of the ropes secured.

Curtains of black hair frame her face when she leans over me.

“Is all done?”

She nods.

“Ye will stay by me, and watch to see if the madness descends?”

“Aye, my love.” She brushes my lips with her own.

“And if it does, ye will end me?”

Her eyes close then, shutting me out. But she nods. Again.

“Then move to yon trees and wait. Keep the blade near.”

I turn my face away so I will not see her leave. So little time we’ve had, Aliz and I, but if the madness descends on me, as it does on some men on the Midsummer of their twenty-fifth year, she will at least have something to remember me by.

Pray hope the babe in her belly is a girl, for I would not wish this uncertainty on any son. And I doubt I have Aliz’s strength to end a life if, by some miracle, I survive this night.

Bits and bobs of news

Been a busy few weeks with family and church 'stuff', so here's a few bits and bobs you might find interesting!

Tilda.

The launch went well - Tina was a fabulous host at the Bookshop, and even got me involved in recording a piece about Tilda for the Merton Talking News October Magazine... I pop up at around 7 minutes into the recording.

I had some lovely surprises in that folk popped into the shop I hadn't expected to see at all, and it was lovely to spend the day chatting to old friends and new about all sorts of things. Course, I sold a few copies as well...

If you read Tilda, do please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads; word of mouth is the best form of recommendation, and there are some banging reviews up already. (Five stars!)

Family.

We've been down to Bristol to fit secondary glazing in Squidgeling J's flat, because the old sash windows were so drafty. My cardmaking skills of days gone by came in useful, especially when we had to peel the backing off the double sided sticky tape. All went well until Mr Squidge fitted some shims to prevent the plastic being ripped off when the windows were opened; when he went to test it, he realised he couldn't.

We'd forgotten that once the plastic was on and shrunk, there was nothing to hold onto to open the window! An emergency visit to Wilkos and three handles later... Voila! Opening windows.

Combined with the new boiler that's been fitted in the flat, Squidgeling J is now toasty in time for the winter.

We also went up to Manchester in the same week to see Squidgeling T - he came home with us for the weekend. As is the way of things, we didn't see too much of him as he caught up with friends at home, but it was good to hear about how his course is going. He's not developed a 'rock star' look yet, but there was passing mention of tattoos and piercings... *gulp*

Word Art.

At NIBS in September, the group worked on an 'I remember' exercise focused around people we had loved and lost, with a view to turning it into an artwork for a community project exhibition at church called 'The Art of Remembrance'. On large sheets of paper, we wrote some of the words and phrases we'd generated, often with a more artistic arrangement, and then the large sheets were chopped up.

Well, this week, I've been helping Jacqui Gallon, the artist who is facilitating the exhibition and associated workshops, to sew the paper onto fabric to create the final artwork.

A DIY MA in Creative Writing.

I've taken the decision to work on a course designed by the amazing Andrew Wille with a group of Denizen friends. It's basically everything that goes into a formal MA course, but you can work through it at your own pace. We've tried to structure it a bit, timewise, and I've attempted a couple of exercises. Only problem is that I don't seem to have much writing time... 

So, to that end, I've just bought myself an academic diary to try to plan my writing a bit better. The 'free' days I had hoped were going to be writing opportunities are getting eaten up fast by lots of different things. And yet developing writing practise is a big part of the MA - it almost feels like I'm failing before I've even started. I've been here before though, when life gets in the way and writing's always - ALWAYS - the first thing to get shoved onto a back burner. I would do NaNoEdMo again, but I'd have to set myself a very, very low word count!!

Anyway, I'll stop rattling on here, and get down to writing up an overheard dialogue exercise... If only I hadn't been so interested in eavesdropping, I might have written down more of the conversation!

See you later, Scribblers.

Editing, un-editing, and gooseberry bushes.

I have been extremely quiet on the blogging front - again. I last posted when I finished Camp NanoEdMo, and had a completed edit of the current novel under my belt. That is now with BInk, and I'm waiting to see what they think of it.

Would you believe, as I sent that one off - the second in Tilda's adventures - the first book came back the other way, having been edited by BInk. (Publication is September, so things are starting to move, with cover design and title ideas being thrown around!) I'd already spent some time working on the first book, because it didn't feel as much in Tilda's head as I wanted it to be, so I ended up incorporating some of my most recent changes into the MS as I checked through BInk's edit.

Problem was, a lot of the stuff I added went it, then a lot of it came back out.

Sometimes, I was only playing with the word order. The alterations I'd made added nothing of value to the scene, so I was un-editing myself and reverting back to the original - which most of the time BInk had no issue with. Realising this led to a very interesting discussion with fellow authors over in the Den of Writers, because I started to wonder whether I was making changes for the sake of change, rather than to make an improvement.

Editing's a weird stage in a novel's life, especially when it's an editor that's made suggestions, rather than you being self-critical of what you've produced. I try not to be too sensitive to the suggestions of A.N.Other, but it's hard.

Some issues arise because the US editor works to a slightly differently format to the UK and we end up bouncing back and forth a bit until I understand why certain punctuation has to be a particular way. Some are because I'm not being grammatically correct - and I'll admit, I don't know all the rules so I do break them; I often write how I'd speak, but when written down, that doesn't always work.

Of course there are places where BInk make a suggestion and I can see that there is an improvement needed, but I have to find my own - Squidge - way of saying it. This can be as subtle as a change of word choice, to ending up re-writing whole sections of the novel. And it's never clear which it's going to be until I start.

There are a few places where I dig my heels in and don't want the change that's been suggested. In this particular novel, I often write actions linked to 'began to...'. I think it must be due to how I picture the scene in my head - I see a sequence of actions, so in writing about the action, it begins before it continues or changes. I can accept that's not always appropriate though, and to state more simply that the action happened is better. But not always...

So, having accepted, amended and rejected - mostly the first two! - the edit of that book's back with BInk too.

I felt rather bereft once it had gone. I tried to go back to book 3 - currently being handwritten in a notebook - and got seriously stuck on a plot point.

Perhaps it's a genuine sticking point. Perhaps it's just that I have focused so much recently on editing, I'm not allowing myself to make mistakes and play any more.

So, in an attempt to give myself a breather, I've done some gardening. I've often said I love my garden, but I don't like gardening, so this is a major form of procrastination/need for thinking time if I'm actually weeding. Mr Squidge wanted some more gooseberry bushes, so the two of us set to on a patch of weedy ground we'd not sorted out since the garden room was built; it was covered in borage. Now bees love borage, and it's very pretty - looks like a prickly, large, forget-me-not plant - but boy, does it spread. It's overtaking my garden, and a real beetle to dig up.

Borage, bramble (lovely blackberries so we keep it), and bush!

Lots and lots and lots of borage

But we cleared the space and yesterday, planted two goosegog bushes and some ground cover flowers. Hooray! I also planted up a couple of blueberry bushes in pots...

Planted!

Pots. I do like blue in my garden

Has it worked in terms of giving me headspace and mulling time? I won't know that until I get back to the notebook, but I'm hopeful. At least now, when I'm sitting in the garden room on a sunny day and staring out of the windows looking for inspiration, I'll have the fruit bushes to look at.
 

Baby goosegogs! These will be red, the others yellow-green

 

And teeny tiny blueberries beginning to form...

And even if I struggle a bit more with the latest novel, there'll be gooseberry wine and blueberry gin to look forward to later this year...so at least something good's come of the writing break!

Finally! A story...

Over the last week, I've written a story. First one for about six months.

HOORAY!!!!

It felt, by turns:

1. Frustrating; I'm so out of practise at stringing words together on paper, everything felt rubbish.

2. Exciting; I'd had an idea, I did some research, and it came together with a fairytale yet tragic kind of feel to it.

3. Satisfying; I stuck with it, even when it wasn't working, and finally, had something to show for all the effort that holds together pretty well as a story.

I can't tell you too much more about the story itself, because it's in a competition over on the Den, where interested parties have to choose some objects, and the theme to fit them into is revealed at a later date. It's the Denizens' job to work it all together and weave magic, then we peer judge each other's stories to crown a winner.

Suffice to say I'm not convinced it's my best work, but it got me motivated again, and from next week I'm going to be planning some writing time into my routine and dusting off Tilda's story.

And just because it's my blog and I can say it again if I want to - I wrote a story! Hooray!!

Den of Writers

A short while ago, I posted a brief mention of my new web-based writing community - Den of Writers - following the demise of the wonderful Cloud.

In the last week or so, many ex-cloudies and others have joined the Den, but we're aware that some cloudies are having problems finding us or logging on. (Advice from Admin:  "go to the register button top LH side of screen on a PC or laptop, on the black border outside the immediate forum screen. That should work." ) 

Because we know that a fair number of cloudies used to follow the Scribbles, consider this blog a call-out to them - and any other authors or would-be authors - who are a bit lost now in the internet ether. Especially if you are reading this and trying to find a place to be with writers where you can get help and advice from your peers, support each other and share celebrations and commiserations with writing friends.

The site itself is constantly being worked on at the moment, as the Admin team discover glitches or make improvements - one of them being that the site is now https rather http. (Which even this techno numpty knows, is a Good Thing, even if she doesn't know what it stands for.) So don't be surprised if things change. And like the cloud, it takes a while to be able to navigate around the different forums, but we're getting there...

To join, follow THIS LINK - there are a plethora of other Writers' Dens or Dens of Writers on the net, but THIS ONE is the one you need. (Yes, I have just posted the link twice. It never hurts to repeat yourself if you're sharing Good Stuff.)

And look out for https://twitter.com/denofwriters if you are a Twitterer - we've already had folks find us that way, too...

So if you fancy being a Denizen, come on over and join the rest of us... I can promise you won't regret it.

Squidge with her TBR pile... 

PS - Book statue is in the grounds of what used to be Newcastle Poly, taken on a weekend away with Mr Squidge a few years back. 

On a happier note...

Decided that today's blog post is going to be a lot more upbeat than the last one.

For a start, now that it's getting a bit cooler, I can stand to do some hand quilting. There was no way I was going to sit with a quilt over my knee in 30 degrees plus over the summer! Back in October last year, I began to work on a second large quilt - one that reflected the colours of my bedroom. Earlier this year, I bought the wadding and backing fabric for it, and decided to challenge myself NOT to quilt in straight lines, but to do something more random.

Now, my old sewing machine and I did not think we would get on very well with 'free style' quilting, so as on previous quilting projects, I decided to hand quilt - spirals, for a complete contrast to the straight lines of fabric in the quilt top.

In principle, that was fine. Except that I couldn't work on the 'top' side of the quilt because the gorgeous batik fabrics meant I couldn't see to draw properly circular spirals - the first few went decidedly off piste. Added to which, the lovely greeny-turquoise cotton I chose to match the colours didn't always show up against the patterns, making it even harder to see the line and keep things even. So I realised I had to draw and stitch with the plainer underneath fabric facing me to ensure my spirals kept their circularness. (Is that a word? Perhaps not, but you get the gist!)

It's taking flipping ages. Not only is there a double bed sized expanse of fabric to quilt, but I didn't think about how when you stitch a spiral, you start - well, I do - at the outside and work inwards. So effectively, you're not making any more progress than the outermost edge of your spiral each time, but there can still be a lot of stitching within that boundary. And of course you HAVE to fill in the gaps with smaller spirals so there's not lots of empty space...

Yep, teeny tiny stitches in my spirals...

It looks good, but I don't think I'll be finished by this winter. Not with a novel to try and finish as well, vicar interviews to hold, Christmas services to plan (yes, already!) and everything else that my life holds!

The base fabric on the quilt is the exact same colour as the four gallons of blackberry wine we put up this week. We had to bottle the four gallons of gooseberry wine first, to free up the demi johns, and the 'Mighty Fine Blackberry Wine 2018' is blipping away merrily in the kitchen. Which now smells like a brewery...

Blip...blip...blip...

But the best thing to have happened recently is that, after the demise of the Cloud, I have a new writing home. Hooray!

A few cloudies, having heard the rumours about SocialGo, decided to set up a new writing forum. Run by writers, for writers, it would keep all the good things that we loved about the cloud - particularly the community feel - and aim to provide a place for writers to practise their craft, find friends, offer critique, and generally just hang out with other peeps who understand how difficult a writer's life can be. And by complete coincidence, it went live just before the cloud went down...

So that means I am no longer a cloudie. I am, instead, a Denizen, in the Den of Writers. It's taking a while to find my way round, especially as the site is still developing and being tweaked, but already it is buzzing with activity and home to faces both old and new, many of them cloudies. It has certainly taken the edge off the loss of the cloud, and fills me with hope for the future.

So if you fancy joining me in the Den (when I'm not writing or wine making or quilting or doing any of the other things I listed above!), pop on over and register. I'll see you there.