Revising

Tags

e-book, revising, Something Stupid

Every How To Write book will tell you that once you’ve finished your magnum opus you should put it in a drawer for at least three months before starting to revise it so you can look at it with fresh eyes.  It’s excellent advice though I have yet to meet anyone who hast typed ‘The End’ and then not gone promptly back to page 1 to start tinkering with the precious work of art. It’s what I’ve always done myself and yes, you lose a certain amount of distance by revising immediately – that’s why you get others to read it to point out plot holes and dull bits – but you gain in immediacy and freshness.

I’m now in the really weird position of revising something that’s effectively been in a drawer for 13 years as I’ve started editing Something Stupid so I can publish it as an e-book.  I wrote it in 1998 and checked the proofs in 1999.  When it first came out I must have picked it up and read a few pages, or more, every week, revelling in seeing my own words in print and feeling pretty pleased with myself about it too, but I don’t think I’ve even so much as glanced at it in five years.

One of the things that just leapt out at me was how much my style has changed in 14 years.  I’ve got to cut the book down as it’s long for an e-book but I’m beginning to think I won’t have much of a problem.  Those adjectives and adverbs!  In my own defence I should say that I acquired the adjective habit trying to write for Mills and Boon and it’s a difficult one to shake off.  One of the reasons they’re so easy to read (and hard to write) is that every action, every emotion, every view has to be spelt out clearly which means lots of adjectives and adverbs.  I thought at the time that I’d largely cured myself, but sadly no.  They’re everywhere. I read a story ages ago, I think by O Henry, about a struggling and mediocre writer who was given a magical device to improve his writing.  He waved it over his manuscript and every adjective disappeared and he had the most superb piece of literature in front of him.  I need one of those.

The book is also peppered with screamers, exclamation marks, which surprises me as I didn’t think I’d ever over-used them.  Amazing how you can fool yourself.  Anyway now I’ve gone right in the opposite direction.  With the current work in progress if I’m stalled and doing a little light revising – also known as not getting on with it – I actually have to insert the odd exclamation mark here and there for emphasis.

There’s also the thorny problem of whether I should update the book or not.  Do I put in mobile phones and computerize everything which involves re-writing several scenes or do I simply put a note at the beginning saying that it takes place in 1999?

One thing I’m really enjoying though is being able to take out some of the phrases the copy editor inflicted on the manuscript.  Back in 1999 I was much too much in awe of the whole publishing process to say that I do not accept that “emoted” can ever be a synonym for “said” in any circumstances whatsoever.  My friends were all too tactful to comment on such excressences (fortunately there weren’t many) which is a great shame as for years I haven’t had the opportunity to deny that  “she emoted” is part of my normal writing language.

It isn’t.  It was the first edit I made.

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The Book Club Birthday Party

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birthday party, book bunting, Book club, book groups

This gallery contains 7 photos.

Just a few photos: We’re really lucky in that the founder of the book group has a wonderfully large room …

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Book Bunting

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book bunting, Book club

Warning, blowing of own trumpet follows.

My book club is having a party to celebrate its 10th anniversary this week and I thought that a book club party should have lots of book type decorations so I offered to make some bunting with pictures of the covers of the books we’ve read over the last ten years.

It took a lot longer than I rather hopefully thought it would, it can be quite difficult finding decent pictures of the covers on the internet, I had to give up on Hilary Mantel’s A Change of Climate as all the images were desperately blurred, but I have to say I think I did a jolly good job.

Here they are hung up in my husband’s office so I can admire my handiwork.  They really do look even better in real life.

There’s a total of 79 covers up there, we’ve actually read 98 books but I couldn’t download some, I loathed a couple so much I refused to include them (the creator’s privilege), some of the covers were downright boring and I accidentally cut Atonement in half.  I have included the book club’s most loathed book – Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott which prompted one member to threaten to resign if we ever had a book like that again.

The Eyre Affair was not a success, one member said, ‘It’s got a Dodo in it and Dodos don’t exist…’

Moon Tiger had a very mixed reception as did Lucia, Lucia but everyone loved The Next Step In The Dance.  Great cover too.

This one is for the door as everyone comes in.  The middle two books, The Girl With A Pearl Earring was the first book we read, and Guernica was our book last week.

Now off to make book related place cards for the lunch…

Drive-by Sightseeing

Tags

Biarritz, new experiences, Pau

My two youngest daughters often give us Smartbox trips for Christmas where you get a voucher for a night’s stay in a hotel as they think that we, particularly their father, don’t go away enough.  Since my husband is very Scottish in some ways they know that one way of guaranteeing that he’ll leave the property is the thought that something might go to waste if he doesn’t.

So much happened last year, one way or the other, that we didn’t get to use Christmas 2010’s present.  Come January this year we realised that the voucher would run out soon so we had to get our skates on.  I suggested that we go to Biarritz, where I’d never been, which the other half reluctantly agreed to (he’d been round the outskirts of Biarritz and wasn’t impressed) and looking at out of the window at the rain sheeting down (this was mid January) said, ‘I’ll book it for early February, the weather should be better then…’

Ha, flaming ha.  It was minus 8 on the morning we were due to leave, the snow was making the roads around us, shall we say, interesting and the pipes had frozen.  We got them sorted satisfactorily quickly, though we had to give up on the washing machine whose inner workings had frozen solid. Fortunately we’re all well supplied with socks and knickers and I pointed out to the girls it is possible to wash things by hand.  They looked surprised at this news.  Surprisingly we left only half an hour later than planned.

We stopped for lunch in Pau, which is supposed to be lovely.  It was also very, very cold.  The sort of cold that makes you go straight into the nearest eaterie without even looking at the menu of the one two buildings away.  The sort of day which makes you decided to do most of your sightseeing through the car windows.  Not something I’d usually recommend but when there’s a severe risk of frostbite it has a lot to be said for it.

We took a nice circuitous route to Biarritz which was very enjoyable, the car has an excellent heater.  As we approached the sea the outside temperature actually rose to a plus figure.  Biarritz wasn’t precisely warm but at least we felt up to walking the five hundred metres or so from our wonderful little hotel to the restaurant the receptionist had suggested.  If it had been as cold as Pau I think we might have decided we weren’t very hungry.

I love seaside towns in winter and though perhaps I’d have enjoyed Biarritz a bit more if it had been a little warmer I still think it’s delightful.   It’s all hilly so there are loads of interesting vistas, it’s full of wonderful old houses and splendid old ladies done up to the nines, I saw more fur coats than I’ve seen for years.  The beaches are gorgeous, we didn’t feel like taking a brief walk along them though the surfers were out.  It was 2°.   Various words such as bonkers, stark and raving come to mind.  And I want to have a holiday flat here:

preferably in the tower.  It’s built right on the cliff edge high above the sea and has a view of the Rocher de la Vierge.  Admittedly it’s not very convenient for the shops (steep climb up a hill, then down another) but who cares.  If you can afford that place, you can afford someone to do the shopping for you.

Since we had to get out of the car sometime we went to the museum of chocolate where we were given a little bag of sample chocolates as we went in, and a cup of really delicious, artisanal hot chocolate as we left.  The exhibits were fun too.  We had a good lunch in a bar in the middle of town and my husband announced he’d changed his mind – not something that happens readily – and that Biarritz was a really nice place.  We should come back again, when the temperature is in double figures, he added quickly.

So we headed back home again, meeting the snow halfway there and being greeted with the news that not only was the washing machine still kaput but the central heating had broken down too.  At least we still had electricity…

New for 2012 – number 5 (and breaking some rules along the way)

Tags

new experiences, new year's resolutions, Paris

I’ve never been one of those people who reads all about a place before going somewhere new.  Of course I consult guidebooks – I’m not that much of a free spirit and anyway I’d feel remarkably stupid if I missed out on a treasure because I didn’t know about it or turned up on the one day it was closed.  But I don’t compile a reading list in advance though I’ll often read all about where I’ve been, getting even more pleasure from being able to place where the action was.  A horribly crowded flight from New York was transformed by the New Yorkers by Catherine Schine which I’d picked up the day before because I’d enjoyed a couple of her other books.  It was set two streets down on the Upper West Side and I spent a wonderful seven hours not feeling I’d left New York at all.

I’m going to Paris with one of my daughters at the end of the month which is in fact a trip inspired by a book.  I was reading The Private Lives of the Impressionists last year during a particularly tough time and when everything got on top of me I’d say to myself that when it was all over I’d go to Paris to the Musée Marmottan and see Monet’s pictures.  So I’m going at last and staying bang next door to Notre Dame (can you get a better location than that?) thanks to those internet coupons I bought.  I’m not going to read up all about Paris before I go – that smacks too much of homework, but I decided that on this trip I’d only take books that were about Paris or set there.  As there are just one Paris related book in my to-read bookcase this also gave me a convenient excuse to break the rule I imposed at the beginning of the year that until I managed to make a visible dent in the to-read pile the only books I’d buy were ones I needed for my bookclubs.  I have to confess here to a serious book-buying habit which has become worse since I discovered Awesome Books but at least I don’t have a tottering pile of to-use handbags.

I already had The Lost Mona Lisa by RA Scotti about the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.  It wasn’t recovered until two years later by which time several near perfect copies had been made.  I’ve been fascinated by this story since I was about 8 and a friend of my parents, a delightful old picture restorer, told me of being a student in Paris before the theft and going to see the Mona Lisa nearly every week.  After it was retrieved he viewed it again – and said it wasn’t the same picture.  He believed the experts simply hadn’t been able to tell which was the original and which was the fake.  He added that he’d also heard that to make sure their judgement could never be questioned the experts had ordered that the picture they deemed a fake be destroyed.  Just the sort of story that would fascinate a child and I’m really looking forward to reading the book and seeing just how much of Mr Booker’s theory was based on fact.

I had a lovely morning looking up books about Paris before deciding that I’d buy myself Hemmingway’s A Moveable Feast, about Paris in the 1920’s, and Foreign Tongue by Vanina Marsot which everyone seems to love.  Three books seemed plenty for a four day trip and anyway the hotel is five minutes walk away from Shakespeare and co so if I get really desperate I can always nip over there.  Lets face it, I will anyway.

So feeling very virtuous that I was only going to buy two books I logged on.  And saw that Dancing To The Precipice about the life of Madame de la Tour du Pin, something I’ve wanted to read for ages was on Amazon at half price.  Of course it would have been silly not to buy it.  Then there was French Secrets by Roisin McAuley whom I met last summer and really liked.  At least it’s about France as is The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson.

Oh well, what’s the point of making rules if you can’t break them?

The recipes…

Tags

Ham hocks, Jambonneau Pea soup

The recipes for the Jambonneau which is basically Nigella’s recipe and for the pea soup as promised

Jambonneau – Serves 6 This is not an elegant dish!

2 Jambonneau fumé about 1.5 kilos each.

Bottle dry cider

2 stick celery

2 carrots chopped into several pieces

4 small onions, halved

Bunch parsley

Tbs black peppercorns

Tsp fennel seeds (she uses a tablespoon but this is too much for my taste)

3 cloves (I couldn’t find mine but it was still good)

Tbs dark muscavado sugar.

Either soak the jambonneau overnight in cold water then drain, or put them in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and drain.

Put all the ingredients in a large pan, add water to barely cover and bring to a boil.  Simmer for two hours or so, partially covered by a lid until the meat is tender and coming away from the bone.  Take the bones out, leave to cool for a few minutes, then carve into chunks, discarding fat, bones etc.  (I put them back into the stock while it cooled down so they could go on adding flavour).

Pea Soup – serves 4 – 6

This is a version of London Particular and you don’t have to be too exact about any of the quantities

2-3 rashers streaky bacon, optional

I large onion chopped;

Butter

450-500g split green peas (silly just to leave a bit in the packet), non-soak kind

2.4 litres or more of ham stock

seasoning

Worcester sauce

Chop bacon if using and cook in the butter, add onion and sweat until soft.  Add the peas, stir so they’re all covered in fat and add the strained stock, season and bring to the boil.  Cook for at least 40 minutes until the peas are really soft, longer if you like, then purée.  Add more water if it’s too thick and any left over bits of meat from the jambonneau if you feel like it.

Check seasoning and add Worcester sauce to taste.

This is one of those soups that seems to improve if it’s kept until the next day though it may need more liquid.

I’m sure that you could use fresh peas too which would make a different texture and taste but would be equally as good.

Dalmatians in the snow.

Tags

Dalmatians, snow; photography

We woke up to a snowy world today and to two dogs, who usually possess gleamingly white coats, suddenly turning a rather dingy yellow.  Rather like polar bears Dalmatians tend to look a bit grubby when seen against a truly white background so you have to chose your shot very carefully when trying to take a picture of the dogs in the snow.  As one does of course.  Who can resist taking snow pictures?

Dalmatians are also extremely energetic and prefer not to stay in one spot for more than a second or two, especially when their spotted paws are getting cold so unless you have an excellent camera (which I don’t) you tend to end up with a series of shots like this one:

So I won’t be able to show you any artistic pictures of Dalmatians playing in the snow.

The other problem about photographing the dogs in the snow is finding them.  Normally this isn’t a problem, large white dogs have difficulty concealing themselves against greenery; even Flynn who is selectively obedient at best knows the game is up when I shout, ‘I can see you,’ as he trots off to investigate the neighbour’s dustbins.  In the snow amongst the vines the dogs disappear almost completely.  Grubby white fur and black spots are perfect camouflage amongst vine posts and tufty grass and boy do they take advantage of it.

Spot the Dalmatians

Nearly invisible dog

So I gave up on photography.  Anyway it might have been beautiful but it was perishing cold.