| Somewhat better |
[08 Sep 2008|10:58am] |
I managed to shuck off the bad mood yesterday (or slough, because I love the way that word sounds, I sloughed the mood, the way plane trees slough poison-bearing bark). I have two pages of notes for changes to the novel and I'm trying to find my way back in, needing to reconnect with the story before I can really start flying again. It's a tough one.
Yesterday I wrote my interview answers for Smokelong Quarterly. Oh and this morning someone on my writing forum said this: "Has anyone seen the cover of a fiction (paperback) book called "The Virgin Blue"by Tracy Chevalier? I swear our own Tiger Bright was the sitter. It's a dead ringer for her!" In trepidation I checked out the cover - phew, it's not as bad as I thought, in fact very flattering. If you know of an alternative cover featuring a raddled redhead with bags under her eyes - keep it to yourself!
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[08 Sep 2008|09:54am] |
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mood |
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 ditzy |
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omg.
omg.
omg.
I just left the Vice Chancellor locked outside the building.
omg.
omg.
omg.
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| Up with the lark |
[06 Sep 2008|06:28am] |
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Actually with chronic stomach ache; I don't think the larks are awake yet. I'm going to try and put in some writing time that was lost to work yesterday. Good morning/evening/night, flist, depending on where and when you are.
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| girly |
[05 Sep 2008|02:10pm] |
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mood |
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 blah |
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I re-pierced my ears a few days ago (yay, hardcore me – actually not so hardcore, they were well pierced so they only heal over a little) and am having a huge earring craze … I’m currently wearing little dangling cherries, so cute! To be honest, it’s all bit pointless because my hair gets in the way anyway but I’m tempted to get another piercing. Nothing too dramatic, just another hole in my ear, just one, I think. But I can’t decide if I’m merely having a midlife crisis.
I always count myself quite lucky that I'm not completely covered in holes ... I rather like getting piercings, it's a kind of pain I ... well ... I hesitate to use the word enjoy because I'm not a natural masochist ... but it's a kind of pain with which I feel comfortable.
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| Diary of the Dead |
[05 Sep 2008|09:19am] |
I was prevented from catching this film during its criminally short UK cinema release; it bombed in the US and distributors over here didn't seem to think it worth screening anywhere in the West End or for very long out in the sticks. I caught it on BT Vision last night, for the princely sum of £3.45 for a 24 hour rental direct to my TV. It's one of the most intelligent films I've seen in a long while, and Romero's best in twenty years. Still, I know exactly why it bombed. Most cinema-goers don't want their schlock served with politics, and vice versa. But, see, this is where I differ from most cinema-goers.
I've been a fan of horror films all my life. I like the gore, it's true, but more than that I love the dark lense this genre (at its best) holds up to society, inviting the audience to view the world (and themselves) through the thinnest of veils.
Romero gives us race and religion, immigration and prejudice, sexual politics and the media. He gives us an Orwellian expose of Truth and the many guises it wears. All this and more make for some uncomfortable viewing. I imagine most viewers expected the discomfort to start and end with the gore. But Romero has always been brilliant at drawing the real sting from the way the living behave in his films, not the dead.
What happens to humanity when it's under threat, who becomes a better person and who betrays his loved ones, who's prepared to fight and who despairs, how chaos exposes the real monsters and the true heroes - these are the things which concern Romero and he plays his hand faultlessly, with a healthy measure of humour and compassion. He has more imagination and yes, more guts than most directors I can think of. In every sense of the word. |
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| Bones talk, and other random stuff |
[04 Sep 2008|11:31pm] |
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mood |
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 sleepy |
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I took the day off from... well, everything (except grocery shopping) and got some rest. Did an O.C. marathon (since Amazon kindly delivered the fourth season... finally), took a nice hot bath, and watched the season opener of Bones.
( Bones: 4x01 / 4x02 Yanks in the U.K. )
Oh, and I just saw a promo ad for season two of Californication. Actually, I'm pretty disappointed. I'm looking forward to the story line with CKR as this big producer (?) bad guy, but otherwise? *yawns* And there was almost no Mia in the trailer! She will be in this season, right? I mean, more than the occasional guest spot?
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| Refresh, Refresh |
[04 Sep 2008|02:41pm] |
Woot! The latest issue of The Short Review is online. Another superb selection of stories and interviews to whet the appetite. I just loved reading the interview with Benjamin Percy whose book, Refresh, Refresh, I reviewed for the site. What'd I think? Find out here. A taster below. |
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| Ink Sweat & Tears |
[03 Sep 2008|06:37pm] |
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Have published After a long illness, quietly at home, which I wrote for a challenge set by Tania Hershman. Can you guess the structural discipline she imposed? I loved writing this, the process, the story. Thanks, Tania!
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| JuiceBox |
[03 Sep 2008|10:55am] |
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This journal has just published its Fall issue, which includes my story, Gentian blue. It looks really lovely in situ, I'm delighted with it! This site has a facility to leave comments, but you to register with a user name and email. I'm grateful for all/any comments, as usual. Thanks!
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| Ranfurly Review |
[03 Sep 2008|09:12am] |
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This journal is available as a free downloadable pdf and features my story, What we did at half-term on page 8. It gets a special mention in the editorial on page 3 as it is one of two Editor's Picks for the issue. You can download the issue from here. It's a true story, by the way, every word of it.
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| Oxford University Continues To Be Funny! |
[02 Sep 2008|11:46am] |
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mood |
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 amused |
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Sorry to spam your f-lists with brief sillies from my job but all departments just received a Very Serious email from University Security about the forthcoming St Giles Fair. The tone of the whole thing entertained me greatly but this is a particular highlight:
"During the fair days, please brief staff to be on the look out for the casual walk in thief or tailgater checking out your premises. Those further away should also not be complacent; the ne'er-do-wells are known to roam far and wide in their search for ill-gotten gains."
It just sounds so adorable Dickensian.
Ne-er-do-wells!
Ill-gotten gains!
Hold fast to your kerchiefs, dear boys, lest some rogueish youth with malice on his mind spirit them away!
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| Breaking cover |
[01 Sep 2008|07:14pm] |
To bring you the first sighting of Richard Armitage in the new series of Spooks. Clip includes what might be considered a spoiler re the cast line-up, but is likely to be greeted with cheers and party streamers (round here, anyway).
BBC Autumn Drama promo
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| Briefly |
[01 Sep 2008|08:29am] |
Those lovely people over at Every Day Fiction chose me as their first anniversary interviewee. Golly it was hard writing answers that didn't sound dull, dim or arrogant. I hope I pulled it off.
You can read the interview here.
The HUGE photo of my mug makes me cringe - yikes!
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| Gearing up for the hard slog |
[31 Aug 2008|03:59pm] |
I've been clearing the decks here in preparation for beginning serious work on editing the crime novel. I've emailed the agent, who returns to work tomorrow, promising her a revised ms by the end of September. I've signed out of my writing fora, said au revoir to online buddies for a bit, hoping to avoid the distraction of easy fun and games. I'm about to tidy my study, clear the clutter and polish my desk. After today I will devote all my spare time to the novel. It's the big shove. See you on the other side.
PS: I won't be checking my flist during September so please drop me a comment or email if you need me for something - thanks!
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[30 Aug 2008|10:33pm] |
I just did an extremely geeky thing. The lecturer for the medieval unit emailed us the reading list, so I looked up all the library codes so I can get them out next week. Oh dear. However, the essay is done and I'm more or less on schedule for exam and recital, which is definitely a good thing. How I wish I'd finished first year in first year.
I'm really looking forward to being back in hall for a couple of days. I might try and sneak a look at the new organ. Might even be a few students around for resits. And I'm far too excited about the prospect of music in the medieval western liturgy, though I'll have to wait a few weeks for that.
I'm craving something really weird. I think it might be the particularly foul tasting Harry Potter jelly beans things, though I'm not entirely sure. Why I would be craving that I have no idea.
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| Back down to earth |
[30 Aug 2008|06:06pm] |
After the excitement of yesterday I thought I'd better post and let you know that my life isn't one long party of story acceptances, anthology launches and royalty cheques (another one on the way, might be all of $47!). This morning I spent two hours sewing name tags into Milly's new school uniform, sponging down her kit bag and picking lint from her new coat. Then we went to buy new school shoes, which is surely a torture deserving of its own circle in Dante's hell. Girls' shoes, of course, are out. Nothing with anything pink, even if it's in a place that doesn't show, e.g. the soles. Nothing that hints, be it ever so coyly, at flowers or stars. NO HEARTS. Boys' shoes, then. Try finding a pair that don't look orthopaedic - go on, I challenge you! Coward.
By way of compensation, Milly's been making us laugh lately. We happened to catch a televised circus while on holiday. It claimed to be a family show but unless the family in question was that one from the X-Files with the mum kept on a trolley under the bed... One acrobat, bearing a striking resemblance to Alan Cumming at his most winsome and clad in skin-tight white latex and spangles, mounted a ladder of knives on his hands, legs akimbo in mid-air. Milly waited until he'd got a good way up before asking scornfully, 'Who does he think he is? Fiddler on the roof?'
Next, a pair of painfully muscle-bound men calling themselves the Rippel Brothers swaggered into the ring. Now, we had just watched a woman kiss a donkey WITH TONGUES before simulating coitus on the back of a pair of trotting cows, so you may imagine that I eyed the Rippel Brothers with some trepidation, 'What are they going to do, d'you think?'
'Who knows?' David answered. 'But I'm betting it's going to be homoerotic and daft.' Not a bad guess; they proceeded to spell out letters of the alphabet with their bodies, balancing on one another in a way that left nothing to the imagination, helped along by the fact that between them they were wearing almost enough faux leather to cover a small cushion.
Milly, having misheard her father's remark, declared, 'Look! They're being herotic!' This became the word of the holiday: 'Mummy, I hope you're not being herotic! Papa, you herotic man!' And so on. We THINK she thinks it means idiotic. But we've been known to get it wrong.
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