I love fairy tales. If you’ve read several of my books that probably doesn’t surprise you. Elements of fairy tales sneak into my stories even when I’m not looking. There’s something special about fairy tales; the stories seem to breathe in between sentences giving each listener enough room to find the story they need. Most of the basic tales are ancient and probably stretch back into the mists of unrecorded time. I don’t know if my ancestors told their children Cinderella around the fireside five thousand years ago, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. Read more…
A Companion for Life, General
If you’ve been wondering where I’m at in my books in progress here’s a brief update :
Dancing The Maypole - 60,025 words (finished book will have about 80,000)
The story without a definite title - 44,962 words (finished book will have about 65,000)
Both stories have reached critical scenes. I’m hoping both will be done by the end of the year though I can’t promise as my writing speed fluctates and then there are the mental brick walls which can appear without warning. I hope I’m done with those for the year…that would be an excellent Christmas gift to self!
Today I went down to London with a friend. I’m absolutely shattered, but I had a great time. Hopefully I’ll wake up feeling refreshed and have a really productive writing day tomorrow.
Dancing the Maypole, General
A picture I found on the web of a whelk
After finishing the newspaper I tried to watch a movie, but I couldn’t concentrate. I turned off the movie and picked up the book off the top my pile of newly acquired second hand paperbacks and decided to try to read ‘A History of the English Church and People’ by Bede. Note the word try. The book was completed in 731. That’s not a typo…it was written centuries before William the Conqueror arived to savage England. It may not be boring, but it’s not sold as a page turner! I made it to the end of the first page. Bede, begins by telling the reader about Britain. Where it is, how large it is and what sort of animals can be found here etc. I was starting to fall asleep until I read, “There are also many varieties of shell-fish, such as mussels, in which are often found excellent pearls of several colours, red, purple, violet, and green, but mainly white.” (Have you ever heard of green or violet pearls? I haven’t. I made a mental note to look it up and continued…) “Whelks are abundant, and a beautiful scarlet dye is extracted from them which remains unfaded by sunshine or rain; indeed, the older the cloth, the more beautiful the colour.” Wondering what a whelk was, I looked it up in my encyclopaedia… Read more…
General, Lucky in Love, Redeeming A Rake
Cari touches the tree...
The Goblin was off work today so we decided to chase the sunshine. Last night the weather report suggested the most likely area to be sunny all day was southwest of London so I mentioned that the ancient yew tree at Runnymede (not far from Old Windsor) was down there and that I really wanted to see it. The word Runnymede should ring a bell…the name John should be coming to mind. Oh yes, him again! Apparently the signing of the original Magna Carta took place under an ancient yew tree that’s now well over two thousand years old. From a nearby flood plain next to the river Thames on a clear day you can see Windsor Castle in the distance, though in 1215 it would have been mainly a roundish looking tower surrounded by fortified walls. My Goblin informs me that Runnymede is AngloSaxon for Meadow of the Runes. This is a magical place…in more ways than one.
It wasn’t easy to find. On the “Welcome to Runnymede” pamphlet at the sight referred to as Runnymede there was no mention of the tree at all, infact the whole sight celebrated as the place where the Magna Carta was signed is on the wrong side of the river…almost opposite where the tree stands. The yew tree is on a piece of land called Ankerwycke, hence its name Ankerwycke Yew…it’s all rather confusing. Read more…
General, The Curse of Love
My friend Stephanie mentioned AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com on her site. Whatever you do, don’t look at it if you’re eating anything that might ruin your monitor! Just to give you an idea…this photo below is one of my favorites!!! Read more…
A Companion for Life, General
The 24 Hour Church of Elvis
After leaving High School I moved to Portland, Oregon to study fashion design. I actually graduated (I understand only about six of us did), but I haven’t yet used my degree unless you count my time in a costume shop where after three Halloweens my love of dressing up was savaged into oblivion. I never expected to start my fashion design company until I was in my 40’s so techincally you could say I’m still on target…unless I fall on my head and forget I’m a designer or I die before I can prove to the world I’m as good as I think I am. Yes, my teachers loved me! Can you feel the sarcasm? During my second year we had to find and serve a short internship with an actual fashion design company. I dreaded the whole idea of finding a place so I put it off until one day I turned down this small lane I’d never walked down before Read more…
General, Lucky in Love, The Hired Wife
I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t fall back to sleep so I eventually got up. I read the BBC news while I ate some uncooked oatmeal sans sugar (I’m so good). But after perusing it for a few minutes I decided I didn’t really need to read one more article about the English economy being driven into an economic black hole by the present unelected Prime Minister (at least by the general population…a handful of (aliens?) voted for him up in Scotland. Mr Blair stepped down mid-term and Mr Brown elected himself as leader and the Labour party let him take the big chair instead of calling a General Election and giving taxpayers a say. Anyway, I decided I’d had enough and went to check out Austenprose (If you love Jayne Austen’s novels this is a really good blog). Some of the comments mentioned a quiz called Which Jane Austen Heroine are you? Read more…
General, The Curse of Love
The Victoria and Albert museum has about seven miles of exhibition rooms crammed with beautiful stuff from all ages and corners of the globe. I can’t imagine anyone being able to see the whole thing in week let alone a day. My visits have been kept fairly short. After about two hours in any museum I start having sensory overload. My eyes start to bug out and images start to swirl into meaningless blotches of painful shapes and colours. Six hours in the V&A and I’d be done for! Can you imagine some poor security guard finding me passed out, spread eagle like some dazed votary infront of a naked Celtic warrior. Have you ever seen the sculpture, “The Fallen Gaul”? I don’t know if the V&A has a copy, but it’s one of my favorite…yes he’s naked and has a wee too much facial hair, but he’s so lovely…even if he is dying. Read more…
A Companion for Life, General
If you’ve read my free story Lucky in Love and you enjoyed The Duke of Strathmore or my other stories with his cousin The Duke of Lyndhurst you might find this interesting. I thought I’d watch a Miss Marple mystery while eating my dinner (I worked all day on Dancing the Maypole…I’m nearly done with chapter 14). So I went onto Youtube and realised I couldn’t remember how The Moving Finger ended so I clicked on the new version of it with Geraldine McEwan. If like me you’re a die hard Joan Hickson as Miss Marple fan the new versions aren’t as good, but they’re not bad.
It started and after awhile I realised I knew the face of the man playing the narator. If you’ve never heard of James D’arcy he’s a really good English actor. Read more…
Dancing the Maypole, General, Lucky in Love, Redeeming A Rake, Taming the Shrew
250 years ago today Robert Burns was born. Today people all over the world will gather to celebrate his life and work. Why? Who was Robert Burns? He was a Scottish farmer-poet and you will know one of his songs even if you’ve never heard his name. Auld Lang Syne, the song the world sings at New Years…that’s Robert Burns! Technically he died before “The Regency” began, but his poetry heavily influenced the poets and politics of the nineteenth century. Read more…
General, The Curse of Love
