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Simply....making February fun..

28/2/2013

My (self imposed) task for February 2013 was to do some editing and rewriting work on my novel, but the underlying reason was to get through February without feeling a bit low as I used to always do at this time of year.

It worked. I've had a lovely February!

Editing is a very different thing from writing, as I'm sure you know. Writing my novel the NaNoWriMo way (see here) was like a fast sprint - exciting, all consuming and very challenging - a lot of adrenalin going around. Editing on the other hand is a more plodding activity. Not as much fun I have to say, though just as challenging. Part of the challenge is to be objective about this creation you have grown to care deeply about and to try to get into the mind of a potential reader and see if it still makes sense!

So I have plodded gently through February this year, enjoying it, with plenty to occupy me and plenty to do still. I will be working on my novel for some months yet....but as the gardening season approaches, and with commitments to teaching, painting and community projects, I won't be as single minded about it as I have been through February.

I am so lucky to have work that I love, and to have found a way of making this month a month that I love too!

Did you have a good February? (Or can you think of a way to make next February more fun?)

Yesterday's ending was from Counterparts in James Joyce' s The Dubliners. It chokes me up every time I read it. What can I say, except sorry to end the endings on such a tragic note....

A change of subject tomorrow - Hurrah!

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Simply..heartbreaking....

27/2/2013

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Yesterday's words were of course by Vita Sackville West in her son Nigel Nicolson's biography Portrait of a Marriage. I love her garden writing about Sissinghurst best.

Warning! Today's last lines could break your heart.

I've been thinking for days about whether or not to use these - the saddest closing lines I have ever read - from another short story by a great writer whom I have quoted already....but it is such a powerful example of courageous and compassionate writing that I felt I should include it..

Oh Pa! he cried. Don't beat me, pa! And I'll...I'll say a Hail Mary for you...I'll say a Hail Mary for you, pa, if you don't beat me....I'll say a Hail Mary...

Author?
Title?

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Simply Write..your starter for five....

26/2/2013

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Did you like the image of 'a lamp quiet-lighted and kind in your heart' ? It is from Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Scot's Quair again - Sunset Song, first book in the trilogy.

Today's quote is not strictly a first line, as it is published within another book - a biography - but it is famous:

Of course I have no right whatsoever to write down the truth about my life, involving as it naturally does the lives of so many other people..

The author is English, aristocratic and female.

Title, author anyone?

Having the photograph of the tulips (new header) is like having the flowers back again - so lovely in the sunny and cold days we've been enjoying here.

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Simply Write..these endings must end soon....

25/2/2013

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..as will February. Three days to go. Thank you for staying with me!

Yesterday's ending was from Cloud Howe, second in the Scot's Quair trilogy by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

For today:

But they saw the minister was standing behind her, waiting for her, they'd the last of the light with them up there, and maybe they didn't need it or heed it, you can do without the day if you've a lamp quiet-lighted and kind in your heart.

Also, some of the best writing advice I've come across yet, from author Deborah Lawrenson in an interview today at Cornflower Books-

Never give up. Don't eat that cake.

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Simply Write....

24/2/2013

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Yesterday's ending was from Grey Granite the third book of A Scot's Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Chris Guthrie, with her love of learning and the land, is one of my literary heroines.

Then that had finished; she went slow down the brae, only once looked back at the frown of the hills, and caught her breath at that sight that they held, seeing them bare of their clouds for once, the pillars of mist that aye crowned their heights, all but a faint wisp vanishing south, and the bare still rocks upturned to the sky.

What is it with deadlines? Only four days left of February and I will have to work pretty hard to complete the first rewrite (having been a bit lazy about it till now!) Do you procrastinate until you get close to a deadline?

I am thinking of entering the first 500 words of my novel into a competition in Psychologies magazine....nothing to lose..so why does the very thought make me feel nervous?

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Simply Home, Simply Write....

23/2/2013

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Couldn't resist illustrating yesterday's quote with my own jug, sitting on the table shouting 'Spring!'

The line comes from Doris Lessing's The Pit.

Today's closing lines are Scottish, and sad, from the author of a famous trilogy:

But she still sat on as one by one the lights went out and the rain came, beating the stones about her, and falling all that night while she still sat there, presently feeling no longer the touch of the rain or hearing the sound of the lapwings going by.

Author?

Title?

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Simply Write, Simply Home....

22/2/2013

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The risk with printing endings is that they can be a bit of a 'spoiler' I realise. Sorry!

The triumphant ending of yesterday's novel Grace Notes by Bernard Maclaverty won't, I hope, spoil this lovely novel for you if you have not read it before. The author makes you experience the world through the mind and the ears of a young composer....I reread this one every now and then.

I've not read this one, and don't remember how I came to find the opening lines:

A final sprig of flowering cherry among the white lilac and yellow jonquils, in a fat white jug...she stuck this in judiciously, filling in a peetern that needed just so much attention. Shouting 'Spring!' the jug sat on a small table in the middle of the room.

This rusty candle ring which I hang above the table on special occasions is a favourite thing.

Birch twigs now, and tiny flower shapes made of card,

glittery bits and gypsophila for Christmas 2012,

twinkling stars Christmas 2009, and at other times I use just ivy or some wild flowers, (though I've not photographed these, yet).

Love it!

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Simply Write and Simply Home....

21/2/2013

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Did you like yesterday's closing line? An unusual way to end a novel, isn't it! It is A S Byatt's The Virgin in The Garden.

I've got my camera back, and my husband - they've both been abroad. This was my Valentine's 'card' for him on his return....The paper hearts are made with a clever little punch, glued onto birch branches with PVA. Fun to do..

Quote for today! These are the last lines of a novel which won The Scotsman Scottish book of The Year in 1998 (I think):

Randel came back and pointed to various sections of the orchestra, and they stood. He looked down into the audience and beckoned Catherine with a high wave to the podium. Bravo. She rose.

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Simply Write..

20/2/2013

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Yesterday's opening lines were from Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim who was 'always happy out of doors...for indoors there are servants and furniture'. A delightful read.

These are the closing lines of a book (from which I quoted the opening lines)

That was not an end, but since it went on for a considerable time, is as good a place to stop as any.

Author?

Title?

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Simply Write..and think of Simply Growing....

19/2/2013

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Yesterday's quote was - Linda Grant's The Thoughtful Dresser.

Can you take many more of these I wonder....not sure if I can!

I ordered flower seeds from Sarah Raven today. Though many things in her catalogue are expensive, seeds are mostly a reasonable £1.95, and if you have the code from Gardens Illustrated there is 20% off.

Visions of a flower-filled garden, jugs of sweet peas, scent, colour, warmth, sunshine, abundance....

Here are the opening words of a book I'm sure many of you will have read:

May 7th. I love my garden. I am writing in it now in the late afternoon loveliness, much interrupted by the mosquitoes and the temptation to look at all the glories of the new green leaves washed half an hour ago in a cold shower. Two owls are perched near me, and are carrying on a long conversation that I enjoy as much as any warbling of nightingales.

Title?

Author?

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Simply Write..a beginning and an end....

18/2/2013

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One day last summer, at the moment of waking, I knew that I had to go out and buy new shoes.

So begins an enjoyable non fiction read published in 2009 which ends with:

Take pleasure, I thought: take it while you can.

Female, British, short listed for Man Booker novelist....

Any guesses as to author and title?

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Simply Eat..and make good choices....

17/2/2013

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Quick little post - we need to simply seek out places like this, tiny stall or large supermarket, and support what they are trying to do ....'put our money where our mouth is'.

Don't you think?

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Simply Eat..healthily, safely, ethically....

16/2/2013

4/2/2013

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Yesterday's opening line was from I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith.

It does get your attention doesn't it! A delightful read.

Cassandra, the speaker, says on page two

I am writing this journal partly to teach myself how to write a novel....It ought to be good for my style to dash along without much thought....but the author Dodie Smith, far from dashing along without much thought, in fact spent hundreds of hours editing (help!) and wrote a 100,000 word notebook on the progress of the novel, says Valerie Grove in her introduction in my Vintage Classics edition.

I think I have some work ahead of me..

Today's opening sentence is:

She had invited Alexander, whether on the spur of the moment or with malice aforethought, he did not know, to come and hear Flora Robson do Queen Elizabeth at The National Portrait Gallery.

Author?

Title?

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