August has been... about gardening

 

Part of our garden; my veg plot in the left background.

It wasn’t supposed to be about gardening. It was supposed to be about lazing on a sunlounger with my Kindle in one hand and a cool glass of fizz in the other. Or, if pushed, a notebook and pen for when the muse decided to strike a glancing blow with her serrated wand.

Instead, it has been mostly cutting back spent blooms and staking survivors against the wind, which on some days has sounded as if a winter gale attempting to suck out the double glazing, or doggedly putting in a shift with the watering can in the early evening beneath a clear sky when it has been cloudy throughout normal daytime. Or, as happened twice, running round the house with a rain-hat on my head and an old bath towel over the shoulders of my clothing, bucketing water from one set of overflowing barrels to the other which were gaining a mere trickle from the roof in comparison. Rain, I always thought, was supposed to fall straight, not near enough horizontally. Not in August.

As I write this, and yes it is Bank Holiday weekend when the town should be full to bursting with holidaymakers building sandcastles and throwing themselves gleefully into the sea, the breeze is buffeting what are left of the flowers, it is drizzling on and off, and the temperature is only 3C warmer than Iceland – and Iceland is having a bad day. Spring was late and now Autumn is early. At this rate we'll soon be eating stew and dumplings.

But back to the writing. Have I been doing any? Yes, though it could hardly be described as intensively. I so admire those novelists who can let all the extraneous bits of life and constant interruptions flow around them without derailment.

However, there is good news: I have titles on promotion during part of September, so sign up in the right column to Follow the Blog to have the info delivered to your inbox as soon as it becomes available. You might even enjoy some of them. And I promise not to grumble about the weather. Well, half promise.

July has been... about reading books

 

Part of the Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice at Postman's Park, London (click image to enlarge)

I entered the month reading Matthew Harffy’s Wolf of Wessex. Set in 838AD, it tells of widower Dunstan, an ageing ex hearth companion of note, living a lone existence in a forest while attempting to put the deeds and misdeeds of his youth in order before he is reunited with his wife. 

Coming across a mutilated body starts him on a trail well-worn by Westerns, Mysteries, and a whole host of adventure fiction, in print and on screen, but this did not detract at all. The joy in reading Harffy’s tales is learning aspects of the Anglo-Saxon way of life, the beliefs and superstitions rising from it, how and what to forage in the forest for food, down to the system of enforcing law codes when most of the population was illiterate. 

It was a joy to read, and I shall doubtless return to it.

 

 

A news article prompted me to check out Laura Dodsworth’s A State Of Fear – How The Government Weaponised Fear During The Covid-19 Pandemic. Unfortunately, its title says it all. Despite it ticking a lot of lurking suspicions, reading it was an eye-opener, as was the history of such “persuasions” all the way back to Freud. 

Remember the early video of China’s people keeling over in the street and medics in hazmat suits running into shot to help? Yeah, right. Information “leaked” to the press, such then being dismissed by Government, only for the “leaked” info to be implemented weeks later? It’s called seeding – well, of course it is, every novelist uses the technique in writing fiction; so how naive was I for not recognising it being practised under my nose? Even the orchestration of the “clap for the NHS”, which I always thought emotionally manipulative, er… was. And Mainstream Media? It just moved from Project Fear Brexit to Project Fear Covid, and remains fixed there. 

The book is, of course, being condemned as conspiracy theory. I’d suggest detractors explain the content of 25 pages of referenced footnotes.  

And so to the image at the top of this post. 

We’ve been in London, for the first time staying within the precincts of ‘The City’, which more or less encompasses the area of Roman Londinium and much of what became the medieval capital. Unexpectedly still under lockdown, most of London was either shut or entry by timed-ticket only. Plan B meant we did a lot of exploratory walking, often taking in the smaller, hidden, gardens which are London’s best-kept secret.

Postman’s Park is one of these, and within its oasis of greenery and flowerbeds we came upon the Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice, opened in 1900. George F Watts, a renowned artist of the period, had proposed a memorial to ordinary men, women and children who had given their lives endeavouring to save the life of another. Only 54 of the originally envisaged 120 ceramic plaques were raised. They make stark, yet valiant, reading.

John Price, some hundred years after the official opening, merely sought a quiet spot for his lunch, but was so awed by these snapshots of history that it caused an abrupt change in career. He moved into academia and ended up as a professor of Modern History, specifically, it seems, to enable him to research and write Heroes of Postman’s Park – Heroic Self-Sacrifice in Victorian London which details the lives and times of those whose scant information adorns the memorial. I’ve only dipped in to the book so far, but can tell it is going to make riveting reading.

Enjoy your August.

Hello from Linda Acaster's Blog!

This post is for people who signed up, probably years ago, to receive my blog posts direct to your Inbox (~~waves~~ and thank you!). It was run by Feedburner, which I thought was doing a decent job but it seems may not have been. So if you haven't heard from me for a few months, this explains a lot.

However, Feedburner is closing next month, and so I've sought a replacement - hence the green all-singing, all-dancing email from follow.it you will, hopefully, have received to read this.

To keep receiving my blog posts - currently only one a month - you may need to confirm the feed if asked, or you may need to do nothing. To unsubscribe, there should be an Unsubscribe link. I'll be sorry to see you go, but if you haven't heard from me for a while, I quite understand. No one likes to be messed about.

For anyone picking up this post on a link, if you want to subscribe please choose the form 'Get new blogposts by email' form on the right. As an incentive, there will be news of a new Mystery title coming shortly.

Regards to everyone - Linda

Writer Blowout: 10 Books To Help Hone Your Craft

 

David Gaughran's Blowout runs until 4th June

Yes, it's the end of May already, and the wettest, dullest, chilliest May since... Ahem! Didn't we do this in April? Unfortunately, yes. And as I write, here in the UK it is the close of the Late May Bank Holiday. Most of the country has been basking in sunshine all weekend; here on the Yorkshire coast we've had low cloud and sea mist. It's enough to send a writer screaming to her desk.

Which I have been doing (not the screaming bit, though I've been sorely tempted on occasions). No fainting at the back there, but the Mystery novella is on its final stretch, with the finish line in sight. More on that next month, if not before.

If you are a writer, you may have heard of David Gaughran, a dynamo of a facilitator and a damned good Historical novelist to boot. He runs the free 'Starting From Zero' course (with no added extras needing payment), and has a very decent weekly marketing tips newsletter, again for free. So what's the catch, you may ask? There really isn't one. Occasionally he may ask for a Twitter or Facebook share, but that's it. And this is one of those occasions, which segued easily into my monthly blog.

David has put together a list of ten ebooks he's read - always a good start - which offer value for novelists. He's taking an affiliate cut, the authors take their own sales proceeds, and the rest of us get to see books that may not have crossed our radar but may well help our writing. And who among us doesn't want that? 

The Blowout runs until 4th June, so don't delay. For links to participating retailers visit:
https://davidgaughran.com/promos/writer-blowout-2021/