Messing

Some days, you've got to get outside... Six quid, well spent at the University of Nottingham.  Hope you're enjoying the sunshine - don't forget the sunscreen.

`This has been a wonderful day!' said he, as the Rat shoved off and took to the sculls again. `Do you know, I`ve never been in a boat before in all my life.'

`What?' cried the Rat, open-mouthed: `Never been in a--you never--well I--what have you been doing, then?'

`Is it so nice as all that?' asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under him.

`Nice? It's the ONLY thing,' said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke. `Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING--absolute nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,' he went on dreamily: `messing--about--in--boats; messing----'

extract from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Timing

Another trip which came at just the right time.

I've just finished a major edit on my YA novel Coalface - a big challenge, but one that's made the story stronger and shorter at the same time.  So it's time to look at new stories - and old ones...

I found this recreation of a bedsit in Southwell Workhouse.  In the seventies, it became a refuge for people waiting for a council house.  

The kitchenette they've set up got me thinking about the scruffy flat above the costumiers where Hidden Daughter's anti-heroine Penny repairs clothes, tries to do right by her Catherine with soup and fish fingers, and occasionally time-travels.

If you think this is scruffy for the seventies (it was, deliberately so), there's no surprises for guessing what turbulent teenager Cate thinks of coming home to something like this in 1987...

Lots of thoughts, lots of ideas... and a new challenge.  Time to get stuck in again.

Editing and Tailoring

Edits of Coalface continue this week - the great thing of rewrites is I take a fresh look at elements of the story I thought were great, and get the chance to make them even better.
The downside is, when you've resolved one plot point, another three unresolved plot points pop up...

It's tricky work, then something lands in your laptop that keeps you going.

I'm a scribbler when it comes to illustrating the alternative Victorian England of Coalface - drawings with a lot of passion, but not much accuracy.



Stirling Single at NRM pic: wikipedia

I'm always on the lookout for things that reflect what I'm trying to bring to the page, and I have to give a big thankyou to Tor.com for posting some fantastic David Sims pics of Prada's forthcoming range of menswear.  The choice of actors to model the outfits is inspired, turning the shoot into something that crackles with potential for me as a writer.


If you want an idea of what Coalface looks like in my head as I'm writing and editing it, (and what I'm saving up to add to my wardrobe as of today) - this is a good place to start - just add one of these in the background...

Out and About - Lanhydrock

Inspiration comes in all sorts of places – one of the strangest things is when it comes back to meet you when you visit somewhere again…

Lanhydrock has been a National Trust house since the 1970s – it’s interesting because the exterior of the building is thoroughly Elizabethan, but a 19th c. fire gutted one half of the building.  The result is a Victorian version of Grand Designs, with the cutting edge of gadgets and ‘in’ designs of 1883 rubbing shoulders with the ancient plasterwork in the long gallery.



It’s my second visit to one of the places that fuelled my imagination as I began to create the alternate Victorian England of Coalface, and has inspired some of the places Cole encounters in his quest to avenge his father’s death.  The whole house exudes a unique character, so much so that it influenced one of my favourite lines in the story.  I’m working through re-edits of Coalface at the moment; fingers crossed the sentence makes the next edit – you never know until you finish.

I took these snaps at Lanhydrock while my tent was being tested to destruction on the Cornish coastline – I lost the tent, but got the pictures –enjoy.