I met a Postman while out with the dogs this morning, to be fair, I met two. They were sharing out the mail from the little red Royal Mail van into their wheeled post carts. I joked with him about them sending the postman out in packs these days and he told me it was progress. Then he made a comment that really struck home about the pace of living these days, he said "it was the new regime and that they don't have time to chat these days." Then he walked briskly away in the opposite direction, pulling his cart full of mail behind him. His pace was just short of a jog.
It seem a long way from the days where the same postman brought the mail and always knew who lived where. It brought to mind a time about 20 years ago when a friend of mine sent me a postcard from her holiday and only addressed to Jacqui & Ben, and although the she got right street name she got the number completely wrong and it would have been delivered around the corner and on the opposite side of the road. But our postman knew my name and knew my dog was called Ben and so delivered it to me. These days that would be considered using too much initiative.
Today's postman has reminded me how nostagic I get for times now lost to us before the pace of life got so crazy, when people had time to stop and chat, when we knew our neighbours and kids could play outside safely.
Oh, how old do I feel today!
Saturday, 28 September 2013
Saturday, 21 September 2013
Writing a Story Book for Children - Part 3, Research, research and more research.
The idea of writing a novel seems simple. You sit down with whatever medium you intend using and begin to let your imagination run.
If you set your work of fiction in a fictional place with fictional characters no one can question whether it is accurate or not. It just has to be believable.
I, on the other hand, have decided to set mine in a real place, in a real historical time. London, 1665. Building design, street layouts and much more changed in 1666 when it was rebuilt after the London fire, and there are no photos in the archives.
And so, the research I have done has been extensive, sometimes hours of research for one sentence on my novel. I am not writing about the specific event in 1665, that is simply the background setting but it is important to me that it is factually correct. For example, my first chapter started during a thunderstorm which I later had to change when I found out that the summer of 1665 was hot and dry and drought like.
Tonight's challenge was to find out when the moon was full in June 1665. It took a few tries in Google to get the words in the search correct, but finally I got the answer I wanted and only 10 minutes of searching.
I can't even imagine where I would have started to find that information in the years before Google. The hours I would have spent in Libraries, the places I would have travelled to, museums, galleries and much, much more. Maybe it would have been more fun to research in that manner but it would certainly have taken longer. For starters libraries here are not open in the evenings when I do most of my work.
Ah well, answer found, it's back to work...
Monday, 16 September 2013
Writing a Story Book for Children - Part 2
A few weeks further on and I now have over 19,000 words written and I am over half way through the book. The story is falling together nicely, and I keep referring back to my story line time scale to make sure everything is fitting together as it should.
It is based in the 17th century and I need it to be historically accurate so research is key. Thankfully the Internet is a massive resource and by checking several sites I can normally verify the facts as being correct. I cross reference them with my research book if the topic is covered and I am hopeful that I am producing a book that will not be littered with faux pas.
Obviously as I write I have had to consider my options for publishing and, in order to retain editorial control as well as a high royalty payment I have decided my first book will be self published. That then leads to a whole new avenue of research, and my mind is simply over run with options.
Nicely timed, an offer fell into my inbox from the company I did the initial course online with, this time it's was a course about self publishing with Kindle Direct. Again the cost was not excessive and having read what each course module covered I decided it would be beneficial to invest. This time there are 14 modules on a audio/video basis and, as before, there is a wealth of information covered that will be highly beneficial when I am ready to publish.
I am always amazed at coincidences and recently a conversation took place that again had me wondering at how small this world really is.
My job involves contacting customers about their account and over the few years I have worked at this job I have built a good rapport with a number of customers and we generally have a little chat before getting on with the main reason for the call. Such a conversation took place a few weeks ago with a customer who lives 250 miles from me. We have never met but talk 2 or 3 times a month on the phone. On this particular day we got discussing my day off and what I had been up to. She enquired whether I had spent the day at the local shopping mall, or lazing in a Spa. Neither, I informed her, I had been working on my book. She expressed an interest and I began to tell her a bit about it. I've always wanted to illustrate a book, says she. I'm looking for an illustrator, says I and hey presto, we are now in collaboration on the front cover to my story.
So, my labour of love continues. So far, the plot in my head is translating onto the page and seems to be working out as I hoped. In a few weeks the first draft will be done and the hard work of editing and proof reading will begin, in the meantime I am thoroughly enjoying this phase of writing, watching the story unfold and seeing my characters deal with the challenges I throw at them. I have experienced the times sitting at my desk waiting for inspiration to come and nothing, and equally I have the times when the story flows so well I am still typing at 2 and 3am. Sometimes a single sentence can lead to an entire chapter being written in one sitting and, if hubby is not around to refill my coffee mug, it can be hours before I realise I haven't had a break. I get totally absorbed in my story and I hope this will translate into readers being equally entranced by it.
It has been an ambition of mine for several years to see my name on a book, on a bookshelf, and it really is starting to feel as if this is one ambition I will achieve. And that is a real motivator to continue...
It is based in the 17th century and I need it to be historically accurate so research is key. Thankfully the Internet is a massive resource and by checking several sites I can normally verify the facts as being correct. I cross reference them with my research book if the topic is covered and I am hopeful that I am producing a book that will not be littered with faux pas.
Obviously as I write I have had to consider my options for publishing and, in order to retain editorial control as well as a high royalty payment I have decided my first book will be self published. That then leads to a whole new avenue of research, and my mind is simply over run with options.
Nicely timed, an offer fell into my inbox from the company I did the initial course online with, this time it's was a course about self publishing with Kindle Direct. Again the cost was not excessive and having read what each course module covered I decided it would be beneficial to invest. This time there are 14 modules on a audio/video basis and, as before, there is a wealth of information covered that will be highly beneficial when I am ready to publish.
I am always amazed at coincidences and recently a conversation took place that again had me wondering at how small this world really is.
My job involves contacting customers about their account and over the few years I have worked at this job I have built a good rapport with a number of customers and we generally have a little chat before getting on with the main reason for the call. Such a conversation took place a few weeks ago with a customer who lives 250 miles from me. We have never met but talk 2 or 3 times a month on the phone. On this particular day we got discussing my day off and what I had been up to. She enquired whether I had spent the day at the local shopping mall, or lazing in a Spa. Neither, I informed her, I had been working on my book. She expressed an interest and I began to tell her a bit about it. I've always wanted to illustrate a book, says she. I'm looking for an illustrator, says I and hey presto, we are now in collaboration on the front cover to my story.
So, my labour of love continues. So far, the plot in my head is translating onto the page and seems to be working out as I hoped. In a few weeks the first draft will be done and the hard work of editing and proof reading will begin, in the meantime I am thoroughly enjoying this phase of writing, watching the story unfold and seeing my characters deal with the challenges I throw at them. I have experienced the times sitting at my desk waiting for inspiration to come and nothing, and equally I have the times when the story flows so well I am still typing at 2 and 3am. Sometimes a single sentence can lead to an entire chapter being written in one sitting and, if hubby is not around to refill my coffee mug, it can be hours before I realise I haven't had a break. I get totally absorbed in my story and I hope this will translate into readers being equally entranced by it.
It has been an ambition of mine for several years to see my name on a book, on a bookshelf, and it really is starting to feel as if this is one ambition I will achieve. And that is a real motivator to continue...
Sunday, 1 September 2013
Canon EOS download to tablet.
Every now and then there is a problem to solve. This week was how to get my photos from my Canon EOS 400D to my Android tablet so I can view them wherever I am, that way if I haven't got the photo I want I can try again before I leave.
The 400D does not have a screen that shows a live image, only shows the photo once it's taken and in strong sunlight, the small screen can be difficult to see clearly. So, the idea of downloading them to my tablet and viewing them over a cuppa sounded like a good plan.
And that was where the first difficulty came. Because I don't have a live screen I couldn't find an app to allow me to transfer the photos. After trying a combination of cables and a number of apps we came to the conclusion the easiest route would be a card reader. I found one on Ebay for £2.95 (Free P&P) and it arrived a couple of days later.
I put the CF card in and cabled it up to the tablet and tried to work out how to get the photos from the card to my tablet. Again, I downloaded a variety of apps and none of them worked. I eventually got the card reader to be acknowledged by the tablet, but it would show any files. After a further 15 minutes trying all kinds of things, it occurred to me to check whether there was anything on the card. A swapped it to the laptop and discovered the card was blank.
A few more minutes and I had several shots of Brandy to try moving onto the tablet. This time it saw the files straight away but couldn't display them. A bit more head scratching and break for a cuppa and I had a brainwave. I shoot my photos in Raw format, maybe I needed an app to deal with that. I bit more Googling and I downloaded RawDroid, a free app, and hey presto, there were my photos of Brandy, neatly arranged on my tablet. I could open them up, view them in enough detail to know whether I have the photo I want or if I need to try again before I leave my chosen place.
It's very satisfying when things finally work how they should. Now I just need somewhere to go and try it out. Oh, and I now have another item to make sure is fully charged before I leave the house.
The 400D does not have a screen that shows a live image, only shows the photo once it's taken and in strong sunlight, the small screen can be difficult to see clearly. So, the idea of downloading them to my tablet and viewing them over a cuppa sounded like a good plan.
And that was where the first difficulty came. Because I don't have a live screen I couldn't find an app to allow me to transfer the photos. After trying a combination of cables and a number of apps we came to the conclusion the easiest route would be a card reader. I found one on Ebay for £2.95 (Free P&P) and it arrived a couple of days later.
I put the CF card in and cabled it up to the tablet and tried to work out how to get the photos from the card to my tablet. Again, I downloaded a variety of apps and none of them worked. I eventually got the card reader to be acknowledged by the tablet, but it would show any files. After a further 15 minutes trying all kinds of things, it occurred to me to check whether there was anything on the card. A swapped it to the laptop and discovered the card was blank.
A few more minutes and I had several shots of Brandy to try moving onto the tablet. This time it saw the files straight away but couldn't display them. A bit more head scratching and break for a cuppa and I had a brainwave. I shoot my photos in Raw format, maybe I needed an app to deal with that. I bit more Googling and I downloaded RawDroid, a free app, and hey presto, there were my photos of Brandy, neatly arranged on my tablet. I could open them up, view them in enough detail to know whether I have the photo I want or if I need to try again before I leave my chosen place.
It's very satisfying when things finally work how they should. Now I just need somewhere to go and try it out. Oh, and I now have another item to make sure is fully charged before I leave the house.
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