Author: Nat

Sep 6, 2009 by

Foody Friday: Jams, Jellies and Marmalades

Quick rec: Sarah Rees Brennan is posting short stories to celebrate significant milestones in sales of her current book. The Arundel Tomb is a moving YA story of friendship, love and being afraid of yourself.

It’s September, and it’s definitely gone all autumnal round here. Autumn means fruit harvest, and fruit harvest means a glut of fruit. And what do you do with so much fruit? Make jam! This month’s Foody Fridays are really encouraging you to just get out there, find some briars or bushes or trees, and help yourself to their free food. Just, you know, make sure it’s actually edible first. No poisoning yourselves!

We’ll start with something most people probably haven’t eaten: Quince Marmalade. Why? Because it was the first.

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Aug 31, 2009 by

Foody Friday: Sorbet

It’s a bank holiday weekend, this totally counts as a Friday! I’d tell you what next month’s theme is, but I’ve misplaced my post-it note that tells me (to be honest, the fact I’ve managed to hang on to a post-it note for 8 months is fairly impressive!). I think it’s jam. If I don’t find the post-it by next friday, it’s definitely jam.

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Aug 29, 2009 by

Competition Entries (In Spaaaaaace…)

I’ve sent off two 25 word pieces to Hint Fiction, and three 100 word pieces to The Drabbler.

Sorbet recipes will probably happen tomorrow (or possibly later today). The bank holiday weather is being suitably bank-holiday-ish and non-ice-creamy. I’ve failed to do any editing on Firebird, my submission for the f/f fairy tale anthology, or Julia Can’t.

I’ve also informed Richard Branson that Virgin Galactic “makes me speechless with glee”*. Because it does! They’re building an actual Space Port in New Mexico. Space is incredibly exciting right now, with the pledges to get back to the moon by 2020 and talk of manned missions to Mars (and the fact I just finished Wyndham’s The Outward Urge which has reminded why I love Sci Fi). I have a beginning of a novel in my head in which a Virgin Galatic (or fictional equivalent if they won’t let me use their name) stewardess ends up part of a planet saving mission to the moon, since there’s no government rockets ready in time. Same kind of tone as The Dark, so I’m going to try and finish that before I start this one.

Seriously. A Space Port. We’re half a step away from jetpacks and silver lycra now, people!

*If they don’t want excitedly sci-fi fans flailing at them they shouldn’t put a Comments box on the sign up form for their newsletter! I mean, Richard Branson probably won’t read it, but I like to think at a board meeting at some point, while quoting the stats for “Reasons Why People Haven’t Brought Tickets”, some e-communications technician might mention the overwhelming flood of positive feeling toward the project. Maybe?

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Aug 25, 2009 by

Silence or Sound?

Ever have one of those moments when a story just crystalises, and you have to get it on paper right that second? It’s a brilliant moment, but annoying, too. I had a brainwave in the middle of yoga, which really did no favours for the meditation at the end (a still and quiet mind? not mine) and resulted in a swift walk home and attempting to write and cook at the same time. My new toy allows me to, but if I keep it up my new toy isn’t going to live long!

Anyway, it’s 800 words perfect for something like Take-a-Break with a little editing, which is good. And speaking of editing, I’m doing th Swan Made ones now. I’m annoyed at myself because I did half of it yesterday, but didn’t realise I was saving it to the Temp folder. When I couldn’t find it I downloaded the edits again, which meant I overwrote the Temp file anyway. So, annoyed.

But, to go back to an earlier point: meditation. One of the things the DCE writing group did was hold hands and “clear our minds”. Now, aside from the fact that I’m not much of a meditator anyway – I try, but the closer I get the more likely I am to doze off! – that’s just not how writing works for me. I need a busy mind, so I can magpie the shiney bits of my own thoughts and save them for later. I’m not much of a believer in muses and creative spirits anyway, but it’s little observations and thoughts that I find inspiring, not stillness and peace. Observations like the woman next to me at yoga being stopped repeatedly because, being pregnant, she couldn’t do the positions the rest of us were.

How about everyone else? Peace and quiet or busy and distracted?

Speaking of distracted, I’m completely multitasking here and listening to a very creepy ghost story on BBC iPlayer. If you can get iPlayer, have a listen.

In Canon Fodder, Holidays and Courses, Writing
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