Last Push for Final Portfolio

Well, here I am having worked all day on my final porfolio. I'm off work all this week, so can devote all my time to licking it into shape. I have almost finished the self-reflective critical essay, which was no mean feat I can tell you. I called into the bindery today and priced-up, got turnaround times etc. I'm taking the work in there on 20th August, picking it up on 24th August, handing it in to Uni on 1st September.

Once it's gone, it's gone. Shudder!

Inspirational T.V. Writer at Uni...read on...

Terry Cafolla came to Lancaster Uni on Thursday to talk about working in T.V. He's very friendly, informative and eager to pass on tips and information. He's one of the writers on Law and Order UK, which I really enjoyed. Looking forward to the next series.

One thing that struck me was how ordinary he is. No airs and graces. I don't know why, but you tend (or is it just me) to imagine that those who have made it in tv etc, will be beyond you in some way. Of course, it's nonsense.

Terry did an M.A at Lancaster too, which inspired me somewhat!!

Okay, I'm a short story writer/novel writer (aspiring), but Terry BEGAN with poetry, so whoooooooooooooo!!! I too will take a screenwriting course.

M.A. Creative Writing Update

It doesn't seem two minutes since I started the course at Lancaster. It all began last October and I now find myself with just ten weeks left to get the novel finished, edited, edited again and again, polished, until at last the final draft is ready to be submitted on 1st September. Think Victor Meldrew: "I doooon't believe it."

But before that I have the pleasure of going for afternoon tea to the Lake District with the gals on the course. That's next Tuesday, and boy, am I going to enjoy those sandwiches, tea and cakes!!!!!

I'll keep you posted.

HAPPY EASTER!!

Five Minute Chocolate Mug Cake!

I had to share this, passed on by a very good friend, Quillers:

LINK TO QUILLERS' BLOG

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.

Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.

Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous). And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

What I Hope to Achieve in 2010 - Five Things

Now here! Listen. These are the achievable things I WILL nail in this brand new shiny year.

1: Keep up with and finish the novel by September 2010, when it'll be due in for Uni assessment.

2: Analyse and break down novels and scripts to gain a better understanding of the processes.

3: Keep writing scripts.

4: Enter a few scriptwriting competitions and short story competitions to keep my hand in. You've got to be in it to win it, as they so rightly say.

5: Make myself pick up that pen every day, or tinker at the p.c. and write words every single day.

There you have it. Five things isn't over-facing. I think I may be able to stomach it. :-)

Blog TakeOver - Who, Me? I Live Here Don't I??

I'm a character out of Antonia's book, but I'm sure I existed and lived here before her anyway.

My name is Joe. I'm blonde, with a hint of strawberry - shaggy hair, blue eyes, icy if you must know, and a mouth that doesn't turn down too much at the corners despite being thin.

I laugh a lot, am a wiry, lanky twenty-nine year old with a passion for Lowry paintings. Antonia reckons I like to think I'm Lowry, but I don't, I just like to think I can paint like him.

See, I never was good for much at school; I could draw, but only stick-like fashion, and sketches that created childish scenes. Then I discovered Lowry and saw that he'd made stick-drawing fashionable. So I practised didn't I? I practised all the time, until I made those stick figures a bit livelier, yes, with personalities of their own, even though their features became muted and bland and sometimes even featureless, yet retaining a semblance of a self.

I learnt how to draw a group of people so that it looked like they were one, and busy, and industrial or poignant in some way.

So, I aint the ghost of Lowry, see. I could paint you, Antonia, and fashion you into stick and merge you with a crowd like a giant colourful mural; you could be on a street somewhere in the north, tiny red hat perched on your head, brown woollen coat clutched about you, lacy red brolly perched on the end of a slim, bony wrist.

What? You are doing that right now?

See, I told you I lived here. It was me that made YOU!

Happy New Year!

Best wishes for 2010. Art by Georgia.

I'm writing this now, because I won't see a pc until 1st Jan over on the other side. I'll write a list of 2009 Year Out achievements and 2010 Year In Goals, as soon as I can.

Mwah!

Blog Takeover Day x Two

Remember the last Blog Takeover Day? Miss Havisham paid a visit.

BLOG TAKEOVER X ONE LINK HERE

See older posts for more.

Well it starts again on 1st January 2010. You can choose whoever you like to take over your Blog for the day, could be a character of yours, a famous character, or just anyone real or fictional.

If you can't start on the 1st, don't worry, start whenever you like.


For more info see Quiller's Place.

LINK HERE TO QUILLER'S PLACE

Twitter Play - Actress Kiki Kendrick Plays The Character I Wrote!

Remember the Twitter radio play? Here's a reminder of when it all kicked off:

LINK TO MY PREVIOUS TWITTER PLAY BLOG POST.

Kiki Kendrick plays @fragharpy, or Francine Harpur when she aint Tweeting. They've recorded ALL of @fragharpy's tweets, and now on to the next four characters.

LINK TO KIKI KENDRICK'S WEBSITE.

Update here:

LINK TO RFM PLAY BLOG.

WOW!

Happy Christmas!!

I'd just like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas, and a Wonderful New Year 2010.

Hope you all get what you want from Santa. Eat drink and be merry!! May your stockings be full, and your bellies without griping pains.

Have your name immortalised in print by Kate Long

Read all about this fantastic charity: The Quintessentially Foundation supports charitable activity worldwide that improves the health, education and welfare of disadvantaged communities...LINK HERE


Novelist, Kate Long (writer of The Bad Mother's Handbook and more) will immortalise your name in her next novel. You need to be in it to win it, so go do your BIDDING!

BID HERE ON E BAY

Kate Long's Website: LINK HERE

Writers' Retreat - Criccieth

I'm off to Criccieth tomorrow, yippee!! It's the writers' retreat, tied in with the Masters degree. We have to read a lot, write a lot, and take it in turns to cook once a week. I am so looking forward to this experience, though feel strangely nervous/excited. Hell, if I can move to Uni lock stock and barrel, I can do this little thing, eh?

I will report on my return.

Novel Talk

Well, I'm finding out more about the novel as I write it. I'm now doing a pov from Grandma's perspective. Her Granddaughter goes to visit Grandma often, and lets her talk about the old days.

I'm writing Grandma's memories in a kind of monologue at the moment, and I'm hoping that works. I say monologue because after an initial short para when Granddaughter goes round to Grandma's, the rest of it is Grandma talking about her memories.

The way I'm writing this novel now, with Grandma's monologues, I'm able to release information about things that might have played a part in making the MC behave the way she is. Of course, we can only rely on Grandma's memory of what took place, so that, in a sense, makes it unreliable, though still, hopefully, believable.

Hmmmm, Time - for New Novel

I've written the first chapter! Or thereabouts. Now, because I'm submitting my novel extracts to the MA workshops, I have to have stuff in and ready, so I'm being MADE to write it.

This is good in some ways, yet I now find myself not knowing enough about the novel I now want to write. Or should I say enough about how the plot might evolve. So with that in mind, I plan to do a bit of planning over the weekend.

I'm going to miss out on subbing some work for next Thursday's workshop, which is fine to do every now and then. I do have something already subbed for next Tuesday's workshop, so while I think and plan I'm still going to get feedback on what I've already written. It'll just give me that bit of extra time to try to find meaning to what I'm writing, a shape or a form, might be a start. I also want to think a bit about story and character motivation.

New Novel

I'm thinking about what to write in a new novel. Over the last few years I've had a few novel ideas, started them, and always, enthusiasm for the idea has either petered out, or it hasn't seemed like the novel I really want to write.

I don't know why this is. I think I need to really look at what I want to say, at the style, content, genre. I want to think hard about this over the next week or so, because I could write this novel as part of my Creative Writing M.A.

I love reading about families, how they function, or not in some cases. It's a good idea to write about what you like reading about, I think. So...thinking...thinking...

University Blogging

I've finally managed to open the elusive DOCx files. After spending far too many hours on trying all sorts of ways to open the documents, I finally downloaded File Format Converters.

It won't work with Internet Explorer, but it does work with Firefox. Now, I don't know if that's because of the UNI server, or what.

Anyway, I can finally open everyone's docs, which is good news. I didn't want to have to keep asking people to send me the old word doc files, or paste into the body of an e mail, which one kind student did for me.

I didn't want to have to go to the library either, not when I have my own pc and printer set up here in my flat. It really annoyed me, the thought of having to go to the library. I mean, I work three full days each week, too, so it's not as though I have all the time in the world.

Computer related stuff really does my head in sometimes, especially when I can't get things to work. But hey, I can now relax in the knowledge that I CAN OPEN ANY DOCUMENTS I LIKE!!!

University Blogging cont...

Had my second workshop on Thursday. Very good! I was a tad confused about which students were submitting work on which days. See, Tuesdays we have workshops with both full-time students and part-time students. Thursdays it's just for full-timers. Part-timers, plus one of the full-time students (to make up the numbers) were asked to submit their work on Wednesday.

I was under the impression that the full-timers didn't have to read and critique the part-timers' work, but we do. To add to that, the full-timers who have a workshop on Thursdays, have to submit their work on-line by lunchtime Friday, ready for the following week's Thursday workshop. I work Fridays, so had to get it in on Thursday evening at the latest. With me so far? No, I'm not surprised.

The worst bit is that I couldn't open quite a few of the docs that had been submitted, as they were in Docx format, apparently the latest in Word.

Anyway, I e-mailed to say I was having problems and some of the students have re-submitted to me in the 'old' Word doc format, but some haven't yet got back to me. I have to have six critiques ready for Tuesday morning. I work all day Monday, so that leaves, just Sunday. Sigh.

University Blogging - First Workshop

I've had my first workshop! It went really well, and I'm going to love it! Even managed to write something and read it out. It was interesting to get a flavour of what the workshops will entail. We studied a photograph and wrote our own take on the pic, from either the person in the photo or the person taking the photo, or any other way you liked.

I could not believe that three of us were late for the FIRST EVER WORKSHOP!! We were told Meeting Room One. I followed the signs to Seminar Room One. They're one and the same, right? WRONG! Three forlorn students stood outside this room for five minutes. One of the students then said something about engineering. I looked at the guy standing across from me. I'd seen him at the welcome meeting so knew he was part of my group. "Erm, aren't you in creative writing?" I asked the other guy. He said, "Nope, engineering."

We hot-footed it up the stairs, where we found yet another of our brood (also late) and found MEETING ROOM ONE, the class already underway. Luckily for us the tutor was very understanding. Still, I felt very silly and stupid. What's the motto? Research your venue!

Later, I'm going to my first lecture, 5 pm until 6 pm: The Writing as Practice Lectures (inc Plaigiarism) with George Green.

There's Friday lectures too, 12 until 1 pm. But sadly, it's a working day for me, so I'll miss them, unless I'm on annual leave or flexi day, then I'll try to catch the odd one.

But, it's underway folks. Uni life really has begun. Here. Right now.

University Blogging - The Accommodation

Did I mention our accommodation at Uni? No? Okay, well, do you know, I'm pleasantly surprised. I thought it was going to be much scruffier, with ancient fixtures and fittings, but no, it's very clean and modern. Having said that, this particular flat and block, and the few blocks adjoining are just over a year old.

We struck lucky I think, because the part of the Uni I initially requested to be housed in, is quite a long way from where my workshops are held, and further away from the main body of the Uni, and the inner spine which seems to lead to everywhere once you get used to it.

We arrived on the Saturday, found the porter's lodge with the help of a nice young girl in a blue 'helper' tee shirt. We got the keys, went up a few flights, opened the door...there was a surprisingly large double bedroom, with wet room en suite. Another door...da da! The living space, which if I'm totally honest threw me for a minute. I was looking for another door that might lead to a larger area...hmmmm...it is quite small, but it has a two seater settee, desk where the tv stands, and under-ped, another desk for pc and a kitchen area.

The flat has all mod cons, ya know, like toaster, microwave, iron, a cupboard out in the hallway that houses a mop and bucket, an ironing board (not used one of those for yonks) oven, hob.

Overall, once we'd got used to the small living area, it's a loveley flat. Do I detect a hint of optimism here in my scribblings? Am I almost saying I feel comfortable and fine with it all?

Not quite. Not yet. But I feel in my bones that day might come.