HI, MY NAME IS HARI ORME. OR IS IT?

It must be Sunday, I'm thinking about six sentences. :)

With a huge thanks to Danette, the opening of STARRING has been rewritten. 

While I was in America - and not burning my butt, or reading, or a combination of the two - I was working on the new opening. 

I have written the sections joining up the inciting incident that was so extreme it got our hero sent to boarding school with the events that made him decide to run away even though he has nowhere to go.

STARRING

Chapter 1

Inside Out

The sunlight broke through miserable clouds and almost immediately the puddles steamed and fogged the main window of the tiger enclosure. Glancing around, relieved no one was near, Hari placed his hand flat against the glass and rubbed a circle clear.

The prowling Sumatran tiger closed the distance between them. Showing teeth and a cavernous mouth, the tiger turned its head and lapped at the drops misting the inside of the window. It gnawed at the surface where Hari’s hand still rested.

 “Hey there, Little Brother. I told you I’d come.”

Did you spot the name change?

The hero of the story is/was called Lucas Orme but I've had to argue the case for "Lucas' parents" against "Lucas's parents" too often. 

Am I over-stressing?

I decided the most simple solution was to find a different name for the boy's parents to saddle him with: 

• They are obsessed with their work on tiger conservation
• The Malay for tiger is Harimau 

They were more than likely to do it to their son: Hari Orme.

There is a problem with naming the hero of a book about a boy who is sent to a boarding school that aims to ensure an all-round education including magical studies Hari but I can't quite remember what it might be ;) 

I've been learning from the Plain English Guidelines

• The problems of unclear writing
• Choosing an appropriate style for the audience
• Different writing styles
• Suggestions for clear writing
• Active and passive verbs
• Getting rid of redundant words
• Shortening sentences
• Making sentences positive instead of negative
• Revealing hidden verbs

WRITING UNPLUGGED - IT IS AMAZING HOW MUCH YOU CAN GET DONE ;)

Waterstones - untouched during the riots.
Do you think the looters figured
the books were cheaper on Amazon? ;)
It's a good job I'm law abiding.

I am horrified by my disjointed blog-posting regime, I plan to get back on track soon.

Part of the problem was the amount of time I spent watching the news when civil disobedience and mob rule tried to become the norm, in England.

I have also spent time writing. Unplugged. It was scary but productive.

We were working on style and voice, I plan to write some short post on some of the things we covered.

Plus points:

It is still the long summer holidays

Having Mum within easy distance is sooo good

There are sliding doors on my wardrobes

I'm writing

Less-plus points:

Arrangements for my son to move to some form of independent living are gathering momentum

My daughter is organising for V-fest and talking about going back to Manchester Uni like it is her real-life (which it is)

My management training course is finished and I've booked up for a writing course ;)

Today's reading in the Daily Mail on-line turned up news only slightly less horrible than 

watching live-streams of greed:

Researchers have genetically engineered goats to produce milk packed with the same protein as silk spiders.

The protein is then milked out and spun and weaved into a material ten times stronger than steel.

I can see advantages in creating lightweight, protective clothing for the Police, I can even see it as a useful device in works of fiction, but – Frankenstein-lives – imagine the researchers taking their work further. It is only a short stagger to imagine them making a few genetic modifications and creating bulletproof human skin just like they made fabric from spider silk and goat milk.

How are things going with you? Are you feeling good about your writing progress?

NOVEL INSPIRATION

Author, Tony Parsons, has moved into Heathrow Airport. For a week, he has been awarded unrestricted access to the busy international airport.

From the air control tower to the departure and arrivals halls, Tony Parsons is allowed to roam the terminals seeking inspiration for a series of short stories.

What an opportunity.

A single glove on a wall; an individual at the end of a busy bench; fractured and fraught families: I find airports painfully full of possibilities.

Just walking through an airport disturbs clouds of possibilities, all emotionally swarming and endlessly buzzing.  

Diverse business are becoming involved in projects where they engage an artist-in-residence.

Imagine the painter James Hart Dyke – sketch book, pen, and camera in his hands – spying on MI6. 

Picture the efforts of artist Neville Gabie as he captures the transformation of east London during the run-up to the Olympics.

London Zoo had an artist-in-residence too but they probably didn’t notice when I went to measure the tiger enclosure to see how hard it would be for Lucas – in STARRING – to break in.

Where have you found inspiration?

USA DAZE

Holiday break - part one.

New York was the essence of everything sultry and hot. I took a leaf out of the Tourists' Handbook and ticked off as many as possible ;)  

San Francisco was the essence of extremes, I've never needed to put on and taken off a jacket so often.

Los Angeles sprawled, lavish and splendid - all stars and signs.

I was sad I couldn't fit Carpinteria into my suitcase, I want that town.

I walked the length and breadth of San Ysidro - shopping and footbridges.

Tijuana - over the border, in Mexico - was an extreme contrast.

I apologise to all the places I haven't mentioned yet, I loved every minute of my holiday.

I sat on more beautiful beaches than I can count, read over ten books but wrote only about 1,000 words.

It will come as no surprise that I toasted my head which is a great place for sunburn, almost as good as burning my bum and I did that too ;)

Holiday break - part two.

I'm away again, from today. I'm helping my Mum move house, as she is down-sizing. I'm going to need magical assistance, Hermionie's handbag might be nearly large enough to fit all the stuff Mum wants to bring to her new flat. 

Summer break? ;)

Hope you are having a productive holiday. Have you considered doing Camp NaNoWriMo? 

MY BAGS ARE PACKED, THE OTHER PILE IS JUST WASHING - WAITING AND WISHING - someone, please tell my partner to pack

Sorry for not finding the time to update my blog, but I've been researching and writing three reports for my Learning Champions Course. 


I've got the next workshop/turorial tomorrow. 


There are still seven sections including a one-to-one tutorial to complete before the portfolio of work can be collected and assessed. 


This is the place where I'm supposed to say it's a shame my holiday is booked for Friday. 


It is NOT a shame. It is busy-busy. ;)


When I'm not working, studying or sleeping I'm re-reading Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows ready for midnight plus one minute-into-Friday-morning when my roomy, leather chair is waiting for me in my local cinema :D


My schedule is cramped, for the next couple of weeks:


Cinema ends 3:00 am.
Journey to the airport 10:00 am
Flight 2:30 pm
Via Reykjavik 
Arriving in New York some-time-later on Friday :D


I've packed running shoes, we are going to be chasing around New York so we can see a fraction of everything on our Gotta-see List.


Late Monday, we fly to San Francisco and jog around there for a few days hoping to see everything we planned into the itinerary glint by.


We are tacking a route along the coast to include Monterey, Big Sur, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, several more spots before Solvang (Hi, Sherrie,) San Diego, Santa Monica and, of course, Los Angeles.


I'm so excited I've packed, unpacked and re-packed again - packing-lean has never weighed so much;)


I've also packed my writing notebook and some serious-amounts-of reading material but I think this is not the lying about with a sandy novel kind of holiday.


I'll update the blog as much as I can, when I'm away, but chances are I won't make it much further than Twitter and an overexcited Facebook status or two.


Happy holidays to everyone.


Are you counting down to your holiday too? 

SHUTTLE OFF FOLLOWED BY SPLASHBACK

          

The five space shuttles transported  355 astronauts.

There have been 134 missions.

Shuttles have travelled a total of half a billion miles in space.

The ground crew and astronauts have been routinely heroic. 

Nothing I have read about the replacements sound anything like as versatile as the space shuttle.

I wonder what the new craft might look like?

How far we will we expect the next generation of brave explorers to go?

We use vast sums of money to fund our ability to look outwards, do we suffer from insatiable curiosity or planet envy?

Could it be that we have we lost hope in our ability to protect and share the Earth? 

Where is X-33? I can't help thinking the Orion rocket looks - splash-back-to-the-future - limited.