Monday 29 August 2022

So relaxed we are melting


 26th August

Relaxing nicely into the French experience. We eat our meals on the bolly beside the pool, and admire our efforts to tame the rampant greenery. Tonight we had salmon with nectarines, camembert, cornichons and black olives with salad, plus French bread with grains of mustard. A selection we would not think of in England. A swim every day for me, but not dh, who does not swim and cannot be persuaded into the water. We rescued a big green lizard who was so startled to see dh, he jumped aside and fell in the pool. We fished him out with the scoop and he scuttled off into the bushes. (I have so little internet access that I shall load pictures once I am home.)

We’ve never been here in August before and it is different. The heat is steady most of the day from 10am, with no wind, and the nights are pleasant. Saturday night we sat out until midnight and stared at the sky. There is little or no light pollution here, and the stars are amazing. Best of all there are no mosquitos! Though there are small things that bite flying about – we both have several lumps, bumps and bites to prove it. There are very few flowers in the fields and we have yet to hear the sound of a tractor – very different to earlier in the year when the farmers are rushing about growing and harvesting crops. The sunflowers on the hill opposite are still yellow, but won’t be for much longer.

There are few holiday makers around. We hear maybe one or two cars a day, which is staggering. Even white van man is not bombing around as he is in the early part of the year. I wonder if the holidaymakers have stayed home this year. The stream is so low it barely trickles over the stones and all the sunken wrecks of once proud trees are plain to see.

Perla thinks it is too darned hot. I must admit we spend a good deal of time in the shade of the bolly. Up early, we walk her while it is cool, do whatever tasks need doing and then relax for the rest of the day until wine o’clock ( at 4pm!) and dinner as the sun starts to go down.

With no access to Facebook et al, I have written the first chapter of a new historical romance set in, of all places, Newcastle!

Thursday 25 August 2022


23rd August

Travelling always has the potential for delight or disaster.

Bicycle in the Andes or Mercedes on the M1, the chance is always present. Our trip down the A1 proved uneventful and we made good time to Folkstone. No terrible traffic queues, the pet reception people were friendly and we got onto the train before the one we had booked. Chortling, we settled down for the journey under the Channel.

That’s when the PA system informed us that “a train has stopped in the tunnel so our journey will be delayed.” We sat there for an hour or so while the stalled train was rescued and the people for the train we had booked on were loaded onto our train. (Very few cars had loaded with us and but for seeing pictures on tv later that night of people from the stalled train walking out of the service tunnel, I might have believed the delay was a ploy so that they could fill up our train! A'hem - suspicious, or what?)

At Abbeville the Ibis was ready for us and after a swift shower (did I say that the temperatures had been in the thirties all the way and even hotter in France?) we ate outside in the courtyard and I had my first ever Croque Monsieur with salad and chips. Very tasty though I doubt anyone would consider it high cuisine!

24th August

After an excellent night’s sleep we set off south. The temperatures rose throughout the day and the air conditioning was a boon but hard on the ears. We stopped to collect essential groceries at the local Intermarche and arrived at the mill at 5.12pm. First thing was to offer Perla a nice walk in the shade and then feed and water her. She seems to take all this travelling in her stride which is wonderful. Tim used to be up and whining every half hour – like a child crying “Are we there yet?”


I had a short swim in what proved to be a rather chilly pool since half of it was in shadow as the sun went down and then surveyed the "garden.” It is amazing that all our efforts in April to tame the undergrowth have been wiped out. Greenery springs everywhere, crowing out loud at our puny efforts.

Just let it wait until we’ve slept and recovered from the journey – and then we’ll see who is crowing!

Friday 19 August 2022

It was an expensive struggle

 For the sum of £225 we are now proud owners of an Animal Health Certificate.

All ten pages of it, every page with multiple red stamps and signatures.

There are strict time limits. We are now on a timetable to get Perla into France before said document  becomes invalid. A similar time limit operates when we want to come home, too. A bit like Cinderella, really.

If we decided we wanted to come back home for a week and then return to France, we will have to ask our vet to complete another form and pay another £225. I thought  the AHC would be valid for at least a year, but no; one trip only, then we start all over again. 

If everything that leaves this country has to undergo similar formalities, then it is understandable why the roads around Folkstone are clogged with vehicles. and why people are so incensed about queues and waiting times Pre Brexit, it was all so simple, easy and and hassle-free. 

It is a staggering thought that it has actually cost more to get Perla to France than to get me, dh and the car to France. 

Friday 12 August 2022

Taking a Risk

 Poised on the cliff edge about to take the leap!

No thoughts of suicide - oh no!

Or perhaps only in terms of covers for my e-books. I am about to change three of them.

And I'm changing them to something quite different. to what has gone before. Because I do them myself, I can chop and change as I like  and at no cost to me except in time. And perhaps frustration! Photoshop is not the easiest thing in the world to use.



With earlier attempts at covers I tried to be truthful to the period of the story, and accurate in terms of dress and hair style. Now I am venturing into a more romantic look for my covers. Accuracy will have to take a back seat for a while was I conduct this experiment. If the new covers sell better than the old ones, then a point will have been proved  - to me, at least. 

I am aware that criticism comes from cover artists  but I think have a different POV. This is their business, their profession and they will look for errors in style and execution, of course they will. I would too, in their place. 

But I enjoy doing covers. It gives me hours of pleasure trying things out and lately people have begun sending "Likes "and pleasant comments as the new covers appear. Now if only those comments would turn into sales I should be delighted!


Saturday 6 August 2022

To trope or not to trope


 I learned a few things yesterday.

 The word Trope began to collide with me at every corner.

As an English Lit student, I equated it with Theme.

The dictionary takes it further - "a metaphorical or ironic use of a word." I hunted further still and discovered that a trope establishes a predictable character, setting or scenario in fiction, such as :

Orphan, best friend, kidnapped, road trip, secret identity, secret baby, politics, protector, violence, lost heir – all tropes. 

There are many more. You might think, like me, that they are nothing more than stereotypes and clichés, so I read on and found I was wrong. It seems the way the trope is used makes it far more than a cliché or stereotype.

I got onto this by listening to one of the many videos teaching people how to sell more books. I knew about sub-genres like the Ingenue, the Secret Baby, the Arranged Marriage from using the Amazon website.  I also recall trying to please Harlequin a decade ago  (I never did please them!) - they used the terms such as the Billionaire Oil Sheik and Marriage of Convenience back then. 

Perhaps they invented the tropes! It is food for thought, and as I hesitate on beginning a new book, I am at a very good place to put the ideas into practice.


Tuesday 2 August 2022

What is a comma splice?

 


I remember grammar lessons at junior school but not in great detail.

I usually know when a sentence is badly structured but it is a rare moment when I can actually explain "why" it sounds so wrong.

Basically all grammar makes for clear communication. Commas  are necessary to avoid confusion in a long sentence. My nearest and dearest often runs two separate sentences together, as in "She sleeps soundly, he lies awake and reads." This is a comma splice and Emma Darwin describes it perfectly:

"When two grammatically complete sentences, which really need a full stop between them, are separated by a mere comma, the grammar and syntax of the first sentence lead to the finish, but the comma isn't a firm enough stop. So the first sentence seems to tumble on, over the break, and land on the beginning of the second – which then doesn't get to launch properly. The paragraph as a whole feels sloppy and incoherent, as reading aloud will reveal, even if your eye didn't spot it.”

"She sleeps soundly; he lies awake and reads."

In this case a simple colon provides the slight pause required to separate two independent but closely connected sentences. There are lots of other examples, and you can read a clear explanation of the Comma Splice on the blog: https://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/itchy-bite-sized/

More flames on the fire

  Occasionally I check for Book related news and  this morning caught a snippet that sent a shudder through me. It seems Omid Scobie, often ...