Work and bridges

Work is progressing nicely. I'm still fiddling about with KT as it goes through the critique group, but the real concentration is now on reworking Shadows into something more worthwhile. The original word count was 54,000 and that seems way too low, and I think even lower than that for the original Triskelion publication. No wonder one reviewer called it a novella.

But a writer's life is a constant learning curve. What seemed fine then seems weak now. The surprise is that it is only two years ago, maybe three.

Right now I'm working out the plot on a Snyder-style sheet and it is going well. Lots of scope for using coloured pens, which makes me feel industrious and creative. But seriously, the conflict is definitely beefed up and it is easy keeping track of plot-points via the worksheet. Sometimes it can be hard to remember exactly where in the story an important move is made, but this way makes it easy. No longer am I wondering 'did he say that before she went into town, or after she fell in the pool?' Now I check the sheet and there it is.

I'm debating changing the KT title to something more explanatory. Someone asked me what Keep Trust meant, what kind of story did it hint at?

It is the motto of an old Scottish house and of course it means that if you make a promise you keep it.

Originally I thought that would be quite clear, but now I'm not so sure. Perhaps Shadows deserves a new title, too. I wonder how much has to be re-written before it is classed as a "new work?" I suppose there will be a definition somewhere out there. I'd better go check.

I hinted a few days ago that Newcastle was a city of bridges. Well, here are a few shots to give you a taste. The one to the right is a shot from the east end of Newcastle Quayside, looking west towards the Sage (the silver slug) and the newest Millenium bridge.

Behind that are the older bridges.

The shot through the trees is of the iconic Tyne Bridge (1929).

The third picture show the the Swing bridge (1873) and the High Level bridge (1848) with a train going over the top. The road runs on the lower level. Behind that is the Metro Rail bridge, otherwise known as The Queen Elizabeth Bridge (1981).

There's another bridge beyond that - the Redheugh Road Bridge pronounced [ˈrɛdhju:f]) opened in 1983.

Blustery day at the coast

A picture of Newcastle on Tyne from the Gateshead bank, looking east. The Norman Castle Keep is just visible above the High Level Bridge.

A six span, two level bridge it carries both rail and road traffic over the River Tyne between Gateshead and Newcastle. The bridge opened in 1849, and is a Grade 1 listed structure 412m long.

It is a cast iron heritage structure designed by Robert Stephenson, and is one of Network Rail’s 'Major Structures'. Travel the East Coast Mainline and you will go over the bridge. In May 2008 the High Level Bridge reopened to the public following an extensive, £42M programme of repair and strengthening to extend the life expectancy of the structure and conserve it as an important piece of our national heritage.

We went out today, escaped down to the coast and ate fish and chips from Kristian's on the North Shields river frontage. It was a bright and clear day, but windy enough to blow away every last cobweb. We walked along the river frontage, head down into the blast, and watched several ships come storming into the Tyne on the high tide. The City of Sunderland works between the Nissan car factory and the rest of the world. The factory where 1200 people were laid off a couple of weeks ago because no one is buying new cars in these credit crunch recession days.

It was good to get away from the computer and watch the world go by. I should have had the camera trained on the acrobatic gulls and terns hovering alongside the car as I threw out left over chips. One chip and twelve birds dived for it. The chip never touched the ground! Sadly the camera was in the boot, but next time I'll be prepared.

Bought some jeans and a top in the M&S outlet at Royal Quays, dithered over the sale stock at the Barbour factory in South Shields but left there without making a purchase.

Coming back through Newcastle with the sun sinking in the west I saw lots of pics I could have taken, but the traffic flow was such that I didn't care to stop and hop out with a camera in my fist. One day soon I shall go into town on the bus and walk around and take all the pics I want.

It is a very photogenic town.

This for example, is the view from the same spot as the first picture, but facing west instead of east.

More bridges! And looking so very different because of the light. And that's not all of them. Newcastle is a city of bridges.

I'll catch the rest on that next trip out.

The River Tyne and Ovingham Bridge

The Tyne is running where it ought not to be today - snow and rain off the hills. It is certainly putting strain on our 125 year-old single-track Victorian bridge! We were walking today, but when I drive across and the river is like this, I always send up a little prayer - I'm not sure to where, exactly - that the supporting struts won't choose to give way just as I drive over.

Dh always says the Victorians over-engineered everything because they didn't know the strength of the materials they were using. Thank goodness, I say. We saw a truck get jammed between the stone parapets one day - it had to wriggle off and reverse back up the approach road. Perhaps he didn't know his vehicle was more than 6 foot 6 inches wide! Ha!

Today there is a pedestrian walkway right beside the old bridge with the stone parapets that still bear the marks where the lanterns used to be at either end. There's a 10 mph speed limit and a 3 ton weight limit on it, yet people of all ages drive over at amazingly high speeds. When the level crossing gates go down to let a train roar through at the Prudhoe end, then the stream of cars backs up onto the bridge. If I have to sit there above the middle of the river, unable to move, I'm calculating the weight of metal and rubber parked on the bridge and sending up another of those little prayers.

However, life goes on. I am sad to report that the latest agent said no, but she only took 4 days to get back to me and it was an e-mail submission, which isn't such hard work as a paper submission.

The latest work is going well - 3,000 words yesterday in a marathon sprint and all because I'd taken my notebook on holiday with me - as well as my new Sony e-reader - and worked out what I wanted to happen in Chapter 17 while I was on the plane en route to Geneva. Preparation pays off! Perhaps I'll do it again.