Good things I've done recently:
Finished my essay
Finished In Cold Blood
Made and listed some more earrings on Etsy
Learned how to make chocolates at Cocoadance
Got the internship in the archives
Finally had time to get back into working on my writing
Interviewed Jenn Ashworth
Had an impromptu sleepover with this beautiful girl
Bought three new dresses
Written my other blog as regularly as I'd aimed to
I've done most of that in the last week, and yet somehow it feels like I've done nothing. I'm sitting down today to do a big edit on chapter one of the novel I'm writing and I needed a bit of a boost. I started working on the chapter yesterday - just working out what needed doing - and there's a lot more work to be done that I'd previously thought. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Friday, 22 May 2009
Etsy update
I updated my etsy a while ago and forgot to post about it. I'm trying to keep everything together in this blog so I need to keep on top of that. Here is it:
Elaine Feinstein
I've just found out that I've been successful in my application to the internship at the John Rylands library this summer. I'll be working with the Elaine Feinstein archive for two weeks in June, and I couldn't be more excited at the prospect.
Lots of the archive is stored in boxes that haven't been looked through yet. I've seen some of the stuff that's already been archived and it was a book-geek's picture of heaven. Elaine Feinstein seems to have corresponded with every author you've ever heard of, and several that you haven't but you should have.
For my internship I get to pick a box of the unarchived stuff and work my way through it. It's like being invited to sit and browse in the best bookshop ever, and nobody's going to frown at you, or tell you to buy something or leave.
The internship was open to postgraduate creative writing students at UoM. The reason for that being that it's hoped that the archive work will inspire something creative. That's probably the part I'm most nervous of. I've never done anything like this before so I just don't know how this will inspire me. I'm already worrying that I'll be too overwhelmed to be able to get my head around writing something creative.
Wish me luck.
Lots of the archive is stored in boxes that haven't been looked through yet. I've seen some of the stuff that's already been archived and it was a book-geek's picture of heaven. Elaine Feinstein seems to have corresponded with every author you've ever heard of, and several that you haven't but you should have.
For my internship I get to pick a box of the unarchived stuff and work my way through it. It's like being invited to sit and browse in the best bookshop ever, and nobody's going to frown at you, or tell you to buy something or leave.
The internship was open to postgraduate creative writing students at UoM. The reason for that being that it's hoped that the archive work will inspire something creative. That's probably the part I'm most nervous of. I've never done anything like this before so I just don't know how this will inspire me. I'm already worrying that I'll be too overwhelmed to be able to get my head around writing something creative.
Wish me luck.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Busybusybusy
I've not posted in a while because I've been busy with my last masters essay and I hate writing posts about how I'm too busy to write a real post.
To distract from that I'm going to make this post actually about Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. The essay I'm doing is about historical fiction and a lot of the reading I'm doing is about the line dividing fiction and non-fiction. In Cold Blood is a book that sits right on that line, every detail in it is meticulously researched, right down to Capote having spent hours interviewing the killers. And yet the flow of it is nothing like non-ficiton. It seemed like an interesting idea so when I saw the book in mint condition in a wonderful little second hand store I couldn't resist.
I was already regretting reading it by page 11 - it was at that point I realised I'd fallen in love with the family, even though I knew they were going to die. The writing is just that good. It would be so easy to have made the book really dull and factual, but it reads exactly like a novel.
There are some stunning lines in it:
'It was ideal apple-eating weather' - that's such a clear and beautiful image
'The quietness of his tone italicised the malice of his reply'
The book is really powerful when read in big chunks, I read a little bit the other day while on the bus and it didn't have the same feeling as when I'd been able to give a whole evening to it. I'm looking forward to getting back down to it when I'm not so busy.
To distract from that I'm going to make this post actually about Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. The essay I'm doing is about historical fiction and a lot of the reading I'm doing is about the line dividing fiction and non-fiction. In Cold Blood is a book that sits right on that line, every detail in it is meticulously researched, right down to Capote having spent hours interviewing the killers. And yet the flow of it is nothing like non-ficiton. It seemed like an interesting idea so when I saw the book in mint condition in a wonderful little second hand store I couldn't resist.
I was already regretting reading it by page 11 - it was at that point I realised I'd fallen in love with the family, even though I knew they were going to die. The writing is just that good. It would be so easy to have made the book really dull and factual, but it reads exactly like a novel.
There are some stunning lines in it:
'It was ideal apple-eating weather' - that's such a clear and beautiful image
'The quietness of his tone italicised the malice of his reply'
The book is really powerful when read in big chunks, I read a little bit the other day while on the bus and it didn't have the same feeling as when I'd been able to give a whole evening to it. I'm looking forward to getting back down to it when I'm not so busy.
Friday, 8 May 2009
Listslistslists
This is in response to the beautiful yrhandsmyknees:
Four am and being alone, the night going either way, the plunging feeling that's stronger than anything else. These are the two types of four am:
One: feeling lonely not alone, sitting under the table, holding tightly to a favourite book, no music because nothing's right, feeling the minutes waste themselves one by one.
Two: enough energy to paint an entire room, more thoughts than time to work them through, the blessing of perfect quiet, light swift steps so as not to disturb, the power to do anything.
Four am and being alone, the night going either way, the plunging feeling that's stronger than anything else. These are the two types of four am:
One: feeling lonely not alone, sitting under the table, holding tightly to a favourite book, no music because nothing's right, feeling the minutes waste themselves one by one.
Two: enough energy to paint an entire room, more thoughts than time to work them through, the blessing of perfect quiet, light swift steps so as not to disturb, the power to do anything.
Friday, 1 May 2009
Love Ugly
I'm having an ugly day today - none of my clothes seem to fit the way they normally do, my hair won't sit right and the mirror is hating my face. In celebration of ugly I'm loving this article from TrendHunter, which includes an ugly-pillow sex-aid, ugly dogs and an ugly modelling agency. Apparently ugly is the new black.
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