Saturday, July 05, 2014

Writing update

Hello, ahoy.

I've finished my rewrite, part of the reason I've been quiet lately. Have been reading heaps, watching Big Love from the beginning. I'd caught a few eps years ago and liked it so went back to the beginning. It's amazing how you can be drawn into it, and think it's an okay way to live. Watching it makes me want sister-wives. Crazy, I know. And we've been watching some old Peter Sellers movies.

Have sent the novel to a reader, someone who saw it in very early stages before it was a proper story. See what she says about it, and then back to the agent for submissions.

Am also determined to finish first draft of short novel (the Blade Runner Weather x Spare Room Premise one, is how I think of it, but it's not really.) I have about another 7000 words to write on that one. Last few days I spent working hard on the structure and so it won't take long to fill in the gaps and then move to the next stage.

Tonight we have our annual Tour de France meal. The first stage is in Yorkshire so THANK FUCK we are having a break from French cuisine (running out of things, actually, it's quite a limited range of dishes). We are having it here and I am doing main meal, roast beef with all the trimmings, including Yorkshire puddings. I've never been much of a roast beef cooker, and had never done the puddings so last weekend was a test run. The puddings were stodgier than I'd expected, and I think it's because I used the wrong tray to cook them in. The oil needs to be smoking hot so will use metal tray instead of silicone one tonight. We have Yorkshire beer, and my sister/husband is doing some sort of pudding, not sure if sticky date or similar. I've also got lollies that are originally from Yorkshire: licorice allsorts, jubes, Kit-Kats, etc. And a bottle of Ginger Beer. Bet it's disgusting, so we won't be having lashings of that I don't think.*

So the bikes. Love it, but it means some late nights coming up. Not sure who I'm going for, but not Froome who won last year. Maybe Contador but he's a drug cheat. Quintana who came second last year isn't riding (he won the Giro) and I would probably have gone for him. Cancellara I quite like, but don't know how much of a contender he is. I don't like the Australian team - Orica GreenEdge. There's a German, Marcel Kittel but he's not a General Classification rider. Will be going for him in sprints, don't like Mark Cavendish at all. Funny how you get drawn into it. Sister-wives and men in lycra (hate them on the roads in real life.)

Happy weekend all.

* can anybody pick this literary reference? The mention of tongue sandwiches might help. And 'jolly' and 'smashing' and 'ra-ther.'

25 comments:

magical_m said...

In our schoolyard re-enactments of Famous Five, I always wanted to play George, but usually got stuck playing Anne because I had the fringe and the hairband. Ugh. It irked me that she always got stuck doing the 'mother' tasks like serving the blancmange.

sarah toa said...

Poor old Anne! I wanted to be George too.
Good on you Melba for that writing madness. It's so exciting when the morass begins to take shape.

squib said...

I watched FTBC on ipad last night on lounge while MrSquib watched Argentina V Holland (I don't like the Holland team purely because that is such an awful shade of orange). And then Jason Steger says it's so hard to read ATM because the cup is on and then he shows everyone a book on soccer. Is there no getting away from it. But cycling is ten times more boring-er
Famous Five - funny reading one as an adult and noticing how judgmental those kids were. I read Smuggler's Top with LittleSquib and there's a deaf guy in it actually named Block and the five are always saying how nasty and unpleasant he is and how you can't trust him because he might be lip reading. In one part they ambush him, punch him up, then tie him up and Timothy bites him - they basically assault him for fun

Alex said...

I don't follow the cycling, and I don't generally watch it unless my folks are here. However, hasn't it been ~more-or-less~ established that, like, 99% of them are drug cheats now? To be honest, I'd be surprised if that wasn't true for most top level athletes. I do know what you mean about men in lycra, though. I can be a bit partial myself at times.

I thought the Tour Of France took place in, well, France. Goes to show what I know, eh? I did see that Gabrielle "Shut The" Gate has a series on SBS about cooking along to The Tour. Can't remember the title, but it might be alright to look at for a bit of inspiration. The thought of Yorkshire pudding always seemed a little off-putting to me; it's just fat in pastry (which is also mostly fat), isn't it?

I didn't get the literary reference. I've never read, nor know anything about, Famous Five; though from Squib's description, it sounds like it's a book (series?) about a band of nasty little shits. I do remember a similar ginger beer quote from an episode of The Simpsons though, I think.

You don't like ginger beer, Melbs!?

I haven't seen Big Love, but I think polygamy would be the only type of marriage I could put up with, long term. Provided everyone wasn't living in the same house, that is. I imagine that way, when I got sick of hubby, I could tell him to go stay with one of the "sisters" and just have the place to myself until I felt like having company again. But then, if you're going to do it that way, why get married in the first place, right?

But speaking of husbands, Squib, who is Mr Squib going for in the final? He's of Spanish decent, isn't he? So is it the former Spanish colony of Argentina, or the fellow EU nation of Germany? Probably a silly question; as I understand it, the Krauts aren't too popular in Spain since the whole PIGS fiasco. I can't imagine there's too much love for the Belgians either, eh? I'm also not much of a soccer buff, but international politics -- ah, now there's a spectator sport.

squib said...

Hi Alex. He's going for Germany. Mainly cos he thinks they will win

Alex said...

What time is the game for you fellas over there? I think it starts at 5:30 tomorrow morning here.

If I hit the sack now, I might be able to get up in time to watch it. Not that I'm super interested, but, well, it is the final, and it does only come 'round every four years.

So, if you feel like chatting while it's on, I should be here in about five hours time.

Alex said...

Oh, apparently it's at 3:30am. Well, that significantly decreases the chances of me being up.

However, I still wouldn't rule it out completely.

squib said...

8pm here

Alex said...

So ...

I'm thinking I might catch the end of things, and lo and behold, the bloody match hasn't even started yet.

Bloody SBS.

How goes it there Squib?

squib said...

all good here, Alex. "offside" has just been explained to me for the hundredth time and I still don't get it

Alex said...

And my half-time analysis ...

The Argies are wearing a nice shade of blue.

That, and I'm surprised at how moderate the advertising is. I had expected every square inch in the stadium, including the players, to be plastered with logos.

squib said...

Who are you going for?

Alex said...

I'm not heavily invested either way. But I feel my heart leaning towards Argentina. They seem the underdogs.

I think I have a very rough understanding of the offside rule, but honestly, the way penalties are awarded in this game seems arbitrary and mystifying at times.

Alex said...

I might watch the women's World Cup this year, if SBS televises it. I've seen a few of the Aussie championship games, and I actually don't mind it. At times, it actually seems a bit more rough-and-tumble than how the blokes play. Go figure.

squib said...

Have to say I was a lot more interested in the ad for the new Dr Who :)
I hope Melbs doesn't mind us using her blog as a chat room
Getting back to the game. I have noticed a lot of beards at this cup. I would have thought they would get hot and itchy. Have you been to Rio?

Alex said...

Considering that Melba once told me she was torn on spam, because it did push her comment numbers up, I don't imagine she'll be too upset about it.

Funny you mentioned the beards. I was just noticing the beard ratio between teams. Obviously the Germans are experiencing a bigger overheating problem than the South American natives, it seems. And no, I've never been to Brazil. How about you?

When's the New Who? It's the first season with the new Scotsman as the Doc, isn't it? That must be going over a treat where you are now?

squib said...

I went to Rio when I was 15 because I entered a competition on Hey, Hey it's Saturday. My name was pulled out of a big barrel
August 28th I think. Not sure what they make of the new Scottish doc
Not the most exciting final, is it

Alex said...

Not only has there been no goals, there doesn't even seem to have been many near misses.

I hope it doesn't come down to a penalty shoot-out. That always seems like such a cheap, sucky way of deciding things.

I'd rather they just play until people start dropping from exhaustion.

Alex said...

And what did 15 y.o. Squib think of Rio?

You weren't a contestant on Pluck-A-Duck, were you?

Alex said...

Even the commentators are dropping backhanded remarks about the lack of excitement.

How's Mr Squib finding the game?

squib said...

No pluck-a-duck. Was a music concert in Rio comp so didn't have to go on the show. It was very exciting and it also seemed kind of dangerous, police walking around with what looked like machine guns, hitting people and so on

He says (eating cake) Germany are not playing as well as they have been

Ho hum. If I vanish, Alex it's because I've given up and gone to bed

Alex said...

No worries. Have a good one.

That thing about police with machine guns, I've heard that about a few countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. But also more recently certain parts of The U.S. and Europe. I suppose there's been an increase in riots, demonstrations, etc lately.

My Dad likes to comment on how the Police forces in different Australian states are moving from light blue to black uniforms. He reckons it makes them look like S.S. officers.

Alex said...

And in the end, if there was any part of the game worth watching, it turned out to be those last ten minutes.

I suppose Mr Squib will be satisfied at least. Victory and cake. Mmmm, cake.

Melba said...

I love that this was a hub for chat.

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