Reading: The gift that keeps on giving

Collection of National Media Museum/The Royal Photographic Society (Peter Henry Emerson)

"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young." ~ Maya Angelou

I've had a link to The Literacy Site in the sidebar for a while now, but as Christmas is almost upon us, I thought I'd highlight it in a post because it's a great way to give children a wonderful gift.

The site works in the same way as a number of others - visitors click a button and make a free donation - but in this case, instead of food or water, the donation goes towards providing books to children who otherwise would not have access to them. I strongly believe that a love of books is one of the greatest gifts you can give to a child because, not only does it give them a vital tool for further education, it also expands their horizons in more ways than I can possibly list here. And of course, today's young readers are the writers and bloggers of tomorrow, you can help to start them on that path.

Oh, and if you are wondering how you will remember to click daily, try Morning Coffee, a Firefox plugin which lets you create a menu of all the pages you visit regularly to be opened with one click of your mouse.

When Hitler can't tweet

If you can understand German, turn the sound down, it doesn't really work if you know what he is saying. Otherwise, it's hilarious.

Gah! Some people.

In an article entitled Mourn not for end of pointless blogging, Mike Seate says, "Writing is a tough gig, and the fact that millions of people choose to do it for free is a mystery to us paid writers".

Well, I would suggest bloggers blog for the same reason some people choose to play guitar in a pub band, or turn out for local five-aside football teams for little or no recompense. In other words, they do it because they have a passion for it, because it enriches their lives and helps them to build relationships with other like-minded individuals. Oddly, one nevers hears of rock stars or professional footballers having a hissy fit about amateur participation, quite the opposite, many positively encourage it.

The fact that Mr Seate sees writing as something that is only worthwhile if it is officially sanctioned and financially beneficial is really quite sad. However, his remarks about "pointless blogging" are interesting because they mirror criticisms of 19th century women writers who were derided for frivolity and triviality, and suggest a kneejerk reaction to a perceived threat, rather than a genuine critique.

Climbing down off my soapbox . . .

Updated to add: Of course, it isn't only bloggers who face the wrath of disgruntled MSM writers, Tweeters are dismissed in a similar manner.

Killing my darlings

Today, I want to talk about cold blooded killings. Unfortunately, the writers of horror have to indulge in, literal, character assassination from time to time, and sometimes that means killing off perfectly nice people for no other reason than that it makes for good reading. As a writer, I admit I don’t like doing this, partly because I tend to grow quite fond of my ‘chaps’, and partly because it seems such a waste. After all the time and effort I put into creating that person, developing their character, their history, their idiosyncrasies, it seems quite perverse to have them fall victim to a vampire/homicidal maniac/tub of potato salad. However, as a reader, I think very differently.

Some horror writers play it safe and make sure the reader knows some characters are untouchable. They may go through some scraps and scrapes, but, at the end of the story they will stroll off into the sunset, a little bit battered and much wiser, but otherwise unharmed. As someone says in the film, Scream, there are rules to horror. A result of these rules is that some characters are more vulnerable than others. I can understand why that kind of plot may be popular, but on the whole, I prefer writers who break the rules.

Stephen King and James Herbert are two notable examples of writers who break the rules of horror. In Pet Sematary, King kills examples of all three untouchable groups: the elderly, the very young and/or anything cute and furry. Herbert does the same in most of his novels. These books don’t make for easy reading because there are no guarantees, but at the same time, a reader keeps turning the pages because they have to know the truth, even if it may not be the truth they wanted. And, knowing all the rules have been thrown out of the window keeps one guessing, not second guessing.

So, I come to my latest dilemma. I have five main characters and that is too many. Three will be quite sufficient. The question is, which two of these flawed but delightful folk should get the chop, or the axe, or maybe the tub of potato salad? Of course, that isn’t a question you can answer, you probably aren’t familiar with these people. However, the feedback from those who have read the first draft, suggests that two particular characters are popular. Hmm. How mean am I feeling?

Note: The title of this post is a paraphrasing of a quote by William Faulkner, or Stephen King, or Dorothy L Sayers, or someone else entirely.

This post was originally published on 21st November, 2007

2 useful links for Blogger bloggers

Long time, no post. Please accept my apologies. I've been suffering from a cold (that will not go away) and writing coherently has not been easy, partly due to cold remedies, and partly to feeling like my head has been stuffed with concrete.


Anyhoo, even though I haven't done much writing, I have been surfing and came across a couple of pretty nifty links for Blogger bloggers.

First, a way to add a list of related posts to the end of a post (golly, that sentence is repetitive), you'll probably have seen the same thing used on many WordPress blogs. There are two ways to add the list, one very easy, the other a little trickier but not overwhelmingly difficult - if you choose the latter and get lost trying to find the correct place to insert the code, use your computer's built-in search tool which can be accessed by pressing CTRL and F on your keyboard.

Next, a collection of 100 free templates for Blogger. There are some really nice ones on offer covering a variety of styles, so no matter what the theme of your blog is you should find something to suit it.

Off now to imbibe Lemsip and hug my hot-water bottle.

7 Things About Me

Finally, the meme I promised you eons ago. Nicole tagged me for this saying "I enjoy your blog so much and want to know more about you", when she reads my responses she might wish she had picked someone else LOL

First, these are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

And, here are seven facts about me:

1) Ever since the time I felt something wriggling in my shoe and discovered it contained a large spider, I make a point of shaking any item of footwear before putting it on.

2) You know how some people can't resist the urge to straighten crookedly hanging pictures? I have the internet equivalent. I absolutely must align text to the left. If I come across a blog or website where content is centred I have to leave, immediately. It really, really bugs me.

3) As a drunken student I invented my own religion called Plantism which was based on the worship of Robert Plant, and involved saying 'ooh yeah',  having a 'Whole Lotta Love' and, of course, climbing the 'Stairway to Heaven'. I've often been tempted to try to preach it to door-to-door religion salesmen, but always chicken out.

4) Five or six years ago, my Beloved and I had a minor disagreement about something or another - I really can't remember what - and he made the mistake of going out (to a football match) while I was still fuming. So, in revenge, I removed the last few pages of the book he was reading and hid them in my handbag.

5) I can't figure out how to use MySpace or LinkedIn, which is quite embarrassing for someone who is supposed to be a tech savvy type - show me a page full of code, or ask me to install and customise the blogging platform of your choice and it will all make perfect sense to me.  My LI skills are so lacking I don't even know how to add people to my network.

6) In the ten years I've lived in this village, I've only made one close female friend. Sometimes, I wonder if it's me, but most of the time I just accept the fact that I don't have a great deal in common with the women I meet - most of them seem to have (what I consider to be) an unhealthy interest in washing powder and reality television.

7) For this years NaNoWriMo I tried to write not one, but two proper, literary novels. They were both terrible. I'm going to spend the second half of the month trying to crank out 50,000 words of gothic horror, which will also be terrible, but intentionally so.

I'm going to break the rules because I can't think of anyone to tag - well, I can, but I've tagged them so often it seems a bit rude to do it again. If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

If only it was this easy . . .

Yes, this is a hint. No, my NaNo novel isn't going so well :-( Truly, chipping away at Mount Everest with a toffee hammer would be more productive, and probably more enjoyable. I'll be back tomorrow with a meme courtesy of Nicole which I can promise you will be far more interesting than the 3500 words of utter drivel I have managed to scrawl so far.