Pearl of China - Anchee Min

With only peripheral knowledge of Pearl S Buck, I came to this book not knowing what to expect. Min’s prose, simple and understated, gives this epic story space to build itself in your mind’s eye, making the unfamiliar terrain and times come to life through her engaging cast of characters.

The story covers the life of Pearl S Buck’s fictional Chinese best friend, Willow, a character created by Min but based on a number of key figures from Buck’s life. Covering 70 years or so means that we dip in and out of Willow’s life, following her through pre-revolutionary China to Mao’s heyday and beyond. These dramatic episodes carry the story forward, but I found myself wanting to know more about everyday life for China’s ordinary people through these interesting times, so now I’m going to read ‘The Good Earth’ by Pearl S Buck herself, Min’s inspiration for writing this remarkable work.

The magic of a 3-day weekend

The last few months have been hectic, with a work trip away, an overnight walking marathon and two 30th birthday parties at opposite ends of the country (plus all the usual knitting, reading, cooking and, oh, working etc...). I can't WAIT until this weekend - 3 days with nothing to do unless I really want to do it. Knitting buddy Kathryn has invited me to potter around with her on her new allotment, and other knitting buddy Charlotte is having a 'first night in a new flat open house with takeaway' on Friday, but other than that, I am free and I have the flat to myself...

I have already stocked up on yummy treats (Waitrose fish-finger sandwich, anyone?), and am planning what I'm going to read. There are several things that I've started over the last month, but haven't finished, so some quality time with a book and a pot of coffee on the balcony will help me polish them off. I am also really excited about the writing I'm going to do. Some of the massive tangly plot disasters from the first draft have resolved themselves in my head over the last few weeks, and it's going to be very interesting going back and seeing how much I need to change. And I may even squeeze in a blog or some tweeting!

Reading habits

I was away with work for most of last week, and realised that when I'm at a conference or something, I HAVE to read crime fiction. It's a weird compulsion, and I don't really understand it. I quite like reading whodunnits, but in general I've got several books on the go, and swap between genres according to my mood (I'm currently reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Scoop, Harry Potter e la camera dei segreti, The Greatest Show on Earth and The Little Book with a few dabblings in Italian history and culture on the side for when I'm feeling virtuous). What is it about being away with colleagues and tackling the constant threat of having to be nice to clients that makes me want to read about solving murders? Hmm.

Bullets bitten

So I'm back from Milan (although my case is not. It should be arriving at my office at around 9am tomorrow. Nice.), and while there I did a lot of things. Read, shopped, ate, drank, talked (sometimes in Italian!), and.... WROTE! Not much, but it's a start. Draft 2 is now underway, with one whole chapter done. I've got a bit of a plan, and also some ideas for other stories, one I could start writing soon, and another which will take a lot of research. But research means BOOKS, so I'm all for that!

Here's to finally getting on with the damned thing.

Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale - J.K. Rowling

I started this for the first time in April 2007, while on holiday in Sardinia with S and a few chums. It didn't go very well. My GCSE Italian was not really up to the challenge, and I'd forgotten my little dictionary, so I quickly gave up. I started again last summer, hoping for a bit of light relief following my A level, and a fun way to build up my fluency and stamina. I think it worked - when I began, I was looking up dozens of words on each page, and really puzzling over quite a lot of grammar. Last night I didn't look up a single word, despite having my dictionary beside me, and my www.wordreference.org app on my iPhone, ready and waiting just in case.

I'm also reading set books for my degree course, and finding that they're tougher than Harry Potter, but a little easier because of him. I know that I can read now 7 or 8 pages in Italian in one sitting, without being tied to a dictionary, and while it's harder to guess what unknown words mean when you don't know the story, that doesn't mean it's impossible.

I'm off to Milan for a week on Saturday, and I think I'm going to be picking up 'Harry Potter e la Camera dei Segreti', and possibly one or two others. That way, no matter how confused I get by my set texts, I'll know that I've always got something manageable I can read - just what I need to make sure I actually do some Italian every day.

Plunge...

I've only gone and done it... Wednesday afternoon was never a good time for productivity, so follow me, @eleanor_steele, and help me pass the time!

Ponder...

I've just come out of a digital training session at work. It's given me lots of ideas for projects I'm working on with my clients, but it also made me think about what I'm doing online just for me, like this blog and being part of the Novel Racers. I read the BubbleCow blog, and have been quietly absorbing what they say about Twitter and other online tools for raising one's profile, but haven't quite taken the plunge yet. Part of me is worried that it'll take too much time (something I really don't have a lot of). I mean, I barely update my blog once a week, I never get through the backlog of blogs I read, so when would I have time to tweet and follow other people?

But now I have an iPhone, and things just look a little easier to manage - I can read my blogs in bed without my laptop, I can blog from the tram, so maybe I'm ready to dip my toe into the waters of Twitter...

Pause...

This year has been rather strange so far. There have been some big changes, and some small ones, which add up to massive changes when combined, so my focus has been somewhat blurry. Things are starting to feel a bit more normal now, and my optimism is gradually returning.

I haven't forgotten about writing exactly, but other things have sort of taken over the time I would normally use to write and to plan, but it has all been ticking away in the back of my mind. I've had a few minor epiphanies along the way, and I'm really hoping that this month I'm going to get the ball rolling on my second draft. Now, I just need to remember what it's all about...

Read in 2009

1. A Florentine Death - Michele Giuttari (trans Howard Curtis)
2. A Most Wanted Man - John le Carré
3. A Secret Alchemy - Emma Darwin
4. A Wedding in December - Anita Shreve
5. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
6. American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld
7. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
8. Black Boxes - Caroline Smailes
9. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
10. Daphne - Justine Picardie
11. Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
12. Devil Bones - Kathy Reichs
13. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
14. Ethel and Ernest - Raymond Briggs
15. Falling Angels - Tracy Chevalier
16. Fast Women - Jennifer Crusie
17. Guernica - Dave Boling
18. Heaven Can Wait - Cally Taylor
19. Hold Tight - Harlan Coben
20. I, Claudius - Robert Graves
21. Key of Knowledge - Nora Roberts
22. Key of Light - Nora Roberts
23. Key of Valor - Nora Roberts
24. Library of the Dead - Glenn Cooper
25. Light of the Moon - Elizabeth Buchan
26. Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
27. Lyra's Oxford - Philip Pullman
28. Man in the Dark - Paul Auster
29. Midnight Sun - Stephenie Meyer
30. Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin
31. Nation - Terry Pratchett
32. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
33. Northern Lights - Philip Pullman
34. Once Upon a Time in the North - Philip Pullman
35. Past Imperfect - Julian Fellowes
36. Pigeon Pie - Nancy Mitford
37. PopCo - Scarlett Thomas
38. Revelation - CJ Sansom
39. Romanitas - Sophia McDougall
40. Rome Burning - Sophia McDougall
41. Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay
42. Small World - Matt Beaumont
43. Stephen Fry in America - Stephen Fry
44. Temptation - Douglas Kennedy
45. Testament - Alis Hawkins
46. Testimony - Anita Shreve
47. The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff
48. The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman
49. The Book of Unholy Mischief - Elle Newmark
50. The Chalk Circle Man - Fred Vargas
51. The Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters
52. The Dogs and the Wolves - Irene Nemirovsky
53. The Fire - Katherine Neville
54. The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
55. The Ghost - Robert Harris
56. The Girl Who Played with Fire - Steig Larsson (trans Reg Keeland)
57. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson (trans Reg Keeland)
58. The Grass is Singing - Doris Lessing
59. The Great Lover - Jill Dawson
60. The Information Officer - Mark Mills
61. The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce - Paul Torday
62. The Island - Victoria Hislop
63. The Last Samurai - Helen De Witt
64. The Library of Shadows - Mikkel Birkegaard (trans Tiina Nunnally)
65. The Lost Book of Salem - Katherine Howe
66. The Magic Scales - Sam Wilding
67. The Maze of Death - Ariana Franklin
68. The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
69. The Mummy Case - Elizabeth Peters
70. The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster
71. The Other Half Lives - Sophie Hannah
72. The Other Hand - Chris Cleave
73. The Other Queen - Philippa Gregory
74. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
75. The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry
76. The Separation - Christopher Priest
77. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
78. The Sorrows of an American - Siri Hustvedt
79. The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
80. The Sunflower Forest - Torey Haydn
81. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale
82. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
83. The Well-Tempered Clavier - William Coles
84. The Welsh Girl - Peter Ho Davis
85. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
86. Volevo i pantaloni - Lara Cardello
87. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
88. When Will There Be Good News? - Kate Atkinson

Considering I also managed to finish the first draft of my WIP, do my Italian A level and work considerably more than my contracted hours, I think 88 is a pretty decent total. I'd be surprised if I manage as many this year, but I'm hoping more of them will be in Italian!

Read in 2007
Read in 2008

Eek!

I've just taken the plunge and splashed out on lots of course books for my new degree course. I don't know whether it will mean that I spend less time blogging, because I'll have so much to do, or whether I'll spend more time procrastinating, which could lead to a blogging explosion...

Seriously?!

I have ONLY JUST noticed that I have three characters with the same name. Oh well, I've only been writing this for A YEAR.

This has not been a good weekend for my brain. I'm going to take a brief chocolate break before I carry on with the text edits.

Blushing retraction

In future, when I am driven to such lengths of frustration by my computer that I am compelled to post a ranty blog on the subject, I will endeavour to check that, for example (hypothetically, of course), I haven't set the default language to Italian.

Sigh.

I growl at technology

I am taking a break from re-plotting to go through the top-line text edits of my first draft, and for reasons of version control, am doing these edits in Scrivener, rather than in my over-sized and rather lumpy Word document of the whole 100,000 words. But, for some INFURIATING reason, EVERY new word I type comes up with a red line underneath it. And sometimes the word next to it too! I KNOW HOW TO SPELL 'THERE'. AND 'MIND'. AND 'TO'. But currently, my computer doesn't believe me.

Heaven Can Wait - Cally Taylor

I don't read a lot of chick lit, but 'Heaven Can Wait' had two major advantages for me. Firstly, I know the author, Cally Taylor, and secondly, I have a bit of a weakness for all things supernatural. I started reading as soon as I got home. Every time I tried to stop and get on with the many jobs I needed to do that evening, I thought, 'Oh, just one more chapter...' and eventually I realised resistance was futile - I finished it in one evening.

Something about the writing reminded me of Neil Gaiman, possibly the mix of the everyday with the supernatural, and the unlikely hero (or rather heroine in this case) overcoming bizarre obstacles to achieve the 'right' thing, not necessarily their heart's desire. The humour was also a wonderful mix of juvenile guffaws with clever observational gems, but the ending achieved something special, as it brought a tear to my eye. This is easier said than done, because I have clinically dry eyes - I have to use eye-drops with the worst name ever (I can't put it here, it could have an interesting effect on my searches profile...). I've also persuaded one of my colleagues to buy her own copy, by cunningly letting her read the back, then refusing to let her borrow it! It's a risky book-selling technique I realise, but it's working so far...

That autumn feeling

It's been a while since I posted, but lots has been happening behind the scenes. I finished my read-through of 'Unseen' last night - it's taken me ages! At the moment the holes are so big I'm feeling rather daunted about what I need to do to patch the plot up, but at least I know where they all are now. Tomorrow night I'm going to have a massive plotathon, then start writing the missing scenes and cutting the rubbish ones. S says he wants to read it too, and I think it would be useful to have someone else's opinion, though it's too shaky for me to show to any of my readers yet...

But while I am excited about moving 'Unseen' to the next level, the chill in the air is making me think about NaNo. I know it would be crazy to start a new WIP now (not least because I've just signed up to do a part-time degree in Italian Literature... gulp!), but I've been working on 'Unseen' for so long that it's only natural that my brain is percolating the ideas for the Next Big Thing. I just need to let them simmer a bit longer!

The Dogs and the Wolves - Irene Nemirovsky

While it is set earlier than Suite Française, and not exclusively in France, The Dogs and the Wolves is nevertheless a similar mixture of the epic and the intimate. The divisions in the Sinner family run deep, with one branch privileged and cultured, the other struggling for stability. Ada Sinner glimpses her more fortunate cousin Harry several times throughout their childhood, and feels herself drawn to him, much to her other cousin Ben’s disgust.

As the families move to Paris, the distinctions between them grow, and yet Ada remains convinced Harry is part of her destiny, and is unwilling to let this go despite the obvious barriers between them. The poignant prose leads to a feeling of inevitability, highlighting the barriers constructed by society that were generally insurmountable, especially for Jewish foreigners in Paris between the wars. However, it is clear throughout that the wheel of fortune is always turning, and none of the protagonists know where the next revolution will take them.

Did I write THAT?!

So, after a bit of a break, I've started on the bizarre process of the Second Draft. I've never got this far before, so I'm slightly making it up as I go along, but that's fine. It's fun, and fresh, and different from trying to churn out words. Now I'm trying to recognize the ones I wrote 8 months ago.

I've got a shiny new notebook with handy sections, and I've started reading through the 1st draft, making notes on what happens in each chapter in the blue section, while I'm making notes about the characters in the red section. I found that when I was getting to the latter stages of writing, I couldn't remember what I'd called some of the more minor characters, and other little details, so having the main points jotted down should help when I start putting it all back together. My 1st draft is printed out in a big blue folder, and I've been making quick edits on obvious things I've spotted as I go, and also underlined important things in green. It's quite weird - I've foreshadowed things that I hadn't even thought of when I wrote the beginning and I'm also trying to highlight all the little clues I've left through the text to make sure they all come to something later on.

When I've finished my read-through, my plan is to draw a map of the book on a piece of A3 paper, and start working out what needs to change and where the extra chapters that I've thought of need to go. I might start off with this on Post-Its so I can move them around, but I want to end up with a chart I can stick on the wall (if I can persuade S to let me stick something up! Blue tack stains, you know!). And then comes the actual writing again. Phew, it all seems rather complicated now...

FINISHED!

At 100,794 words, the first draft of 'Unseen' is finished! I would have posted about this earlier, but I actually typed the final words in the car on Friday night, while being whisked away to the wonderful Losehill House Hotel for a surprise birthday getaway. I haven't drunk the pink prosecco yet, but I think a glass or two might be in order this evening...

Almost... there...

2.5% left. I can do this! I think I've sorted out what the ending is going to be, and even realised I have another little twist left. Despite distractions (like my birthday on Friday), I am GOING to finish it by Sunday. Honest.

Another inch

With 1000 more words since yesterday lunchtime, and a revelation that I've just started my penultimate chapter, I'm another inch closer to 'The End', and drinking the bottle of pink prosecco that's been tempting me from the fridge for months now. I just have one, tiny problem. I know what goes in this chapter, and even the first half of the next one, but I have no idea what needs to happen once all the loose ends are tied off and everyone knows everything. Is it good enough just to say '...and they all lived happily ever after'?