30 November
Quantum reading
I was sitting on the train to Edinburgh last Friday, reading Olympos by Dan Simmons. For those of you who don’t know this book, it’s an eclectic mixture of Greek classics, Shakespeare, quantum physics and various creatures - humanoid and non-humanoid - from the future. It’s weird and wonderful, and the glue that holds it together is the quantum physics, which Dan Simmons would have us believe supports the notion that if a genius such as Shakespeare or Homer has thought up something or somewhere, then that something or somewhere actually exists. At Falkirk a young man joined the train and decided to sit next to me. He fumbled about in his briefcase or knapsack or whatever it was, and produced a book to read. You’re way ahead of me here. I thought I recognised it, and after surreptitiously craning my neck a few times, I was able to confirm that the young man was also reading Olympos. Whereupon I chuckled, showed him my copy, and we both chuckled. ‘Quantum physics or what?’ I said, and after shaking our heads in a wondering fashion, we both proceeded to read quietly all the way to Edinburgh.
28 November
Proofreading progress
I was in London last week to take the SfEP’s one day Proofreading Problems course. It was good fun, though I felt there wasn’t enough time to complete all the exercises, but more to the point, I was judged as being sufficiently competent to move to the next stage of the SfEP training structure - the mentoring scheme. As I understand it, this works by an experienced proofreader passing on some work to me. The work can be current or previously completed, but the point is I get to make my novice mistakes in such a way that the mentor gets to see them rather than a genuine client. On the assumption I don’t make a complete hash of this, I am then able to upgrade to full SfEP member, which among other things allows me to advertise on the SfEP website. We shall see. More bulletins in the new year, I should think.
28 November
Philosophy and I Spy
We are on our way up the High Street, me off to work, Dylan off to school, and we are playing I Spy. "...something beginning with G," says I. "Girl?" "No." "Goat?" "I can’t see any goats." "You never know," says Dylan. He’s right there. We once went on a giraffe hunt on the beach. We didn’t find any, but we both knew that you never know. (Come to think of it, giraffe also starts with G, but there weren’t any of them on the High Street either.) "Do you give up?" I ask eventually. He does. "Glass!" I say triumphantly. There is a long silence, during which he is obviously coming to some conclusion. "That’s cheating," he says. "Why?" "You can’t see glass. You can’t I Spy it." "Of course you can," I say. "Look, there’s some there, with that dirt on it." "That’s the dirt you can see," he says with unassailable logic. "You can’t see the glass. You see through it." So it’s official. I cheat at I Spy. And I can’t win a philosophical argument with my five-year-old son.
11 November
Halloween 2010
Just before Halloween, on Friday 29th October ,Ayr Grammar Primary School kindly invited me to read out a Spooky Story. The P3 classes gathered together and I offered them either Wheelybins (‘not so scary, a bit funny, about a girl who started off being frightened of wheelybins but ended up being friends with them’) or Halloween Stories (‘much more scary, two stories in one, about a spooky voice and about ghostly happenings with a rocking horse’). Guess which one they picked? Well, after reading Halloween Stories, the children asked some really good questions before I left, but the story doesn’t quite finish there. Next day, Dylan (who also attends Ayr Grammar Primary) brought back a mysteriously thick envelope from school. When I opened it, I found a great number of thank-you letters, all saying how much they enjoyed hearing the Halloween story! And thank you, P3. I enjoyed myself, and I’m already wondering what’s going to happen next Halloween!
11 September
SfEP conference
Over the weekend of 5th September 2010 I attended my first Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) conference, which conveniently enough for me was held in Glasgow this year. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned a lot, met some interesting people, picked up a free trial for Oxford Dictionaries Online, and - like everyone else - picked up a discount offer on some specialist proofreading pens! I also met my erstwhile tutor, Ian Howe, who saw me safely through the Basic Proofreading course I undertook through the Publishing Training Centre. I was even asked to write a short piece on one of the workshops for SfEP’s magazine, Editing Matters. Fame but no fortune! All in all, it was a good time, though I ended up pretty tired by the finish! With a bit of luck, I plan to attend next year’s conference, which is to be held in some august hall in Oxford.
31 August
LaTeX
Seeing as how I might have the opportunity to proofread or edit mathematics some time in the future, I thought I’d have a go at learning LaTeX, which is a typesetting system used for scientific texts (and all sorts of other things) worldwide. There’s plenty about LaTeX online if you want to know some of the details, but be careful which "latex" sites you visit! I’ve invested in a couple of textbooks, and also joined the Latex Community. It’s quite a steep learning curve, but it’s fun.
24 August
Starting school
A very smart boy on his first day of school. I wonder how long it will last?
23 August
Passed!
Yes, at last I have worked my way through the Publishing Training Centre’s Basic Proofreading course, and I’ve ended up with a pass with merit. I’m jolly pleased with that, as a whole lot was going on when I took most of the exercises and my concentration was scarcely 100%. What’s next?Well, in November I plan to attend the Proofreading Problems one-day course in London, run by the Society of Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP), and then get on to their "mentoring" system, which will give me the taste of some real proofreading work. On the assumption that all this comes to pass, then next year I plan to take the copy-editing course as well. On which note - I cannot resist writing this - I got myself a copy of the copy editor’s "bible" (Butcher’s Copy-editing) and... found an error in it! I passed this on to my proofreading tutor, who apparently will pass it on through the "appropriate channels", whatever they are. I am not sure if SfEP will then excommunicate or exalt me!
08 July
Back from China
So, Ivy and Dylan are back from their family-visit trip to China.
A good time appears to have been had by all, and Dylan is now famous if not rich.
The top four contestants in a photoshoot for kids went into a local paper which apparently has a circulation of four million. So there is Dylan, looking suitably cool.
What does the accompanying article say? Don’t ask me.
08 July
Uncle Ben
Uncle Ben? Yes, that well-known character from Star Wars. Uncle Ben? Yes, don’t you remember, he gets into a light sabre fight with Darth Vader and deliberately gives up, allowing dastardly Darth to slice him up. As a result he ‘became more powerful than we could ever imagine’. Remember now? Oh, that Uncle Ben. He slipped out of his cloak into a hole under the flooring, I gather, and will probably reappear in later Star Wars films. Where does this information come from? Well, from a certain five year-old in our household, whose viewpoint has forever changed my perceptions of the Star Wars epics.
08 July
GSFWC and Ghost(s)
So, on Tuesday, I went to the writer’s club to hear comments on my latest book, Ghost(s). In the book, somebody dies of a heart attack on the first page, and thereafter the repercussions of his death ripple through his circle of friends and family, along with (possibly) his actual ghost. I say possibly because I try to leave it open to the reader to decide whether or not ghostly happenings are really happening. Ghost(s) is mainly character-based and I have tried to build up a suite of believable characters. I deliberately wrote in clunky text, with long sentences and big paragraphs ‘ dense text to mirror the heavy atmosphere descending over the characters as the story progresses. I also tried to present a ‘world-view’ approach, similar to that used by Roberto Bolano, wherein you get to hear not just the main things that happen to the main characters, but almost everything that happens to all the characters (within reason). So, as far as GSFWC were concerned, did I succeed? The answer, by and large, appears to be Yes. Everyone was complimentary of the writing (good) and the fact that there were hardly any typos (well, all right). Everyone thought the characters were well described and believable. Nobody was quite sure what was happening with the ghostly bits (good, they were supposed to be ‘ um, indeterminate). But... ...there has to be a But, doesn’t there? Some of the chunky text is over the top and hard to follow. Well, I knew that and will sort that out at rewrite stage. The characters don’t have individual voices ‘ fortunately I knew that too and is on the To Do list. More than one person said the timeline is too confusing. Hmm. It’s not meant to be especially straightforward, and the characters themselves get muddled up about exactly when things happened ‘ but fair enough. I don’t want feelings of confusion detracting from the experience of reading, so I’ll simplify a little. And the ending. They didn’t like the ending. Actually I’m not sure I like the ending either. This was probably the biggest gripe on view, so Thinking Cap On. Some ideas have occurred, and I will let my subconscious loose on them for a few weeks.
21 June
England v Scotland ODI
Yesterday I travelled over to Edinburgh to watch Scotland take on the current 20/20 champions for a one day international. It was a great day. The sun shone - in fact I ended up with sunburn as I hadn’t taken any suncream. I had trusted the BBC weather forecast which had told me that it as going to be cloudy all day. Well, I suppose it was somewhere, but the Grange in Edinburgh basked in sunshine. All day. The crowd were merry, and it was a pretty big crowd. There weren’t many empty seats. And the cricket was good to watch, although the result was never in any doubt. Keiswetter hit a six into the crowd which a guy about six seats along from me caught brilliantly. He got the second-biggest cheer of the day. The biggest was reserved for Pieterson getting caught away on the opposite boundary - by one of the Scottish team, that is, not by the crowd. It was fascinating to see just how fast the fast bowlers bowled, especially Broad. It was frighteningly fast. It was also fascinating to watch how the fielders on both sides organised themselves, particularly getting into position to back up to prevent possible overthrows. Of course it was fun to watch the batsmen too, especially the world class English batsmen on view. Overall, the English team just looked much more professional, much more on the ball, than the Scots. Scotland scored 211 in their 50th over, when they were all out. England coasted to victory in thirty something overs, for the loss of four wickets. I hope the event is run again next year, and that the weather is good. I think I’d go, and perhaps a certain small boy might be interested enough to join me by then!
21 June
Another update ‘ the Glasgow SF Writer’s Circle
I’ve been going to the Glasgow SF Writer’s Circle for about a year now. It’s been fun. The stories have been a mixed bag, but the critiques have all been pretty much on the nose. I’ve got to know most of the ‘regulars’, including Hal Duncan, and also Duncan Lunan who appeared on the BBC website recently in connection with a different sort of circle altogether - a stone circle in Glasgow. I’ve noticed four things about the meetings at GSFWC. Firstly, no matter how poor an offering might be (and there have been a few poor offerings), everyone is unfailingly polite, and always makes constructive comments. ‘I like the overall concept, but...’ Secondly, there is almost always a consensus on the various stories - members make the same sort of comments and almost always either everyone likes a story, or they don’t. Thirdly, whenever I listen to the others making their comments, I always find that they’ve thought of something I haven’t. This is possibly the most valuable reason for attending, this gleaning of what other people think of the writing presented to them, even if the writing isn’t my own. And lastly, each of the members has their own take on a story - one always looks at the characters and what drives them, another looks at the overall ‘world’ being portrayed, to see if it makes sense, another looks at layout and style, yet another looks at the technical aspects of writing. This isn’t planned, it’s just what makes different people tick. Being an auditor by trade, I tend to look for inconsistencies. I sometimes find a few that others have missed, but by the same token, character flaws and style quirks often pass me by. In two weeks the Circle is going to take me to task on my latest book, called Ghost(s). When they’ve done that and I’ve recovered sufficiently to make the various changes required (I’ve thought of a few off my own bat already), I’ll probably put some sample chapters up here on the site. So watch this space!
21 June
Update on proofreading course
Nearly there. My penultimate assignment is being marked even as I type this (gulp). I’ve done the work all ready for the final assignment, so will have a go at that over the next few days. This all means I should finish the Basic Proofreading course run by the Publishing Training Centre sometime in July or thereabouts. What then, I hear you ask. Well, I have already joined the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) as an associate member. Being an associate member doesn’t confer that many advantages but it means I’m on my way. The next step is to move up to being an ordinary member, but I can only do that with a certain number of points. You gain points by taking courses and suchlike. The Publishing Training Centre’s course that I’ve nearly finished gets me points... so does a Proofreading Problems course from SfEP (mandatory to become an ordinary member), and so does attending the SfEP conference, which conveniently for me happens to be in Glasgow in 2010. So my way is clear, albeit long. Try to finish my current course with a pass mark. Then the Problems course and the conference. Then a tally up to see how many points I’ve mustered. So more anon.
03 March
More school visits
I’ve just spent two days going around local schools again, reading out various stories from As They Grow Older. It was good fun, as usual, and thanks are due to the staff and children at:Tarbolton Primary School, Annbank Primary School, Straiton Primary School, Queen Margaret Academy, Barassie Primary School and Dundonald Primary School. I tried several different stories this time around, and read out (in no particular order):The Grumpy Browns, Wheelybins, Halloween Stories, Here Be Giants and Teddies. At Straiton I used an interactive board for the first time, clicking around this website on what looked like an ordinary whiteboard. Amazing! Next week I am due at Belmont Academy, and then I shall probably take a rest, and save up some of my holidays.
20 January
Jess
Jess
1996-2010
