Keeping on track with Multimedia

The smartphone is doing it's job. I read my chapters into it and replay when my hands are busy doing something else; this way, I can keep the threads in some harmonious progression in my head without having to sit motionless at the computer to review, which I haven't time to do.  I never thought that a phone could help me write. Indeed it is a multimedia experience; from my pc I can convert the Word documents to PDFs and have the pc read to me instead, without having to record anything - the only problem being the reader reads very, very fast and I do not know how to slow it down so I can actually follow. I am sure there is a way though!
The beauty of the smartphone way is that with earbuds, I can listen anytime - at lunch, while walking, while waiting in line. I can make another quick recording with my edits, and type them at the pc later.
I'm about two thirds of the way through the m/s. It has a definite Shape. It is a challenging project when I work full-time, take care of Mr. CelticJaneite and our home! The threads unravel when I leave it for any length of time, I use the smartphone to keep my own creation before my eyes. Working with multiple characters stories, all interwoven here and there, is like following a knitting pattern. If you take your eye from what's just come off the needles you can get a little lost.

Meryton Assembly at meryton.com

I found a great group of like-minded people! The Meryton Assembly at  http://meryton.com/
 I have just joined, and must hasten there now, to roam, explore...they have a Library and a Reading Room and best of all, a Happy Assembly!

MS Word 2013 my review

I recently gave myself a present and downloaded MS Word 13. I love it. The text goes on so smoothly, it is like writing on bond paper. It is easier to read text onscreen than earlier versions They must have taken a page from the e-readers. (pun intended).
The screen real estate is crisp and clutter free. For writing (which is all I do in Word, don't need all the other office features like mail merge etc so can't speak to that) I would recommend it.

Not Austen related but...

It has taken me a while, but I am finally beginning to accept the dawning of a new Era in history. It is called the Electronic, or Globalization, or something like that. It is somehow stretching beyond Information, which I understand has been with us since Morse Code.

Here are the signs we are moving into a new Age -  we email our boss to ask for leave; we write blogs like this; we follow directions from a talking object in our car;  and one's cat can go viral on You Tube.

The young folks like it and have adapted amazingly – to them, this life with interconnecting, mobile gadgets is normal, and a life when the only entertainment media the family had were three bulky items called a radio, a television set and a record player seems to them like an episode from Horrible Histories. We have moving into this newer Era at the speed of about 10Gbps, and faster if you google anything with the words 'Hi-Speed'.

Why did it take so long for me to figure out that we were moving from one Era to another? Why have I been fighting it? Why have I been grumbling about having to go through phone trees to get a live person, go through a Help Desk 3,000 miles away when I need the IT guy on the 3^rd floor to come down and fix my computer, order pizza from the restaurant on the next street by giving my order, complete with detailed directions about cross-streets, to an office 1,000 miles away, and putting up with endless work interruptions because of Computer Downtimes?

The most puzzling alteration is the way that machines are set up to work. Someone installs a program on your pc, and leaves. then you have to call him back because this new configuration caused something else to malfunction. This is normal. Thirty years ago, it would be called sloppy work. But it is not sloppy - no human can possibly have control over the millions of little interractions that take place in a motherboard.

So wasn’t it simpler before? And wasn’t it – well, better?

I must be understanding with myself here.  I grumble because I have not been through an Age Transition before.

I imagine it was challenging for parents at the end of the Stone Age when the Bronze Age was coming in: ‘My kids have no time for stone anymore. It’s all bronze, bronze, bronze since some nerd got the idea of mixing copper and tin. I’ve never seen anything so gaudy in my life. My daughter wants bronze jewelry for her birthday. She says that all her friends wear bronze ornaments. Nobody wears tin anymore…’

And there has been so much for older people to learn! Perhaps before the Transition of the Next Age (back to Agriculture – Subsistence at that - after all the fossil fuels have been used up, thus depriving us of Power?) that a little handbook be available for the over 40’s. ‘How to plant potatoes’. ‘How to make candles from sheep fat.’ ‘How to tell a good story by the fire.’ and 'What to use for fuel in the fire.'

Love me, Love my Dog...

The above is a title of a chapter in Edgeworth's novel 'Belinda' published in 1801. And to think that I thought that Peter Shelley made up the phrase. If you like the song, here's a clip from YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v044SCWA4LA

Love Maria Edgeworth, by the way. I know Austen read her works, and I can imagine her chuckling at passages here and there. I have read 'Helen' and am almost through with 'Belinda.'

The Worst Austen Mother is...

...Lady Bertram. The Bertram girls didn't get any moral or sensible guidance. They got adoration from Aunt Norris; and assurance of their superiority - but they are frightened of their father's remoteness and their mother is always stretched on the sofa. She is just not there. She must be secretly downing laudanum. Probably hides it under Pug.
Even Sir Bertram has given up on his wife as a parent. Who gets the flak about the theatricals? Aunt Norris.
Mrs. Bennet is quite a good mother - she is avidly interested in her girls' affairs, for good or ill. But Lady Bertram neglects her girls. Can you imagine any heart-to-heart chats conducted with them; any trips to their rooms at night to kiss them goodnight and listen to their troubles...spoiled, with an exaggerated opinion of their own importance, they did not develop the skills needed to make sensible judgments and lacking that, and needing to get out of home and away from their father's grave, remote but very controlling presence, they make terrible decisions.
Fanny actually has more self-esteem then the Bertram girls, because she was always needed. Firstly by her mother, in helping her with the little ones, and later at Mansfield Park - Lady Bertram can do without her daughters, but not without her niece.
I'd like to see a sequel where the daughters get it together and find happiness. But Maria is a social outcast. Perhaps she could go to America or Italy where her past would not be known.

Pity the Servants

I just read 'Longbourn' by Jo Baker. It was my trusty companion on a long flight from Ireland, a distraction from my discomfort in 30A Delta Economy. Poor servants! Up at 4:30am, blacking the grate, heating water, lighting fires...chilblains were the lot of the servant on cold winter mornings. No set hours; they got up before the family and saw them off to bed. One wonders how they endured it; but for many it was better than what they had at home. Many of the young boys and girls in service were fed adequately for the first time in their lives. That is not to say that exploitation in service (which undoubtedly happened) was morally acceptable.

This is not directly related to this, but as a young nurse, I remember an older one telling me that when she came into Nursing (in the 1950's), she 'had as much milk as she wanted.'

Here, Jo talks of why she wrote Longbourn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI51tP1sOxE

While in ireland I spent a lot of hours on buses. When I wasn't looking out the window, I was perusing 'Helen' by our own Maria Edgeworth. I visited Edgeworthstown many years ago, but failed to appreciate it's cultural and literary significance at the time. 'Castle Rackrent' was the only Edgeworth book I had heard of, and having read that, I fail to think how George 3rd said he understood his Irish subjects after reading it. It is satirical.

Home of Maria Edgeworth

But Ireland! Beautiful as usual. Lush green fields, tree tops waving and sighing in the breeze, fresh cool air on the face. And best of all, the Thousand Welcomes.

Bookshop Heaven

Isn't it a delight to discover a new bookshop? On a recent trip home to Ireland my sister Caitríona, who lives in Galway, led me down to the city's heart where throbs Charlie Byrne's Bookshop. What a delight! Old books, new books, rare books, previously loved books, gems! 

I bought 'Belinda' by Maria Edgeworth (1801). Having just read 'Helen' by the same writer, I look forward to reading it.

'Longbourn' going to be a Movie!

I just read 'Longbourn' by Jo Baker. This is Pride and Prejudice from the Servants pov, particularly that of Sarah, the housemaid.

I think that many of us who read Austen think that if we were living back then, that we'd be the Gentry for sure - but they were a very privileged minority, just like the rich folks today! So we wouldn't be off to the Ball and catching Misters Darcy and Bingley, but rather trying to catch the eye of a footman in livery while dreading washday on the morrow.

If you were to cast P&P in an airline, they'd be in First Class while we'd be back in the Cabin, wedged into our proper place. (As I flew 6,000 miles Economy Class only yesterday, the word 'wedge' is lodged in my mind, rather painfully and with some resentment).

Jo Baker makes Downstairs so real, that in the end I didn't care much what happened the Bennet girls, (no, really!) as long as Hill, Sarah and little Polly were ok. Fascinating detail and it is going to be a movie, by Focus Features.

Jane's Acceptance Speech

Emma Thompson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5prYhXQtCk

'I am not romantic, you know'

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/documentary-podcast-ver-brief-encounter-emily-sheeran-patrick-duignan-courts-marraige.html

Dublin 1913. A man who has come into money has marriage on his mind…and ends up in court when he changes his mind. Great listening! Hang on for the song at the end.

Colonel Brandon - stay home tonight!

I need this like I need a hole in my head.

I have sent Brandon on a walk down to the area of Fleet Prison, which is where he might have found Eliza…I do not know why I did this. He is in a great agitation today; a lot has happened in his life; and none of it is good. This is where his feet take him…where are you going, Brandon? You belong in the drawing room! The Club! Your lodgings in St. James Street! It is a cold night, I beg you – stay in – but no, you would be gone, and now I have to research this very different part of Town…

Underworld, street lighting, watchemen, constables? Pickpockets…housing – did this part of London survive the Great Fire of 1666? Dogs, pigs, Babies crying; the sound of Bow Bells...

The Fleet River – now a sewer, was flowing then. And by the sounds of it, a lot of it was on the streets -

Wake Chawton with a Sweet Tune, Jane!

Again, browsing Strasbaugh’s ‘The List Lover’s Guide to Jane Austen’ I came by a song Arne’s 'Overture to Artaxerxes'.

Jane practiced piano in the mornings - I can’t but wonder if she woke Chawton Cottage with this music which sounds eclectic for it’s time: Sorry, Jane, I would’ve shouted down the stairs for you to play something sweeter! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Chg_nMkjiU

Handel's ‘Ask if yon Damask Rose be Sweet’, might be just my morning cup of tea.
 Here’s my preferred Alarm Song, with Lyrics and Orchestra, on a channel named Austen Music.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXxoP7bgIrA&list=PLTbMXzrF3-J5lroJKA8LcRv3pIKNy5WoC

Jane Austen's Music Collection

In browsing Joan Strasbaugh’s ‘The List Lover’s Guide to Jane Austen’ I came by a song in JA’s music book, Mrs. Hamilton of Pencaitland’s Strathspey.

(CelticJaneite has never heard the word Strathspey. She doesn’t know where Pencaitland is. But she once had a boyfriend named Hamilton, so she is not completely ignorant, in fact, for a time, she wondered if she would like to be Mrs. Hamilton, if she had, she might have heard of a Strathspey sooner).
WIKIPEDIA: A strathspey is a type of dance tune in 4/4 time. It is similar to a hornpipe but slower and more stately, and contains many dot-cut 'snaps.

Off to YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNJ35z0iTJA (the music starts at 1:40)

Oh so they are Strathspeys! I am familiar with the tunes. The 2^nd tune is one which I learned as a child, with the profound lyrics ‘oh the cat has a gumboil, a toothache, a bellyache, a pain in his left leg, a pimple on his toe!’ Sorry all Cat Lovers, I don’t like it either…but I think the ''cat'' was a human, maybe the crotchety Laird or the King - I was reminded recently of ‘Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie…kissed the girls and made them cry…the Prince Regent?

Back to Mrs. Hamilton’s Strathspey”: here is one version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDFKE2AwZnk

Oh dear, Precedence! Coming by fascinating little details.

Writing is difficult in Summer...not only does the fine weather call me outside, but the laptop gets hot and then I get likewise...
Otherwise, Sequel coming along very well. I had to do some research into a subject about which I knew little - the British Army - the East India Company - so that various references I make will be accurate. Isn't it difficult to get to that one tiny little detail...then exultation when you find it, buried.
The novel is set in a particular time period - 1796-7.
A minor character who is a self-important name-dropper is giving me all kinds of challenges. References to men in power who he claims to have influence with have to be accurate as to their availability at that time! I  had Lord Cornwallis writing from India when he was in fact back in England in 1797.
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org is a tremendous help and it has little bios that are interesting and anecdotal.
MINOR PLOT SPOILER: This character is also about to become a knight. Lo and Behold, a wonderful resource was an actual book, all online, 'the Knights of England'  This gentleman is hoping he will be dubbed along with Horatio Nelson, who I have found out, received a great honour in June 1797.
But best of all, the book below inspired me. It lists a dilemma that society had when somebody was 'gazetted' i.e. named in the Gazette, but not yet invested. Where to seat him at table?
http://www.archive.org/stream/knightsofengland01shawuoft/knightsofengland01shawuoft_djvu.txt

To my delight, you can view the old Gazettes from the period online. Yes, newspapers, in full, with the fancy 'f' they used for 's' and all. There are lists of military officers, lists of society members, and a great deal of Bankruptcy notices. They are quite hard to read even when magnified, but you get the feeling that you can be right back there in 1797. Mr. Palmer, perhaps, liked to read the Bankruptcy Notices!

e-Publishing

If I haven't been posting, it is because I have been writing! DELAFORD (part 1) is well underway. I borrowed 'e-publishing for dummies' from the library, cos that is what I may do with DELAFORD. Since I already have a print-on-demand book, and have Light the Way Home half-ready to go as an e-book, it shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish.
I am so happy that the days of packing a box full of your manuscript and shipping off your darlings are OVER. And not forgetting the return postage. It could turn out to be quite expensive. What a haul that was. And for nothing...one of the publishers, who expressed an interest in my manuscript, subsequently lost it. It disappeared when the reader who had it went to Australia. Hopefully it was not published over there! The name of that m/s was Someone Like Sean. (Someone Loike Sean?) I felt very sore at this loss for a while. Because the new person I dealt with was not half as nice and just gave me the runaround, so I gave up on that one.
It took a while for traditional publishing to catch on to electronic submissions, but even they could see the advantages of not having offices filled with reams of paper. I have ZERO interest in a publisher or agent who demands paper copies. I don't want to get published THAT much. Not anymore.

Jane, what were you thinking?

I just had some time off - a full week devoted to Writing - and Art, for a respite...the rain poured down, a  warm and soft May rain, so there were no lawnmowers or trimmers or any machines...just the rain thrumming outside on the roof. Is there any sound nicer? It is like a distant muffled drumbeat. Then it stops for a short while; the birds sing a little aria and then the drumbeat begins again.
I was able to firm up my timeline for Delaford, figure out for good when everything took place and link it up to real events, accurately I hope. The characters are developing nicely. I have taken a leaf from Ang Lee and  call Margaret 'Meg' - she has a prominent role and it is just so easy to confuse her name with Marianne's. Jane, what were you thinking? Didn't you think people would want to write sequels and develop her character? Why did not you call her - Catherine or Georgina?
And you never gave us Colonel Brandon's Christian name. We have had to make that up too. Neither do we know Mrs. Dashwood's Christian name. I am thinking Lenore, though she has been called Mary in an adaptation. But her eldest daughter is Elinor so I think she could be a Lenore and Lenora or Eleanor.
Back to work tomorrow. But I loved my Writing Week.

HEARING THE CHAPTER READ

(sorry for the irregular formatting, I'm a work in progress!)

Good writing must always be pleasant to the ear, and make sense. Perhaps we are ecologically created for oral histories and storytelling; for most stories were heard, and not read, in centuries past, around firesides and camp fires. Even in more recent times, there was not enough good light for everyone in a room to read, and books were read by one family member and listened to by the others. (We see plenty of examples of this in Austen herself).
Therefore the resonance, the tone, the character’s speeches, the pictures woven in events, must sound good to the ear, like poetry or drama.

I read out my Brandon chapter and recorded it on my smartphone. I read all my chapters aloud, to background music which I choose to suit the scene. Brandon was talking to a senior officer who is a rather pompous and mean character; and Baroque Marches from You-Tube helped me write the scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH-4NAf5PEc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOdqvjM7wdU  both from TheClassicalSymphony Channel

  I also play the music while I read it aloud into my cute little android. When I play the recording back, the background music adds atmosphere, which makes me more creative, and helps me to zone in on what mood I want the scene to be.  Also it masks my squeaky chair and my occasional mutterings about necessary edits and illogical elements. Recording is a good practice, and I can listen to it while I am doing chores – mixing it up! Some parts are actually good, and they give me confidence in what I am doing. And most importantly – the creases show up, and I shake my head while wiping the countertop and say – nope, that doesn’t sound right...he is a military man, and wouldn’t wince…make him frown…

RICKMAN OR MORRISEY? WHO'S THE BEST BRANDON?

Alan Rickman…David Morrissey…Robert Swann…Richard Owens…who is the best Colonel Brandon of them all? ( and I had to look the last two names up, (1981 and 1971 respectively) being not familiar with the adaptations, though I have watched them.)

It is not fair to compare Rickman and Morrissey; the latter had a lot more time to become his character. Having said that, Rickman was a great Eamon de Valera in Michael Collins, and that is who he is for me. Morrissey is – more my Brandon. There is something about his face. there is a depth and a soulfulness - .

But who is Brandon? Jane doesn’t even give him a Christian name. Neither does she really explore his character very deeply; there is no necessity for the story. We know certain things about him, and it is so fun to build on that, and fill him out, and make it fit – and be true to the original as much as possible!

Brandon was a Colonel. So he was in command of 1,000 men. What kind of commander was he? Autocratic? Just? Was he liked by his officers and men? He was in India when he was young – maybe an ensign. No - an ensign was the most junior officer, and after a couple of years, he would have been made a lieutenant. In which Presidency of British India did he serve? How did he like it there? How did this experience affect his future thinking?

Did he want a military career? 

Did he retire upon being made a Colonel and inheriting Delaford?  In France, a charismatic General is on the rise…will this affect his plans for his own (and Marianne’s) future?

I’ve done a lot of work on this already. Besides the research –(‘the Dawning of the Raj’, Berstein, Jay. A fascinating read)…I’ve written the chapter where we get to know him most. I have had to invent another character to get to know his background, his character, his fears and hopes, better.

MIX IT UP

 

I don’t think I could be one of those writers who seclude themselves away in somebody’s beachhouse. It sounds attractive in a way; but I think I would not want to come in from the beach, and if I was writing the delighted cries of little kids might distract me. I like writing because it takes me away from a busy, active life which in itself is stimulating.

I’ve worked in healthcare all my life but have no desire to write about it. Apart from my saying to myself, no, that would never happen in real life, and having a real problem with suspending credibility, I like to depart completely from my job when I am not there, and go elsewhere.

It is 7pm Pacific Time in the USA, and I’m ready to write until midnight. But I have stuff to do as well; laundry is a good thing to do when you are writing…it does itself. I hang-dry clothes which gives me a break from the keyboard.

My motto is ‘MIX IT UP’. It works for me.

 

FINDING TIME

 
Mr Celticjaneite (Mr. CJ from now on) is very supportive of my writing, and that is very important. Because I spend a lot of time doing it. Because I am always at the laptop. Because I always have a JA book wherever I go. Because it is almost an obsession. He is tolerant, but at the same time, I make sure I have my priorities correct.  Relationship with God and Spouse and Family; Work –  Essential household work - then thinking about Writing or Doing it. And I find that there is time, if I sacrifice other things.

It means – not surfing the Net instead of writing. It means – not watching that movie that popped up on You-Tube. (but OK to break free and do that sometimes). Not reading that great new book they are all reading at work. Closing my eyes to dust on the cabinet; lint on my carpet. Not fancy, time-consuming baking and cooking. All I have are evenings and weekends.

How do I maximize the little time I have to get the best out of it?

BACKGROUND

 
I want to do this. I have tried and failed several times; given up because of not enough time…forgotten what I have written. Even forgotten the names of some of my characters! Oh what was the aunt’s name?

Perhaps my Blog should be the Challenge of the Part-time Middle-aged Writer. Admit it, after 45 or so, the memory blunts a bit. Not the sharpness! I went back to college at 45 and got straight A’s and a degree in Graphics Communications. It was wonderful to know I could keep up with the 19-year olds in my class. I was very tech-challenged at the time and they were great to help me with that. I like to think I repaid them by offering good wise insights in class discussions.

First, a brief history of my Austen fanship. I read Pride and Prejudice for the Leaving Certificate (the Irish State Exam taken in the last year of formal school) and while I liked it, I didn’t understand the long sentences. (still have trouble with that sometimes). Perhaps I am one of the ‘dull elves’ she talks of…but I digress…I drew Lizzy and Darcy all over the margins. Empire line gowns and knee-length breeches and all, which shows I knew the fashions of the time. My Darcy, I remember, was very skinny.

Fast forward to 1995 Pride and Prejudice. In August of that year, I became Mrs. Van Beethoven. My husband is a huge fan of the composer of that name. His real name is Liam Flannery and he is from Limerick, Ireland. That by the way is the same city that Tom Lefroy, Jane’s love, was from. His old home is now a Bank.

Liam lived in the USA, so I moved here in September after our August wedding. And as I was settling in, the 1995 Pride and Prejudice got it’s American debut on the Arts&Entertainment Network.  I was so excited; here was good old-fashioned familiar stuff from England. Liam joined me in watching it. (since then he has eased himself out of watching romantic movies with me, but as an English Lit fan, he did find P&P very enjoyable).

That Pride and Prejudice Adaptation got me very interested in JA, and I have since bought and read all the books, read Claire Tomalin’s biography; and seen all the adaptations that I could. And I love everything! I don’t want to leave the characters on the pages…I want their stories to go on…and so I am writing my first sequel – when I have Time.

THE CHALLENGE OF THE PART-TIME WRITER

 

I'm a part-time writer. I work full-time and keep a house and take care of Mr. CelticJaneite, the last being the easiest of the three!

Writing and working full-time has its challenges. I work at a computer. My work can be repetitive; my work environment can be at different times very quiet and extremely distracting and I have learned: a. get enough sleep at night to avoid dozing off at the quiet times and help me focus and b. play something in the background to block out the busy environment and help me focus. My work is also demanding at times; pressured with deadlines, and I have to multi-task.

But the most pressing problem I have is: How do I find time to write? To immerse myself in my writing; to read and re-read, edit and rewrite…and in the case of writing a believable sequel, how do I get to know the original work well enough to be true to it?

In this Blog I will write about: environment required to write.
support
commitment and self-discipline
 progress
creative ways to address the most pressing problem described above. How do I find time to write?
and anything else that occurs to me.