Inspiration

Since I have been talking about my inspiration, I thought it only right to share my own personal inspiration with you. Here you have, my travels, my friends, my home and my passion, all in one post.

All comments are welcome and much appreaciated.
Enjoy.

Expect a lot of books

One of the first things people say when they come into my house is always;

-You have a lot of books!
-I do.
(Silence usually falls at this point, but only for a moment because its biding it's time, it know that it can rear its ugly head again later.)
-Have you read them all?
-Most of them. I can count on one hand the ones that I haven't though...
(Then my guest will wander towards one of the many bookcases/baskets in my house and run their finger along the spines of the books; hopefully noticing the lack of dust that all too often lingers on heavily burdoned bookshelves.)
-I used to love this series! I see you like your fantasy?
(It's always fantasy. No one ever says "I see you like your thriller, short stories or anglo welsh writers!")
-Yes. I do like a bit of Pratchett. The Discworld is...
-I used to read the Terry Goodkind books too.
-Their actually my partners...
(Ignoring me they quickly scan the rest of the bookshelves in my living room before saying)
-Don't you have the first one?
-'Wizards First Rule?'
-Yes?
-It's in the spare room. He owns a big copy of it, won't fit on these shelves.

Mrs Yettman sits in her chair and sniggers. She's seen it countless times, I should expect it now too, but somehow I am constantly suprised at how people chose to reference their knowledge of literature. For example, on clear display in my living room are the complete brightly decorated childrens versions of the Harry Potter books. They are almost without a doubt the most obvious and well known books on that particular shelf, (with the possible exception of the 'Complete Works of Shakespeare'...) However no one uses these books as a starting point for this conversation. I think perhaps it has something to do with them being primarily childrens books. Mrs Yettman is laughing now. She has been circling me for a few weeks now, preparing to pounce. I can hear her whisper write, write, write... She calls. I want to, I actually want nothing more, but unfortunatley real life breaks my heart and forces me to have time only to write in countless forms. Pink ones, yellow ones and white... they don't whisper. Their voices SHOUT!

Truthfully, I am tired. I have found a moment, one moment to write to you. I have no time to proof read, to check, or even to think. But this moment will silence Mrs Yettman for now. Slowly she is shrinking in size on my sofa, curling up into a tabby ball of fur. I watch her, she has become young and lively again. Craving my attention, my time. I pick her up, gently stroking her contented face, twisting her tail around my fingers. She rests contented in my arms as I make my way down the stairs, I put her outside next to the potted tree in my front garden and close the door and clip the latch on the cat flap. I come back upstairs. For a moment nothing happens. One beautiful moment of nothing, I begin to rest. I breath.

She has started to scratch at my door... it's only quiet, but I know it will soon become unbareable and I will have to let her in. Give her my time. My love.

Editing for friends - a dilema.

A friend of mine has recently decided to write a travel book which tells of her and her husbands exciting travels around the globe, very specifically, China. It is a very exciting idea, and when she asked if I'd mind her sending it to me to have a look over I was overjoyed and agreed on the spot! Unfortunatley, this is where my dilema starts. Since she sent me the first draft of the first chapter and a sample synopsis she has been asking for my advice as well as my opinion. Now, this may not seem like such a difficult request, but before you can wholly understand the dilema, you must first understand the situation.

I refered to her as 'a friend of mine', but in fact she is a very old friend of my fiance and I am just about making an effort to get to know her too. She doesn't really have a background in fictional or travel writing. As such her ideas are amazing, but her writing could do with a little scrubbing up. This brings me back to the dilema. Do I tell her that I think her work is a great idea and that her writing is superb, or should I be honest and risk upsetting her?

Her aim is to get the book published, which with a little help and a fair amount of editing is probably not too much of a long shot, but I'm worried that if they send it off as is then their chances of publication are much smaller.

Now I have a group of friends who I studied with, who are, for lack of a better phrase, my writing circle. This is great because we know that when we give criticism that we are each trying to be constructive and helpful. We also know that we can say pretty much anything, for example if the work is really bad then we can say 'it's awful!' and laugh it off, without causing a rift. So what to do with friends outside of this circle? I always want to be able to help people acheive the things that matter to them, but perhaps this time I am better 'not being available?'